The Russian Five will air on Detroit Public Television’s PBS channel this evening at 9 PM EST, and the Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with former Free Press sportswriter Keith Gave to discuss the film, Gave’s novel about the Russian Five, and the ways in which the pioneering quintet changed the game:
Though the Russian Five were together relatively briefly, the legacy was immense. Not just for the way they dazzled with the puck, but for the way they proved how sports can unite, rather than divide.
“The guy who emphasized it more than anybody was Slava Fetisov,” Gave said. “When he talked about sports being a bridge between cultures — I’m not sure there’s any greater spokesman for that kind of thing than a decorated hero from the former Soviet Union who came to the United States and completed his war chest. The last thing he hadn’t won was the Stanley Cup, and he did that.”
Fetisov retired after the 1998 Stanley Cup victory and returned to Russia, where he became a member of the State Duma, one of the two bodies of the Russian Federal Assembly.
“He talked about bridging cultures a lot,” Gave said. “And he still does. I spent my military career, six years of it, fighting the Cold War. And it feels like now we’re back to the Cold War. Our relationship with Russia is as bad as it was at the height of the Cold War. I’m glad we have people like Slava Fetisov over there, part of that government, a close friend, it seems like, of Vladimir Putin, who can vouch for how good things can be with sports as a bridge.”
Continued; here’s St. James’ video interview with Gave as well:
