Ivan Poddubny: photo, biography and personal life of a famous athlete. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny: biography, years of life and interesting facts about an athlete of not a dozen strength Biography of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny personal life children

Today we want to tell you the amazing story of one invincible wrestler and athlete of the early 20th century, who was called the "Russian Bear". His real name was Ivan Poddubny, and he chose the goal of his life to become one of the strongest athletes in the world for a reason.

The son of a grain grower, a simple Black Sea loader, Ivan Poddubny eventually became the "king of the circus arena", fought in the largest arenas of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. For decades, Poddubny won brilliant victories over all the strongest professional wrestlers in the world, for which he was recognized as the "champion of champions".

A family
Ivan Poddubny was born in 1871, in the family of a hereditary Zaporozhye Cossack Maxim Ivanovich Poddubny.

His whole family was famous for its strength. He inherited from his ancestors great growth, phenomenal strength and extraordinary endurance.

All his life he was proud that he belonged to the Cossack family.

Family of Ivan Poddubny: mother, father, brother and nephew.

With brother Mitrofan Maksimovich.

First steps in sports
At the age of 20, Ivan went to seek his fortune in the city. According to legend, the reason for this was unhappy love. A wealthy neighbor flatly refused to pass off his beautiful daughter as a "poor man".

Poddubny got a job as a port loader, first in Sevastopol, and then in Feodosia.

As is often the case, chance changed everything. The circus of Ivan Beskaravainy arrived in Feodosia.

An integral part of circus performances at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were performances of strong men and fighting fights.

So in the circus of Beskaravayny there were 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 ... lost.

Ivan was overwhelmed with excitement and a desire to prove that he can become the best.

He began to systematically train, study the technique of wrestling, and after a while he entered the circus arena, where he defeated several athletes famous at that time.

After that, he was hired by Enrico Truzzi's circus. Thus, at the age of 27, the brilliant career of Ivan Poddubny began.

Poddubny was soon talked about all over Russia, because he had no equal in the traditional Russian wrestling on sashes.

However, French wrestling was much more popular in the world. Poddubny switched to her and in 1903 received an offer to represent Russia at the world championship in Paris.

"Russian Bear" Poddubny went through 11 opponents like a hurricane until he met with the idol of the French public, Raoul le Boucher. The fight with the French almost turned Poddubny away from the fight forever. The Frenchman, unable to take Poddubny with the first onslaught, began to frankly run away from him. In addition, it turned out that he was smeared with a fatty substance that interfered with making grips. 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 beautiful and skillful avoidance of sharp tricks."

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

Le Boucher was rewarded at the international championship in St. Petersburg, where he again met with Poddubny. Revenge was cruel - the Russian fighter turned the Frenchman as he wanted. After this defeat, the Frenchman had a real hysteria. The tournament was won by Poddubny.

By 1910, the wrestler, who had won everything, 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 to manage the household.

Personal life
In love affairs, the giant was disastrously unlucky. At the very beginning of his career in the circus, Poddubny fell in love with a 40-year-old Hungarian tightrope walker. Ivan was ready to marry her, but the Hungarian soon found herself a new boyfriend.

Then there was an affair with gymnast Masha Dozmarova. It was an amazing couple - a huge strong man and a fragile, almost airy girl. But on the eve of the wedding, a tragedy happened - Masha fell from under the dome of the circus and crashed to death.

Poddubny's first wife was Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko. She squandered a significant part of her husband's fortune. And at the height of the civil war, she completely fled, taking with her part of her husband's medals.

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

With adopted son Ivan Mashonin.

On the eve of the First World War, Poddubny returned to the circus, as his finances, due to the exorbitant requests of his first wife Antonina, sang romances. And again began to win one victory after another.

He also performed during the years of 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 whites, and reds, and greens.

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

Surprisingly, the fact is that the wrestler, who was well over 50, was in no way inferior to young rivals who were fit for his sons.

“The other day I had dinner with Poddubny, a man of great strength and the same stupidity,” the famous Russian writer Alexander Kuprin gave this characteristic to the athlete.

The great wrestler was really incredibly naive, which was used by those around him. When Poddubny, who was missing his homeland, was going home, the Americans actually deprived him of all the fees he earned - they say they still remain somewhere in American bank accounts to this day.

Nevertheless, in the USSR, Poddubny was greeted as a real hero. Upon his return, the wrestler announced that he was ending his career.

He planned to promote wrestling.

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

War years
In 1939, 68-year-old 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, practically without 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 Sea of ​​Azov. When the Germans occupied Yeysk during the war, the wrestler refused to leave anywhere, saying that he had little time left to live, and there was no point in running away.

Once a German patrol detained an elderly giant with a Soviet order on his chest on the streets of Yeysk. The Nazis were taken aback by such impudence, and were even more surprised to find out who was in front of them.

The glory of Poddubny was so great that the invaders did not touch him or his order, and, moreover, they offered to move to Germany to train German athletes.

The strong man answered with a resolute "no", saying: "I am a Russian wrestler, and I will remain one."

