Death Match - a football match played in the German-occupied Kiev Bashny.Net

Death Match - a football match played in the German-occupied Kiev in the summer of 1942 between Soviet and German teams. A number of players, the people of Kiev, was shot; according to legend, for refusing to play meeting.




The command "Start»



Some of the players who were on the construction of defensive positions on the outskirts of Kiev, could not leave the city before taking his Wehrmacht in September 1941.
Known Trusevich goalie Nikolai, too, was in the city. He got a job as a loader at the bakery № 1. And in the evenings on a vacant lot near playing with his friends in football. Soon it became known to the German authorities. From them it was proposed to assemble a team to participate in the opening of the stadium in the Ukrainian Big Vasylkivska, 51 (above the street called "Red Army" and the stadium - "National Stadium"). Dubbed the command "Start».



Only the players represented the club "Dynamo" (Kiev) (eg striker Fedor Tiutchev was from CDKA). But in the German report on football matches deliberately talk about the team «Dynamo».

The first matches
The game took place on June 5, 1942. Finally, the grand opening of the stadium hosted a football match. "Start" won with a score of 7: 2 Ukrainian team "Rukh».
The rest of the game with the "Start" held at the stadium "Zenit" (before the war it was called "Sniper"), in the street of kerosene, 24.
• June 21 "Start" - the team of the Hungarian garrison - 6: 2.
• July 5 "Start" - the Romanian team - 11: 0.
• July 12 "Start" - a team of military railwaymen - 9: 1.
• July 17 "Start" - military command «PGS» - 6: 0.
• July 19 «Start» - «MSG.Wal.» (Hungary) - 5: 1.
• July 26 «Start» - «MSG.Wal.» - 3: 2.
Then, against the Soviet football team he played «Flakelf» (the national team of the German anti-aircraft gunners).
The first meeting was held on August 6, 1942. "Start" won with a crushing score of 5: 1.



Match 9 August 1942
Three days later, the Germans gathered a rematch strengthen the team. Before the game on the field teams greeted each other. Germans: "Heil!", The people of Kiev "Fizkult hi!»



Team
• Nikolai Trusevich
• Alexei Klimenko
• Ivan Kuzmenko
• Michael Sviridovsky
• Nicholas Short
• Fedor Tiutchev
• Michael Putistin
• Basil Sukharev
• Vladimir Balakin
• Michael Miller
• Makar Goncharenko

Playing the game
Account opened by the Germans. Then Ivan Kuzmenko long-range shot equalized, and in the first half with two goals scored Makar Goncharenko. The second half was equally tough fight. The Germans scored two goals and equaled the score, but then the "Start" snatched victory 5: 3.



Death Match
It is this fight in the Soviet Union, later called the "death match", after which the players were allegedly shot. Allegedly, in the locker room before the match Soviet players entered the German commander (Colonel), who watched the match in a rigid form of camps and threatened with execution demanded lose.
Behind the fence, to the right, there was a dressing room, the door of which was open and I went inside. In the room were: N. Trusevich, wear a sweater, Klimenko was sitting in shape, eat bread, breaking off pieces, and another one, which I knew not, laced boots. At this point, the officer went and kicked me out of the locker room. What he was talking with the players, will remain a mystery forever. A. Jasinski.

Last game
August 16 "Start" played against "Ruh" and won with a score of 8: 0. It was the last match.
Just a "Start" played 17 players. Also participants of the match on August 9 this: Gundarev Chernega Komarov, Timofeev, Tkachenko, the centurion.
The famous film "Goalkeeper" team of Kiev "Dynamo" has acted in full. In the last scene of the USSR national team played against a team of "Black buffalo." Among the players on the team, "buffalo" You can find many of those who played in the "Start". It is the only surviving footage of the team.

The camp
A week after the rematch right Gestapo arrested in the workplace (at the bakery), the majority of players the team "Start", justifying it by the fact that the "Dynamo" (Kiev) - the command of the NKVD.
Nicholas Short, was accused that he was a Soviet agent, was executed by the Gestapo.
Some of the players were in Syretsko concentration camp, where the spring of 1943 were shot by Nikolai Trusevich, Ivan Kuzmenko, Alexei Klimenko. The reason for the shooting is not certain; it formally, as their arrest was not related to winning the German team. There is a theory that the reason for the arrest was the discovery of broken glass in the bread, to submit to the needs of the military hospital, including to implement among the occupied population



Birth of a legend
The first shot of the Dynamo Kiev told "Izvestia" More November 16, 1943. The military correspondent of the newspaper from Kiev wrote: "These were the players of the football team Kiev" Dynamo ", which for a long time hiding from the Germans. It was necessary to live, to escape from hunger. They found work at a bakery in Kiev. They found the Germans were driven into the cellars of the Gestapo. All the young men were shot ».
After 15 years in the "Evening Kiev" from November 21, 1958 published an article by Peter Severova "Last fight". And in the same year he published a book under the same title. Authors - Peter North and Naum Halemsky - told the story of Dynamo Kiev, who remained in the occupied city, worked at the bakery, and after had a match with German players and won it, had been shot.
For the first time the name "death match" used the Lev Kassil.
Over time, the story snowballed artistic details. For example, opponents of the people of Kiev called the match a team of German air force - the Luftwaffe. This version has been further developed, in 1963-1964, at the "Mosfilm" was filmed and was released film "The Third Half" Game players of Kiev "Dynamo" with the German Luftwaffe team.
In 1966, in the September issue of the magazine "Youth" published the story of Anatoly Kuznetsov "Babi Yar", a section of which is dedicated to the game players of Kiev "Dynamo" with different teams. Kuznetsov reported that the players played as a team the bakery, which was called "Start».
April 4, 1985 in the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published an article by Nikolai Dolgopolov "The price of victory - a life", and next year - his own book "Fight football».

Debunking the Myth
In 1987, the yearbook dedicated to the Soviet Cup, are the main events in the history, the name "Death Match" remained, but said only four dead players. Rival Match Kievans called again, no anti-aircraft gunners, and the German Air Force - "Luftwaffe". Despite this, a version of the death of the whole team remained stable.
In 1992 he published the book George Kuzmin "The truth about the Game of Death" ("Dynamo", which you do not know).
A November 12, 1994 "Ukrainian News" published an article by Oleg kievoveda Yasinskiy "Was there a" death match "?»
Case of the "game of death" the prosecutor's office was opened in Hamburg in 1974 and finally closed in 2005. The Commission of Inquiry Relations between winning the German football team and the execution has been found.

Memory
In 1965, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded the survivors of the "death match" government awards (medals "For Courage»).



In 1971, at the stadium "Dynamo" was a monument - a granite rock with high relief figures of four players (sculptor Ivan Gorovoj). On the monument to Stepan Oliynyk:
To our wonderful
sogodnі Pong polyagli have dvoboї ...
In vіkah zgasne not your glory,
Bezstrashnі athletes geroї.
In 1981, at the stadium "Zenith", renamed "Start", set the sculpture and architectural composition in honor of the "match of death».
In 1999, in Kiev, in the quarter between the streets Shchusev and Academician Grekov, near the place where, among the remains of the executed prisoners Syrets concentration camp were found soccer shoes, a memorial sign - a granite cube with symbolically embossed face, which stood a bronze soccer ball (sculptor Yuri Bagalika architect Ruslan Kukharenko).