Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny: biography of an athlete of incredible strength

19611
Academy of Winners

Great people

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

Biography

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

Circus performer Ivan Poddubny

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

Childhood and youth

Ivan Poddubny was born on October 9, 1871. His family lived in Ukraine, in the village of Krasenivka, Poltava province. Today this is the Cherkasy region, where even in those days peasants were engaged in arable farming. The future champion spent his childhood and youth in his native places, where he lived until he was 21 years old. It was a large family, Ivan was the eldest. But besides him there were six more children: three brothers and three sisters. Both parents and children were physically very strong and healthy. Maxim Ivanovich, the father of the family, was a healthy man and possessed enormous physical strength. A real hero, who was compared to Hercules.

Sport

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

Wrestler Ivan Poddubny

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

Ivan Poddubny in his youth

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

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

First tour

Soon Ivan Poddubny accepted an invitation from the Nikitin brothers circus in Kyiv. It was here that he began his tour. Ivan performed both as a wrestler and as an athlete, amazing the enthusiastic audience with his circus acts. Ivan's fame grew and strengthened every day. In 1903, at the invitation of the chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society, Count G. I. Ribopierre, he visited St. Petersburg. Upon arrival, Ivan learned that the society was considering his candidacy as a participant in the World French Wrestling Championship. To do this, he underwent serious training under the guidance of coach Monsieur Eugene de Paris. There were 130 participants entered into the World Championship. There was only one condition: if you lose, you’re out. And no second chances. Ivan easily won 11 victories. Then there was an unfortunate and unfair defeat from the French champion Raulem le Boucher, who smeared his body with olive oil and easily slipped out of the hands of the Russian hero.

Circus career

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

World champion Ivan Poddubny

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

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

Zaporozhye Cossack Ivan Poddubny

Maria Semyonovna was born in the village of Kagalnik, Azov district, 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.

Four documentaries and feature films have been made about him. Many scientific, journalistic and artistic works have been written. He left disciples whose names are also known to the world (Zherebtsov, Karimov).

His biography covers the years of his life from 1871, when he was born in the Poltava province, to 1949, when he died of a heart attack in Yeisk. This man was called the King of Fighters, the Russian Hero, the Champion of Champions, Ivan Zhelezny. The respect for him was immeasurable.

A farm laborer from the age of 12, a longshoreman, a weight lifter and a circus wrestler, he traveled to 14 countries on four continents. Starting from Feodosia, where he performed with the Ivan Beskaravainy circus, then with the Enrico Truzzi circus, spectators in more than 50 cities were amazed at the natural strength that the strongman demonstrated in Russian belt wrestling, and then in classical French wrestling.

Read more: Vince Gironda biography, talents and training program

A rare film from 1912 has survived, which gives an idea of the competitions of that time, a half-minute video of one of the tournaments on the street of a European city. Evidence of the time and history of Greco-Roman wrestling - photos on posters of the beginning of the century with the image of Poddubny.

Personal life

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

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

Ivan Poddubny in old age

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

Ivan Poddubny with his brothers

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

Ivan Poddubny and Maria Mashonina

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

And again Motherland

Upon returning home, Ivan purchased a large house on the shores of the Azov Sea in the city of Yeisk. During the German occupation he worked as a marker in a billiard room. The German soldiers, knowing about Ivan’s glory, left him alone and did not interfere with his life. But the Soviet government, on the contrary, saw Ivan as a fascist accomplice. The NKVD became interested in him, but there was no evidence of cooperation with the Germans - he was released. In the last years of his life, Ivan Poddubny was very hungry. The 500 grams of bread that he was given did not satisfy the athlete’s hunger. There was no help from Moscow, and Ivan, in order to somehow exist, was forced to sell his medals.

Ivan Poddubny died of a heart attack on August 8, 1949. They buried the glorious hero in the city park, erecting a simple fence. The great athlete was forgotten until the American BBC channel reported that the “champion of champions” Ivan Poddubny was buried in the city of Yeisk. The Soviet authorities immediately found the already grass-covered grave and erected a granite monument. “Here lies the Russian hero” - these are the words carved in stone to this day.

