 In the earliest days of the Soviet Union , bandy or " Russian hockey " was played , not " Canadian hockey " , and the Soviets did not compete in the Olympics or World Championships , which played the Canadian game . Post @-@ World War II , a goal of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union was world supremacy in sport . The decision was made to transfer resources to the Canadian game . Starting in the 1940s , the Soviet Union started a Soviet hockey league playing the Canadian game . The elite sports societies of the Soviet Union , such as Central Sports Club Army , Dynamo and Spartak , soon became the elite teams of the hockey league and supplied the players for the national team . Ostensibly amateurs , the players played hockey full @-@ time , paid by the government . The players had other titular professions ; for example Moscow Dynamo players became officers of the KGB ; CSKA Moscow players became officers in the army . This preserved a player 's amateur status for Olympic and World Championship eligibility and the players would have a career after their hockey playing days ended . 
