What was dropped off at the stadium in 1942. The brightest events in the history of the Moscow stadium "Dynamo"

Now - after many decades after the blockade of the city on the Neva by the Nazi invaders - it is impossible to remember exactly who was the first to remember football, but with full confidence we can say that the love for this amazing sports spectacle did not die at that harsh time, did not looking at hunger, cold and the ubiquitous presence of death. To understand how it was, let's remember... how it all began...

Spring 1942. The Nazis are unceremoniously hosting on the territory of the USSR. The Red Army is waging fierce battles against them with varying success. Leningrad residents have already survived the first - perhaps the most difficult blockade winter. In April 1942, the Germans issued a leaflet on which it was written in black and white: “ Leningrad is the city of the dead!» And they scatter it around the besieged city. In response to this, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, in order to raise the spirits of the fighters and ordinary citizens, decides to hold the first football blockade match.

Almost immediately after the events described, shelling and bombardment of Leningrad intensified. New artillery batteries are being drawn to the city - the enemy covers the blockaded residents with shells from a distance of 13-28 kilometers. According to reports, the state of the Dynamo stadium at that time was disappointing - one of the two football fields was literally plowed over by enemy shells, the other was given over to vegetable gardens. As an alternative, we decided to use the reserve field on Krestovsky Island. On May 6, 1942, the Leningrad "Dynamo" held its first in the history of the blockade of Leningrad Soccer game against the military unit of the Baltic naval crew of Major A. Lobanov. It was he who for a long time was considered the official blockade match. A confirmation of which can be considered the fact that in the Leningrad calendars and reference books until the mid-80s of the XX century, it was he who was mentioned under the name of the Blockade. However, no one mentioned the names of the players of the opposing teams for a number of reasons. Let's fill this gap and pay tribute to the memory of the heroes!

Dynamo squad:

• V. Nabutov;
• G. Moskovtsev;
• B. Oreshkin;
• P. Sychev;
• D. Fedorov;
• Shaft. Fedorov;
• K. Sazonov,
• A. I. Fedorov;
• A. Alov;
• A. Viktorov;
• E. Arkhangelsky;

Some sources claim that the initiator of the Dynamo blockade match was NKVD captain Viktor Bychkov, who was on assignment from the headquarters of the Leningrad Front, agreed with the party leadership of Leningrad. According to the memoirs of Bychkov himself, the team also included Georgy Shorets. The list of Baltic sailors who played against the Dynamo team, unfortunately, is not complete. But it is known for certain that the Baltic Fleet spoke from the crew of Major A. Lobanov:

• Vladimir Anushin;
• Vladimir Brechko;

The meeting was judged by the well-known referee N. Usov. The game consisted of 2 halves of 30 minutes each. The match ended with the victory of Dynamo, the score - 7:3.

But most famous match- and there were several of them in the history of besieged Leningrad! - was the one in which Dynamo opposed the "Team of the N-sky plant" (so, due to the maintenance of the strictest secrecy during the Great Patriotic War, they called LMZ - the Leningrad Metal Plant).

The team that opposed Dynamo included players from Zenit, Spartak and other city teams. The match was scheduled for May 31, 1942. The same Dynamo stadium on Krestovsky Island was chosen as the venue. Pavel Pavlov was appointed as the referee - with his consent, the halves were extended to 30 minutes. Even before the match, certain difficulties arose with the composition of the "N-sky plant" team. First of all, they were connected with the fact that some factory workers could not enter the field for the simple reason that they were exhausted from hunger. They also lacked a goalkeeper. Therefore, defender Ivan Kurenkov stood up instead of him. But even this was not enough - one more player was absent until the full squad. Dynamo offered a way out. They lost their player Ivan Smirnov to the factory workers. But one way or another, in spite of the Nazis besieging Leningrad, the game still took place. And it could not be otherwise, because of the inhabitants of the city on the Neva at that time, as the well-known proverb says: “Nails could be made!”

After the start of the match, shelling began. One of the shells hit the corner of the playing field. The players and spectators went to the bomb shelter, and after the end of the shelling, the athletes continued the game. It is noteworthy that the radio broadcast of the match was carried out simultaneously in two languages ​​- Russian and German. The result of the friendly meeting is the score 6:0 in favor of Dynamo.

