Strong man Poddubny Ivan Maksimovich. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny - our great fellow countryman

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A Cossack by birth and a port loader by profession, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny first entered the circus arena in 1896 - the year of the resumption Olympic Games. He performed as an amateur from the public who wanted to measure his strength with visiting athletes. None of them lasted more than five minutes against him. Thus began an unprecedented half-century sports career invincible Russian hero.

Poddubny - Laurent Le Bockerois

The world learned his name in 1904, when Poddubny in St. Petersburg for the first time became the winner of an international tournament in classical wrestling. From then on, he never parted with the world crown. By 1909, his awards, collected at various competitions, weighed two pounds! Journalists came up with an amazing title for him - “champion of champions.”

Ivan Maksimovich had truly steel muscles. One day, the English boxing champion made a bet with Poddubny that he would knock him down with a punch. The Englishman hit the Russian athlete in the powerful press and... broke his hand.

Poddubny performs a "reverse belt"

After the revolution, Poddubny worked in the state circus. The NEP again carried it across cities and countries. In the USA, 56-year-old Ivan Maksimovich created a real sensation and was proclaimed “America's champion.” They tried to persuade him to stay by all means: serious threats, blackmail, and non-payment of money were used. But Poddubny still returned to his homeland.

Poddubny spent the last 22 years of his life in Yeisk on the shore Sea of Azov. In August 1942, the Germans entered Yeysk. On the very first day of the occupation, Poddubny was detained by the Gestapo, as Ivan Maksimovich was calmly walking through the streets with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor on his chest. But fame saved Poddubny - his name was well known in Germany. In honor of his sporting achievements, the Germans gave him 5 kilograms of meat per month.

After the war, Poddubny performed until the age of 75, adhering to his principle: “let him put it down if he can.”

Poddubny throws through the hip

Only a broken leg put him down. Soviet officials did not lift a finger to take care of the living symbol of Russian sports.

Ivan Poddubny died in 1949, in poverty and hunger. He left an unsent letter to the Council of Ministers with a request to provide him with a daily bowl of free soup...
And half a million dollars unpaid to him by American entrepreneurs are still kept in his personal account in one of the US banks.

***
In 1903, at the French wrestling championship in Paris, a 32-year-old wrestler was given a medical card: height 185 cm, weight 114 kg, biceps 46 cm, chest 134 cm when exhaled, hip 70 cm, neck 50 cm. Later Poddubny weighed about 130 kilograms.

In the arena, Poddubny shocked the audience with his physical strength. For example, they placed a telegraph pole on his shoulders, with so many people hanging on both sides of it until the pole broke. Without specially training in athletic routines, he could, by bending his arms along his body, lift 120 kg with his biceps! His cane weighed one pound (16 kg).
When Ivan Maksimovich was asked if he had met people stronger than himself, the hero answered:
— If we talk about wrestling strength, then perhaps not. And so, stronger people came across. My father Maxim Ivanovich was stronger than me...
According to him, Maxim Poddubny easily took two five-pound bags on his shoulders, lifted a whole heap of hay with a pitchfork, fooled around, stopped the cart, grabbed it by the wheel, and threw it to the ground by the horns of the hefty bulls.
He was strong and younger brother Ivan Poddubny, Mitrofan, who once pulled an ox weighing 18 pounds out of a pit, and once in Tula amused the audience by holding on his shoulders a platform with an orchestra playing “Many Years...”.

During his 50-year sports career, Poddubny was defeated only once. This happened in 1924 at the Moscow State Circus. A native of the village of Kazachye met him on the carpet Ryazan region Ivan Ivanovich Chufistov.

This titanic duel lasted for an hour and fifty minutes, as a result of which Ivan Poddubny found himself bruised on both shoulder blades. Poddubny left the circus that evening in a depressed state, and the next morning he came to Chufistov’s apartment and kissed him three times.

During the German occupation of Yeisk, Poddubny worked as a marker in a billiard room to feed himself and his loved ones. Poddubny threw out the players who had too many, like kittens, out the door, thus fulfilling the role of bouncers. According to the recollections of residents of Yeisk, “the rowdy Krauts were very proud that Ivan the Great himself was putting them out on the street.”
One day, a representative of the German command came to Poddubny with an offer to go to Germany to train German athletes. Ivan Maksimovich refused: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will remain that way.” Poddubny got away with this statement. Even the occupiers bowed to his strength and worldwide fame.

Ivan Poddubny is buried in Yeisk, in the city park that now bears his name. There is also a granite monument with the inscription: “Russian hero Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny”, and nearby are the museum of I.M. Poddubny and sports school his name.

Room in the Poddubny Museum

Quote:
So, the other day, Poddubny and the German Abs fought. The fight was fierce. In the struggle, the opponents flew into the ramp, into the back curtain, and broke the scenes. Things have reached the point of real bitterness. Finally, after 37 minutes of fruitless struggle, Messrs. Poddubny and Abs found themselves backstage. The judges gave the bell. The fighters no longer heard anything. Poddubny grabbed Abs, carried him on one hand onto the stage and with all his strength - Poddubny's strength! - slammed his head on the floor...
The doctor appeared, Absa was given water... The commotion in the audience lasted about ten minutes. Finally the curtain opened, and Mr. Abs, who had come to his senses, appeared on the stage “to calm the audience.”

It’s as if he came out of the myths about Hercules or from the epics about Ilya Muromets. The story of his life causes skepticism among many - well, this cannot be, it is implausible.

He was born in Russian Empire, shone in the arenas of Europe and America, survived the German occupation, and at the end of his life he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR... How all this fit into the life of one person is incomprehensible to the mind.

