Passovotchka: Moscow Dynamo

On 4 November 1945 a party from Moscow Dynamo Football Club travelled to Britain to play four matches against top British teams. They departed thirty-three days later, leaving a trail of controversy in their undefeated wake. On the pitch, the they played exciting football, displaying their technically superior strikers. Off the pitch, they were constantly involved in disputes with the FA, the British clubs, the match referees and the press. With the Cold War not yet begun, everyone claimed to want to keep politics out of sport. But the Soviet authorities were clearly anxious that Dynamo’s performance should reflect well on the State; and there were many in the British press eager to make political capital out of the controversy surrounding the tour. Passavotchka contains a blow-by-blow account of the tour itself, a history of the Moscow Dynamo club, and a discussion of the state of British football at the end of the war. The result is both a vivid portrait of club football’s early forays into the international arena and a fascinating picture of two cultures helplessly colliding.