Red Army

I was born in the Soviet Union in '58.

It was 13 years after World War II was over.

The whole country was ruined.

We lost 20 million people.

It's a lot.

We was living in Stalin's buildings.

Probably a 400 square foot apartment.

No running water, no toilets, three families.

It was a pretty rough lifestyle.

I was a happy kid.

I play a game. I play hockey.

Pucks was empty cans and stuff like that.

But, we had fun.

Our heroes played for the Red Army Club, for the national team.

Vladimir Pozner Journalist

TRYOUTS!

JOIN THE RED ARMY HOCKEY TEAM AND SERVE YOUR COUNTRY.

My mom and dad, they probably collected for two years.

They bought for me gloves, helmet, and the skates.

On the black market, it probably cost 250 rubles.

It was big money for a Soviet family.

There was a huge line of the boys

With the sticks. With the skates.

With the parents. With the grandparents.

It's unbelievable. It's probably 3-4 miles long.

I was 9 years old.

I stayed in line probably 7 or 8 hours.

I was exhausted.

I got no chance.

They said, "Thank you very much. Come again next year."

So I practiced 3 or 4 times a day.

Finally, they said I was good enough to make the team.

I was so proud to play for Red Army.

Skate with no fear.

We'll give you exercises no one has ever seen.

You'll be juggling your sticks,

twisting them around your head.

Where's the smile? You're playing hockey!

Jump! Quick!

Tarasov was the father of the Soviet system.

Great!

And the head coach of the Red Army.

You'll become great hockey players!

And great men!

This man played a big role in my life.

I was Red Army in my heart.

I came there. I was 10 years old.

Tarasov, he developed the program.

He wrote a few books about hockey.

These books laid next to my bed since I was a little kid.

He described the game in a very simple way.

Our training camps were together.

My chess team and the national hockey team.

They would often come to me

if they had questions on psychological training.

He studied the training of the Bolshoi,

and he applied it to hockey.

Look at these dances, eh?

It's like the boogie woogie!

Sport is an art form.

That's what Tarasov thought.

Creativity, a vivid mind, and constant

thinking are needed for greatness.

My father was not just a hockey coach...

he was a great mentor.

He could see the potential in a young person.

He developed my patriotism.

For us, it's very important.

For me since I was ten, it was very important what was in front.

The name of my team, my country.

I belong to the great nation.

If you wear the national team uniform,

that's your duty. To do your best.

To represent your country.

Have you ever watched hockey?

I like playing with dolls.

Do you know what these letters mean:

K-G-B?

No.

Yeah, you were born much later.

You didn't have to deal with this organization.

When we crossed the Atlantic to play against

the best Ontario clubs at 16 years old, I was happy.

There was one flight per week.

Empty because nobody was flying.

Of course, regular people cannot leave

the country because that's the system.

I used to go with them to provide security,

and to prevent any "escapes" to the West.

The "special people" who traveled with us,

they give your passport before you get to passport control,

and they collect the passport when you cross the border.

The Canadians put us in a five-star hotel.

Chandeliers. Marble.

One room per player,

and a hundred TV channels.

Fruits, vegetables in the wintertime.

I've never seen it before for us.

In the Soviet Union, we got fish only one day a week.

It was "Fish Thursday."

When people went abroad, especially for the first time,

they were so surprised by the differences.

We got $48.

They gave us pocket money.

I bought 2 jeans, 3 pair of shorts.

Lots of stuff which just didn't exist in Moscow.

However, they never saw

the negative side of the other countries.

Control was intense.

Without such intense control, there was no point in the work at all.

I was never even thinking about to defect.

Never. What's that mean?

I'm happy.

The building was 12,000 people. Packed.

I was so nervous, y'know?

We got shitty gear.

We beat them in all 5 games.

Which players do you like the best?

Okay, Gabe. Let's go. Let's go. Work!

You guys are used to doing nothing over there in America.

Tarasov disagreed and stopped the game.

We didn't play for 40 minutes.

And there sat Brezhnev.

And Brezhnev was saying, "What the hell is this?"

They removed him from the national team.

They punished him for this.

The KGB Chief was a fan of the Red Army Club.

Tikhonov was his protégé.

What do you mean powerful?

What do you mean powerful? He's a part of the system.

The Chief of the KGB put him in the position.

If we didn't obey, he would punish us severely.

He would take your salary or bar you from playing.

I'm very volatile.

That's how I am.

And the guys know that.

They know when to approach me.

Tikhonov was in a very advanced position from the beginning.

He got the best team in the world.

He got all kinds of support from the government.

In the Soviet Union, you can get any player.

You draft him into the army and he becomes a Red Army player.

Can Tikhonov be successful without us?

I don't know.

We being successful without him?

I think so.

Destiny.

It was tough.

After the Olympic games,

Tikhonov fired the veterans.

It's wrong.

All these guys, all these supporting staff,

this is the successful team.

Not him.

After that game, the workload became tremendous.

There were players who pissed blood.

We practiced four times a day in the summertime.

Four times.

We're working at a heart rate of 220.

Can you imagine? 220.

You win by being merciless in training.

The coach must perpetuate this tradition.

A coach must find a player's pressure

points to achieve maximum results.

It's the carrot and the stick, like an animal trainer.

To get masterpieces from the beasts,

you have to force them a little bit.

Did I respect him?

As my coach? Yes.

As a person? No.

You have to be born a goalie.

I am a destroyer.

I destroy the plans of the adversary.

Vladislav Tretiak in the net.

The best goalie in the world.

Tretiak is almost unbeatable.

The greatest goaltender the game has ever seen.

Tikhonov was given ready-to-use material.

Tarasov had created stars.

It was to his credit that he created a five-man unit.

They were the best.

...are the strike force of the Soviet team.

When the five got together, no one knew how to play them.

He was the most dangerous player in the world.

He can make the goal from nowhere, anytime.

He scored more goals than anybody in our hockey history.

He was a Russian tank.

He was the soul of the five-man unit.

Igor was the professor.

Because he was skinny like that.

Not a professor, maybe nerd.

Skinny but tough.

It kind of misleads lots of guys.

He was my best friend.

He was teammate. He was roommate.

Alex became my younger brother.

My mom cooked for him,

and my grandpa was like his grandpa.

It's tough to find any closer relationship between two men.

Alex is probably the best all-around defenseman ever to play the game.