“There isn’t future without history.”
These words were spoken by Lokomotiv head coach Igor Cherevchenko when Lokomotiv, after years of investigation, officially announced the changing of the club’s founding date from August 12, 1936 to July 23, 1922. There are few people who know more about the values of Lokomotiv than Cherevchenko, who played for Lokomotiv between 1996 and 2001 under the legendary maestro Yuri Semin, and has been coaching at the club since 2008.
“The club hasn’t become older,” the Tajik head coach added, “But wiser. I want to thank everyone in the name of the team. We’ll do everything to fill the museum up with as many trophies as possible.”
The investigations started around five years ago, when Lokomotiv Museum opened in 2011. As club president Olga Smorodskaya confirmed later, “The opening of the first Museum [on a football club] in Russia raised questions on our founding date. As a consequence, we decided to explore our archives and to examine all the material we had. Now, we can finally say that Lokomotiv Moscow was founded on July 23, 1922.”
According to the study, Lokomotiv was previously called ‘Kazanka’ and played its first game in July 1922 in the third subgroup class B of the Moscow League against FC Izmaylovo, managing an easy 7-0 victory. However, just a year later, the club was renamed to KOR, short for October Revolution Club, and on August 12, 1923 made its debut in the 6th group. In 1931, KOR was once again renamed and received the name the Team of Masters of the Moscow-Kazan Railway. It wasn’t until 1936 that the club finally became the Lokomotiv we know today.
Over the years, both fans and club have been unsure about when to put the start of Lokomotiv’s history. On the one hand, some considered 1922 as the founding year because it’s when the club was actually established. On the other hand, others preferred 1936 because that was when Lokomotiv received the current name. While the club decided to adopt 1936, more and more fans changed their mind and struggled to modify it.
Despite the appointment of Smorodskaya in 2010, the problems surrounding the discussion became even worse. Fans started boycotting matches, and the atmosphere at Cherkizovo, where Lokomotiv’s stadium and training facilities are based, turned sour. Hence, a group of fans decided to draft a series of points on why relations with the leadership had deteriorated. Among these points, red-green supporters included the founding date, which caused discontent and resentment. Although Smorodskaya ordered an investigation to clarify the issue, fans continued complaining and protesting against her. In 2014, on the site 1981.ru it was published a full inquiry that finally demonstrated once for all that Loko was established in 1922.
Now, six years later, on February 6 2016, Smorodskaya admitted for the first time that she wanted to change the founding date.
With the official change of the founding date, a special celebration was held at Lokomotiv Stadium on April 5th with the participation of important Russian football personalities such as Lokomotiv’s chairman of the board Anatoliy Mescheryakov, Russian Football Union vice-president Nikita Simonyan, Russian Premier League president Sergey Pryadkin, Lokomotiv executive assistant to the president Vladimir Korotkov, legendary Lokomotiv player Dmitriy Loskov and then Smorodskaya, Cherevchenko as well as current Lokomotiv players and Russian internationals Guilherme, Roman Shishkin, Dmitriy Tarasov, Aleksandr Samedov and Aleksey Miranchuk.
At the celebration, Samedov immediately underlined the importance of the event: “This is a very important day for the club. We’ll try to improve the history by winning new trophies.” Korotkov used the opportunity to wish all the best to Cherevchenko and the squad: “I’m glad we managed to find the truth,” he said, “I hope our coaching staff will continue writing the history of this club.”
Dmitriy Loskov, who played for Lokomotiv between 1997 and 2007 as well as 2010 and 2013, was more philosophical and stated: “I want the young generations to know and to remember the history of Lokomotiv forever.”
Новое знамя pic.twitter.com/n5AGhnvmrd
— Júlia Yakovleva (@JuliaRebelde) April 5, 2016
In a joyous atmosphere, Lokomotiv was clearly at the center of attention. With the ‘Railroaders’ currently occupying third place in the Russian Premier League, this act could be seen as a rapprochement to fans, who where abandoned to themselves in the last years. Smorodskaya wants to bring them back to the stadium, which is rarely more than half full at game days, and in modifying the founding date she’s made a good step forward for a peaceful cohabitation. Although there are still many things to improve at Lokomotiv, the fans are slowly returning to Cherkizovo thanks to the recent success and to the presence of Cherevchenko, a much-loved figure in red-green Moscow as well as his assistants Pashinin and Oganesyan.
While almost everybody is happy with the club’s new founding date, one Red-green fan now finds himself in a difficult situation. Commenting on the popular Russian sports site Sports.ru, he wrote “What do I do with the tattoo saying ‘1936’ across my chest?” Someone smartly advised him to simply add a ‘-14’, while others simply laughed at his predicament.
Lokomotiv currently find themselves in the quietest period since the departure of Belarusian head coach Leonid Kuchuk in 2014. Kuchuk’s last season in charge of Lokomotiv saw the Red-Greens finish third in the 2013/2014 season, and now the fans hope that Cherevchenko, who brought the cup back to Cherkizovo last season, can better Kuchuk’s time in charge of Lokomotiv. With the support of the fans, Lokomotiv are now much closer to their goal of returning to the absolute top. If that happens, a tattoo with the wrong date probably isn’t the worst sacrifice to make.
Leave a Reply