But after passing severe trials Having known great glory, having experienced love and betrayal, Ivan Poddubny remained the same as he was at the beginning - a hero with the innocence and naivety of a child.

Russian professional wrestler and athlete Ivan Poddubny. Photo: RIA Novosti

He was born on September 26 (October 8, new style) 1871 in the village of Bogodukhovka in the Poltava region, into a Cossack family.

The Poddubny family was famous for its physical strength and power, and Vanya took after his ancestors. But if he got strength and endurance from his father, then from his mother he got a keen ear for music. This subsequently amazed his contemporaries - this musicality did not combine with the appearance of a strongman.

The strength of the Poddubny family did not make them rich, so from an early age Ivan was introduced to hard physical labor, and from the age of 12 he worked as a farm laborer.

At the age of twenty, Ivan went to seek his fortune in the city. According to legend, the reason for this was unhappy love - a rich neighbor flatly refused to marry his daughter to the “starved man”.

The strong man Poddubny easily got a job as a port loader, first in Sevastopol, and then in Feodosia, and did not think about any other career.

Thirst for fight

As often happens, chance changed everything. The circus came to Feodosia Ivan Beskaravayny. An integral part of circus performances at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were performances by strongmen and wrestling matches. So the Beskaravayny circus had its own wrestlers, with whom everyone was invited to compete.

Ivan, confident that he would not yield to the strongmen from the circus, tried his hand and... unconditionally lost.

It was then that he realized that wrestling is not just a competition between people who are strong from birth, but a whole science.

Ivan was overwhelmed by excitement and the desire to prove that he could become the best.

He began to systematically train, study wrestling techniques, and soon again entered the circus arena, where he won several victories over famous athletes at that time.

After this, he was hired as a professional wrestler by Enrico Truzzi's circus. Thus, at the age of 27, the brilliant career of Ivan Poddubny began.

Like most wrestlers at that time, he combined several roles. Poddubny demonstrated strength tricks, for example, this one: a telegraph pole was placed on his shoulders, on which ten people were hanging on both sides and, as a result, as a rule, ... the pole broke. The audience gasped in delight.

But the main spectacle, of course, was the fight. All of Russia soon started talking about Poddubny, since he had no equal in traditional Russian belt wrestling.

Judge - scoundrel!

However, French wrestling, which was later called first classical and then Greco-Roman, was much more popular in the world. Poddubny switched to it, and in 1903 received an offer to represent Russia at the world championship in Paris.

The conditions of the tournament, in which 130 wrestlers took part, were very strict - the loser of at least one fight was eliminated. “Russian Bear” Poddubny stormed through 11 opponents until he met the idol of the French public, Raoul le Boucher.

The fight with the Frenchman almost turned Poddubny away from the fight forever. Fights at that time could last for several hours, until one of the opponents was laid to rest. The Frenchman, having failed to take Poddubny with the first onslaught, began to openly run from him. In addition, it turned out that he was coated with a fatty substance that prevented him from making grabs - this dishonest method, by the way, is still used by wrestlers. When Poddubny drew the attention of the judges to this, they only shrugged their shoulders. And after an hour of fighting, the victory was given to Le Boucher “for his beautiful and skillful avoidance of sharp techniques.”

This decision angered even the French public, and Poddubny, shocked by such dishonesty, wanted to end his wrestling career altogether.

Friends and colleagues had a hard time convincing the giant. But it must be said that, due to his character, Poddubny was extremely inconvenient for the organizers of wrestling matches - he basically did not conduct “fixed” fights and did not take bribes. Because of this, a couple of times his opponents even tried to organize the murder of Poddubny, but, fortunately, these plans fell through.

Why was Poddubny not an Olympic champion?

Le Boucher was rewarded at the international championship in St. Petersburg, where he again met with Poddubny. The revenge was cruel - the Russian wrestler twisted the Frenchman as he wanted. For twenty minutes he held his opponent, excuse me, in a knee-elbow position, while the audience whistled and hooted, until the judges took pity on Le Boucher. After this defeat, the French wrestler went into real hysterics.

Poddubny won the tournament, defeating another Frenchman, world champion Paul Pons, in the final in a two-hour fight.

Things were quite difficult with titles at that time. In professional wrestling, in one city or another, the tournament was declared a “world championship.” Poddubny won almost everywhere, but it is quite difficult to understand exactly how many times he was world champion.

But it is known that in the period from 1905 to 1908 he invariably won the most prestigious of tournaments - the World French Wrestling Championship in Paris.

At that time, the Olympics, which included wrestling, were already gaining popularity, but Poddubny’s way there was barred. The Olympics were then exclusively the domain of amateur athletes, and Poddubny was a professional.

“And with the personal... Well, just with the personal - hello...”

By 1910, the wrestler, who had won everything he could and earned a lot of money, was tired of the world of professional wrestling and decided to end his career. He left for his homeland, bought a house, land and began farming.

However, the businessman from Poddubny was useless, and besides, his wife’s demands quickly reduced his financial capital.

In general, the giant was catastrophically unlucky in love affairs. At the very beginning of his circus career, Poddubny fell in love with a 40-year-old Hungarian tightrope walker, an experienced and temperamental woman. Ivan was ready to marry her, but the Hungarian woman soon found herself a new boyfriend.

Then there was an affair with gymnast Masha Dozmarova. They were an amazing couple - a huge strongman and a fragile, almost ethereal girl. But on the eve of the wedding, a tragedy happened - Masha fell from under the circus big top and died.

Poddubny’s first wife was Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko, and it was she who squandered everything that her husband earned, and at the height of Civil War and ran away completely, taking with her some of her husband’s medals.

In 1922, Poddubny married the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashonin, Maria Semyonovna, and in this marriage he finally found personal peace.