The Germans shrugged their shoulders and... left him alone. Moreover, so that the strong man could earn a living, they gave him a place as a marker in the billiard room.

Part-time Poddubny worked as a bouncer in a bar for the Nazis. This, of course, was complete surrealism: an elderly giant with a Soviet order on his chest threw drunk Germans out into the street with one hand.

And the Aryans, who had sobered up the next morning, boasted in letters home: "You know, dear, Ivan Poddubny himself threw me out of the bar yesterday."

last years of life
In 1945, Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. This was already the second title of Poddubny - 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 a normal life, the giant needed much more food than an ordinary person.

In recent years, Poddubny has been selling his medals to buy groceries.

Once, returning from the market, he fell, having received a fracture of the neck of the femur, since then the hero moved only on crutches.

Exhibits of the Poddubny Memorial Museum in Yeysk.

Monument to Poddubny in Yeysk.

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

Later, a large tombstone was erected on his grave, on which it is written: "Here lies a Russian hero."

Having passed 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.

"Moscow. Kremlin. K.E. Voroshilov. Write the legendary wrestler was not a master. His never-sent messages to party leaders of the Soviet era are written in pencil and full of errors. There is genuine desperation in them.

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

In the dark, cold room where Ivan Poddubny died painfully for a long time, there was no food. There was only a kettle. Good. American. Reminder of the tour in America.

Somewhere out there, across the ocean, on the accounts of the invincible Zaporozhye Cossack Ivan Poddubny, who was dying of starvation in the Azov Yeysk, lay more than 500 thousand dollars

Before the revolution, it was Ivan Poddubny who for the whole world was one of the brightest symbols of Russia. This mighty Ukrainian had that notorious "bear strength" and uncouthness, which is considered to be Russian all over the world.

Ivan Poddubny's grandfather lived to be 120 years old. Father in extreme old age brought down a hefty bull, grabbing him by the horns. Ivan himself was born in Krasenovka, a small village in the Poltava region. The peasant family of Ukrainians Poddubny could not be called poor. But there was not much wealth either.

Father, mother, six children, of which Ivan, born in 1871, was the eldest. When the boy grew up, he began to help his father. He plowed the ground, harnessing, sometimes, instead of a horse. The sun was setting, and Vanka went to village parties - the only entertainment in Krasenovka. I did not take gorilka in my mouth.

The favorite pastime of the mature boy was local fisticuffs. 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 porter. He was so disciplined in his work that after three years he became a manager at a freight office. And suddenly...

The circus has arrived!

The “garny lad” from Krasenovka, who was standing in the crowd, watched how invincible circus wrestlers followed the brass band. And bought a ticket to the show. The entertainer invited the audience to "come together in an irreconcilable battle with the strongest athletes of this world."

Ivan got up from his seat. And got down.

He was not the first time. In his native village they climbed on him with fists, trying to knock him down, and not such “miracle heroes”. These, circus, as well as those Krasenovsky, Poddubny easily laid on his shoulder blades.

He methodically defeated the circus wrestlers every night until the showman gave up and offered him a place in the arena.

Already on his first tour, Poddubny received a letter from the brothers. Relatives were concise:

“Father is angry. Threatens to break off about you deaf!”

In the circus, his name acquired the most scandalous reputation. The miracle hero, hired not for victories, but for spectacular spectacles, was not understood. And he did not understand those who offered him, having won in one evening, to “go to bed” under the new “favorite” in another, imitating “dramatic twists and turns”.

Poddubny sincerely wondered why he should give up? And time after time he won the next "appointed by the administration of the 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 unparalleled bearish strength.

Upon learning that a contract had been drawn up behind him, according to which Ivan Maksimovich should lose at one of the circus championships, Poddubny became completely furious, came to the director and forced him to eat paper before his eyes.

girl and friend

When Poddubny was over thirty, he became a circus legend. An increasing number of domestic athletes refused to fight him.

In the “bear hug” of Poddubny, the most experienced wrestlers broke bones, spines, torn ligaments, teeth and jaws flew 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 with happiness. And Ivan Maksimovich was also friendly with the famous tamer Turner.

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

One evening something terrible happened. Turner, who was in a state of "fussy", habitually stuck his head between Caesar's fangs. And take it and shut your mouth. With a dull cry Turner settled into the arena.

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

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

So Poddubny lost his only friend.

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

However, he never returned home. The very next year in Paris, Poddubny wins a series of triumphant victories at the World Wrestling Championship. How did he get there?

Six months before these events, Poddubny was invited to the athletic society of the aristocrats of 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 of the most terrible and ridiculous losses of his life, this was a saving thread that got rid of depression. He agreed. But it was not easy to "drive" natural force into the format of the French struggle with its two main captures.

Beat the coach and translator

Forcing Poddubny to fight “in French” is like forcing a typhoon to start windmills. Training lasted five hours a day. The coach over and over again methodically pointed out to Poddubny his mistakes. The nervous system of Ivan Maksimovich at some point failed. And he beat those unfortunate Frenchmen who were determined to teach him to wrestle.

