On August 8, 1949, the strongest man of the 20th century, wrestler and athlete Ivan Poddubny, died. He collected the largest halls in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Budapest and New York. He was called the “champion of champions” and the “Russian hero.” He performed in the arena until he was seventy years old.
Biography
Ivan Poddubny born in Poltava province in 1871 into a family of Zaporozhye Cossacks. He inherited his strength from his father. A peasant who was accustomed to hard physical labor and taught his children to it.
Already as an adult man, Ivan Poddubny will say that only his father is stronger than him.
The future athlete was forced to leave his father's house by his first love. Ivan fell in love with the daughter of a wealthy owner, Alena. But the girl’s father was against the wedding, because he did not want to marry his daughter to a poor man.
Poddubny went to work in Sevastopol. He gets a job as a loader for a Greek company. In Sevastopol he meets sailors. It is from them that he learns that there is a training system.
In addition, a circus came to the city, whose posters featured athletes and wrestlers. Everyone could compete with the artists. Poddubny also tried himself in this competition, but was defeated in one of the categories. It was then that he realized that there were few natural physical data. From this moment on, training becomes an integral part of Poddubny’s life.
The future athlete tried his luck again and surpassed them in belt wrestling. This was a turning point in Poddubny’s life. He becomes a fighter, a circus performer.
Since 1922, the athlete worked in the Moscow State Circus, then in Petrograd. He toured a lot, and not only in Russia, he visited Germany and the USA. In America, Poddubny created a real sensation; he was even offered to stay in this country, but he did not want to.
The athlete returned to Russia, got married and moved with his family to Yeisk.
In November 1939, in the Kremlin, for truly outstanding services “in the development of Soviet sports,” he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
During World War II, Yeysk was occupied by the Germans. Poddubny was summoned to the Gestapo and offered to go to Germany to train German athletes. Poddubny refused. When the occupation ended, the athlete went on tour again. In 1947, he performed the program “50 Years in the Circus Arena.”
On August 8, 1949, Ivan Poddubny died of a heart attack. He was buried in his native Yeisk. On his grave is carved: “Here lies a Russian hero.”
On this day, we remember interesting facts from the biography of the athlete:
1. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny had a fairly large physique. His weight was 120 kilograms, height - 184 centimeters, chest volume - 130 centimeters, waist - 100 centimeters, neck - 48 centimeters, biceps - 46 centimeters.
2. Even in his youth, Poddubny set himself a strict regime: every day he performed exercises with 32-kilogram weights, a 112-kilogram barbell, and poured himself cold water and ate food strictly according to the clock.
3. Ivan Poddubny was a vegetarian. And at the same time, very strong man. The athlete adhered to a carbohydrate diet - he was in large quantities ate cereals flour products, fruits, honey.
4. The athlete never smoked or drank alcohol.
5. When did the Great Patriotic War, Poddubny was seventy years old. In order to somehow feed his family, the athlete went to work as a marker in a billiard room. There was a military hospital next to the establishment, where the players came from. Poddubny often threw out the door of too many visitors, thus fulfilling the role of bouncer. By the way, among the guests of the establishment were German soldiers. They say that they were proud of the fact that Poddubny himself kicked them out of the billiard room.
Years of life 1871 – 1949
Full name - Poddubny Ivan Maksimovich
Born on October 9 (September 26), 1871 in Ukraine, in the Poltava province, in the village of Krasenivka (now Cherkasy region)
Anthropometric data:
- Height 185 cm
- Chest 130 cm
- Biceps 45 cm
- Thigh 70 cm
- Neck 50 cm
Ivan Poddubny - biography
Under this name he entered the history of world sports Russian athlete And wrestler Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny. This hero was born October 9 (September 26), 1871 in a peasant family of tillers in Ukraine, in the Poltava province, in the village of Krasenivka (now Cherkasy region). He lived there for 21 years. Ivan is the eldest son; three brothers and three sisters grew up with him. The entire Poddubny family possessed good health and great physical strength. Father Maxim Ivanovich was of heroic stature and possessed Herculean strength. And Vanya took after his father: at the age of 15 he was not afraid to fight with him in a belt fight.
