Backbone of Russian ice hockey: national team coaches throughout the years
ITAR-TASS recalls all the coaches that have worked with the national ice hockey teams of Russia and the USSR since 1954
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Arkady Chernyshev served as USSR national team coach from 1954 to 1957 and from 1961 to 1972, won 11 World Champion titles (1954, 1956, 1963—1971), 11 Europe Champion titles (1958—1960, 1963—1970) and 4 Olympic Champion titles (1956, 1964, 1968, 1972)
© Fotokhronika TASS/Vyacheslav Un Da-Sin Anatoly Tarasov served as national team coach from 1958 to 1960. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Tarasov is considered father of the USSR's ice hockey program
© Fotokhronika TASS/Alexander Yakovlev/Valentin Sobolev Vsevolod Bobrov coached the USSR in the 1972 Summit Series and then led them to the World Championship in 1974 and 1975
© Fotokhronika TASS After Boris Kulagin's team won the Soviet league championship in 1974, Kulagin was promoted to national team coach to replace Bobrov. He led his team to victory in the "1974 Summit Series" against a WHA-based Team Canada
© Fotokhronika TASS/Igor Utkin Viktor Tikhonov was the coach of the Soviet team when it was the most dominant team in the world, winning world cups in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990. Tikhonov is in the IIHF Hall of Fame
© Fotokhronika TASS/Igor Utkin/Alexander Yakovlev Under Boris Mikhailov's leadership (1992-1995, 2001-2002), the Russian team won gold in the 1993 World Championship, silver medals of the 2002 World Championship
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin Vladimir Vasiliev coached the Russian ice hockey team in 1995-1996
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin With Igor Dmitriev the Russian squad won the gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and at the World Ice Hockey Championships in 1989, and 1990
© ITAR-TASS Vladimir Yurzinov started coaching the Russian team at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano where the team won silver medals
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin Alexander Yakushev coached the Russian squad in 1998-2000. Under Yakushev, Russian suffered it's mosty terrible failure at the 2000 World Championship in Saint Petersburg, finishing 11th
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin Viacheslav Fetisov was named general manager of the Russian national team for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where Russia won the bronze medals
© ITAR-TASS/Pavel Petrov Vladimir Plyuschev coached the Russian team in 2002-2003
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin With Vladimir Krikunov as head coach 92005-2006), Russia won the bronze at the 2005 World Championship and finished fourth at the Olympics in Turin (2006)
© ITAR-TASS/Igor Utkin In 2007 World Championship in Moscow Vyacheslav Bykov won bronze. With him as a head coach (2006-2011), the Russian team won the world championships in Quebec (2008) and Bern (2009), won silver in 20010 in Germany and finished 4th in Slovakia in 2011
© ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Astapkovich From 2012 to 2014 the Russian national team was coached by Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. In 2012, Russia won the World Championship in Helsinki
© ITAR-TASS/Artyom Korotaev Oleg Znarok was appointed head coach after the Olympics in Sochi. He will be coaching the national team for four years, preparing it for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang
© ITAR-TASS/Artyom Korotaev