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

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and Arkady Chernyshev. Such influential hockey powerhouses as “CSKA,” “Dinamo”,
and “Spartak” became the major suppliers of the national squad. They would use all their
powerful resources to either conscript or recruit hockey talent from the peripheral regions
of the Soviet Union. By the end of the 1960s, “CSKA Moscow” had gained the status of
the undisputed leader of Soviet hockey, becoming the base club for the Soviet squad in
the international rivalries. With the ongoing retirement of the interwar pioneers of the
Canadian game, the flagship of republican hockey, “Dinamo Riga,” which in 1950 went
under the umbrella of the Latvian national sport society, “Daugava Riga,” had gradually
moved from the core to the periphery of Soviet hockey. 159
Viktor Tikhonov’s era – The Revival of Latvian Hockey
The years 1958 to 1968 are characterized as a state of deep crisis and stagnation in
Latvian hockey. The post-war republic stopped reproducing enough competitive players
due to the lack of advanced sports infrastructure and hockey schools. Moreover, the
Latvians were still accustomed to using an outdated philosophy of training routines and
tactics, which were commonly used in the early stages of Soviet hockey development. 160
As a result, already by the late 1960s, “Dinamo Riga” had found itself in the lowest
possible cellars of Soviet hockey competition. At that time, the great traditions of Latvian
hockey were facing the danger of being reduced to oral histories of the lost past. To put it
in the poetic words of a well-known Latvian historian of the Soviet rebirth of “Dinamo
Riga,” Miķelis Rubenis, Latvian hockey needed a “selfless” navigator, one who would
form a group of “dedicated hockey players” and steer “the Latvian hockey ship” from the
“shallow waters” it had been stationed in for the past ten years. 161
159 Already in the season of 1957/58, “Daugava Riga” was put in the so-called “handicap division” of the
higher division. Some notable players like Alfred Brauns (1951) and Juris Reps (1967) were recruited to
“Dinamo Moscow.” By 1967, “Daugava Riga” was relegated to Class B (Third Rated League). For brief
seasons in the 1960s the team was renamed to “RVR,” sponsored by the Riga Carriage Works. The team
was officially renamed to “Dinamo Riga” in 1967 after the “RVR” decided to halt the sponsorship of the
team. Further readings on the late 60s history see e.g., Ulmanis, Melnās Ripas 176.
160 The first palace with artificial ice was built only in 1968. Thus, due to the meteorological peculiarities of
the game, for nearly two decades the players from Riga had to rely solely on weather conditions; Gunārs
Krastiņš, who played for the team from 1950s to early 1970s pointed out that the flagship of Latvian hockey
lacked consistency, continuously changing coaches. Hockey development was still unsystematic; some
coaches were coaching-players whereas many players continued playing soccer during the summer time
without serious preparations for the next hockey season. Aivars Pastalnieks, “Gunārs Krastiņš – Pirmais
Rīgas Dinamo Kapteinis [Gunārs Krastiņš - Prominent Captain of Dinamo Riga].” Dinamofans.eu. 22 Apr.
2010. Web. May 10. .
161 Miķelis Rubenis, Sešas Sezonas [Six Seasons] (Rīga: Liesma, 1975) 5. [translation mine].