Early Russian Bandy and Ice Hockey

This page details the early developments of bandy and ice hockey in Russia.

History

Legend has it that medieval Russian monks played a sport somewhat akin to bandy. As the rivers next to their monasteries froze, they supposedly ventured onto the ice with sticks and a ball. It is said that bandy later became popular among the Russian nobility in early 1700s, with the royal court of Peter the Great playing "hockey in skates' on the frozen-over Neva River in Saint Petersburg. Peter himself was also said to be a great enthusiast of the game. The Russians supposedly utilized sticks made out of juniper wood.

Later on Czar Alexander was especially fond of bandy/hockey. Influenced by the British he did play the game with sticks and rubber balls in the 1860s. Soon after British entrepreneurs brought bandy with them to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was a noble game and the entire Royal family were aficionados when it came to skating and bandy. The first public skating rink opened in 1865 at the Yusupov Garden, serving as the home of the first St. Petersburg Skating Club. Bandy games were played on the rink until one of the noble men nearly lost an eye during a game, and the activities were subsequently banned for over 25 years. The royals played at the Winter Palace grounds, located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square.

Although Czar Alexander's son Nicholas II was also a keen bandy enthusiast, it wasn't until the late 1890s that the game was introduced to a wider audience. Soon St. Petersburg emerged as a hot spot for "bandy hockey". They had frequent exchanges with Vyborg (Finland) and other countries. The first game played using official rules was on March 8, 1898 between local St. Petersburg men. They played seven aside, "Black team" against the "White team". It is said that they played nine period like games. The black team won five "games" and the white four. A year later, both the world figure skating champion (Lebedev) and the World speed-skating champion (Pashin) were part of a team that played a game against Scottish cotton mill workers (in St. Petersburg). On March 21, 1899, the Vyborg Sport Club defeated St. Petersburg Eislaufverein 5-4.

The Eislaufverein team of St. Petersburg was one of the best in Europe at the time. They were great skaters. Unfortunately many of the players were killed in the revolution later on. By 1900 there were eight active clubs in St. Petersburg, playing friendly matches against one another. In 1902 the first team was established in Moscow.

In 1903 there was a tournament played in St. Petersburg in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the city, which was attended by St. Petersburg's Eislaufverein (the winner in this competition) and "Sport" (Amateur Sport-Verein), as well as Moscow's "British Sports Club." The St. Petersburg Hockey League was established in 1906. The competition, which continued until 1922, was dominated by St. Petersburg EV (Yusupov Garden). It was replaced by the Petrograd (Leningrad after 1924) Championship, which had previously been staged in 1914 and 1915, in 1923. During the siege of Leningrad, from 1942-1944, the city competition was not played although a championship among military units of the Leningrad garrison was arranged. The city championship resumed in 1945.

The May 4, 1903, edition of the Canadian Peterborough Examiner newspaper reported that a team from St. Petersburg was considering visiting Canada. A copy of the article is below:

"There is a possibility of a Russian hockey team visiting Canada within the next year or two, if negotiations now under way are successfully carried through. This will be interesting news to the hockey loving public of the Dominion, and Canadians will doubtless be pleased to welcome a team from the land of the bear. About two months ago Mr. Louis Rubinstein [of Peterborough] received a letter from Mr. Lebeudff [Lebedev], of St. Petersburg, requesting full particulars as to the playing of the game in this country, and regarding rules, rinks and other features surrounding the sport as played by Canadian teams. Mr. Rubinstein in reply, sent the information desired, and at the same time he mailed to Mr. Lebeudff, a picture of the team, ex-champions of the senior hockey league. On Friday Mr. Rubinstein received an acknowledgment, and enclosed were several interesting souvenirs, one showing a picture of the St. Petersburg players in the heat of a contest, while on an engraved card the names of the officers and players of the club were signed. Mr. Lebeudff thinks that the Canadian game is all right and he intimates that the St. Petersburg seven are anxious to meet our boys at some future date. Mr. Rubinstein believes that such a meeting could be brought about if the different, senior hockey clubs throughout the Dominion would come together and encourage the idea."

The tour never materialized, but it does illustrate that Canadian hockey was already generating interest in Russia. One can only speculate, but had the visit come to fruition, there is a distinct possibility that ice hockey with a puck might have started to catch on in Russia afterwards, more than 40 years before its actual introduction. The history of European hockey could have been much different.

In 1907 "Yusupov Garden" (St. Petersburg EV, also known as the Amateur-Eislauf-Verein) made its first full international tour, playing abroad against teams from Sweden, Norway and Germany. As part of the tour, the club played in an international tournament in Stockholm, defeating Officernas HK 7:3, IFK Stockholm 4:2, and tying IFK Uppsala 4-4. "Yusupov Garden" won the King of Sweden Cup.