Monument to Ivan Poddubny in Yeisk. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Karachun

American voyage of the “Russian bear”

On the eve of the First World War, Poddubny, whose finances sang romances thanks to Antonina, returned to the circus and again began to win victory after victory.

Already at the very end of the war in Odessa, Poddubny was almost shot by the Reds - the security officers confused him with the organizer Jewish pogroms by the last name Poddubnov, but, fortunately, they sorted it out in time.

In 1922, Ivan Poddubny began performing at the Moscow Circus. Doctors examine the 51-year-old wrestler and shrug their shoulders - there are no complaints, his health is excellent.

In 1924, Ivan Poddubny received permission to go on a long tour of Germany and the USA.

Surprisingly, it’s a fact - the wrestler, who was well over 50, was in no way inferior to his rivals, who were old enough to be not only sons, but even grandsons.

In the USA, where the rules of wrestling were far from European and more similar to street fight. Poddubny, however, quickly got used to it and continued to win, collecting full houses in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

“The other day I had dinner with Poddubny - a man of enormous strength and the same stupidity,” - this description of the athlete was given not by anyone, but by the famous Russian writer Alexander Kuprin. Great fighter He really was incredibly naive, which those around him took advantage of. When Poddubny, who was homesick, got ready to go home, the Americans actually deprived him of his earned fees - they say they remain somewhere in American bank accounts to this day.

How Poddubny worked as a bouncer for the Germans

Nevertheless, in the USSR Poddubny was greeted as a hero. Upon his return, the wrestler announced that he had completed his career and would henceforth be engaged in the popularization of wrestling.

He announced, and... did not complete it. He fought his last fight on the wrestling mat in 1941, at the age of 70. History does not know another similar example of athletic longevity in this sport.

In 1939, 68-year-old Ivan Poddubny participated in the parade of athletes on Red Square, and in the same year he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Poddubny wore this award with pride, almost never taking it off, which a few years later almost cost him his life.

He settled in small town Yeysk on the shores of the Azov Sea. From many years of overload, his heart began to play tricks, but Poddubny did not turn to doctors, preferring traditional medicine. When the war began and the Germans occupied Yeisk, the wrestler refused to evacuate anywhere, saying that he had little time left to live and there was no point in running.

One day, a German patrol detained a middle-aged giant with a Soviet order on his chest on the street of Yeisk. The Nazis were taken aback by such impudence, but were even more taken aback when they found out who was in front of them.

Poddubny’s fame was so great that the occupiers did not touch either him or his award and, moreover, offered to move to Germany to train German athletes there.

If Poddubny had been more cunning, he probably would have thought before refusing, but the strongman immediately answered with a decisive “no.”

The Germans shrugged their shoulders and... left Poddubny alone. Moreover, in order for the strongman to earn a living, he was given a marker position in the billiard room.

Poddubny also worked as a bouncer in a bar for Hitler’s military.

This, of course, was complete surrealism: an elderly giant with a Soviet order on his chest with one hand throws the Fuhrer’s drunken soldiers into the street. And the Aryans, who sobered up the next morning, run not to deal with the “Russian pig”, but to write a letter to their wife: “You know, dear, yesterday Ivan Poddubny himself threw me out onto the street!”

Bust of Ivan Poddubny in Yeisk. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / GennadyL

The giant was overcome by hunger

After the liberation of Yeisk, state security agencies conducted an investigation into Poddubny’s collaboration with the Germans and... did not find any crime, considering that the retired fighter had not betrayed his homeland in any way, and “commerce is just commerce.”

Moreover, in 1945, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. This was Poddubny’s second title - in 1939, as a circus performer, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Alas, all these titles did not help Poddubny in the post-war years. No, he was not persecuted for political reasons, the trouble was different - for normal life the giant needed significantly more products than to an ordinary person, and with the card system it was almost impossible to solve this problem.

Poddubny turned to local authorities, they helped as much as they could, but this was clearly not enough. IN recent years Poddubny sold his medals to buy food.

Perhaps if he lived in Moscow, everything would have turned out differently, but in small Yeisk the wrestler was left to his own devices.

One day, returning from the market, he fell and suffered a fracture of the femoral neck. Since then, the famous hero walked only on crutches.

Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny died of a heart attack on August 8, 1949 and was buried in the city park, next to the graves of soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War.

Later, a large granite stone was installed on his grave, on which it is written: “Here lies the Russian hero.”

Review of the film about Ivan Poddubny with Mikhail Porechenkov in leading role read >>

If someone has never heard about Russian strength and courage, about honesty, openness, incredible power and fortitude, then he could get acquainted with all these qualities by learning the only person. Every child at the dawn of the twentieth century knew who Poddubny was, he was recognized on the streets, he was proud and admired, but he himself remained completely indifferent to his own fame. He was never mercantile, did not chase big profits, he just wanted to live with dignity, and not vegetate from hand to mouth. Ivan Maksimovich passed big way, which ended so stupidly in the end, but the memory of it will forever be imprinted in the souls of compatriots, and not only that.

Ivan Poddubny: brief biography and personal life of the great wrestler

This handsome, stately man, with a bullish physique, seemed to have stepped out of a picture of ancient Greek deities or Russian epic heroes. However, his difficult fate often causes mistrust in those who begin to study it. It is so implausible that many consider it a hoax or an ordinary lie. However, in fact, who this is - Poddubny can be easily figured out if you start from the very beginning and clearly understand that the only thing that Ivan Maksimovich has never tolerated in life is lies and giveaways. But let's figure it out gradually, without getting ahead of ourselves.

Interesting

This amazing man, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny, was born in Tsarist Russia. He shone like a real pearl in the circus and sports arenas of Europe and America. He managed to survive the occupation in one breath, without pretending, and even received the title of Master of Sports Soviet Union. Having gone all this long way, the wrestler managed to remain the same simple-minded and naive child, who was easy to deceive and cheat, which is what everyone who was not too lazy did.