At the age of 22, Ivan got a job as a loader in the Sevastopol port, and two years later (in 1895) he moved to Feodosia, where he works as a worker at the Livas company. At this time it starts to get carried away physical exercise: Works out with dumbbells, kettlebells, runs in the morning after exercise. In 1896, the Beskorovainy circus came to the city. Every evening Ivan came to the circus and carefully watched the performances of athletes who broke horseshoes, bent thick metal rods, lifted weights and huge ball barbells. As always, at the end of the performance, the athlete offered those who wanted to repeat any trick for a monetary reward. Poddubny entered the arena and tried to repeat some tricks. But it was unsuccessful. But in belt wrestling he defeated all the wrestlers with the exception of the giant Peter Yankovsky. Poddubny was offered to work in the circus for several months as an athlete. This is where he became interested in the circus. In 1897 he went to Sevastopol, where at that time there was the Truzzi circus. Poddubny is taken into the wrestling troupe, which he led. Soon Poddubny wins victories over all members of the troupe. For some time he wrestled on belts in the Nikitin Circus. Since 1903, he has specialized in French (classical) wrestling and from that moment on has no equal. Wins all major championships in the country.
According to the keen observation of the doctor E. Garnich-Garnitsky, who, together with A. Kuprin, created an athletes’ club in Kiev, where the future “champion of champions” trained at one time, “Poddubny was able to develop energy like an explosion at the right moments and not lose his “courage.” “in the most difficult and dangerous moments of the struggle...” He was a smart fighter, and the fury of Achilles lived in him. At the same time, Poddubny was artistic and knew how to please the public. By 1903, he was already an experienced belt wrestler, known to Odessa and Kyiv, Tbilisi and Kazan...
In 1903, he received an invitation from the chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society, Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopierre. Poddubny was invincible in belt wrestling, but was just mastering French wrestling. He was given a coach, Eugene de Paris, and was given three months to prepare. The training days were very intense. And so, together with his coach, Poddubny goes to Paris. The championship took place at the Casino de Paris. Poddubny already had eleven victories. The next meeting was to take place with the champion of Paris and the crowd's favorite Raoul Le Boucher, a very strong young twenty-year-old wrestler. Poddubny was thirty-five years old at that time. The fight began, Poddubny felt that he would be able to win another victory, but, strangely enough. After ten minutes, the opponent began to sweat heavily, and just like that he was slipping out of all the grips. It turned out that Raul was smeared with Provençal oil before the fight, which was prohibited by the rules of the competition. Poddubny stopped the fight and a protest was filed with the judges.
A strange decision was made - to dry Raoul with a towel every five minutes. Raoul continued to sweat, although he was regularly dried with a towel. And so the judges, for skillfully avoiding tackles, awarded the victory to Raoul Le Boucher. Poddubny decided to take revenge. In the meantime, he takes part in the Moscow Championship, where he defeats all the participants, including Yankovsky, and receives the first prize. Then he fights in the provinces, where his performances bring sold-out circuses. In 1904, he took part in a strongman competition, where, without special training, he lifted a barbell weighing 120 kg onto his biceps! In the same year, the international championship in French wrestling took place at the Cinizelli circus. Outstanding wrestlers arrived, including world champion Paul Pons, Nikola Petrov and Raoul Le Boucher.
The championship lasted a month. The entire St. Petersburg nobility filled the boxes and the first rows of the circus. Poddubny went undefeated. And so, the fight with Raoul. This time Poddubny exhausted his opponent so much that Raoul admitted defeat. Poddubny won first prize and a cash prize of 55 thousand rubles.
Poddubny continued to train. He followed a strict regime. Did it every day morning exercises, doused himself with cold water, worked out with weights. I ordered myself a metal walking cane, which I walked with every day. Didn't drink, didn't smoke. In 1905 he went to Paris for a major international championship with the participation of the strongest wrestlers from almost all countries.
The last fight took place with the world champion Dane Nes Pedersen (“Iron Nesse”), who was considered the strongest man. Poddubny defeated the Dane and received a prize of 10,000 francs and the title of world champion. Poddubny receives invitations to tour to different countries.
He goes to Nice and receives the first prize, then fights in Italy without defeat, then goes to Algeria and Tunisia. After this fight in Germany, he won first places everywhere. He goes to St. Petersburg, to the Ciniselli circus, where the world championship is taking place.
