Revenge for a difficult childhood. The famous Russian hockey player was brutally stabbed to death by his daughter

Victor Tolmachev was never considered a world-class star, but he was very well known on the domestic scene. For almost a decade, the goalkeeper was part of the Soviet hockey elite, having won five championship titles in his time with CSKA.

After the end of his career, the goalkeeper disappeared from the radar for a long time, cutting off all ties with the sport. Tolmachev led a quiet life and did not appear in the press, but six years ago there was suddenly talk about the hockey player again. The reason for this was a terrible tragedy. An elderly athlete was found stabbed to death in his own apartment.

Tretiak’s predecessor

Tolmachev began his career in Tver SKA. The club, officially abolished in the early 1990s, was part of the USSR hockey elite in the 1960s. In 1958, when Victor made his debut at the professional level, the team with the old name SKVO Kalinin was already playing in the A-class. Kalinin’s team, of course, did not claim the title, but against the background of other middle peasants it looked very solid – largely thanks to the efforts of the young goalkeeper.

A few years later, the talented goalkeeper received a long-awaited promotion to the main club of the country – CSKA. Tolmachev immediately established himself at the base and already in 1963 he won his first title, turning into a real star.

The high status, however, soon began to affect the player negatively. A couple of years later, the goalkeeper began to personally attribute all the team’s successes to himself, spoiled relations with the team and the coach, the great Anatoly Tarasov.

This discord played a key role in Victor’s career. Having won five championships and three USSR Cups as part of CSKA, in 1969 the hockey player left the club due to a long-standing conflict with the management. Tarasov and Kulagin tried to re-educate the hockey player, but in the end they could not cope with his character, so they decided to just get rid of the brilliant goalkeeper, who was soon replaced by Vladislav Tretyak. Tolmachev spent the next six years as part of the Khimik near Moscow, with which he sensationally took third place in the USSR-1969/70 championship.

– Before leaving CSKA, Victor managed to prepare a successor. Tolmachev was 30, and Tretiak was 17. The boy was very talented, Vitya immediately understood this. He shared his goalkeeper’s secrets with Vladik, good relations were established between them,” Tolmachev’s ex-wife told Express-Gazeta.

“Unable to Adjust to New Life”

That bronze medal was the last achievement in the goalkeeper’s sports biography. Tolmachev hung up his skates in 1974, giving up hockey forever. Unlike most of his colleagues, Victor did not want to prove himself as a coach or manager, deciding to go into business. For some time, the former hockey player was also the manager of the store, but he was unable to make it rich in his new guise.

HC CSKA

According to the Olympic champion Alexander Pashkov, Tolmachev’s life after leaving the sport did not develop in the best way: he could not “adapt to a new life.” At some point, Victor started drinking, which eventually broke his family. The ex-wife of the athlete Lyudmila even accused the hockey player of domestic violence: drunk, the hockey player raised his hand to his wife and daughter Tatiana.

After the retreat, the seriously ill Tolmachev lived alone. Shortly before his death, a daughter came to live with Victor, who remained with her mother after his parents divorced. Tatyana at that moment was going through a difficult period in her life: she lost her daughter and later, in a mad attack, she attacked her other son with a knife. 78-year-old Tolmachev, as soon as Tatyana returned to him, transferred her apartment to her, after which she stopped communicating …

“He was in bed for a month and a half”

The alarm was raised in September 2017 by Tolmachev’s ex-wife. Lyudmila tried for a long time to persuade Tatyana to talk to Victor, but that week after her week she refused under strange pretexts. As a result, a frightened woman turned to the police, and a district police officer came to the apartment of the former CSKA goalkeeper.

– Tolmachev’s daughter opened the door for him, did not want to let him in. The district police officer heard it right away. She hit her on the forehead, pushed her into the apartment and entered. And he lies there, wrapped in polyethylene and rags. He stayed there for a month and a half — a neighbor of the hockey player told RIA.

Medical experts found traces of seven stab wounds on the body of the deceased athlete, after which it became clear that the cause of death was murder. The prime suspect, of course, was Victor’s daughter. — a criminal case was soon opened and the 55-year-old woman was arrested and admitted her guilt. Tatyana’s mother later claimed that in this way her daughter wanted to take revenge on her father for a difficult childhood, but the full picture of the crime is not yet clear.