Ivan Poddubny height. Champion of champions Ivan Poddubny

Russian and Soviet wrestler, strongman, circus performer and athlete Ivan Poddubny is a prominent figure in the history of sports around the world. Before the XXXI summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Russian athletes were stimulated by stories of the best athletes, including the life and career of I.M. Poddubny.

short biography

Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was born September 26, 1871 V locality Bogodukhovka Poltava province (now Cherkasy region in Ukraine) Russian Empire. He belonged to the family of Zaporozhye Cossacks.

Ivan inherited considerable strength and endurance from his father. He inherited a good ear for music from his mother. As a child, he sang in the church choir.

Job

From 12 years old Ivan Poddubny worked: first on a peasant farm, then as a loader in the port of Sevastopol and Feodosia. For about 1 year (1896-1897) he was a clerk.

Wrestling career

In 1896 Ivan entered the big arena for the first time and began to defeat famous wrestlers at that time: Lurikha, Razumova, Borodanova, Pappy. Thus began Poddubny’s career as a wrestler who became famous throughout the world - a six-time “Champion of Champions.”

First fight with Le Boucher

One of Poddubny’s most famous fights was 2 fights with a French wrestler Raoul Le Boucher. Their first fight ended in victory for the Frenchman: Le Boucher used the dishonest technique of escaping Poddubny’s captures by smearing himself with oil. At the end of the match, the judges gave him primacy with the wording “for beautiful and skillful avoidance of acute techniques”.

Revenge

At a tournament in St. Petersburg, Ivan took revenge on Le Boucher, forced the French wrestler to 20 minutes stay in a knee-elbow position until the judges took pity on the French wrestler and gave the victory to Poddubny.

In November 1939, in the Kremlin, for his 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. Poddubny left the carpet in 1941 at 70 years of age!

Circus athlete and weightlifter

In 1897, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny began performing in the circus as a weightlifter, athlete, and wrestler. With a circus troupe he traveled to many countries, visited 4 continents.

The period of war - the story of Poddubny's godson

In the city of Yeisk Krasnodar region Godson of Ivan Mikhailovich lives - Yuri Petrovich Korotkov. Poddubny lived there during the war. There are many stories surrounding the personality of the famous wrestler. incredible stories and legends associated with the period of the Great Patriotic War.

Stories and legends

Yuri Korotkov confirms some of them, as he witnessed what was happening. For example, what Ivan Mikhailovich walked openly during the occupation of Yeysk by the Germans with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor on his chest. To all the objections of those around him and the fear that he might be shot, he responded like this:

“They won’t shoot me, they respect me”

And indeed, the Germans respected the elderly fighter. When our people returned to the city, he was summoned several times for questioning by the NKVD. Poddubny did not understand what he had done wrong and said that they were asking him ridiculous questions and could not understand that he was a true patriot of his country.

"Saint" Poddubny

Another nickname for Ivan Poddubny is "Saint". Despite the fact that religion was practically banned in the USSR, many of his acquaintances called him a saint.

The reason for this was simple, although it was not without some mysticism: Poddubny simply always helped others. And it was when he was nearby that “miracles” happened. Once, by laying on of hands, he cured an acquaintance’s arrhythmia, another time, a neighbor’s chronic headaches...

last years of life

There is an opinion that after the war Ivan Maksimovich was starving. However, his godson refutes this:

“Poddubny received a good ration. I myself followed him to the meat processing plant and to the warehouse where rations were distributed to the military. Poddubny had a roomy bag for this, which he called a “gut.”

Before last day The “Russian hero” did not lose his strength and endurance: he worked tirelessly around the house, carried water in a 4-bucket container.

Ivan Poddubny died of a heart attack August 8, 1949. His body was buried in Yeisk in a park that is now named after him. Also in the park there is a monument to him and nearby there is a museum and a sports school named after. Poddubny.

"Moscow. Kremlin. K.E. Voroshilov." The legendary wrestler was not a master at writing. His never-sent messages to Soviet-era party leaders were written in pencil and full of errors. There is genuine despair in them:

“Kliment Efremovich, I am 78 years old. Remember my services to the country and Soviet power. You yourself called me national hero, and now they have forgotten. I ask for one. Attach me to the canteen of a military unit so that at least sometimes I can eat something hot.”

In the dim, cold room where Ivan Poddubny died for a painfully long time, there was no food. There was only a kettle. Solid. American. Reminder about touring in America.

Somewhere over the ocean, in the accounts of the invincible Zaporozhye Cossack Ivan Poddubny, who was dying of hunger in Yeisk near Azov, there was more than 500 thousand dollars

Before the revolution, it was Ivan Poddubny who was one of the most striking symbols of Russia for the whole world. This mighty Ukrainian had that notorious “bear strength” and roughness that is generally considered Russian throughout the world.

Ivan Poddubny’s grandfather lived to be 120 years old. The father, in his old age, felled a huge bull, grabbing him by the horns. Ivan himself was born in Krasenovka, a small village in the Poltava region. The Ukrainian peasant family of the Poddubnys could not be called poor. But there was no particular wealth.

