Popular rumor called him the Russian hero, the Champion of champions, Ivan the Terrible. But no matter what fantastic power was attributed to him, he was an ordinary person with your habits and worries. Today, on the 143rd anniversary of the birth of Iron Ivan, we’ll talk about his 7 weaknesses.

The first love of the smart young man was the daughter of wealthy neighbors Alenka Vityak, who was not given in marriage to the poor man Ivan. So, in his early 20s, he set out to earn a comfortable living. At first he worked as a port loader in Sevastopol and Feodosia, and then he began performing as an athlete in the circus. A tall, beautifully built wrestler, laying his opponents on his shoulder blades, quickly acquired fans and admirers.

Poddubny decided to look for his passions in his own team. So he became interested in the tightrope walker Emilia, a Hungarian by birth, a cunning and cunning woman. The temperamental circus performer completely eclipsed the image of Ivan’s first love; he was even going to marry Emily, but... he was not the tightrope walker’s only suitor. He preferred a rich suitor.

The next object of the hero’s love was gymnast Masha Dozmarova. Their feelings were mutual, but the life of the fragile girl was cut short on the eve of the wedding. Poddubny could not come to his senses for a long time and even decided to give up the fight. There were too many things here that reminded him of his ex-fiancee.

In 1910, Poddubny married a woman of dazzling beauty, actress Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko. I decided to live the life of a rural landowner. He brought all his awards and medals to his native village, bought a large plot of land, built an estate and a mill, and kept bees. But a cozy family nest did not work out: the farm brought only losses, and the money quickly ran out. In 1919, his flighty wife abandoned him and ran away with a White Guard officer, taking with her almost all the medals of the titled wrestler.

Three years after Antonina’s betrayal, Poddubny finally found what he had been looking for for so long. He married the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashonin, Maria Semyonovna, with whom he lived until the end of his life, and treated her son with paternal tenderness.

2. Gullibility

“The other day I had dinner with Poddubny, a man of enormous strength and equal stupidity,” wrote Alexander Kuprin. For all his gigantic qualities, Ivan was childishly naive and trusting; it was easy to deceive him. During his American tour, he signed contracts without knowing their contents at all. As a result, the cunning Yankees came up with a way to save their money. To receive his half a million dollars, Poddubny had to take American citizenship. He had no intention of betraying Russia, so he returned to his homeland with nothing.

His naivety was also evident in public life. The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by political struggle. He was not a supporter of the Whites, the Reds, or the Greens, but they all greeted him equally enthusiastically. During the years of Stalin's repressions, he too suffered. In 1937, he was arrested and spent a year in the prison of the Rostov NKVD department. Stalin's henchmen did not stand on ceremony with the famous fighter, torturing him with an electric soldering iron, demanding to know the account numbers and addresses of foreign banks in which he could keep his savings. A year later, Ivan Poddubny was released.

3. Intractability

Ivan Poddubny, a Russian hero, was one of the few fighters who could afford not to participate in custom fights. Even when he agreed to lose, he left both the organizers and his opponent in the cold. Therefore, he made his reputation through fair fights. Those who wanted to profit from the name often resorted to setup. At one time, another wrestler performed under the name Poddubny.

4. Relationship with father

The only person whom Poddubny recognized as stronger than himself was his father. And in general, all the men in their family were distinguished by physical qualities. Ivan's grandfather lived to be 120 years old. Poddubny got his wrestling grip from his father, who, for fun, could stop a cart by the wheel. When Poddubny became a professional wrestler and began performing in the circus, this extremely upset his parent. He even told his son through his brother that he would “hit him with the shafts” for such shameful behavior. Before Ivan received global recognition, he had to not only abandon the idea of ​​​​returning to his native land, but also wander around the circuses.

5. Body

Until the last days of his life, Poddubny trained daily. The body had to be “kept” in excellent physical shape. In 1922, Ivan Maksimovich was invited to work at the Moscow Circus. He exchanged fifty, and the doctors were surprised how, after many hours of training or performances, the athlete did not even notice slight fatigue of the heart muscle. “Ivan Zhelezny” - they called him. Poddubny had a phenomenal organism that allowed him to instantly develop energy like an explosion. This same body played a cruel joke on the wrestler. A wrestler's nutritional needs were disproportionately greater than those of an ordinary person. During the hungry years of the Great Patriotic War Poddubny suffered from malnutrition. He wrote to the Yeisk City Council: “According to the book, I receive 500 grams of bread, which I lack. I ask you to add another 200 grams so that I can exist. October 15, 1943." He asked Voroshilov for help, but never received an answer from Moscow.

During the years of occupation, the Germans gave him 5 kilograms of meat per month; the director of the Yeisk bakery never refused Poddubny a piece of bread. Even if they sent him an extra sugar ration for a month from Krasnodar, Ivan ate it in one day. To support himself, he bought medals one after another. Sometimes, from malnutrition, he fell into bed and lay for several days to gain strength.

