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Keith Gave's book tells how the Detroit Red Wings drafted and then smuggled five Soviet stars — Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov — out of the USSR. Gave was the newsman who ran the first clandestine meeting in Helsinki and stayed close to the operation through years of secret talks across Europe. It is a Cold War defection story as much as a hockey book, and it ends with Scotty Bowman's team winning. Readers who like narrative sports history get the insider detail; those wanting a stat-heavy season account or a Bowman coaching study should look elsewhere.
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Lowest price we've seen: $9.99 on Nov 12 at Barnes & Noble. Tracked across 10 stores since Nov 12.
Readers who know the era call it a gripping, well-reported account of how the five Soviets reached Detroit, and Red Wings fans rate it highly. Some find the political background heavy and the hockey analysis light.
The Russian Five is a nonfiction account of how the Detroit Red Wings brought five Soviet players to the NHL. It is written by Keith Gave, the newsman who took part in the effort. The book follows the story from the 1989 draft, when Detroit picked its first two Soviets, to the 1997 Stanley Cup win.
Gave describes a years-long series of secret meetings, from hotel rooms to remote forests around Europe, that were held to arrange the players' departures from the Soviet Union. The book covers a defection that became an international incident and a player who faked cancer with the help of bribes to Russian doctors, including a big American car. It also tells of a player who felt he was being kidnapped by an unscrupulous agent, and of two players who were outcast after speaking out against the Soviet regime.
The five players are Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. The book also covers how coach Scotty Bowman brought them together in Detroit. It ends with the Stanley Cup being taken to Moscow for a victory lap around Red Square and the Kremlin. The book includes details never before revealed.