Father, mother, six children, of whom the eldest was Ivan, born in 1871. When the boy grew up, he began to help his father. He plowed the ground, sometimes harnessing himself instead of a horse. The sun was setting, and Vanka went to rural parties - the only entertainment in Krasyonovka. I didn’t put vodka in my mouth.

The favorite pastime of the mature boy was the locals fist fights. In them he invariably won, although the entire peasant half of the village fought against Vanka Poddubny

At the age of 22, Ivan Maksimovich went to work in Feodosia. He worked as a loader at the port. He was so disciplined in his work that after three years he became a manager at a freight office. And suddenly...

The circus has come to town!

Standing in the crowd, a “garden boy” from Krasyonovka watched as the invincible circus wrestlers followed the brass band. And bought a ticket to the show. The entertainer invited the audience to “engage in an irreconcilable battle with the strongest athletes of this world.”

Ivan rose from his seat. And he agreed.

It was not the first time for him. In his native village, they attacked him with fists, trying to knock him down, and not such “miracle heroes.” Poddubny easily laid these circus ones, like those from Krasyonov, on their shoulder blades.

He methodically defeated the circus wrestlers every evening until the show organizer gave in and offered him a place in the arena.

Already on his first tour, Poddubny received a letter from his brothers. The relatives were laconic:

“Father is angry. He’s threatening to break his shaft on you!”

In the circus, his name became the most scandalous reputation. The miracle hero, hired not for victories, but for spectacular spectacles, was not understood. But he did not understand those who suggested that, having won one evening, he would “lie down” with a new “favorite” the next, imitating a “dramatic twist.”

Poddubny was sincerely perplexed as to why he should give up? And time after time he defeated the next “administration-appointed winner.” The director choked with anger, but Poddubny was known and loved by the public, who bought tickets precisely in order to see this giant with unprecedented bearish strength.

Having learned that a contract had been drawn up behind his back, according to which Ivan Maksimovich must lose at one of the circus championships, Poddubny became completely furious, came to the director and forced him to eat the paper in front of his eyes.

Girl and friend

When Poddubny turned thirty, he became a circus legend. Everyone refused to fight him large quantity domestic athletes.

In Poddubny’s “bear hug,” the most experienced wrestlers had their bones and spines broken, ligaments torn, teeth and jaws flying out

The Russian hero was in awe only of the miniature gymnast Maria Dozmarova. He loved her without looking back.

It was with this girl that Ivan Poddubny was in seventh heaven. Ivan Maksimovich was also friends with the famous tamer Turner.

Tourneur was a fearless man, who, however, had a fatal addiction to alcohol. In moments of drinking from his formidable wife, he hid in the cage of a lion named Caesar.

One evening something terrible happened. Tourneur, who was “drunk,” habitually stuck his head between Caesar’s fangs. And he just shut his mouth. With a muffled cry, Tourneur sank into the arena.

Blood was gushing from the trainer's head. The lion named Caesar began to lick his owner's face like an affectionate kitten. A few minutes later, Turner bled to death and died.

What happened? A ridiculous, absurd accident. Caesar was stung by a wasp that flew into the room. And from the pain the animal had a jaw spasm.

So Poddubny lost his only friend.

The next day, Ivan’s beloved Masha Dozmarova collapsed into the arena from under the circus dome, dying in the wrestler’s arms. It was very difficult to recover from two severe losses that occurred within a day of each other. Poddubny did not eat anything, sat for days on end in his hotel room in Tiflis and cried bitterly, notifying his family that he intended to return to Krasenovka.

However, he never returned home. The very next year in Paris, Poddubny won a series of triumphant victories at the World Wrestling Championships. How did he end up there?

Six months before these events, Poddubny was invited to the athletic society of aristocrats in St. Petersburg. He was offered to fight in Paris! For Poddubny, who was trying to put an end to the circus, where every centimeter of the arena reminded him of the most terrible and absurd losses of his life, this was a saving thread that relieved him of depression. He agreed. But “driving” natural strength into the format of French wrestling with its two main grips was not easy.

Beat up the coach and translator

Forcing Poddubny to fight “in French” is the same as forcing a typhoon to spin windmills. The training lasted five hours a day. The coach methodically pointed out to Poddubny his mistakes over and over again. Nervous system Ivan Maksimovich at some point malfunctioned. And he beat up these unfortunate Frenchmen who were determined to teach him how to fight.

And then he looked for a long time at the latest circus poster hanging in his Parisian room. It contained Masha's name...

Soon Ivan Poddubny, referred to by newspapermen as “The Terrible Cossack from Russia,” wins 11 victories in a row

But in the semi-finals, his opponent Raoul Boucher, trying to win at any cost, began to play unfairly.

"Cunning reptile"

The former butcher, who has close contacts with the underworld, anointed the body with olive oil.

Scam? Still would. But the French are relieved to award Boucher the victory on points “for beautifully escaping captures,” which causes an attack of unprecedented rage from Poddubny, who that evening even raised his hand against the policeman who was trying to stop him.

