Bruce Loccart's Football Odyssey

Russian football is more than a century old and our green fields have hosted footballers of all trades. In other words outside the football field the players have different occupations both during their career and after it's over: military men, diplomatic couriers, opera singers – fate is capricious. However, there is one man whose tricks and kicks amazed Moscow fans and who outdid them all outside the stadium. He was a spy of Her Majesty, a real-life James Bond.

Foreign players did not appear in our country in 1990, as many believe. A century back our fields were regularly hosting foreigners. At that time almost all of them were British. The owners of textile manufactures of Western and Southern Moscow brought in from Europe not only the equipment but also the people who took care of it: managers and engineers. Most of them came from Britain since its industry had old traditions and was known all over the world. Going in for sports was in the best behavior of British gentlemen who favored boxing, tennis land football. They are generally credited for familiarizing the Tzarist Russia with football and establishing the early clubs, leagues and championships. Obviously, they were part of it all.

Russian football started with regional championships in the cities and provinces where sports was most advanced. The yearly championship of Moscow and environs, or as it was also called Fulda's Cup, was contested by many foreign players. The famous Orekhovo Sports Club created by Vikula Morozov and Sons Manufacturer's Association was especially noted for the presence of foreign players. The club was invincible in 1910-1913. Brothers Charnock were among the prominent players of the club in the early 20th century. Sons of a British engineer who came to Russia at the end of 19th century, they became assimilated and were given Russian names: Garry, who created Orekhovo Club, was called Andrei Vasilievich, James was called Yakov Klementievich and William (Red-hair Willy) became Vasilii Vasilievich. Edward Charnock, Orekhovo's half-back, also played for the Moscow city team, including its international matches.

In his memoirs Garry Charnock relates some curious episodes of the early epoch of Russian football: “In 1887 my brother, a member of Blackberry Rowers club attempted to set up a football team in Moscow province. Football clubs were established in Orekhovo-Zuevo region... I recall the following episode. We ordered football shirts, pullovers, sweaters and boots from England but the shorts had to be made by the players themselves. They were given cloth for the purpose with necessary instructions. The result was quite disappointing because all of them came back with shorts that were too long and reaching the ankles – the Old Ritualists refused to play in knee-long shorts... Vehement protests from the team's captain, an Englishman with great respect for conventions, were all in vain. Just before the start of the first match he dared to take extreme measures. Taking two members of the committee along and armed with scissors and a measure he trapped the players in the cloakroom and cut the shorts to the desired length...”

