An emotional and Historical WW2 relic of immense importance to the history of Ukraine being a 19th century Bronze Bust of Napoleon by Antoine Denis Chaudet, with a rear hair ribbon with shoulder drapes of the type used by Houdon.
Its history is as follows. Prior to the well-known “Death Match” in which 8 Ukrainian footballers were arrested by the Nazi’s, several of the lead up matches were played in June 1942. The Germans wanting a suitable Trophy, liberated this Bronze from a Ukrainian Institution. They had the front of the socle polished and engraved as follows.
FUSSBALL TURNIER
CHARKOW JUNI 1942
DEM SIEGER
Under German occupation, all Soviet organizations and clubs were dissolved. By the end of 1941, German administration allowed newly formed Ukrainian sport clubs. In January 1942, football trainer and sport reporter Georgi Dmitrievich Shvetsov founded the club Rukh (Movement). He tried to engage the best players in Kyiv.
But most of the former Dynamo players, among them the very popular goalkeeper Trusevich, did not want to play in Rukh, probably because they took Shvetsov for a collaborator. Trusevich found a job in the Bakery No. 1 which guaranteed their workers and their families normal supplies of food. More former Dynamo players found jobs in the bakery. The German director Joseph Kordik, an engineer from Moravia, encouraged them to form a football team: FC Start. After World War II Kordik declared to the NKVD that in reality, he was Czech, not German.
Three players of the former club Lokomotiv Kyiv were incorporated into the new team. Four former players who were directly submitted to the German administration also played for Start: three Ukrainian policemen and one engine driver of the German Railways Reichsbahn in Kyiv. None amongst the Start players had played for the Dynamo team in the years immediately before the war, although some of them had left the club only a couple of years before.
Matches in June and July 1942
Seven Start matches are documented for June and July 1942: against the Ukrainian teams Rukh and Sport, three Hungarian military teams, a team of the German artillery and the German railway team RSG. FC Start won all these matches, scoring 37 goals in total and conceding only 8. There is an enormous amount of material dealing with the “Death Match on the internet.
Some damage to the nose and chin of the Bronze otherwise good condition overall.
POA