By 1908, there were already more than a dozen hockey teams in Moscow. Regular games between the teams in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Petrograd, Leningrad) began the same year, which continued intermittently until 1941 (the last game was played Jan. 22, 1941) began the same year. Until 1923 the games were dominated by St. Petersburg (Petrograd), from 1923-1931 the teams enjoyed varying success, and in 1931 the Moscow team won all the games.

In 1910 the cities of St. Petersburg and Helsingfors (Helsinki) behalf of the Russian Empire participated, together with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, participated in the creation of the "Northern Alliance Bandy Federation".

A year later, Russia joined the IIHF (founded in 1908), which was responsible for governing the sport known as "ice hockey" or "Canadian hockey." The game with a puck did not catch on Russia and the country later withdrew from the federation.

In 1911 the Moscow Hockey League was established and regular championships began in the city. Union Moscow, Sokolniki Sports Club, and the Moscow River Yacht Club dominated the early years of the competition. The last season of the Moscow Hockey League was 1922. In 1923 the organizer of the competition became the Moscow Provincial Council of Physical Culture (MGFSK). Later, the Moscow Championship was held under the aegis of provincial, regional and city councils trade unions (MGRSPU and IGSPA), and then the Moscow Ice Hockey Federation.

In February 1914 the Russian Hockey Union, which united 34 clubs from 6 cities, was established. By this time there were competitions in place in Riga and Revel (Tallinn). Tournaments were held in Novgorod and Vladivostok ("AI Egon Cup"). In 1915, the first women's tournament was held in Russia. It was also decided to hold the first All-Russian Championship in the 1914-15, at however these plans were interrupted by World War I.

Official regional competitions were not held in those days. Clubs from the suburbs of Moscow and Petrograd were admitted to the city championships in both capitals. Representatives of the neighboring provinces of Moscow met regularly with the Muscovites and Novgorodians and repeatedly played with the Petrograders. In January 1917, there was a friendly match teams between teams from Kazan and Samara. Little is known about the competitions played during the Civil War. Only the magazine "Russian sport" reported matches in Petrograd (1918), Moscow and Saratov (1919).

The first RSFSR Championship was held in 1922. It was attended by Moscow (winning the tournament),Tver, Saratov, Nikolayev and Kharkov (curiously, Nikolaev and Kharkov where located in Ukraine). Hockey with a puck had previously been played in Kharkov with the first matches taking place in 1912 and 1913. In 1924, city championships were held in Arkhangelsk, Nikolaev and for the first time with the participation of five teams in Novonikolaevsk. The creation of the provincial, regional and city councils of Physical Culture in 1924 contributed to the wider dissemination of hockey. In 1925 the first competitions in Perm, Serpukhov, Smolensk, Sychovka (Smolensk Province.) and Drigo were organized. For the first time since 1917 play resumed in Kazan. In 1926, the first competition was held in Petrozavodsk and in 1927 in Kremenchug. An Ural Championship was held in 1927 and 1928.

On February 13, 1927, an RSFSR representative team played a Swedish side in Leningrad, which it defeated 11:0 (five goals were scored by Muscovite Vladimir Mikhailov), despite the fact that the game was conducted by "Scandinavian" rules, which were somewhat different from the Russian rules of the time.

Championships in provinces, territories and regions in the second half of the 1920s and the early 1930s were difficult to arrange both for financial reasons and because of the fact that the subjects of the Russian Federation at that time were very large. From 1925-1930, the Siberian region covered the whole of Eastern and Western Siberia. Founded in 1929, the Moscow region then included almost the entire territory of modern Ryazan and Tula regions, and partly the Vladimir, Kaluga and Tver regions. In this regard, the teams close to major cities participated in the championships of these cities. So, for example, Moscow's championship featured teams from Bolshevo, Lyubertsy, Mytishchi, and Reutov.

In 1928 the first championship of the USSR was staged, which was attended by the national teams of the Union republics, Moscow and Leningrad (the latter became the first champion of the USSR). The Soviet national bandy team was formed the same year, which debuted in February in Norway at the International Workers Olympiad, and then played friendlies in Norway and Finland.

The first official regional tournament among the teams of Siberian region was held in 1928. The following year, a similar competition was held in Khabarovsk. In 1933, the the championship of the Moscow Region was held for the first time. A significant downsizing of the RSFSR in 1935-1938, made it possible to hold championships in more territories and regions.

In the 1930s, bandy continued to develop actively. In 1935, there were city championships played in Voronezh, Dnepropetrovsk, Minsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Stalingrad. In 1931, the first championship was played in Vitebsk, in 1934 the first tournament in Ulyanovsk took place, and in 1938 - in Salekhard and Frunze. By the end of the 1930s, bandy had been cultivated in almost all regions of the country, where it is allowed to climatic conditions, and virtually all of them held city championships. In Ukraine and Belarus Republic Championships were formed.

