Origins The Allrussian Hockey League was founded by some clubs in the
Russian Empire and entered the
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in 1911. However, probably due to misunderstandings ("hockey" was identified with
bandy or Russian hockey in Russia, not with the modern ice hockey rules developed in Canada) the Russian team left the organization. There were no matches involving a team from Imperial Russia. Interest in this sport grew in the
Soviet Union in the second half of the 1940s. The first reactions were skeptical; one sports journal,
Physical Culture and Sports, characterized it as such: "The game is quite individual and primitive, with few combinations, not as in bandy. Therefore, Canadian hockey should not be cultivated into our country..." In 1952, the Hockey Federation of the USSR joined the International Ice Hockey League, and so received the permission to play in the
World Championships and the
Olympics. That year is seen as the birth of the Soviet national ice hockey team, the predecessor team of the Russia men's national ice hockey team. The Soviets won the
1954 Ice Hockey World Championships, and two years later they won gold at the
1956 Winter Olympics. This type of amateur player was contested by Canada and the United States whose best players were participating in professional leagues.
After the USSR's dissolution The Soviet Union dissolved shortly before the
1992 Winter Olympics, so a
Unified Team largely consisting of the former Soviet republics competed instead. The
CIS national ice hockey team, composed almost entirely of Russians, with Lithuanian-born
Darius Kasparaitis and Ukrainian-born
Alexei Zhitnik the only non-Russians, competed as part of this Olympic delegation. The team finished second in its preliminary group, beating co-favorites Canada, 5–4, but losing to Czechoslovakia, 3–4. The CIS team then defeated the Finns and Americans, 6–1 and 5–2, respectively. In the final, they played Canada again, winning 3–1 and claimed the gold medal. The team was coached by the Russian and former Soviet coach
Viktor Tikhonov. In later years, the IIHF recognized this gold medal as being won by the Russian national team, rather than by the CIS. Russia's first actual games after the Soviet dissolution were a series of five friendly games between
Sweden,
Germany and
Switzerland, all taking place in April 1992, the debut game occurring on 12 April 1992 against Sweden and ending in a 2–2 draw. At the 1992 World Championship Russia finished first in its preliminary group but lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals, 2–0. They, however, won the next
edition of the tournament, beating Germany, Canada, and Sweden in the playoffs and clinching their first title as Russia and 23rd, including the USSR's totals.
The post-Soviet drought As the USSR fell apart, so did Russia's elite hockey program. At the
1994 Winter Olympics they finished fourth overall, losing the bronze medal match to
Finland. Russia also competed at the
1996 World Cup, the successor tournament to the
Canada Cup, where the team lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winner, the
United States. At the
1998 Winter Olympics, Russia won five consecutive games and reached the gold medal match, where they lost to the
Czech Republic, 0–1. In 1994, Russian journalist
Vsevolod Kukushkin reported that "The people are upset. Russia is a nation of critics." He said the Russian team was struggling with finances to support training, no funding was received from the national level, and professional teams in Russia were struggling to stay afloat. He also reported that the Russian people were upset at losing the nation's best players to the
National Hockey League, and not playing on the Russian national team.
The Russian resurgence and Russian team captain
Alexander Ovechkin The Bykov period After failing to win the gold medal between 1993 and 2007, the Russians restructured the national league as the KHL and hired the 1993 World Champion, Vyacheslav Bykov, as the head coach. Another 1993 champion, Sergey Fedorov, was named the team captain. Afterwards, Russia won the
2008 and
2009 World Ice Hockey Championships with perfect records, beating Canada in the finals two times in a row. The Russians would make another run in 2010, losing to the Czech Republic in the gold medal game. However, the disastrous 2010 Olympics and 2011 World Championships led to Bykov's removal.
Bilyaletdinov at the helm Bykov was replaced with Bilyaletdinov, under whose leadership Russia won the
2012 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships with yet another perfect record, beating Slovakia, 6–2, in the gold medal game. However, as a result of the 2013 Championship and 2014 Olympic performances, Bilyaletdinov was replaced with Oleg Znarok.
