Nikolai Starostin

[1] Following the death of his father from typhoid in 1920, Starostin supported his family by playing football in the summer and ice hockey in the winter.

[2] In 1921 the Moscow Sport Circle (later Krasnaia Presnia) was formed by Ivan Artemev and involved Starostin, especially in its football team.

As a high-profile sportsman, Starostin came into close contact with Alexander Kosarev, secretary of the Komsomol (Communist Union of Youth) who already had a strong influence on sport and wanted to extend it.

[2] In November 1934, with funding from Promkooperatsiia, Kosarev employed Starostin and his brothers to develop his team to make it more powerful.

In 1937 the positions were reversed but Spartak won both league and cup in 1938 and 1939, much to the annoyance of Lavrenty Beria, the head of the secret police, who was also the president of Dynamo.

In the late 1930s many of Starostin's friends and associates were arrested as part of the Great Purge, including Kosarev.

There were also attempts to more closely control sporting matters, including forcing the Semi-final of the 1939 cup to be replayed after Spartak won the first match by a disputed goal.

[2] On March 20, 1942, Starostin was arrested, along with his three brothers and other fellow players, facing accusations of involvement in a plot to kill Joseph Stalin.

Kutarzhevskiy, using his power arranged so that several people who were supposed to have been conscripted to serve in the Army during World War II were not sent to the front and stayed in Moscow instead.

Unlike other notable inmates, Starostin was never mistreated and was well liked among both guards and prisoners, who would gather to listen to his football stories.

NKVD officials (Beria was heading the law enforcement ministry) soon visited Starostin at his home, giving him 24 hours to leave Moscow.

Nikolai was appointed as coach to the Soviet national football team, and in 1955 returned to Spartak as president, a position he maintained until 1992.