Death Match (Kiev, 1942) - a football match organized by the German-fascist invaders in Kiev on August 9, 1942 in order to prove the sports superiority of the “Aryans”. The Luftwaffe team of the German Air Force was opposed by the Dynamo Kiev footballers who did not have time to leave the city.
Despite the threat of reprisals, Dynamo managed to win the match with a score of 5: 3. After the Death Match, the footballers N. Trusevich, I. Kuzmenko, A. Klimenko and N. Korotkikh were arrested and soon shot by the Nazis (awarded posthumously medal "For Courage"). How was it really?
Soviet era version
The Death Match took place in German-occupied Kiev. The version of events that took shape in Soviet times looks like this: the Kiev football team, which included several Dynamo players, played a match with the Luftwaffe team Flakelf and won the representatives of the German Air Force. In retaliation for public humiliation, the Nazis shot their rivals in the football game.
The meaning of a football match
There is no doubt that the match took place. Unfortunately, the fact of the execution by the Nazis of four former Dynamo players: N. Trusevich (recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR), I. Kuzmenko, A. Klimenko and N. Korotkikh, corresponds to real events. In fact, the game aroused great interest and patriotism among the people of Kiev. The fans who were in the stands of the stadium later recalled that the match was perceived not as a simple sports competition, but as a confrontation between the USSR and Germany. Nevertheless, we must agree, apparently, with those who consider the "death match" a propaganda myth.
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Match. Participants
The match, which is called the "Death Match", took place at the Zenit Stadium (now "Start"). The Kiev team "Start" and the German "Flakelf" took part in the football match.
Flakelf team
Flakelf was the most powerful of the occupying command. It consisted of pilots and anti-aircraft gunners of selected units of the German Air Force "Luftwaffe". The team was supervised by Hermann Goering himself - the right hand of Adolf Hitler. Like Start, Flakelf had only victories.
Start command
At that time, the Dynamo Kiev team, starting from 1936, was a permanent participant in the Soviet championship. In addition, in 1936 the film "Goalkeeper" was released, in which it was Dynamo who were filmed. And as it happens, after the release of the film, as they would say now, the players woke up as movie stars.
According to the poster played for the "Start" team: Trusevich, Klimenko, Sviridovsky, Sukharev, Balakin, Tyutchev, Goncharenko, Chernega, Komarov, Korotkikh, Putistin, Timofeev, Melnik.
Confrontation
1942, August 6 - the stadium was overcrowded. The first meeting of these teams took place and ended in a convincing victory for the Soviet players - 5: 1. Three days later, the invaders assembled a reinforced team for a rematch. The account was opened by the Germans. After that Ivan Kuzmenko equalized the score, and in the first half Makar Goncharenko scored 2 goals.
During a break, a German colonel entered the locker room to the Start players and, threatening with camps and execution, demanded that our players surrender the match. The second half was held in an equal and tough struggle and the Germans still managed to level the score. But then Start was able to snatch the victory 5: 3.
After the game
A whole legend was born about what happened after the match, which for the next decades was the official version - Soviet football players were immediately arrested and shot. This is contradicted by an archive photo, in which the players of both teams are captured in a friendly atmosphere, and the evening after the game, the "starters" spent in their coach's apartment.
The fact that the players survived the game is a fact. Another match - on August 16 they played with the Rukh team. Having won with a crushing score of 8: 0, this game was the last for "Start".
Was there a shooting?
According to some researchers, there was a fact of shooting the players, but, as already mentioned, not after the match. Historians believe that the dark legend about the shooting of Kiev football heroes was needed for Soviet propaganda.
In the USSR, the work of the ideological machine was perfectly adjusted, at the behest of the party, images of heroes were created, such as Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya or Alexander Matrosov … They needed their own heroes-athletes, whose role was perfect for the Start footballers or, judging by the soviet propaganda, Dynamo. Whole generations have been brought up on such examples.
Monument to Dynamo Football Players - participants of the "Death Match".
Firing squad
The shooting of Soviet football players, according to historians, took place a year later, and not at all for winning the match, but for the fact that they, working at bakery number 1, poured broken glass into the flour from which bread was baked for German organizations in Kiev … Trusevich, Klimenko, Kuzmenko and Korotkikh were arrested. It should be noted that of the 16 players of “Start” the fascists shot four participants in the memorable match.
It is necessary to pay attention to this circumstance: all the shot footballers were lieutenants of the NKVD, since the sports society "Dynamo" belonged to this department. The final investigation of this case was completed only in the 2000s. The investigation found that the players were shot by order of the head of the concentration camp, but the reason could not be established.
Thus, most likely, there was no "death match", that is, there was no game in which the players' lives were the stake.
