Dynamo Sports Club

Dinamo, also Dynamo, (Russian and Ukrainian: Динамо, Belarusian: Дына́ма) is the oldest sports and physical training (fitness) society that was created in 1923.

Overview

Name

The name given to the society was supposed to mean "Power in Motion" from Greek: δύναμις; dynamis -power, and Latin: motio, -motion. Not coincidentally, this term was first coined earlier by a German inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens (1816 - 1892) for the electrical generator. Dynamo, together with Armed Forces sports society and Voluntary Sports Societies made up the universal system of physical education and sports of the USSR. 45 sports disciplines were cultivated in the society in 1971. It had some 6,000 sports constructions and 43 Children and Youth Sport Schools.

Historical overlook

The "Dinamo" society was officially created on April 18, 1923 on Felix Dzerzhinsky's initiative^[1] and under the sponsorship of the State Political Directorate (GPU), the Soviet political police, the predecessor of other later created Soviet security structures such as KGB, NKVD and MVD. For the rest of the society's history in the Soviet period, it maintained some connection with the state security apparatus. Many prominent athletes who competed under the Dinamo flag were formally ranked MVD or KGB officers drawing corresponding salaries, able to be reactivated for operations against the countries they toured in the course of their sporting travels.^[2]

The name of the society also became well-known internationally through many clubs in various sports, initially created under the auspecies of the Soviet Dynamo society (only a partial list of sports includes football (soccer), bandy, ice hockey, basketball, volleyball, handball) or just bore the name "Dynamo", with many such clubs attaining much international acclaim, such as in football: FC Dinamo Bucureşti, FC Dynamo Kyiv, FC Dynamo Moscow, FC Dinamo Tbilisi, FC Dinamo Minsk, FC Dinamo Brest, NK Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Sportvereinigung Dynamo (Germany: including Berliner FC Dynamo and Dynamo Dresden), in ice hockey: HC Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv (now Sokil Kyiv), HC Dinamo Minsk, and Dinamo Riga. When, following the Second World War, the pro-Soviet governments were installed in much of the Eastern Europe, the similarly named clubs were created in many countries of what became an Eastern bloc. Many clubs, now transformed into the regular private clubs of their respective national leagues, still function under their original Dinamo or Dynamo name but their history is the only connection with the old Dynamo society.

Structure

Currently Dynamo is the All-Russian fitness-sports society based in Moscow.^[3] The society also has several affiliations abroad^[4] in Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.

In 1937 the Dynamo sports society was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Notable members

Main article: List of Dynamo sports society athletes

• Ludmilla Tourischeva (artistic gymnastics)
• Viktor Saneyev (athletics)
• Tatiana Ovechkina (basketball)
• Aleksandr Tikhonov (biathlon)
• Valeri Popenchenko (boxing)
• Uladzimir Parfianovich (canoeing)
• Vyacheslav Vedenin (cross-country skiing)
• Gintautas Umaras (cycling)
• Alexandr Romankov (fencing)
• Aleksandr Gorshkov (figure skating)
• Lev Yashin (football)
• Vyacheslav Atavin (handball)
• Aleksandr Maltsev (ice hockey)
• Viktor Kosichkin (speed skating)
• Igor Polyansky (swimming)
• Alex Metreveli (tennis)
• Yury Zakharevich (weightlifting)
• Sergei Beloglazov (wrestling)

See also

• FC Dinamo Kiev
• FC Dinamo Minsk
• FC Dinamo Moscow
• FC Dinamo Tbilisi
• SV Dynamo
• Voluntary Sports Societies of the USSR

References

1. ^ (Russian) History of Dynamo
2. ^ http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/02.html
3. ^ Центральный совет Общества "Динамо"
4. ^ Организации

External links

• (Russian) All-Russia society of sports and physical training "Dinamo"
• (Russian) Official website