Tarasov is the national team coach. Anatoly Tarasov

December 10 is the birthday of the great coach, with whom the history of Russian hockey began.

They treat him differently. Those who had the opportunity to train and play under his leadership speak differently about him today. And even those who have never seen him. Such is the strength of his personality, Tarasov can evoke any feelings except indifference. But one thing remains unchanged: he is the coach who made our hockey, raised it to unprecedented heights, and set standards that we still measure against today.

First European inducted into the Toronto Hall of Fame

I remember how in the early 1990s Anatoly Tarasov came to the CSKA Sports Palace on Leningradsky Prospekt. With a stick. “He showed up without getting dusty,” the “well-wishers” hissed after him. The great coach was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Toronto 20 years ago. The Canadians immortalized him immediately after leaving big hockey, in 1974. The first of the Europeans. And it was only in the spring of 2005 that a bust of Tarasov was opened on the Alley of Army Glory, which is on the territory of the CSKA sports complex.

Thanks to the film “Legend No. 17,” which told the younger generation about Tarasov, brilliantly played by Oleg Menshikov. The film is fictional, in it the coach was credited with a lot of things that he had nothing to do with. For example, to the vertical take-off of Valery Kharlamov. Anatoly Vladimirovich did not see a future star in him, so he sent him to Chebarkul, where unpromising players were exiled so that they would not go to CSKA’s competitors.

However, this incident in no way diminishes the greatness of Tarasov.

“He was ahead of his time by at least a quarter of a century,” admitted the famous Spartak player Alexander Yakushev, who had reasons to be offended by the coach.

Bowman himself appreciated him

Tarasov never hung barn locks on the doors during training.

“I loved coming to Anatoly Vladimirovich’s classes,” recalled Vladimir Yurzinov. “Oh, Volodya, well done for coming,” Tarasov greeted me. And his “soldiers” were angry: “What are you doing? Now Taras will start chasing us.” And sure enough, the training continued encore, at increased speeds, with songs and dances.

And what interesting training Tarasov conducted, trying not to repeat himself in the exercises.

“He was constantly inventing something, it was useless to argue with him, but my friend Vladimir Petrov argued and trained his widow more than us, and that’s why he grew into such a master,” said the captain of CSKA and the USSR national team Boris Mikhailov.

Once, during a national team training session, young Evgeny Zimin grabbed Alexander Ragulin’s silver “pancake” and was stunned - the disc turned out to be wooden. Tarasov, of course, knew about this, but did not show it. Nature generously endowed the hero-defender with strength, so there was no point in increasing it.

Tarasov knew how to “cut meat.” He excommunicated Evgeniy Mayorov from the national team, for violating the regime - the famous defender Ivan Tregubov, at the age of 27 he “removed from the run” the center forward of the “academics” strike line Alexander Almetov, and then Viktor Polupanov. I broke up with goalkeeper Nikolai Puchkov because he read Canadian books and admired the founders of hockey.

Tarasov understood perfectly well that copying the Canadians was a road to nowhere; in order to defeat them, he had to form his own original style.

Subsequently, the Tarasov method was adopted by the coach of the American Olympic champions Lake Placid, Herb Brooks, and the coach of the Canadian national team from the WHA, Bill Harris. And Scotty Bowman wore the gloves donated by Tarasov to holes, and was very upset when he lost them.

Tarasov "system"

Tarasov was considered an unsurpassed designer of great units. Boris Loktev - Almetov - Veniamin Alexandrov, Vladimir Vikulov - Viktor Polupanov - Anatoly Firsov, Mikhailov - Vladimir Petrov - Kharlamov, Vyacheslav Anisin - Yuri Lebedev - Alexander Bodunov, Vikulov - Viktor Zhluktov - Boris Alexandrov.

There was a lot of debate about Tarasov’s know-how called “system”. This was the name of the five, consisting of a defender-stopper, two midfielders and two strikers. At the Olympic Grenoble 1968 and Sapporo 1972, the hockey world saw the triumph of the “system”, the important mechanisms of which were Ragulin, Kharlamov and Firsov.

Tarasov left CSKA three times and returned twice. His appearance on the army bench in the third period of the second final match of the European Cup lifted the army out of the trenches. The red-blues lost to Spartak 3:5 and scored five goals in a row. Soon Anatoly Vladimirovich replaced Boris Kulagin at the helm and led the team, which was 10 points behind the leading Dynamo, to another championship.

On May 11, 1969, in a derby with Spartak, Tarasov took his fighters to the locker room and, as a sign of protest after Petrov’s disallowed goal, did not allow them to return to the ice for about 40 minutes. And he did this only after an urgent request from Leonid Brezhnev’s assistant, the leader of the party, the state and the country’s main fan. For this demarche, Tarasov was deprived of the title of Honored Coach of the USSR, but was soon returned.

From the 1963 World Cup to the 1972 Olympic Games, the team led by the tandem Tarasov - Arkady Chernyshev did not know defeat in official tournaments. The departure of the winning coaches after the Games in Sapporo is still in the fog. Anatoly Vladimirovich’s widow, Nina Grigorievna, believed that the reason for the resignation was the coaches’ reluctance to play a draw with the Czechs in the last match of the Olympic tournament. In this case, our partners in the socialist camp would have won silver. But our team won confidently and pushed the Czechs back to third place.