The Dynamo team includes the following players:

• Viktor Nabutov;
• Mikhail Atyushin;
• Valentin Fedorov;
• Arkady Alov;
• Konstantin Sazonov;
• Viktor Ivanov;
• Boris Oreshkin;
• Evgeny Ulitin;
• Alexander Fedorov;
• Anatoly Viktorov;
• Georgy Moskovtsev;

For the "Team of the N-sky plant" played:

• Ivan Kurenkov (Spartak);
• Alexander Fesenko;
• Georgy Medvedev (Zenith);
• Anatoly Mishuk (Zenith);
• Alexander Zyablikov (Zenith);
• Alexey Lebedev (Zenit)
• Nikolai Gorelkin (hockey player);
• Nikolai Smirnov (Zenith);
• Ivan Smirnov (Dynamo);
• Pyotr Gorbachev (Spartak)
• V. Losev;

A. Alov and K. Sazonov scored 2 goals each. According to eyewitnesses, the players left the football field, embracing - the players simply supported each other so as not to fall from exhaustion. Everyone rejoiced at the success of Dynamo - both the Dynamo themselves and their opponents from the “Team N-sky plant”, since it was impossible to divide it. She was one at all in an effort to survive, no matter what, and live after June 2, an article about this grand event was published in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper, on June 3 - in the Smena newspaper.

June 7, 1942 was a replay between the same teams. She was again entrusted to judge Nikolai Usov. This time the "Team of the N-sky plant" managed to give a fight to "Dynamo" and draw the match with a score of 2:2.

Played for Dynamo:

• Gavrilin;
• Atyushin;
• Titov;
• Oreshkin;
• Shaft. Fedorov;
• Moskovtsev;
• Sazonov;
• Al. Fedorov;
• Alov;
• Viktorov;
• Ivanov;

The "N-plant team" was represented by:

• V.G. Ponugaev;
• G. Medvedev;
• Fesenko;
• Zyablikov;
• Lebedev;
• Kurenkov;
• Gorelkin;
• I. Smirnov;
• Abramov;
• N. Smirnov;
• Konin;

Memory of the Blockade match:

• 1991 - a memorial plaque was opened at the Dynamo stadium;
• 2012 - a monument was unveiled at the Dynamo stadium;
• 2012 - street exhibition "In memory of the blockade match";
• 2015 - a tournament among amateur teams "Memory Cup" was held at the Dynamo stadium;

Such friendly meetings subsequently became almost traditional. Shelling and bombing sometimes interrupted them, but for us and future generations they forever remained a symbol of stamina and courage, both athletes, fans and ordinary Leningraders who managed to survive the Blockade of the city on the Neva.

In St. Petersburg there is a monument that not everyone knows about - a monument in memory of the football players of besieged Leningrad. The legendary football match that took place 75 years ago had a powerful ideological and psychological impact on the inhabitants of the besieged city and on the enemy. Famous Leningrad footballers of that time changed their tunics for T-shirts to prove that Leningrad is alive and will never surrender.

In August 1941, two months after the start of the Great Patriotic War, a powerful offensive of fascist troops on Leningrad began. The German command hoped to capture the cradle of the revolution as soon as possible, and then move on to Moscow. But Leningraders - both adults and children - stood shoulder to shoulder to protect their native city.

But it was not possible to take Leningrad, and then the Nazis decided to strangle the city in a blockade. In August, the Germans managed to block the Moscow-Leningrad road and the blockade ring was closed by land. There were 2.5 million people in the city, of which about 400 thousand were children. And even in the most difficult conditions of the city and the bombings, Leningraders continued to work and fight. During the blockade, more than 640 thousand people died of starvation and more than 17 thousand died from shells and bombs.

In the spring of 1942, fascist planes periodically scattered leaflets over the Red Army units: “Leningrad is the city of the dead. We do not take it yet, because we are afraid of a cadaveric epidemic. We wiped this city off the face of the earth." But it was not so easy to break the inhabitants of the city.

Today it is difficult to say who first came up with the idea of ​​​​football, but on May 6, 1942, the Leningrad City Executive Committee decided to hold a football match at the Dynamo stadium. And on May 31, a football match was held between the team of the Leningrad Metal Plant and Dynamo. This match refuted all the arguments of fascist propaganda - the city did not just live, it also played football.

It was not easy to recruit 22 people to participate in the match. To participate in the match with the advanced recalled former footballers. They understood that they would not only please the inhabitants of the city with their game, but also demonstrate to the whole country that the city is alive.

The Dynamo team included players who had played for this club even before the war, but the factory team turned out to be heterogeneous - those who were still strong enough to enter the field and knew how to play football played for it.

