As early as the 1920s, Starosin had already had a feud with Beria. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

At that time, the young Beria was particularly fond of participating in football, and one day in the 1920s, he played a football match with Starotin.

In the end, Beria, an amateur football player and a professional anti-rebel officer, was defeated by Nikolai Starostin, a professional football player, and the specific score is only known to the two of them.

It's not a big deal, it's just an ordinary game, not a championship tournament. But the process and result of this game have always existed in Beria's heart, and he is haunted by it.

Beria rose through the ranks of the Soviet Union's anti-rebellion system and became NKVD Commissar of the USSR in 1938. Nikolai Starostin, on the other hand, devoted himself to football, and later, with the support of Kossomol, the secretary of the Komsomol, founded Spartak Moscow Football Club.

Although Beria developed in the anti-terrorist system, his interest in football remained undiminished for many years. In 1938, when he became NKVD, he devoted a lot of resources to the Dynamo football clubs under the Ministry of Internal Affairs (including Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Tbilisi, Dynamo Kiev, Dynamo Leningrad and Dynamo Minsk).

However, Beria's investment did not bring much effect. In 1938, none of the six Dynamo teams made it to the top three of the Soviet Union's top league, and the previous champion, Dynamo Moscow, could only finish the league in 5th place; His arch-rival, Spartak Moscow under Nikolai Starostin, won the league title.

In 1939, Dynamo Tbilisi finally won the season in second place, but Spartak Moscow still won the championship, while Dynamo Moscow, which he focused on, finished in seventh place.

In order to be able to avenge the defeat that year, Beria even did not hesitate to abuse his power and falsify incriminating evidence for Starostin, intending to drive him out of the arena and send him to work in the Gulag. Even Kossolov, the secretary of the Komsomol who supported Spartak behind his back, was purged by Beria.

Fortunately, Molotov, then chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, did not sign an arrest warrant for Starotin, which allowed the footballer to escape, but three years later, in 1942, Beria again forged evidence against Starostin and other Spartak players, and the relevant arrest warrant was signed by his henchman, the secretary of the Central Committee, Malenkov.

As soon as the arrest warrant was issued, the main players of Spartak Moscow, as well as the core figures of the team such as Starostin, were arrested overnight and sent to work in the Gulag.

In the Gulag, the football-loving Gulag commander gave him many privileges, and he was respected and loved by the Gulag Interior Army and other prisoners. His job in the camp was nothing more than teaching people to play football.

It was not until 1948 that Nikolai Starostin, before his sentence was completed, was brought out by Stalin's son, Vasily Stalin, then commander of the Air Force, to serve as the coach of the Air Force team in Moscow, which once caused a quarrel between Vasily Stalin and Beria.

After a round of negotiations, he was exiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Akmolinsk (present-day Astana, Kazakhstan), where he coached the local team. It was not until 1953, after Beria's dismissal, that he was officially released from prison and returned to serving as president of the Spartak Moscow Football Club and coach of the Soviet national team.

Thinking of the fate of the man in front of him, Manturov felt both admiration and helplessness. What I admired was that his contribution to the sport of football, to the working class, even infected the commander of the Internal Army in the Gulag, giving him privileges in the battalion. Helplessly, Manturov, as the deputy prime minister of the Soviet Union, did not have any countermeasures to avoid the victims of football heroes and imprisonment.

"Comrade Starostin, what do you think of the 4-3-3 formation that I just described?" Manturov, modestly, asked Starosin for his proposal.

"It's a defensive-minded formation, with four defenders and three midfielders, which is expected to achieve a good defensive effect, which is more defensive than any of the current general formations.

However, this formation only has three strikers, and the attacking force is relatively weak, making it difficult to score. ”

"It's true that the 4-3-3 offensive force is really not very good compared to the current five-front and six-forward formations. But when you have the ball, you can actually put two of the midfielders into the attack, creating six strikers to play an offensive role. When defending, it is also possible to have only one of the midfielders retreat to the back, leaving two midfielders in front and ready to counter-attack.

If your team is leading in the first half, you can try switching to this defensive formation to maintain the lead. Otherwise, if the current 3-1-6 formation is maintained, the strengthened Dynamo will easily break through the weak defence, score and even reverse the result. ”

Starosin thought about it carefully and felt that this formation could actually be tried, and he didn't dare not listen to what Manturov, the deputy prime minister, said, "Let's see how the game goes." ”

The game started quickly, and Dynamo Moscow, which has always been strong in attack, was the first to get the chance to possess the ball. Dynamo, who arranged five forwards, after a few passes and runs, actually easily broke through Spartak's defense and pushed it to Spartak's backfield.

Thankfully, in the final moments, Spartak defender Andrei Starostin, Nikola Starostin's younger brother, capitalised on a mistake by Dynamo striker Soroviev and snatched possession from Soloviev with a beautiful tackle.

Just as Andrei Starostin was about to pass the ball to midfielder Konstantin Marinin, another Dynamo striker, Ealing, stole the ball from Andrei's feet and passed it to Vasily Trofimov.

The unattended Trofimov received the ball, rushed to the Spartak penalty area in one go, aimed in the direction of the goal, and shot with his feet, and the ball flew quickly to the upper left corner of the goal.

Fortunately, Spartak goalkeeper A. Akimov reacted quickly enough to catch the speeding ball in time to save the day.

Since then, similar scenes have occurred several times, proving that Spartac's three-back-one-midfield formation is not enough to cope with the attack of five fierce strikers.

In this situation, Nikolai Starostin finally got tempted, and he decided to change the Spartak formation to Manturov's "invented" 4-3-3 to strengthen Spartak's defensive ability, and after Spartak got possession, he quickly launched a surprise counterattack against Dynamo, who only had two defenders.

After the change of formation, Dynamo still maintained an attack-oriented style of play, Soloviev took the ball and rushed to Spartak's defense, but he found that he was targeted by two defenders, and the passing route to other teammates was also tightly sealed by Spartak's midfielders and defenders, and if he passed, he would definitely be intercepted by Spartak's players.

Soloveyev, who was highly skilled, performed a few stunts and twisted Spartak defender Andrei Starostin. But before he could react, the ball at his feet was snatched by Spartak defender Vasily Sokolov.

Sokolov, who had gained possession, then passed the ball to Grazkov, who was pushed from the front line to the halfway line, and Grazkov passed the ball to another midfielder, V. Stepanov, who was inserted into the opposition.

At this time, Spartak's three forwards had already walked into the Dynamo penalty area, and Dynamo, who used a two-back formation, could only defend two of them. As for the remaining one, Viktor Semenov, who scored the most goals, had the best ability, and was the most well-known, was unattended, and unknowingly, went to a favorable position.

Stepanov seized the opportunity, made a penetrating pass, and with unmistakable accuracy, passed the ball to Semenov's feet.

Semenov received the ball, rushed forward a few steps and stepped into the box area. He calmly controlled the ball, aimed at the direction of the lower right corner of the goal, and shot forward, Spartak led 1:0!

In history, the first goal of this game was originally scored by Dynamo's C. Ealing, but the modern football formation brought by Manturov strengthened Spartak's defensive ability and counter-attacking ability, and changed the result in one fell swoop.

"Ulla!" In the stands on Spartak's side, neat, fierce cheers rang out.

As soon as the cries stopped, Igor said to Manturov: "Volodya, I didn't expect your 4-3-3 formation to work so quickly. ”

"Igor, didn't you say you wanted to talk to me about business? Why don't you start now? (To be continued.) )