Dynamo: Triumph and Tragedy in Nazi-Occupied Kiev

by Andy Dougan

Book Overview

When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept East, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158574719X
• ISBN13: 9781585747191
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Victory

The events detailed in this book have become the stuff of soccer legend. The infamous Kiev "Death Match" against the Nazis has been told and retold, but it is more myth than reality. Eduardo Galeano in "Soccer in Sun and Shadow" wrote that Dynamo "committed the insane act of defeating Hitler's squad in the local stadium" with the result that "all eleven were shot with their shirts at the edge of a cliff."The story also became the inspiration for the cult classic movie "Victory" in which a team of allied prisoners of war play against the German National team in occupied Paris.Yet the real story behind the myth, while in some ways not as dramatic, is just as compelling. Dynamo was the team of the Kiev branch of the NKVD. Yet most of the players were not secret policemen or even committed Stalinists. Rather, they were a group of extremely talented men who wanted to play soccer. All that changed with the coming of the German army in 1941. But the Germans wanted to show that all was normal in occupied Ukraine, and normalcy required soccer. Finding themselves employed in a bakery, Dynamo was reborn as FC Start and played in a makeshift league against teams of Ukrainian nationalists collaborating with Hitler, Romanian and Hungarian occupation troops, and German army and air force teams. Andy Dougan makes the era come alive, and shows the fears that drove the players. In the end, Dougan demolishes most of the myths of the "Death Match," though, unfortunately, not all. While the book was clearly written for a soccer audience, anyone interested in World War Two would be fascinated by Dougan's treatment of life in occupied Ukraine.

wow

This book is much more than I expected. I purchased it because of my interest in football, Dynamo Kiev, and because of my german-russian background. I expected a book about soccer and it was much more. It opened my eyes to the facts surrounding the occupation of Kiev and the Russian perspective of the war. The story draws you in and it is hard to put the book down. It is also very personal for somebody with ties to the Kiev area and people. If you are interested in these subjects, you should read this book. You will not be disappointed.