Ivan Maksimovich has really come a long way. He experienced the ascent to the top, passionate feelings, love and betrayal, he saw victories and deception. All these trials fell on him, although he did nothing to deserve them, but descendants will remember the story of Poddubny, who managed to travel a seventy-year-long journey without being noticed in a single meanness, in a single word of untruth or lie. Let's tell the biography of a man whom even the fascist occupiers respected and did not dare to contradict him.

Childhood and youth of the future wrestler: I came out body and face

Many people are interested in where they come from, that is, where Poddubny was born, which is where the story should begin. The life of the future fighter and great man Ivan Maksimovich, about whom the whole world would later talk, began in the tiny village of Bogodukhovka, which nestled very comfortably near a river with the strange name Irkley, which was previously included in the Poltava district. He was born into a present family Zaporozhye Cossack named Maxim Ivanovich Poddubny and his wife Anna Danilovna, nee Naumenko, also belonging to an old Cossack family, September 26, 1871.

Everything that the boy had at the beginning of his life, he inherited from his parents. There were legends in the village about the strength and beauty of Maxim Ivanovich. He kept a small farm, which he worked on himself, without hiring farm laborers. They say he could easily carry a horse or a cow from place to place. Something is also known about the mother; she had an angelic voice and perfect pitch, which her offspring also inherited. In addition, all her relatives were known as long-livers. For example, they talked about her grandfather, who was twenty-five years old in the army, and then cheerfully ran about the farm until he was one hundred and twenty years old, and died because he was hit by a log while building a neighbor’s house.

Little Vanyatka grew up just like the rest of the children in the village, tending geese and helping his parents as best he could, but his heroic strength was immediately noticeable. At the age of twelve, in order to help the family financially, his father gave Vanyusha to a farm laborer, where they were always happy with him. He transported grain, grazed herds of cows and horses, mowed and collected bread and hay, and was not afraid of work. And he continued to help at home. By the age of fifteen, he was already so strong that he easily took a young bull by the horns and bent him to the ground so that he could not escape at all. People said that he took after his father, who could easily stop a chaise with one hand by grabbing it by the wheel. When in the evenings he started a Cossack song behind the hut, long and sad, they came running to listen from the other end of the village.

On holidays and weekends, Maxim and his son Ivan loved to put on a show for people. They grabbed each other by the belts and fought until one of them ended up in the roadside dust. Dad often gave in so as not to seriously injure the teenager’s dignity, but later the wrestler himself would say that only his father was stronger than him. Then Ivan Maksimovich suddenly discovered that the neighbor's curly-haired girl, named Alenka Vityak, who loved to play Cossack robbers with the boys, had turned into beautiful girl with blue eyes like cornflowers and long sand-colored braids. However, wealthy merchant parents mediocre they did not want to give their daughter to a poor farm laborer.

Port stevedore and clerk Poddubny

After he had no luck with his marriage, Ivan decides to move away and goes straight to Crimea, where, according to rumors, loaders made good money. In 1893, he arrived in Simferopol and got a job at the Lavas company, where he would work for the next three years. During this period, even experienced loaders with many years of experience were surprised at his strength, and most importantly, his unsurpassed dexterity, with such a powerful and massive figure. The guy, like feathers, lifted heavy loads, straightened up and straightened his shoulders, and then fluttered like a butterfly along shaky and trembling ladders for fourteen, or even sixteen hours.

In 1896, he was transferred from simple loaders to clerks, since he knew reading and arithmetic very well, which his mother and the church priest taught him, where he sang in the choir on Sundays. Around the same period, Ivan met wrestling athletes Vasily Vasiliev and Anton Preobrazhensky. The guys gave him a biographical essay about the career of Karl Abs, which delighted Poddubny. He began training with new friends, who readily acknowledged his superior strength.

The formation and flourishing of an athlete’s career: circus performer and wrestler

By the time Ivan Poddubny was already training hard with his friends in the yard of the nautical classes, he attended a circus performance for the first time. At the beginning of the century, it was fashionable to show not only gymnastic tricks, outlandish people and animals, but also performances by strongmen. He just happened to attend the performance of the Beskorovainy Circus in 1896. True, the young strongman did not immediately dare to enter the arena. Three times, for three days in a row, he went to watch the action and only after that he decided to go out and measure his strength with famous wrestlers who were famous all over the world.

The first combat experience of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny can be considered precisely this battle in the arena of the traveling “Circus Beskorovainy” in the summer of ninety-six of the nineteenth century. Moreover, the battle was an absolute failure. Experienced specialists who knew their business, operating with special techniques, they gave him a good kick, as the future invincible wrestler later recalled.

The beginning of a sports journey: oh, how strong you are, Mother Rus'

First bad experience I couldn’t discourage a brave and persistent guy from wanting to wrestle. The style of wrestling and the nuances of combat were completely unfamiliar to him, however, after a week of performances, the time had come to show Russian-Swiss belt wrestling. Having seen the performance, Poddubny unexpectedly realized that this was exactly the same thing that he and his father demonstrated in the village. Then he prepared, signed up and entered the arena without fear. The athlete’s first fight was remembered by his opponent, as well as by all spectators, for a long time, if not forever.

Everyone recognized the boy who had been beaten the day before, and the opposing wrestler with a smile extended his hand to him for a handshake before the fight. The audience whistled, laughed and promised to give flowers to Ivan in honor of his loss. The gong rang and the opponents grabbed each other. The professional tried to tilt Poddubny’s body to one side, but he stood as if his legs were filled with concrete. No one understood how the legs of the famous and authoritative master described a semicircle in the air, and he himself plopped down heavily on the sand of the arena. There was complete silence in the circus, after which the audience exploded with wild applause, the crowd went wild, only Ivan Maksimovich calmly smiled into his mustache and said, “Well, give me another!”

