Yeltsin conducting the orchestra. Along the main street with an orchestra

The decision of the head coach of the USSR national team, Viktor Tikhonov, not to take Valery Kharlamov to the Canada Cup was a real blow for the striker. By this time, as the author’s interlocutors admitted, Kharlamov was the most popular Soviet athlete in Canada, his talent eclipsed the glory of Pele in the Country of the Maple Leaf. Valery Kharlamov, having met his wife and son, who had returned from the south, went to the dacha. I didn’t sleep all night, I was worried, but in the morning I had to go to Moscow.

From night until the morning of August 27, it began to rain in the Moscow region. Although it was August, this rain was already autumn-like cold.

It is unknown when exactly on the way the hockey player’s wife, Irina Kharlamova, got behind the wheel. There is a version that Valery Kharlamov, who did not get enough sleep, swapped places with his wife, who was sitting on the right in the front seat, after he taxied from the gravel onto Leningradskoe Highway. Others believed it happened when the car disappeared around the bend from her mother's sight. In any case, the Volga was already driven by the hockey player’s wife at Leningradka.

They said that the Kharlamov "Volga" with numbers 00-17 MMB on the highway, wet from the morning rain, was supposedly moving at a decent speed - about a hundred kilometers per hour. But people who knew Valery and Irina said that she could hardly drive more than 70 kilometers per hour on a wet and slippery highway, especially on the Volga, which she almost never drove. This will subsequently be confirmed by a police examination. At the time of the collision, the car was moving at a speed of just over 60 kilometers per hour.

As experts said, most likely Valery is in the front seat and cousin Irina Kharlamova (Smirnova) Sergei, who had recently returned from the army, fell asleep. If so, then legend number 17 met his death in a dream, without understanding what happened. They say that meeting your death in a dream is destiny happy people, marked by the Lord. Not everyone is given this.

Moving along the almost empty Leningradskoe Highway, Irina Kharlamova saw a sign - “Road work in progress” and road barriers ahead. Where to turn at this speed? After all, you need to step aside! She decided to go around the obstacle.

The Volga spun sharply. On this unfortunate wet asphalt, recently laid by road workers. One, two. The car spun and spun like a top. Everything happened in a matter of moments. 00-17 carried into oncoming traffic. Apparently, Kharlamov woke up at that moment; experts will record that he left hand was extended to the steering wheel. So, I wanted to help my wife taxi...

And where did this truck come from so early? As it turned out later, it was heavy, filled to the brim with spare parts. The guy sitting behind the wheel grabbed the steering wheel, his mouth open. He understood that a collision with the Volga, which had lost control, was inevitable. The young man driving the ZIL turned the steering wheel to the right, trying to go to the side of the road. Late. "Volga" with numbers 00-17 MMB was already flying towards the loaded and therefore less maneuverable colossus. It hit the truck sideways and rolled into a ditch.

The grinding of iron, a terrible dull impact and the clinking of glass. The woman flew through Windshield. The Volga was compressed, twisted, the metal was crushed, ground, and torn apart. All. In such disasters, as a rule, there are no survivors. The impact, as traffic police officers later established, hit the Volga from behind, where Irina Kharlamova’s cousin was sitting. Kharlamov was hit in the back of the head. And his wife was thrown out of the cabin. She lay on the asphalt and was alive for about 10 minutes. She asked only one question: “How is Valera?” And she died.

In a few seconds, the ZIL driver will run out of the cab. Horror. Wild horror takes possession of him after he recognizes the people's favorite Valery Borisovich Kharlamov as the passenger in the front seat. No longer breathing and gone into another world.

Traffic police officer Lev Maksimovich later spoke about this and other details: “When I looked around at the scene of the incident, I almost immediately understood in detail what had happened. Everything froze, as if in a photograph: Kharlamov, as if alive, was sitting in the front passenger seat, holding out his hand towards the steering wheel, probably in last moment he tried to help his wife cope with the controls. His wife Irina was lying in a ditch and was still alive. The ambulance was standing nearby. The doctor fussed with cotton swabs, trying to save her life. The hockey player’s cousin, who was sitting in the back seat, died on the spot.”

The death of the Kharlamov family, as they later wrote, became “largely a chain of random coincidences.” The day before the accident, the asphalt in this area was changed. In the place where the new covering ended, a kind of protrusion formed, some say five, some seven centimeters high, which became the cause of the tragedy. As experts would later dryly write, “Kharlamov’s wife was an inexperienced driver and, having hit a bump, lost control.” The car spun on the highway and collided with a ZIL, which was walking towards it.

Most likely, they would have survived if they had been wearing seat belts. If only.

But death, as you know, does not recognize subjunctive moods. In addition, the truck, as luck would have it, was filled to capacity with spare parts. This heavy ballast intensified the already powerful blow. And the slippery asphalt in this place, as if on purpose, left no chance of salvation, as if “spitting” the car into a ditch. “The new surface that the Volga hit was slippery like ice during the heat…” they would write later. But these damned if...

An hour later, all of Moscow learns about the tragedy. This information will be confirmed to a TASS correspondent by the capital’s traffic police. And later, lightning will strike the world news feeds from the Land of the Soviets: “As TASS reported, the famous hockey player Valery Kharlamov and his wife died in a car accident near Moscow this morning. They left behind two small children - a son and a daughter.”

“I was conducting a training session with the SKA Leningrad team. I received a dispatch from the person on duty at the club that Valerka had tragically died. I gathered the team, told my assistants that they should conduct the training themselves. And then I left for Moscow. Then they told me what and how happened. She was driving. He was leaving the dacha. She was already sitting on the highway. She didn’t know how to drive. That’s all. That’s how the tragedy happened. If he had been driving, then the tragedy wouldn’t have happened,” he admitted in a conversation with The author of these lines is the captain of the USSR national team Boris Mikhailov.

“Before his death, I went to Holland on a flight. I was then working at Sovtransavto and was abroad at that moment. Having found telephone numbers through the managers, Gennady Tsygankov called me. Nothing had been reported on the radio in Europe yet. Gena was taciturn: "So and so, brace yourself, Misha, such a tragedy happened!" But I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t make it in time - customs matters, I also didn’t have the right to abandon the car, those were the times. I arrived after, I found out everything from everyone rumors,” recalled Kharlamov’s friend Mikhail Tumanov.

As I understand it, as a result of the heavy rain that fell the day before, the Volga's pads got wet. The asphalt on the Leningradskoe Highway, along which the car was moving, was slippery like a skating rink. When braking sharply, a sharp skid occurred. And Irina could not cope with the controls. Moreover, she had little experience driving a Volga, and she learned to drive in another car, a Moskvich,” Mikhail Tumanov admitted in a conversation.

On that fateful morning, by a lucky coincidence: they wanted an additional portion of the same shish kebab that their grandmother promised to cook, the Kharlamov children stayed at the dacha. Remained alive. Left orphans.

