Pyotr Dementyev was born in Petrograd on December 12, 1913, in a large family of workers at the Neva Thread Factory. The factory had British owners who implemented modern industrial technologies in the plant at the beginning of the 20th century. The British owners also gave the Russian factory workers an interest in football. The owners built a cozy stadium with a lovely grass pitch at the plant.
Taking his first steps on the grass pitch, “Peka”, as his friends called him, was hooked on football for the rest of his life. Dementyev had no teachers, and as a child he followed adult games closely, analyzing the older players and inventing his own football tricks. The word about this young talent spread rapidly through Leningrad, and Dementyev was included in the senior team when he was 13 years old. He was then called up to the Leningrad city team at 17 years old, and at 20 years old went to the USSR national team. At the same time, Dementyev managed to play for several different factory teams. In 1932, Dementyev was taken by Dynamo Leningrad. At that time, the famous goalkeeper Nikolay Sokolov, the central midfielder Pavel Batirev, and the center forward and future coach Mikhail Butusov all shone in Dynamo Leningrad. It was at the end of the 1930s that Peka had his best performances for the Leningrad city team and USSR national team.
Dementyev came to Zenit on the eve of the tragic 1941 season. The team managed to play eight games in the first half of the season. The ninth match, between Zenit and Spartak Kharkov, scheduled for June 22, 1941, didn`t take place. The war began. Zenit players were evacuated to a place near Kazan, and Peka left Leningrad along with his teammates. Dementyev later recalled this difficult time: “On arrival in evacuation, we worked in lumber camps, and built barracks for the workers and families of the industrial plant. Then I was put to work on the lathe – producing complex shells with optics. Life was hard, and half-starved, just like for the majority of Soviet people at the time. By agreement between Zenit coach Lemeshev and the plant manager, the players started training. Our “training room” was an unused warehouse paved with asphalt, and measuring approximately 80 by 30 meters, with a ceiling height of about 20 meters. The building wasn`t heated, and was lit by a dim bulb hanging somewhere from the ceiling. The roof was propped by numerous pillars that not only prevented us from playing normally, they also made training sessions unsafe. In winter we trained for 2-3 hours a day after work. Our young goalkeeper Leonid Ivanov stood in a makeshift goal made of planks.” During the war years, Dementyev made a trip with Zenit to Central Asia, where matches were held with local teams.
After the war, Pyotr Dementyev shone for Krylya Sovetov Moscow, CDKA, and Dynamo Kiev and Dynamo Leningrad. Dementyev successfully graduated from the Lesgaft Institute in Leningrad with a specialization in coaching football. After completing his playing career, Dementyev devoted himself to educating young Zenit players. Just as he once enthusiastically honed his skills on the factory pitch as a boy, he now helped young talents to take their first steps in football. Dementyev later shared his incredible life path in his memoirs “Peka about Himself, or Football Begins in Childhood.”
In memory of Peka Dementyev, Zenit held a flower-laying ceremony on December 12th at Dementyev`s memorial plaque at Petrovsky Stadium, and opened an exhibition in Zenit`s flagship store Zenit-Arena at 54, Nevsky Prospect, in which the residents and guests of St. Petersburg can see the cleats of the legendary player.