They also gave another, handsome and powerful Italian, but he also went to earth, like the first. Following him there were nine more wrestlers in a few days, whom the Russian hero scattered like kittens. Among the defeated were many famous personalities, for example, the Italian wrestler Pappy, Borodanov, Razumov and even the future two-time world champion in French wrestling Georg Lurich. However, there was a hitch on the twelfth opponent; he turned out to be an athlete a head taller and twice as heavy as Petr Yankovsky, but even here Ivan managed to achieve a draw.

So Ivanushka, Maksimov’s son Poddubny, began working in a circus in Feodosia and entertained the public until the New Year, and on January 1, 1897, he took his pay, collected his simple belongings and went to Sevastopol, where the famous circus of Turkey stood, where they had already invited him . A special performance was created for the public, since it was, after all, a circus, so he had to perform in his own clothes.

Razumov was put up against him, and when Ivan grabbed the handles on his belt, they simply broke off. The audience roared, because they thought that all this was due to the unprecedented strength of the wrestler. In fact, Mr. Turzzi worked on them with a nail file in advance. However, it was soon announced that the athlete Ivan Poddubny had been transferred from amateur to professional.

Without these proteins of yours: the physical parameters of an athlete

Many are interested in what he really was like, this wrestler Poddubny, who did not let anyone down. It is not difficult to find out, since fortunately the data from his card from the French wrestling championship in Paris, which took place in 1903, has been preserved.

Full height from heels to crown - 184 centimeters.
Weight – 118 kilograms.
The volume of the chest when exhaling is 134 centimeters.
The neck circumference in a relaxed state is 50 centimeters.
Biceps girth – 46 centimeters.
Thigh circumference – 70 centimeters.
Waist circumference – 104 centimeters.

All this “good” was actually given to him by nature; he only had to slightly adjust these indicators through regular training and battles.

The heyday of Poddubny's career

Even in the circus of Feodosia, Ivan Maksimovich realized that it is not at all necessary to be stronger than the enemy, sometimes victory is brought by dexterity and mastery of fighting techniques, which he began to use with success in his career. He trained hard, perfected his techniques, and his fame and fame hurried ahead of him.

Ivan Poddubny was always irritated by championships, which were often dominated by unfair fights, manipulation of results and deception, which he could not tolerate. After a battle with Raoul le Boucher, at the World Championship, who smeared himself with oil and ran around the entire arena like a catechumen, and then also received the winner's cup, he packs his things and decides to return to Feodosia to work again as a loader. But friends and acquaintances, fans and other wrestlers persuade him to stay to take part in the championship in Moscow.
In May of the fifteenth year of the twentieth century, at the Ozerki Circus in Yekaterinoslav, he defeated the famous wrestler “Black Mask” Alexander Garkavenko, and after him he also knocked down Ivan Zaikin.
During the revolutionary events, he, completely unrelated and uninterested in politics, but only in sports, worked in the circuses of Kerch, and then Zhitomir. In 1922, at the age of more than fifty years, he was invited to Moscow to the central circus. At the same time, the medical commission revealed an absolutely exceptional state of health in the elderly athlete.

In the twenty-fourth year he went on a long tour of the United States, and in February the 26th he already took the American Champion Cup that rightfully belonged to him, and all this at the age of fifty-five! Our compatriots really had something to be proud of.

Titles and awards

During 1904-1910, the athlete Poddubny became the world's first six-time world champion in Greco-Roman (previously considered French or French-Russian) wrestling.
In 1911 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
In 1939, he was awarded, as we have already mentioned, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and at the same time the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1945, after the end of the war, Ivan Maksimovich was also awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the Soviet Union.

Personal life and death of Ivan: perpetuation of memory and interesting facts

Often personal life famous people far from adding up in the best possible way, this is what happened to Ivan, who is unhappy in love. Just as things had not worked out for him since his early youth, when at the age of twenty he dreamed of marrying a neighbor’s merchant’s daughter, so things went well. Although the mighty handsome man with a dashing Cossack mustache had enough affairs and loves, he did not dream about this at all, but about a quiet family life on the shore of the gentle and warm sea, surrounded by a bunch of kids.

Loves and marriages

At the very beginning of his circus career, when Alenka’s blue eyes were completely erased from his memory, Ivan suddenly unexpectedly and unrequitedly fell in love with the tightrope walker Emilia, who was ten years older than him. He was ready to get married and have children, but the Hungarian beauty-acrobatic soon found herself a new boyfriend, more experienced and rich, and that was the end of the relationship. But he did not suffer for long, because just once he saw the fragile girl Mashenka Dozmarova, he immediately realized that he was lost; the gymnast captivated him with her defenseless and pure beauty. But it didn’t work out here either, since literally on the eve of the wedding, she fell from under the dome and fell with all her might into the arena, from where she was carried out under a white sheet.

In 1910, Ivan meets the dazzlingly beautiful Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko, who was also of noble birth. The couple decides to go to the village, but no idyll worked out. At first everything went well, but then the wife began to skillfully pump money out of her husband, squandering it left and right, and then she completely fled abroad with the first white officer she came across, running away from the revolution in 1919. She did not forget to grab her husband’s gold awards, which could be sold at a profit. It was a major disappointment, and then the elderly athlete returned to the circus again. Subsequently, she begged him to forgive her, but he remained cold - he did not forgive anyone for betrayal and betrayal.

