My open letter began this way:
"Dear respected Viktor Vasilevich!
"For the last six years, from that very day of our particularly personal, intimate discussion (when) you made it known at the general meeting of the team that you blamed me for a 'weak game,' we have been in no way successful in speaking with you sincerely. Such a situation did not present itself although we worked together..."
There is no sense to bring in more excerpts from the letter. Several concerned the myth surrounding Tikhonov and the methods he mercilessly used to support his formula that "for the achievement of goals, all means are good."
I began with the business of inviting players from allover the country, and the manner in which the talented ones were transformed into instant military officers, and recalled the manner in which I unexpectedly became a lieutentant. I outlined the way the players' sports fate and their futures were controlled, and the way in which they were kept from their families, all with the aim of placing them under the absolute control of the senior coach.
"So you, Viktor Vasilevich, have become transformed in the last years into this hockey monarch: you punish who you want, you pardon who you want! How you accosted Sasha Mogilny, the very youngest playel; when he did not wish to become an officer in the Red Army. An old Cossack method: having scared him, you did not take him to the exhibition game in Japan. And they pondered, what is wrong with you. And Sasha obediently wrote the report (joined the army)"
I am not a prophet. I did not imagine the dramatic turning point in the fate of Alexander Mogilny - that within six months of this publication he would defect to join the NHL Buffalo Sabres. I do not think the article and Mogilny's understanding of it were an essential point in influencing his action. The surroundings, the situation on the team, the insidious appointment to officer's rank, which amounted to enslaving the player - all these things and his own character combined to push him to the decision to leave. I could not avoid bringing out those things which continually annoyed me.
"For 10 months of the year we were forced to be separated from home: endless trips, games, and if not games then training camps. A harsh regime. Listing what was allowed us was easy: There was a lot that we could do. They nursed us wonderfully well. We could play chess or cards, and we could sleep. All else that remained for us to do was to train. After the game we were on the bus. Our wives and kiddies waved us "goodbye." They are going home, thanks to you, Viktor Vasilevich! (It's amazing) how our wives could give birth to our children (considering the training schedule). These normal, mutual relationship between a hockey player and his wife, do not have a part in your program."
In reality this system of the National team was accepted in all clubs. The problem itself had a common sound. But in the CSRA, thanks to the army subordination and the character of the senior coach, all was taken to a higher, utterly unacceptable level. I add here to the emotional perception of the game. Mood, the outer composition of the player and the team as a whole, all determine the outcome of the battle. And those training camps drove a weird anxiety into everyone.
"The athlete's life in Soviet hockey is short. On the eve of a series of championships, the composition of the National team is announced in the newspapers and fans write letters. 'Where are our famous stars?' they ask. :4re they really trying so hopelessly that they can not even go out onto the ice?' Why did Vladislav Tretiak, the most popular Soviet hockey player in the world, leave the game at 32? The answer is simple. They would not allow Tretiak, even in view of his exceptionalness, to prepare for the games on his own, at home."
In the structure of Soviet sport only Goskomsport of the USSR and the directors of the administration of soccer and hockey of Kolosky are higher than the CSRA and Tikhonov. Here you would expect recognition of the Tikhonov-esque methods, the senselessness and humiliation of the plan as it was used by the senior coach. But no.
"So, from year to year you trained people as if they were pawns in your hands. You must think that in Goskomsport they also do not rack their brains very much about the psychological preparation of sportsmen. Here, Viktor Vasilevich, you use influence and immense respect: From time to time you give Goskomsport results. 'He won the latest World Championship! Thank you, comrade Tikhonov, for your work!'"
Then came the lines that appeared in the opening of this book, the exposure of the injections and drug test cheating that were the article's knockout punch in the eyes of the foreign press.Who considers this a loss? And who will answer for it?
Two other quotes from the article require no commentary:
"...life itself shows and proves that your training style, which probably gave positive results in the past, covered the shortcomings, stopped to justify itself, bursting at the seams (like) the very administration team system placed in this country. Already you will not be able to hide from anyone,' it is seen by everyone - even by Goskomsport, which still silently waited it out because we were still involved at a tournament - that you made mistake after mistake."
And:
"The last years we won on account of good physical conditioning. But, today, other teams of the world go out onto the ice showing endurance, able to maintain a high tempo of the game that was imposed on them. In a word, you can no longer impress anyone with biceps alone."
My open letter closed this way:
"The country is learning to think in a new way, It is high time to take this upon yourself, sportsmen!"