“On the morning of August 27, Tatyana Mikhailova called and said: “Come to me quickly. Valera crashed. Come quickly." I fly out of the house. As luck would have it, no trolleybus, no bus. No taxi. I found a private owner. I’m crying all over. I can’t believe what happened. The driver asks what happened to me. I was told that my brother crashed. I’m coming to Tatyana's house, and there she was younger son says to me: “Aunt Tanya, they have already left for the morgue for identification. You sit here and wait.” I waited, then Tatyana called from the morgue and said one phrase: “Yes, this is Valera.” Then the information came over the radio immediately. Then dad came, we all came home. And the next day my mother was supposed to arrive,” recalled the hockey player’s sister Tatyana Kharlamova.

The hockey players of the USSR national team who played at the Canada Cup, among whom were several very close friends of Valery Borisovich (what can I say: he himself was a long-time favorite and the soul of the team, how could one not love him), could not come to the funeral. That’s why they, the players, were offended. They could not pay respects, throw a handful of earth, as is customary for burial, into the grave of the one whom they respected and loved so much. They couldn’t be together in the cemetery and at the same time in grief with the whole country.

The news of Kharlamov’s death in a car accident near Moscow, according to his best friend Alexander Maltsev, became a “terrible blow” for him, from which he could not recover for years. The USSR national team at the time of the disaster was on its way to the Country by plane maple leaf to prepare for the Canada Cup. “At the Winnipeg airport, a Swedish judge approached us and said that Kharlamov had died. For us, the passing of such an original player and amazing person. I realized what I lost kindred spirit, - recalls Alexander Maltsev. - Valerka Kharlamov was so loved by everyone that when North America declared a minute of silence for Valery, then, I think, all of Canada and the United States stood up to honor his memory."

“Fate took away my closest friend,” Alexander Maltsev says quietly. “If Valera were alive now, everything would have turned out completely differently. No one could replace him for me...”

Alexander Nikolaevich often remembers his friend. At these moments, the pain of loss is visible in his eyes, which has not subsided, despite the passing of years. For these three and a half decades. Maltsev perks up when asked to talk about happy days spent with Kharlamov, when warm words are said about his friend.

On August 27, 1981, the players of the Soviet team initially perceived information about the death of the team’s favorite as nothing more than a provocation - a portrait of Kharlamov, framed in black mourning ribbon, was shown on the TV news as the national team players checked into the hotel.

We decided to call home. This tragic news was confirmed after the head of the Soviet delegation, Boris Mayorov, made a call to Moscow directly from the reception. From his instantly white face, the hockey players of the USSR national team guessed that something irreparable had really happened.

“It took us almost two days to get to Canada by train. We arrived in Winnipeg, it was night there, we slept. In the morning, when we turned on the TV, photographs of Valera in a black frame began to appear in news reports. At that time, no one spoke much English. We didn’t understood what was happening. Everyone ran downstairs to the hotel lobby. Then someone came and said that such a tragedy had occurred. The noise began. We told the management that we would fly back to Moscow for the funeral. The head of the delegation from the Central Committee, the instructor who called home , said that a team meeting would be held soon,” Vyacheslav Fetisov recalled in a conversation. “In the end, they convinced us that we would not have time to get to the funeral. I couldn’t believe that this happened. Only yesterday he was next to us and ... suddenly he was no more. When we left the stadium in Canada, many people came up to us, everyone expressed condolences and everyone said the name Kharlamov. Only when we flew to Moscow and came to his grave, only then did I realize that Valery Borisovich was no longer with us. I didn't want to believe it until last minute, but it was the bitter truth. It was a shock. It was the loss of a friend."

Tretyak, Vasiliev and Maltsev came to Tikhonov with a request to let him go to his friend’s funeral. Tikhonov did not let him in, although the players literally begged the national team coach to give them the opportunity to say goodbye to their best friend. We were ready to fly to Moscow at our own expense. On the first flight, the Canadians would help. We were ready to return back to the Canada Cup immediately after the funeral. Tikhonov was adamant.

“We came to Tikhonov and, at our own expense, asked to fly to Moscow for the funeral. Tikhonov categorically forbade us to do this. All the guys gathered, remembered, and drank 100 grams of vodka. We all took up arms against Tikhonov. Firstly, you are the culprit of this, that he didn’t take Kharlam. If he had gone, then there wouldn’t have been this terrible accident and such grief for us. Secondly, that he didn’t let us go to the funeral. After 1972, Valera made a revolution in hockey in Canada. He was there popular as national hero"- admitted Alexander Maltsev.

Bobby Hull walked into the Soviet team's locker room after one of the matches at this tournament. In his hands he held a bouquet of red carnations. “I know that red carnations were Valery Kharlamov’s favorite flowers. Please take them and bow on behalf of all Canada to the great Hockey Player and Man,” asked Bobby Hull.

At the 1981 Canada Cup, the hockey players of the national team played for two: themselves and Valery Kharlamov. One can only imagine how difficult these matches were for them. When every second the pain of irreparable loss burned, when they were constantly tormented by the thought that they could not pay their last tribute to their friend and comrade in Moscow, but had to be far overseas these days.

The situation in the ranks of the USSR national team was truly depressing. It was especially difficult for those who played with Valery Kharlamov in the national team and club for many years, for whom he became a friend and brother. “Three decades have passed, and the events of those days are still in my memory. And the main question is, why did this happen so suddenly? Not after some illness, but just like that, the life of one of our best athletes, our friend, was cut short,” - recalls Boris Mikhailov.

The players then, in Canada, held their own meeting, separate from the coaches and heads of the delegation. “Valerka Vasiliev, the team captain, all the guys said that the victory should be dedicated to the memory of Valery Borisovich. We swore that we would fight to the last and try to win the Canada Cup, which he himself wanted to win. Before the final, we gathered again, all together, without management, without coaches and said that we will do everything to win the final match against Canada,” admitted Vyacheslav Fetisov.

The USSR national team really pulled itself together and won the 1981 Canada Cup, and with what a score, 8-1! Leaving no stone unturned from the Canadians and dedicating this victory to the memory of Valery Kharlamov. Upon arrival in Moscow, the CSKA and national team players visited both Valery Kharlamov’s parents and the cemetery. “Upon arrival in Moscow from Canada, we were met by our wives and relatives. We boarded a bus and went straight from the airport to the Kuntsevo cemetery. We didn’t believe in his death until the last moment, but when we arrived at the grave we realized that neither Valera nor Ira there won’t be any more,” Vyacheslav Fetisov recalled in a conversation.

The funeral of Valery Kharlamov took place on August 31, 1981 at the Kuntsevo cemetery. At first, it was decided to bury the great hockey player at Vagankovskoe cemetery, where the corresponding letter from the Moscow City Executive Committee went. A responsible “party comrade” arrived at Vagankovo ​​with a letter in his hands and absolutely stupidly chose a plot in the far, near the fence, then still undeveloped, part of the cemetery. When the hockey player’s friends came to look at the site, they immediately refused: it was simply difficult to get to the burial place. “If you had arrived before this shot, I, of course, would have allocated the best plot, closer to Vysotsky’s grave, but now I can’t, the plan has already been approved,” the cemetery director threw up his hands.

As a result, it was decided to bury the great hockey player at the Kuntsevo cemetery in the capital.

The farewell to Valery Kharlamov and the burial were organized by the CSKA hockey club. It was painful to look at the legend’s mother, Begonia Kharlamov. She was constantly injected with sedatives. Thousands and thousands of people came to say goodbye to the people's favorite. Just like the year before. On the death of Vysotsky.

