Russia

Russian bandy was officially born in 1898 in S:t Petersburg, when the first set of rules was laid down. The first game in Moscow was played in 1902 and other early bandy sites were Tver, Vladivostok, Charkov, Archangelsk and Novgorod. Russia's transformation into the Soviet Union did not hamper the spread of bandy, but it was not until 1936 that the first Soviet Championships were played, won by Dynamo Moscow. Due to the second world war, it wasn't until 1950 that the second Championship was held, but has since then been held annualy.

Up to the late 1970's only three clubs had won the championship; Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moskow and SKA Jekaterinburg, but then Dynamo Alma-Ata, Zorkij (Krasnogorsk) and Jenisei (Krasnojarsk) took over. Dynamo Moscow have the most number of Soviet/Russian championships with 15, followed by SKA Jekaterinburg (12), Jenisei (11) and Vodnik (Archangelsk)(5). Today the dominating clubs are Vodnik and Jenisei, while other well-known clubs are Sibselmash (Novosibirsk), Sibskana (Irkutsk), Start (Nishnij Novgorod), Stroitel (Syktyvkar) and Volga (Uljanovsk).

Russia also have a Cup tournament, which has benn held 1937-1941, 1945-1954 and then annualy since 1983. Again Dynamo Moscow are the most successful with 13 Cup triumphs, followed by Zorkij (6), Vodnik (5), Jenisei (4) and CSKA Moscow (3).

Russia (Soviet Union) have participated in all World Championships along with Sweden and Finland. They dominated for the first twenty years of international bandy and won the first eleven World Championships (1957 - 1979) and after that four more times (1985, 1989, 1991 & 1999) and have never been worse than third (1987)