Vsevolod Mikhailovich Bobrov ( rus, Все́волод Миха́йлович Бобро́в, p=ˈfsʲevələd bɐˈbrof; 1 December 1922 – 1 July 1979) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

athlete, who excelled in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

. He is considered one of the best

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

ever in each of those sports. Originally a football player, he played for

CDKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (russian: link=yes, Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English: ...

VVS Moscow VVS Moscow (russian: Военно-Воздушные Силы (Москва) / in English: ''Moscow Military Air Force'') was a Soviet sports club representing the Soviet Air Force. Among the sports the club participated in were football, ice hock ...

, and

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

, and represented the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

internationally at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. After he quit football in 1953 he turned to ice hockey, which he had taken up when it was started in the Soviet Union in 1946. He was one of the first ice hockey players in the Soviet Union, and joined

, playing for them and

before retiring in 1957. A leading scorer in the

Soviet League The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Bobrov was one of three players to average more than two goals per game over their career, with the other two players (

Alexei Guryshev Alexei Mikhailovich Guryshev (russian: Алексей Михайлович Гурышев; b. March 14, 1925 - December 16, 1983) was a Russian ice hockey center. A four-time Soviet all-star, he was the top goal scorer in the Soviet Union five tim ...

and

Viktor Shuvalov Viktor Grigoryevich Shuvalov (russian: Виктор Григорьевич Шувалов; 15 December 1923 – 19 April 2021) was an ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. He was born in the Republic of Mordovia, Russian S ...

) his linemates. Internationally he participated with the Soviet national team at several

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, including their first tournament in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

, as well as the

1956 Winter Olympics The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games ( it, VII Giochi Olimpici invernali) and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 ( lld, Anpezo 1956 or ), was a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from ...

, where the Soviets won the gold medal. After his playing career, Bobrov coached both football and ice hockey. He coached the Soviet national team in ice hockey, most notably during the 1972

Summit Series The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада, Superseriya SSSR — Kanada), or Series of the Century (french: Série du siècle, Séries of the Century), was an eight-game ic ...

against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. A renowned athlete, he was inducted into the

International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Inter ...

when it was founded in 1997. The

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

(KHL), a Russian-based league, has one of its four divisions named after Bobrov.

Early life

Bobrov was born in

Morshansk Morshansk (russian: Морша́нск) is a town in Tambov Oblast, Russia, located on the Tsna River (Oka's basin) north of Tambov. Population: 44,000 (1970). History The exact origins of Morshansk are unknown; however, documents mention ...

on 1 December 1922 and moved to

Sestroretsk Sestroretsk (russian: Сестроре́цк; fi, Siestarjoki; sv, Systerbäck) is a municipal town in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Sestra River an ...

in 1925, along with his parents and two siblings. He first started to skate at the age of 5, and played

from a young age. He left school when he was 13 in order to work in a factory.

Playing career

Football

After serving in the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was invited to play football for the Army club

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

in 1945. That same year, he joined

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

on their 1945 tour of the United Kingdom; he scored 6 of the 19 their goals, and it was on this tour that he saw artificial ice for the first time. Playing until 1953 for CSKA, VVS, and

Spartak Spartak may refer to: In sports *Spartak (sports society), an international fitness and sports society that unites some countries of the former Soviet Union In Russia *FC Spartak Moscow, a football club *FC Spartak Kostroma, a football club *PFC ...

, he would go on to win the Soviet Championship three times, scoring 97 goals in only 116 games. Bobrov led the country in goals in 1945 with 24 and 1947 with 14. Chronic knee problems led to him having surgeries in 1947, 1950, 1952, and 1953, to fix the issue, though it never was resolved. He was capped three times for the Soviet Union national team representing them in the

. He scored five goals in total, including a hat trick against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, though the Soviets lost that match and failed to medal. He was also part of the CDKA team that was disbanded due to this loss, and transferred to

for his final season of football.

Ice hockey

Bobrov began playing ice hockey for CSKA a year after his football start, in 1946. However, due to a knee injury sustained during the football season, he missed the first season. His playing career in this sport lasted until 1957, with the years between 1950 and 1953 spent with VVS. Although football was Bobrov's first sport, his success in ice hockey was even greater. In 1950, a

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

almost killed the entire

team. Bobrov survived the crash as he overslept and travelled by

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

. In the Soviet Championship, which his teams won seven times, Vsevolod scored 254 goals in only 130 games; he is one of three players who averaged more than a goal per game in the Soviet Championship (along with

and

; the three were linemates). He played for the Soviet national team in the

, becoming one of the few athletes to participate in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Bobrov proceeded to lead his country to the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

, and also won the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 1954 and 1956. Overall, he scored 89 goals in 59 games for his country. In Russian ice hockey, his name was given to an exclusive list of players, the ''Bobrov Club'', who scored over 250 goals during their career. Bobrov, who served as a player-coach in both sports during his time with VVS, would go on to coach various teams after retiring as a player in both football and ice hockey. In the latter, he coached the USSR in the

1972 Summit Series The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада, Superseriya SSSR — Kanada), or Series of the Century (french: Série du siècle, Séries of the Century), was an eight-game ic ...

and then led them to the World Championship in 1974 and 1975.

Later life and legacy

Bobrov died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1979. He was elected to the

in 1997, the first year it was created. For the greatest Russian athlete in the 20th century, Bobrov finished third behind football

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Lev Yashin Lev Ivanovich Yashin (russian: Лев Иванович Яшин; 22 October 1929 – 20 March 1990), nicknamed the "Black Spider" or the "Black Panther", was a Soviet professional footballer regarded by many as the greatest goalkeeper in the hi ...

and

Greco-Roman wrestler Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), classic wrestling ( Euro English) or French wrestling (in Russia until 1948) is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first mo ...

Alexander Karelin Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin ( rus, Александр Александрович Карелин, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ kəˈrʲelʲɪn; born 19 September 1967) is a Russian politician and retired athlete. Karelin comp ...

. The

, a Russian-based ice hockey league, has one of its four divisions named after Bobrov.

In popular culture

* The movie

My Best Friend, General Vasili, Son of Joseph Stalin ''My Best Friend, General Vasili, the Son of Joseph Stalin'' (russian: Мой лучший друг генерал Василий, сын Иосифа, Moy luchshiy drug, general Vasiliy, syn Iosifa) is a 1991 film, directed by Viktor Sadovsky and ...

(1991) was inspired by the story of his friendship with

Vasili Stalin Vasily Iosifovich Stalin ( ka, ვასილი იოსების სტალინი, russian: Василий Иосифович Сталин; surname since 9 January 1962 Dzhugashvili, , ; 24 March 1921 – 19 March 1962) was the son ...

* Bobrov is mentioned in the movie

The Death of Stalin ''The Death of Stalin'' is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel ''La Mort de Staline'' (201 ...

References

Bibliography

* * *Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2010). "Ice Hockey: Men". In ''The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition''. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 25.