Book Launch
Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series by Gary J. Smith
Wednesday, April 20th, 2022
4:00 - 6:00 pm EST
Campbell Conference Facility (1 Devonshire Place, Toronto)
Hybrid Event (online with space for a limited number of in-person attendees)
About Ice War Diplomat:
Tasked with finding common ground and building friendships between the world’s two largest countries and arctic neighbours, a young Canadian diplomat finds himself on his first overseas assignment in Moscow, the Soviet capital. It’s the early 1970s and a Cold War between capitalism and communism, the West and the East, is simmering—while the ice rink is just starting to heat up. Trained in Russian and deployed by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s détente policy, Smith opts for sports diplomacy, throwing off his embassy black tie dress code and donning the blue and white sweater of the Moscow Maple Leafs.
Armed with cases of Molson, Smith sets forth into Russian beer league hockey. A vodka-infused encounter with the influential Izvestia journalist “The Snowman” leads him into the murky world of Soviet hockey officialdom, the KGB and the decision that USSR “amateurs” were finally ready to play Canadian professionals in an eight-game Friendship Series of the best versus the best.
Trusted by each side with unparalleled access to officials, coaches and players on both teams, Smith portrays this unique and epic hockey series that has come to transcend time, becoming a symbol of the unity and clarity that sports can offer. Discover amazing and surprising events: a motorcycle joyride around the Kremlin with the Canadian prime minister; a secret visit to a Soviet hospital by a blood-coughing Phil Esposito; an argument with Bobby Orr about Team Canada’s behaviour; and an invitation in 2017 from Russia to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the series in Moscow.
The 1972 Canadian-Soviet Hockey Series has gone down in history as a pivotal political event, changing the course of two nations and the world of hockey—learn the fascinating story and more in this book, perfect for history and sports fans alike.
About Gary J. Smith:
Gary J. Smith was a diplomat at the Canadian embassy in Moscow from 1971 to 1974. He was instrumental in making the 1972 Canadian-Soviet Hockey Series happen—and keeping it from falling apart. Smith lives in Perth, ON.
Note from the author: February 25, 2022
“Hockey has been a diplomatic bridge between Canada and Russia dating back fifty years to the storied Summit Series of 1972. At that time, and following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau used hockey as a form of common ground with the Soviet Union to reduce the risk of conventional and nuclear war. Forty-five years later President Putin himself embraced that series and told players from Team Canada in 2017 that “the series had improved relations with Canada and he would like to follow up on it.” Now with Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we will have to wait and see whether the hockey bridge can—or should—sustain, once again, the weight of Russian tanks.” —Gary J. Smith