One month before Euro 2012 kicks off, a film has been released that showcases an infamous football victory that took place in Kyiv.
On Aug. 9, 1942, a Soviet side defeated a team of soldiers from the occupying Nazi Germans in what later became known as the “Death Match.”
The name comes from the Soviet legend that emerged following the game – that the Germans, after losing 5-3, shot the Soviet team. The new movie, which claims to be based on real events, follows that interpretation.
But historians have long doubted this version of events, suggesting that it is a myth dreamt up by Soviet authorities to bring pride in people’s heroism and fighting spirit in repelling the Nazi invaders.
The film, which is called “The Match” and is in cinemas from May 1, is presented as a “historical patriotic drama.”
The main character, goalkeeper Nikolai Ranevich (Sergey Bezrukov), and his beloved Anna (Liza Boyarskaya) are trying to survive in Nazi-occupied Kyiv. Their future depended on the result of the match between a team of Kyivan bakery workers, many of whom were former Dynamo Kyiv players, in a team called Start against Flakelf, made up of German pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.
“You should let in as many goals as we will tell you,” a Nazi in the movie threatens Ranevich on the eve of the match. “Otherwise – death.” “There are things worth dying for,” the player says during the game.
This historical photo shows the German and Soviet teams smiling together after their match on Aug. 9, 1942. It is a major piece of evidence that the so-called “Death Match” – which, according to Soviet legend, led to the killing of four players – is a myth. The players from Kyiv’s Start team are in red shirts. (www.otechestvo.org.ua)
The character is based on Dynamo Kyiv goalkeeper Mykola Trusevych, who took part in the game and was later among the more than 100,000 victims shot in the massacre at Babyn Yar. The closing titles read that a few days after the match, the goalkeeper and several other footballers were detained and later killed.
In the years after the war, this story of heroic resistance was embellished by Soviet authorities in order to lift the spirits of people rebuilding the state after devastating years of war.
Most researchers agree that the first mention of Dynamo players shot in Babyn Yar after the match appeared in local press in 1943. The name “Death Match” appeared three years later, in 1946, when a novel by Alexander Borshchahovsky with the same title was published in a Soviet newspaper.
Further novels followed, and the legend reached its apogee in 1962 when a movie called “Third Time” was shot. Millions of Soviet viewers watched the bloody story of cruel Nazi forces making Dynamo players pay for the victory with their lives. Soviet writer Anatoly Kuznetsov tried to tell the truth in his 1966 book “Babyn Yar.” He mentioned that former Dynamo footballers played several matches against the Nazis and other teams in the summer of 1942.
But the authorities continued to push the myth, posthumously awarding Mykola Korotkykh, Mykola Trusevych, Ivan Kuzmenko and Oleksiy Klymenko, four players killed in the war, with medals for courage in 1964. Six more players were awarded medals for merit in battle that year.
A monument in honor of the Dynamo players was unveiled in 1971 next to the Dynamo stadium in Kyiv. A sculpture followed in 1981 near the Zenit stadium, now called Start, where the match took place.
The truth about the match started to be revealed only after the Soviet Union collapsed.
In 1992, Makar Honcharenko, one of the participants of the match, opened up about the match shortly before his death. He said that the German referee did come into the changing room before the game, but didn’t make any threats.
“I am a referee of the today meeting,” Honcharenko recalled him saying in Russian. “I know that you are a very good team. I would ask you to follow the rules and to greet your competitors in a proper way before the game.”
Eyewitnesses described how the Soviet footballers cried “Fizkult-privet,” the traditional Soviet sport greeting, instead of the anticipated “Heil, Hitler!”
They were not detained following the match and in fact celebrated their victory and peacefully went home.
In 2002, Vladlen Putistin, son of player Mykhaylo Putistin, also talked to journalists and for the first time showed a photo of Ukrainian and German footballers taken after the match.
Footballers from both teams can be clearly seen in the photo standing close to each other and smiling.
A bill advertising the legendary match in Kyiv.
“Nobody came into their dressing room during the game. Moreover, nobody threatened our footballers,” said Putistin, whose father survived the war.
Vladlen was eight years old on the day of the match, where he worked as a ball boy.
Putistin, now 77, said he remembers the day and everything his late father told him about the match.
Ukrainian footballers “did not expect they would be detained,” he told the Kyiv Post. A few days after the match, nine footballers who worked at the bakery were detained. Putistin said he thought it was because Dynamo used to be the team of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.
Kyiv historian Vitaly Hedz said the most likely version is that they were arrested – along with many other bakery workers – for putting broken glass into bread intended for Nazi officers.
Mykola Korotkykh was arrested separately and questioned by Gestapo. He soon died in custody. The Nazi police found a photo of him in an NKVD officer’s uniform and he was also a member of the Communist Party.
One of the arrested players was released, while the rest were sent to Syrets concentration camp near Babyn Yar. On February 24, 1943, six months after the game, three footballers – Mykola Trusevych, Ivan Kuzmenko and Oleksiy Klymenko – were shot. The others managed to escape.
“Trusevych, Klymenko and Kuzmenko died when mass shootings started in Syrets camp due to the escape of some convicts,” Honcharenko said. “They, I repeat, were shot much later, in 1943. Though all books say it was in 1942.”
The screenplay for “The Match” was rewritten several times. However, that did not prevent controversy.
The Ukrainian State Film Agency hesitated earlier this month whether to give the movie by Russian director Andrey Maklyukov a distribution permit. The agency cited not the lack of historical accuracy, but that the negative description of Germans in the movie could spark violence among fans during the upcoming football championship. Another reason was apparently that the Ukrainian-speaking characters in the movie were shown as collaborators and traitors, which could be offensive for some Ukrainian viewers.
But officials eventually gave the film the green light.
Critics, however, say the film is a new Russian propaganda movie, aimed at emphasizing Ukraine and Russia’s shared historical ties and joint opposition against Germany.
“We believe a movie about winning spirit is needed in our country,” the movie’s official website reads. “’The Match’ is a movie about all of us and about our common Motherland.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
