When FC Dynamo Kyiv defeated the Nazis – The Death Match

It is a sobering thought that in today’s world of manufactured overpaid pampered football players, there is a little known tale of how a small group of ordinary men took on, and beat the Nazi’s in a game of football, then paid the ultimate price with their lives. It is a tale of courage that shows how football can bond the spirit of a nation, and elevate it above just a mere game.

By the late 1930’s, FC Dynamo Kyiv was the Soviet Union’s greatest football team. In June 1941 the league season was dramatically suspended when Operation Barbarossa saw German troops invade Ukraine. The city of Kiev was in the grip of a Nazi regime intent on destroying the spirit of a Ukrainian people who had suffered for years under Stalin.
In 1942, when Ukraine was fully occupied by German troops, the Dynamo players were reunited under the unlikeliest of circumstances. In a bid to endear themselves to the citizens of Kiev, and to stamp their superiority, the Nazi overlords decided to hold a football competition. Amongst several teams who entered were a group of ex- Dynamo Kiev players who called themselves Start FC.
 In fact, they were an unfit and disorganised bunch of players  brought together by a sports-mad bakery manager, Iosif Kordik. The charismatic Dynamo goalkeeper called Nikolai Trusevich was the first player Kordik made contact with. Trusevich then tracked down some of his former team-mates, including two exceptional strikers Ivan Kuzmenko and Pavel Komorov, and a young gifted defender called Alexei Klimenko.



FC Start 1941

Despite the lack of training facilities (they swept the bakery yard by day and trained on it at night) the team beat all there domestic rivals and captured the hearts of the local people by playing with the style that had graced the pre-war Dynamo side.
On Friday 17th July 1942, Start FC was invited to play a German Military side called PGS. The well fed better prepared PGS team were expected to win with ease, but PGS underestimated the spirit and skill of the Start team and the German team were convincingly beaten 6-0.
The Nazi command was shocked and humiliated, a re-match was hastily organised between Start FC and an unbeaten team of players from officers of the German Luftwaffe called Flakelf.
This time there could be no defeat for the Nazi’s, the so called “master race” could not be seen to be vulnerable and the Nazi propaganda machine swung into action convinced their team could not be beaten. But once again the Nazi’s had underestimated their opponents and on Thursday August 6th 1942 the malnourished and ill equipped Ukrainian team beat Flakelf 5-1. Despite the wide pre-match publicity for the game the German regime suppressed the result and it was never allowed to be reported.
The defeat sent shock waves through the German administration. Not only was this an affront to all that the Nazi occupation stood for, but it also served to inspire the Ukrainian people and undermine the German occupation.
A re-match was scheduled just three days later on Sunday 9th August at the Zenit stadium. The German administration could not, and would not, tolerate another defeat by a team who they perceived to be inferior. German sources warned FC Start that they were expected to lose, or face dire consequences. The Nazi’s appointed an SS officer as referee and the Ukrainian team were made aware that he would be biased against them. The  referee entered the Start FC changing room before the match. He told them they would be expected to give the Nazi salute and shout “Heil Hitler” before the game started as a mark of respect to the German’s.

