Abstract
This article investigates how the increased influence of Ukrainian bureaucrats, especially Volodymyr Shcherbyts′kyi, enabled Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine's unofficial national team in soccer, to eventually recruit the best talent in the USSR. This battle for players pitted Muscovite political and sports institutions against their Kyivite counterparts, with “the periphery” Kyiv eventually gaining the upper hand on “the center” Moscow. This recruitment struggle from 1953 to 1963 laid the foundations of Dinamo Kyiv's transformation into the most decorated club in the Soviet Union. This research illustrates how soccer offered a rare avenue for Ukraine to challenge Russian hegemony, a situation that contrasted sharply with Russia's primary position in the Soviet empire. The weak Muscovite sports institutions and the fragmented nature of soccer in the capital proved a beatable opponent for Kyiv's centralized approach.