It was noticeable that the eternal feeling of hunger, the inability to saturate one’s body, which was far from being the same as everyone else’s, left its mark on it. After the war, they saw a different Poddubny: with slumped shoulders, with an expression of sadness and resentment frozen on his face.

6. Financial shortsightedness

Poddubny's life consisted of financial ups and downs. At the zenith of his fame, when he received ten times more than other fighters, Poddubny could afford almost everything. If a wrestler knew how to manage money wisely, he could ensure a comfortable old age for himself. But Poddubny had no ability for commerce: within three years, the farm in which Poddubny had invested his capital and on which he had high hopes went bankrupt.

The hard years had taken their toll: somewhere far away in the West his money remained, and in his homeland he simply existed, whiling away his last days, barely maintaining his body.

7. Political illiteracy

Ivan Poddubny was never interested in politics and avoided talking about it. “I don’t interfere in their politics, I don’t bother anyone, let no one bother me.” During the Civil War, the fighter did not take either side. It seemed that fate was protecting him: in 1919, drunken anarchists almost shot him in the Zhytomyr circus, in Kerch he barely escaped the bullet of a drunken white officer, and a year later he simply miraculously escaped from the basements of the Odessa Cheka. His fame spread throughout the world. During the years of occupation, even the Nazis did not touch it. Despite the fact that the Germans allowed him to open a billiard hall at a military hospital, Poddubny did not accept their offer to be a coach in Germany. Knowing the integrity and honesty of Ivan Maksimovich, after the liberation of Yeisk the NKVD did not consider him a traitor; moreover, they used the old man to inspire the soldiers.

Ivan the Terrible, Ivan the Terrible, Ivan the Bolshoi, Ivan the Invincible. He is Old Man, Russian Bear. He is also a port loader, champion of champions in classical wrestling among professionals Ivan Poddubny. Height 184 cm, weight 118 kg, chest volume 134 cm, biceps - 44, neck - 50... “If he doesn’t throw it, he’ll break it,” his opponents said about him. In 40 years of performances, he has not lost a single competition. And he fought until he was seventy! And no one over the years managed to pin Poddubny to the carpet with spatulas.

Many books have been written about the eminent wrestler - carefully edited and censored. They describe in detail the wrestler's sports path - and not a line about his life during the years Civil War. About the fact that in 1919 Poddubny was almost shot by anarchists in the Zhytomyr circus. In Kerch, he was miraculously not killed by a drunken officer who hit him in the shoulder.

Nowhere is it described in detail about the personal life of Ivan Poddubny. About the fact that his first love, the gymnast Mariyka, crashed in the circus arena. His wife, actress Kvitko-Fomenko, ran away with a White Guard officer, taking with her all his medals. And the second wife, a bagel seller, kept the mighty Poddubny with a tight rein all her life, often shouting: “You can’t have fun with French women...” Behind this phrase hid the secret of why the wrestler could not have children. For refusing to continue the tour, the American impresario slipped him a beauty sick with syphilis.

During the Great Patriotic War, in the first days of the occupation, Ivan Poddubny ended up in the Gestapo. Under the Germans, in order to feed himself, he began working as a bouncer in a billiard room. After the war, Poddubny’s case was handled by the NKVD. They spared the old man, but did not forgive him. IN last years before his death he was constantly malnourished. The famous wrestler died practically penniless...

Years later, the archivists of the seaside city of Yeisk, where the wrestler lived for the last 22 years, decided to reveal the truth about Poddubny to us. Several generations of enthusiasts collected priceless documents, certificates, extracts, and most importantly, truthful, previously unpublished memoirs of Poddubny’s contemporaries.

“Artist, circus performer, Ivanushka the Fool”

Curtains embroidered with yellow sunflowers. There are huge pumpkins in the entryway. On the shelves there are pots with grips, on the table there are dumplings, lard, dumplings with garlic. “Eat cabbage soup!” - the black-browed hostess offers us in a sing-song voice. From the slightly open window a quiet chant can be heard: “There’s a cherry orchard there...”

IN family nest Poddubny - the village of Krasenovka, in the Poltava region, every second resident can call himself a distant relative of Ivan Maksimovich.

On the farm they speak with respect about the strength of their eminent fellow countryman: “He could easily carry three men on his back.” When Ivan Poddubny was asked if he had met people stronger than himself, he answered with his characteristic frankness: “On the carpet, no. But in life... my father was much stronger than me!”

“Ivan’s father, a mighty Zaporozhye Cossack, used to take a loaded cart by the shafts and drag it up the mountain, while the horse just walked, rearranging its legs,” Trofim Krivonos, a resident of the village of Krasenovka, recalled at one time.

