The Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (, ''Federatsiya Khokkeya Rossii'') is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

overseeing

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In 2019, Russia had 110,624 ice hockey players registered with its ice hockey federation. After the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

(IIHF) suspended Russia from all levels of competition.

History

In February 1911, the All-Russian Hockey Union joined the IIHF, then called the "Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace", representing the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. It was expelled the same year and subsequently dissolved itself, due to the mistaken belief the federation had joined a

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

league. In 1952, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

joined the IIHF under the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation. The Ice Hockey Federation of Russia was founded on 12 November 1991, during the existence of the Soviet Union and the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, as the "Ice Hockey Federation of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic / Ice Hockey Federation of Russia" ( / ). On 19 January 1992, after the Soviet Union was dissolved and Russia took over the international rights and obligations of the Soviet Union, the federation became the official successor of the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation and its successes and its full membership in the IIHF. After the

, the IIHF suspended Russia from all levels of competition.

National teams

Men

* Men's national ice hockey team * Men's national under-20 ice hockey team * Men's national under-18 ice hockey team

Women

* Women's national ice hockey team * Women's national under-18 ice hockey team

Leagues

Active

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

(KHL) – highest men's hockey league in Europe and Asia (since 2008) * Women's Hockey League (ZhHL) – top–tier women's hockey league in Russia and China (since 1995; reorganized in 2015) *

Supreme Hockey League The All-Russian Hockey League (VHL) (, ''Vserossiyskaya hokkeinaya liga (VHL)''), also known as the Major Hockey League or Higher Hockey League (HHL), is a professional ice hockey league in Eurasia, and the second highest level of Russian hocke ...

(VHL) – second highest men's league (since 2010) *

Supreme Hockey League Championship The All-Russian Hockey League B or VHL-B (, ''Pervenstvo Vserossiyskoy hokkeynoy ligi'') is an ice hockey league in Russia. It stands at the third-tier of the Russian ice hockey pyramid, below the second-level Supreme Hockey League, VHL and the ...

(VHL-B) – third highest men's league (since 2011) *

Asia League Ice Hockey Asia League Ice Hockey (; ) or ALIH (AL) is an association which operates a professional ice hockey league based in East Asia, with teams from Japan, South Korea, and formerly China and Russia. The league is headquartered in Japan. At the end of ...

(ALIH) – fourth highest men's league (since 2003) *

Junior Hockey League Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

(MHL) – men's junior league (since 2009) * National Junior Hockey League (NMHL) – men's junior league (since 2011)

Defunct

* International Hockey League – former highest men's league (1992–1996) *

Russian Superleague The Russian Superleague (, ''Russian Championship Superleague''), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was considered the second-best league in the world, after the Nation ...

– former highest men's league, succeeding the International Hockey League (1996–2008) * Russian Hockey Second League – fourth highest men's league

Notable leadership

Yury Karandin Yury Pavlovich Karandin (; born 22 March 1937) is a Russian retired ice hockey referee, and an active ice hockey administrator as of 2018. Karandin officiated for 26 seasons in the Soviet Union, and was selected by the International Ice Hockey ...

, president of the Siberia–Far East branch of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia since 1991 *

Yuri Korolev Yuri Nikolayevich Korolyov (; 25 August 1962 – 29 April 2023) was a Soviet artistic gymnast who competed during the 1980s, winning many World and European Medals. Part of a deep Soviet team that, throughout the 1980s, featured such names as ...

, vice-president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia from 1992 to 2001, and secretary general from 2001 to 2003 *

Andrey Starovoytov Andrei Vasilyevich Starovoytov (; 16 December 1915 – 22 March 1997) was a Russian ice hockey administrator, referee and player. He won three Soviet ice hockey championships as a player, and was later an ice hockey referee at eight World Champ ...

, general secretary of the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation from 1969 to 1986 *

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak State Duma, MP ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. ...

, president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia since 2006

References

External links

Official websiteIIHF profile
{{Sports governing bodies of Russia 1991 establishments in Russia

Ice hockey in Russia

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Sports organizations established in 1991