Tennis “steering wheel” for the 50th anniversary

Tarasov wanted to return and offered to help his replacement in the national team, Vsevolod Bobrov, before the 1972 Super Series.

“Nowadays in Rus' they don’t bottle it for three people anymore,” answered Bobrov.

In 1974, Anatoly Vladimirovich left big hockey. He coached the football team CSKA for one season and offered the leather ball masters something other than aerobic exercise. Several of his charges broke their collarbones at once. And the 1970 national champion Vladimir Dudarenko was expelled for... loss of appetite.

On December 12, 1968, the army team “congratulated” their coach on his 50th anniversary with a 0:6 defeat from Avtomobilist. In his native palace on Leningradka. This sensation is still considered the main one in the history of Soviet hockey. Tarasov found the strength to enter the opponents' locker room and congratulate them on their historic victory.

20 years later, the author of these lines attended a modest celebration of the coach on his 70th birthday. In Luzhniki, the USSR national team completed the Izvestia Prize with a match against the Czechs. Before the match, Tarasov addressed our guys with a fiery speech (he was a distinguished speaker), and greeted his opponents with a polite nod of his head. We defeated the Czechs 6:1. The hero of the day was beaming with happiness...

DOSSIER
Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov
Born on December 10, 1918 in Moscow. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Trainer of the USSR.
Hockey career: 1946-1947 – Air Force MVO (playing coach), 1947-1953. – CDKA (playing coach), 1953-1974. – CDKA, CDSA, CSK MO, CSKA (senior coach).
Achievements: three-time Olympic champion, nine-time world champion, 18-time USSR champion.

Hockey is a popular and favorite game among the Russian people, which takes second place after football. A battle on ice is an interesting spectacle. The CSKA hockey team reached enormous heights during the existence of the USSR. Her coach was Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov. This is a famous hockey player and football player, candidate of pedagogical sciences, master of sports of the Soviet Union.

Some facts from the life of Anatoly Tarasov

The honored coach was born in Moscow in 1918 and died in the same city in 1995.

The biography of Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov is very fascinating, full of bright moments, victories and defeats.

His mother worked in a garment factory and raised two sons. Anatoly lost his father at the age of 9, from that moment he became the eldest man of the family. The Tarasovs lived near the Dynamo sports complex. Mom took her sons to study at the “Young Dynamo” school. Just a few years later, Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov began to lead the youth bandy team, and then the Moscow city team.

He studied at a comprehensive school for seven years and graduated from a vocational school. At the age of 19, at the insistence of “Young Dynamo”, he entered the Higher School of Coaches. At the age of 22, the already famous football player of the Odessa Dynamo team was a striker. When the Great Patriotic War ended, he was given the honorary title of senior major. He joined the coaching staff of the football and hockey teams of the Air Force club.

Life after the war

In 1946-1947, Anatoly Tarasov became the playing coach of CDKA. In these difficult times, the team was a leader and took first place at the USSR championships.

Anatoly Vladimirovich told how they trained persistently and hard at night: from 24 hours to 6. This was the country’s first artificial ice measuring 120 square meters. Previously, players did not think about training in comfortable conditions or getting paid to win, but only practiced hockey and improved their techniques.

The biography of Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov is filled with successes and failures in his coaching career. In Soviet times, politicians dictated their terms or demands even in sports. And Tarasov was rebellious, harsh and brave. This man had his own opinion and was used to listening only to him. These qualities led the coach to expulsion from hockey.

Since 1958, Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov trained with the USSR national team. After a couple of years of his work, the team became the European hockey champion. But one day the country’s political leadership ordered to play a “draw” with the Czechoslovaks. They wanted to help a friendly state take second place. But the USSR team defeated the opponent with a score of 5:2. In other words, Tarasov refused to follow the instructions of the management and for this he was removed from his position as coach.

World and Olympic champions

An outstanding person, Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov, successfully led the CSKA team from 1947 to 1975. He was a player-coach. He played one hundred matches on the ice in the USSR championships and scored one hundred and six goals. By example, he showed and taught his subordinates how to behave in battle. Coach Anatoly Tarasov always tried to bring his team into the lead, and he succeeded. Under his clear leadership, CSKA became the gold medalist at the USSR Championship eighteen times. Anatoly Vladimirovich was a wise and prudent coach. And this did not go unnoticed by higher authorities.

In 1957, Tarasov was awarded the title of Honored Trainer of the Soviet Union. A year later he headed the USSR national team. It was a responsible and honorable job. For fourteen years, Anatoly Vladimirovich led the team and achieved stunning results. The USSR national team won the world championships nine times and was the champion of the Olympic Games three times. The teams entrusted to this talented coach have achieved enormous heights.

Contribution to domestic hockey

Students of Anatoly Tarasov have repeatedly become world and Olympic champions. These are famous hockey players: Firsov and Almetov, Petrov and Kharlamov, Tretyak and Loktev, Ragulin and Almetov, Alexandrov and Mikhailov, as well as many others.

Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov was a candidate of pedagogical sciences. He left a huge mark on the development of domestic hockey. His works and achievements are still remembered by his students and other Russian athletes.

But the honored coach made a significant contribution not only to domestic sports, but also to the world. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Tarasov is the father of Russian hockey. He made the USSR national team the strongest and leading force in international ice battles.