Yes, the Poddubnys’ entire family was made up of heroes,” confirms 83-year-old grandmother Alena. - Ivan’s brother, Mitrofan, served in the imperial troops, where only heroes were selected. The younger sister, Evdokia, was second to no one at the gulna. It used to be that he would take off the guy’s hat, run up to a barn made of logs, or, in our opinion, a chest of drawers, lift the corner from the stones, put on that hat, and stand there laughing. The guys then push, pull out the hat together, but all in vain!

In the village they told us that as a boy, Ivan Poddubny fell in love with his second cousin Olenka Vityachka. She was married to a man named Nikitchenko, who said “it looks like this” after every word. And the corresponding nickname stuck to his wife. So that the boy “wouldn’t be foolish,” his father sent Ivan to his grandfather in Bogodukhovka. And soon the seventeen-year-old hero left his native place, went to work, became a loader in the Sevastopol port, where his sports career began.

“I gave birth to a joke! - Poddubny’s father raged in front of his wife. “Admire how your son has become,” he shook a newspaper sheet where his son Ivan was depicted in tights. “An artist, a circus performer, Ivanushka the fool...” Maxim Ivanovich will never come to terms with his son’s choice. Even when he helped the family financially, even when he became the world champion! Even then, from his native Krasenovka, Ivan received letters from his brothers: “I don’t even want to hear that, Ivan, having become a fighter... The stinks are rotting so much and it seems like I’ll break the shaft on your neck.”

The villagers remember how Ivan once came to the village with a small, “three times smaller than himself,” pretty girl - the acrobat Mariyka. The young people wanted to get married. But in Voronezh, during her performance, Mariyka was unable to perform a difficult somersault and crashed in the arena. After burying the girl, Ivan decided to leave the circus.

“Sports Heart”

Doctors who examined Poddubny’s cardiac activity after training never ceased to be amazed: the wrestler did not even notice slight fatigue of the heart muscle. “Ivan Zhelezny has a “sports heart,” experts stated. Poddubny was able to develop energy like an explosion at the right moments and not lose courage in the most difficult and dangerous moments of the struggle.

Having received an offer from the St. Petersburg Athletic Society to take part in the international championship, he went to Paris. Having won 11 victories, he stumbled against the French champion Raoul le Boucher. Experienced in behind-the-scenes fighting, the Frenchman used the Turkish method to treat the body with olive oil, which was absorbed into the dry skin and then released along with sweat, making the body imperceptibly slippery. No matter how hard Poddubny tried, he could not catch the Frenchman escaping from his powerful grasp. Boucher then won on points against Ivan Poddubny. But the very next year, Ivan Zhelezny took revenge, winning the title of world champion in French wrestling and receiving Grand Prize- 10 thousand francs. And then the vengeful Raoul le Boucher hired bandits. Poddubny miraculously survived. Hiding from killers, the wrestler was forced to abandon his tour of Italy and hastily move to Africa.

Championships were replaced by tours. Poddubny fought in sports arenas, in circus arenas, and on the stages of summer theaters. Tired of fraudulent paid competitions, where everything was based on deception, collusion, and bribery, at the age of forty Poddubny decided to leave the arena. He arrived in his native Krasenovka with a two-pound chest of gold medals and a dazzling beauty - his young wife, actress Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko.

In the vicinity of the village, Ivan the Invincible bought 120 acres of black soil, at the same time allocated considerable plots of land to all his relatives, built an estate, started two excellent mills, an apiary, and a fashionable stroller. But his father Maxim Ivanovich did not rejoice for long that “the dissolute eldest son had finally returned to peasant labor.” A couple of years later, Ivan Poddubny went bankrupt. He burned one of his mills out of spite younger brother, he sold the second, like the estate, to pay off a debt to his competitors, the owners of the surrounding mills. Rural life bored Ivan Bolshoy, who was accustomed to the light of the stage and the filled circus hall. Exclaiming: “Let him put it down if he can!” - He stepped onto the carpet again. And his wanderings began throughout Russia and abroad, where people flocked to see the world-famous wrestler.

Residents of the village recall the story of Poddubny himself, when “his performances began at the moment when the Reds were the owners of the city, and ended after the arrival of the Whites.” In 1919, Poddubny was almost shot by drunken anarchists in the Zhytomyr circus. He fled, leaving his things behind, wandering around without money. And a little later, in Kerch, a drunken officer shot at him. Then in Berdyansk he had an unpleasant meeting with Makhno. In 1920, he visited the dungeons of the Odessa Cheka, where every second person who did not take the side of the revolutionary proletariat was shot. Fortunately, Poddubny was recognized and released in peace.

The bullets did not take Ivan the Great - he received a blow in the back from his own wife.

Grandmother Alena recalls that Panna Antonina did not like rural life - changing clothes several times a day, she rushed around the house, not knowing where to go. When Denikin’s men ruled the village, she, taking with her all her husband’s sports medals, fled from Krasenovka with a white officer. Later she repented and wrote to Ivan: “Forgive me, Vanechka, I’ll crawl all the way to you on my knees.” But where is it? Cut off.

