MIGHTY DUCKS ‘93-94: PREMIERE SEASON : Getting Their Piece of the Pie : Coming to America: To Russians, rewards of playing in NHL are worth the pain and struggle of moving here.

In 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev nearly created an international incident after being barred from visiting Disneyland.

In 1993, Alexei Kasatonov--who was born in 1959 in a city then known as Leningrad--has a personal Disneyland pass. So do Anatoli Semenov, Anatoli Fedotov and Mikhail Shtalenkov.

The Cold War has melted and the ice has frozen at Anaheim Arena. Now the Mighty Ducks, owned by the Walt Disney Co., have four Russians who did not dream of playing in the NHL when they were boys. It was a dream beyond dreaming, even in their sleep.

“Before, I don’t think about it,” said Fedotov, a 27-year-old defenseman who played for Moscow Dynamo before coming to North America to play in the minor leagues and work for his chance. “Why? Because never any Russians play in NHL. My dream is Red Army, national team. After the first, second players move to NHL, I think, why I not play in NHL?”

Kasatonov, a smooth and diligent defenseman even at 33, was part of a famous unit that came to be known as “the five” of Soviet hockey, with Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov and Igor Larionov. He has won two Olympic gold medals, in 1984 and ‘88, a silver second to the Americans in ‘80, and starred in Canada Cups and world championships.

A loyal soldier on the Central Red Army and national teams, in 1989 Kasatonov and the rest of the five were among the first players allowed to leave the Soviet Union to play in the NHL as glasnost spread.

“It was before, who can know about collapse, what happen in Russia in five, six years?” said Kasatonov, taken in the expansion draft from the New Jersey Devils. “No people could tell Russian players would play for NHL. This situation, we got opportunity and it was not so easy because system was not easily broken. Was tough situation. Some players, like, fight against system, old system. But when situation is open and any player can try to play the best game against best players, checking themself, I want to check myself. It is the right opportunity for any player.”

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Leaving the former Soviet Union for North America is about competing against the best in the world, and it is also about money. Kasatonov’s $650,000 salary--the highest on the Ducks--is plenty to buy a couple of sports cars, relegating Ladas to another lifetime.

He was among the first former Soviets to arrive, and the stream has become a torrent. Vancouver’s Pavel Bure and Buffalo’s Alexander Mogilny are among the league’s biggest stars. Mogilny, though, made his own opportunity, not waiting for the Soviet grip to relax but defecting in March of 1989 during a tournament in Stockholm.

His former countrymen do not speak comfortably about politics, and they choose their words about Mogilny carefully.

“I think any people can make self-decision,” Kasatonov said. “It was his decision.”

“You got your life, I’ve got my life, different for everyone,” said Semenov, 31, a former Moscow Dynamo center with a delicate passing touch who came to the Ducks from the Vancouver Canucks. He has been in the NHL since 1990.

Fedotov, who will begin the season with the minor league San Diego Gulls along with Shtalenkov, would not have done what Mogilny did. But he has benefited from the effect of Mogilny’s decision.

“Many questions after Mogilny defected, many questions for his mother, father, why he did this,” Fedotov said. “(But) I think after Mogilny, sport organization in Russia think, why Russian hockey players cannot play in NHL. I think he started it for Russians.”

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The Soviet sports system that created the Big Red Machine was demanding and oppressive. The players trained 11 months a year, reporting to camp on July 1, living away from their families in near-barracks for most of the year.

“We stay in training camp all year, but after some games we go home and see family,” Semenov said. “I didn’t see my son when he’s growing up. I just speak with my wife. She told me, ‘He sits, he speak, he walk.’ I say, ‘Oh!’ and clap.

“Here, it’s much better, of course. Just life. Everything different, hockey different, life, coach is different.”

The coaches he grew up with ruled with an iron fist, like the authoritarian Viktor Tikhonov, who coached the national team and Red Army.

“Here, me and coach are same,” Semenov said. “In Soviet Union, coach here,” he said, holding his hand high. “Player here,” he said, and dropped his hand low to the floor. “I can’t speak with coach like here. Here, coach is friend.”

The struggle these players face in adjusting to the NHL is not on the ice, where the skillful grace of the European game is melding with the traditionally more physical North American game.

“Hockey everywhere is hockey,” Semenov said. “If you play hockey, you don’t need a language. But after the rink, I need to speak to other people, some people who ask me about hockey, about life, about everything. That’s a problem. I want to go to some school and learn language, but I don’t have time. I have a game--not every day; yes, every other day, I have a game.

“I have a wife, Nazia, a son, Alexi. He is 9 years old. He is perfect. He is happy to be here. I think it’s easy for kids. He goes to school one year and sits and listens and another year he is speaking, speaking. My wife, it’s maybe hard for her because she can’t go to work. She stays home alone waiting for me or my son.”

Kasatonov also finds that it is easier for the next generation.

“He speak like American,” he said of his son Leonid, 10. “He went four times in Florida to Disney World, and he knows organization. For him it’s very interesting. He also watch the movie, Mighty Ducks. Big fan of moving to California.”

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California presents other complexities for Kasatonov and his wife, Janneta. Is there a Russian word for cul-de-sac? When General Manager Jack Ferreira asked Kasatonov where he was living, Kasatonov just shrugged and pointed to the hills above Anaheim. “On hill,” he said. “On circle.”

Still, Kasatonov and Semenov have been in the NHL a few years, and they are able to help Fedotov, who like goaltender Shtalenkov, 28, came to North America last year and played in the minor leagues hoping to be drafted by an NHL team.

“Because I am only second year in North America and they are three, 3 1/2 years here, I have many questions,” Fedotov said. “I go ask (Kasatonov) and Anatoli, ‘Help me out.’ I don’t know bank operation, how it’s better to buy car--cash, half-pay, lease.”

The players are estranged here from the events unfolding in Russia. The day after Boris Yeltsin announced he was dissolving the Russian parliament, Semenov said he had heard nothing.

“I’m not politic. I’m hockey player,” he said. “I can’t speak about politics in English language. If you want to speak about politics in Russian, I can explain. English, it’s difficult.”

They all return home in the summer, and they wait to see what will happen.

“Here, only one big problem--play better,” Fedotov said. “In Russia, many different problems after hockey practice. Many questions. Broken car? Big line. Food, shop? Big line. . . . This summertime better than a year ago. I think two, three more years and stability. Now is real difficult.”

“I just read newspaper like American people,” Kasatonov said. “I don’t know what is happening. I just can hope conditions are better and better changes for better life for more people in Russia.”

The hockey culture is changing almost as dramatically as the political structure. Kasatonov’s storied Red Army team, sapped by the flow of Russian players to North America, is now affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Fedotov says veteran players are a vanishing breed in Russia.

“All my friends 25, 26, play in Europe, play in National Hockey League,” he said. “In Russia now, all hockey teams are young. Before, five years ago, old man on hockey team was 33, 34. Now it is 21, 22. Many players move to different country.

“Every time I think about NHL, I think it is best in world league. I want to try myself. I want to play better.”