University of Turku Faculty of Humanities Baltic Sea Region ... - Doria

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III. THE HAUNTING SOVIET HERITAGE OF DINAMO RIGA
A. At the Cradle of Soviet Hockey
The history of Latvian hockey is closely intertwined with the global emergence
and development of Soviet hockey. Canadian hockey had already arrived in the Russian
Empire at the beginning of the 20 th Century. Perhaps the first shared Latvian-Russian
debut of the new sport was held on February 15, 1909 in Riga when two local bandy
teams “Union” and “Strēlnieku Dārzs” attempted to play the game by the Canadian rules.
However, the new winter sport had not taken its roots instantly on the Eastern shores of
the Baltics. 122 After WWI, Soviet Russia and the first Republic of Latvia were still
predominantly accustomed to playing Scandinavian hockey, called bandy. However, in
Latvia the situation with the Canadian game had gradually changed in the middle of
1920s. While the ideologically-inclined Soviets were still preoccupied with the
collectivist game of bandy, the various Latvians sports unions, including the members of
Sportsintern, “SSS,” became more susceptible to the western flows of the Canadian game
through the sports contacts with its neighboring Central European and Scandinavian
countries of the Baltic Sea littoral. 123 Thanks to the intensifying ice hockey exchange
with their German, Swedish, and Finnish neighbors, by the beginning of 1930s, the
Canadian game gained numerous admirers amongst the Latvian enthusiasts of bandy, who
122 Juris Baldunčiks,”У Истоков Хоккея [At the Cradle of Hockey].” Хоккей 1986-1987 Календарь-
Справочник [Hockey 1986-1987 Yearbook]. ed. Mariss Andersons. (Riga: Central Committee of
Communist Party Press, 1986) 52-53; Ainis Ulmanis, Melnās Ripas Bruņinieki [The Knights of the Black
Puck] (Rīga: Latvijas Hokeja Federācija, 1998) 7. Web LHF. 10 Mar. 2013; Even though in 1911, Russia
entered into the Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG), the predecessor of the IIHF, due to the
lack of interest in the game, the Russian Hockey Union soon left the LIHG. After 1917, the Bandy enjoyed
greater popularity in Soviet Russia. “Наша история. Часть 1. 1946-1947 [Our History. Part 1. 19461947].”
Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.
. Mid Para.
123 The first attempt to cultivate the game in the USSR failed miserably. In 1932, the German labor union,
“Fichte,” visited Moscow to play against the Soviet masters of bandy from the Central House of the Red
Army. The Russians won all matches. However, unlike football, the Soviets did not see yet the full potential
in the Canadian game to be Sovietized.The Soviet journal of “Physical Culture and Sports” denoted this
bourgeois game as “very individual and primitive,” which bears no comparison with bandy and
recommended to withstand from developing the sport in the Soviet Union. Наша история. Часть 1. 1946-
1947 Mid Para; The father of Russian hockey, Anatoli Tarasov confessed that the Russians became aware
of the fact that they were going to play the Canadian shinny when they met “Fichte” at the station terminal.
Moreover, in 1938, the soccer theorist in the Central Institute of Physical Culture, Mikhail Tovarovsky, tried
to cultivate the new game but found resentment from his ardent bandy students, including Tarasov, who
were unable to appreciate the game at that time. In Anatoli Tarasov. Совершеннолетие [Adulthood]
(Moscow: Molodaya Gvardia, 1968) 116-118. For more reading on the interwar attitude of the Soviet Union
towards the embracement of western sports see e.g., the Chapter: The Soviet Union and the Triumph of
Soccer in Keys, Globalizing Sport 158-181.