Not all athletes were able to enter the field. Many were so emaciated that they could hardly move. The very first ball that Zenit midfielder Mishuk took on his head knocked him down. After all, he had recently been discharged from the hospital after being treated for dystrophy.

They played on the reserve field of the Dynamo stadium, since the main one was simply “plowed up” by bomb craters. The fans were wounded from a nearby hospital. The match took place in two short halves of 30 minutes each, and the players had to spend the second half under bombardment. It seems incredible that exhausted and exhausted players managed to hold out for so long on the field.

At first, the players moved so slowly that the action on the field hardly resembled sport competitions. If a footballer fell, then his comrades picked him up - he couldn’t get up on his own. During breaks, they did not sit on the lawn, because they knew that they would not be able to get up. Athletes left the field in an embrace - it was much easier to walk that way.

Needless to say, this match was a real feat! Ours, the Germans, and the inhabitants of Leningrad learned about the fact of this match. This last match really lifted the spirit. Leningrad survived and won.

In 1991, a commemorative plaque was installed at the Leningrad Dynamo stadium with the words “Here, at the Dynamo stadium, on the most difficult days of the blockade on May 31, 1942, Dynamo Leningrad held a historical blockade match with the team of the Metal Plant” and silhouettes of football players. And in 2012, a monument to the participants of a football match was opened in St. Petersburg at the Dynamo stadium, the author of the monument is People's Artist of Russia Salavat Shcherbakov.

Myths and truth about the "death match" in Kyiv, summer 1942.

I think many people know that in the summer of 2012 the European Football Championship will begin in Kyiv. But not many people know that by the beginning of the championship, a film will be released on cinema screens. "Death Match" , which was filmed this summer in Kyiv and Kharkov. The film is based on real events that took place during the Nazi occupation of Kyiv. And to completely surprise you, I will say that in leading role starred ... who would you think? And none other than Sergei Bezrukov, who played the goalkeeper!

Now true story in which is not entirely clear, but we will try to figure it out. death match - a football match played in Nazi-occupied Kyiv in the summer of 1942 between the Soviet and German teams. A number of football players from Kiev were shot; rumored to have refused to lose the meeting.

Before talking about myself death match Let's delve a little into the background. In 1941, when the Germans succeeded in capturing Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine remained large group footballers.

These were Nikolai Klimenko, Igor Kuzmenko, Nikolai Korotkikh, Mikhail Goncharenko, Viktor Sukharev, Nikolai Trusevich, Vladimir Balakin, Mikhail Melnik, Mikhail Putistin, Mikhail Sviridovsky. The players were involved in the construction of defensive structures and could not subsequently get out of the siege. During the fascist occupation, famine prevailed in Kyiv. But through an acquaintance, the players managed to get a job as workers at the bakery No. 1. We worked as a team - just like we used to play. In order to distract from hard work and not lose their sports skills, every day after work the football players played in the factory yard and practiced a lot. Although the Germans seized more and more Ukrainian land, the players did not part with the hope that the enemy would be defeated and they would still be able to play for the Kiev "Dynamo".

My new team the guys called "Start". But every citizen of Kiev knew who they were. After all, before the war, Kiev "Dynamo" they played just as brightly as they do today. The Nazis also knew this, but for the time being they did not touch it, not seeing any threat in the players. A year later, in the summer of 1942, the German command decided to diversify the cultural life of the captured capital and opened a "Ukrainian" stadium. However, Ukrainians were not allowed to enter. Football was a game for pure-blooded Aryans.

Most likely, it was precisely with the aim of demonstrating the strength of the Aryan nation that the Germans decided to hold a series of football matches in which German players would oppose the best teams from foreigners. Just remembered the team " Start". And Ukrainians were allowed to come to the stadium, which had been closed before. Let them look at the defeat of their former idols.

The first game took place on June 5, 1942 . The decoration of the grand opening of the stadium was a football match. "Start" defeated the Ukrainian team with a score of 7: 2 "Rukh". Other games with "Start" took place in the stadium "Zenith" that on Kerosinnaya street

Then the team played against Soviet football players Flakelf(team of German anti-aircraft gunners). The first meeting took place on August 6, 1942. "Start" won with a crushing score of 5:1.

