Hungarians provoked and won. Bashny.Net

"Blood in the pool" - the informal name for a water polo match between the national teams of the Soviet Union and Hungary, which was held in the Olympic tournament - this is the most famous game in the history of water polo.

The match took place less than a month after the suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Hungarians were so angry as hell. The atmosphere was tense before the match to the limit, the Hungarian national team players in various media interviews mocked Soviet athletes. And during the match, provocations reached a new level. As Ervin Zador: "Our plan was simple: we're playing - they are fighting. We spoke in Russian and their mother and their relatives. They were - began to beat us ».

Hungarians provoked and won. At some point, the Soviet team player Valentin Prokopov broke down and punched his fist in the face Zadora.



kick caused a cut over the right eye of Hungary, with profuse bleeding. But despite the blood loss, the Hungarian continue the game, diluting the pool water with blood. This fact has caused indignation of the crowd of spectators, most of whom openly sympathized with the Hungarian national team, some spectators ran to the pool and started shouting anti-Soviet slogans and spit into the water. The police intervened and happening quickly restored order by the pool.



Recalls player Boris Goikhman: On the eve of the game from the newspapers we learned that a half of the eight seats, which features an indoor swimming pool, six and a half were purchased by Hungarian emigrants. And they do not just hurt. For example, I was the first time encountered such a psychological pressure stands, to meet, by the way, the team of Hungary Horthy anthem and banners with swastikas ...

worth victim enthusiasm to swim to the side, smearing blood all over his face and ask for sympathy for the public, started something hard to describe. It seemed, from the roar burst eardrums. As we flew everything that came under a hand enraged audience. Huddled in the heart of the whole team, we barely had time to take cover from the bottle, some wooden mallets, coins.



Remembers George Lezin Swedish judge them clearly podsuzhival. He appointed a penalty kick in our doors, drove the players from the pool. At some point the Hungarians without any reason began to beat us in the face with his fists. Chairman of the Sports Committee of the USSR Nikolai Romanov shouted us a side that we do not in any way responsible. The Hungarians of this even more brazen. As a result, we, too, could not stand and began to respond. Their captain broke even in the face of blood. In fact, the match ended in a half minutes before the end of the playing time. We were taken out of the pool under the supervision of the police, almost immediately put on a ship and locked. We sat there bezvylazno until the end of the Olympics, because some of the Hungarian fans vowed to kill us for what we crippled their captain ... The KGB then said it was necessary to break them stronger!



the match was stopped, and the USSR national team forfeited in connection with the fact that at the time the play was stopped Hungarian national team was in the lead.



Ervin Zador years later.