“Under the Germans, at the Poddubny meat processing plant they began to give out 5 kg of meat”

Having traveled to 14 countries, Ivan Poddubny settled in the quiet seaside Yeisk with his second wife, Maria Semyonovna. I met my betrothed while on tour in Rostov-on-Don. She was the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashoshin. The no longer young woman worked in the bakery. She was friendly and homely. When a 40-year-old wrestler proposed marriage to a simple Russian woman, she put forward the condition: “We must get married.” And completely indifferent to religion, Poddubny went to the altar.

Why Ivan Bolshoi settled in provincial Yeisk, archivist Natalya Ginkul explains:

The wrestler's contemporaries recalled that, having traveled extensively around the world, Poddubny remained essentially a village peasant. He wrote with difficulty and neglected punctuation marks, except periods. He was not a delicate person either - he could “in a lordly manner” give a person unequal to himself two fingers to shake. It was easier for him to kill a dozen grenadier officers than to learn how to use a knife and fork. Only among the peasants and artisans did he feel comfortable. Green, quiet, provincial Yeisk reminded him of his native village in the Poltava region, where he spent his childhood and youth. Hearing a saying dear to his heart - “backing” of local residents who mixed Ukrainian words with Russian ones, Poddubny decided to buy a house in a seaside town. I chose a place - on the very side of the road, near the estuary, above the cliff.

The war found the seventy-year-old fighter in Yeisk. In August 1942, the city was occupied by the Germans. Ivan Bolshoi did not evacuate - when they asked why, he waved it off: “Where to run? Dying soon." During those years, his heart began to ache. Poddubny did not trust medicines - he made friends with Shcherbinovsky Cossack healer, paramedic of the First World War Kharchenko, and was treated with tinctures from Kuban steppe herbs.

Poddubny never hid the fact that in the first days of the occupation he was detained by the Krauts from the Sonderkommando “10-s”, which in the city was called the Gestapo. The fighter walked around the occupied city with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor attached to his shirt. Locals they recalled that in Yeisk there were two people who received such an award. The Germans killed the female drummer in a gas chamber. But Ivan Bolshoi was not touched. Moreover, Poddubny soon began working as a marker - a bouncer in the city billiard room.

My uncle, shoemaker Lukich Zozulya, with whom I was raised, helped Ivan Maksimovich manage the billiard room during the occupation,” recalls Poddubny’s godson, artist Yuri Korotkov. - It was arranged in a sailor’s club, opposite the Yeisk sanatorium. There were three tables there. Poddubny went to work to feed his loved ones. His powerful body required a huge amount of calories.

Ivan Maksimovich could take a loaf of bread, cut it in half, spread half a kilo of butter and eat it in one sitting, like an ordinary sandwich, recalls Evgeniy Kotenko, whose father, a photographer, was a friend of Poddubny. - During the war, we all ate whatever God sent us: carrots, beets, corn...

Under the Germans, at the meat processing plant, Poddubny began to be given 5 kilograms of meat per month,” Yuri Korotkov continues to recall.

Local old men often came to Poddubny’s billiard room to listen to the radio quietly. They recalled: when the Germans, having drunk heavily in the nearby buffet, fell into the billiard room and began to make a fuss, Ivan Maksimovich threw them out the door like kittens.

The rowdy Fritzes were very proud that Ivan the Great himself was putting them out on the street with his own hands, recalls Evgeniy Kotenko. - One day a representative of the German command came to Poddubny and offered to go to Germany to train German wrestlers. Ivan Maksimovich was categorical: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will remain that way.” And Poddubny got away with this statement. The Germans worshiped the strength and glory of the world famous wrestler.

Under the hood of the NKVD

When our troops returned to Yeysk in February 1943, there were hotheads among the army SMERSH - they wanted to convict the old man and send him to prison, recalls Evgeniy Kotenko.

Local residents recalled how denunciations rained down on Poddubny: “He worked for the Germans!”; “Served the Nazis!”

The authorities took up Poddubny’s case. In the archive we found a memorandum from the head of the Yeisk city department of the NKGB, Alexei Ivanovich Porfentyev, to whom, due to the nature of his service, he received information about the activities of the punitive intelligence agencies located in Yeisk and its region during the occupation. After conducting a series of checks, he wrote in a sweeping hand: “Nothing compromising in Poddubny’s hostile behavior in the occupied territory was established.” No evidence of collaboration with the Nazis was discovered by the authorities. It was officially established that the notorious billiard room existed as a purely commercial establishment.

After the liberation of Yeisk, Ivan Poddubny began traveling around the nearby military units and hospitals, promoted sports, and spoke with his memoirs. In a separate large folder we found a stack of thanks from various military officials.