However, three years later, unexpected luck overtook him - Ivan Maksimovich met his future wife, with whom he will live out his long life. It was not at all by chance that he met Maria Semyonovna Mashonina; she was the mother of one of his students, whom he trained just like that, absolutely without any payment. This marriage turned out to be happy, then Poddubny found peace and love.

Occupation and the fate of the strongman during the war

In 1939, for outstanding services on the path of sports, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and recognized as an Honored Artist, because he was, after all, a circus performer. After that, he wrestled professionally for another two years, and left the arena only in forty-one, having seventy years of life “experience” behind him.

During the war, he lived in Yeysk and served as a bouncer in a bar, while he always wore the order on his chest and never took it off. The Germans respected the strength and power of the elderly athlete and never touched him. He was even offered to move to Germany, but he refused, saying that he was a Russian fighter and would remain so. After the war, denunciations to the NKVD rained down on him, but the authorities did not find anything criminal in his actions.

Death of a hero

There was a powerful body and bovine health distinctive feature Ivan Poddubny. He never had a cold, didn't know what it was high temperature or headache. Once he had to sit in the dungeons of the NKVD for almost a week in 1937, but this could not break him, although there was almost a belt in the basement cold water. Ivan Maksimovich spent the post-war years in terrible poverty, malnourished and under-drinking, because the rationed bread was not enough for him even to maintain life in his body.

He slowly sold all his awards, and then, returning from the market in 1945, he tripped and fell, after which he could no longer walk, as he broke his femoral neck, which never healed. He died on a hot day on August 8, 1949, in the city of Yeisk from a stroke (heart attack) that knocked him down. He was buried in the city park, now there is a monument there, and opposite there is a sports school named after him.

Perpetuation of memory and interesting facts

Such great man, as Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny must definitely remain in people’s memory, as it happened. Beginning in 1953, memorials to Poddubny began to be held, and since 1962, tournaments were held in his honor and named after him. In 71, a museum was opened in memory of the invincible fighter, and the next year a pleasure boat in the Feodosia seaport was named after him. In 2011, a bronze stele in memory of Poddubny was installed in Yeisk with a memorial inscription. However, the public has always been more interested in interesting facts about his private life.

Ivan Maksimovich ordered himself a special cane, with which he constantly walked to increase the load. She weighed exactly sixteen kilograms, and he liked to “accidentally” drop her on the feet of his companions.
Rumors that Poddubny was a vegetarian have no basis; he himself never said anything like that. But it is known that during the occupation, the Germans gave him five kilograms of meat a month out of respect. In addition, it is known that he was very fond of pilaf, and this dish certainly cannot be prepared without meat, and even quite fatty one.
Poddubny's main trick was a number with a telegraph pole. He put it on his shoulders and people clung to him on both sides until the pillar itself could not stand it and broke.
After reading several books on athletics and wrestling, Ivan Maksimovich created a training schedule for himself. He ran, jumped, lifted weights, worked out with dumbbells and doused himself with cold water.
The disgraced Frenchman Raoul le Boucher, who at the first meeting achieved a draw on his territory, tried to order the murder of the Russian Goliath, but he failed. There were several more attempts, but they also failed.

In addition, it is believed that Poddubny has a huge amount of money left in American and European banks, which his unlucky first wife was unable to obtain and squander. However, Ivan Maksimovich himself could not receive them, which is why he returned from a tour of the States almost empty-handed. Even the NKVD tried to find out account numbers from him, torturing the giant with a soldering iron, but nothing was achieved, he only chuckled in his gray mustache and repeated one thing - as if the money had been stolen and there was no way to get it back.

Ivan Poddubny is a professional wrestler, athlete and circus performer. A legendary man whose performances were sold out in Russia, France, Italy, Germany and America. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was born on September 26 (old style) 1871 in the village of Bogodukhovka, Poltava province.

Ivan inherited his remarkable physical strength from his father, a descendant of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The future strongman was accustomed to hard peasant labor from childhood and began working as a farm laborer from the age of 12. Ivan's mother had beautiful voice. His keen ear for music was passed on to his son. On Sundays, the hero Poddubny sang in the church choir.

At the age of 22, the guy left his native village for Crimea; love pushed Ivan to take this step. Alena, the girl whom Ivan loved, grew up in a wealthy family, so her father was categorically against marriage with the poor Poddubny. Ivan dreamed of earning a lot of money, getting rich and returning to the girl, but soon after leaving, the young man forgot about her. For 3 years, the future athlete worked as a loader in the ports of Sevastopol and Feodosia. There Poddubny met sailors who talked about the training system.

Sport

Poddubny first entered the ring in 1896, when the Beskaravayny circus toured the Crimea. From that moment the athlete’s sports career began. Longshoreman Ivan followed the athletes’ performances with interest. After the performance, the entertainer addressed the audience with an offer to take part in the duel. Poddubny came out and surpassed the titled athletes who performed “on the belts”. The start of a wrestling career was made.

In 1903, the chairman of the Society of Athletes in St. Petersburg invited Ivan Poddubny to participate in the World Championships in Paris. In 3 months the wrestler had to master the French style of wrestling. The training was intense.

In Paris, the “Russian Bear” competed against titled athletes. Ivan Maksimovich won 11 fights, but lost to the Frenchman Boucher. Before the fight, Boucher resorted to a trick - he lubricated his body with oil so that his opponent’s hands would slide over it. The judges awarded the victory to Boucher, and Ivan Poddubny received a lesson for life. Since then, Ivan has become an ardent opponent of dirty methods in the ring.

In 1905, the international championship was again held in Paris, and Ivan’s victory at it was triumphant. Over the next 3 years, the streak of winnings continued. Poddubny was invited to competitions in different countries. Journalists wrote about the athlete only as a “champion of champions.” The hero’s life was spent traveling, but he dreamed of his own home, family, and in 1910 he decided to retire from sports.