Three days later, the Germans staged a rematch, putting together a reinforced team. Before the start of the game, the players greeted each other. Germans: "Heil!", people of Kiev: "Physical education - hello!". The first goal was scored by the Germans. Then Ivan Kuzmenko long-range strike equalized, and Makar Goncharenko scored two goals in the first half. The second half was held in an equal tough fight. The Germans scored two goals and equalized, but then "Start" snatched the victory 5:3. It was this duel in the Soviet Union that later became known as the death match, after which the players were allegedly shot. It was said that before the match, a German commander, who was watching the match, entered the locker room of Dynamo football players. And in a harsh form, threatening with camps and execution, he ordered to lose.

“Behind the fence, on the right side, there was a dressing room, the door of which was open, and I went inside. In the room were: N. Trusevich, who was putting on a sweater, A. Klimenko was already in uniform, eating bread, breaking off pieces, and another one, "Who I didn't know, was lacing up his boots. At that moment, an officer came in and kicked me out of the locker room. What he was talking about with the players will remain a secret forever". O. Yasinsky.

Perhaps things were a little different. Just for the 25th anniversary of the Victory, at the suggestion of the KGB, the Central Committee of the CPSU and personally Leonid Brezhnev, propaganda was launched to restore historical justice. Then the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded to NKVD saboteur Ivan Kudra, who died in the Kiev underground. After long investigations, the players of the team were also rehabilitated "Start" who, after the war, were summoned for interrogation by the KGB for a long time almost as traitors to the motherland. Now they are heroes. Dynamo players N. Trusevich, A. Klimenko, I. Kuzmenko and M. Korotkikh were posthumously awarded a medal "For Courage", and the surviving players "Start": B. Balakin, N. Goncharenko, N. Melnikov, M. Pustynin, V. Sukharev and N. Sviridov were awarded the medal " For military merit".

The invaders, anticipating their defeat on the football field, did not want to humiliate their army. Therefore, the match was organized in a small stadium "Zenith" located far from the city center. But despite the plans of the Nazis, Kyiv fans filled the stadium to capacity - they stood in the aisles, on the trees. This meeting evoked a surge of patriotism among the Soviet people. It was not football passions that raged at the stadium. Everything turned as if there was a battle between the teams of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. Most of the fans had someone at the front. The stadium roared, anti-fascist cries were heard. The Germans did not like it, they arrested many brawlers and fans, they fired from machine guns and pistols into the air ...

But after the match ended, the Germans did not arrest a single player. The proof is that after the football match " Flakelf" - "Start"the Kiev team played two more matches. One - with the same " Flakelf", it took place on August 9, 1942, and the second - with the team" Rukh", which included employees of the Ukrainian authorities and workers of local factories. Both matches" Start"won. Football meetings" start"ended only in the fall, when the rains began.

So what really happened and where did the legend about " death match", according to which the entire winning team was allegedly shot by the Germans?

Here is what Yu. Krasnoshchok said about this:

"During the fascist occupation, while working at a telephone exchange, I heard from the Germans, as well as from the Ukrainian policemen, that the Dynamo team was arrested not for winning the match, but because, while working at the bakery No. 1, they threw it into the flour from which they baked bread for German organizations in Kiev, broken glass. Many workers of the bakery were arrested, including four Dynamo players - Trusevich, Klimenko, Kuzmenko and Korotkikh. My acquaintance, a state security officer, later told me the same thing. And the former chairman of the Kyiv council, Leonty Forostovsky, in his book "Kyiv under fortune-telling occupations" does not write anything about the execution of the team.

It should be noted that out of the sixteen players of "Start" the invaders shot only four, and all of them were lieutenants of the NKVD. It just so happened in Soviet football: the players of the Lokomotiv team received a salary as drivers, the Dynamo players - as employees of the NKVD. This was the main reason for their arrest. Who, if not officers of the NKVD, could be suspected of terrorism. But the four players mentioned were not involved in this sabotage."

Their rivals - German and Hungarian football players - came to the defense of the arrested Kyiv Dynamo players. The German athletes still have the ideals of fair wrestling, after all, not so much time has passed since they arranged the XI World sports Olympics in Berlin in 1936. They did not believe that such talented football players would throw glass into bread intended for military hospitals, the wounded and medical staff, for women mobilized by the Nazis to work in the occupation administration of the country. And perhaps it would have been possible to avoid the execution of Kyiv football players. But after the sports equipment factory was set on fire" Sport", where sleighs for the German army were being repaired, the Gestapo shot more than half of the workers of this small factory and liquidated 200 hostages in the Syrets camp. Four Dynamo soldiers also fell into this group ...

