Anatoly Tarasov

Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov was born on 10 December 1918 and died on 23 June 1995. A Russian who played and coached both ice hockey and football, he is best remembered for building the USSR’s ice hockey program. Often called “the father of Russian ice hockey,” he turned the Soviet national team into a global powerhouse. In 1974, he became one of the first Russians inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders category, and he was part of the IIHF Hall of Fame’s first class in 1997.

Ice hockey career

After World War II, the Soviet Ministry of Sports tasked Tarasov with creating a hockey program from nothing. He started a hockey department at CSKA Moscow, the army’s sports club, using little more than a few old rule books. Before this, bandy—a sport like field hockey played on ice—was the most popular ice sport in Russia. The Russian style of hockey, with its focus on skating, offense, and passing, still shows bandy’s influence.

Tarasov coached or co-coached CSKA Moscow from 1946 to 1975, with three short breaks in 1960, 1964, and 1972. He led the Soviet national team as head coach from 1958 to 1960, then served as assistant to Arkady Chernyshev from 1963 to 1972. He fell in love with hockey when it arrived in the USSR, and his ideals shaped the game into something fast, graceful, and team-oriented. He believed real teamwork came from a shared purpose and care for each member, so he made the team approve every player before they could make the lineup.

Tarasov created many new training methods, most centered on passing. He argued that if his team made 270 passes to an opponent’s 150, they had 120 more chances to create a free player. His practices used pylons and simple drills that might have seemed odd to North Americans, but he saw them as ways to perfect skills. He kept players moving constantly, calling this the assembly method.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Tarasov was a player-coach for CSKA Moscow. He coached early stars like Boris Afanasiev, Aleksandr Komarov, Grigory Mkrtychan, Nikolai Sologubov, Andrey Starovoytov, and Dmitry Ukolov. In the 1960s, his system produced players such as Vitaly Davydov, Anatoli Firsov, Vyacheslav Starshinov, Veniamin Alexandrov, Alexander Ragulin, Alexander Yakushev, Konstantin Loktev, and goalie Viktor Konovalenko.