Slava Fetisov on ‘Red Army,’ Soviet Nostalgia, and What Drives Putin

Putin’s Hockey Pal Tells All

by Marlow Stern

The hockey great and subject of the riveting documentary Red Army, about the legendary USSR hockey team, discusses U.S./Russia relations and why the U.S. despises Putin.

They were derisively dubbed the “Bolshoi Ballet on Ice”—a graceful unit that operated like a multi-headed Hydra emphasizing teamwork over individual performance. They were, if you believed the Soviet propaganda machine, a shining example of communism at work. They were also, according to NHL coaching great Scotty Bowman, the greatest lineup in the history of hockey.

The Russian Five, which played for the club CSKA Moscow and the Red Army Soviet national hockey team in the ‘80s, consisted of defenders Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, as well as scoring machine right-winger Sergei Makarov, center Igor Larionov (a.k.a. “The Professor”), and center Vladimir Krutov (“The Tank”). The group won five gold medals at the World Championships during that decade, as well as gold at the ’84 and ’88 Olympics. Most Americans, however, remember them as members of the 1980 Red Army team that lost in the “Miracle on Ice,” toppled at the height of the Cold War by a group of amateur and collegiate Americans at the Olympics in Lake Placid.

Gabe Polsky’s thrilling, informative documentary Red Army, which is one of the very best films of the year, shows not just the other side of what many Americans consider one of the greatest sports moments in U.S. history, but also examines the history of the Soviet Union, the disturbing link between the Soviet government and sports, the crisis of national identity, and how one player challenged the system so guys like Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin could play in the NHL today.

That player is Slava Fetisov, the Russian Five captain, one of the greatest players in hockey history, and the main subject of Polsky’s documentary. After clashing with coach Victor Tikhonov, a KGB-installed tyrant, he chose to challenge the government and defect to the NHL. Fetisov was threatened and beaten by the authorities, and abandoned by his closest friends, but managed to succeed, and went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings in ’97 and ’98 (as a member of “The Wizards of Ov,” an all-Russian lineup based off the Russian Five). In 2002, Fetisov returned to Russia at the behest of Vladimir Putin, and the two became close friends, with Putin installing him as the Minister of Sport from 2002-2008. Fetisov currently serves as a senator in the Federal Assembly of Russia representing the far eastern region of Primorsky Krai.

The Daily Beast sat down with the hockey legend and documentary star in New York, where the film is making its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, to discuss Red Army, and more.

I heard Red Army played very well over in Russia.

It opened the Moscow Film Festival and I took this movie to Vladivostok—I’m a senator from the Primorsky, about a 9-hour flight from Moscow—and we showed the film at Festisov Arena, the hockey stadium there with my name on it, for 3,000 people, and there was a good reaction. It got the same reaction that it did her at the New York Film Festival.

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