Circus career

Poddubny returned to the circus arena at the age of 42, working first in Zhitomir, then in Kerch. In 1922, when Ivan Poddubny was already 51 years old, the strongman was invited to join the Moscow Circus troupe. After a medical examination, doctors stated that the athlete was in excellent health and had no contraindications.

Then there was work at the Petrograd Circus. Heavy financial situation forced Ivan Poddubny to agree to tour Germany and America. The performances were sold out, but in 1927 the athlete decided to return to Russia. It is assumed that in the USA the wrestler earned a lot of money, which remained in an American bank account.

Ivan Poddubny performed in the circus until he was 70 years old, and this was the artist’s personal record.

Personal life

Ivan's first love for a girl from his native village was short-lived. More likely, not even love, but youthful infatuation.

For the second time, the athlete fell in love with the tightrope walker Emilia. The girl was older and more experienced than Ivan, she subtly played on the feelings of the young man, forcing the athlete to indulge her whims and caprices. Soon a rich admirer appeared on Emilia’s horizon, with whom the woman left.

After Emilia fled, Ivan moved to Kyiv. Here the man met the fragile gymnast Mashenka. The miniature girl reciprocated the man's feelings. The couple made plans for the future, but fate decreed otherwise. During the performance, Mashenka fell off the trapeze and crashed.

At the age of 40, Ivan Poddubny married for the first time. His wife was the beautiful Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko. The couple bought a plot of land, built a house and started a farm. The marriage lasted 7 years, until Antonina met an officer and ran away with him - at this time Poddubny was touring in Odessa. A few years later, Antonina wanted to return to her husband, but the man did not forgive her.

Last love Ivan Poddubny is the widow Maria Mashonina, the mother of his student. The strongman was shocked by the beauty and sensuality of the woman. The couple lived on the shores of the Azov Sea, in Yeisk, where they bought a house after the athlete’s American tour. With Maria, the Russian hero lived to death. Poddubny had no children, but Ivan Maksimovich treated Maria’s son with paternal tenderness.

Death

Poddubny died on August 8, 1949 from a heart attack. The food rations that were given out in those years were not enough for the athlete’s body to function normally.

After the champion's death, the wife was able to pay for a simple grave without a monument. And only when the press wrote that the champion rested in a grave overgrown with weeds, a monument was erected to Ivan Poddubny. The inscription on the tombstone reads: “Here lies the Russian hero.”

Since childhood, Ivan Maksimovich established a strict sports regime. The wrestler was 185 cm tall and weighed 120 kg. Poddubny’s contemporaries repeatedly said that the strongman constantly carried with him a steel cane weighing 16 kg. By 1910, the athlete had already won large number awards and trophies. It is assumed that by that time the total weight of the athlete’s badges and gold medals was equal to two pounds.
In 1919, drunken anarchists tried to shoot Poddubny in the Zhytomyr circus. A similar incident occurred later in Kerch. The wrestler was shot by an officer who was in a state of alcohol intoxication, and a year later the athlete ended up in the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka. The dark streak in Ivan Maksimovich’s life was continued by his wife’s betrayal.

The wrestler grew his famous mustache in 1898. The man agreed to such a radical step after listening to the advice of Kyiv circus performer Akim Nikitin. He advised the athlete to change his appearance, pointing to the roots of the artist, who came from Zaporozhye Cossacks. Then it appeared famous photo Poddubny with a mustache, in a Circassian coat with a dagger and gazyrs.
When Poddubny turned 53 years old, the wrestler lost to Ivan Chufistov, a famous Ryazan wrestler. After a difficult fight, Ivan Maksimovich said to his opponent:

“Eh, Vanka, I didn’t lose to you, but to my old age.”

During the Great Patriotic War the athlete remained in the territory occupied by German troops. Despite this, Poddubny continued to wear the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. The Germans respected the celebrity’s merits, even allowed the strongman to open a billiard hall at a military hospital, and also offered to go to Germany to train local athletes, but he answered briefly:

“I am a Russian wrestler. I will remain that way.”

In 2014, the film “Poddubny” was released, telling about the life of the legendary wrestler. According to the plot, the film repeats in many details the Soviet film “The Fighter and the Clown”, which was created in 1958.
Became popular documentary“The tragedy of the Strongman. Ivan Poddubny”, in which the creators talked about interesting facts from the life of a legend.
When the athlete died, an order came from Moscow to bury Ivan Maksimovich with honors, but the “king of fighters” (nickname of Ivan Poddubny) ended up behind the cemetery fence. Until the early 70s, the athlete’s grave remained abandoned, until Air Force employees reminded everyone about tragic fate legends. Today the folk trail to the hero’s grave is not overgrown.

“I came out in height and face, thanks to my mother and father...”

It’s as if he came out of the myths about Hercules or from the epics about Ilya Muromets. The story of his life causes skepticism among many - well, this cannot be, it is implausible.

He was born in the Russian Empire, shone in the arenas of Europe and America, survived the German occupation, and at the end of his life he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR... How all this fit into the life of one person is incomprehensible to the mind.

But, having gone through difficult trials, having known great glory, having experienced love and betrayal, Ivan Poddubny remained the same as he was at the beginning - a hero with the innocence and naivety of a child.

The strength of the Poddubny family did not make them rich, so from an early age Ivan was introduced to hard physical labor, and from the age of 12 he worked as a farm laborer.

The strong man Poddubny easily got a job as a port loader, first in Sevastopol, and then in Feodosia, and did not think about any other career.

