Irina Smirnova and Valery Kharlamov met by chance in 1974. After one of the matches, the hockey player, together with his teammates, met in the metropolitan restaurant “Russia” to discuss in an informal atmosphere good moments of the game, abandoned pucks, effective power tricks. Music was playing, and at some point the athlete dared to invite a pretty girl, who was sitting at the next table, invited to a friend’s birthday party.
The beginning of a romantic relationship
Poorly versed in sports, 19-year-old Irina Smirnova, the future wife of Valery Kharlamov, mistook her boyfriend for an ordinary chauffeur, who for some reason could dance well, was surprisingly gallant and courteous. When everyone began to disperse, Valery volunteered to bring the girl to the house in a car. “Exactly, a taxi driver, ” thought Irina, sitting down in Kharlamov’s new Volga. The fact that fate gave an ordinary student of the Moscow Energy Institute a meeting with the great Soviet hockey player, she learned much later.
Between Irina and Valery, a fast-moving romance began, the girl often did not appear at home, did not attend classes at the institute. And at the end of the first year she became pregnant, she had to quit her studies. On March 9, 1976, their first-born, Alexander, was born, and a year later their daughter, Begonita (named after Valery’s mother). In May 1976 they played a wedding. And two weeks later there was a terrible accident that occurred five years before the tragic death - the first "bell". At great speed, the couple crashed into a light pole on a slippery road, unable to cope with the control. Irina Kharlamova wife of Valery Kharlamov, escaped with minor injuries, her husband with multiple fractures and concussion was hospitalized. After several operations, I had to re-learn not only to play hockey, but also to walk.
On the eve of death
In the evening on the eve of death in the village of Pokrovka, where Irina and Valery Kharlamovs were in the country, the family gathered at the table. No one could have imagined that they all saw each other for the last time. According to the memoirs of Irina’s mother, Nina Vasilievna, they discussed how they would celebrate her 50th birthday, made toasts, and laughed a lot. And at that moment, on television, they began to announce the composition of the USSR national team going overseas to take part in the Canada Cup. Valery was warned about expulsion from the national team due to lack of physical fitness, but at that moment he changed dramatically in person. The best hockey player in Europe at heart was still not ready for such an outcome.
All night on August 26, 1981, Irina Kharlamova, the wife of Valery Kharlamov, could not sleep. And for her husband, the night turned out to be difficult to think about. Kharlamov did not sleep, walked around the house and could not accept the idea that his life in hockey was over. In his painful thoughts everything came together: fatigue and resentment, humiliation and shame of the great hockey player.
August 27, 1981
Early that morning, on that fateful day, Valery woke Irina, hurried to Moscow for a training session, which was supposed to take place at 11 in the morning. The wife volunteered herself to drive, the mother dissuaded - Nina Vasilievna. Valery assured his mother-in-law that he would drive a car. But barely moving away from the village, the couple exchanged places. At 74 km of the Leningradskoye Shosse, the car skidded and threw under an oncoming truck.
Everything happened all of a sudden; the ZiL driver did not manage to react. The blow was so strong that Valery and Sergey (Irina’s brother) died instantly, and Irina Kharlamova was still alive for several seconds. And when the drivers of other cars stopped to help get her out of the car, she moved her lips: “How is Valera?”, But died a few seconds later. The wife of Valery Kharlamov, Irina Kharlamova (Smirnova) was only 25 years old. The hockey player himself is 33 years old. Their children remained orphans at 6 and 5 years old. Later it turned out that the woman was pregnant with her third child.
