13th November 1945: Members of the Dynamo Moscow team before the game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, (left to right), Savounin, Nazaroff, Demendieff, Ilyin, Oroeshkin, Bekhtineff, Petroff, Archangelsky, Khomych, Mevedeff and their trainer Yakushin. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Flowers, fog and George Orwell: How Dinamo Moscow conquered war-weary Britain
it is a grey november morning in 1945, and an aeroplane emblazoned with the communist red star touches down on the tarmac at croydon airport. on board are dinamo moscow, here by invitation of the football association to partake in a month-long tour celebrating the gameã¢ââs return after world war two.these were the days before regular european competition; uefa would not come into existence for another nine years. no russian side had ever visited britain before and, despite the two countries…