And after a long time he looked at the latest circus poster hanging in his Parisian room. It had Masha's name in it...

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 rival Raul Boucher, trying to win at any cost, started a foul game.

"Crazy bastard"

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

Scam? Still would. But the French are relieved to award Bush a victory on points "for a beautiful escape from captures," which causes an attack of unprecedented fury by Poddubny, who that evening raised his hand even to the policeman who tried to stop him.

This time, the athlete's nervous breakdown was so strong that for several days he stopped recognizing others, refused to leave the room and eat.

The rogue Frenchman paid dearly for his trick. A year later, when the competitions were held in St. Petersburg, Poddubny, who met again on the wrestling mat with Raoul Bush, lifted him in his arms, threw him to the ground with all his strength and, leaning on top, began to break his back

Boucher shouted to the judges to stop the fight immediately. Spectators jumped onto the stage, trying to drag Poddubny. And only a miracle helped the Frenchman escape death.

Trembling and sobbing with horror, Boucher pleaded defeated. 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 from 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 know him.

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

Poddubny, who became immensely rich, bought 200 hectares of land and several mills for his relatives.

Champion of Champions

It was this title that Ivan Poddubny received in 1906, becoming the No. 1 wrestler in the world. However, Raul Boucher tried to beat him again, organizing with the help of his accomplices an assassination attempt on Poddubny.

Thugs armed with revolvers broke into his hotel room. But Poddubny, grabbing the dagger presented to him, managed to fight off the bandits. The last attempt to win cost Bush very dearly.

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

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

The Russian classic Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, who once happened to meet Poddubny, wrote:

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

In 1910, when brother Mitrofan, drunk, burns down the mill, Poddubny will receive a letter from home demanding to return to Krasenovka and restore order.

In his native penates, the wrestling genius built a luxurious estate. He lived in the same house with his wife, a hundred-kilogram noblewoman Tonya Kvitko-Khomenko, who was a match for the hero. He lorded, rejoiced in life, rode in a phaeton, putting on a bowler hat and holding a cane in his hands.

He restored the desolated economy, but spent almost all the funds on it. And then he returned to the circus arena, where he received 130 rubles for one exit. The rest of the wrestlers were content with ten.

In this photo, Ivan Poddubny is 42 years old. He is at his peak. The wrestler suppresses any attempts to encroach on his title of champion of champions in the most severe way, throwing his opponents with his head on the carpet or ... right on the referee's table!

Civil war will soon engulf Russia. Ivan Maksimovich will find himself between two fires - the old and the new government. There is a known case when the bandits of Old Man Makhno broke into the circus where Poddubny performed. Under the muzzles of guns and revolvers, the circus was ordered to fight the Makhnovists. The cowardly wrestlers, trying to save their lives, deliberately crawled in front of the drunken scum.

Only one Poddubny, having crossed himself, lifted, wringed and brought down the best wrestler from the gang of the father to the ground. And then slowly turned to the bandits. Cocked hammers clicked.

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

Far less affectionate will be red. Chekists will put the Ukrainian hero in the cell of the Odessa Cheka, where suicide bombers were sitting waist-deep in icy water. A week later he will be released with an apology. But ... sediment will remain. Upon his release, he learns about his wife's betrayal. Antonina, who decided that her husband would not return, went to another, taking the same chest with medals from her father's house.

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

The new government will invite him to the Moscow Circus. But Poddubny will not like the Mother See. Moreover, in Rostov, the last love of his life will be waiting for him - the pie merchant 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. The People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky helped straighten out the documents for traveling abroad, they say, the strength of Poddubny is the strength of Soviet power!

After a year of performances in circuses in Germany, the 54-year-old athlete was found by an entrepreneur from the United States, who promised sky-high fees. It was about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Does anyone perform 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.

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. Poddubny, in essence already an elderly man, was kicked, they tried to gouge out his eyes and tear out his famous mustache. But this only provoked Ivan Maksimovich, who went into a bestial frenzy. He tore everyone. But there was almost no money for victories in his pockets. All proceeds went to a bank account.

Renounced a secure life and US citizenship

At one point, he got tired. He was drawn to his native places, he wanted to see his wife and directly informed his American entrepreneurs about this. But, realizing that Poddubny's strength was not completely exhausted, the Americans went to the trick and rewrote the contract so that only a US citizen could receive money on it in American banks.

Poddubny could not forgive such meanness.

In the spring of 1927, having not received the promised hundreds of thousands of dollars, without a penny in his pocket, he will board a steamer that will take the Russian hero, irreparably offended and humiliated by transatlantic deceivers, to the shores of Soviet Russia. He had a small suitcase with him, in which there was a wrestling tights and the same teapot. At the pier, the great wrestler was met by her husband and the 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 Krasenovka. All his relatives were dispossessed and deported. Everything that Poddubny earned with sweat and blood was "expropriated" by dashing red expropriators. Famine was approaching in native Ukraine.

