How Red Square once hosted a soccer match for Stalin
On July 6, 1936, the Spartak Moscow Football Club performed an exhibition match right on the Red Square.
The Red Square had seen plenty of athletes over the years: sports parades marched along the cobblestones beside the Kremlin walls and Soviet athletes formed incredible human figures.
But, that year, the first-ever USSR Football Championship had kicked off. Stalin wasn't a fan of the game, but sports officials wanted to get him interested. So, during the annual All-Union Sports Parade on July 6, they decided to arrange a short exhibition match, just 15 minutes long. Spartak's first team was to play against the reserves.
A carpet for the entire Red Square
The Red Square had seen plenty of athletes over the years: sports parades marched along the cobblestones beside the Kremlin walls, while Soviet athletes formed incredible human figures. But, how do you run and play on cobblestones? A quick decision had to be made: specially for the match, the entire Red Square was to be covered with a carpet. Its area totaled 9,000 square meters!
The carpet was stitched together specifically for the match. Spartak player Nikolai Starostin recalled: “At night, when traffic on the square had stopped [back then, Red Square was not yet pedestrian-only!], some 300 Spartak athletes – from the youngest to the most famous – took shoemaker's needles and about 10 meters of strong twine each and, crawling on their knees, stitched one felt panel to another.”
At the order of the Soviet road police, the carpet had to be rolled up by morning, so it wouldn't interfere with daytime vehicle traffic.
Stalin's first soccer match
According to Starostin, this was the first time Stalin had ever attended a soccer match. Legend has it that the leader was supposed to give a signal to stop the match, if he didn't like it. But, instead of 15 minutes, the players ended up playing almost an entire half, about 40 minutes. It ended with a score of 4:3 in favor of the first team. Stalin was pleased and even applauded.
Not surprising, as, in essence, it was a rehearsed football performance. Goals were scored with headers, back-heels, jumping, diving, from corners and from penalties. The numerous parade spectators were equally delighted.
From that day on, soccer became the people's favorite game in the USSR. But, no more soccer matches were ever held on the square again.