Player Guide

Unsurpassed skill and invaluable experience were described in the books “Hockey

the future" and "Hockey Tactics" by Anatoly Tarasov. Even today they are popular and are the guide for many famous players.

The books clearly describe defense and attack tactics, in particular individual, team and group actions. Tarasov argued that any movements of an individual hockey player (goalie, forward, defenseman) should be based on his physical and technical preparation. A player’s ability to think tactically on the ice also plays an important role.

The coach developed a whole scheme for organizing the actions of the whole team. Each hockey player has his own purpose and important role in different areas of the rink. If you adhere to the developed system, effective and complex combinations are sure to follow. For example, entering the offensive zone or leaving the defensive zone, playing back opponents or actions along the boards.

Family of a famous trainer

In 1939, Anatoly Tarasov married a sweet girl named Nina. She, like the athlete, studied at the Higher School of Coaches. On February 13, 1947, a daughter, Tatyana, was born into their family. Her father himself trained her on the ice. Already in the early fifties, the girl confidently stood on skates.

After many years, Tatyana Tarasova became wonderful and famous. Just like Anatoly Vladimirovich, she raised a large number of world champions.

The Tarasov family survived the terrible war years, but still remained united and inseparable!

HOCKEY

Did Anatoly Tarasov want to play with Canadian professionals?

Stanislav Gridasov claims that - no

The film “Legend No. 17” in the handsome face of the actor Menshikov cemented the image of Tarasov as a man who spent almost his entire hockey life on playing with NHL professionals. And only the constant machinations of cowardly Soviet functionaries prevented his dream from being realized. The 1972 Super Series between the USSR national team and the NHL team, which Tarasov suffered through, took place without his participation. After another victory of the Soviet team at the 1972 Olympics, Arkady Chernyshev and Anatoly Tarasov were basely suspended from work.

This story, told many times by Tarasov himself and his students, shown in fiction and documentary series, is rooted in the mass consciousness as firmly and reliably as a nail driven in to the very top.

Many witnesses claim the opposite - it was Tarasov who, until the very last day of work in the national team, strongly opposed the idea of ​​​​playing with professionals. In the official biography of Tarasov, which was recently published in the series “The Life of Remarkable People,” the famous journalist Alexander Gorbunov devoted an entire chapter to protecting his hero from the attacks of intruders. It's called "Gagarin's Protection". This is how he does it.

Moscow, publishing house "Young Guard", 2015

So, the chapter begins in February 1964 in the government Reception House on the Lenin Hills, where the top party leadership hosted a banquet for Soviet Olympians who had just returned from Innsbruck, Austria. At the banquet there is plenty of drink, the leader of the Soviet state Nikita Khrushchev has already slammed too many, and Tarasov decides to take this opportunity to get Khrushchev's approval for matches with NHL professionals.

GORBUNOV:“And then, in February, Tarasov encouraged Chernyshev to turn directly to Khrushchev to get his blessing to hold matches with Canadian professionals. In those days, there were international rules according to which a hockey player who played even one minute against a pro would not then have the right to participate in the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Having planned a trip to the head of state, Tarasov and Chernyshev calculated everything. They were sure that it was possible to create two teams in the country, one of which would play at the Olympics. But the other, having played matches with professionals, would continue to compete at the world championships. Both coaches were firmly convinced: it was time to go pro(Here and below, the bold font is mine. Note St.G.)».

GRIDASOV: Everything about this fragment is terribly interesting. First of all, in those years the Olympic Games were not separated from the World Championships - it was one tournament. For example, at the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Soviet hockey players simultaneously became both Olympic champions and world champions. The Olympic Games and World Championships were first separated in 1972. How it was legally possible to create two teams of the Soviet Union that would compete in the same tournament, the author does not specify, but rather does not even think about it, completely trusting his hero.

No less interesting is the legal quandary cited here - disqualification for “one minute against the pros.” Canadians easily circumvented the IOC ban on the participation of professionals in international competitions. Back at the 1958 World Cup, for example, the 33-year-old right winger played for the Canadian national team Sid Smith. He won the Lady Byng Trophy twice, played in the NHL All-Star Game six times, won the Stanley Cup four times with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and did this for the first time when his Soviet opponents were just beginning to get acquainted with “Canadian” hockey . Smith started the 1957/58 season in the NHL, with Toronto, and deliberately lowered his status to amateur in order to get the opportunity to play at the World Championship.

There was a 26-year-old striker in the same lineup Connie Broden, winner of the Stanley Cup as part of the Montreal Canadiens, who in the 1957/58 season became an “amateur”, joining the Whitby Dunlops team, and immediately after the end of the World Cup - victorious for the Canadians - he returned to Montreal and played in playoffs The Canadiens then won their third Stanley Cup in a row.

At the 1964 Olympics, one of the leading defenders of the Canadian team was the 20-year-old Rod Saling- a graduate of the Toronto Maple Leafs youth team, who has already spent “at least one minute” in the Olympic season and one NHL game with Toronto. He would later become famous with the New York Rangers and play for the NHL team in the 1972 Super Series.

And the Canadians regularly resorted to similar methods of strengthening their team.