Minimal savings remain. On them, he bought a house in the Azov town of Yeysk, where he fished, yearning for bygone times. With him was his faithful wife Maria Semyonovna.

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

Unable to stand it, he gathered local strongmen from among the port loaders. Having taught them wrestling techniques, he created a circus program, with which he again went on tour to various cities of the Soviet Union. The bad habits that yesterday's port drunkards had, he beat out severely with his fists.

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

In 1939, in the Kremlin, in a solemn atmosphere, he will be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

It was at this moment that Kliment Voroshilov called him a national hero. Publicly. Poddubny would have known that in Soviet Russia the fate of heroes is tragic.

Beria...

Lavrenty Pavlovich invited Poddubny to his Dynamo sports society. The wrestler took it and refused, citing his age. Is it necessary to say that the people's commissar harbored evil?

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” with his own hand

After that, Poddubny was sent to the Rostov NKVD, where they kept him for a month, interrogating and trying to find out where he keeps gold and American dollars? There were searches in his house. Everything could have ended badly, but suddenly a command came from the Kremlin: "Do not 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 were sitting at home. And only Poddubny with an 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 invaders.

Crossing the threshold of the office, Poddubny was taken aback. In front of him, in Gestapo uniform, stood an old acquaintance from the Berlin Society of Professional Wrestlers. He invited Poddubny to leave with his wife for the Reich, to train German athletes. Ivan Maksimovich refused.

Then a German friend helped him by appointing him to head a billiard room at a German hospital, for which he relied on an excellent food ration.

The Nazis respected Poddubny, although he never removed his Order of the Red Banner of Labor. He was forgiven a lot. One day, a drunken German officer tried to offend the old man by tearing an award from his chest. Poddubny easily threw him over the fence and decorously retired to the laughter of the soldiers.

It happened in the midst of a billiard fight, Poddubny approached one of the tipsy German officers, took the bully by the scruff of the neck and, lifting it above the ground, carried it out into the air - to freshen up. Enthusiastic cries and applause followed.

Under the Germans, Poddubny lived a satisfying and calm life. But then ours came.

When Yeysk was liberated in 1943, Poddubny was under threat of execution. The death sentence was passed, but in a very peculiar form - refusing rations for additional food, de facto - putting them 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 miss. Add another 200. You get 700. And I can exist. Honored Artist of the Republic Ivan Poddubny"

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

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 untidy from poverty, in order 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 had a fight with one of them, Alexander Mazur, who, of course, could easily win the duel, but took pity on the old man, who never spared anyone.

A trip to Moscow and the title he was awarded did not affect his position in any way. Ivan Maksimovich was starving, his pension was sorely lacking.

In 1948, he fell and broke his hip while being bedridden. And when he could stand on crutches, he walked around the city, with his head down, dirty, hungry. Sometimes, out of pity, they gave him food, poured free kerosene, gave him old shoes and clothes.

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

But people did not take money from him.

I am grateful to you,” he squeaked in response with tears in his eyes. And if they were also invited to the table, he ate and cried, saying that he was dreaming of a kilogram of bread a day to eat enough. But only now the local authorities do not want to meet him halfway. Looks like Voroshilov himself will have to write

When Poddubny turned 78, he stopped going out. I sat at home, quenched my hunger with tea from my “combat overseas trophy” - an American teapot. There are no medals left. There was nothing else to change. And the man, at whose feet the whole world once lay, died in his sleep, never sending an unfinished letter to the Kremlin.

He didn't have a funeral suit. The jacket and trousers for burial had to be sought from good people in the city. For many years, cows grazed and shitted on the grassy grave of Poddubny.

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

On October 8, 1871, the legendary wrestler and athlete Ivan Poddubny was born in the Poltava province. Ivan's father, Maxim Ivanovich, was known throughout the district for his phenomenal strength and heroic growth, as well as his ancestors - Zaporozhye Cossacks. From a very early age, the boy plowed the land, threshed rye and threw haystacks - the simplicity of the peasant way of life and hard physical labor laid down unusual perseverance in his character and helped to accumulate powerful strength.

From 1893 to 1896, the young man worked as a port loader in Sevastopol and Feodosia, later as a clerk in the Livas company. Poddubny gained fame when, by chance, he ended up in the Feodosia circus of Beskaravain, where the most famous athletes of that time performed: Lurich, Borodanov, Razumov and the Italian Pappy. For two days, the 25-year-old loader watched their fights in the arena, but on the third day he could not stand it and asked for permission to enter the mat. Ivan dealt with all the celebrities instantly - the great Georg Lurich was defeated in two minutes.

Since 1897, Poddubny has performed in circus arenas not only as a wrestler (he started with Russian belt wrestling, later switching to classical wrestling), but also as a kettlebell lifter. For several years, Ivan visited about 50 cities in 14 countries. Anton Chekhov, Fedor Chaliapin, Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin and many others spoke with great respect about the athlete. Maxim Gorky told him: “You are the personification of the strength of our people. You are a Russian hero. That's who you are! And you have to feel it and be proud of it.”