This time breakdown The athlete was so strong that for several days he stopped recognizing those around him and refused to leave his room or eat food.

For the roguish Frenchman, his trick was costly. A year later, when the competition was held in St. Petersburg, Poddubny, who met Raoul Boucher again on the wrestling mat, picked him up, threw him to the ground with all his might and, leaning on top, began to break his back.

Boucher screamed at the referees to stop the fight immediately. Spectators jumped onto the stage, trying to drag Poddubny away. And only a miracle helped the Frenchman avoid death.

Trembling and sobbing in horror, Boucher admitted defeat. That evening Poddubny was driving along Liteiny Prospekt in a car. The speed was low, because the jubilant crowd, showering the winner with flowers, surrounded the car on all sides, not wanting to part with the victor.

And again Paris. Prize 10,000 francs. Silk ribbon of the world champion!

Those in power began to seek friendship with this giant, and not a single diplomat of the Russian Empire could claim to be acquainted with him.

Contracts for astronomical sums were concluded with Poddubny. And the gold medals from the world wrestling championships were simply sent home and stored in a chest with his parents in Krasyonovka.

Having become immensely rich, Poddubny bought his relatives 200 hectares of land and several mills.

Champion of Champions

This is exactly the title that Ivan Poddubny received in 1906, becoming the No. 1 wrestler in the world. However, Raoul Boucher tried to win against him again, organizing an attempt on Poddubny with the help of his accomplices.

Thugs armed with revolvers burst into his hotel room. But Poddubny, grabbing the dagger given to him, managed to fight off the bandits. Boucher's last attempt to win was very costly

Refusing to pay for the unsuccessful assassination attempt, the Frenchman became a victim of his accomplices, who broke his head.

Poddubny, who was idolized in Russia and throughout the world, had many enemies. He fascinated with his strength and classical illiteracy (after thirty years the wrestler barely learned to sign and had difficulty reading), and ignorance of the rules of etiquette.

The Russian classic Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, who once had the opportunity to meet Poddubny, wrote:

- The other day I had dinner with the wrestler Ivan Poddubny, a man of enormous strength and equal stupidity

In 1910, when brother Mitrofan, drunk, burned down the mill, Poddubny received a letter from home demanding that he return to Krasenovka and restore order.

The wrestling genius built a luxurious estate in his native land. He lived in the same house with his wife, a hundred-kilogram noblewoman Tonya Kvitko-Khomenko, who was a match for a hero. He enjoyed life, rode in a phaeton, wearing a bowler hat and holding a cane in his hands.

He restored the farm that had fallen into disrepair, but spent almost all his funds on it. And then he returned to the circus arena, where he received 130 rubles for one appearance. The rest of the wrestlers were content with ten.

In this photo, Ivan Poddubny is 42 years old. He's at his peak. The wrestler suppresses any attempts to encroach on his title of champion of champions in the harshest possible way, throwing his opponents headfirst onto the carpet or... straight onto the judge's table!

Civil war will soon engulf Russia. Ivan Maksimovich will find himself between two fires - old and new government. There is a known case when Father Makhno’s bandits broke into the circus where Poddubny was performing. At gunpoint and revolvers, the circus men were ordered to fight the Makhnovists. The cowardly fighters, trying to save their lives, deliberately lay down in front of the drunken scum.

Only Poddubny alone, crossing himself, lifted, broke and brought down to the ground the best fighter from Dad’s gang. And then slowly turned to the bandits. The cocked hammers clicked.

Old Man Makhno looked carefully at Poddubny, who stood silently in front of him, waiting for the shot. The bandits were waiting for only one command from their boss. Suddenly Makhno laughed and said: “Give the circus sausages, bread and vodka!”

The red ones will be much less affectionate. The security officers will put the Ukrainian hero in a cell of the Odessa Cheka, where he is waist-deep in ice water were on death row. A week later he will be released with an apology. But... the sediment will remain. Upon release, he learns about his wife's betrayal. Antonina, who decided that her husband would not return, went to someone else, taking the same chest with medals from her father’s house.

From shock, Ivan Poddubny will temporarily lose the ability to speak, will lie in delirium, unable to get out of bed. Poddubny will almost be sent to a mental home, but he will come to his senses in time. A month later

The new government will invite him to the Moscow State Circus. But Poddubny will not like the Mother See. Moreover, he will be waiting for him in Rostov last love throughout his life - the pie seller Maria Semyonovna, a miniature, illiterate woman who resembled the gymnast Masha.

In 1924, the society of professional wrestlers in Germany invited Poddubny to commercial matches. People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky himself helped to straighten the documents for traveling abroad, they say, the power of Poddubny is the power of Soviet power!

After a year of performing in circuses in Germany, the 54-year-old athlete was found by an entrepreneur from the United States, who promised exorbitant fees. We were talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is anyone performing at that age today? The question is rhetorical.

However, doctors from New York, who examined the wrestler before new battles, found that Poddubny’s biological age is 15 years less than his passport age.