Team Canada at the 1964 Olympics

And now about the most important thing, about the confidence of Arkady Chernyshev and Anatoly Tarasov that in 1964 it was time to go to the professionals. This “confidence” was probably invented by Tarasov after the fact. Professionals in their field, Chernyshev and Tarasov, could not help but understand that banquet evening that it was too early to play against teams from the NHL of the Soviet national team.

Let me briefly remind you: after the first victories won at the 1954 World Championships and the 1956 Olympics, a change of generations began in the USSR national team, the senior coach was replaced (Tarasov was appointed instead of Chernyshev), and the Canadians radically changed the principle of forming their teams (see above) . The USSR national team (under Chernyshev) lost the 1957 home world championship; under Tarasov, it lost three tournaments in a row, including the 1960 Olympics (). At the 1961 World Championships (with Chernyshev returning to the team, but still without Tarasov), we took third place. The 1962 World Cup was missed for political reasons. And only at the 1963 World Championships, seven years later, they returned to first place again, and not to say very confidently. We were ahead of the silver medalist, the Swedish team, only in terms of the best goal difference, and we lost to them in a head-to-head match with a score of 1:2. The Czechoslovakians and Canadians were defeated with difficulty - with a difference of two goals.

The 1964 Olympics, although victorious, also did not yet give Khrushchev any reason to boast about his quick victory over the professionals. The Soviet team defeated the young Canadian national team with a score of 3:2 (losing 1:2 by the middle of the match). It was a tough fight with the Czechoslovakians with a lot of deletions – 7:5. We put the finishing touches on the Swedes only in the third period – 4:2.

By this February evening in 1964, the matured USSR national team was already winning, but not yet completely dominating world amateur hockey.

1957 Canadian newspaper cartoon

GORBUNOV:“Looking around the hall, Tarasov realized who could help him. Gagarin! The first cosmonaut attended hockey players’ training sessions and once spent an evening with them, celebrating the end of the season at the dacha they rented in Snegiri. Gagarin immediately said to Tarasov: “Let’s go.”

GRIDASOV. The story of how Tarasov persuaded Yuri Gagarin to approach Khrushchev to demand a meeting with Canadian professionals is known only from the words of Tarasov and his students, who know it from the words of Tarasov. Tarasov then allegedly extracted official permission from the General Secretary. However, not a single document, not a single testimony, not a single publication in the press tells us that having received the highest permission, Tarasov himself or the hockey officials began to implement this project. Which is strange. With such risk, with such difficulty, to break through to the leader, get the “okay” from him - and then do nothing at all.

The history of negotiations on holding the 1972 Super Series is described in hockey literature in some detail, including by the direct participants in these negotiations. As you know, they began in 1969.

From 1964 to 1969, not a single attempt was recorded to conduct such a series. Only the stories of Tarasov himself and his extremely loyal biographers. At the same time, in Tarasov’s own books, written in the second half of the 1960s, the topic of a hypothetical meeting with Canadian professionals appears only after 1967 (I will explain why this is so later).

As additional argumentation, Alexander Gorbunov cites an interview with Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev given to Elena Vaitsekhovskaya in 1996. However, if you read it in full, and not judge only by individual quotes given in the book, you can see that the elderly Yakovlev, one of the main “creators of perestroika,” was very careful in his statements about events that either happened or didn’t 32 years ago.

“She came from sports figures. First of all, from Anatoly Tarasov and Arkady Chernyshev. Both were terribly ambitious, especially Tarasov. And, apparently, they could not come to terms with the fact that Soviet hockey players, on the one hand, were deservedly considered the strongest, and on the other, the sphere of their dominance was limited to Europe. And at some point, any hockey conversations at the executive level began to invariably boil down to the fact that the time had come to fight the Canadians.”

Alexander Yakovlev

Please note: Yakovlev does not in any way confirm the fact of the conversation between Khrushchev and Tarasov, which is not surprising. His rise up the party ladder began after the resignation of Nikita Sergeevich, when the new Secretary General Brezhnev appointed Yakovlev in 1965 as first deputy head of the propaganda department. Until this moment, Yakovlev was a modest clerk in the Central Committee apparatus. Pay attention to the phrase “at some point.” This “some moment” coincides precisely with the time when, by the end of the 1960s, the USSR national team won seven consecutive victories at the Olympics and World Championships, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association entered into a serious conflict with the International Hockey Federation and real negotiations began on a meeting two of the strongest hockey powers in the world, and Yakovlev himself was already as close as possible to these negotiations.

From this moment on, he speaks more confidently in an interview: “Tarasov, it seemed to me, was afraid. But not the matches themselves, but the fact that the team will not have time to properly prepare for them. He constantly kept the leadership of the sports committee in suspense so that not a single detail was missed. And the most consistent supporter of the idea of ​​matches was, perhaps, Nikolai Ozerov. He constantly came to the Central Committee. I even remember his words: “I have seen Canadians more than once. They play brilliantly, but they are not gods. Our team is quite capable of winning. Although it will be very difficult..."

A fragment of the interview about Ozerov, as you understand, was not included in the book.

And in 1964, Tarasov really got to Khrushchev. Eyewitnesses said that they shared a glass and did not even discuss hockey. Anatoly Vladimirovich invented everything else - later. And he was happy to talk about “Gagarin’s patronage” to the hockey players of CSKA and the national team.