Chekhov, Chaliapin, Blok, Yesenin spoke with great respect about Poddubny

During the Civil War, the athlete was arrested by the Odessa Cheka and sentenced to death, but he was soon released. From 1922 to 1924, Poddubny worked at the Moscow Circus, after which he went on tour in Germany and the USA. “He broke the best fighters in the world without any regret and without the slightest hesitation. He was as strong as a natural hurricane. Of all the laws of life, he knew one: "Man is a wolf to man" and firmly followed his command. In jerks - out of competition. If, it used to be, the enemy resisted especially desperately, Poddubny would definitely step on his foot in the stalls. He was terrible not only for Russians, but also for all foreign wrestlers: if he doesn’t quit, he will break him, ”wrote his frequent rival Ivan Lebedev about the wrestler.

On February 23, 1926, all the telegraphs of the planet “trumpeted” about the 55-year-old athlete: “The other day, Ivan Poddubny defeated the best wrestlers of the new world in New York, winning the title of “Champion of America”.” In November 1939, in the Kremlin, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR for his outstanding services "in the development of Soviet sports". Poddubny finally left the carpet in 1941, when he was 70 years old.

After the war, he lived in terrible poverty - for the sake of food he had to sell all the awards he won. On August 8, 1949, the great athlete died of a heart attack in Yeysk, a small resort town on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov.

On the day of memory of the great strongman, the site publishes a selection of interesting facts from his biography.

1. From a young age, Ivan Poddubny set himself a tough sports regimen: exercises with weights and a barbell, dousing with cold water, proper nutrition and a complete rejection of alcohol. In 1903, at the championship in Paris, the athlete was given a medical card, which indicated the volumes of his neck (50 cm), belt (104 cm), biceps (46 cm), forearm (36 cm), thigh (70 cm), wrist ( 21 cm), calves (47 cm), lower legs (44 cm) and chest on exhalation (134 cm). With a height of 184 cm, he weighed 120 kg. Contemporaries of the Russian hero said that he constantly carried with him a steel cane weighing 16 kg. In 1910, the weight of gold medals and athlete's badges was equal to two pounds.

Ivan Poddubny weighed more than 120 kg and was a vegetarian

Poster depicting Ivan Poddubny

2. Ivan Poddubny grew his famous mustache in 1898 on the advice of the Kyiv circus performer Akim Nikitin: “It’s not good, Ivan Maksimovich, for a Zaporizhzhya Cossack without a mustache. Now you are no longer a loader, but a fighter, an artist. And a famous circus performer. Position, my friend, obliges. By the way, go to our photographer - we will put your portrait in all stores on Khreshchatyk, ”he said. Then the famous photograph of an athlete with a mustache appeared, in a Circassian coat with gazyrs and a dagger. By the way, the portrait of Poddubny by Nikolai Strunnikov is kept in the Dnepropetrovsk Historical Museum, in which the athlete is depicted as a Zaporozhye Cossack. The picture was painted in 1906, when the wrestler was staying in Yekaterinoslav with his friend, the historian of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks Dmitry Yavornitsky.

Ivan Poddubny, 1898

3. The beginning of the 20s of the XX century was marked by a long black streak in the life of an athlete. In 1919, when Poddubny performed in the Zhytomyr circus, he was nearly shot by drunken anarchists. Later, a drunken officer shot him in Kerch, and a year later, the athlete ended up in the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka. The final chord was the betrayal of his wife, because of which he stopped eating and talking for a long time. Poddubny came to his senses only after receiving a letter of repentance, but he could not forgive his unfaithful spouse.

Photo of Ivan Poddubny at one of the tournaments

Maxim Gorky considered Poddubny "the personification of the strength of our people"

4. In 1924, 53-year-old Ivan Poddubny lost a fight to Ryazan wrestler Ivan Chufistov (this was their second meeting, Poddubny won the first one). After the fight, he said to his opponent: “Oh, Vanka, I didn’t lose to you, but to my old age.”

Ivan Poddubny, 1924

5. During the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Poddubny lived in the territory occupied by the Germans and continued to wear his Order of the Red Banner of Labor. The Germans even allowed him to open a billiard room at a military hospital and offered him to go to Germany to train German athletes. Poddubny answered briefly: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will stay with them."

Ivan Poddubny: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will remain them"

6. After the death of an athlete from Moscow, an order came to bury him with honors, but the Russian hero was placed behind the cemetery fence. Until the early 70s, Poddubny's grave remained abandoned until BBC radio reminded everyone of the tragic fate of the legendary athlete. Today, the folk trail to the grave of the champion of champions is not overgrown.

Full of people's love for himself,
Here the Russian hero lies;
He has never been defeated
We win and the score is forgotten.
Years will pass ... Without fading,
He will live in our hearts!
I don't know my rivals
Only death could not defeat him!