Classical wrestling was neglected in the USA. The fights, called “freestyle wrestling,” were fights without rules. Professional wrestling was to the heart of Poddubny, who loved tough fights.

These "duels" were inhumane. They kicked Poddubny, essentially an elderly man, and tried to gouge out his eyes and pull out his famous mustache. But this only provoked Ivan Maksimovich, who went into a bestial frenzy. He tore everyone apart. But there was almost no money for victories in his pockets. All proceeds went to a bank account.

Gave up a secure life and US citizenship

At one point he got tired. He was drawn to his native place, wanted to see his wife and directly informed his American entrepreneurs about this. But, realizing that Poddubny’s strength had not completely dried up, the Americans resorted to a trick and rewrote the agreement so that only a US citizen could receive money under it from American banks.

Poddubny could not forgive such meanness.

In the spring of 1927, having not received the promised hundreds of thousands of dollars, penniless, he boarded a ship that would carry the Russian hero, irreparably insulted and humiliated by overseas deceivers, to the shores Soviet Russia. With him was a small suitcase containing a wrestling tights and that same teapot. The great wrestler was met at the pier by his wife and orchestra. Ivan will notice tears of despair on his wife’s face.

Son of a fist

Ivan Maksimovich will experience the most terrible shock in his life in his native Krasyonovka. All his relatives were dispossessed and deported. Everything that Poddubny earned with sweat and blood was “expropriated” by the dashing Red expropriators. Famine was approaching our native Ukraine.

Minimal savings have been maintained. With them he bought a house in the Azov town of Yeisk, where he fished, longing for bygone times. With him was his faithful wife Maria Semyonovna.

The audience of the aging athlete were local boys, to whom he told about distant countries. Ivan Maksimovich did not have his own children, but he willingly became godfather to strangers.

Unable to bear it, he gathered local strongmen from among the port stevedores. Having taught them wrestling techniques, he created a circus program, with which he again went on tour around different cities Soviet Union. Bad habits, which yesterday's port drunks had, he knocked them out sternly - with his fists.

When he was invited, he gladly went to Moscow for youth sports parades. Stalin, Beria and Voroshilov applauded him from the government rostrum.

In 1939, in the Kremlin, in a solemn ceremony, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

It was at this moment that Kliment Voroshilov called him a national hero. Publicly. If Poddubny had known that in Soviet Russia the fate of heroes can be tragic.

Beria...

Lavrenty Pavlovich invited Poddubny to his sports society “Dynamo”. The wrestler accepted and refused, citing age. Need I say that the People's Commissar harbored a grudge?

In the Soviet passport, Ivan Maksimovich was marked “Russian” in the “nationality” column. The wrestler corrected his last name from “Poddubny” to “Piddubny”, and in the nationality column he wrote “Ukrainian” in his own hand.

After this, Poddubny was sent to the Rostov NKVD, where he was kept for a month, interrogated and trying to find out where he kept his gold and American dollars? Searches were underway in his house. Everything could have ended badly, but suddenly a command came from the Kremlin: “Don’t touch.”

Owner of a German billiard room

In August 1942, Yeysk, a small resort town on the Azov coast, was occupied by the Germans. People sat at home. And only Poddubny with the order walked around in Gorky Park. Soon the police came for him. Ivan Maksimovich put on his best suit, took a cane, attached an order and followed the occupiers.

Having crossed the threshold of the office, Poddubny was taken aback. In front of him, in a Gestapo uniform, stood an old acquaintance from the Berlin Society of Professional Wrestlers. He suggested that Poddubny go with his wife to the Reich to train German athletes. Ivan Maksimovich refused.

Then a German friend helped him by appointing him to manage the billiard room at a German hospital, for which he was entitled to an excellent food ration

The Nazis respected Poddubny, although he never removed his Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Much was forgiven him. One day, a drunken German officer tried to insult the old man by snatching the award from his chest. Poddubny easily threw him over the fence and walked away decorously to the laughter of the soldiers.

Sometimes, in the midst of a fight that was breaking out in a billiard room, Poddubny would approach one of the drunken German officers, took the bully by the collar and, lifting him off the ground, took him out into the air to freshen up. Enthusiastic screams and applause followed.

Under the Germans, Poddubny lived a satisfying and peaceful life. But then our people came.

When Yeysk was liberated in 1943, Poddubny found himself under threat of execution. The death sentence was handed down, but in a very peculiar form - they were denied rations for additional food, de facto - they were put on bread and water. In besieged Leningrad, tall guys to match Poddubny quickly died from such a “diet.”

Ivan Maksimovich wrote to the chairman of the Yeisk City Council:

“I get 500 grams of bread. I don't have enough. Add another 200. That's 700. And I can exist. Honored Artist of the Republic Ivan Poddubny"

Not added. And he exchanged champion medals for bread, leaving himself only the silk ribbon of the 1905 world champion, which hung in a prominent place in his house. Poddubny lost a lot of weight, began to get sick often, but invariably followed his old principle - he followed the regime and, losing his last strength, went to training with weights.