GORBUNOV:“On December 15, 1965, a match took place between the Soviet national team and the Montreal Canadiens youth team, reinforced five from the main team and legendary goalkeeper Jacques Plante. “At that time,” Tarasov wrote, “we had confidence that we could challenge the professionals.”

GRIDASOV: Here, of course, again there is a factual and possibly intentional error. When necessary, Tarasov liked to exaggerate the strength of his opponents. Who are these five from the main roster of the terrible Montreal Canadiens? In fact, these were five hockey players - graduates of the Canadiens system, who played that season for the Houston Apollos, an underdog in the Central Hockey League. 23 year old striker Norm Dennis, who will debut in the NHL three years later in the 1968/69 season (2 matches for St. Louis, 12 matches in his NHL career), and has never played for the main team of Montreal, either before or after. It is he who will score the winning goal against Victor Zinger in the 60th minute and bring victory with a score of 2:1 to the team Montreal Junior Canadiens. He was assisted by a 22-year-old Bill Inglis(he will make his NHL debut in the 1967/68 season as part of the Los Angeles Kings) and 22-year-old Andre Boudria. He actually played in the NHL for the Canadiens (4 games in the 1963/64 season and 1 in the 1965/66 season), and would later make a good career in the league, playing for Minnesota, Chicago, St. -Louis" and "Vancouver".

Two more - 26-year-old defender Noel Picard(16 games for the Canadiens the season before) and a 28-year-old defenseman Jean Gaultier(one full season with the Canadiens – 1962/63 – 65 matches, 1 goal + 17 assists).

I – 36-year-old goalkeeper-legend Jacques Plante, who, however, has already left professional hockey and is not playing for any team this season, except for veterans.

This victory of Canadian juniors (among whom was a 19-year-old Serge Savard, a future participant in the 1972 Super Series) over the experienced Soviet team in Montreal was considered a huge sensation. Tarasov, as we see, experienced the opposite feelings (if we believe his later memories) and was again ready to challenge the professionals.

This declared “confidence” appears in Tarasov in different books in different circumstances and after different matches, but always in hindsight, in stories. When the real opportunity comes to play with real professionals, Tarasov will retreat.

In the 1964–65 season, Jacques Plante played 33 games for the Rangers, after which he did not play professional hockey for two years.

GORBUNOV:“At the end of 1969, the Soviet team, touring Canada and the USA, ended up in Colorado Springs. Representatives of the Toronto Maple Leafs club appeared at the team's location and offered to play three matches. The first thing Tarasov and Chernyshev did was gather the hockey players and ask: “What will we do?” The answer was unanimous: “Play!” The coaches went to the head of the delegation, talked about the proposal they had received and the desire - of the coaches and hockey players - to play matches. The manager only had to call Moscow and try to convince his superiors to agree to these games.”

GRIDASOV: The author of "ZhZL", which by its genre should not be a retelling of the hero's old books alone, but contain a lot of additional and critically comprehended information, continues within the framework of one chapter to prove how Tarasov was eager to play with Canadian professionals, however, even here a fairy-tale story came out. Firstly, all foreign trips of Soviet teams, all matches, all conditions of the series, right down to the last payment check, were discussed with the organizers in advance. Alexander Gorbunov, who worked for many years as an international journalist at TASS, should know this system very well. And as the author of a documentary study, he could go into the reading room of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and read how such approvals took place. For example, correspondence about the first ever Super Series between the USSR national team and amateur teams from Canada lasted for many months in 1957. And for almost a month, the Canadian side persuaded the Soviet side to postpone the date of arrival and the first meeting, explaining that the Maple Leaf Gardens palace was scheduled minute by minute - when there was hockey, when there was a figure skating show, when there were other performances. And so, as part of a pre-agreed series, “representatives of Toronto just like that, without a contract, without taking into account the busyness of the palace, without taking into account the game schedule, offer to play three additional matches, and not simple, but historical ones - with a team from the NHL? Well, let's go not to the archive, but at least to Wikipedia.

But first, a little more tediousness. “Toronto representatives did not need to go to Colorado Springs, since the December 1969 series took place only in Canada, including Toronto. You yourself can evaluate a) the density of the schedule, b) the results of the series, c) the readiness at that time of the first (adult, national) USSR team to play with the best Canadian professionals. In this series, her opponent was the “national” (and in fact, the youth, student) team of Canada.

December 17 - victory in Winnipeg 5:3, December 19 - defeat in Winnipeg 3:4, December 20 - victory in Vancouver 9:3, December 21 - defeat in Victoria 1:5, December 23 and 24 - two victories over semi- amateur clubs from the Ontario Association, December 26 - Toronto, again a match against the Canadian national team and a 2:3 defeat, and the series ends on December 29 with a defeat from the Montreal Canadiens youth team with a score of 3:9. Several future participants of the 1972 Super Series played for the Montreal juniors at that time: for example, 21-year-old defender Guy Lapointe and 19-year-old striker Gilbert Perrault.

Now let’s look at the schedule of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who played 12 road games in the NHL from December 10 to January 4.