Poddubny wins it. He goes to Paris for the world championship, wins this championship and receives the title of world champion for the second time. In the same year in Milan he won the world champion title for the third time. In 1907 in Vienna he won the world champion title for the fourth time. The press began to call him “Champion of Champions.” He continues touring in many European countries and is undefeated everywhere. In 1908, Poddubny, together with Grigory Kashcheev, went to Paris for the world championship, where he again won. Zaikin took second place, Kashcheev took fourth (prize), Poddubny became world champion for the fifth time. In 1909, he received the title of world champion for the sixth time in the city of Frankfurt. It should be said that Poddubny never compromised. Even for a lot of money, he did not agree to perform according to a pre-planned scenario, which was often practiced in circuses.
There are quite understandable explanations why wrestlers “cheat” and fight in collusion. First: otherwise the fighter won’t last long. Second: every tournament organizer himself desires to become a “world champion” and invites those who are compliant. By the way, such “chic tournaments” in those years brought almost one and a half hundred “world champions” to humanity. Surely it was not easy to resist this worldwide farce!
Statement by the famous “Volga hero”, and subsequently by an equally famous aeronaut and aviator: “Only outstanding athletes, such as Ivan Poddubny, Nikolai Vakhturov, could preserve their sporting honor, not lie down on the orders of the championship organizer at a certain minute... "
In 1910 Poddubny said goodbye to the arena and returned to Krasenivka. He dreamed of his own home, he wanted family happiness. And even then, by the age of forty, it’s time. In the vicinity of his native Krasenivka and neighboring Bogodukhovka, he acquired 120 dessiatinas of black soil (more than 131 hectares), got married, blessed his relatives with land plots, built an estate in Bogodukhovka on an area of 13 dessiatinas, owned two excellent mills, a fashionable stroller...
He was not a literate person, he wrote with difficulty, Ivan Maksimovich neglected punctuation marks, except for periods. He was not a delicate person either, he could “lordly” give a person - not his equal - two fingers to shake. Rotating “in the spheres,” it was easier for him to lay down a dozen grenadier officers on his shoulder blades than to learn to use a knife and fork... However, we know people who are well brought up, but have the most arbitrary concept of their professional honor (creative, political or scientific), life in chic style. This is the only reason why I want to remember and think about Poddubny.
It’s hard to say why, but for some reason it’s not a pity that he turned out to be a bad landowner: after a couple of years, Poddubny went bankrupt. He burned one of his mills out of spite younger brother, he sold the second, like the estate, to pay off a debt to his competitors, the owners of the surrounding mills, certain Rabinovich and Zarkhi. In 1913, the wrestling mat again began to spring under his feet.
He entered the same river for the second time. And the stream became even more muddy. They started talking about Poddubny again with admiration... He stuck to his principle “let him put it down if he can” until the very end.
In 1919, Poddubny was almost shot by drunken anarchists in the Zhytomyr circus. He fled, leaving his things behind, wandering around without money. And a little later in Kerch, a drunk officer shot at him and scratched his shoulder. In Berdyansk in the same 19th he had an unpleasant meeting with Makhno... During the Civil War, Poddubny did not join either side, did not take up arms, he fought in circuses. And indeed, in times of drunken meat grinders, the hero’s place may and should be in a booth, an absolute symbol of what is happening around him. In 1920, he visited the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka, where anyone suspected of anti-Semitism was shot. Fortunately, they remembered Poddubny’s face, sorted it out, and released him. And here is the news from small homeland: the wife found a replacement for Ivan Maksimovich. I also grabbed some medals. “Oh, you, beautiful Nina!..” He stopped eating and talking, and then recognizing anyone... Soon she wrote a penitential letter: “On my knees I will go all the way to you, Vanechka”... But where is it, cut off!
