As I begin to chronicle the collection, I've decided to do it as chronologically as possible. These were the days when I was only ever given jerseys as Christmas gifts or for other unique occasions. I no longer know the whereabouts of many of these jerseys, including early 1990's New York Islanders and Vancouver Canucks jerseys of reasonable quality for the time.
This design seems to still make appearances on eBay, yet I've found no proof that the Soviet Union National Team ever wore this design, that Viktor Belyakov ever played for the Soviet National Team, or which Viktor Belyakov this is supposed to be. It turns out that two
Viktor Belyakovs, both forwards, were prominent Russian hockey players toward the end of the Soviet regime. Interestingly, both were playing in the 2nd tier Russian at about the same time.
Belyakov the younger would go to greater national league prominence after deunification.
As much as I've learned already from the hobby, attempting to gain a greater understanding of the origins of this piece took me somewhere I never thought I'd be, getting a crash lesson on and translating the
Cyrillic Alphabet. In case you are interested in how BELYAKOV comes from БEЛЯКОВ, our capital B is their V sound. The truncated B is the Russian B sound. This leaves the pi-like symbol and the backwards R, which are an L and a 'YA' sound respectively. I wonder what my mid-to-late 90's school teachers, likely Cold War weary, thought as their students sported CCCP across their chests like it was no big deal (which it wasn't and isn't, of course).
*UPDATE - I eventually sold this jersey in November of 2018.
Details:
- Manufacturer - Unknown
- Size - XL
- Date Acquired - Unknown
- Cost - Unknown
- Low-Quality Replica - Mesh Polyester, Printed Numbers
- Season(s) Worn - Unknown
- Player - Not Game Worn
- Patches - None
This design seems to still make appearances on eBay, yet I've found no proof that the Soviet Union National Team ever wore this design, that Viktor Belyakov ever played for the Soviet National Team, or which Viktor Belyakov this is supposed to be. It turns out that two Viktor Belyakovs, both forwards, were prominent Russian hockey players toward the end of the Soviet regime. Interestingly, both were playing in the 2nd tier Russian at about the same time. Belyakov the younger would go to greater national league prominence after deunification.
Hi there, the Soviet National team wore these jerseys from the mid 80s all the way to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aolnews.com/media/2009/03/grimshaw-plett-pic-before.jpg
ReplyDeleteThey were made by both SIBIR and TAKLA.