Mikhail Porechenkov as Ivan Poddubny in the film "Poddubny", 2014

7. In 1957, the film "The Wrestler and the Clown" was shot about Ivan Poddubny with Stanislav Chekan in the title role, and in 1985 - "Know Ours!" with Dmitry Zolotukhin. In 2005, a documentary film “Ivan Poddubny. The tragedy of a strongman, ”and in 2014 the biographical drama“ Poddubny ”was released on Russian screens with Mikhail Porechenkov, who specially gained weight for this role.

After the tragedy, Poddubny left the circus and even wanted to leave the sport. But then he received an invitation to the World Cup in France. The 35-year-old Poddubny lost to his opponent, the 20-year-old champion of Paris Raoul le Boucher. But soon, at the championship in Moscow, he defeated the strongest rivals - Shemyakin, Lurich, Yankovsky. And later, at the international championship in St. Petersburg, Le Boucher also put it down, receiving the first prize and 55 thousand rubles - a huge amount for those times.

Performances at the championships in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Tunisia, Algeria followed. Everywhere Poddubny took first place, never once agreeing to "fixed fights".

In 1910, Ivan decided to leave his sports career and return to his native village, even bought land there, started a farm, got married ... But three years later he could not stand it and returned to the carpet.

The years after the revolution were not easy for the athlete. Although he was not involved in politics, but continued to fight in the ring, Odessa Chekists arrested him, mistaking him for a certain Poddubnov, the organizer of Jewish pogroms. True, then they figured it out and released. But during this time, the wife of Poddubny Antonin went to another.