The Soviet government, represented by Lunacharsky, supported the circus performers, considering the arena good place for revolutionary agitation. Since 1922, Poddubny worked in the Moscow State Circus, then in Petrograd. Somehow I found myself on tour in Rostov-on-Don and met Maria Semyonovna there... Ivan Maksimovich became younger, he persuaded her, and they got married. Funds, something he was not used to, were tight. NEP carried him throughout the cities and villages, brought him to Germany, where he won victories over all his rivals, most of whom were younger than him. In 1925 he went to America. He studies freestyle wrestling, in which leg holds, trips and techniques carried out with the legs are allowed. A month later, Poddubny was ready to fight on the mat with American wrestlers. The first contractions took place in New York. Poddubny created a sensation in America, traveled all over the country, and was even proclaimed the “champion of America.” They tried to persuade him to stay. However, “persuaded” is not the right verb, they forced: serious threats, blackmail, and non-payment of money were used. More than a thousand people were present at the farewell banquet... After that, he returned to his homeland and continued to perform in the arena until 1941.
Here's the characteristic famous Ivan Poddubny gives in the album "Fighters" (1917) Ivan Vladimirovich Lebedev(Uncle Vanya): Ivan Poddubny. “The one who... etc. broke the world’s best fighters without any regret and without the slightest embarrassment. He was as strong as a spontaneous hurricane. Of all the laws of life, he knew one: “homo homini lupus est” and firmly followed his command. In clean and jerks, he is beyond competition. If, at times, the opponent resists especially desperately, Poddubny will definitely step on his foot on the ground. He was terrible not only for Russians, but also for all foreign wrestlers: if he doesn’t quit, he’ll break them. Now he has a mill and estate in his native Poltava province and fights in the aura of past great glory. He is 45 years old."
In the spring of 1927, Ivan Maksimovich finally returned to his homeland. Like Odysseus, he overcame the trials and temptations allotted to him. In 1927, on the way from New York, his ship stopped at Hamburg, which, appreciating the true class of the fighter, showered him with flowers. And here is Leningrad. The imperial city greeted him, as in all times the capitals of empires greet their heroes. But the main thing was that Maria Semyonovna was standing on the pier. In his honor there were arranged sport games.
In Yeisk the Poddubnys bought a large two-storey house with a garden. But the wrestling mat Ivan Maksimovich I didn’t think about leaving, I toured until 1941, until I was seventy. In November 1939, in the Kremlin, for truly outstanding services “in the development of Soviet sports,” he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. There was already a war going on in Europe, and a worldwide “drill” was beginning. The heroic muscles of Poddubny and his successors, among whom were army commanders, personified Soviet power. Ivan Maksimovich served as the prototype for the hero of the film "The Fighter and the Clown"(1957).
During the years of the German occupation, seventy-year-old Ivan Maksimovich, in order to feed his loved ones, was forced to serve as a marker in the city billiard room. After the liberation of Yeisk in 1943, she went on tour again. In December 1945, when the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Athletic Society was celebrated, Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He was active, corresponded, made appeals, signed himself like this: “Russian Bogatyr Ivan Poddubny.” In 1947, he performed with the program “50 years in the circus arena”... Then he broke his leg and died from a heart attack.
Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny died on August 8, 1949. A marble bust was installed in Poddubny’s homeland "To the Champion of Champions". On the monument is carved in gold letters: “Here lies the Russian hero.” Since 1962, international competitions in classical wrestling for the prize named after I.M. Poddubny have been held annually. An active surge of interest in the “champion of champions” arose a third of a century ago, when his 100th anniversary was celebrated. In the books about Poddubny of that time we find many blank spots, especially in the years Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. Some discrepancies are noticeable regarding his life both in Krasenivka, where he no longer visited after the death of his mother, and in Yeisk. Some legends and anecdotes about Poddubny were then classified as legends. But other tales have received a second life; they contain a touch of the socio-political sentiments of their eras. A legend dating back to the time of the German occupation is indicative. It’s as if Poddubny was walking around Yeisk with the order on display, and hit a German who was trying to disrupt the order. Now suddenly they “remembered” something else. It flashed as if he was running his billiard room under the Germans. It must also be said that in the literature about Poddubny there is confusion with dates, literally starting from the year of his birth. Some encyclopedias indicate 1870; this date still appears under the sculptural portrait of Poddubny in Krasenivka. “Discordance” in dates arises more than once in the future.
55 years after the death of the great fighter, when much had changed in life, the public need for a serious and deep book about Ivan Poddubny became palpable.