At the end of his life it was very difficult for him. Knowing that her husband was suffering from malnutrition, the faithful wife tried to give him her piece of bread.

Tenants lived in their house. And Marya Semyonovna, who had become unkempt from poverty, so as not to disgrace Ivan Maksimovich, called herself his housekeeper.

In December 1945, a real miracle happened!

Poddubny was summoned to Moscow and, to thunderous applause in Gorky Park, he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports. He was solemnly raised in the arms of his disciples. And at the age of 74 he fought with one of them, Alexander Mazur, who, of course, could easily win the fight, but took pity on the old man, who never spared anyone.

The trip to Moscow and the assigned title did not affect his position in any way. Ivan Maksimovich was starving, his pension was catastrophically lacking.

In 1948, he fell and broke his hip, leaving him bedridden. And when I was able to stand on crutches, I walked around the city, with my head down, dirty, hungry. Sometimes, out of pity, he was given food, free kerosene, and old shoes and clothes.

- How much do I owe you? - the old man invariably asked.

But people didn't take money from him.

“I’m grateful to you,” he creaked in response with tears in his eyes. And if they were invited to the table, he ate and cried, saying that he dreamed of a kilogram of bread a day so that he could eat enough. But the local authorities just don’t want to meet him halfway. Looks like I'll have to write to Voroshilov himself

When Poddubny turned 78, he stopped going out. I sat at home, stifling my hunger with tea from my “overseas battle trophy” - an American teapot. There are no medals left. There was nothing more to change. And the man, at whose feet the whole world once lay, died in his sleep, without sending the unfinished letter to the Kremlin.

He didn't have a suit for the funeral. The jacket and trousers for the burial had to be found from good people in the city. Long years On Poddubny’s grave overgrown with grass, cows grazed and shit.

Only in 1957 a modest tombstone appeared on the grave, where Ivan Maksimovich was called the “Russian hero.” Although he himself, as we remember, did not consider himself Russian. And I didn’t receive my “cherished” kilogram of bread from the Russian people at the end of my life.

Height – 184 cm; Weight – 139 kg; Neck – 50 cm; Biceps - 46 cm; Chest – 138 cm; Waist - 104 cm; Thigh – 70 cm; Shin – 47 cm.

Ivan Poddubny took after his father, a huge Zaporozhye Cossack. Their ancestors fought in the troops of Ivan the Terrible, defending Rus' from the Tatars, and under Peter I they fought with the Swedes near Poltava. Born in Poltava province in 1871. There were four brothers and three sisters in the family - naturally, as the eldest, Ivan had to work physically since childhood. Being of heroic stature and Herculean strength, he threw bags of grain onto the cart as if they were filled with hay. With their huge father, Maxim Ivanovich, who became his son’s first coach, to the delight of the village residents, they fought right on the street. Both strongmen, surrounded on all sides by a close wall of fellow villagers, took each other by the belts and did not let go until someone was lying on their shoulder blades.

Poddubny left his native place because of a love drama - the girl he loved was not given for him, for a poor man. He went to work in Sevastopol. He worked as a loader in the Greek company Livas, then transferred to the port of Feodosia and lived with two students of seafaring classes. His neighbors turned out to be inveterate athletes, and from them Poddubny learned what a training system was.

Soon he was already going to the Ivan Beskorovainy circus to measure strength with famous athletes and wrestlers - anyone from among the spectators could do this. The first match ended in loss. This forced Poddubny to start training. He set himself a strict sports regime: exercises with 32-kg weights, a 112-kg barbell, dousing cold water, diet, quitting tobacco and drinking. So, with defeat, it began sports career Ivan Poddubny.

He went to work in the circus of the Italian Enrico Truzzi, which was based in Sevastopol. This is where the performances have already become a triumph. Poddubny had phenomenal strength, a wonderful athletic figure and clear, courageous facial features. He was shocking in the arena. They placed a telegraph pole on his shoulders and ten people hung on both sides until the pole broke. But that was just a warm-up! Then began what Poddubny entered the arena for - the original Russian belt wrestling: rivals threw leather belts over each other's waists, trying to knock them down. Poddubny had five minutes to fight his opponents. Newspapers printed portraits nova circus, Ivan was the idol of Crimea. He has fans, his own old love he forgot, an affair with an adult, insidious Hungarian tightrope walker now worried his heart. Meanwhile, rumors reached my father that Ivan, in the most “disgraceful” form, in tight tights, was throwing weights instead of getting down to business. The brothers said: “Father is angry with you and threatens to break the shaft on you. It’s better not to come for Christmas.” And since the tightrope walker abandoned the wrestler, Poddubny went to Kyiv to disperse the sadness.

They said that when asked if there was anyone in the world who could defeat him, Poddubny answered without hesitation: “Yes! Women! All my life, I, a fool, have been led astray.”

This was only partly a joke, since in the biography of the hero there are a lot of dramatic moments related specifically to matters of the heart. During a performance at the Kiev Circus, his fiancee, tightrope walker Masha Dozmarova, fell to her death.

