Red Army

Slava Fetisov was the sports minister for Putin’s government from 2002 to 2008. He is better known as the player and captain for the legendary Soviet ice hockey team nicknamed The Red Army, which created a sensation during the Cold War. To Russians, the team was proof that the communist system was superior. Under the leadership of the immensely unpopular but successful coach Tikhonov, the team and its five super-talented players Fetisov, Makarov, Krutov, Larionov and Kasatonov won the world championship no fewer than seven times, and took Olympic gold in 1984 and 1988. One blemish on their otherwise pristine report card is the final they lost against the United States in Lake Placid in 1980, an event still remembered by the Americans as “the miracle on ice.” Viewed from the perspective of charismatic fiftysomething Fetisov, this masterful combination of archive images, animations and interview excerpts gives an account of how the flag-bearing team of the all-powerful Soviet Union fell apart in parallel with the fall of communism and the collapse of the state itself. The gates to the West supposedly opened up after 1989, but when Fetisov indicated that he wanted to play for the American NHL, he became a persona non grata.