In The Beginning Was Marshal Voroshilov

Usually, they say that ice hockey in our country was born on December 22, 1946, when the first USSR championship was launched.

However, the first hockey match in Russia took place in 1898 when the “Nevsky Club of Cricket, Football, Hockey and Tennis”, formed by British workers in St. Petersburg, played against the “St. Petersburg Society of Ice Skating Fans” that included the first unofficial world figure skating champion Alexei Lebedev and winner of the 1st
world speed skating championship Alexander Panshin.

Before the 1917 revolution, however, ice hockey failed to take root in our country. And later on, until the Great Patriotic War, only timid attempts were made to cross it with bandy, which had been cultivated in the Soviet Union since the 1920s, both by men and women. Again, it did not yield any tangible results.

In the pre-war years, ice hockey in the USSR was met with skepticism. “This game is purely individual and primitive in nature, lacking combinations. Thus, it cannot match bandy. The question of whether Canadian hockey should be cultivated in our country should be answered negatively,” one of the authors of the Physical Culture & Sports magazine wrote bluntly in 1932.

The turning point came 14 years later, when the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sports made a decision to organize the first national ice hockey championship. And Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, whom Stalin after the war appointed Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers in charge of physical education and sports, fully deserves the title of ice hockey godfather.

On February 17, 1948, Nikolai Romanov, head of the USSR Sports Committee, invited Voroshilov to a hockey game in Moscow. Five weeks earlier, the influential Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper ran an article that nearly nipped domestic ice hockey in the bud. Komsomolskaya Pravda charged the Sports Committee and its head with destroying “Russian hockey for the sake of developing Canadian hockey.” The charges were far-fetched as unjustified.

By “Russian hockey” Komsomolskaya Pravda meant bandy which was originated in Sweden, and many more people chased a ball in the USSR of that time rather than a puck.

Nevertheless 10 days later Komsomolskaya Pravda published a much stronger article headlined “Restore Russian Hockey to Its Rights.” This is why Romanov turned to Voroshilov for protection and rescue.

By that time, the “first Red Army officer”, as Voroshilov was dubbed in a famous military march, legendary hero of the Civil War and prominent military leader, was 67.

But being a great fan of sports and physical culture he still swam on a regular basis, skied and rode a horse. Thus, Romanov did not need to persuade Voroshilov for long. A man of a lively mind and diverse interests, the Marshal fell in love with ice hockey at first glance.  As Romanov later recalled, Voroshilov “jokingly noted that it was appropriate to rename Canadian hockey into Russian hockey as it suits the Russian national character full well, requiring courage, instant reaction, resourcefulness, and great endurance. And one can even fight if necessary”.

“All of that means,” Voroshilov concluded, “that ice hockey should be cultivated by Soviet youth and should be developed in every possible way in the Soviet Army”. And the Marshal added insightfully: “We’ll practice a little bit— and we’ll beat the Canadians.” After that, ice hockey gained enviable popularity in the Soviet Union in no time. My father kept a copy of the “USSR” magazine, published by the USSR Embassy in the United States in February, 1949, with an article “In the USSR, 40,000 athletes participate in ice hockey competitions.”