In 1922, while on tour with the Moscow Circus in Rostov-on-Don, Poddubny met his future second wife, Maria Semyonovna Mashonina. It was necessary to feed his family, he continued to travel on tour, again visited Germany and even America ... The Americans persuaded him to stay with them, acted with persuasion and threats ... But despite this, in 1927 Ivan returned to his homeland. In 1939 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in the Kremlin. He also received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Biography of Ivan Poddubny Ivan Poddubny - biography Under this name, the Russian athlete and wrestler Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny entered the history of world sports. This hero was born on October 9 (September 26), 1871 in a peasant family of farmers in Ukraine, in the Poltava province, in the village of Krasenivka (now Cherkasy region). He lived there for 21 years. Ivan is the eldest son, three brothers and three sisters grew up with him. The entire family of Poddubny had good health and great physical strength. Father Maxim Ivanovich was of heroic stature and possessed the strength of Hercules. Yes, and Vanya all went to his father: at the age of 15 he was not afraid to grapple with him in a fight on sashes. At 22, Ivan got a job as a loader in the port of Sevastopol, and two years later (in 1895) he moved to Feodosia, where he works as a worker in the Livas company. At this time, he begins to get involved in physical exercises: he works with dumbbells, kettlebells, in the morning, after charging, he runs. In 1896, the Beskorovainy circus arrived in the city. Every evening, Ivan came to the circus and carefully watched the performances of athletes who broke horseshoes, bent thick metal rods, lifted weights and huge ball bars. As always, at the end of the performance, the athlete offered those who wished to repeat a trick for a monetary reward. Poddubny entered the arena and tried to repeat some tricks. But unsuccessful. But in the belt wrestling, he defeated all wrestlers with the exception of the giant Petr Yankovsky. Poddubny was offered to work in the circus for several months as an athlete. It was here that he became interested in the circus. In 1897 he went to Sevastopol, where at that time there was a circus "Truzzi". Poddubny is taken to the troupe of wrestlers, led by Georg Lurich. Soon Poddubny wins over all members of the troupe. For some time he fought on belts in the Nikitin Circus. Since 1903 he has been specializing in French (classical) wrestling and from that moment on he has no equal. Wins all major national championships. According to the subtle observation of the doctor E. Garnich-Garnitsky, who, together with A. Kuprin, created a club of athletes in Kyiv, where the future "champion of champions" trained at one time, "Poddubny was able to develop energy like an explosion at the right moments, and not lose his" courage "in the most difficult and dangerous moments of the struggle ..." He was an intelligent fighter, and the fury of Achilles lived in him. At the same time, Poddubny was artistic and knew how to please the public. By 1903, he was already an experienced belt wrestler, known to Odessa and Kyiv, Tbilisi and Kazan ... In 1903 he received an invitation from the chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society, Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopierre. Poddubny was invincible in belt wrestling, and only mastered French. He was given coach Eugene de Paris and was given three months to prepare. The training days were very intense. And so, together with his coach, Poddubny goes to Paris. The championship was held at the Casino de Paris. Poddubny already had eleven victories. The next meeting was to be held with the champion of Paris and the favorite of the public, Raoul le Boucher, a very strong young twenty-year-old wrestler. Poddubny was at that time thirty-five years old. The fight began, Poddubny felt that he could win another victory, but, strange to say. Ten minutes later, the opponent began to sweat intensely, and so slipped out of all the grips. It turned out that before the fight, Raul was lubricated with olive oil, which was prohibited by the rules of the competition. Poddubny stopped the fight and a protest was filed with the judges. A strange decision was made - to wipe Raul with a towel every five minutes. Raul continued to sweat, although he was regularly dried with a towel. And so the judges, for skillful avoidance of captures, awarded the victory to Raoul le Boucher. Poddubny decided to take revenge. In the meantime, he takes part in the Moscow Championship, where he defeats all the participants, including Shemyakin, Lurich, Yankovsky, and receives the first prize. Then he fights in the provinces, where his performances bring sold-out circuses. In 1904, he took part in a competition of strongmen, where, without special training, he lifted a barbell weighing 120 kg for biceps! In the same year, the Cinizelli Circus hosted the international championship in French wrestling. Prominent wrestlers arrived, including world champion Paul Pons, Nikola Petrov and Raoul le Boucher. The championship lasted a month. All Petersburg nobility filled the boxes and front rows in the circus. Poddubny went undefeated. And now, the fight with Raul. This time, Poddubny exhausted the enemy so much that Raul pleaded defeated. Poddubny won the first prize and a cash prize of 55 thousand rubles. Poddubny continued to train. I followed a strict regimen. Every day I did morning exercises, doused myself with cold water, worked out with weights. I ordered a metal cane for walking, with which I walked every day. Didn't drink, didn't smoke. In 1905 he went to Paris for a major international championship with the participation of the strongest wrestlers from almost all countries. The last fight took place with the world champion Dane Nes Pedersen ("Iron Nese") who was considered the strongest man. Poddubny defeated the Dane and received a prize of 10,000 francs and the title of world champion. Poddubny receives invitations to tour in different countries. He goes to Nice and gets the first prize, then he fights without defeat in Italy, then he goes to Algeria and Tunisia. After this fight in Germany, he wins first places everywhere. Goes to St. Petersburg, to the Cinizelli circus, where the world championship is taking place. Poddubny wins it. He goes to Paris for the world championship, wins this championship and for the second time receives the title of world champion. In the same year, in Milan, he won the title of world champion for the third time. In 1907, in Vienna, he won the title of world champion for the fourth time. The press began to call him "Champion of Champions". Continues touring in many European countries, and everywhere knows no defeat. In 1908, Poddubny, together with Ivan Zaikin and Grigory Kashcheev, went to Paris for the world championship, where he again won. Zaikin took second place, Kashcheev - fourth (prize), Poddubny became the world champion for the fifth time. In 1909, he received the title of world champion for the sixth time in the city of Frankfurt. It should be said that Poddubny never compromised. Even for a lot of money, he did not agree to perform according to a pre-planned scenario, which was often practiced in circuses. There are quite understandable explanations why wrestlers cheat and collude. First: otherwise the wrestler will not last long. Secondly, each organizer of the tournament wants to become a "world champion" and invites those who are accommodating. By the way, such "chic tournaments" in those years brought to mankind almost one and a half hundred "world champions". Surely it was not easy to resist this worldwide farce! The statement of Ivan Zaikin, the famous "Volga hero", and later the no less famous aeronaut and aviator: "Only outstanding athletes, such as Ivan Poddubny, Ivan Shemyakin, Nikolai Vakhturov..." In 1910, Poddubny said goodbye to the arena and returned to Krasenivka. He dreamed of his own home, he wanted family happiness. And even then - by the age of forty - it's time. In the vicinity of his native Krasenivka and neighboring Bogodukhovka, he