The farewell to Kharlamov was extended by two hours after the organizers saw what a huge line of people was stretching into Ice Palace CSKA. People were climbing over the fence. The line stretched straight from the Airport metro station, there were so many people.

The funeral was indeed very crowded. Officers, generals with gold stars of Heroes Soviet Union, artists, athletes, women, adults and children passed by the coffins in deep sorrow. The gray-haired old woman, heartbroken, knelt down and laid a modest bouquet at the feet of Valery Kharlamov’s inconsolable mother. The Spanish ambassador expressed condolences to Begonia Kharlamova, bent over her, said something, and then stood on the guard of honor.

People kept coming. Everything intertwined together, streams of tears merged, pouring into a huge, and forgive me, reader, I can’t find a suitable comparison, “sea of ​​grief.” And this absurd death itself, and this death in the prime of life, and the fact that such a phenomenal person left so early and unfairly. Indeed, a people's favorite, who would live and delight people with his sparkling gift...

“On the territory of the army sports palace, everything was filled with people, many of whom were crying. We army men were in military uniform. It was an unbearable feeling. Mikhailov, Petrov, Lutchenko carried Valera’s coffin. I carried a wreath. The most painful thing was to look at his mother. It was a shock. The pain of loss was felt for years. They talked about this a lot, this topic was constantly touched upon. If he had gone to Canada, then he could have stayed to live. But, this is fate. I'm not one of those who support this topic. Kharlamov is a unique person. And his loss was very difficult,” recalled Sergei Nailyevich Gimaev in a conversation with the author of these lines.

In the end, they decided to take the coffin to the cemetery, despite the fact that people were still walking towards the palace. “I remember that there were a lot of people at Valera’s funeral. Thousands and thousands of people. A continuous stream of people walked to our army weightlifting hall. It was like walking to a mausoleum. From the entrance to CSKA and there. There were a lot of people. The funeral service from -for the endless stream of people. Then we went to the Kuntsevskoye cemetery. We traveled in a separate car. It was unclear who got on there. There were several buses to get there. Everything at the cemetery was also jam-packed, it was impossible to get through. At Kuntsevskoye, the rain was pouring like buckets, then suddenly the sun suddenly came out in a second. Tarasov, the chairman of the sports committee of the Ministry of Defense, such a good general, spoke. The leadership spoke, and people spoke," Olympic champion Alexander Gusev recalled in a conversation with the author of these lines.

It so happened that on the eve of the fateful day of his friend’s death, Kharlamov’s friend, the famous Vladimir Vinokur, went to Kursk to visit his parents. “Then Leva Leshchenko called me and said: “Volodya, there’s trouble with Valera. He crashed his car." Out of inertia, I asked: “Is he in a military hospital or in a civilian clinic, remembering the accident he had in 1976?” Then Leva told me that the worst and irreparable thing had happened. I immediately went to Moscow,” Vinokur recalled in a conversation with the author of these lines.

“Valera’s funeral became a tragedy for us, which no words are enough to describe. I didn’t feel anything: neither my legs were under me, nor my head. I just remembered that when we left the CSKA Sports Palace with the procession, everywhere, despite the pouring rain , stood crying people on their knees and so they escorted him to last way", recalled Tatyana Blinova, who knew Valery Kharlamov from childhood.

“On the day of Valera’s funeral in 1981, when we left CSKA, it was pouring rain, we were traveling by bus. I remember a symbolic episode. A funeral column is driving and suddenly an absolutely stunning picture appears before our eyes. A man in a light suit comes out under this crazy rain right on the Leningradskoye Highway with an armful of roses, kneels down, right in the water in front of the hearse with the coffin of Valera and Irina, and then the whole column, coming towards him, and puts these flowers, this armful of gorgeous roses right on the wet asphalt. At the same time, he sobbed ". And then, when we arrived at the cemetery, the dazzling sun began to shine. I always, when I talk about Valera’s funeral, see this symbolic scene: a man, roses, rain and a shining sun,” recalled Vladimir Vinokur. “When I go to the cemetery to brother, and his father lies there next to him, and 50 meters from them is the grave of Valera and his relatives. I always come there, there are always flowers lying there. I’ll stand, think, remember. You can’t blame anyone for his death. Many different things are said. But this is fate. Every person. We are guests on this earth."

The rain stopped and the sun came out. At this moment, Anatoly Tarasov approached the coffin. Suddenly thunder roared and the rain began again. Then Tarasov said: “You see, all of Moscow is crying for Valera.” And then suddenly the sun came out just as sharply. "In his farewell speech at a funeral meeting in front of thousands of people, in front of true friends hockey and Kharlamov, gathered at the Novokuntsevo cemetery, I said that Valery “did not know his greatness,” Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov would later write. “Valery was truly a great hockey player, ... he did not know the true scale of his amazing talent, he never emphasized his exclusivity in any way or to anyone, and in general he was an extremely decent, pure and honest person.”

What Kharlamov did on the ice is truly beyond the control of a simple artisan and even a hockey master. This is how the artist played, withdrawn into himself, vulnerable, with a keen sense of falsehood. This is how Kharlamov, usually cheerful and cheerful, is remembered by everyone who knew him.

The composer said most precisely about Kharlamov’s extraordinary athletic talent Dmitry Shostakovich: "What an amazing talent, what a combination of thought and movement, what a diamond among diamonds!". And the best words to describe Valery’s fate are Vasily Shukshina about Sergei Yesenin: " Here they regret: Yesenin did not live long. Exactly - about the size of a song. If this song were long, it wouldn't be so poignant. Long songs can not be...".

Valery Kharlamov was born on January 14, 1948 in Moscow, into an international family. Father, Boris Sergeevich, worked all his life as a test mechanic at the Moscow Kommunar plant. Since the 1940s, his mother, Aribe Abbad Hermane (Begonita), a Bascon from Bilbao, also worked there as a revolver turner. She was one of many Spanish children taken from civil war-torn Spain in 1937 and raised in orphanage in USSR.

They named their son after the legendary pilot Valeria Chkalova. Later, Valery had a sister, Tatyana.

Valery was attracted to sports by his father, who played Russian hockey for the factory team and often brought his son with him. And when a summer skating rink opened on Leningradsky Prospekt in 1962, he, secretly from his wife, took his son there and enrolled him in the hockey section. Kharlamov himself recalled: " I was not a very healthy child. My father believed that sports should help me become stronger. He didn’t think that I would be a hockey player when he kicked the puck with me in the yard and even when he brought me to CSKA. They accepted 13-year-olds, and I was 14. I had to cheat - fortunately I was not tall...". Valery's first coach was Vyacheslav Tazov, and later - Andrey Starovoytov.