There are individuals whose life experiences people return to from generation to generation, as if confirming: without them, the future of the people will not be complete. Such a person, undoubtedly, is the nugget from Krasenivka. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny.
Hello, colleagues and friends! Of the people who are distinguished by their excellent strength, the name Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny is the most famous on the entire planet. This wrestler, athlete is known even to those who are not interested in circus wrestling, strongmen.
For 40 years in professional sports he never lost a single major fight. With enormous strength, original tactics, honesty, and originality, Ivan Poddubny, the first six-time world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, glorified Russia in the first half of the 20th century. And even now the world has not forgotten the Russian hero.
More interesting articles about outstanding personalities bodybuilding:
Zaporozhye Cossack Ivan Poddubny
Four documentaries have been made about him and feature films. Many scientific, journalistic and artistic works have been written. He left disciples whose names are also known to the world (Zherebtsov, Karimov).
His biography covers the years of his life from 1871, when he was born in the Poltava province, to 1949, when he died of a heart attack in Yeisk. This man was called the King of Fighters, the Russian Hero, the Champion of Champions, Ivan Zhelezny. The respect for him was immeasurable.
A farm laborer from the age of 12, a longshoreman, a weight lifter and a circus wrestler, he traveled to 14 countries on four continents. Starting from Feodosia, where he performed with the Ivan Beskaravainy circus, then with the Enrico Truzzi circus, spectators in more than 50 cities were amazed at the natural strength that the strongman demonstrated in Russian belt wrestling, and then in classical French wrestling.
He defeated the invincible before him. And he recognized only his father as stronger than himself. From which he got a height of 184 centimeters, a weight of 118 kilograms at 32 years old and a biceps of 46 centimeters.
A rare film from 1912 has survived, which gives an idea of the competitions of that time, a half-minute video of one of the tournaments on the street of a European city. Evidence of the time and history of Greco-Roman wrestling - photos on posters of the beginning of the century with the image of Poddubny.
Chronicles of the Russian hero
Poddubny fought his last victorious fight at the age of 70. Unbelievable but true. His whole life was devoted to fights for championship. His poor family all that could give him as an inheritance was remarkable strength, purity and naivety of soul. He was not known to fix fights, did not take bribes and never lied.
Ivan Poddubny was a professional wrestler, so he did not participate in amateur Olympic Games Oh. At the world championship in Paris in 1903, our hero represented Russia. It was necessary to emerge victorious from a battle with 130 contenders. Having won 11, Poddubny almost left the sport forever, faced with the meanness of his opponent and the indifference of the judges.
Raoul le Bouche could not defeat the Russian Ivan in a fair fight and resorted to a trick: he covered himself with fat, making it almost impossible to grab him. The judges dismissed Poddubny's statement and awarded the victory to the Frenchman.
True, justice overtook him. The public went wild when the following year in St. Petersburg Poddubny humiliated Le Bouche by holding him on the carpet for 20 minutes in an uncomfortable and shameful position.
Since 1903, for six years in a row, Ivan Poddubny was the winner of the World French Wrestling Championship in Paris. In 1911 he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor (France).
In 1910, the wrestler made his first attempt to end his career. Returning to his homeland, he started a household and got married. However, his personal life did not work out. The wife of Antonin Kvitko-Fomenko turned out to be one of those women who would willingly make a millionaire out of a billionaire. And in Civil, she completely disappeared from his life.
All the years, Ivan could not forget his circus love - gymnast Masha Dozmarova. On the eve of their wedding, she fell from under the circus big top and fell to her death. And only in 1922 his marriage to Maria Semenovna Mashonina brought him happiness. They lived together for 27 years before his death. He raised her son Ivan, who died in the first battles of World War II.
Poddubny did not have his own children, but he had godchildren. He willingly tinkered with them. They left memories of him, which historians are collecting bit by bit. Despite long life in sports, there is practically no documentary material left about Poddubny.
Left without funds thanks to his first wife, Ivan was forced to return to the circus on the eve of the First World War. Throughout the Civil War he traveled across the expanses of Russia. In 1922 he received an invitation to the Moscow Circus. And already from him in 1924 he was sent on tour in Germany and the USA.