Death

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

Grave of Ivan Poddubny

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

At the end of life

In 1941, Ivan entered the ring for the last time and traditionally won. He was 70 years old.

During the famine, it was especially difficult for the athlete, since his huge trained body required food in a much larger volume than rations. His health deteriorated.

In May 1947, Poddubny fell unsuccessfully, resulting in a hip fracture. He found himself tied to a bed and crutches. For an athlete accustomed to constant exhausting training and enormous physical exertion, bed rest has become disastrous.

On August 8, 1949, Ivan Poddubny died of a heart attack. He was buried in Yeisk Park, not far from the graves of pilots who died during the war. In 1965, this park was named after I.M. Poddubny.

In 1955, a monument was erected at the grave of the great athlete. Not far from the grave there is a Memorial Museum, where personal belongings, unique photographs of Ivan Poddubny, posters and other exhibits telling about the life and sports career of this amazing man are stored.

Interesting Facts

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

Ivan Poddubny's mustache

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

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

Monument to Ivan Poddubny in Yeysk

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

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

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

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

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

Important

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The heyday of Poddubny's career

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

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

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

Titles and awards

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

American period of life

In 1883, Ivan Poddubny arrived in Crimea and got a job as a loader in the Sevastopol port. He worked very hard and completed all assigned tasks easily and quickly. In 1885 he arrived in Feodosia, where he continued his work in. A significant event in his life was his acquaintance with avid athletes - Vasily Vasiliev and Anton Preobrazhensky. It was they, knowing Ivan’s heroic strength, who encouraged him to regular sports training.

In 1887, the Beskorovainy circus came to Feodosia on tour, whose troupe included famous athletes and wrestlers such as Pyotr Yankovsky and Georg Lurich. Anyone could test their strength with them. Soon the circus announced the start of the belt wrestling championship and Ivan Poddubny decided to take part.

From that moment his career in weightlifting began. In 2 weeks he defeated all the circus athletes. The exception was Petr Yankovsky, an experienced strongman weighing more than 200 pounds. After leaving the circus, Ivan firmly decided to become a professional wrestler and began to regularly train his body, without giving himself a single day of rest.

He no longer liked working in the port, and Ivan decided to return to Sevastopol. There he got a job in the troupe of the local circus of the Italian Truzzi. The desire to become an athlete helped Ivan learn all the intricacies of belt wrestling. He developed a training system, stopped drinking and smoking, and soon turned from a rude peasant into a professional wrestler.

One day, Ivan’s fellow villager was present at Ivan’s performance, who, upon returning to the village, conveyed to Maxim Poddubny the news that his eldest son in tight tights was throwing weights in front of the audience. Later, Ivan received a letter from his brothers in which they notify the athlete of his father’s anger and reluctance to see him.

In 1925, Ivan agreed to participate in freestyle wrestling competitions and went to America. Having quickly mastered all the techniques and holds, the Russian hero created a sensation and even received the title “American Champion”. But soon Ivan became disappointed, convinced that the audience was not interested in the fight itself, but in the spectacle, that they were eager to see the blood and pain of the participants.

Civil War and Revolution

Ivan was not a supporter of any of the fighting forces, and had little understanding of the current situation in the country. He simply performed in the circus and earned money. Once in Kerch he was attacked by hungry officers, one of them even shot at Ivan. Having defeated them in battle, he was forced to flee the city to Berdyansk, where he was captured by Nestor Makhno.

In 1919, in the circus of the city of Zhitomir, Poddubny was almost shot dead by drunken anarchists. The personal life of Ivan Poddubny and his wife Nina did not work out - during this difficult period, she ran away, taking his gold medals with her. In 1920, Ivan married for the second time the widow Maria Mashoshina, who remained faithful to him until the end of his life.