Death match case , played by football players of Ukraine and Nazi Germany in the summer of 1942, initiated by the prosecutor's office of Hamburg back in 1974, was recently finally closed by investigators. According to the press secretary of the Hamburg prosecutor's office Rüdeger Bagger, the commission of inquiry thoroughly studied the data provided not only by the Ukrainian side, but also the materials seized from the film crew of the first German television channel ARD

"Representatives of the German justice had the opportunity to speak with witnesses who were still children during the match", - the radio station quotes Bagger. German investigators managed to find out the circumstances of the death of Ukrainian players. Rüdeger Bagger explained: " It was possible to find out that the players Nikolai Trusevich, Ivan Kuzmenko and Aleksey Klimenko died a long time after the game, or rather, in the spring of 1943 in a concentration camp on Syrets. They were shot at the direction of the camp commandant. So their deaths have nothing to do with the outcome of that game.". So far, it has not been possible to prove the existence of an SS officer who threatened the players.

In 1965, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR awarded the surviving participants in the death match with medals " For military merit". The dead were awarded medals For courage". Thus, a football victory was equated to a military feat on the battlefield. And at the stadium Dynamo» A monument dedicated to the feat of fearless football players was erected in Kyiv.

Those who are interested can watch a very interesting documentary film that tells about these events. .

Memory of the blockade match. Today, at the Dynamo stadium, they remembered the football players of the club of the same name, who on May 31, 1942, despite hunger and bombing, took to the field. The game then got another name - the Match of Life. Today, the sports arena has turned into an interactive space where they passed the TRP and watched newsreels. Alexander Burenin will tell.

Of the people whose names are on the monument, no one is alive. The last participant in the blockade match, Yevgeny Ulitin, left in 2002. Even the spectators of that game are hard to find. 76 years have passed. Today the monument is buried in flowers. Now young football players are in the forefront at the solemn rally.

KONSTANTIN SEROV,Vice Governor of St. Petersburg:

“Indeed, memory - it was, is and will be. For our state, the main link that conveys all the glory, all the heroism that our ancestors went through.

VYACHESLAV MAKAROVChairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg:

“Years, decades, centuries will pass, but I am convinced that this is the feat that they accomplished in 1942 - this feat should shine a light on both the current footballers of the national team and our children today.”

These black and white footage is often mistaken for a newsreel archive. In fact, of course, there was no recording - this is an excerpt from a feature film shot at the Petrovsky stadium.

It is impossible to convey the meaning of the game at that time. Yes, winter is over, but the city is hungry and ruined, and according to the invaders, Leningrad should have surrendered long ago. But they don’t just survive and defend their home there – they play football there. Petersburg "Dynamo" in the XXI century is much less popular than the "Zenith", and lives in the lower leagues. But the blue and white ones are 2 years older. Not many people remember this now. The team swung at the Premier League several times, but things didn’t go beyond talk.

In May 2018, the team is preparing to move to Sochi. Football veterans remember dreaming of two teams all their lives high level in the city. But apparently it's not destiny.

GERMAN ZONINHonored Coach of the USSR, RSFSR:

“I tell the boys - I will live to see Dynamo enter the Premier League. Of course they answered me. Where is it now. So embarrassing."

How long the trip will last is not yet clear. In the resort town, high-level club football was the last time at the end of the 20th century.

ALEXANDER BUREnin, correspondent:

“After participating in the blockade match, Dynamo is forever inscribed in the history of the Northern capital, but this is what distinguishes modernity from history. IN last years the club changed its name several times, and now it is leaving for Sochi. Apparently in this city the club will no longer be symbolized by football, but only by a monument.”

That is why the recent opening of "Spartak" has become a super event not only for fans of the red-and-whites, but also for millions of their eternal and irreconcilable "competitors". AiF decided to refresh the memory of the history of the "big brothers" of the Spartak stadium - the oldest and favorite arenas of the capital.

Mototrek - mistress!

Few people know that football team Dynamo already existed in 1923, and there was no place to train for it (how old Spartak was!) There was nowhere, not counting the wasteland behind the Rizhsky (in those years - Vindavsky) station. At first, it was a grassless area with three rows of wooden benches, and the showers were located in the former mortuary (even atheists were baptized when they went in to bathe!).

Dynamo moved to a new "trump" place only when the financial situation in the club improved. At the head of the commercial department of the team stood young talented economists Lurie And Loevsky who organized artels for the production of sporting goods. Having connected to tailoring ... former homeless children, the club began to make a profit and look for a place for new arena. After much debate, Petrovsky Park was chosen. Why did they argue for a long time? Yes, because it was the most favorite place for walking the Moscow nobility. There was a platform in it, called the “fair of brides”: rich “married Muscovites” were brought here “for viewing”. There was a restaurant, a theater, even a film studio! That is why the park was protected from the "working masses". But they didn’t save it - a crowd with shovels, picks and boots burst into the “nest of the aristocracy” ...