In America, he had to relearn because the rules of discipline and competition were different from European ones. And the age of 52 caused a stir among the organizers and the public. Americans could participate in tournaments from the age of 38, but not from 52! However, he had no equal.
Poddubny despised Americans and called them bandits. American sports have been incredibly criminalized. Unable to bear it, the wrestler got ready to go home. Even half a million dollars in the account did not stop him. To close the account, it was necessary to take American citizenship. Poddubny flatly refused.
Ivan returned as a hero. Made a second attempt to end his career. In 1939, at the age of 68, the athlete was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, which he proudly wore, without removing it even in critical situations of the occupation. In the same year he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
Settled in Yeisk. Fishing and the joys of retirement did not occupy Poddubny for long. He yearned for the fight. He organized a club of local strongmen in Yeisk and went to tournaments with them. He also performed. And even at his age he won victories. He didn't know how to lose at all. The coach was said to be very tough, even ruthless. Just as he did not spare his opponents in tournaments. He could throw him on the floor so hard his teeth would fly out.
Separately, it is necessary to say about some secret force that protected him in the most difficult moments. The Reds intended to shoot him in Grazhdanskaya, the Makhnovists did not touch him, the Nazis did not touch him when he proudly walked around occupied Yeisk with a Soviet order on his chest. On the contrary, they even gave him a job so that he could feed his family.
Then the returning Soviet authorities almost shot him for working for the Nazis. However, his guardian angel sat on his right shoulder. He remained out of politics - Beria refused to train Dynamo, and the Nazis refused to train German athletes.
In 1945 he became an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. But the pension remained meager; it was impossible to feed on it. And such a large body needed to eat intensively, especially since Ivan Maksimovich trained to the last every day.
Unfortunately, it’s so arranged that along with fame, people’s attention to their former idols goes away. A few friends and neighbors tried to help Poddubny’s family with all their might. How he once helped them.
On August 8, 1949, Poddubny passed away - death from a heart attack. In the park named after him, where the athlete is buried, a memorial bust was installed on his grave in 2011. “To the Champion of Champions in honor of his 140th birthday from grateful followers,” it reads. However, the memory of such an extraordinary person cannot be hidden by the years.
In 1953, the USSR Sports Committee established Poddubny memorials. Since 1962, international tournaments in memory of Poddubny have brought together the best athletes in the world. And in 1972, the name of Poddubny was given to the icebreaker ship of the Feodosia seaport.
“Only outstanding athletes, such as Ivan Poddubny, Ivan Shemyakin, Nikolai Vakhturov, could preserve their sporting honor, not lie down on the orders of the championship organizer at a certain minute...”
/Ivan Zaikin, famous “Volga hero”/
Climbing Olympus
A hundred years ago, in St. Petersburg in 1904, Ivan Poddubny first became the winner of an international wrestling tournament. In the sports world, this time is considered the beginning of the “golden age” of French wrestling (also known as classical and Greco-Roman). In those thunderous years, the popularity of wrestling was enormous; this, against the backdrop of pre-revolutionary conflicts, seemed to program the entire future twentieth century. Three thousand people came to the St. Petersburg Ciniselli Circus every day to watch the competition. Thirty wrestlers competed here, among whom were world celebrities, including the French - two-time world champion Paul Pons and Raoul le Boucher, co-organizers of the tournament. At the 1903 Paris Championship, Raoul defeated Poddubny on points and took second place. He won, as it was then discovered, by cheating: his body before the competition - according to the Turkish method - was processed olive oil, which tends to be absorbed into dry skin and released along with sweat, making the body subtly slippery. Soon, “eternally second” Raul, in order to clear his way to the championship, will resort to a more radical method. But Poddubny, already familiar with the customs of such championships in 1904, knew that an obstinate wrestler could be infected with a skin disease, maimed, and killed. At this tournament, the organizers had already composed the final in advance and distributed four cash prizes (first place - 3000 rubles, then 1000, 600 and 400 rubles)
The French, like the public, did not immediately believe in Poddubny’s wrestling genius. It was a common opinion that Poddubny wins not through wrestling, but through blunt natural strength. Ivan Maksimovich played along with this.
