start fc: nikolai trusevich, mikhail sviridovsky, alexei klimenko, nikolai korotkykh, makar goncharenko, vladimir balakin, nikolai makhinya, ivan kuzmenko + three from mikhail melnik, mikhail putistin, vasil sukharev, and fedir tyutchev,
scorers: kuzmenko, goncharenko (2)
manager: grigory osinyuk
flakelf: -
scorers: -
manager: -
why you should watch this match: you won't be able to, but it's a monument to bravery and resistance in desperate times
this is a very different entry, and i am concerned that i'm trivialising tragedy by including it here. on the other hand more people should know the story of start fc. it's not a match that was filmed, although a greek documentary features apparently features footage of the 1930s dynamo kiev team, many of whom featured for start fc. the greek documentary available in three sections starting here appears to be sound only accompanied by photographs. much of the information in the article comes from andy dougan's excellent book dynamo, sadly out of print, but currently available for one pence plus postage at amazon and thoroughly recommended.
it's difficult to sort exaggeration from truth as far as this story goes. the nazis buried it and the soviet union mythologised what survived. in the late 1930s, as now, dynamo kiev was the most successful football team in ukraine, then part of the soviet union. the soviet pact with germany meant that life in the soviet union during world war ii continued as normal until the german invasion of 1941.
male residents of kiev signed up for the army to defend their city, but the battle of kiev was short and brutal, and the smallest reckoning of prisoners taken numbers them at over 500,000. a fair percentage were murdered, and the remainder processed in a prison camp. those deemed unlikely to hinder nazi plans were released back into a city stripped of all resources. among them were the dynamo kiev footballers.
the dynamo prefix requires an explanation. in the old soviet union and satellite states it indicated a team associated with state departments, most often the police, who employed . many kiev players. for individual players it wasn't necessarily indicative of any political sensibilities, as joining the police and by extension the dynamo sporting club enabled access to the top training facilities of the era and the soviets always encouraged sports. any police activity on the part of the players was likely to have been minimal, as they concentrated on their football. it's strange and fortunate, then, that despite holding identity papers identifying their trade, the kiev team were released back into society.
although czech by birth, iosif kordik spoke fluent german and convinced the nazis he was austrian with a ukrainian wife. he was permitted to run the baking factory re-opened to provide food for the german army, with any leftovers distributed to the local population. kordik filled his staff with sportsmen, chancing across dynamo goalkeeper nikolai trusevich half starving in the street. trusevich located other footballers to be employed, eventually gathering seven of his former team mates, and four players once of city rivals lokomotiv kiev. start was an ordinary name commonly given to new organisations at the time, and apolitical in nature, distancing the team from any previous or current state sanctioned activity.
when the germans re-introduced football, the former kiev players discussed whether participating equated to collaboration and implicit sanction of nazi policy. they concluded a morale-boosting winning team outweighed any other notions, and duly beat their first opponents 7-2 on june 7th 1942. six further victories followed, largely against teams from nearby garrisons, as popular resistance unified behind start. this was manifestly apparent when start defeated flakelf from the local luftwaffe base on august 6th 1942 overcoming deliberately brutal tactics ignored by a biased referee to win 5-1.
flakelf demanded a re-match take place three days later, and there was no doubt that this was to quell popular support for start. aryan supremacy had been proved hollow by a team of half-starved factory workers, and the posters promoting the match heavily featured the word 'revenge'. on arriving, locals were greeted by a large contingent of german soldiers among the spectators, leaving no doubt as to the type of display the germans intended.
much of the available information regarding start comes from former dynamo and start winger makar goncharenko much later in his life. he related the dressing room door opening and a man in an ss uniform informing the start players he would be refereeing, he expected no rules to be broken and that the game would start with their opponents being greeted in the nazi fashion. this was understood to mean a nazi salute accompanied by an exclamation of 'heil hitler.' goncharenko was also under no illusions that the match was expected to serve as a propaganda victory for the germans. he was explicit in stating, though, that start were never instructed by officials to lose before the match, and the decision made by the players was that whatever the consequences they would try to win, but perhaps not by a great margin.
start refused to give a nazi salute and instead shouted 'fixculhura', a phrase that roughly means 'long live sport'. they played the w formation pioneered in austria during the 1930s, but the early stages of the match didn't follow their plan. they weren't up against professionals, but the best of the area had been drafted into the flakelf team whose brutal tactics were repeated, with trusevich in goal coming in for a particular battering. after ten minutes he was kicked unconscious as he dived at the feet of an attacking german. with no substitutes, he had to carry on when he came round, and the germans took full advantage to open the scoring. the fouling was more blatant than in the first game, with no attempt made to play the ball, but the ss referee ignored it all. centre forward ivan kuzmenko's solution was to rid himself of the ball before any tackle could be made, and shooting from distance he equalised.
goncharenko ran down the wing evading all tackles, cut inside and put start ahead, and the half time score was completed when kuzmenko sent a pass over the defence to goncharenko who waited for it to drop and scored on the volley. the joy in the dressing room was tempered by the visit of another ss officer who congratulated them on their skill, but pointed out that they couldn't possibly expect to win, and that the should consider the consequences before the second half.
the mood had changed in the stadium during half time. while trusevich in goal had to put up with german fans behind him, there was palpable unease among the germans regarding the vociferously belligerent nature of the kiev crowd. the physical side of their game diminished, and there appears to be no record of the second half scorers. alexei klimenko added the final defiant touch by rounding several flakelf players and stopping the ball on the goal line before kicking upfield again rather than into the net.
contrary to the myth there were no immediate consequences. start played again the following week, recording another victory, but in the days after, using the names on the handbill advertising the second match, the gestapo arrested the start players, tortured them in the hope they would admit to being saboteurs, and dispatched them to labour camps.
again, for the full fascinating and tragic story read andy dougan's book. the film escape to victory is surely based on some half-baked version of the start fc story, and the players are commemorated with a monument erected outside the dynamo kiev stadium in 1981.
man of the match: klimenko. for a man to do what he did near the end of the game knowing full well the possible consequences can't just be attributed to the bravado of youth. he eventually paid with his life for an act of bravery inconceivable to most today.