In 1936 the first USSR Bandy Club Championship was staged, and the first champion of the country was Dynamo Moscow. The second championship was not played until 1950, but since then the USSR Championship (now Championship of Russia) in bandy has been held annually. From 1937-1941, 1945-1954 and in 1983 the USSR Cup in bandy was played.

After the end of World War I the city, regional and republic competitions gradually resumed. The Moscow region championship was restarted in 1946 and the Kiev, Minsk and Kharkov were staged a year later. In 1948, the championship of Alma-Ata was held, which was supplemented by the Cup of the Kazakh SSR. Bandy competitions were also played in Latvia (mainly in Riga) and Estonia (mostly in Tallinn). Some bandy began to be played in Armenia in 1949. A local Yerevan Championship was held and the game was also played in Leninakan (today Gyumri). This lasted until the late 1950s when the weather conditions permitted. In 1949, the championships were played in Artemovsk, Zhitomir, Rostov-on-Don, Smolensk, Sumy, and Taganrog.

Ice hockey began making inroads into the Soviet Union during the 1930s and the first Soviet Championship in ice hockey was staged in 1946. The Soviet Union soon became a world hockey power. Meanwhile on the bandy front, in 1955 the Soviet Union, along with Norway, Sweden and Finland, codified the rules of bandy, which was the final step in the divergence of the sport and ice hockey.

Despite the development of hockey in the 1950s, Russian hockey (bandy) remained popular. In the city and regional competitions, more teams participated than in ice hockey. However, during the 1960s, the number of teams playing at the "local level" decreased significantly. Nevertheless, urban and regional competitions in the 1960s-1980s still took place in most regions of the RSFSR. In the other Soviet republics hockey became more popular and only in Kazakhstan, were there municipal and regional competitions and a Republican championship held annually until 1991. In the 1980s bandy championships were played in the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Kyrgyz SSRs, but their level was low. Bandy practically ceased in Latvia and Estonia, and the warming of the climate made ​​it impossible to play in the the Astrakhan, Volgograd, and Rostov regions.

After 1991 urban and regional competitions were no longer held in some regions. In 1997 the last championship of St. Petersburg was staged, and this soon happened in Moscow, Samara, and some other regions as well. At the same time, thanks to the support of local authorities enthusiasts in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and several other Russian regions, regional competitions are still held. Bandy is still very popular in Russia today, but ice hockey has more of a following nationally.

Results

Ural Championship winners

• 1927: Sverdlovsk
• 1928: Sverdlovsk
• 1935: Sverdlovsk

Sverdlovsk Regional Championship winners (pre-1950)

• 1936: Uralmash (Sverdlovsk)
• 1937: unknown
• 1938: unknown
• 1939: Dynamo (Sverdlovsk)
• 1940: Uralmash (Sverdlovsk)
• 1941-1946: not played
• 1947: Metallurg (Nizhny Tagil)
• 1948: Metallurg (Nizhny Tagil)
• 1949: NTRP (Pervouralsk)
• 1950: Metallurg (Revda)

Moscow Hockey League winners (1911-1922)

• 1911: Union Moscow
• 1912: Moscow River Yacht Club
• 1913: Sports Club Sokolniki
• 1914: Sports Club Sokolniki
• 1915: Union Moscow
• 1916: Union Moscow and Novogireevo (teams were level on points and a tiebreaker match could not be arranged due to thaw)
• 1917: Moscow River Yacht Club
• 1918: no championship
• 1919: Moscow River Yacht Club
• 1922: Moscow River Yacht Club

Moscow Championship winners (1923-1950)

• 1923: Krasnyi Luch (Red Ray)
• 1924: Krasnyi Luch
• 1925: Central House of Physical Culture
• 1926: Sakharniki and Central House of Physical Culture (teams won separate groups and tied 1:1 in the final)
• 1927: Pishevik
• 1928: Pishevik
• 1929: RCIMA
• 1930: Dynamo
• 1931: Dynamo
• 1932: Union of Cooperation and State Trade (SKIG) and Dynamo (teams were level on points and a tiebreaker match could not be arranged due to thaw)
• 1933: Union of Cooperation and State Trade (SKIG)
• 1934: Dynamo
• 1935: Dynamo
• 1936: Dynamo
• 1937: Dynamo
• 1938: Dynamo
• 1939: Dynamo
• 1940: CDKA
• 1941: Torpedo
• 1942: Spartak-1
• 1943: CDKA
• 1944: Krylya Sovetov
• 1945: Dynamo
• 1946: CDKA
• 1947: Spartak
• 1948: Dynamo
• 1949: Dynamo
• 1950: Dynamo

