Red Army Page #4

Drops it back. Getting set.

Here's Kasatonov.

Back to Larionov.

Larionov is checked.

Krutov has it in behind the net.

Makarov is standing

right in front of the goal.

Here's Krutov.

He gets it back, now to Fetisov.

Fetisov setting up. Slides it in front.

Krutov scores!

Krutov! And it's 2-0 for the Soviets!

It was the greatest moment in my life.

My childhood dream come true.

I got this gold medal.

I was the happiest man in the world.

My brother, his name was Anatoly.

I think he would be one of the

best forwards ever to play the game.

He was like a son to me.

We got almost 10 years apart.

He was killed in a car accident in 1985.

I was driving the car.

To be in a situation like that,

I didn't want to live.

I share everything they go through.

All the training,

all happiness and sadness.

Losses and victories, all the positive,

and the negative, too.

Andrei Khomutov found out

his father was going to die soon.

He came to him and said,

"Viktor, can you let me go

to see my father?"

He said, "No.

"You have to get ready

for the next game."

Andrei never saw his father again.

This was tough to imagine for me,

that Tikhonov can do

something like that.

The players often ask,

"What is this all for?

"Why get maximum scores?

"Maybe we should rest a little."

It's absurd.

They was eleven months at camp.

Training camp.

And thirty-six nights, they was home.

They never get out of that camp.

We always fight against Tikhonov

to let us live at home.

But he said,

"This is the style of my team.

"And this is the style of Soviet sport

in the Soviet Union."

I'm by myself in the apartment.

And when he talks on the phone with me,

it's like lines staying behind him,

and everybody listening.

Because it's one phone

and it's like twenty-five guys.

We get together, the Russian 5,

and said, "Can we lose

the World Championships next?

"Maybe they'll kick his ass

out of the team.

"And we can live a better life."

I'm telling you,

so many times we asked ourselves,

"Why are you suffering so much?

"Why play for a guy who doesn't

respect us as a human being?"

In the Soviet period,

the individual had to obey very strictly

and had no say.

And if he tried to have a say,

that could end his career.

So many competitions

and you are never home.

At first, I'd get home

and Dima wouldn't recognize me.

I'd ask him, "Where's your dad?"

And he would show me photographs.

Your youth is wasted.

New Year's Eve, holidays, birthdays...

You're always alone with the team,

without your wife and kids.

It's a tough life.

At 32, I felt old and worn out.

I wanted freedom to train

on my own, or to stop playing.

So I was forced to quit.

There was a lot of disillusionment

that was going on in the Soviet Union.

For over 70 years,

the Soviet Union was a closed society

and the Iron Curtain was a reality.

The belief that existed for so long

that had really held

the country together,

the profound, idealistic belief

that was part of it, dissipated.

Dear comrades, delegates,

a new democratic era is upon us.

Do you think people realized

that this was the end of the Cold War?

What's the Cold War?

The Cold War.

No, I know. What's the Cold War?

What's it about?

About the money?

About business?

Sure, probably. You think so?

For resources?

I think so.

Nothing else?

I think it's just about fear.

Fear of what?

National security, probably, right?

That's bullshit.

The sports world has heard

the Russians are coming.

That is, that some

of those world-class athletes

that are in the Soviet Union

will be allowed to come west,

turn pro and play for big rubles.

Soviet athletes are in big demand.

New Jersey Devils have offered

defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov

a half million dollars

for just one year along the blue line.

We think that they will raise

the level of excellence

in the entire National Hockey League.

The only reason these well-dressed

and well-off hockey bosses

even consider selling players

is that they have been told

by the Politburo

their big subsidies must be cut.

The sale of defenseman Fetisov

to New Jersey is one way out.

It is not something

those officials want to do,

but in this clash of capitalism

and socialism,

money is proving to be the big lure.

And if you're a Soviet player,

and you see what's ahead for yourself,

except more of this dreariness.

And then they realized, "My God.

"Look what these teams and the players have

in the NHL and the money they get,

"and the automobiles

and the houses and the vacations."

Then you're gonna want like hell

to get out of there.

Tikhonov came from the Politburo

to the training camp and said,

"Slava, if you do good in Calgary,

in the Olympics, you win the gold medal,

"you're gonna be the first Soviet player

who go play in National Hockey League."

I said, "Okay."

The face of the Soviet Union,

Slava Fetisov.

There's the captain of the Soviet Union,

Viacheslav Fetisov,

representing his team

on the podium here.

I was so happy.

When I landed in Moscow,

they called me to the Ministry.

They give me in the Kremlin,

the Lenin Award.

The biggest award in the country.

And then I was called for private talk

between three men:

The Minister of Sport,

Tikhonov and myself.

When the Minister said,

"Slava, finally you deserve it.

"We'll let you go. Good luck

and I wish you all the best."

And he said, "Am I right, Viktor?"

You know what Viktor said?

"Yeah, you're right. But I need

him for another year.

"Because we can't replace him."

He said, "January 2nd, we got the

Super Series against New Jersey.

"And we promise you after

the game against New Jersey,

"you're going to finish

the season in the NHL."

Fetisov goes back to get it.

Top scoring defenseman.

Four times Player of the Year.

Fetisov right there, he scores!

It's a four-to-nothing Red Army lead.

Is Slava Fetisov coming to the NHL?

It's possible for him to stay here.

Now?

Not now, eventually.

See what happened?

Publicly he said, "He can go."

But inside, not behind my back,

in front of me he said, "No."

What's the current status of this thing?

We keep hearing yes, and then we hear no,

and then we hear maybe.

Well, really, the status right now,

it relies in the hands

of the Soviet government.

Slava Fetisov wants to be here,

and he wants to play

in the National Hockey League.

But really, we have no control

over what is happening right now.

Neither has Fetisov.

Lou Lamoriello

showed me around New York.

He said, "Slava, I learned today

they'll never let you go."

He said, "This is the life.

"You should stay here."

So when Lou asked you to defect,

did you consider it?

No.

I cannot run away from my country.

I cannot

do something illegal.

When I get back,

I called a press conference.

And I said, "I'm never going to play

for the Tikhonov team anymore.

"Because they cheated me."

The day his article went out,

our phone stopped ringing.

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