After the liberation of the city, a card system was in effect in Yeysk. From a shabby archival folder we take out a yellow piece of paper on which is written in chemical pencil: “To the Yeisk City Council of Working Workers' Deputies from Maksimovich. Honored Artist of the Republic, Order Bearer Ivan Poddubny. According to the book I get 500 grams. bread, which I lack. I ask you to add another 200 grams so that I can exist. October 15, 1943.”

Poddubny became so hungry that his broad nature became invisible, he became terribly tight-fisted, recalls Yuri Korotkov. - Having poured flour into a box, he put fingerprints on it so that no one could take even the crumbs.

The City Executive Committee issued Poddubny food vouchers in the canteen and cards for receiving dry rations according to the letter “B,” recalls Evgeniy Kotenko, whose father was friends with the famous wrestler. - In those years, such cards were given only to very necessary specialists.

Old-timer Vartkes Adamyants, who in those years was the chairman of the Yeisk sports society “Spartak”, in turn, recalled:

Poddubny was a member of our society. Both he and I were sent monthly additional sugar rations from Krasnodar. I used to get a teaspoon of pleasure and stretch it out for a month. And he eats it in one day and says to me with a laugh: “There is no more sugar...” And he swears loudly: “They brought me to poverty, I sold all the medals.” Of course, his body was not like everyone else’s. To maintain such a powerful body, it was necessary to eat well. But which of us ate well then? Ivan Maksimovich loved pilaf, dairy foods, eggs, potatoes “in skins” and especially the ordinary Russian radish.

Old-timers recall that Poddubny often came to the director of the Yeisk bakery. He never refused the elderly athlete a piece of bread.

After the war, it turned out that Poddubny was not forgiven for the billiard room.

He was still active, performed with the program “50 years in the circus arena,” corresponded, made appeals, signed himself like this: “Russian Bogatyr Ivan Poddubny.”

IN post-war years we saw another Poddubny,” recalled old-timer Pyotr Kryukov. - Ivan Maksimovich’s shoulders sank, resentment froze on his face. He has aged a lot and has become haggard. He wore an untucked gray shirt. The Order of the Red Banner of Labor invariably hung on his chest. On his head is a straw hat. The city knew that he was ill during the war from malnutrition. To survive, he removed one gold medal after another from his ribbon and sold them off.

The oldest residents of Yeisk recalled that after the war Poddubny was no longer advertised anywhere. Those who held high positions in the city tried to avoid him. In 1947, he had a particularly hard time. Yeychan residents had difficulty recognizing the haggard old man on crutches as a former hero. Maksimovich weakened. His legs literally couldn't support him. While returning home from the market one day, he slipped and fell. Doctors diagnosed him with a closed femoral neck fracture.

Maksimych’s bone did not heal for a long time, recalls Sergei Akhapkov. - Until his old age, he exercised with weights. And here, encased in a cast, he did not get out of bed for a long time. The wrestler’s heart began to play havoc. As boys, we often saw Poddubny at the gates of his house. Baba Masha pulled out a bench for him, he hobbled towards her on crutches and sat down heavily. Everyone passing by bowed to him and asked about his health. Satisfied, he happily communicated. This is what I have lived for the last two years.

House on the roadside

A crooked road, flooded with water, leads us to house No. 153 on Sovetov Street, where Ivan Poddubny lived for more than 20 years. The once solid two-story house has now fallen into disrepair. The windows of the first floor were half buried in the ground and became a basement. The legendary house is run by two families who came from the Urals. They did not know Ivan Maksimovich.

Former tenants of Poddubny live in a nearby house. In the post-war years, he offered part of his plot to a young couple - the artist Imma Sirota and her husband, a military doctor - to build their own house.

Ivan Maksimovich and his wife Maria Semyonovna were already sick people in those years,” says Imma Georgievna. - To write a statement or letter, being both illiterate, they called me or my sister Yulia. While dictating the message, Poddubny continually swore and straightened his reddish mustache. They say that on the mat he was sharp and swift, but at home we saw him sedate and slow. Until his death, he did not take alcohol into his mouth, and could not tolerate the smell of tobacco.

“Goats grazed on Poddubny’s grave”

In 1949, in the seventy-eighth year of his life, Poddubny’s “sports heart” failed.

Early in the morning of August 8, my grandfather began to light the kerosene stove, leaned over and suddenly became covered in sweat and began to choke, recalls Poddubny’s grandson Roman. - With difficulty he called his grandmother and began to say goodbye. Until his last minutes he remained fully conscious.

Ivan Zhelezny, like his friend, Kazakh wrestler Hadji-Mukan, died of a heart attack.

Local authorities did not know how to bury Poddubny - with or without honors. When his famous fighter friends came to say goodbye to Ivan the Invincible in God-forgotten Yeisk, they gave the order from Moscow: “Bury as it should be.” The coffin with Poddubny’s body was installed in the building of the sports school, where there was a German church before the revolution.

They interred the eminent fighter in the city park, where dead pilots were buried during the war. They put up a simple fence and wrote in red lead: “Ivan Poddubny.” And soon the entire surrounding area was overgrown with grass.

