How the USSR national team won the World Hockey Championship in 1954

In March 1954, in Stockholm, the USSR national team won the World Ice Hockey Championship for the first time. The tournament was the debut for the Soviet team; some players had been playing hockey for less than seven years. Despite their inexperience, they made it to the finals and defeated the Canadians there too. How this unexpected triumph was described by the media of that time – in the Kommersant material.

Sports experts considered the Canadian team, which had won 15 of the 20 previous championships, to be the main favorite of the 1954 World Cup. Believing in their victory, the Canadians did not even call up players from the NHL and sent amateurs from the East York Lyndhursts team instead of professionals.

“The Canadian team was the only one that studiously avoided observing its opponents in the first matches. The Canadians were completely absent from the stadium when others were playing” (from a note by Svenska Dagbladet, March 1954).

The USSR team came to the World Ice Hockey Championship for the first time; previously bandy was more developed in the country. At the start of the tournament, foreigners wrote about Soviet “old-fashioned skates and shabby equipment,” but soon switched to sports victories. During the tournament, hockey players from the USSR won matches with teams from six countries, tied with Sweden and reached the final with Canada.

“Our first acquaintance with Russian hockey players poses a question: how could they get such a good school in such a short time? After all, they have only been playing hockey for seven years. But when it comes to Russian sports, nothing comes as a surprise” (from a note by Svenska Dagbladet, March 1954).

Along with the World Champion Cup, the European Champion Cup was also played. Before the final match, the situation looked like this: if the USSR team wins the tournament, it will automatically receive the World and European Cups, and if it loses, a separate match will be organized between the USSR and Sweden for the Old World Cup. Despite a good start, few believed that the newcomers would win, so tickets for the match for the European Champion’s Cup began to be sold even before the final was played.

“The USSR team had an excellent first performance in the World Hockey Championship. Before the final game, hardly anyone doubted that Canada would certainly win, and the teams of the USSR and Sweden would meet again and compete for the title of European champion. But the Soviet team destroyed all these hopes. How could this happen? The reason is that the Russian team is the best right now. The Russians won first place thanks to their speed and teamwork” (from a note by Dagens Nyheter, March 1954).

In the final, the USSR national team defeated the Canadians and won the World Ice Hockey Championship for the first time.

“Swift in attack and strong in defense, the Soviet team won the World Hockey Championship, defeating a popular but nervous Canadian team 7-2 in front of 17,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium” (from The New York Times, March 7, 1954 of the year).

“The crowded stadium witnessed how a newcomer to the world of ice hockey, the USSR, behaved with hockey players from Canada like schoolchildren. Never before has anyone played ice hockey as wonderfully as the USSR did in the match against Canada” (from a note by Morgenprosten, March 1954).

Some Canadian publications called the USSR’s victory a “vodka victory” and recalled that Canadians had previously lost at the World Championships only three times.

“Russia defeated East York with a score of 7:2 and won the world hockey tournament. 16,725 people watched Toronto lose… In 19 tournaments, Canadians lost the world title only three times. The last time Canada was beaten was by Czechoslovakia in 1949; before that, Canada was beaten by the teams of Great Britain and the United States. No Canadian team has ever finished lower than second place” (from the Montreal Gazette, March 8, 1954).

The Canadians tried to find someone to blame for the sensational loss. Most often they named judges and sports officials.

“A few months ago, the Swedes tried to hint to us that a team that cannot regularly win in the Canadian B League is not good enough to field against the much-transformed Russians. Players from the UK and Norway also tried to warn us. But we turned out to be too arrogant: no one dares advise us what to do with the game we invented” (from a Toronto Daily Star, March 1954).

“Russians are not supermen, says the president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association… European teams get away with interference and forceful moves on the legs, which are not allowed by the rules in Canada… There is no justification for anti-Canadian sentiment in the Swedish press, the Canadians are competently prepared and played well” (from Winnipeg Tribune notes, March 10, 1954).

Some publications named the federal government as the culprit and hinted that hockey would henceforth become a tool of Soviet propaganda.

“In a sporting sense, this is a national disaster and, of course, a national insult, a humiliating experience, which will also allow Russia to shout about its sporting achievements from another rostrum” (from a Montreal Herald note, March 1954).

“Soviet propagandists celebrate hockey triumph. Canada ‘Humiliated’ by the Reds…Russia won 7-2 in Stockholm yesterday to achieve what officials believe will be a notable propaganda victory. Off the record, they called it “sad” that the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association didn’t send a stronger team to Stockholm when national prestige was at stake. But what happened depended solely on the functionaries of amateur hockey, and the federal government does not help the team, which plays in the colors of the Canadian flag, either financially or in any other way… The federal government has been repeatedly asked to assist in international sporting events, but has always received the answer that governments have no place in sports… Russian athletes are supported by the state and one way or another receive salaries from the government. The Kremlin strives to show itself and does everything for the sake of real results, and not to show off dust. Don’t forget about it from now on” (from Ottawa Citizen, March 8, 1954).

The Soviet press also noted the state’s contribution.

“The anthem of the Soviet Union sounds solemnly. The USSR State Flag rises above the stadium. The winning Soviet team is awarded two silver cups – the World Champion Cup and the European Ice Hockey Champion Cup for 1954″ (from a note in Izvestia, March 8, 1954).

“Ice hockey is one of the youngest sports in our country. Just seven years ago, Muscovites saw this game for the first time. This year, Soviet hockey players competed for the first time in official international competitions and immediately gained fame as the strongest of the strongest… Only the Swedes managed to draw with our team… The hockey players of the Soviet Union dedicated their victory at the Royal Stadium in Stockholm to the upcoming elections to the Supreme Council of the USSR, because with all their Soviet athletes owe their remarkable achievements to the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, who tirelessly care about the development of physical culture and sports in our country.” (from the note “Soviet Sport”, March 9, 1954).

“You’re going to have to change your mindset that hockey is your Canadian game. Looks like she might be Russian, doesn’t it?” (comment from the Soviet embassy in Canada from a note by the Ottawa Citizen, March 8, 1954).

Ignat Vorontsov