Hockey talent young Valery his first coaches saw him early and recommended him to the CSKA adult team, but Anatoly Tarasov At first I was not impressed by Kharlamov, mainly due to his short stature. However, in the spring of 1967, Valery flashed in Minsk, in the final tournament of the USSR junior championship, and upon returning to Moscow he was invited to CSKA. After the team’s summer training camp in Kudepsta, a completely different Valery returned to Moscow. Vladimir Bogomolov, Kharlamov’s partner in the youth team, recalled: “ Upon returning from Minsk in 1967, when Valera began to try out for the team of masters... I encouraged him not to hang out among the masters, where either a hockey player or a national team player. It was hard for him. No impressive physical data, no ringing name even at the junior level. Later he left for a training camp in Kudepsta. And when we saw each other again, I didn’t recognize my friend. Powerful legs and arms. And what a back, what abs! The muscles were playing all over the body. The athlete has returned home, at least sculpt from him ancient hero ".

In the 1967/68 season, Valery was sent to the second league, to the Chebarkul "Zvezda", an army team of the Ural Military District. As the head coach of “Zvezda” admitted Vladimir Alfer, he received strict instructions from Tarasov: " You must create conditions for him to train three times a day every day. In calendar meetings, Valery must spend at least seventy percent of the time on the ice, regardless of how the game goes"The coach appreciated Valery's play, which he reported to Anatoly Tarasov. On March 8, 1967, Kharlamov returned home and on the same day was called by Tarasov to CSKA training.

Hockey achievements of Valery Kharlamov

Two-time Olympic champion (1972, 1976). Eight-time world champion
(1969-1971, 1973-1975, 1978-1979). Best striker of the 1976 World Cup. Entered
symbolic World Cup team (1972, 1973, 1975, 1976). At the World Championships and
Olympics - 123 matches, 89 goals.

Eleven-time champion of the USSR (1968, 1970-1973, 1975, 1977-1981). Played 438 matches for CSKA and scored 293
washers. Five-time winner of the USSR Cup. Best hockey player of the USSR (1972,
1973). Top scorer of the USSR Championship (1971), best in the system
"goal+pass" (1972).

Winner of the “Three Scorers” hockey prize: 1970/1971, 1974/1975,
1977/1978 (Mikhailov - Petrov - Kharlamov), 1971/1972 (Vikulov - Firsov -
Kharlamov), 1979/1980 (Mikhailov - Kharlamov - Krutov). Tournament record holder
for the prize of the Izvestia newspaper for the number of goals scored - 40 goals scored.

Since 1998, his name has been in the IIHF Hall of Fame, since 2005 - in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

This trio of CSKA forwards was created over the course of three years. First, Boris Mikhailov appeared in CSKA; from 1967, Vladimir Petrov began to appear at the army team’s core, who was seen as a replacement for the one who was retiring from hockey. Alexander Almetov, and after the CSKA team’s trip to the games in Japan, Kharlamov joined the trio. Each of the players of the legendary trio had his own unique style of play: Mikhailov was passionate and scored more than anyone else in the trio, Petrov, unusually physically developed, knew how to fight with power, and Kharlamov stood out for his unique dribble, scored fewer goals than his teammates in the trio, but gave them a lot assists. This trio became the first in Soviet hockey to play in a forceful manner. Kharlamov himself characterized the troika’s play this way: “ We understand each other not from half a word, but from half a letter. I know what they might do at any given moment, I can guess their decision, even if they are looking somewhere else. More precisely, I don’t so much know as I feel what they will do in the next second, how they will play in this or that situation, and therefore at the same moment I rush to where the puck is waiting for me, where, according to my partner’s plan, I should appear. Without saying a word, just looking at each other, we immediately find a solution that suits everyone - having lost the puck, we know who should run to the aid of the defenders, we know when a partner is so tired that it is you who should “work” back, although he is closer to his goal , at any moment of the match we know who to fight, who to attack the player holding the puck".

Since the early 1970s, Kharlamov has become one of the leading hockey players in the country. His most strengths There were excellent technique, impeccable skating, puck control, and outstanding scoring qualities.

In the 1970/71 USSR Championship, he became the top scorer, scoring 40 washers At the 1971 World Championships, it was thanks to him that the decisive goal was scored in the match with the Swedes, which led to the team’s victory.

On the eve of the Olympics in Sapporo, Tarasov decided to transfer Kharlamov to another three - to Vikulov And Firsov. And in this trio, Valery’s performance is brilliant. He became the top scorer of the Olympics, he scored a hat-trick twice (in matches against the Finns and Poles). During the games, Kharlamov scored 16 points, abandoned 9 pucks and gave 7 assists. The USSR gold at the Sapporo Olympics is largely the merit of Kharlamov.

Valery Kharlamov said: " I can't play against weak people. I don't know why. I guess I feel sorry for them. I wish I could fight the professionals again! When you play against them, you feel like a man. How they wage a power struggle, how they fight until the last second! Canadians do not spare themselves or their rivals. But when you beat the team of Phil Esposito or Bobby Hull, you feel that it was not in vain that you picked up the stick". And in the 1972 USSR-Canada Super Series, Kharlamov demonstrated all his best sporting qualities and received universal recognition in world hockey. Along with Tretiak And Yakushev he was one of the leading players of the USSR national team in these games. Goalkeeper Ken Dryden after the first match he said about Kharlamov: " It was Kharlamov who broke our mighty team and removed the question of a winner. I've never seen a striker play like this before.".

Another significant sporting event in Kharlamov’s career was the 1974 USSR-Canada Super Series - in 8 games he scored only 2 goals, but both goals were recognized as masterpieces. On September 17, 1974, in Quebec, Valery scored a goal that delighted both fans and professionals. Canadian defender Tremblay recalled: " When Stapleton and I were rolling back, I was calm: not a single WHA or NHL forward would risk getting between us. Without false modesty, I will say that it is less dangerous to find yourself between two millstones. However, this Russian attacker rushed straight towards us. What happened next? I saw that the forward was going to pass me from the outside, to the left. Pat Stapleton, as it later turned out, noticed exactly the opposite: they say that the Russian wants to get around him on the right and also from the outside. When we parted ways to catch each of our “own” Kharlamov, he slipped between us. And to this day I don’t understand how he left us in the cold. But one thing I know for sure: there is no other player like him.". Canadian journalists called this puck a "goal for gourmets."

On October 3 in Moscow, Kharalamov scored a goal, about which Anatoly Tarasov enthusiastically responded: “On the first He deceived the Canadian with his signature feint - a deceptive nod of his head to the side, causing him to rush across, to where Valery had no intention of moving. He beat the second one, who intended to collide with a tackle, by sharply braking and at the same time turning his body, so that the opponent missed and flew past. And he showed the third that he had lost the puck, deliberately letting it go from the hook of his stick, and when the Canadian touched the puck, already tasting the joy of having taken it away from Kharlamov himself, Valery ran into him, pushed him with his shoulder, knocked him over onto the ice, again took possession of the puck and found himself one on one with goalie Chivers. As if jokingly, even a little playfully, Kharlamov approached the most experienced Canadian goalkeeper, swung his stick and lunged to the left with the clear intention of shooting into the corner of the goal to the right of the goalkeeper. His feint was so natural that the goalkeeper began to move to the right, but Valery played differently - elusive with his movement he sent the puck high into the left corner of the goal".

