Mykola Fedorovych Krotov (, , ''Nikolai Fyodorovich Krotov''; 1898–1978) was a Ukrainian and

Soviet 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 ...

football player and manager. He also played in Russian hockey (

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 ...

Biography

Mykola Krotov was born in 1898 in family of a hearth (oven) builder (pechnik). He became involved with football at age of 12 playing for a local children team which was referred by its nickname "Zvezdochka".Николай КРОТОВ
www.rusteam.permian.ru Krotov was a big fan of Kharkiv team Shturm (predecessor of

FC Dynamo Kharkiv FC Dynamo Kharkiv () was a non-amateur Soviet football club based in Kharkiv (now Ukraine). History Shturm Kharkiv The club was originally found in 1911 by 20 year old Kostiantyn Voronin as FC Tsap-Tsarap Kharkov. During that time in Kharki ...

) which played in the Kharkiv Football League and when he was about 15 years old, he was invited to play for the team. In Shturm originally he played as

inside left In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

forward, but often also held position of

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. After a season or two he was drafted as a soldier to the Russian Imperial Army fighting at the South-Western Front. As a

praporshchik (, , ) is a rank used by the Russian Armed Forces and a number of former communist states. The rank is a non-commissioned officer's and is equivalent to in the corresponding navies. It is usually equivalent to warrant officer class 1 or serge ...

, the 18-year-old Krotov led his company on successful assault of one of the heights which was considered to be impregnable. For that feat he was awarded the

Order of Saint Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, on 14 February 1735, in hono ...

which following the

Bolshevik coup-d'état The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir Le ...

caused him challenges in his sports career as a "Tsarist award recipient". Following the World War I, Krotov supposedly voluntarily joined the RKKA (Red Army) and fought for the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. In 1920 Krotov returned to football paying for Shturm. The team joined other former Red Army members such as Ivan Natarov, Mykola Kazakov, Ivan Privalov,

Yakiv Alfyorov Yakiv is a Ukrainian masculine given name, cognate to Jacob or James. Notable people with the name include: *Yakiv Barabash (died 1658), Zaporozhian Cossack Otaman (1657–58) who opposed Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky * Yakiv Hodorozha (born 1993), Ukrain ...

, Mykola Kaputsyn, Ivan Kolotukhin and others. Out of those only Natarov and Kolotukhin really had previous experience playing at competitive level. Krotov also received the captain's armband from the team's founder Kostiantyn Voronin. The role of a head coach in Shturm at that time served the team's captain. In 1924 he played in position of the right fullback in Shturm as well as for the Kharkiv city football team. In this position Krotov earned the All-Union recognition and

Nikolay Starostin Nikolai Petrovich Starostin (Cyrillic: Никола́й Петро́вич Ста́ростин; 26 February 1902 – February 17, 1996) was a Soviet footballer and ice hockey player, and founder of Spartak Moscow. Early life and Spartak Moscow ...

said the following about him: "In the Ukrainian ensemble excellently performed defenders the tall Mykola Krotov and the not-so-tall, but hasty Kostiantyn Fomin" ("В ансамбле украинцев отлично выступили защитники: Высокий Николай Кротов и невысокий, но стремительный Константин Фомин"). At the same position Krotov played on the

Soviet Union national football team The Soviet Union national football team () was the national football team who represented the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1992. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed into the CIS national football team. FIFA and UEFA considers ...

when it played against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in 1925. Eventually he became a universal player taking position sometimes as a goalkeeper. One of his teammates Ivan Natarov commented about him: "There is nothing unordinary about it. After all, for him, an ordinary "slesar" (locksmith, fitter), sport has always been a holy cause. It was he who, having become the captain, insisted on introducing an unspoken law in Shturm: any violation of the sports regime was punished by the exclusion of a player from the team".

International career

Krotov played his only game for

USSR 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 ...

on 15 May 1925 in a friendly against

Honours

Sports honours

* Soviet Union championship among republics ** Winner (1): 1924 * Ukraine championship among cities ** Winners (5): 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1927

State honours

– veteran of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

* Soviet Union Merited Master of Sports (1947)

References

External links

*
Profile
1898 births 1978 deaths Footballers from Kharkiv People from Kharkov Governorate Ukrainian men's footballers Soviet men's footballers Soviet Union men's international footballers Soviet football managers FC Dynamo Kharkiv players FC Metalist Kharkiv players FC Lokomotyv Kharkiv managers FC Dynamo Kharkiv managers Men's association football defenders Recipients of the Order of St. Anna Russian military personnel of World War I {{USSR-footy-defender-stub