For the 1967 World Championship, the Canadians, tired of losing, decided to “naturalize”, that is, temporarily give amateur status, to the NHL star 29-year-old defenseman Carl Brewer- three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the first (in 1963) and second (in 1962 and 1965) top five NHL players. The championship, held in Vienna, is considered a benchmark for Soviet hockey players of that generation - our team won seven victories in seven matches with a total score of 58:9, including over the Canadians. Tarasov was extremely proud that he was able to beat a team that included the best goalie in amateur hockey, Seth Martin, and two real professionals - Brewer (Tarasov called him “Brever”) and another defender Jack Bowness. Bowness, however, was already 37 years old, and he played only 80 games in the NHL, the last one in the 1961/62 season. It was after 1967 that in Tarasov’s book “Coming of Age” the thesis about the possibility of victory over teams from the NHL, even over the Montreal Canadiens, first appears. Tarasov even allowed himself to laugh at “Brever” (in the photo on the right he is being consoled by Boris Mayorov) and his “outdated” style of playing.

Our team defeated the Canadian national team with a score of 2:1, losing 0:1 after the first period. In the 30th minute, Anatoly Firsov equalized the score with a curious shot (on the photo on the left is goalkeeper Seth Martin after this “butterfly”). In the 51st minute, Vyacheslav Starshinov brought victory to the Soviet team.

The 1970 World Championship was planned to be held in Canada, in Winnipeg and Montreal, and the utterly humiliated founders of hockey (the last “gold” in 1961) began to demand access to international competitions for at least nine real professionals from the NHL, and not just temporary replacements your status to amateur. In front of their audience, the Canadians really did not want to lose another championship. At the congress of the International Hockey Federation, the representative of the Soviet Union, Andrei Vasilyevich Starovoitov, voted against this decision. According to the memoirs of Vsevolod Kukushkin, who then worked as Starovoytov’s personal translator, on the eve of the congress he consulted with Chernyshev and Tarasov. The coaches of the USSR national team said “no” to the participation of professionals.

Canada refused both the World Cup and the participation of its team in it: this boycott would last until 1977. This peak moment, at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, oddly enough, accelerated negotiations on holding the 1972 Super Series.

Many authoritative journalists of that time, close to both the coaching staff and sports management, wrote about Tarasov’s reluctance to play with professionals, but I would not simplify this feeling to primitive fear. Rather, it was a stormy mixture of admiration for the NHL, the desire to become the first coach in the world to defeat an NHL team, and, of course, the fear of defeat. And also a sober calculation: it was much easier to defeat amateurs and get material benefits for it.

Alexander Gorbunov gives the following quote in the book: “Dmitry Ryzhkov, a Soviet hockey journalist from the “first row,” wrote - without, however, confirming his opinion in any way - that “the duo of coaches of the USSR national team - Arkady Chernyshev and Anatoly Tarasov - went into battle with professionals didn’t rush.” At the same time, Ryzhkov argued that “talks about meetings of the Soviet national team with professionals began to arise in the early 70s.”

Mocking Tarasov’s opponents, Gorbunov also cites the following fact: “In January 1970, in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Tarasov published an article “Is this hockey?”, in which he criticized the interpretation of the game by NHL clubs, that is, in the midst of negotiations on the Super Series and at the time of the decision to admit professionals to the 1970 World Championships. Note –St.G>. The coach was immediately credited with something he did not say: Tarasov, they say, said that Soviet hockey could well exist and develop successfully without matches with teams from the overseas league; it means he was afraid to play with them.”

And concluding the chapter, he writes that “there are more reasons, I think, to say the opposite: it was the Canadians, having learned about the departure of two “monster coaches” from the national team (they were especially afraid of Tarasov), immediately agreed to hold the long-awaited meetings and forced the signing of the agreement. Why not assume that the Canadian side was delaying the negotiations, if not insisting, then hinting at the need for changes in the coaching staff of the USSR national team?

Let me allow myself one more factual edit. The fact that the 1968–1972 Olympic cycle would be the last in the career of the coaching tandem Chernyshev - Tarasov was known well in advance, and their voluntary (at their own request) resignation did not affect the course of negotiations with the Canadian side in any way. At the 1972 Olympics, the entire Soviet team already knew that it was holding the last tournament under the leadership of this tandem, and the new head coach Vsevolod Bobrov and his assistants were already sitting in the stands. He will lead the USSR national team on September 2, 1972 to the first ever match with professionals. According to legend, when the contract for the Super Series was signed, Chernyshev said to Tarasov: “Well, we are fools for leaving at such a moment.”

In this article we will talk about the biography and personal life of Anatoly Tarasov, who was born in the capital of our country. In 1918, on the tenth of December, Anatoly was born, and at that time his parents could not yet imagine that their son would become such a famous person.

When the young man graduated from the seventh grade, he decided to enter a vocational school, where he mastered a new profession for himself: a toolmaker.

When his training was completed, the young man tried his best to help his family, for this reason he worked in his profession, and also managed to study at the famous hockey club called “Dynamo”. It’s worth telling a little more about the biography, personal life, children (photo biography and personal life) of Anatoly Tarasov, so that fans can learn more about this great man.

Information about biography and professional achievements

In 1937, the young man was able to take up sports more professionally, for this reason he entered the Higher School of Coaches, where he was taught the necessary knowledge and skills by the best teachers; this educational institution was organized at the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture.

Since the young man at that time already had some practical knowledge of the game, he also wanted to learn something from theory in order to apply his knowledge in the game.

Just a couple of years later, the young man was invited to become a coach at one of the fairly famous football clubs “Dynamo”, which was located in Odessa. Already at such a young age, the young man was able to attract a lot of attention from more famous coaches and athletes; people often wanted to know more about the biography and family of Anatoly Tarasov.

