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

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skating abilities that they had already possessed thanks to the Russian bandy. 149 In the
first Soviet Ice Hockey Championship, the more experienced body-checkers and
technically-advanced stickhandles of “Dinamo Riga” were countered by the superior
physical fitness, speed, and the “will to win” of the Russian bandy players. “Dinamo
Riga” had to settle with the fourth place in the first two seasons. 150 In the several coming
years, the Latvians steadily represented the Republic in the elite group of the All-Union
Ice Hockey Championships albeit without earning the medals. 151
A number of the postwar players of “Dinamo Riga” have been celebrated in the
Russian history of the Canadian game for their contribution to the international expansion
of Soviet hockey. The Latvian names of Harijs Mellups and Roberts Šūlmanis are
inscribed on the list of the first Soviet national squads competing against
Czechoslovakian and Polish teams. In the early postwar years, Soviet hockey was still in
the process of preparing for the international debut. The Soviet Union could not afford
epic failures in the emerging Cold War sports rivalries. 152 Thus, before going into a direct
confrontation with the top western countries of the bourgeois sport, throughout the years
of 1948 to 1953, the Soviet authorities initiated a number of hockey series between “Team
Moscow” and the Soviet-aligned states like Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland.
If the results of the international matchups with the satellite nations were positive, it
would demonstrate the readiness of the Soviets for participation in major international
tournaments. Following the 1948 Olympic Games in Switzerland, Sergei Savin invited
the powerhouse of European hockey, “LTC Prague,” to play three matches in Moscow,
which would become the first serious international contest for the Soviet squad. 153 In this
crucial moment in the development of Soviet hockey, the legendary goalie of “Dinamo
149 Kehre, Sports Padomju Latviā 30.
150 Kehris, “Dinamo” Latvijas Organizācijai 27; From the Harijs Vītoliņš recollections on the first
encounters with the Russian bandy players in the inaugural championship. In Ernštreits, Хоккей: 1972-
1973 7-8.
151 From 1950 to 1958, “Dinamo Riga” was reorgonazized and played under the name of “Daugava Riga.”
152 For instance, Nikolai Romanov recalled: “Once we decided to take part in foreign competitions, we were
forced to guarantee victory […], otherwise the “free” bourgeois press would fling mud at the entire nation
as well as at our athletes… In order to gain permission to go to international competitions I had to send a
special note to Stalin guaranteeing victory…” Quoted in Riordan, Rewriting Soviet Sports History 249.
153 The Soviet sports leaders, including Sergei Savin, had returned from their tour to the 1948 Olympic
Games in Switzerland where they were “astonished” by the performance of the Canadians and
Czechoslovaks, which made them more skeptical about the “readiness” of the Soviets to make a solid debut
on the international stage. The destiny of the game was also complicated by the bandy activists, who began
an ideological campaign in the media against Canadian hockey, arguing that it ruins the traditions of
Russian hockey. In Farid Bektemirov, “Строительство Красной Машины. Часть 2 [The Construction of
the Red Machine. Part 2].” Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. Web 19 Mar. 2013.
.