Team doctor Oleg Belakovsky noted the extremely aggressive and sometimes unsportsmanlike play of the Canadians: " It would seem that an inconspicuous poke with a stick, and Kharlamov’s nose bridge is broken. I can hardly stop his bleeding. A blow to the bridge of the nose is a very painful thing, but now there is no pain, and Valery again rushes to the ice. Canadians set themselves the task of breaking this stubborn man, breaking him at any cost. And then, in front of thousands of outraged spectators, something disgusting happens. Rick Lay, the Canadian defender, catches up with Valery and punches him in the face out of nowhere. Punches him in the bridge of his nose! Lay's blow serves as a signal, and the real massacre begins. Kharlamov, Yakushev, Maltsev, Vasiliev, Lutchenko get the most. All of them are seriously injured. I barely have time to bandage, lubricate, glue. I barely have time because the guys are literally eager to fight. They are torn, despite the danger of new clashes. It was truly a great confrontation"In fairness, it should be noted that after the game, Lay publicly apologized to Kharlamov.

At the end of 1975, the first games took place between the USSR and the NHL at the club level. The army team had to play 4 games in North America. Kharlamov in the USA and Canada was greeted as a superstar - only he and Tretyak were given a long standing ovation by the audience during the introduction of the hockey players before the start of the games. And Kharlamov lived up to the fans’ expectations in every match - all his goals were skillful and beautiful. In the games of this super series, the Canadians often used techniques that were far from sports. So, in the match with Philadelphia, the Canadian Ed van Imp struck Kharlamov in the back with his stick in the 12th minute of the first period, after which the Soviet hockey player lay on the ice for a long time. Kharlamov himself recalled it this way: " The blow was so strong and unexpected that I fell onto the ice... My vision went dark. I think I even lost consciousness for a few seconds. And the first thought - I must definitely become... For several seconds my muscles did not obey me, but somehow I got up". After this, the CSKA management took the team off the ice, but this did not lead to anything. The team “burned out” during this break and ultimately lost - 1:4 . At the end of the tour, Kharlamov was the best in CSKA in the goal+pass system, scoring 4 goals and giving 3 assists.

At the Olympics in Innsbruck, Kharlamov performed in the same trio with Mikhailov and Petrov. In the last one, decisive game with the Czechoslovakians, it was Valery Kharlamov who scored the winning goal, beating the goalkeeper Jiri Holecek. In total, Valery scored three goals and gave six assists at the tournament. The victory in Innsbruck became his second, and last, Olympic gold.

In 1976, Valery Kharlamov got married and in the same year he and his wife got into a car accident on Leningradskoe Highway. The hockey player suffered a fracture of his right shin, two broken ribs, a concussion and many bruises (his wife was not injured).

Awards of Valery Kharlamov

Knight of two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1975, 1978) - for victories in the USSR national team at the 1975 and 1978 World Ice Hockey Championships.

Cavalier of the Order of the Badge of Honor (1972) - for victory as part of the USSR national team at the 1972 Olympics.

Awarded the medal "For Labor Valor" (1969) - for winning as a member of the USSR national team at the 1969 World Championships.

Some doctors recommended that he end his sports career, buttwo months later Valery took his first steps in the ward, and in the fall,On Tarasov’s advice, he began training with the boys at the skating rink. At a priceincredible efforts, overcoming pain and weakness, Kharlamov returned to
big sport and already on November 16, 1976 went to the match against “Wings”Soviets." He recalled it this way: " I played then in a fog. And not because he was weak. Functionally, I have already regained my shape. Just me I saw that the guys were protecting me - both partners and opponents. And touched This is extraordinary to me. So, I'm needed. That means they appreciate it. The feeling is like this - I'm about to burst into tears. I could barely control my nerves...".

Kharlamov returned to the USSR national team in December 1976 at the Izvestia newspaper prize tournament and scored a hat-trick in the first match against the Swedes. And although he didn’t score again at the tournament, he became the best in the “goal+pass” system (3+3, 6 points) together with Boris Mikhailov.

In 1977, at the World Championships in Vienna, the USSR team became only third, but Petrov’s trio was recognized as the best at the championship in terms of goals scored and points scored.

In the summer of 1977, CSKA and the USSR national team were headed by a new coach - Victor Tikhonov, which tightened discipline and increased training loads. And this yielded results - in 1978 and 1979 the world championships and the 1979 Challenge Cup in the USA were won. But after the unsuccessful 1980 Olympics, in which the USSR team lost to American students, the Mikhailov-Petrov-Kharlamov trio was disbanded. Kharlamov has said more than once that the 1981/82 season would be his last. He dreamed of becoming a children's coach. Tikhonov did not take him to the Canada Cup - 1981 and Valery remained in Moscow, where he died on August 27, 1981 in a car accident, on the same Leningradskoe highway on which the first accident occurred. His wife, Irina, died along with him. He left behind a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Begonita.

Old New Year. Workers of the Kommunar defense plant staged a masquerade for the occasion at the factory's House of Culture "Red Star". A young Spanish woman, Begonia, who emigrated to the USSR during the civil war, becomes ill: she begins to have contractions. The ambulance driver drives to the maternity hospital at full speed, but the baby is born right in the car. This is how one of the fastest players in the history of Soviet hockey was born - Valery Kharlamov.

Beautiful? In fact, this is a fiction, a legend.

This story in the book “Three Speeds of Valery Kharlamov” is told on behalf of the great Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov. The creator of Soviet hockey embellished the truth a little, as they say, out of love for the Kharlamov family and, it seems, because of the beautiful headline. However, great people can do this.

Almost 35 years have passed since Kharlamov’s death, and during this time his life has become overgrown with an incredible number of myths and legends. Especially after the release dedicated to him in 2013 Feature Film, named just right - “Legend No. 17”. We tried to figure out what is true in the stories about Kharlamov and what is fiction. Moreover, Valery Borisovich’s life turned out to be such that more than one film could be made.

Legend No. 1. Born in an ambulance

Let's finish where we started. So, the birth of Kharlamov in an ambulance is a myth invented by Tarasov. Begonia Kharlamova really began to give birth in the “Red Star” on the night of the Old New Year. But she was safely taken to the maternity hospital. And Valery was born at about 10 am without any special incidents. Except, perhaps, for the mother's reaction. “When she saw him, she screamed why his head was elongated, like a cucumber. And this was because the mother was pinched during childbirth,” said Tatyana Kharlamova, younger sister Valeria.

Legend No. 2. Was named after Valery Chkalov

The Russian Wikipedia says that Kharlamov was named after Valery Chkalov, a Soviet test pilot, hero of the Soviet Union. Basically, this is true, albeit with a caveat. The story about Chkalov is confirmed by Kharlamov’s father Boris Sergeevich. “Why did they call him Valera? Chkalov. Valery Chkalov. Legendary pilot. People's favorite! Those flights of his under the bridge... They made my head spin,” he said in the book “The Unknown Kharlamov.”

There, however, Boris Sergeevich made a reservation that he still had younger brother Valery, who was very close to them. Who knows, maybe it wasn’t just Chkalov’s flights that inspired Boris and Begonia. As for the page on Wikipedia, it was clearly compiled with love about Kharlamov: most of the facts from there were confirmed in the literature.