Immediately after this bitter event, Poddubny received a telegram from St. Petersburg. The Chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society, Count Ribopierre, invited him for an important conversation.It turned out that the French sports society asked to send a Russian representative to participate in international competitions for the title of world champion in French wrestling. It was 1903. As it turned out, Poddubny came to the attention of society, and he was offered to go to Paris. The best trainer, Monsieur Eugene de Paris, was assigned to Ivan, and he was given three months to prepare. In Paris, 130 professional wrestlers were waiting for him.The conditions of the competition were tough - a single defeat would deprive the player of the right to further participation in the competition.

All of Paris was talking about the championship. Seats in the theater "Casino de Paris" were taken with a fight. The unknown “Russian bear” won eleven fights. Poddubny, who was already 33 years old, was facing a fight with the favorite of the Parisians, the twenty-year-old handsome athlete Raoul le Boucher. From the very first seconds of the fight he launched a frantic attack and soon became exhausted. Poddubny could only put it on his shoulder blades, but the Frenchman slipped out of his hands like a fish. It became clear that Raoul was lubricated with some kind of fatty substance. In response to Poddubny’s protest, who accused the enemy of cheating, the panel of judges, although convinced that Raul’s body was marked olive oil, decided to continue the fight, and to wipe the “slippery” opponent Poddubny with a towel every five minutes.

During the hour-long fight with Raul Poddubny, he failed to put the Frenchman on his back, although he clearly had the advantage. Even the spectators who were rooting for their compatriot were indignant when the judges, who recognized Raul’s fraud, still awarded him the victory “for his beautiful and skillful avoidance of sharp techniques.” In St. Petersburg they learned about the Paris incident, but, not wanting a major scandal, they suggested by telegraph to the panel of judges to repeat the duel between Poddubny and Raul. But the “winner” categorically refused.

Now fate constantly brought enemies together - the “Russian bear” and the treacherous Frenchman. When Raul arrived in St. Petersburg for the International Championship, he offered Poddubny a bribe of 20 thousand francs. For this, Poddubny put the Frenchman on all fours in the ring and held him for about twenty minutes while the audience whistled. He released Raul only at the insistence of the judges.

And here’s how an eyewitness describes Poddubny’s fight with another opponent, world champion Paul Pons:

“Pons was not like your average Pons. No one had ever treated him as impudently as Poddubny, he threw him around the arena... Pons didn’t have to make a single move, he barely had time to defend himself from Poddubny. By the end of the fight, it was a pity to look at Pons: his bloomers had come down, as if he had suddenly lost twenty centimeters at the waist, his T-shirt had ridden up, crumpled and turned into a rag that you wanted to squeeze out.”

Five minutes before the end of the two-hour fight, Poddubny put the world champion on both shoulder blades. The audience rose from their seats. It was not even a jubilant cry, but a roar that, as they said, reached Nevsky Prospekt.

At the beginning of the 20th century, all of Europe was captured by interest in wrestling - “the queen of sports. Schools, societies, athletic clubs, celebrities, competitions, queues, betting. Poddubny was invited to all major competitions. In 1905, in St. Petersburg, he received the first gold medal in his life and a large cash prize. His next step is international competitions for the title of world champion.

The World Championships took place at the famous Parisian Folies Bergere theater. This was the wrestling elite - 140 of the best representatives. Fantastic sums were bet. There were no bets on Poddubny. And in vain - it was he who won! A triumphant victory and already the third over Raoul le Boucher!

The six-time world champion was scheduled to have his fourth meeting with Boucher's longtime enemy in Nice. But there was an attempt on Ivan’s life... If not for his intuition and physical strength, four mercenaries would have killed him, apparently by order. Soon rumors spread that Raoul had died suddenly of meningitis. The mercenaries, although they did not complete their work, demanded money from the customer of the murder. Raul refused them and was beaten on the head with rubber sticks, which is why he died.

Poddubny began to have a different attitude towards the sport, realizing that wrestlers were being traded, and the sport was falling into the hands of businessmen. The straightforward Poddubny was offended by this - he did not tolerate fraud, quarreled with entrepreneurs, broke contracts, gaining fame for himself as a person with a difficult, quarrelsome character.

Ivan refused to compete in the second half of 1910. At the age of 41, he married the dazzlingly beautiful Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko. Together with her and a two-pound chest of gold medals, he showed up in his native village of Krasenovka and decided to start a farm on a grand scale. Regardless of costs, he bought plenty of land, gave it to all his relatives, and built himself and his beloved Antonina an estate with a mill and an apiary.

The revolution broke out. Poddubny had little understanding of the balance of forces fighting for power. During a wrestling competition in Berdyansk, he was almost pushed up against the wall by the attacking Makhnovists. In Kerch, a drunken officer almost killed him by hitting him in the shoulder. Ivan admitted that sometimes he began performances in front of the Reds and ended them in front of the Whites.

In 1919, Antonina ran away with a Denikin officer, taking with her a fair amount of gold medals from the treasured chest. This news literally knocked Poddubny off his feet. Ivan Maksimovich refused food, lay in bed all day, and stopped recognizing his acquaintances. Much later, he admitted that he was on the verge of real madness. When in a few years ex-wife announced herself and asked for forgiveness, Poddubny said: “Cut off.”

