A Year Like a Lifetime: Viktor Yaroslavtsev’s 80th Birthday

Viktor Yaroslavtsev`s appearance at the 1967 World Championship in Vienna brought immense joy to Spartak fans. For a long time, young players from their club hadn`t been called up to the USSR national team, but on this occasion, the coaching staff, comprising representatives from CSKA and Dynamo, included two Spartak players: Yaroslavtsev and Alexander Yakushev.

Their role was to alternately support their distinguished teammates, four-time world champions Boris Mayorov and Vyacheslav Starshinov. For these young players, it was a crucial, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity. Alexander Yakushev, though very young, already showed immense potential and seized this chance. At the time, it seemed Viktor Yaroslavtsev, just past his twentieth birthday, would also make rapid strides.

The coaches favored Yaroslavtsev, being older and more skilled. Though not a flamboyant player, he confidently embraced the role of a “workhorse.” While all eyes were on the brilliant Mayorov-Starshinov duo, it was crucial to match their high level of play. Yaroslavtsev delivered: he played five strong games in Vienna (Yakushev played two), was particularly noted for effectively shadowing Swedish leader Nils Nilsson in the “Tre Kronor” match, and performed excellently in the decisive game against Canada. He returned to Moscow with a gold medal in his debut year at a major tournament, which promised a brilliant future, yet…

There are various explanations for why this young triumphant player`s national team career didn`t continue with similar success. Evgeny Zimin explicitly stated that rapid fame went to Yaroslavtsev`s head; he “became a star,” lowered his self-expectations, and gradually slowed down his linemates, Alexander Yakushev and Vladimir Shadrin. Another theory suggests that experts initially mistook Shadrin as the cause of the line`s decelerated progress, given his role as a center determined the trio`s rhythm, while the true root of the problem lay with Yaroslavtsev. Most likely, it was a combination of factors.

It`s important to remember that after their triumphant championship victory, the great Vsevolod Bobrov, who in his short tenure had given Spartak a championship polish, left the team. Bobrov believed in the young players he nurtured, and the Yaroslavtsev-Shadrin-Yakushev line was one of his finest creations. There`s no doubt that, had he continued with Spartak, he would have found ways to support the young players and prevent Viktor Yaroslavtsev from resting too much on his laurels.

Starshinov, it seems, noted that Yaroslavtsev didn`t so much “lower his standards” as stop progressing. He remained technically skilled, intelligent, reasonably fast, scoring and assisting, but he wasn`t improving. The situation, however, demanded continuous development, as competition intensified both within Spartak and, even more so, in the national team. Viktor hadn`t yet solidified his position as a key player, and his spot on the national team was quickly taken by the rapidly improving Evgeny Zimin, who went on to the Grenoble Olympics.

At Spartak, the season following their championship was mixed but far from a failure. The arrival of Nikolai Karpov helped the team recover and laid the groundwork for a new surge, building on Bobrov`s principles but with more seasoned young leaders. The youth line, undeniably led by Viktor Yaroslavtsev in their championship year, slowed down the following season. Yaroslavtsev, as the eldest, still held his ground, but with difficulty, and he finished the 1969 championship season in a different line. This change seemed spontaneous – a situational replacement of Yaroslavtsev by Martynuk – but in reality, it had clearly been brewing for a long time. Alexander Martynuk played simply, didn`t overhandle the puck, didn`t hinder his linemates from showcasing their best qualities, and the 22-year-old Alexander Yakushev scored around fifty goals, cementing his place in history. At 23, Viktor Yaroslavtsev was forced into a secondary role, something he gradually accepted.

Perhaps “accepted” isn`t quite the right word. He didn`t overtly lose his playing qualities, but his ambitions gradually diminished, and maintaining a high level became increasingly difficult. The status of a key player for the second national team wasn`t enough to fuel his ambition, but this was compensated by a more relaxed lifestyle. Viktor Mikhailovich was popular among female admirers and enjoyed social gatherings; though not known for prolonged sprees, he didn`t deny himself pleasures. What could be done about it? He remained a core player, a true Spartak loyalist who couldn`t imagine himself outside his home team, and was, without irony, a good mentor for young forwards Gennady Krylov and Konstantin Klimov. This applied to his game, but not his personal life. He was a good, responsive, and kind person. Fans remembered his best year but also somehow accepted his secondary role. By the early 70s, no one expected great feats from Viktor Yaroslavtsev – and he himself no longer sought them.