Legend No. 3. A heart defect was discovered in childhood

© RIA Novosti. Dmitry Donskoy Valery Kharlamov

It is still difficult to understand why Kharlamov’s painful childhood was not indicated in any way in Legend No. 17. IN general plot it fits perfectly. Kharlamov was an extremely sick child. From birth he had dyspepsia - inability to digest food, which is why he spent a long time in the hospital. According to his parents, before the age of 13, Valery contracted all the diseases that could be contracted. Frequent sore throats should have left Kharlamov without big sport: in the spring of 1961 he was in Once again fell ill with a sore throat, during which doctors discovered he had a heart defect.

“Valerka very often had a sore throat. One after another, one after another,” Tatyana said. “And there was one such case. Just after getting over it, I went to the bathroom to wash. I wanted to turn on the light with my right hand, but it hung like a whip. My brother fell.” . Doctors diagnosed infantile paralysis, which was the result of numerous colds.

Valery recovered in a sanatorium in Krasnaya Pakhra, then in a factory pioneer camp near Zvenigorod. In August he was discharged from a sanatorium for heart patients, and already in September Valery, without warning anyone, went to sign up for the CSKA hockey section. The father soon found out about this, but did not stop his son. A year later, the doctors at the Morozov Hospital admitted that Valery was completely healthy.

Legend No. 4. Tarasov tried not to notice Kharlamov for a long time

Those who see the truth in the middle speak correctly. In the film, the relationship between Tarasov and Kharlamov is much more intertwined than it was in life. Anatoly Vladimirovich immediately saw promise in Valeria, but for a long time he was embarrassed by his height (either 173 or 174 centimeters), which even by the then modest Soviet hockey standards was, to put it mildly, unremarkable. However, Kharlamov was sent to Chebarkul solely for the purpose of gaining experience before his debut in main team. Tarasov already knew that this hockey player would at least be a strong professional.

But the story of the trip to Japan took place. After returning from the Chelyabinsk region, Kharlamov was invited to tour with the CSKA team. He went to the airport, but then returned home: at the last moment, he was chosen over his friend Alexander Smolin, who was then rated higher than Valery. “Wait a little. I’ll prove it to them all,” Kharlamov said when he returned home from the airport.

Legend No. 5. Climbing with Gusev onto the cooling tower of the thermal power plant in Chebarkul

One of the most important scenes in "Legend No. 17" there is an episode in Chebarkul, when the exiled young Valery Kharlamov and Alexander Guskov (actually Alexander Gusev) climbed the cooling tower of the thermal power plant. There, Kharlamov, risking the lives of both, managed to force his comrade to return to training and stop binge drinking.

Alexander Gusev himself spoke about this a couple of years ago in the Sport-Express newspaper: “We didn’t hang on any ropes in Chebarkul, it’s just funny. And in general, a lot of things are embellished in the film. That’s why I’m Guskov? It turned out as if we "With Valerka in Chebarkul we just hung out with women and drank vodka. I was indignant. And they crossed me out. Guskov was written in. But the script, thank God, was cleaned up."

Legend No. 6. Tarasov put young Kharlamov to defend the goal

Another spectacular scene from the film: Anatoly Tarasov sets the still “star” Kharlamov to defend the goal in training without a stick, and his CSKA partners throw at him with all their might. This story is 99% true, all the veterans of that team confirmed it. With the only caveat that Tarasov did not come up with this on Kharlamov, he often practiced this on other new hockey players, borrowing the exercise from North America.

In general, Anatoly Vladimirovich was perhaps the most resourceful coach in the history of world hockey, constantly coming up with something new. When I was preparing CSKA for the Super Series, I took the team into the forest and forced them to crash into a tree at full speed, the exercise was called “beat the Canadian”. Or here’s another thing: in order to increase Vladislav Tretyak’s concentration, Tarasov demanded that Vladimir Shadrin and Evgeniy Zimin hit the goalkeeper with their sticks while the others were shooting at the goal. The main thing is the result.

Legend No. 7. The decision to create the troika Mikhailov – Petrov – Kharlamov was spontaneous© RIA Novosti. Dmitry DonskoyBoris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov and Valery Kharlamov (from left to right)

In the film, everything looks beautiful: Kharlamov scored in his first shift for CSKA, then sat in the reserves for a long time, and at some point Tarasov shouts: “Mikhailov, Petrov... Kharlamov!” This only happens in films. It is known for certain that Valery made his debut for the adult CSKA on October 22, 1967 in Novosibirsk. The army team won big then, but none of the nine goals were scored by Kharlamov. He scored for the first time for CSKA only after a business trip to Chebarkul, on April 23, 1968 against Wings of the Soviets.

As for the legendary troika, the idea of ​​​​replacing Veniamin Alexandrov with Valery Kharlamov was fixed in Tarasov’s head at the 1968 international Moscow tournament (later - the Izvestia Prize). That's when they started playing with each other on a regular basis. There is no point in telling what happened next.

Legend No. 8. Had an accident before the Super Series, but recovered

Perhaps this moment in the film is “embellished” the most. According to the plot, Kharlamov gets into an accident before Super Series 72, recovers for a long time and flies to Canada with an unhealed leg. Overcoming the pain, Valery scores a hat-trick in the first match and brings a sensational victory to the USSR national team with a score of 7:3.

© RIA Novosti. Yuri SomovVladimir Lutchenko, Igor Ramishevsky and Valery Kharlamov (from left to right)

In fact, everything was completely different. Kharlamov flew to Canada healthy, and had an accident four years later - on May 26, 1976 on Leningradsky Prospekt. And he didn’t drive into a truck, but into a pole, trying to avoid people getting off the bus. Then everything was like in the film: for two months he lay with a fracture of his right tibia, then he learned to walk again under the supervision of surgeon Andrei Seltsovsky, and in his ward they actually installed a sports room.

Kharlamov returned to the ice in November in a match with Krylia Sovetov. The opponents agreed to play with Valery as correctly as possible, and already in the 4th minute his partners scored a goal for him, which was met with applause from the entire palace. By the way, Boris Kulagin was coaching “Wings” at the time, the coach who was the first to see Kharlamov’s talent. Even before he got to Tarasov.

Legend No. 9. Bobby Clarke broke Kharlamov on purpose during the Super Series

As colleagues rightly write, if “ Cold War"was a symbol, then his name would be Bobby Clarke. This moment significantly influenced the development of hockey in North America. In the sixth match of the 72 Super Series, which had already moved to Moscow, Clarke caught up with Kharlamov at speed and backhanded him with his stick right leg to the ankle area. This was the turning point of the entire tournament: the Soviet team lost this and all the remaining games.

Later, the second coach of the Canadians, John Ferguson, admitted that Clark had an intention to take Kharlamov out of the game, and this was confirmed by the players of that team. Clark, however, still states that he does not remember the instructions to “kill Kharlamov.” And at the same time he repeats: “If I hadn’t cut it then, I would never have gotten out of my town of Flin Flon.” Wherever the truth may be, professional hockey learned once and for all that night main lesson: “Any means are good for results on ice.”

Legend No. 10. Kharlamov was offered a million dollars to move to the NHL

It is not known for certain what figure was offered to Kharlamov for moving to the NHL club, but such an offer did exist. Not before the Super Series, as shown in the film, but after its first match. “I can’t agree without Petrov and Mikhailov,” Kharlamov joked when they approached him with a proposal. The people were serious, so they began to prepare three contracts. Of course, in vain.