acquired 120 acres of black soil (more than 131 hectares), got married, benefited his relatives with land allotments, built an estate in Bogodukhovka on an area of ​​​​13 acres, started two excellent mills, a fashionable stroller ... He was not literate a man, wrote with difficulty, punctuation marks, except for periods, Ivan Maksimovich neglected. He was not a delicate person, either, he could give a person - not equal to himself - two fingers to shake. Rotating "in spheres", it was easier for him to lay a dozen grenadier officers on his shoulder blades than to learn how to use a knife and fork ... However, we know people who are well educated, but the concept of their professional honor (creative, political or scientific) has the most arbitrary, spending chic life. That's the only reason you want to remember and think about Poddubny. It’s hard to say why, but for some reason it’s not a pity that the landowner came out of him bad: after a couple of years, Poddubny went bankrupt. One of his mills was burned out of evil by his younger brother, the second, like the estate, he sold to pay the debt to his competitors, the owners of the surrounding mills, a certain Rabinovich and Zarkha. In 1913, the wrestling carpet was already springing under his feet again. He entered the same river a second time. And the stream became even more muddy. They again spoke about Poddubny with admiration ... Until the last, he adhered to his principle "let him put it if he can." In 1919, drunken anarchists almost shot Poddubny in the Zhytomyr circus. He fled, leaving his things, wandering without money. A little later, in Kerch, a drunken officer shot at him, scratched his shoulder. In Berdyansk, in the same 19th, he had an unpleasant meeting with Makhno ... During the Civil War, Poddubny did not join either side, did not take up arms, he fought in circuses. And indeed, in the days of drunken meat grinders, the place of the hero, perhaps, should be in the booth, the absolute symbol of what is happening around. In 1920, he visited the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka, where everyone suspected of anti-Semitism was shot. Fortunately, they remembered Poddubny in person, sorted it out, and let him go. And here is the news from the small homeland: the wife found a replacement for Ivan Maksimovich. She also took medals. “Oh, you, Nina, the beauty! ..” He stopped eating and talking, and then he stopped recognizing anyone ... Soon she wrote repentantly: “On my knees I will go all the way to you, Vanechka” ... But where is it, cut off! The Soviet government, represented by Lunacharsky, supported the circus performers, considering the arena a good place for revolutionary agitation. Since 1922, Poddubny worked in the Moscow State Circus, then in Petrograd. Somehow he ended up on tour in Rostov-on-Don and met Maria Semyonovna there ... Ivan Maksimovich rejuvenated, persuaded, got married. With funds - to which he was not used - it was tight. NEP carried him through the cities and villages, brought him to Germany, where he won victories over all rivals, most of whom were younger than him. In 1925 he went to America. Learns freestyle wrestling, in which leg grabs, trips and kicks are allowed. A month later, Poddubny was ready to fight on the carpet with American wrestlers. The first fights took place in New York. Poddubny made a splash in America, traveled all over the country, was even proclaimed the "Champion of America". He was persuaded to stay. However, “persuaded” is the wrong verb, they forced: serious threats, blackmail, non-payment of money were used. More than a thousand people attended the farewell banquet ... After that, he returns to his homeland and continues to perform at the arena until 1941. Here is a characteristic of the famous Ivan Poddubny gives in the album "Wrestlers" (1917) Ivan Vladimirovich Lebedev (Uncle Vanya): Ivan Poddubny. "The one that ... etc. broke the world's best fighters without any regret and without the slightest embarrassment. He was as strong as a natural hurricane. Of all the laws of life, he knew one: "homo homini lupus est" and firmly followed his command. In jerks - out of competition. If, it used to be, the enemy resisted especially desperately, - Poddubny would definitely step on his foot in the stalls. He was terrible not only for Russians, but for all foreign wrestlers: if he didn’t quit, he would break him. Now he has a mill and an estate in his native Poltava province and fights in the halo of past great glory. He is 45 years old." In the spring of 1927, Ivan Maksimovich finally returned to his homeland. Like Odysseus, he overcame the trials and temptations that were allotted to him. filled it with flowers. And now - Leningrad. The imperial city met him, as at all times the capitals of empires meet their heroes. But the main thing is that Maria Semyonovna stood on the pier. Sports games were arranged in his honor. In Yeisk, the Poddubny bought a large two-story house with a garden But Ivan Maksimovich did not think of leaving the wrestling mat, he toured until 1941, until the age of 70. In November 1939, in the Kremlin, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR for truly outstanding services "in the development of Soviet sports" In Europe, there was already a war going on, a worldwide "drill" began. The heroic muscles of Poddubny and his successors, among whom were commanders, personified Soviet power. Ivan Maksimovich lived as a prototype of the hero of the film "The Wrestler and the Clown" (1957). During the years of the German occupation, seventy-year-old Ivan Maksimovich, in order to feed his relatives, was forced to serve as a marker in the city billiard room. After the liberation of Yeysk in 1943 - touring again. In December 1945, when the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Athletic Society was celebrated, Poddubny was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He was active, corresponded, made appeals, signed as follows: "Russian Bogatyr Ivan Poddubny." In 1947, he performed with the program "50 years in the circus" ... Then there was a broken leg and death from a heart attack. Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny died on August 8, 1949. In the homeland of Poddubny, a marble bust of the "Champion of Champions" was installed. On the monument is carved in gold letters: "Here lies the Russian hero." Since 1962, international classical wrestling competitions for the prize named after I.M. Poddubny have been held annually. An active surge of interest in the "champion of champions" arose a third of a century ago, when its 100th anniversary was celebrated. In the books about Poddubny of that time, we find many white spots, especially during the years of the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. Some disagreements are noticeable regarding his life both in Krasenivka, where he no longer called after the death of his mother, and in Yeysk. Some legends and anecdotes about Poddubny were then classified as legends. But other tales have received a second life, they contain a touch of the socio-political sentiments of their eras. The legend relating to the time of the German occupation is indicative. It was as if Poddubny was walking along Yeysk with an order for show, and he hit the German, who was trying to disrupt the order. Now they suddenly “remembered” something else. It flashed as if under the Germans he kept his billiard room. It must also be said that in the literature about Poddubny there is confusion with dates, starting literally from the year of his birth. Some encyclopedias indicate 1870, this date is still under the sculptural portrait of Poddubny in Krasenivka. "Discordance" in dates occurs more than once and in the future. 55 years after the death of the great wrestler, when much has changed in life, the public need for a serious and profound book about Ivan Poddubny has become tangible. There are personalities to whose life experience people return from generation to generation, as if confirming: without them, the future of the people will not be complete. Such a person, no doubt, is Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny, a nugget from Krasenivka.