other local teams, the participants of the All-Ukrainian Spartakiads: Dynamo Horlivka and Dynamo Stalino. The first game was against Dynamo Odessa as part of the 1936 Cup of the Ukrainian SSR (at that time known as Ukrainian spring challenge) and took place on 12 May 1936 at Balitsky Stadium in Horlivka (the first home stadium). The team that played as Stakhonovets Horlivka lost 3–2 after scoring the first goal by Mykhailo Pashchenko, the second goal belonged to Boris Terentiev. Its first league game in Group V took place on 24 May 1936 against Dynamo Kazan was even more disappointing, which miners lost 4–1. Stakhonovets that had on its roster 15 players left for Kazan by train on 20 May. Beside players, as part of delegation there were representative of regional council of physical culture Gololobov and republican referee I.Rozanov. The team returned to Stalino on 28 May and the same day Gololobov in interview to newspaper "Stalinskiy rabochiy" told that "... the game in Kazan with local "Dynamo" was witnessed by 3,000 spectators. With the first minutes, the field hosts offered a high pace. The "Miners", who were road weary, could not respond with the same. On the 13th minute they conceded the first goal and by the end of first half, two more. In many respects the reason was poor performance of right halfback Kutsev (who played instead of K.Pashchenko) and right outside forward Korotynsky. Through their flank Dynamo players successfully attacked. In the first half Stakhanovets forwards looked bleak and uncertain. In the second half the game equalized and on 55th minute Fedor Manov opened score to Donetsk team goals. Final score is 4:1 in favor of the hosts." Nonetheless, the selective job conducted constructively by the club's administration allowed the club to compete successfully at the top level by the end of the 1930s. During the war championship of 1941, which was interrupted unexpectedly, the club defeated Soviet champions Dynamo Moscow and after about ten games were placed in fifth in the league. In the last game of that championship, played on 24 June, two days after the start of the Great Patriotic War, which they lost at home to Traktor Stalingrad. During the war many players went to frontlines and perished among which are Ivan Ustinov, Ivan Putyatov, Volodymyr Shkurov, Ivan Horobets, Mykhailo Vasin and others. From the pre-war squad in 1945 there were left only