When the organizers discovered that Poddubny was guaranteed to take third place, they instantly changed the conditions of the tournament, combining the prizes into one: the winner will receive five thousand. They did not believe that Poddubny would defeat everyone. But in a long duel, he first forced the deft and powerful 21-year-old Raul to capitulate. And in the decisive battle he laid down the two-meter giant Paul Pons on his shoulder blades. On that day, Poddubny showed all his virtuoso skills accumulated up to that time. Of course, it was a real “drill”. Immediately Poddubny loudly demanded to take the money and coat into the arena: “I won’t go backstage, they’ll kill me!” The audience roared, she was already on his side...
The following year, 1905, Poddubny became the winner of the Paris World Championship and received the main prize - 10 thousand francs. That's when Raoul le Boucher hired the bandits... I must say that in the future, different people for various reasons there will be a desire to deal with Poddubny. However, it turned out that the bullets did not take him. In 1905, Poddubny had to abandon a tour of Italy and, hiding from killers, hastily move to Africa. Raul, having contacted the bandits, soon died at their hands...
Some circumstances of the biography of Ivan Poddubny make us remember the legendary heroes of antiquity. Like them, he knew his purpose. Like them, he knew the twists of fate, trials, victories, disasters, and journeys. And like few others, he was granted old age in a remote province by the sea with the woman he adored.
Explosion energy
Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was born on John the Theologian - October 9 (September 26), 1871 in the Poltava region, in the village. Krasenivka (now Cherkasy region) He lived there for 21 years. About the same at the end of life in Yeisk - resort town on the shore Sea of Azov, where he died on August 8, 1949.
In the year of the resumption of the Olympic Games, in 1896, he first entered the circus arena. He came out as an amateur from the public - the circus was a traveling one. This happened in Feodosia. Having suffered embarrassment while competing in weight lifting with visiting athletes, he surpassed them in belt wrestling, which was also popular in Krasenivka (and has been known in Rus' since the 13th century).
According to the keen observation of the doctor E. Garnich-Garnitsky, who, together with A. Kuprin, created an athletes’ club in Kiev, where the future “champion of champions” trained at one time, “Poddubny was able to develop energy like an explosion at the right moments and not lose his “courage.” “in the most difficult and dangerous moments of the struggle...” He was an intelligent fighter, and the fury of Achilles lived in him. At the same time, Poddubny was artistic and knew how to please the public. By 1903, he was already an experienced belt wrestler, known to Odessa and Kyiv, Tbilisi and Kazan...
"Golden Age" of the winner of champions
Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopierre was for Russian sports what Tretyakov was for artists, and Nemirovich-Danchenko was for the theater. Hero Russian-Turkish war, wrestler, speed skater, rider. He headed the St. Petersburg Athletic Society and spent up to one hundred thousand a year from personal funds on the development of domestic sports. In 1903, the count invited the athlete Poddubny, who worked in the Kiev Russian Circus of the Nikitin Brothers, to St. Petersburg and offered him - after serious training in French wrestling - participation in the Paris World Championship.
Circus historians believe that the “golden age” of French wrestling was between 1904 and 1909. It was these years that were illuminated by the brilliance of Poddubny’s victories. His awards, stored in a special chest - gold medals and badges - by the end of the “golden age” weighed two pounds! He was popular in Russia and Europe, postcards with his portraits were sold in the thousands. Journalists came up with an amazing title for him - “champion of champions.”
A word about honor
There are quite understandable explanations why wrestlers “cheat” and fight in collusion. First: otherwise the fighter won’t last long. Second: each tournament organizer himself desires to become a “world champion” and invites those who are compliant. By the way, such “chic tournaments” in those years brought almost one hundred and fifty “world champions” to humanity. Surely it was not easy to resist this worldwide farce!
Statement by Ivan Zaikin, the famous “Volga hero”, and subsequently an equally famous aeronaut and aviator: “Only outstanding athletes, such as Ivan Poddubny, Ivan Shemyakin, could preserve their sporting honor, not lie down on the orders of the championship organizer at a certain minute, Nikolai Vakhturov..."
The circus won
In 1910, Poddubny said goodbye to the arena and returned to Krasenivka. He dreamed of his own home, he wanted family happiness. And even then, by the age of forty, it’s time. In the vicinity of his native Krasenivka and neighboring Bogodukhovka, he acquired 120 dessiatinas of black soil (more than 131 hectares), got married, blessed his relatives with land plots, built an estate in Bogodukhovka on an area of 13 dessiatinas, owned two excellent mills, a fashionable stroller...