Yet, as all his teammates noted, he had the potential to become an outstanding, if not great, player, a potential that was evident from his childhood.

Viktor Yaroslavtsev followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Valery, although he didn`t seriously take up hockey until he was 13. Despite starting late, he quickly showed promise, and within three years, he was close to Spartak`s main squad. In the club`s first championship season, Viktor fell ten games short of receiving a gold medal, but he was only 16 and already playing for the country`s most appealing team. Yaroslavtsev`s progress significantly accelerated with the arrival of Vsevolod Bobrov, who loved discovering and nurturing young talents. Bobrov believed in Yaroslavtsev, and this trust inspired him – at 18, Viktor was already invited to the USSR national team.

These were two friendly matches with an experimental national team squad, where the young Spartak player`s partners were Yuri Paramonoshkin and Evgeny Groshev. Both were significantly older than Yaroslavtsev and, by and large, no longer had major prospects for the national team, but they supported their young teammate. The following season saw two more friendly matches, both against Canada, where his partners were club teammates Georgy Savin and Alexander Yakushev. All these were one-off call-ups, focused on future potential, and in the 1966/1967 season, they finally paid off.

In November 1966, a significant event occurred in a friendly match against Czechoslovakia: two Yakushevs played on the same line – the already famous Viktor in a mentoring role and Alexander as a debutant, alongside Viktor Yaroslavtsev. The “Three Ys” line didn`t impress as much as the Chernychev and Tarasov line, but it did play for the national team for some time, with each even scoring a goal in a friendly against the Swedes at the end of 1966. However, during preparations for the World Championship, the coaches concluded that it was too early to throw the young Spartak duo into intense battles. Thus, for one of the most vibrant World Championships of the 1960s, Yaroslavtsev and Yakushev were “assigned” to play with Starshinov and Boris Mayorov.

This was an excellent period for Viktor Yaroslavtsev. Two gold medals in one year, two impressive successes, and he was directly involved in both. Yaroslavtsev concluded the year playing for the second national team at the “Izvestia Trophy” tournament. It seemed that this “demotion” was only temporary – after all, this was Viktor Yaroslavtsev, a hockey player with a complete skill set, capable of perplexing the country`s best defensemen with his unconventional moves, refined technique, sharp mind, and versatility; he could even play as a center forward.

However, even then, astute observers noticed that Yaroslavtsev was a “mood player”: his brilliant performances could easily and without apparent reason be followed by uninspired ones, where his game simply wouldn`t click. This trait became more pronounced over the years – Yaroslavtsev couldn`t consistently maintain a high level. And without such consistency, great players are not made.

Towards the end of his playing career, he still shone brightly in Austrian Kapfenberg, becoming arguably one of the first Soviet legionnaires to score over one hundred goals in just over three seasons. Afterward, he became an excellent mentor for young Spartak players, who simply adored him, as attested by Igor Boldin, Konstantin Korotkov, and Dmitry Shamolin. It was Viktor Mikhailovich Yaroslavtsev who nurtured the Korotkov-Shamolin line. Korotkov`s words about Yaroslavtsev require no further comment: “A saint. My first coach, and that`s forever. Kind, responsive. He loved us very much. We understood him with half a word. And, of course, we respected him immensely.”

The reasons why Viktor Mikhailovich`s life took such a sharp turn for the worse are largely unknown. It`s clear that the 1990s were difficult for everyone, and “some kind of breakdown occurred” in him. According to Konstantin Korotkov, it reached a point where this once self-assured and professionally accomplished man “sometimes literally had nothing to buy food with.” His end was tragic and inexplicable: Viktor Mikhailovich Yaroslavtsev was found on the street at the age of 50 with injuries incompatible with life. In some encyclopedias, his year of death wasn`t even specified.

A commemorative banner in honor of Viktor Yaroslavtsev was raised to the rafters of Spartak`s home arena in 2012. Many then recalled this brilliant young man, once the pride and glory of Spartak, who played for the red-and-whites for a full 12 years and never betrayed their rhombus emblem. And the fact that only one stellar year remains in memory – that is fate, which cannot be argued with.