Truth and fiction about the "death match" - a football battle between Soviet athletes and fascist anti-aircraft gunners

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Great Patriotic War is remembered for many grandiose battles in which Soviet soldiers defended the independence of their Motherland. But in the history of confrontations between the USSR and Nazi Germany, there is one unique battle that took place not on the battlefield, but on the football field. This is a match between the Ukrainian team "Start" and the German anti-aircraft gunners "Flakelf", later called the "death match". The event took place in August 1942 in occupied Kiev and over time was overgrown with fictions and legends.

How football developed on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR during the occupation

The war led to the disintegration of the favorite of Ukrainian football - Dynamo Kiev. Some of the players were drafted into the army, someone managed to evacuate. In September 1941, the top of Hitler's blitzkrieg was the Kiev "cauldron", as a result of which the Soviet troops suffered huge losses, many soldiers and commanders were taken prisoner. Among those were members of several football clubs, including Dynamo. Some of them were released at the request of the head of the physical education section of the city council Dubyansky and professor Shtepa.

The Kiev Stadtkommissariat gave permission to resume sports life in the city. The Rukh society was created first. Teams appeared at various enterprises, where athletes who returned to the capital managed to get a job. The strongest team was formed at the bakery, whose director Josef Kordik was a passionate football fan.

How the legend was created, or a brief history of the "Start" command

The ethnic Czech Kordik managed to convince the occupation authorities that he was Volksdeutsche (he is an "ethnic German"). This gave Joseph certain privileges, and he took advantage of them to create a football team at the factory. The director recruited foremen from the pre-war Dynamo, provided them with documents, provided food, and organized regular trainings. The core of the team was made up of nine athletes, led by Nikolai Trusevich, a famous goalkeeper who played in the Odessa clubs "Pishchevik" and "Dynamo", and later in "Dynamo" (Kiev).

When the Germans announced a football tournament in June 1942, Josef Kordik obtained permission for Start to participate in it. During the summer, the bakery team played several matches with the Germans, as well as Hungarians and Romanians, whose garrisons were stationed in Kiev, and in each they achieved a convincing victory.

"Start" vs "Flakelf": match organization, team composition, game results

On August 6, "Start" with a crushing score - 5: 1 - beat Flakelf, a German team made up of air defense units. The rematch - the legendary "death match" - was held three days later. The application for participation from the Soviet team included former Dynamo players Mikhail Sviridovsky (captain), goalkeepers Nikolai Trusevich and Alexei Klimenko, Makar Goncharenko, Pavel Komarov, Fedor Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Nikolai Korotkikh, Yuri Chernega, Georgy Timofeev, Alexander Tkachenko, Ivan Kuzmenko. Lokomotiv Kiev was represented by Vladimir Balakin, Vasily Sukharev, Lev Gundarev, Mikhail Melnik. The match took place at the Zenit stadium in the presence of several thousand spectators. The entrance ticket cost 5 karbovanets. There were many German servicemen in the stands, including those of high ranks.

Preparing for the rematch, Flakelf strengthened the squad to the maximum and after the first half had an advantage in the score - 2: 1. But "Start" did not give the opponent a victory. In the second half, Soviet footballers turned the tide of the game and won with a score of 5: 3, to the delight of Ukrainian fans. To the dismay of the Germans, Start's triumph was greeted by Hungarian and Romanian soldiers present at the stadium.

How was the fate of Kiev footballers after the victory over the Germans

The last game of the 1942 summer tournament "Start" played against the "Rukh" team on 16 August. And two days later, the arrests began, and the first to be taken into custody were the workers of the bakery.

There are several versions of the reasons for the arrest of Ukrainian athletes. The most common is the revenge of the Germans for the loss. It was also assumed that the footballers who worked at the bakery carried out sabotage activities in the shops of the enterprise. However, this option has no real basis and looks more like a legend.

The most likely version seems to be that the athletes became victims of denunciation. Someone Georgy Vyachkis, a Lithuanian by origin, who worked in the Gestapo during the occupation of Kiev and kept a restaurant for the Nazis, decided to raise his rating in the eyes of the German owners. To this end, he reported to the authorities that the Start players were agents of the NKVD. Formally, there was a basis for such a statement, since Dynamo was in the department of this commissariat. Confirmation of this version - the arrests of only former Dynamo, the players of Lokomotiv remained at large.

In the fall of 1942, an employee of the NKVD Korotkikh died in the dungeons of the Gestapo. Tkachenko was shot while trying to escape. The rest (M. Sviridovsky, goalkeepers N. Trusevich and A. Klimenko, M. Goncharenko, P. Komarov, F. Tyutchev, M. Putistin, Y. Chernegu, G. Timofeev, I. Kuzmenko) for lack of compromising evidence after a month in the Gestapo was sent to the Syrets concentration camp.

In February 1943, after a conflict between a guard and one of the prisoners, every third prisoner was shot. Among the victims were Trusevich, Klimenko and Kuzmenko (in 1964 they were posthumously awarded the medal "For Courage"). Tyutchev managed to escape. A little later, with the assistance of loyal policemen, Goncharenko and Sviridovsky fled. In the fall, Putin managed to break free. Komarov was sent to Germany to an aircraft factory.

After the war, Balakin, Sukharev, Goncharenko and Melnik resumed their football careers; Sviridovsky was the mentor of the Kiev team of the House of Officers, Putin - the Kiev team "Spartak". Komarov emigrated to Canada. Those serving in the police were punished: Gundarev spent 10 years in a forced labor camp, then settled in Kazakhstan; Timofeev, after 5 years in the Karaganda camp, returned to Kiev; Chernega, sentenced to 10 years, died in the Kargopol camp.

It's hard for modern people to believe this, but some matches were played with natural sacrifices.