However, Kharlamov’s father would later tell that Valery had been considering the offer to escape for some time. “I would play there with great pleasure,” Boris Sergeevich recalled his son’s words. “Just understand, if I rush there, you won’t live here. They’ll rot you, bury you...”

Legend No. 11. Quarreled with mother over hockey

Kharlamov’s mother, Begonia, was from the Basque region. And, judging by numerous memoirs, her character in “Legend No. 17” is conveyed accurately. But the scriptwriters came up with a story involving a quarrel and many years of conflict with his son. But there was another case: at one of the matches she supported Valery so loudly that the police mistook her for a gypsy and took her to the police station. When Kharlamov found out about this, he bought the largest television at that time and brought it to his parents. “I beg you, watch my games at home,” Valery asked.

Legend No. 12. Was very popular with women

It is not surprising that Kharlamov was popular with women. Hockey player, half-Spanish, guitarist, the soul of anyone in the company: not a groom, but a dream. You can read somewhere that Valery called all his girls “monkeys.” Some somehow got Kharlamov’s phone number, called and remained silent on the phone. However, he was not a spree: Valery dated Marina Bazhenova for more than five years.

Tatyana Kharlamova told interesting details brother's personal life. He could agree on a date, but send his sister on it, citing being busy. Kharlamov married Irina Smirnova, who by that time had already given birth to his son Alexander. Of all love line in "Legend" the only truth is that the future wife first mistook Kharlamov for a taxi driver. In her memoirs, her sister will tell you that in 1981 Valery was close to divorce. Whether this is true or not, we will never know.

Legend No. 13. Liked to drink

Among fans of that time, there were legends about how hockey players rested. But to be honest, they themselves joked when they received two days of rest between training camps: “The city is being given over to us for plunder.” If “regime” ones existed in the USSR in those years, their names remained unknown. As for Kharlamov, he could afford alcohol. “My brother wasn’t keen on drinking, he could drink to relieve tension,” explained sister Tatyana.

Legend No. 14. Spoke Spanish

The only time Kharlamov visited the Basque Country occurred in 1956. The mother took her son and daughter when the Spaniards had the opportunity to return to their homeland, leaving for Bilbao with the goal of staying there forever. But a few months later she returned because of longing for the Union and her husband. The scene with the bullfight and Valery, of course, was completely fictitious, but this is what he easily said in Spanish- this is true.

Sister Valeria recalled that he taught Spanish obscenities to all his friends in the yard. Kharlamov could often communicate with his mother on her native language, and Begonia’s fellow countrymen were always at home. “When I’m finished with hockey, we’ll go to Spain to promote hockey. Such a country is lost even without hockey,” Kharlamov thought, either jokingly or seriously, in conversations with Valery Vasiliev.

Legend No. 15. Tikhonov unhooked Kharlamov due to personal enmity

© RIA Novosti. Vladimir FedorenkoBanner depicting a portrait of Soviet hockey player Valery Kharlamov at a KHL match

Perhaps this legend is the most difficult on this list, because it played a tragic role. Many hockey fans, even after the death of Viktor Vasilyevich Tikhonov, cannot forgive him for his decision not to include Kharlamov in the final lineup for the Canada Cup-81, which was planned as the last big tournament in his career. According to Tikhonov’s enemies, the reason for this decision was some long-standing violation of the regime by Kharlamov.

Only in 2009, in an interview with Sport-Express, Tikhonov explained his decision: “In 1981, Kharlamov turned 33. By that time, his ankles were completely twisted. Valerka beat everyone on the ice due to his mobile ankles. If He would have helped CSKA even in this state, but he was already lost in the national team. He himself realized this. On the eve of leaving for Canada we talked in the bathhouse. “Valera, don’t be offended.” - “Viktor Vasilyevich, I understand everything. No hard feelings. You haven’t punished me in a long time, although I often got into trouble when I was drunk.”

Legend No. 16. In the year of the accident I wanted to end my career

This story was told shortly before his death by Boris Kharlamov. In 1981, Tikhonov’s reforms were in full swing. He removed Mikhailov, removed Petrov. It was logical that Kharlamov should be next. This was originally supposed to happen after the Canada Cup, but the coach apparently decided to do it before. “Valera told us, I’ll play the Canada Cup, finish college, get a diploma - and hang up my skates,” said Tatyana. “Some months were not enough for my brother.”

On Thursday, August 27, 1981, at seven o’clock in the morning, an accident occurred on the 74th kilometer of the Leningradskoye Highway. The Volga was driven by Irina, who did not really know how to drive. Usually Kharlamov did not let his wife drive, but at that moment he was unable to, could not come to terms with the fact that he did not go to Winnipeg. Irina lost control on the road, slippery from the rain, and the car drifted into the oncoming lane, where it collided with a truck. All passengers of the Volga died on the spot.

Legend No. 17. Kharlamov played No. 17 all his life

The reader who has reached the end of this material should already understand why number 17 was forever withdrawn from circulation by CSKA and the Russian national team (the tradition, thank God, was preserved after the collapse of the USSR). Today, even number 71 in the national team, last decade assigned to Ilya Kovalchuk, must be earned. By the way, big mystery, will someone take No. 71 at the 2016 World Cup, since both Kovalchuk and the injured Evgeni Malkin will not be in Moscow.

I would like to finish little known fact: Kharlamov played under other numbers besides 17. He won his first world championship with the number “12”, because Evgeniy Zimin had the cherished number. And the most famous portrait Kharlamov, which you have almost certainly seen, was made with No. 14 on the shoulder. Why he played with him throughout the 77 Super Series is not known for certain. And it’s not so important, because we will remember that same Kharlamov - with the legendary number “17” on his back.

Alexander Rogulev/ R-Sport

Before the release of the film “Legend 17” by the hockey player Valeria Kharlamova knew and remembered mainly by sports fans. Now, at the mere mention of his name, gasps and sighs are heard not only from connoisseurs of real hockey battles, but also from young representatives of the fair half of humanity, who have found something of their own in the image of Kharlamov, presented by the filmmakers. According to many close friends of Valery and his relatives, Kharlamov on the screen was very reminiscent of Kharlamov in life.

Russian character with a Spanish heart

Valery Kharlamov was born on January 14, 1948 in Moscow in the family of a test fitter at the capital's Kommunar plant - a completely common profession for a Soviet family breadwinner. Much more interesting is the personality of the hockey player’s mother. Even though everyone called her Begonia, her real name was: Oribe Abad Hermane. She is a Spaniard, taken from home country to the territory of the USSR during the regime General Franco.

Perhaps it was from his mother that Valery inherited his impulsiveness in actions, a warm, passionate heart, which he completely invested in his favorite activity - hockey. From his mother he inherited ambition and a love of beauty. “I like to play beautifully,” Valery Kharlamov once said.

Hockey player Valery Kharlamov (No. 17) in the USSR-Finland World Hockey Championship match, 1975. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Somov

Play beautifully...

The passion for sports, football and hockey, instilled in him from childhood by his father, coupled with the craving for beauty and impulsiveness inherited from his mother, created the hockey player whom the whole world admired.