In 1922, Ivan Maksimovich was invited to work at the Moscow Circus. He was already in his sixties. The doctors who examined him never ceased to be amazed: Poddubny was absolutely healthy. “Ivan Zhelezny” - they called him.

On a circus tour in Rostov-on-Don, Poddubny meets the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashonin and proposes to her. The widow accepts him and they get married in the church. To support his family, Poddubny goes to foreign tours to Germany. By this point, all the athletes are already working in cahoots with the impresario. Poddubny is immediately offered an unfair fight and a loss for a lot of money - everyone wants a sensation, a victory over the “Russian Bear”. He abandons Europe on principle and goes to America. Here, too, things almost went wrong - according to American laws athletes over thirty-eight years old could only go on the mat with the permission of a special medical commission. Poddubny underwent a thorough examination. His health was found to be consistent with being forty years of age. The advertisement screamed: 52-year-old “Ivan the Terrible” challenges daredevils to a duel.

In America, they did not practice French wrestling, but wrestling without rules - everyone wanted to see the spectacle: blood, cracking bones, screams and pain. In the very first fight, the Canadian opponent grabbed Ivan by the mustache, for which, however, he immediately paid.

Having brilliantly met with the champions of America and Canada, Poddubny fought in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He drew full houses. But the local morals, the very merchant spirit of the sport, aroused in him a feeling of disgust. And he decided to terminate the contract, losing a lot of money.

Poddubny's American tour was covered in the Soviet press. Quite clearly they relied on him as the embodiment of the strength and power of the country of victorious socialism. A grand celebration was organized in Poddubny’s honor, in which all the famous athletes of the city took part. The news that on June 17, 1928, the unfading “champion of champions” would fight on the open stage of the Tauride Garden instantly spread throughout the city. All police cordons were broken by the start of the competition. The trees were covered with boys who had heard from their grandfathers and fathers about a man who came to real life, it seemed, from the pages of epics and fairy tales.

During the years of fascist occupation, Poddubny lived in Yeisk. His name was familiar to the Nazis who captured the city. 70-year-old Poddubny refused to go to Germany and train German athletes, saying: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will remain so” and defiantly continued to wear the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

On August 8, 1949, in a quiet Kuban town, in a two-story house, Ivan Poddubny died. In official obituaries and books after his death they wrote: “A hip fracture sharply undermined the hero’s health. Bed rest turned out to be disastrous for a person who had experienced physical stress all his life.”

Two residents of Yerevan who lived next door to the great athlete - Yuri Limansky and Nikolai Morev - have now turned seventy. There were half-truths in the obituaries, they said.

Secrets of the house over the cliff

The place for settled life the Russian hero chose the poetic, over the cliff.

Ivan Poddubny lived in Yeisk for more than 20 years. Every snot-nosed kid was a fan. I was an activist in the museum then,” recalls Nikolai Morev, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. In Yeisk they still keep his one-and-a-half meter wide robe and two-pound weights. In front of the boys, the strongman wrapped nails in a tube and offered to unwrap them.

There were rumors around Yeysk that Poddubny’s first wife ran away from him, taking with her all his sports medals. And in Yeisk, Poddubny settled with his second wife Maria Semyonovna. Poddubny did not have his own children - new wife he took with his stepson, whom he treated as to my own son. Taught him wrestling techniques.

In the fall of 1920, a French wrestling match took place in Rostov-on-Don. The public was intrigued by the “wrestler in a black mask,” as the anonymous figure appeared on the poster. He was younger than Poddubny, but the fight was on equal terms. However, this brave man was eventually defeated. When the young wrestler’s mask fell from his face, the audience gasped: standing in front of Poddubny was his adopted son. This story is kept in the Yeisk archives.

Fatal billiards

Before the Germans entered Yeysk, tenth-grader Nikolai Morev went to the front.

When I returned home after the war, I was surprised at the changes,” says Morev. - Poddubny has never been advertised like this anywhere before. Those who held high positions in the city tried to avoid him.

Another eyewitness, Yuri Limansky, who remained in the city during the occupation, tells about the reason for the disgrace:

When the Germans came to the city, there were two people in Yeisk who were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. One of them, a woman, was killed by the Fritz in a gas chamber. The second was Ivan Poddubny. The Nazis did not touch him. He opened a billiard room in the city. Here the men quietly listened to the Soviet radio and shared news about where ours had driven the Krauts out of.

But Poddubny was not forgiven for the billiard room later.

Nevertheless, after the war, the old athlete was given rations, and in 1945 he was given the title of Honored Master of Sports.

How the champion of champions died

In 1947, he had a particularly hard time. The residents of Yeysk hardly recognized the haggard old man on crutches as a former hero.

Once I went to my aunt, says Yuri Limansky, “he’s sitting there.” Her husband Zakhar Mitrich repaired his shoes and says:

Ivan Maksimovich, the guys are ready.