Thirst for fight

As often happens, chance changed everything. The circus of Ivan Beskaravainy came to Feodosia. An integral part of circus performances at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were performances by strongmen and wrestling matches. So the Beskaravayny circus had its own wrestlers, with whom everyone was invited to compete.

Ivan, confident that he would not yield to the strongmen from the circus, tried his hand and... unconditionally lost.

Was Poddubny the strongest? →

It was then that he realized that wrestling is not just a rivalry between people who are strong from birth, but a whole science.

Ivan was overwhelmed by excitement and the desire to prove that he could become the best.

He began to systematically train, study wrestling techniques, and soon again entered the circus arena, where he won several victories over famous athletes at that time.

After this, he was hired as a professional wrestler by Enrico Truzzi's circus. Thus, at the age of 27, the brilliant career of Ivan Poddubny began.

But the main spectacle, of course, was the fight. All of Russia soon started talking about Poddubny, since he had no equal in traditional Russian belt wrestling.

The judge is a scoundrel!

Source:

This decision angered even the French public, and Poddubny, shocked by such dishonesty, wanted to end his wrestling career altogether.

Why wasn’t Poddubny Olympic champion?

Poddubny won the tournament, defeating another Frenchman, world champion Paul Pons, in the final in a two-hour fight.

But it is known that in the period from 1905 to 1908 he invariably won the most prestigious of tournaments - the World French Wrestling Championship in Paris.

“And with the personal... Well, just with the personal - hello...”

However, the businessman from Poddubny was useless, and besides, his wife’s demands quickly reduced his financial capital.

Then there was an affair with gymnast Masha Dozmarova. They were an amazing couple - a huge strongman and a fragile, almost airy girl. But on the eve of the wedding, a tragedy happened - Masha fell from under the circus dome and died.

Poddubny’s first wife was Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko, and it was she who squandered everything her husband earned, and at the height of the Civil War she completely ran away, taking with her some of her husband’s medals.

In 1922, Poddubny married the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashonin, Maria Semyonovna, and in this marriage he finally found personal peace. Monument to Ivan Poddubny in Yeisk. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Karachun

American voyage of the “Russian bear”

On the eve of the First World War, Poddubny, whose finances sang romances thanks to Antonina, returned to the circus and again began to win victory after victory.

He also performed during the Civil War, although this time in his biography is perhaps the most mysterious page. Only one thing is known for sure - the simple-minded giant was too far from politics to join any of the parties, and at the same time he was equally warmly welcomed by the whites, the reds, and the greens.
Already at the very end of the war in Odessa, Poddubny was almost shot by the Reds - the security officers confused him with the organizer of Jewish pogroms named Poddubnov, but, fortunately, they figured it out in time.

In 1922, Ivan Poddubny began performing at the Moscow Circus. Doctors examine the 51-year-old wrestler and shrug - there are no complaints, his health is excellent.

In 1924, Ivan Poddubny received permission to go on a long tour of Germany and the USA.

Surprisingly, it is a fact - the wrestler, who was well over 50, was in no way inferior to his rivals, who were old enough for him not only to be sons, but even grandsons.

In the USA, where the rules of wrestling were far from European and more like a street fight. Poddubny, however, quickly got used to it and continued to win, collecting full houses in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

“The other day I had dinner with Poddubny - a man of enormous strength and the same stupidity,” - this description of the athlete was given not by anyone, but by the famous Russian writer Alexander Kuprin. The great wrestler was truly incredibly naive, which those around him took advantage of. When Poddubny, who missed his homeland, got ready to go home, the Americans actually deprived him of the fees he had earned - they say that to this day they remain somewhere in accounts in American banks.

How Poddubny worked as a bouncer for the Germans

Nevertheless, in the USSR Poddubny was greeted as a hero. Upon his return, the wrestler announced that he had completed his career and would henceforth be engaged in the popularization of wrestling.

He announced, and... did not complete it. He fought his last fight on the wrestling mat in 1941, at the age of 70. History does not know another similar example of athletic longevity in this sport.

Poddubny took part in the parade of athletes on Red Square, and in the same year he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Poddubny wore this award with pride, almost never taking it off, which a few years later almost cost him his life.
He settled in the small town of Yeysk on the shores of the Azov Sea. From many years of overload, his heart began to play tricks, but Poddubny did not turn to doctors, preferring traditional medicine. When the war began and the Germans occupied Yeisk, the wrestler refused to evacuate anywhere, saying that he had little time left to live and there was no point in running.

Poddubny’s fame was so great that the occupiers did not touch either him or his award and, moreover, offered to move to Germany to train German athletes there.

If Poddubny had been more cunning, he probably would have thought before refusing, but the strongman immediately answered with a decisive “no.”

The Germans shrugged their shoulders and... left Poddubny alone. Moreover, in order for the strongman to earn a living, he was given a marker position in the billiard room.

Poddubny also worked as a bouncer in a bar for Hitler’s military.

The giant was overcome by hunger

Moreover, in 1945, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. This was already Poddubny’s second title - in 1939, as a circus artist, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Alas, all these titles did not help Poddubny in the post-war years. No, he was not persecuted for political reasons, the problem was different - for a normal life, the giant needed significantly more products than an ordinary person, and with the card system it was almost impossible to solve this problem.

Poddubny turned to local authorities, they helped as much as they could, but this was clearly not enough. In recent years, Poddubny has been selling his medals to buy food.

Perhaps if he lived in Moscow, everything would have turned out differently, but in small Yeisk the wrestler was left to his own devices.

One day, returning from the market, he fell and suffered a fracture of the femoral neck. Since then, the famous hero walked only on crutches.

Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny died of a heart attack on August 8, 1949 and was buried in the city park, next to the graves of soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War.

Later, a large granite stone was installed on his grave, on which it is written: “Here lies the Russian hero.”