Red Army

Hello.

In the traditional motion picture story,

the villains are usually defeated,

the ending is a happy one.

I can make no such promise

for the picture you're about to watch.

The story isn't over.

You, in the audience,

are part of the conflict.

What has happened so far

and what is happening now

is far from encouraging.

How we meet the Communist challenge

depends on you.

We are united in detesting

Communist slavery.

The Soviets are the best team

in the world.

Hockey proved that the Soviet system

was the best system.

When the Big Red Machine gets rolling,

they're mighty hard to stop.

Their target is us.

Our institutions,

our families, our children.

The Soviets beginning

to create their attack...

Brilliant play!

Although they don't show emotion,

let's face it,

they are a microcosm of their society.

You talk about a dynasty!

This is a bona fide superstar.

Maybe best in the world.

Slava Fetisov, one of the greatest

defensemen in the history...

Fetisov, centered in front. They score!

They were the totalitarian team.

The KGB guys were always there.

And it is sheer folly for us not to make

every conceivable preparation to win.

Okay, I'd just like,

kind of, a few things about...

Because, basically,

what I'm trying to get in the film is

what it was like to live

in the Soviet Union.

And...

Yeah, and describe your feeling about...

I'm busy now. Hold on.

I've got some business.

Okay.

My point is that American audiences

don't really understand the things

that people didn't have

or even the good things.

But what are some things that you can say...

"We had to wait in line, or we had to..."

That's a clich, but,

"We had to do this, we had to do that."

Travel, you know.

Just basic things

that we take for granted these days.

Like, this is... "Look, we couldn't travel.

We couldn't..." You know, whatever.

I was born in the Soviet Union in '58.

It was 13 years

after World War ll was over.

The whole country was ruined.

We lost 20 million people.

It's a lot.

We was living in Stalin's buildings.

Probably a 400 square foot apartment.

No running water,

no toilets, three families.

It was a pretty rough lifestyle.

I was a happy kid.

I play a game. I play hockey.

Pucks was empty cans

and stuff like that.

But, we had fun.

Our heroes played for the

Red Army Club, for the national team.

Hockey was the most popular sport

in the Soviet Union

because the Soviet hockey team

represented the peak of what

the Soviet Union had achieved.

And was proof that the Soviet

system was the best system.

It was politics, really.

My mom and dad,

they probably collected for two years.

They bought for me gloves,

helmet, and the skates.

On the black market,

it probably cost 250 rubles.

It was big money for a Soviet family.

There was a huge line of the boys.

With the sticks. With the skates.

With the parents. With the grandparents.

It's unbelievable.

It's probably 3-4 miles long.

When it was decided

that hockey would be the thing,

money, everything went into that.

They had a very well-organized system.

I mean, from childhood to...

They really picked out the best

of the best of the best.

And this was a nationwide system.

I was 9 years old.

I stayed in line probably 7 or 8 hours.

I was exhausted.

I got no chance.

They said, "Thank you very much.

Come again next year."

So I practiced 3 or 4 times a day.

Finally, they said I was good

enough to make the team.

I was so proud to play for Red Army.

Skate with no fear.

We'll give you exercises

no one has ever seen.

You'll be juggling your sticks,

twisting them around your head.

Where's the smile?

You're playing hockey!

Jump! Quick!

Tarasov was the father

of the Soviet system.

Great!

And the head coach of the Red Army.

You'll become great hockey players!

And great men!

This man played a big role in my life.

I was Red Army in my heart.

I came there. I was 10 years old.

Tarasov, he developed the program.

He wrote a few books about hockey.

These books laid next to my

bed since I was a little kid.

He described the game

in a very simple way.

Hockey is an aggressive game.

It's not like tennis, right?

So I wouldn't say that the North...

The Americans, the Canadians

are more aggressive than the Russians.

I wouldn't say that.

But I do think that there was

a different concept

of how you play the game.

Tarasov, who was an extremely

creative man,

he saw hockey

as this amazingly intricate game

of passing the puck.

The Soviets play more of

a finessed, improvisational game...

And they could cut

and weave beautifully.

Their passing game was

an intricate, artistic tapestry,

which we didn't see over here.

We emphasized everything

in a unit, of a collective.

The puck carrier was the servant

of the other players.

Our training camps were together.

My chess team

and the national hockey team.

They would often come to me

if they had questions

on psychological training.

He had theories of the way the game

should be played like a chess game.

He studied the training of the Bolshoi,

and he applied it to hockey.

Look at these dances, eh?

It's like the boogie woogie!

Sport is an art form.

That's what Tarasov thought.

Creativity, a vivid mind, and constant

thinking are needed for greatness.

My father was not just a hockey coach.

He was a great mentor.

He could see the potential

in a young person.

He developed my patriotism.

For us, it's very important.

For me since I was ten, it was

very important what was in front.

The name of my team, my country.

I belong to the great nation.

If you wear the national team uniform,

that's your duty. To do your best.

To represent your country.

For the Soviets, sports were,

in a way, a kind of warfare.

The game, for them, wasn't just a game.

It was also part of what you

would call propaganda, actually.

Making it very clear

that we're the best,

and we're the best

because of the Soviet system,

because of socialism.

That's why we're the best.

At the moment, you are ahead of us.

We still have a lot of work to do

to catch up with you.

We'll do that.

We'll catch up.

We'll surpass you.

You may perhaps laugh now,

but when we overtake you,

we'll wave our hand as we say, "Capitalists!

Goodbye! Catch up if you can!"

Have you ever watched hockey?

I like playing with dolls.

Do you know what these letters mean:

K-G-B?

No.

Yeah, you were born much later.

You didn't have to deal

with this organization.

The Central Red Army prepare to travel

to North America to play

a series of games

against the best teams of the West.

One outstanding player we didn't

see in last year's junior series

was the brilliant defenseman

Viacheslav Fetisov.

When we crossed the Atlantic

to play against

the best Ontario clubs at 16 years old,

I was happy.

There was one flight per week.

Empty because nobody was flying.

Of course, regular people cannot leave

the country because that's the system.

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