After his death, the wrestler’s grave was abandoned, literally wiped off the face of the earth, goats and cows grazed there,” recalls Vartkes Adamyants, the oldest resident of Yeisk. “And then the BBC broadcast: “In the city of Yeisk, in desolation, is the grave of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny, whom no one in the world could lay down.” And when requests from abroad began to be sent to look for Poddubny’s burial place, the authorities erected a granite monument on the wrestler’s grave.

Later, the building of a typical swimming pool was given over to the Poddubny Museum, which now drags out a miserable existence: the halls are not heated, the roof is leaking. A huge amount of materials is stored in storerooms, but there is no money for the design of exhibitions.

* * *

In the Azov region we often heard the name Poddubnykh. All of them were only the namesakes of the wrestler. Ivan Maksimovich had no direct heirs. His adopted son Ivan left the fight. After graduating from a technical university, he worked for many years as the chief engineer of the Rostov automobile assembly plant. During the war, during a raid by German bombers, Ivan died. Grandson Roman also tried his hand at wrestling, but never became a professional. In the navy, during the war, he was seriously wounded. In 1953, after the death of Maria Semyonovna, Roman sold his grandfather’s house and settled in Rostov-on-Don.

Everyone and everyone is trying to cash in on being associated with Poddubny’s name. In the archives of Yeisk, we found many requests from distant relatives of the wrestler, who are still hoping to find Poddubny’s accounts in foreign banks. It is known that the millions earned by the wrestler during two years of touring America were never awarded to the athlete. The wrestler’s relatives are sure that in 1927 the American embassy transferred them in the name of Ivan Poddubny to one of the banks in Switzerland.

Among professional wrestlers, the concepts of “chic” and “bur” existed. The first meant working for the viewer - an artistic demonstration of spectacular techniques. The “chic” ending was known to the wrestlers in advance. In the “drilling” fight, the strongest was determined. Here they could already fight “ugly”... Poddubny never lay down on his shoulder blades by order of the championship organizer.

Only for one thing is we, conducting most living in “chic”, we must remember 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 in 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 Yeysk 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.

There are not many reliable facts about the fate of the Russian strongman Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny. The information is recorded from the words of eyewitnesses and some episodes are contradictory. And yet, it made it possible to compile the life story of a fighter who, more than a century ago, defended the honor of the country on the stage of Europe and America.

Anthropometry

• Poddubny’s height and weight is 184 cm, 120 kg.
• Chest volume – 134 cm.
• Biceps muscle - 45.
• Forearms - 36.
• Necks – 50.
• Waist 103.
• Ankles – 47.

Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny: the beginning of a wrestling biography

Poddubny was born back in the Russian Empire in a Poltava village in a large family. Years of life: 8.10.1871 - 8.09.1949. From his paternal Cossack ancestors, Vanya received a powerful physique and heroic strength. From my mother - an ear for music and peasant ingenuity. From an early age the boy helped around the house; at the age of 12 he became a farm laborer. Already as a teenager, in belt wrestling, he surprised with his remarkable power.

In his youth a guy fell in love the daughter of a local rich man, for whom he worked as a shepherd. Despite mutual feelings, there was no chance of becoming Vityak’s son-in-law. So that he doesn't do anything stupid, his father sent him away from the village. For several years, the future wrestler Poddubny worked as a loader in the port of Sevastopol. Every evening after hard work the guy fought with his fists with his comrades. Rumors about the strength of the loader spread throughout all Crimean ports. The meeting with graduates of nautical classes and weightlifters Preobrazhensky and Vasiliev became fateful. Their retelling of the biography of the famous athlete Karl Absa convinced Poddubny to train. He started carrying weights, doing gymnastics, plunged headlong into sports.

New round

In 1896, the Beskarovainy circus came to Feodosia. The guy liked the tricks so much that he went to every performance. After the show, the troupe invited those who wanted to fight with them and receive a reward for winning. The defeat in the arena encouraged me to tirelessly carry 32 kg weights and a 112 kg barbell. As a result, the giant was accepted into the troupe of the Italian Enrico Truzzi.

At the age of 27, a different life began. Crowds came to see Poddubny’s tricks. The crowning number is the telegraph pole trick. He was placed on the shoulders of a strong man, with 20 people clinging to him from below. Under the weight it broke into pieces. Then the fight began with sashes, where Ivan had no equal. The rumor about the hero spread throughout the country.

Going international

In 1900, the fashion for French wrestling, known as Greco-Roman, came into fashion. The wrestler began to train and represented the country at the competition in 1903 in Paris, where 130 wrestlers participated. Poddubny pinned a dozen opponents until it was Raoul le Boucher's turn. The strange tactics of the Frenchman and the bias of the judges infuriated Ivan. After the tournament, the athlete decided to end his wrestling career. Friends persuaded him to come to his senses and wait for revenge.