Few would argue that Valery Kharlamov was the best hockey player of his time. There were those who skated faster, threw more accurately, passed better and scored more. But this Kharlamov “I love to play beautifully” forced thousands of people at the stadium and millions in front of the blue screens of their KVNs to follow Kharlamov. In his every movement there was gloss, sophistication, beauty, invention.

“To this day I don’t understand how this striker left us in the cold. But I know one thing for sure: there is no other player like him...” admitted one of the leaders of the Canadian team that participated in the 1974 Super Series, when Kharlamov scored a stunningly beautiful puck into the Canadian goal.

Career

In the life of Valery Kharlamov, despite all his temperament, there were only two clubs, Moscow CSKA and Chebarkul Zvezda, in which he spent one year in exile, quickly forcing the army team to take him back. In the USSR championships, Kharlamov played 438 matches and scored 507 (293+214) points, winning 11 championship titles and winning five national cups.



Members of the USSR national ice hockey team (from left to right): Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov and Valery Kharlamov, 1971. Photo: RIA Novosti / Dmitry Donskoy

For his achievements, the young hockey player was quickly invited to play for the USSR national team, including the memorable Super Series with professionals from Canada in 1972 and 1974, when he became a real world celebrity. As a member of the USSR national team, Kharlamov won the World Championship 8 times and became the European champion 7 times. Twice he obeyed highest achievement in the life of an athlete - Olympic gold. In total, Kharlamov played 123 matches for the national team, scoring 191 (89+102) points.

He lived quickly and died quickly

“Valera was born at speed, lived at speed and died at speed,” the legendary Soviet coach Anatoly Tarasov said about Kharlamov.

Valery died very early. His life was cut short at the age of 34. On Thursday, August 27, 1981, at seven o’clock in the morning, an accident occurred at 74 km of the Leningradskoye Highway, which led to his death. That evening, the hockey player’s wife, Irina, was driving the Kharlamov Volga with number 00-17. Due to bad weather conditions and the driver’s inexperience, at some point the car jumped into the oncoming lane, where it collided with an oncoming truck. All passengers of the car returning to the city from the dacha - Valery, Irina and her cousin Sergey Ivanov- Died from their injuries.

On the evening of August 27, world news agencies spread the news: “According to TASS, the famous hockey player Valery Kharlamov, thirty, died in a car accident near Moscow this morning. three years, and his wife. They left two small children - a son and a daughter...”

Felix was already leaving the room when Stepan came to life.

Don't touch Lena! Don't touch the boil! Better bury me alive!

And wow, Felix liked this idea.

Is this your last wish?

You want to punish me, right? Punish.

Bury him alive?

“Alive,” Styopa nodded.

Without a coffin? It's not interesting without a coffin. Without a coffin you will quickly suffocate...

We have a box for the generator, we can stuff it in there,” suggested Venik.

Throw it in there.

Where to bury?

Well, not in the yard... Well, why are you standing there? Come on, take action.

Felix patted Broom on the shoulder and went up to the bedroom. He didn't worry about his boys. They know their business, so Styopa is doomed...

Where have you been? - Julia muttered without opening her eyes.

I swatted one bug. So as not to bite.

Indeed, Styopa was just a bug for him. He may have been a monster to Beagle and Lexus, but Felix was too cool for him.

And he’s cool for everyone, so you don’t have to worry about your future.

He was already falling asleep when the door to the bedroom suddenly swung open. Was it Styopa who broke the chain?

But armed masked men burst into the bedroom. Felix didn’t even have time to come to his senses when he was torn out of bed and his nose was shoved into the floor.

Has Styopa really outplayed him?..

The illegal “barrel” from which Lexus and Hound were killed, exceeding the limits of necessary defense, a long term in the future - all this was invented for Felix.

Felix was scared and nervous when he found out that Stepan could turn him in as the mastermind of the murder, and Guria got involved in the case. He contacted the local police officer, asked him for information, but ran into an operational game...

It turns out that Felix came to the attention of anti-drug fighters. These comrades even knew where he lived. But they needed to catch him red-handed, and they just couldn’t do it. And then suddenly information arrived that Felix ordered the murder... So Stepan became part of great game against him. And a small part. He just had to lure the killer, who was supposed to come after him to the cell. He himself agreed to the role of live bait...

True, then he bucked. He said that his sister was in danger and asked to see her. He himself wanted to protect her. In addition, in this case he played the role of live bait, luring Felix to his sister. Felix could have come for her in order to find Zakharsky, who once brutally beat him...

But Zakharsky himself reached out to Varya, and with what Stepan thought was priceless information. He turned to Colonel Markushin, who appreciated his enthusiasm and threw it at Kasatov. Stepan created an informal, so to speak, atmosphere for this figure, in which he told a lot of interesting things. This is, in general, what the anti-drug fighters were counting on. And they knew how to reach Felix even without this...

And these fighters also organized a leak of information for Felix. Of course, with his, Stepan’s, consent.

Great job, guy! At least introduce yourself to the order! - Colonel Markushin smiled.

Stepan knew that a trap was waiting for him in Felix’s house. I knew, but I went. Risking his life, he went. And he carried the microphone on himself. A tricky microphone that the bandits couldn't find when they searched it.

He had to get Felix talking, provoke him into admitting his guilt, and, in general, he succeeded. And Felix also ordered to kill him, and this is already a serious article...

He was very lucky that he bought his offer. He liked the idea of ​​burying Stepan alive, so he was not killed right away. And then the special forces got involved...

“I don’t need a third order,” Stepan shook his head. - I would like to go home.

He wants to see Lena - and he misses her, and she needs him.

Murder is on you,” Markushin shook his head.

Within the limits of necessary defense.

I'm talking about another murder. Troyak, Charon, Red...

Stepan had to make an effort to maintain equanimity.

Who is this?

The bandits who raped your friend,” Markushin looked at him intently.

I don't know anyone like that.

You know... A certain Denis Efimovich Golubov is accused of their murder. Do you know this one?

Don’t you know Troyakin?

And don’t you wonder why Golubov killed Troyakin? Or did he not kill him?

I don’t understand what we’re talking about...

And I understand. You killed Troyakin. And you killed his friends too.

Who told you that?

Solovkin. He was going to take revenge on you for these bastards. Well, if you believe him,” the colonel grinned patronizingly.

And did you believe him?

Why should I believe him? There is no evidence against you. And the case was closed due to the death of the accused... But you and I know what’s what... You’re a risky guy, Styopa. And with Felix he helped us a lot. We will spin it to the fullest, don’t even doubt it.

That'll be one less bastard.

No, there's more than one bastard there. There's a whole network of bastards there. We’ll take everyone, we’ll split everyone... You did well with Kasatov. There is another bastard of the same order. Maybe you can take it on?

As who?

Well, you are taking revenge for your friend...

Thanks to Skatsev: he could have left Stepan alone with justice, but no, he went to Zakharsky to ask him about Felix. And with this he pushed a stone out of place, which brought down an entire avalanche on Solovkin’s head.

Igor Petrovich wanted to see Stepan as his son-in-law, and that’s why he was worried about him. But he worries in vain: Stepan is released and returns to Lena. It seems that someone promised to put a bed for him in her room?..