Alexander Starostin: career and fate of the Soviet football player

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Starostin Alexander Petrovich is a Soviet professional footballer who played as a right back. In the period from 1935 to 1937, he played for the Spartak Moscow club, where he was captain for several seasons. Born on August 8, 1903 in the village of Pogost (Pereyaslavsky district, Russian Empire).

Soviet football player Alexander Starostin: sports biography

During his football career he played for the following Moscow clubs:

• RGO Sokol (from 1918 to 1921).
• MKS (in 1922).
• Krasnaya Presnya (from 1923 to 1925).
• Pishchevik (from 1925 to 1930).
• Promkooperatsia (in 1931, then in 1934).
• Dukat (1932-1933).
• Spartak (from 1935 to 1937).

Sports achievements of a football player

• Winner of the autumn championship of the Soviet Union in 1936 (with Spartak Moscow).
• Bronze medal in the spring championship of the USSR in 1936 ("SpartakMoscow”).
• Silver medal in the championship of the Soviet Union in 1937 (with the same team).
• Winner of the football championships of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1927 and 1928 as part of the Pishchevik club. And also in 1931 as part of the Promkooperatsia team.
• Vice-champion of the RSFSR in the club "Dukat" (1932).
• Champion of the Moscow Region in 1927 (as part of the Pishchevik club) and 1934 (as part of the Promkooperatsiya team).

In total, Alexander Starostin played in the highest national championship (USSR) 18 official matches.

Performance at international competitions

In the period from 1927 to 1936, Starostin defended the honor of the Moscow football team (since 1933 he was appointed team captain). From 1927 to 1934 he played for the national team of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Soviet Russia team). From 1931 to 1935, Alexander Starostin played for the national team of the Soviet Union, where he played eleven friendly matches (since 1932 he was the team captain). Repeated champion of the football championship, the All-Union Spartakiad, in 1928, 1931, 1932 and 1935. True, Alexander played only ten official matches at this tournament.

In 1934 defender Alexander Starostin took part in the first games with foreign professional clubs. For example, in 1937 he played against the national team of the Basque Country (an autonomous state in northern Spain). This yearwon the International World Cup (Paris, France). Also, the Soviet footballer was the winner of the football championship, held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1937 (the third World Workers' Olympiad).

Alexander Starostin's camp planid

In October 1942, the footballer was arrested by the senior investigator of the special department of the NKVD of the Moscow Military District, Lieutenant Shilovsky. Alexander had three brothers who were arrested six months earlier. The investigative proceedings lasted for eleven months. In October 1943, the Military Commissariat of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union passed a sentence on the Starostin brothers and their five comrades who worked in the sports complex of the Moscow Spartak club (Denisov, Ratner, Sysoev, Leuta and Arkhangelsky). These citizens of the Soviet Union were accused of being members of an anti-Soviet group allegedly led by Nikolai Starostin. The convicts were charged with anti-Soviet statements. Allegedly, after the outbreak of the war, their underground propaganda activities unfolded on a large scale. It was written in the verdict that the Starostin brothers and their five colleagues praised the capitalist order of the countries of Western Europe during sports trips. In parallel with this, the “anti-Soviet group” allegedly used its official position in the industrial cooperation of the Spartak Moscow football club. They were also accused of stealing sports equipment and distributing the proceeds among themselves. It should be noted that the accusationembezzlement of state property in the verdict did not contain a single reliable confirmation.

Charge of treason

The Military Court of the USSR established the damage caused to the state by Starostin's anti-Soviet gang in the amount of 160 thousand rubles. However, the proportion of funds spent was different for each participant. So, the verdict stated that Nikolai Starostin spent 28,000 rubles, Alexander Starostin - 12,000 rubles, Andrei and Peter 6,000 rubles each. In addition to the above allegations, all members of the "gang" were accused of betraying the Motherland, however, the judicial and investigative proceedings could not provide weighty supporting facts.

Judgment of brothers

"The Starostin Group" was convicted under Article 58-10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (responsibility for counter-revolutionary activities). Football player Alexander Starostin, like his brothers, was sentenced to 10 years in a camp. They were also sentenced to a five-year disenfranchisement (a criminal sentence that deprives the convicted person of certain personal, civil, and political rights).

Camp imprisonment Starostin served in Usollag in the Molotov region (one of the Gulag camps founded on February 5, 1938). However, already on December 2, 1943, Alexander left this camp, and in February 1944 he was enrolled in the Pechersk ITL (Komi Republic). From here, the Soviet football player wrote a letter to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin himself with a requestsend him to the front line. During the period of camp imprisonment, Alexander worked on the railway, where a few months later he became the head of the brigade. In the summer of 1944, he was approved to work as a football coach in the Pechersk forced labor camp of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

At the end of July 1954, the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union issued a decision on the release of A. Starostin from forced settlement. Later he served as Deputy Chairman of the Republican Football Federation. A. Starostin died in Moscow in 1981.