Charnock tried to convert the Russian officials to his football faith. In 1909 he had a conversation with the Governor of Vladimir province, Mr. Sazonov.
The governor: “What is football?”
Charnock: “It's a game of 22 players divided into two teams. It's purpose is to seize a leather ball inflated with air. Each team is seeking to score the ball between two poles located at both ends of the field.”
The governor: “Do you really expect people to go and watch this nonsense?”
Charnock: “Yes, your Excellency, just like they go to watch horse-races.” As a result of this conversation the Governor approved the establishment of a football club in his province.”
The eastern part of Moscow region in the early 20th century was virtually seized by football fever. It is worth noting that in those times this popular sports was developing naturally from bottom up in the absence of government subsidies or any assistance from the authorities. In Orekhovo-Zuevo each worker's dormitory had its own football field. The main club relied upon an inexhaustible pool of players from the so called “wild” teams. Orekhovo-Zuevo region had its own football league with as much as 29 member-teams. The league had 30 playing fields. In 1912 the club established junior teams that constituted a special junior league. There were 12 junior teams and they were given birds names: “Peacock”, “Raven”, “Swallow”, “Quail”, “Falcon” etc.
In the summer of 1910 the constituent assembly of the Moscow Football League (MFL) took place. The same season saw the first Moscow championship. The best field of the League at the time was in Orekhovo-Zuevo, which was located in the popular recreational park of Morozov's manufacture. The first friendly match was played on June 27, 1910 with the team of the British Sports Club. It ended with home team's victory.
In 1914 there was a stately inauguration of a new football stadium in Orekhovo-Zuevo with a capacity of 10,000 spectators.
The protagonist of our story, a 25 years old British named Bruce Loccart, entered this football kingdom in 1912. He was employed by the British diplomatic mission and only a few of his compatriots might have guessed that he also had another mission. He revealed the purpose of his covert mission only several decades later. His autobiography is titled: “History from within. Memoirs of a British agent.” Britain was preparing for the World War well ahead of time.
“Brothers Charnock were almost the first Englishmen I have met there,” - recalls Loccart at the end of his life. They were both from Lancashire and were employed in textile industry. Garry, the younger brother, was at that time heading a textile manufacture in Orekhovo-Zuevo in Vladimir province. (The author is imprecise here, as Orekhovo-Zuevo wasn't yet a city at that time and was part of Moscow province, while the village of Orekhovo was in Vladimir province). Orekhovo-Zuevo was one of the most restive industry centers and Charnock introduced football as a remedy against vodka and political agitation. The team established by him in a short time became the champion of Moscow.”
Loccart did not regard himself a footballer, he was rather fond of rugby. As he writes in his memoirs, Charocks probably confused him with his brother who did play football and that's why they invited him to play for Morozov's team. Loccart accepted the invitation and became one of the club's strikers taking the place of left halfback. His overall athletic fitness allowed him to put up a good show and become the champion of Moscow with the Orekhovo-Zuevo club. The chroniclers of the club recall that he scored the first goal in an important match with Mercur, the champion of St. Petersburg's Football League. In Tzarist Russia the football contests between Moscow and St. Petersburg were uncompromising and very intense.
In his memoirs Loccart speaks of those times with a great deal of irony: “I've always regarded my football experience with the Russian proletariat the most valuable part of my Russian breeding. I am afraid this experience has profited me more than it did my club. I hardly coped with my duties in the team. However, the matches were very interesting and aroused great enthusiasm. In Orekhovo we had to play in the presence of a mob of 10 or 15 thousand spectators. We rarely lost with the exception of foreign teams.”
One of the international matches had an episode that was deeply stuck in Loccart's memory, he relates it in detail: “My career as a Russian footballer featured only one interesting instance. It took place in Moscow where our factory team encountered the German champions.
Out of politeness the Russian footballers offered a German to be the referee. The Germans were much stronger than our players and used their strength to their advantage playing roughly. One of them was particularly rude with a young 17 years old British student, Charock's nephew and a great footballer, who was a striker and played alongside myself on the left wing. After the German downed the guy for the fifth time, I became enraged and cursed him with words I would actually never have used in England.
The referee immediately approached me and said in perfect English: 'Mind your language! I've heard what you said. If you allow yourself using such expressions again I will order you off the field.'
The words I used weren't that horrible. I addressed the Almighty to strike the German sending him to the deepest infernal regions. However, at that moment I shivered. I thought had flashed in my mind like a lightning that back in England the papers might come out with headers like: 'British vice-consul is ordered off the field for foul language'. I had to apologize at the spot. After the game I shared my concerns with the referee. He answered with laughter: 'If only I knew who you were I would have sent you off the field without warning.'”
Loccart's Moscow adventures were not limited to sports exercises, of course. His appearance – his chroniclers describe him as a man with strong shoulders and fists with a heavy chin – was far from that of a London dandy, but he was quite active in the high life. By the way, his life resembled that of the modern professional players – a wide range of acquaintances and “light intrigues with women” earned him acceptance in different circles.
He had a resonating romance with Maria Benkendorf, the charming Mura, the grand-grand-daughter of Moscow's Governor, Zakrevsky. Loccart was well-known in all the famous Moscow restaurants and clubs of the time. When the English writer Herbert Wells visited Moscow before the World War One, Loccart accompanied him as an interpreter and guide to all the hot spots of the capital. He also accompanied other English writers: Chesterton, Galsworthy, Maugham, Beckett during their visits to Russia.
At the time of the World War One and especially after 1917 Moscow dwellers temporarily left football aside. The manufactures of Moscow region were nationalized, British engineers and “legionaries” went back home and in his position as the head of the diplomatic mission Loccart became the hero of a major spy raw of those times. Memoirs of Russian security officers refer to it simply as “Loccart plot”.
World War One was still on. One of the primary aims pursued by British covert diplomacy in Russia was not to allow a separate peace accord between the Soviet Russia and Germany. Getting Russia out of the War was not to be allowed by any possible means including the down-throw of the Bolshevik government, which, on the contrary, tried to take Russia out of the War by all possible means.
To this end it was decided to persuade the Kremlin Guards (the Latvian Shooters) who guarded Lenin and People's Commissars. The efforts of the British were rewarding and contacts were established. Loccart had a meeting at a safe house with two commanders of Latvian troops: Berzin and Bujkis. Loccart gave them one million and two hundred thousand rubles to bribe other Latvian commanders and introduced them to one of the British intelligence officers, Sydney Raleigh. Their plan was to get the Latvian Shooters arrest Lenin and Trotsky. After that it was expected that 60,000 White Army officers would join the banners of General Yudenich and empower some sort of transitional government loyal to the Entente alliance.
Loccart was probably very content with himself until the moment when there came a knock at the door of the flat he lived in with Mura Bekkendorf. It appeared that both the recruited Latvians were agents of the Cheka and the whole affair was a smart trap for the Loccart and Raleigh who were skillfully outwitted.
The affair became public and Loccart was arrested, he spent some days at Lubyanka and was later transferred to a special prison in Kremlin. Soon afterward he was sent out of Russia for activities incompatible with his diplomatic status. He was exchanged for a Russian diplomat Litvinov who was arrested in London.
Nevertheless, the British Crown had forgiven Loccart for this failure. He worked for the intelligence till 1928. Possibly his loyalty was highly appreciated. If we are to believe his memoirs, the soviet security tried to re-recruit him. The Cheka investigator reminded him that he had a Russian lover, his career back home was ruined and if he stayed in Russia there might be an interesting job for him. “I contemplated this offer much more carefully than an English reader might suppose,” – writes Loccart, pointing out to the fact that three Frenchmen had accepted similar offers. “They weren't traitors in the full sense of this word. Like many of us at the time, they were greatly influenced by the cataclysm that they realized would shake the foundations of the entire world.” Loccart, however, preferred to return home.
During the world war Loccart headed the Committee for propaganda and intelligence. He could not forget his Moscow Odyssey till the end of his days. Forty years later after leaving our country he wrote: “Russia had great influence upon my life. Even now it is hunting me like an unfaithful lover whom I can not abandon.” Robert Bruce Loccart died in 1970.

Vladimir Charondin

Archive 2-2010 of russian edition

» Contents