He was not a literate person, he wrote with difficulty, Ivan Maksimovich neglected punctuation marks, except for periods. He was not a delicate person either, he could “lordly” give a person - not his equal - two fingers to shake. Rotating “in the spheres,” it was easier for him to lay down a dozen grenadier officers on his shoulder blades than to learn to use a knife and fork... However, we know people who are well brought up, but have the most arbitrary concept of their professional honor (creative, political or scientific), conducting life in the chic genre. This is the only reason why I want to remember and think about Poddubny.
It’s hard to say why, but for some reason it’s not a pity that he turned out to be a bad landowner: after a couple of years, Poddubny went bankrupt. One of his mills was burned down by his younger brother out of spite; the second, like the estate, he sold to pay off a debt to his competitors, the owners of the surrounding mills, certain Rabinovich and Zarkhi. In 1913, the wrestling mat again began to spring under his feet.
He entered the same river for the second time. And the stream became even more muddy. They started talking about Poddubny again with admiration... He stuck to his principle “let him put it down if he can” until the very end.
"White, red, gold-colored..."
On the 19th, Poddubny was almost shot by drunken anarchists in the Zhytomyr circus. He fled, leaving his things behind, wandering around without money. And a little later in Kerch, a drunk officer shot at him and scratched his shoulder. In Berdyansk in the same 19th he had an unpleasant meeting with Makhno... During the Civil War, Poddubny did not join either side, did not take up arms, he fought in circuses. And indeed, in times of drunken meat grinders, the hero’s place may and should be in a booth, an absolute symbol of what is happening around him. In 1920, he visited the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka, where anyone suspected of anti-Semitism was shot. Fortunately, they remembered Poddubny’s face, sorted it out, and released him. And here is news from our small homeland: his wife found a replacement for Ivan Maksimovich. I also grabbed some medals. “Oh, you, beautiful Nina!..” He stopped eating and talking, and then recognizing anyone... Soon she wrote a penitential letter: “On my knees I will go all the way to you, Vanechka”... But where is it, cut off!
After
The Soviet government, represented by Lunacharsky, supported the circus performers, considering the arena a good place for revolutionary agitation. Since 1922, Poddubny worked in the Moscow State Circus, then in Petrograd. Somehow I found myself on tour in Rostov-on-Don and met Maria Semyonovna there... Ivan Maksimovich became younger, he persuaded her, and they got married. Funds, something he was not used to, were tight. NEP carried it throughout the cities and villages, brought it to Germany, then to the USA. Poddubny created a sensation in America, traveled all over the country, and was even proclaimed “America's champion.” They tried to persuade him to stay. However, “persuaded” is not the right verb, they forced: serious threats, blackmail, and non-payment of money were used. More than a thousand people attended the farewell banquet...
Like Odysseus, he overcame the trials and temptations allotted to him. In 1927, on the way from New York, his ship stopped at Hamburg, which, appreciating the true class of the fighter, showered him with flowers. And here is Leningrad. The imperial city greeted him, as in all times the capitals of empires greet their heroes. But the main thing was that Maria Semyonovna was standing on the pier. Sports games were organized in his honor.
In Yeisk, the Poddubnys bought a large two-story house with a garden. But Ivan Maksimovich did not think of leaving the wrestling mat; he toured until 1941, until he was seventy. In November 1939, in the Kremlin, for truly outstanding services “in the development of Soviet sports,” he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. There was already a war going on in Europe, and a worldwide “drill” was beginning. The heroic muscles of Poddubny and his successors, among whom were army commanders, personified Soviet power.
During the years of the German occupation, seventy-year-old Ivan Maksimovich, in order to feed his loved ones, was forced to serve as a marker in the city billiard room. After the liberation of Yeisk in 1943, she went on tour again. In December 1945, when the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Athletic Society was celebrated, Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He was active, corresponded, made appeals, signed himself like this: “Russian Bogatyr Ivan Poddubny.” In 1947, he performed the program “50 Years in the Circus Arena”... Then he broke his leg and died from a heart attack.
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