How much do I owe you?

Never mind.

“How grateful I am to you,” Poddubny said, syllable by syllable, with difficulty.

His relatives sat him down at the table. He was hungry.

“I could eat a kilogram of bread at a time,” he said, banging his spoon, “but these sons of bitches only give 500 grams.” Can't they really assign me to some military unit, to a canteen? I’ll probably write a letter to Voroshilov. But he never wrote it.

On August 8, 1949, I was at home,” says eyewitness Limansky. “My father came and said: “You don’t know anything?” Ivan Maksimovich died, get dressed.

And we went to bury him. He didn’t even have a suit; he had to buy one specifically for the funeral.

His foreign colleagues learned about the death of the Russian hero. When many arrived in Yeisk famous people“, the authorities had no choice but to get involved,” Nikolai Morev clarified.

They put up a simple fence and wrote in red lead: “Ivan Poddubny.” And everything is overgrown with grass. And then the BBC reported: “In the city of Yeisk, in desolation, the grave of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny, whom no one in the world could lay on his shoulder.” “Funds were immediately found,” Limansky continues the sad story.

Now in that place there is a monument to the invincible athlete, a museum and a sports school named after Ivan Poddubny have been created. World championships named after him are held every year. The homeland forgave the hero posthumously. Has he forgiven her?

Elena LUBINETS.

The biography of Ivan Poddubny (October 8, 1871 - August 8, 1949) reflects the most difficult time on the path of development of Russia, and the personal life of Ivan Poddubny, his achievements in sports, have always been and will be an example for athletes and wrestlers. Family of the Russian Bogatyr: his parents, younger brother, wife and kids ( Foster-son and godson) helped him on the thorny life path. The dearest person who gave him family happiness, became the wife of Ivan Poddubny - Poddubnaya Maria Semyonovna.

Ivan Poddubny's wife - Maria Semyonovna Poddubnaya

Maria Semyonovna was born in the village of Kagalnik, Azov region, Rostov region. She married Ivan Maksimovich at the beginning of 1927. They met by chance. Ivan Maksimovich then performed in the city of Rostov-on-Don. The athlete, whose idol was I.M. Poddubny, invited him to visit. There Ivan Maksimovich met his future wife.

Friendly and homely, Maria Semyonovna was the same age as Ivan Poddubny. However, her natural charm and spiritual warmth warmed this invincible Champion so much that Ivan Maksimovich invited Maria Semyonovna to become his wife. She did not agree immediately, and only on the condition that they get married in church. I. M. Poddubny, who was never known as a religious person, went with his beloved to the altar and lived with this woman until a very old age.

Biography of the famous Champion

Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was born in the Poltava province. His father M.I. Poddubny was known as a strongman, and his mother A.D. Poddubnaya had an excellent ear for music, which Ivan inherited. Brothers of I. M. Poddubny - Mitrofan Maksimovich Poddubny and Emelyan Maksimovich Poddubny. Sister - Evdokia Maksimovna Poddubnaya.

At the invitation of the circus wrestlers, Ivan once went out onto the mat and defeated the strongmen. A little later, Poddubny decided to become a wrestler himself. His height is one hundred eighty-four centimeters, weight is one hundred eighteen kilograms. And this is with a chest volume of one hundred thirty-four centimeters. The strongman's biceps are forty-four centimeters in girth, and his neck is exactly fifty. He performed in fourteen countries, visited four continents, and for half a century did not lose a single championship.

He said about himself that he had never met any wrestlers on the mat who would knock him down, but he considered himself stronger than his father. Somehow, as a joke, he admitted that only women could defeat him. His first youthful love forced the guy to leave his native village to earn money. Ivan’s second lover, Maria, performed in the circus. Their engagement had already been announced when the trapeze artist fell from her trapeze.

So that nothing would remind him of the tragedy, Ivan Poddubny accepted the offer of the St. Petersburg sports community of athletes and went abroad to defend the honor of Russia on the wrestling mat. Ivan Poddubny was invited to different countries. After the Champion returned from abroad with two suitcases filled with gold medals, at the age of forty he finally decided to start a family: a wife and children.

At this time, Ivan Poddubny met Antonina Nikolaevna Kvitko-Fomenko, a woman of amazing beauty and artistry, whom he married for the first time. However, his fees in Russia were very modest, so Ivan Poddubny’s personal life began to crack. While on tour in Odessa, in 1919, Ivan Poddubny learned that his wife Antonina ran away with a young officer, stealing most of his gold medals.

Ivan Poddubny was invited to work at the Moscow Circus in 1922. He was already over fifty, but after the Russian Bogatyr’s performances in the arena, doctors did not notice any changes in Ivan Maksimovich’s heart function. Poddubny’s body allowed him to quickly concentrate energy and splash it out during a fight, like an explosion.

All life Great Fighter dedicated to sports. He constantly trained himself and regularly conducted classes with young people. Being a professional, he did not spare his students, practicing all the techniques with them until they became automatic, since he knew that champions are not born, they become champions through hard training.