Poster for FC Start v Flakelf

The tired malnourished team from Start FC should have felt isolated and defeated before a ball had even been kicked. Yet somewhere inside themselves an  act of defiance that embodied the spirit of the Ukrainian people gave them strength for one last effort. As they lined up at the start of the game, each player partially raised his arm, before patriotically thumping it back into his chest and shouting “FitxcultHura”, which roughly translates to “long live sport”.
As expected, the German team set about attempting to kick and injure the FC Start players whilst the German referee blatantly ignored the violent and foul play. The German team targeted the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevych . Eventually, after a sustained barrage of physical challenges, he conceded a goal after being kicked in the head by a Flakelf striker. Despite the blatant violence the FC Start team knew they could not allow themselves to complain or retaliate. To do so would mean certain dismissal and certain victory for the German team. Gradually,  Start FC asserted themselves and mid-way through the first half were rewarded with a goal scored from a long distance free kick by Kuzmenko. By the time half time arrived the heroic Ukrainian team had added two more goals and entered the break at 3-1 up.
One can only imagine the feeling of elation tempered with the dawning reality of their enormous act of defiance. The German occupiers were not best pleased and an SS officer was dispatched to the FC Start changing room with a simple message. They were either to lose the match or face dire consequences.
What the SS officer failed to notice was that he was not just addressing a football team, but a group of men who had come to symbolise resistance to the German occupation. In this moment here was a group of players who carried the spirit and hope of all of the ordinary citizens of Kiev, and they played not for themselves but for the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people.
The second half was played out against a back drop of fear and barely concealed loathing for their opponents. Both teams scored twice more as the game drifted inexorably to an end.  But just before the game ended there was one final act of humiliation for the German’s. Alexei Klimenko, a defender, got the ball, beat the entire Flakelf defence, rounded the keeper then stopped the ball on the goal line. Klimenko then turned around and kicked the ball back up the pitch, spurning the chance to score. The Nazi’s were furious. This was more than a sporting loss, this was utter humiliation. They had been comprehensively beaten and outclassed by a team who were malnourished and exhausted from six games in less than a month. The so called “master race” had been humbled by the courage and determination of a small group of Ukrainian footballers.
The Nazi regime incensed and humiliated made good their threat of retribution.
A few days later the Gestapo visited the bakery in Degtyarevskaya street where most of the team worked. The names of the players were called out and they were taken away by the Gestapo and interrogated. They were tortured, tormented and forced into an admission of sedition. Finally they were sent to the Siratz death camp where they worked in inhuman conditions awaiting their fate.

What happened next was to finally cement the memory of this team firmly into the history of legends.

It has to be said it is not entirely clear of the exact events that took place within the Siratz death camp, but what we are certain of is the tragic fate of three of the players. Alexei Klimenko, the player who humiliated the German team by refusing to score, the striker Ivan Kuzmenko  and the charismatic goalkeeper Nikolai Truse were shot by the Nazi’s one-by-one standing in line. But even at their death there was one final act of defiance. Lined up and with their backs to the Nazi soldiers, each man waited for the footsteps from behind him. Nikolai Trusevich, who more than anyone else had symbolised the teams courage and resistance, listened with fear and trepidation to the footsteps crunching through the snow towards him. The butt of the rifle thudded into his skull and Nikolai dropped to the ground. Incredibly he sprang back to his feet with all the agility that had made him the greatest goalkeeper in the USSR. In the last moment before the bullet struck him he shouted  “ krasny sport ne umriot” meaning“red sport will never die”. He died not on his knees but on his feet wearing his familiar black and red goalkeeping jersey.

It is staggering to think that this little known episode in footballing history passed almost unnoticed, that is until you delve a little deeper. After the liberation of Kiev the few remaining players who had survived kept silent. They lived in fear of being accused as German sympathisers and so they went to ground. Furthermore, the story was later buried by the Stalin regime. It was politically explosive at the time as the USSR had taken to playing in a German football league. It was not until 1962 that the soviet propaganda machine used a film called Trity Taime to re-tell the story of the “death match”. It became an exaggerated tale extolling the heroic and courageous acts of communism, which ensured this story would remain the stuff of anecdotes and folklore which now blur the line between myth and fact.
The story also inspired two more films: the 1961 Hungarian film "Két félidő a pokolban" and the 1981 American film “Escape to Victory”.

What this should be remembered for is very simple. The men of Start FC remind us of what football should really mean to us all. It is not just all about the money and self-adulation, but it is about courage, pride and sacrifice. It shows us that not just football, but sport in general can galvanise a nation and for just a short time, bring hope.

This story has deep roots in the history of FC Dynamo Kyiv. A monument has been built at the place where the Zenit stadium (re-named Start stadium) once was which newly-married Dynamo Kyiv players visit on their wedding day.

Monument In Kiev FC Start Stadium