Dynamo: Defending the Honour of Kiev

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Synopsis

In 1942 at the centre point of World War II an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen. When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept east, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, argaubly the best in Europe before the war. Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery. Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of which the team win handsomely, to such an extent that they inspired Kievan spirits. The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal. Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction and restoring to the centre of World War II a moment of extraordinary poignancy and complex bravery, of which the cliche is demonstrably true: football is not a matter of life or death; it's much more important than that.

Book details

Published
04/03/2002

Publisher
Fourth Estate Ltd

ISBN
9781841153193

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Jacket review

'Just as you think you've read every good book about the war another one is published!I cannot help but think that it would seem wrong to try and forget what happened during the last war until all stories such as this one have been told.' Philip Kerr, Sunday Times 'This is clearly a labour of love.' Independent

UK Kirkus review

In September 1941,after three months of futile resistance, the city of Kiev was surrendered into the hands of the German army. For the next two years the citizens of the Ukrainian capital suffered unimaginable hardship, brutality and slaughter under the Nazi regime. 630,000 soldiers were taken prisoner and more than 33,000 Jews were executed in the first two days of occupation. In the two years that followed, starvation and forced labour, indiscriminate imprisonment and killing were factors of daily life. But amidst the terror a legend emerged of a team of starving footballers who won a remarkable and inspiring propaganda battle, defeating a crack side from the Luftwaffe not once, but twice, and suffering the bitterest of consequences as a result. In this inspiring book, journalist Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind the legend of FC Start - a team made up from former players of Locomotiv and Dynamo Kiev rescued by the manager of a state-run bakery. These footballers would restore Ukrainian pride and provide a small beacon of hope in two matches played during the summer of 1942. A stunning 5-1 victory against Luftwaffe side Flakelf on the 6th August was repeated three days later despite warnings of the direst consequences should the players not allow victory to go to the Germans. Retribution followed. The team were imprisoned at the Sietz deathcamp; four of them were executed. But the might of the Germans had been dealt a blow from the unlikeliest of sources and the nationalist spirit of the Kievans was revived once more. Dougan has done a marvellous job in digging beneath the surface of the FC Start legend to place it in its brutal context and provide details of the skilled and courageous men who put honour before their own lives in the municipal stadium of Kiev. This is not just the story of a football match but also a fine and inspiring history of pride and honour in the face of terrible adversity. (Kirkus UK)