Many managers noted that this man was different from other trainers, since at the age of twenty he had very distinctive and outstanding abilities.

When a long war began, the man tried to stay in the barracks located in Moscow, as he wanted to see his loved ones more often and be close. In those days, the young man was trained in hand-to-hand combat, and then his detachment was stationed as guards at the central house of the Soviet army. When the war ended, the young man’s family was allocated a separate room in a communal apartment, and almost immediately after that, a great army football coach named V. Arkadyev recommended that Tarasov be enrolled in the Air Force Moscow Military District sports club.

Anatoly Tarasov in his youth

The first season of the championship, in which the USSR hockey team participated, was not as successful as desired, and the team took only fifth place, but at the same time Tarasov himself also played along with his hockey players and personally scored fourteen goals, for which many called a sniper. Thus, Anatoly showed himself as an athlete and a coach at the same time. Just a few years later, the young man was able to train his team so that it became a permanent presence on the leaderboard. A little later, the young man was enrolled in CDKA as a playing coach, today this team is called CSKA, and here all the coaches remembered Anatoly as the best theoretician, and the players invited their coach to play with them. At that time, the biography, personal life and children of Anatoly Tarasov were very vigorously discussed on television; biography photos often flashed on the air, because the man had achieved enormous success.

When the young man’s career was just beginning, he was able to coach the Moscow national team, which later formed the USSR hockey team. At that time, the national team was supposed to take part in a game against Czechoslovakia, so it turned out that until Anatoly was appointed head coach of this team, he also acted as a player and could coach the teams. While working with the team, Tarasov’s teams were able to win with a score of 6:3, and from 1948 to 1950, the athlete received the title of champion of the Soviet Union three times. Also in 1949, the man received his award as Master of Sports of the Soviet Union.

Anatoly Tarasov - famous coach, sports legend

The man personally played on his team, for this reason he could show by his own example exactly how to perform maneuvers and bypass his opponents; he was excellent at showing his skills to his players. Many players claim that Tarasov was always quite strict and took the game very seriously; he directed his team only to win. If you look at the video recordings of each championship or game, you can see that the man was very emotional and anxious about the dangerous moments concerning his team, he was sincerely worried and successfully achieved his victory. Although there were cases when he left quite difficult moments of the game without his attention at all, he treated them as calmly as possible. During the times of the Soviet Union, one can count exactly one hundred matches won in which Anatoly played, and during all this time it was he who was able to score 106 winning goals against the enemy.

When the team was renamed CSKA, Tarasov also remained its coach; it was he who was the head coach of this team until 1975, and for almost thirty years Anatoly worked with his players. During this time, the man tried to devote himself as much as possible to the profession and helped his students adopt their skills. It was under his leadership that the team became the winner of the championships of the Soviet Union for several years in a row, and the team was awarded nearly eighteen gold medals.

Anatoly Tarasov - a sports legend

In 1957, Tarasov was awarded the title of Honored Coach of the Soviet Union, and already in 1958 the man was invited to become the head coach of the USSR national team; it was with Tarasov that the team won the championships nine times. In addition, Anatoly prepared his athletes to participate in the Olympic Games, where the team received their gold three times. Many famous hockey players today became his students; together with Tarasov they followed their own path to success and fame. At that time, the biography, personal life and children of Anatoly Tarasov in the photo were increasingly discussed in newspapers and on television, the man had many admirers and admirers.

Many people know that in the 1972 Olympic Games the Soviet Union team was able to get their long-awaited victory, but when the competition was over, Tarasov and Chernyshov decided to leave their post. The whole point was that the leadership from above demanded to play a draw with the Czechs, but Tarasov’s team won with a score of 5:2, the victory was crushing, but the authorities did not approve of Anatoly’s behavior. Since the coach was able to lead his team to victory, he should have been officially and solemnly presented with the Order of Lenin, but they refused to hold this ceremony.

At one time, the man was also able to defend his dissertation, which allowed him to become a candidate of pedagogical sciences. Many still remember this great man, because his contribution to the development of domestic hockey is truly invaluable. Not only famous hockey players speak positively about him, but also many coaches who are at least a little familiar with the biography, personal life and children of Anatoly Tarasov. Unfortunately, the man died in 1995, but no one in hockey has forgotten about this great coach.

Personal life of a famous trainer

Of course, many people even today want to know who Anatoly Tarasov was; Wikipedia tells quite a lot about the personal life of this man, but the family is still intertwined with the work of this man. When the young man completed his first studies at higher school, very important changes began to occur in his personal life. It was at this time that the young man met the girl Nina, they had an affair and Anatoly married his beloved. The wedding was not magnificent; the newlyweds only had a modest dinner in one of the Soviet canteens, which was opened at the institute.

Since the young man’s career was in full swing, the lovers could not spare even a couple of days for their honeymoon, for this reason Anatoly, this evening after registering the marriage, went to Odessa, where he was supposed to play for the team of a football club called “Dynamo” "

The young people did not inform anyone about the wedding; even the parents of the young man and girl found out about this event only after the couple signed. Relatives did not interfere with the marriage and did not object, since the young people were old enough to make such a decision. Tarasov didn’t even give his wife an engagement ring, but still did it for the “golden” wedding.