Fate brought them together again in sparring at the St. Petersburg tournament. Ivan's revenge was cruel. He literally twisted the Frenchman to the laughter of the audience, until the judges took pity on the unfortunate Raoul. The next fight was with world champion Paul Ponsa, which he won.

From 1904-08 the Russian hero became unchanged winner the most important tournament.

By 1910 he had earned a lot of money and decided to change his lifestyle. The wrestler went to the village and started a farm. As a result, the lack of talent for business and the wife’s irrepressible demands led to financial ruin.

Personal life of Ivan Poddubny

Relationships never worked out for the athlete in his youth. After youthful passion, a little later feelings flared up for a 40-year-old circus performer, who exchanged him for another man. Then there was an affair with aerial gymnast Masha Dozmarova, but she fell from a height and was killed.

Poddubny's wife was Antonina Kvitko. She squandered her husband's capital and at the beginning of the Civil War fled the country, taking part of the collection of awards. In 1922, the “Russian bear” got married on the mother of the athlete under his charge and finally found peace.

Poddubny's tragedy

Before World War I Ivan return to the circus arena and started making a living doing stunts. What was it worth? Poddubny's cane, which he “accidentally” dropped on the feet of ill-wishers. They said that it was cast from cast iron to special order. In 1922, a 51-year-old heavyweight went to work at the Moscow Circus.

In 1939 he was awarded the title of Honored Artist.

Since the giant did not delve into politics, he was treated loyally under any government. During World War II, the Germans offered to move to Germany to train the younger generation. Ivan refused and began working as a bouncer in a bar. In 1945 he received an Honored Master of Sports. He spent his last fight on the mat at the age of 70, then retired and moved to the Sea of ​​Azov.

However, all these regalia did not help in life. In the post-war years, in order to somehow eat, Ivan Poddubny sold medals. The tiny rations were clearly not enough for the hero with a mountain of muscles. Perhaps, if he had not broken his hip in Yeisk, where he was not given proper care, he would still have lived. Genetics favored longevity. His grandfather died at the age of 120. When health problems began, Ivan decided to ask Voroshilov to put him on military pay. I didn’t have time to send the letter due to a heart attack. Ivan died in 1949 at the age of 77. In 1955, a book was published about the life of the Russian hero, and later a film was made (“The Tragedy of the Strongman”). Since 1962, classical wrestling tournaments have been held in memory of Poddubny.

Ivan Poddubny in video format

The phenomenon of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny is known all over the world. This is a man who had enormous physical strength. Ivan Poddubny - athlete, professional...

From Masterweb

28.04.2018 18:00

The phenomenon of Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny is known all over the world. This is a man who possessed enormous physical strength. Ivan Poddubny is an athlete, professional wrestler, and circus performer. Thanks to his amazing abilities, he became a legend. His performances attracted and delighted a huge number of spectators not only in Russia, but also in different countries peace.

The biography of Ivan Poddubny is full of bright and interesting events.

Family

He was born on October 8, 1871 in the village of Bogodukhovka (now the village of Krasenovka) in the Poltava region into a family of farmers. Ivan was the first-born. Following him, six more children were born: three boys and three girls. The family lived poorly. WITH early childhood children were taught to work hard. At the age of twelve, the boy became a farm laborer, first for a landowner in his village, and then in a neighboring one. For 10 years he worked for local rich people. He was not drafted into the army because he was the eldest son in the family.

From his father, Ivan Poddubny inherited good health, a heroic physique, enormous strength and endurance. From his mother - an ear for music, thanks to which he was accepted to perform in the church choir on Sundays.

Start of a new life

At the age of 22 he moved to Crimea. He committed this act for the sake of the girl he loved. She reciprocated his feelings, but she was from a wealthy family, so her parents were against their daughter’s marriage to a poor man. Ivan went to Crimea in order to earn a lot of money and then return to her. However, after leaving native land, he very soon forgot about her.

For three years, Ivan Poddubny worked as a loader, first in the Sevastopol port, and then in Feodosia. Meeting athletes Anton Preobrazhensky and Vasily Vasiliev changed his life. Thanks to these people, he began to seriously engage in sports.

His weightlifting career began in 1887, when Beskorovainy’s circus came to Feodosia. Famous wrestlers Pyotr Yankovsky and Georg Lurich worked as part of the circus troupe. Anyone could compete with them. The circus announced a belt wrestling championship. Poddubny decided to take part in it. Over the next two weeks, he defeated almost all the circus athletes. Only one wrestler remained undefeated by him - the giant Peter Yankovsky.

Work in the circus

After this event, Ivan began regular training. The work no longer satisfied him, and he moved to Sevastopol. Here he works in a troupe of wrestlers, led by Georg Lurich, in the circus of the Italian Truzzi. He studied all the features of belt wrestling and developed a training system for himself. From an ordinary rude peasant he turned into a real professional athlete.