The Znarok years Znarok then led the Russians to the gold medal in the
2014 World Ice Hockey Championship after defeating Finland 5–2 in the final, with a perfect record. The 2014 tournament result set the most perfect records in the IIHF World Championships. For this accomplishment, the Russian team was honored in the Kremlin. Russia earned a medal in each subsequent tournament, including the silver medal in 2015 and the bronze medals in 2016 and 2017. The team also reached the semi-finals of the
World Cup, losing to Canada, the eventual winner. In 2018, the
Russian Olympic Committee was disqualified by the
International Olympic Committee for
doping, but the Russian players were cleared to participate by the IOC under the
Olympic flag as the
Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) using professional Russian hockey players with no previous drug violations and a consistent history of drug testing. Like the rest of the Olympic hockey teams in 2018, the Russian team could not use NHL players due to the league's prohibiting player participation in the Olympics. As a result, the team relied on
players from the KHL (15 from a reigning champion,
SKA Saint Petersburg, 8 from
CSKA Moscow and 2 from
Metallurg Magnitogorsk). After a loss in their first game to Slovakia, the OAR team defeated Slovenia and the United States, qualifying for the quarterfinals. The team then defeated Norway and the Czech Republic to reach the finals. The team won the gold medal after a 4–3 overtime victory over the
German team in the final.
Ilya Kovalchuk and
Pavel Datsyuk each won their first gold in their fifth Olympic appearance and together with
Slava Voynov, were the only players with prior Olympic experience on the team. In its post-Olympics World Ranking, the IIHF considered the OAR team as the Russian team in its rankings. The IIHF considers this victory to be Russia's second gold medal in the Olympics, as they also attributed the 1992
Unified Team gold medal to Russia, however, the IOC does not attribute either of these results to Russia. After the Olympics, Znarok became a consultant for the Russian National Team. He retired as Russia's most decorated modern head coach, with a World Championship, an Olympic gold medal, and a Euro Hockey Tour victory.
Vorobiev as head coach Ilya Vorobiev was hired as the interim head coach of the Russian national hockey team in April 2018 for the
2018 IIHF World Championship and the second half of
2017–18 Euro Hockey Tour. In the remainder of
Euro Hockey Tour, Vorobiev led the Russian team to a 1–5 record, following the 5–1 record of the Znarok-led team in the first half of 2017–18 Euro Hockey Tour, for the team to finish 6–6 on the season. At the 2018 World Championship, Russia finished second in its group and lost to Canada 4–5 in the quarterfinal, finishing sixth overall. Next season, Russia went 8–4 in the
2018–19 Euro Hockey Tour, winning the competition and went all the way to the semi-final at the
2019 World Championship, where it lost to Finland before beating the Czech Republic for the bronze. Following the World Championship, Vorobiev was dismissed and replaced with
Alexei Kudashov.
Kudashov's realm Kudashov went 3–6 at the
2019–20 Euro Hockey Tour before the
2020 IIHF World Championship was canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. Kudashov was sacked in June 2020 and replaced with
Valeri Bragin, a decorated coach of the
Russia men's U20 team.
Bragin's team Bragin proceeded to win the
2020–21 Euro Hockey Tour with a 10–2 record. At the
2021 IIHF World Championship, Russia went 6–1 in the group stage but then lost in the quarter-finals to Canada, which finished with a 3–4 record in the group stage but went on to win the tournament. Bragin was replaced by
Alexei Zhamnov in September 2021.
Zhamnov's team With Zhamnov, the Russian national team participated at the
2022 Olympics in
Beijing (under the
Russian Olympic Committee flag and the moniker
ROC), where they reached the second Olympic final in a row, losing to
Finland 1–2 and winning silver medals. After the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the
International Ice Hockey Federation suspended Russia from all levels of competition. ==Tournament record==