PAVEL BURE

Short & Sweet Nickname: Russian Rocket Team: Drafted by Vancouver in 1989 - 4th choice - 113th overall Jersey: #96 Birth date: March 31, 1971

Homeland Where: Moscow, capital of Russia Happy Birthday: Country is 850 years old this year Area: Russia is twice the size of the United States Population: 148 million (approx. 100 million less than U.S.)

Greeting "Hi, How are you guys? It’s December 31st and I’m sitting home getting ready for the next game which we’re playing tomorrow. I just want to wish everyone listening a happy new year and in the next year may all your dreams have come true."

GROWING UP

Pavel sends greetings to his fans in his native Russian language. Click here to listen

Pavel Bure was born in the Russian capital of Moscow, one of the largest cities in Europe. A look back into the history of the 12th century finds Moscow was not only a small wooden town, but a strong and prosperous state called "Kievan Rus." The country stretches by 10,000 kilometers from west to east, the length of a quarter of the equator. Even a modern airliner needs half a day of direct flight to cover such distance. Spreading widely from west to east, the territory of Russia comprises 11 time zones. The western and eastern borders are so remote from each other that at the time when the sun rises in the east, the deep darkness of late evening comes to the western regions.

Much of how the world viewed Russia, and especially the views from North America, were rooted in the information people received from the national press. Speaking with Pavel Bure, one quickly understands there was confusion on both sides of the fence.

"We had similar feelings towards the United States that the US had towards the USSR. It’s what you call propaganda. In the States you would see pictures of men in fur hats and old ladies out in the cold looking for food and people there would think ‘Wow, what an awful place to live that must be.’ Now I realize that the information we were getting about the States was portrayed in the same way. We were shown old war clips of people sleeping on the streets and that’s what I always thought about the U.S. and North America. I believed people had nothing to eat and wore only old clothes…no one could find a job and the sun would never shine."

The propaganda, as Bure so eloquently called it, remained for decades. After all, people believe what the media tells them. Pictures are powerful and so is the belief in your government. The borders were closed to Russian citizens so their world was a smaller place. Similarly, without a way to get in and witness Russia first hand, much of the world did not know the reality of life in the Soviet Union. With the breakdown of the communist countries and the crumbling of the Iron Curtain, travel in and out the country became a reality. It was an eye-opening experience for many. As Pavel would soon find out, there was more to North America than he had been led to believe:

"I’ll never forget the first time I came to North America. I went to Canada when I was 16 and I was visiting a Russian guy who had just moved here. I asked him how he was doing and he told me about his work. I thought that was impossible. There are no jobs here. He told me it was easy - you just go out and look for them. I then started riding the bus, looking for all those people who were sleeping in the street and living in boxes, but I couldn’t find them. In fact, I only saw one homeless person. It was then I realized what was happening. We [Russian citizens] were only shown the parts of the country that our government wanted us to see and vice versa. Perhaps they thought that if they made the rest of the world look so bad, we would all feel good about where we were living. I guess it worked though. I had a very happy childhood."

Vladimir Bure, taking the bronze in the '72 Games, set the stage for his son's Olympic dreams.

Much of how a person views their childhood is dependent on one’s family life. Pavel spoke in length about the good times he remembers. His father, Vladimir, was an Olympic swimmer who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. He took home the bronze medal in 1972 (100m), falling short of the gold by half a second. The man who captured the gold medal and the world record was the most celebrated athlete in Olympic swimming, Mark Spitz. Hanging on Pavel’s living room wall is a framed picture that reads:

To Pavel, a man who skates faster than his father swims - Mark Spitz.

His father’s success in sports parlayed into benefits for the young Bure:

"I had a privileged life. My father was an Olympic swimmer and he was one of our country’s best athletes. He was able to go to other countries and make a little more money than other people around us would. He was really good to me. He took care of me, my brother and my mother. He inspired me to play sports and dream big."

It all might have started with a dream, but talent soon took over. Fans revel in Pavel’s speed, agility and power as a hockey player, but growing up his passions were torn between two sports.

"Soccer and hockey were the two big sports in Russia. Soccer was a little bigger, and at the time a little more exciting, but my country wasn’t very good at it internationally. Whereas in hockey, we were winning everything…world championships, Olympic Games. So maybe we were a second sport, but because we were winning everything, we were put on a level with soccer. It was always my dream to play hockey. Yes, this was what my brother and I wanted. To play hockey and win."

(left to right) Brother Valeri, father Vladimir and Pavel were a close knit group growing up in Russia

Pavel, and younger brother Valeri, would soon realize their dreams of playing professional hockey. The NHL would not be their first stop, however. That would come later...