Moscow Cup winners (1939-1950)

• 1939: Torpedo
• 1940: Dynamo
• 1941: Dynamo
• 1942: CDKA
• 1943: not played
• 1944: Dynamo
• 1945: CDKA
• 1946: CDKA
• 1947: Dynamo
• 1948: Dynamo
• 1949: Dynamo
• 1950: Dynamo

Moscow Regional Championship winners (1933-1950)

• 1933: Tula
• 1934: unknown (championship contested by teams from engineering plants)
• 1935: unknown (championship contested by trade union teams)
• 1936: Yagoda TK Bolshev
• 1937: Yagoda TK Bolshev
• 1938:"Sniper" Krasnogorsk
• 1939:"Azot" Elektrostal
• 1940:"Metalist" Bolshevo
• 1946:"Selmash" Lyubertsy
• 1947:"Tractor" Lyubertsy
• 1948:"Tractor" Lyubertsy
• 1949:"Zenith" Kaliningrad
• 1950:"Chemist" Nut-Zuevo

St. Petersburg 200th Anniversary Tournament winners (1903-1912)

• 1903: St. Petersburg EV
• 1904: St. Petersburg EV
• 1905: St. Petersburg EV
• 1906: St. Petersburg EV
• 1907: St. Petersburg AEV (formerly EV)
• 1908: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1909: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1910: not contested
• 1911: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1912: St. Petersburg AEV

St. Petersburg Hockey League winners (1906-1922)

• 1906: St. Petersburg EV
• 1907: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1908: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1909: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1910: Narva Sport-Club
• 1911: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1912: St. Petersburg AEV
• 1913: Narva Sport-Club
• 1914: Narva Sport-Club
• 1915: HC Neva
• 1916: Yusupov Garden (St. Petersburg AEV)
• 1917: Yusupov Garden
• 1918: Putilovsky
• 1919-1921: no championship
• 1922: Yusupov Garden

St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad Championship winners (1914-1950)

• 1914: Narva Sport-Club
• 1915: Yusupov Garden
• 1916-1922: no championship
• 1923: Sport
• 1924: Lolbeck (formerly Yusupov Garden)
• 1925: Central District A (formerly Lolbeck)
• 1926: Petrograd District B (formerly Central District A)
• 1927: Petrograd RSK
• 1928: Pishchevkus (formerly Petrograd RSK)
• 1929: Pishchevkus
• 1930: Red Putilovets
• 1931: Uritsky (formerly Pishchevkus)
• 1932: Red Putilovets
• 1933: Red Putilovets
• 1934: Red Putilovets
• 1935: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1936: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1937: Spartak and GOLIFK Leningrad shared the title
• 1938: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1939: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1940: Kirovsky Leningrad
• 1941: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1942-44: not played
• 1945: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1946: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1947: Dynamo Leningrad
• 1948: Kirov LDO
• 1949: Kirov LDO
• 1950: Kirov LDO

Cup of the Championship (Moscow vs. St. Petersburg) (1911-1915)

• 1911: St. Petersburg
• 1912: St. Petersburg
• 1913: St. Petersburg
• 1914: St. Petersburg
• 1915: Petrograd (St. Petersburg)

RSFSR Championship winners (1922-1934)

• 1922: Moscow
• 1924: Leningrad
• 1926: Leningrad
• 1927: Leningrad
• 1928: Leningrad
• 1932: Moscow
• 1933: Samara
• 1934: Moscow

USSR Championship winners (1928-1933)

• 1928: Leningrad
• 1933: Moscow

Soviet Cup winners (pre-1946)

• 1937: Dynamo Moscow
• 1938: Dynamo Moscow
• 1939: CDKA Moscow
• 1940: Dynamo Moscow
• 1941: Dynamo Moscow
• 1945: CDKA Moscow
• 1946: CDKA Moscow
• 1947: Dynamo Moscow
• 1948: Dynamo Moscow
• 1949: Dynamo Moscow
• 1950: Dynamo Moscow

Soviet Bandy Premier League

• 1936: Dynamo Moscow
• 1937-1949: not played
• 1950: SKA Sverdlovsk

Photographs

See: Early Russian Photos.

References

Soviet bandy seasons (1921-1950)
1921-22 - 1922-23 - 1923-24 - 1924-25 - 1925-26 - 1926-27 - 1927-28 - 1928-29 - 1929-30 - 1930-31 - 1931-32 - 1932-33 - 1933-34 - 1934-35 - 1935-36 - 1936-37 - 1937-38 - 1938-39 - 1939-40 - 1940-41 - 1941-42 - 1942-43 - 1943-44 - 1944-45 - 1945-46 - 1946-47 - 1947-48 - 1948-49 - 1949-50