After some time, Ivan Poddubny was invited to work at the Nikitin brothers’ circus in Kyiv. He started touring with him. During 3 years of work in this circus, he visited all cities of the European part of Russia. His performances as a wrestler and athlete amazed the public. Ivan became a celebrity.

"Champion of Champions"

In 1903, the chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society invited him to participate in the World French Wrestling Championship. Ivan began intensive preparation for this championship under the guidance of a French coach, which lasted three months.

There were 130 participants in the championship. Poddubny won 11 fights, but he lost to the Frenchman Boucher. The whole cunning of the insidious enemy was that his body was lubricated with olive oil, thanks to which he slipped out of the bear grip of the Russian hero. After this defeat, the Russian athlete became an opponent of dishonest methods in the ring.

A year later, Ivan Poddubny again met in the ring with Boucher. The fight lasted 40 minutes, as a result the Russian athlete won.

In 1905, Ivan again participated in the international championship in Paris. There he becomes world champion. After this victory, he was involved in competitions in different countries of the world and invariably defeated all his opponents.

For 40 years, the athlete did not lose a single championship, for which he was called the “champion of champions.”

Termination of an athlete's career

1910 was a turning point in the sports career of the absolute champion. He unexpectedly decides to leave the sport and start a family. Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko became his wife. The hero spent all his savings on a large house, two mills and an apiary in the Poltava region. However, Ivan did not turn out to be a landowner. He was illiterate and did not know how to run a household. In addition, his brother, who had become a drunkard, burned down his mill. As a result, Ivan soon went bankrupt.

At the age of 42, Poddubny returned to work in the circus. In Zhitomir, and later in Kerch, he performs in the arena. In 1922, he was invited to work first in the Moscow and later in the Petrograd Circus. Despite his advanced age and physical exertion, the wrestler is in good health. Due to the difficult financial situation, Ivan Poddubny agrees to tour America and Germany. The artist's performances were a great success. In 1927 he returned to his homeland.

Personal life of Ivan Poddubny

Ivan's first youthful love did not last too long. After leaving her native village, the girl was forgotten by him.

His second love is tightrope walker Emilia. She was older in age and skillfully played on his feelings. After she had a rich suitor, she ran away with him.

After an unsuccessful relationship with Emilia, Poddubny moved to Kyiv. There he met the gymnast Mashenka, who reciprocated the athlete’s feelings. She was fragile short stature, but was distinguished by extraordinary courage. Masha performed under the circus big top, working on a trapeze without safety net. Together they made plans for their future life together. The wedding day was set. But one day, during the next performance, Mashenka fell from a height and was broken. After this tragic event, Poddubny left the circus and became isolated. Only with the passage of time, having accepted the invitation to participate in the World Championships in Paris, was he able to return to his former life.

Ivan first married at the age of 40 to the beautiful Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko. They moved to the Poltava region and started a farm. Family life lasted for 7 years. But one day, when the athlete was on tour in Odessa, Antonina met an officer and ran away with him, taking her husband’s gold medals with her. After some time, she wanted to return to her former husband, but Ivan could not forgive her for her betrayal.

last love

Maria Mashoshina became last love legendary athlete. She was a widow, the mother of his student. Ivan was charmed by her beauty, sensuality and friendliness. In 1927, returning from a tour of America, he married her. He lived with this woman until his last days. They bought a house in Yeisk on the shore Sea of ​​Azov. They had no children together, but Poddubny was very attached to Maria’s son and treated him with paternal warmth. Foster-son, Ivan Mashoshin, leaving professional wrestling, graduated from a technical university and began working as the chief engineer of the Rostov automobile assembly plant. In May 1943, he died during a Nazi air raid. He left behind a son, Roman, whom Poddubny took care of as his own grandson.

Ivan got him used to sports and sent him to a sports school, where the boy could practice classical wrestling. However, during the Great Patriotic War, the grandson went to the front and was seriously wounded. Therefore, in the future I had to give up my wrestling career.

At the end of life

In 1941, Ivan entered the ring in 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 is Memorial Museum where personal belongings are stored, unique photos Ivan Poddubny, posters and other exhibits telling about the life and sports career of this amazing man.

Famous athlete in cinema

When familiarizing yourself with the biography of Ivan Poddubny briefly, attention is drawn to the fact that, despite world fame, disasters, wanderings and instability in his personal life did not bypass him. The life story of the legendary strongman formed the basis of the Soviet film “The Fighter and the Clown.” It was created in 1957. Ivan Poddubny in the film is shown as a person possessing not only enormous physical, but also spiritual strength.

In 2014, cinema again turned to this topic. The film “Poddubny” repeated the previous film in many details.

Gained great popularity documentary“The tragedy of the strongman. Ivan Poddubny." It tells about interesting facts from the life of the legendary athlete.

A short biography of Ivan Poddubny is the story of a legendary man who became an unsurpassed example of sports longevity.

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