Why did hockey never take off in Ukraine?

[AintLifeGrand]

Why is this?

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[Coffee]

Bump

 

[Firsov99]

Why is this?

Because the Ukrainian hockey had Russian roots. From the early 60s up until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian hockey relied very heavily on infusion of Russia-born players and coaches. Ukraine did start producing some quality home-grown talent by the mid 80s, but the dissolution of the USSR and the ensuing economic collapse in the 90s have stopped the influx of Russian-born players and basically killed the local budding program.

 

[VILARGOD]

edit

 

[Albatros]

Hockey was pretty big in and around Lwów (Lviv) before WW2 with a number of teams and even two different champions in the Polish championship, but was then completely destroyed by the Soviets practically overnight and never recovered. Most players left for Poland or the overseas and the remaining were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

 

[Gerulaitis]

Sokol Kiev was a rather good team in the 80s.


But most Ukrainian stars have never lived in Ukraine and never represented its teams:

Bucyk
Mosienko
Bossy
Tretiak
Sawchuk
Broda
Hawerchuk
...to name a few

 

[Albatros]

Ironically the first NHL players born in Ukraine (Hoffinger, Gottselig, Leier, Bondra) generally weren't Ukrainian, on the other hand Tkaczuk despite being first generation was born at a DP camp in Germany and Harbaruk in Poland.

 

[ViD]

Sokol Kiev was a rather good team in the 80s.


But most Ukrainian stars have never lived in Ukraine and never represented its teams:

Bucyk
Mosienko
Bossy
Tretiak
Sawchuk
Broda
Hawerchuk
...to name a few

Does Tretiak have Ukrainian roots ? He was born in Moscow region and both his parents were from there

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Hockey was pretty big in and around Lwów (Lviv) before WW2 with a number of teams and even two different champions in the Polish championship, but was then completely destroyed by the Soviets practically overnight and never recovered. Most players left for Poland or the overseas and the remaining were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Just curious on some further background about the destruction of Ukrainian hockey by the Soviet Union post World War II? How exactly was this carried out?

 

[Albatros]

Just curious on some further background about the destruction of Ukrainian hockey by the Soviet Union post World War II? How exactly was this carried out?

Regarding clubs, the Soviets categorically banned all previously existing organizations and established their own, but this was before Latvia was annexed and the game really spread to the Soviet Union from Riga a little bit later so there wasn't a lot of support for ice hockey as it didn't exist elsewhere in Soviet Ukraine except these newly annexed territories (formerly Romanian Bukovina also had some teams). Those athletes not subject to political repression could still join the new Dynamo, Spartak, Burevestnik societies and play some games, including a small championship tournament eventually. This was the pinnacle of all Soviet hockey at the time.

Soon after, the area fell under German occupation and the ethnic Ukrainian pre-war team Ukraina Lwów/Lviv was reactivated, but many players fled with the Germans or were punished for their collaboration after the war while the Poles generally repatriated to the new territory of Poland and hockey didn't recover even to the extent it had existed during the first period of Soviet rule. A small exception was the Carpatho-Ukrainian region that was only at this point annexed from Czechoslovakia, Spartak Uzhhorod even participated in the first edition of the Soviet league in 1946. But really Kyiv and Kharkiv were the relevant centers of Ukrainian hockey from that on.

Regarding players, you had many rounds of political repression and most of those that hadn't already been imprisoned or executed fled overseas or were repatriated to Poland. So in short the fabric was broken and the actors dispersed, some of it intentionally and some due to the innate flaws of the Soviet rule.