On December 9, 2023, Facebook user Sergey Samoylov published a photo with the caption “Rare photo. The arrival of the USSR national hockey team in Canada”. The photo shows a submarine cutting a hockey arena in half, which is used to illustrate the strength of the Soviet Union. The post has thousands of likes and hundreds of shares on Facebook.
The disseminated photo is altered and is hence, fabricated. In fact, the original photo was taken in Tampa, Florida, and shows the Amalie Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. The ship is not Soviet, but British, and is photoshopped into the photo.
Notably, a color version of the original photo can be found on the internet, which actually shows “Amalie Arena” – the main arena of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. Amalie Arena was opened in 1996. In both cases, the same American companies appear on its advertising banners.
The manipulative photo is being disseminated deliberately with a black-and-white effect and a different description to be perceived as historical.
| Real photo (color version) |
Fake photo (black and white version) |
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Notably, the submarine itself is cropped from another photo and then Photoshopped into the hockey arena. Actually, the mentioned ship HMS Tireless (S88) belongs to Great Britain. The photo was taken in 2009 when an explosion occurred on the ship. The ship was in the Arctic during this period.
The same photo has been circulating in Russian social networks in other versions as well, and the main purpose of all of them was to demonstrate the strength of Russia/USSR. In one of the versions, we see the inscription “We are Back” and the logo of the Soviet Union on the main advertising screen of the square. Other versions showed the arrival of a Soviet Union ship in the USA, where the Soviet Union hockey team would face the United States team.
In addition, in one of the versions published on the social network X, it is written that the ship is British and it ended up at the Canadian hockey championship due to wrong calculations.
A similar video was used by the Russian Channel One in 2021. In an ad aired on Russia’s Channel One for the hockey championship broadcast, a submarine was seen emerging from the hockey arena in Riga, where the 2021 championship was held. The ship in the ad featured the Russian flag and the logo of the Russian state hockey team “Красная машина”.
The video was widely circulated on TikTok.
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