The young wife saw Anatoly quite rarely, only when the athlete came to Moscow for various matches.

The biography and family of Anatoly Tarasov in the photo began to be discussed more vigorously after his great success and fame, but big events happened not only in sports, because Nina gave birth to Anatoly two beautiful daughters. The girls were named Galina and Tatyana. Tanya decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and also started playing sports, and after some time the girl became a very famous figure skating coach. The man tried to raise his children correctly, every morning he got them out of bed and sent them outside to do exercises, while Galina was not happy with this method, but Tatyana enjoyed the training.

When the girl was only five years old, Anatoly decided to send her to figure skating, which helped Tatyana achieve such success in her career. The girls saw their father quite rarely; their development and upbringing was mainly done by their mother; their grandmothers and girls lived far away, so all worries fell on the shoulders of Nina, who was a wonderful wife and mother. As Tatyana herself says, her father always told her to write down her invented movements and practice her technique down to the smallest detail; today the girl is an excellent trainer, and she is sure that she owes it all to her father.

Anatoly devoted most of his time to the younger generation, the man very often came to Artek to speak to the pioneers, he talked a lot about exactly how hockey players train, and the man also tried to instill a love of sports in young people. If you believe the words of those who studied with this great coach, then Anatoly was very tough and strict, but it was precisely thanks to this approach to his work that he turned out to be an excellent teacher. Many of his students achieved excellent success in sports and are grateful to Tarasov for this. In just a couple of years of working with the new team, the coach made champions out of his athletes who could take their gold and take only first places.

According to known data, the wife of the great coach died in 2010, and her daughter Galina, who worked as a teacher, also died, but one year earlier than her mother. Galina has a son who often talks about his grandfather, as Alexey says, Anatoly Tarasov has always been a rather strict and tough person, this manifested itself not only in work, but also in the family.

Biography and episodes of life Anatoly Tarasov. When born and died Anatoly Tarasov, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Coach Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Anatoly Tarasov:

born December 10, 1918, died June 23, 1995

Epitaph

“Here you go on the ice,
And you are reflected in it,
And your heart sings
And the ice burns with fire.
You just chose hockey
He became your destiny
And the role of ice fields...
Your path is marked by struggle."
From Oleg Gazmanov’s song dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the birth of coach Tarasov

“Still, being a coach is a blessing.”
From the book “Coming of Age” by Anatoly Tarasov

Biography

Under the leadership of honored coach Anatoly Tarasov, the USSR national hockey team held the lead in all international championships for nine years. The experience of a talented coach today is reflected in dozens of books about hockey tactics and the organization of team play. His name is among the first in the Hockey Hall of Fame of the International Hockey Federation. During his lifetime, Anatoly Tarasov was dubbed the “father of Russian hockey,” and this glory will remain with him forever.

Anatoly fell in love with sports since childhood, so when it came to choosing a profession, the decision was obvious: he entered the Higher School of Coaches in Moscow. Anatoly sought to immediately transform the acquired knowledge into skills, experimenting with new techniques on himself. By the way, Tarasov was not only a talented coach, but also a strong player. So, as part of the CSKA team, Anatoly played about 100 games and scored 109 goals. But he achieved even greater success as a coach, allowing the Soviet national team to collect almost all existing titles and awards.

Tarasov's life was cut short at the age of 76 due to an absurd accident. During the collection of tests, a fatal infection entered his blood, which was the cause of Tarasov’s death. The next day he fell ill, and two days later he suffered a stroke. The great coach died in the hospital. Tarasov's funeral took place at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

Life line

December 10, 1918 Date of birth of Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov.
1937 The young man enters the Higher School of Coaches at the Moscow Institute of Physical Education.
1947 Tarasov heads the Air Force football club.
1958 Anatoly becomes the senior coach of the USSR national ice hockey team.
1974 The great Soviet coach was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
June 23, 1995 Date of death of Tarasov.

Memorable places

1. The city of Moscow, where Anatoly Tarasov was born and lived.
2. Higher School of Coaches, where Tarasov studied.
3. Vagankovskoe cemetery, where Tarasov is buried.
4. CSKA Sports Glory Walk, where a monument to Tarasov was erected.

Episodes of life

Anatoly Tarasov was a very talented coach and had a creative approach to his work. Once, to strengthen the morale of the Soviet hockey team, he forced the guys to jump from a tower into a pool. But the players were no slouch and first asked the coach to show how it was done. Tarasov was very afraid of heights, but he climbed up the tower and still jumped, although he splashed onto the water with his stomach. But he showed character. After that, the guys had no choice.

In 2011, in St. Petersburg, on the initiative of the hockey federation, a tournament for the Anatoly Tarasov Memorial Cup was held. Almost two dozen teams from Russia and Lithuania took part in the competition.

Covenant

“You should never stop in sports. When the opponents are equal, the result may be random. You have to be a cut above. Only then can you suppress, defeat, destroy any opponent.”

A story about Anatoly Tarasov from the series “How the idols left”

Condolences

“Now you come to Vagankovo, and Tolya has fresh roses on his grave. Someone remembers..."
Nina Tarasova, wife

“He was a very difficult, tough coach. Tarasov broke people, but with this breaking, he actually knew how to create unique characters.”
Alexander Gomelsky, coach