Alexander Lagman was appointed the chief architect of the project. He designed a gigantic... bike and motor track around the stadium. For what? For love! The lady of his heart, according to rumors, was a passionate motorcycle racer ... But something went wrong with the angle of inclination, and it was impossible to accelerate on the Dynamo track. Therefore, on the days of sold-out matches, he was simply forced to use additional benches. Fun fact: at that time, the score was indicated not only on the plates. There were also balloons above the stands. Three reds and two whites meant that the team in red shirts was leading with a score of 3: 2.

The new stadium became a whole "sports complex", it could accommodate up to 50 thousand spectators! Alas, on June 19, 1941, the last "peaceful" game was held there - the hosts accepted the Stalingrad "Tractor", and then the war began. Eyewitnesses recalled that during last match a flock of black crows flew onto the field and everyone felt terrible ... The stadium turned into a training center for fighters, and in 1942 young spruces were planted right on the field - this is how the arena was disguised from German pilots ...

On June 3, 1945, the era of the “Moscow football boom” began at Dynamo, when the people, hungry for spectacles, took the capital’s stadiums by storm ...

Tribunes for sorcerers

"Lokomotiv" (it was built in 1935 under the name "Stalinets") is the most mystical of all. Why do you think he was allowed to be called "Stalinist"? After all, the Secretary General did not particularly favor football. There is a version that this is because the "Stalin's bunker" was nearby. And then the name justified itself: the son of the "leader of the peoples" Vasily loved football very much and recruited players to his Air Force team at this stadium. How? He looked after a football player and ... took him to his state dacha. And there he kept until he agreed to the transition.

“Psychics adored this stadium,” said AiF. esoteric Mikhail Lamanov. - The tribunes were there for a long time in the form of ... earthen ramparts. Sitting on them, it was very convenient to accumulate the energy coming from thousands of people at a time, for example, goal scored. After all, the earth is a superconductor, and emotions at such moments went off scale! At one time, Stalinets-Lokomotiv was considered the main stadium of the capital: after the war, Dynamo was closed for restoration, Luzhniki still did not smell, so all the iconic games were held here. The audience went to the matches from the terminal Sokolniki on trams, thickly sticking around the roofs as well. Moscow thieves had an unspoken rule: “do not pinch fan trams”, “because decent people go to cheer for sports” ...

Psychics from all over Moscow were "recharged" at Lokomotiv. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Somov

"Toy" Furtseva

Rumor has it that Luzhniki decided to build in order to distract Furtsev from... suicide! The fact is that she once inadvertently spoke about her patron - Khrushchev and fell into "disfavor" with him. From a series of humiliations, Furtseva opened her veins (later she did this repeatedly), and Khrushchev with the words: “She has menopause, or something, she needs to occupy a woman with something,” in 1954 instructed her to oversee the construction of a super stadium. zealously set to work... The project was made and approved in 90 days, and the whole country was involved in the construction. Volunteers came from all over the Union, building materials were brought from Leningrad and Yerevan, electrical equipment and oak beams for spectator benches from Ukraine, furniture from Riga and Kaunas.

Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. 1968 Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin

Luzhniki was built in record time - 450 days! Alas, the famous Trinity Church was destroyed during construction, but they are going to restore it (as well as legendary stadium) to the 2018 World Cup, which will be held in Russia. As in the glorious times of "departure olympic teddy bear”, Luzhniki will have to become the main arena of the championship, which is well deserved: this stadium is remembered by millions of people and the unique Olympic Games-80, and the last concert of the Kino group, and the formation of our the best football players, and even a unique dish of work Picasso, the shape of which, they say, was inspired by ... the Luzhniki arena! (The dish, by the way, is stored in the storerooms of the stadium.) Brezhnev I came to cheer, although I didn’t like sports, - employees of the Luzhniki Sports Museum told AiF. - Sometimes he liked to sit at the games of Spartak, hockey. We kept a wide cup for tea for him. It seemed to him that his eyebrows might freeze, and a lot of steam rose from this cup.

There are other stadiums in Moscow with an interesting fate... So let's start going to them right now, without waiting for the official opening of the 2018 championship. Support for athletes, and training for us ...