Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny is a professional wrestler, athlete of Russia and the Soviet Union, Honored Master of Sports. The biography of Ivan Poddubny evokes good feelings: surprise, respect, regret about the sad end of the life of a peasant son, a Zaporozhye Cossack, who died of malnutrition.
For a long time, Poddubny worked as an artist in the circus. During his own life, the wrestler won many triumphs at world classical wrestling competitions and was not defeated by his opponents. Ivan Poddubny looks like the heroes of ancient Greek myths.
He is famous in European countries and the USA. Ivan survived the Nazi occupation, remaining in enemy-occupied territory, and rejected the path of betrayal. Having become famous, Poddubny remained a naive good-natured person at heart.
Childhood
Ivan Poddubny was born in the Ukrainian village of Bogodukhovka. Vanya was the eldest son; there were 3 more brothers and 3 sisters growing up in the family. The boy had a large build, like his father. The Poddubny family was in poverty, the boy had to get hired to work early. Ivan was only 12 years old, but he was already working, fulfilling the norm of an adult.
In the male line of the Poddubny family, everyone was very strong and strong, but Vanya surpassed everyone. From his mother, the boy received an excellent ear for music, which subsequently surprised his acquaintances. A difficult childhood left its mark on the future strongman.
Ivan Poddubny in his youth
Troubled years
Ivan Poddubny, whose biography is eventful, was also exposed to risk from the activities of various types of combat groups. So, in 1919, drunken anarchists started shooting at the Zhitomir circus. I had to run away without taking any things or money and wander around the world. In the city of Kerch, a drunken officer shot him. During his wanderings, he met Nestor Makhno on his way.
There was a civil war, but Poddubny did not want to kill his compatriots, and therefore did not side with anyone. He did not want to take up arms and continued to fight in the ring. Despite this, the Odessa Cheka arrested the champion. He was lucky only because many people remembered and admired him. The authorities figured it all out and released him. At this time, news came from home: the wife had gone to another man, taking his medals with her. The athlete stopped talking and eating and experienced terrible depression. He was like this, Poddubny Ivan: the family and wife who betrayed him ceased to exist for him. Subsequently, his wife wanted to return to him, but he no longer recognized her.
First successes and failures
The first time Ivan fell unsuccessfully in love, the girl Alena was from a rich family. Parents forbade their daughter to date a poor guy and Poddubny left for Crimea in 1893 to earn money. But soon he stopped thinking about Alena. In Crimea, Poddubny begins working as a loader at the port.
The guy meets two sailor athletes who teach Ivan basic training skills. Maybe the guy would have continued to work as a loader, but an amazing thing happened. In 1897, circus performers and athletes appeared in the town. Once at the end of the performance, the artists invited the hunters to fight.
Poddubny responded and defeated the titled fighters. The troupe liked the hero, he was accepted into the Enrico Truzzi circus in an athletic role. Ivan was prevented by an unhappy brief love: the beautiful tightrope walker Emilia went to a rich man. The upset boy leaves for Kyiv.
In the capital, the young man gets a job in the Nikitin troupe, where he meets a new love. Young people decide to get married and have a child. But gymnast Maria Gazmarova falls off the rope during a performance and dies. For a long time, his friends saw him as a silent man, disappointed in life.
Maria Gazmarova - Poddubny's unfulfilled love
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, having left his 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.
Sports achivments
In 1903, Poddubny was invited to France for world competitions. The athlete retrained from Russian to French wrestling 3 months before the tournament. The rules were strict - one loss and immediate relegation. The wrestler defeated 11 athletes, but Raoul de Boucher defeated Ivan because he smeared himself with cream, which prevented his opponent from making exciting moves.
The judges pretended not to notice anything and did not react to Poddubny’s indignation. The winner was Raoul. Ivan will win back at the World Championships in St. Petersburg, where he will put Raul on all fours for 20 minutes, until the judges pulled the wrestlers apart. Whether this was revenge is not difficult to say.
The number of world titles received by the strongman cannot be said with certainty. At the beginning of the last century, world competitions with big names were held both in the capitals of countries and in small towns.
Poddubny won all the competitions in which he participated. But the data on the wrestler’s sporting achievements have not been preserved in full. It is well known that at the beginning of the twentieth century the athlete won an important world championship, held every year in the capital of France.
Tragic death
They became the bride and groom. And they even set a wedding day. A brave man, Ivan was not afraid of anything in the world, he just could not look at Masha’s performances. He was so worried and afraid for her that his heart ached. Another performance was taking place. Masha performed her number to the music. When the worst moment came, drums began to roll. When a dull sound was heard, Ivan jumped into the arena. Masha was lying in the arena, and she was dead.
He wanted to live without her. Experiencing a terrible event, Poddubny leaves the circus. Having withdrawn into himself, Ivan did not want to see anyone or talk to anyone. He didn’t know what to do next: return home or go to Sevastopol and work as a loader? When the mental pain subsided, Ivan received an invitation to participate in the World Championships in France.
At the circus
Providence again played an important role in Poddubny’s life. The troupe of Ivan Beskaravayny arrived on the Black Sea coast. The performance program necessarily included athletes showing wrestling matches. The Beskaravayny circus was no exception.
There were athletes here who not only showed their own act, but also invited the audience to take part in fights with them. Ivan decided that he would not surrender to strong people, volunteered to try his strength and lost. At that moment, Ivan realized one thing: strength will not help you win, tactics are needed, in general, a whole science.
Cruel reality
A short time later, Ivan Poddubny suffered a broken leg. And very soon, in 1949, he died of a heart attack. Today, in the champion’s homeland, there is a bust on which are carved the words: “Here lies the Russian hero.” Since 1962, international tournaments for the Ivan Poddubny Prize have been held. He was the strongest man on Earth not only physically, but also spiritually.
But not everything from the life of such a remarkable person is known to historians. There are many periods when his activities were not recorded, and there is confusion with dates. Some historians claim that during the hungry post-war period, Ivan Poddubny did not have enough food. For an athlete who constantly trains, a special diet is required. The lack of vitamins, proteins and minerals could have a negative impact on the health of the famous hero. But the losses could no longer be made up. After all, everything should be done on time, and the real heroes of the Fatherland should be protected.
The hard path to fame
Poddubny was filled with excitement and a desire to prove to others that he could become the best. The wrestler began to train regularly and became familiar with wrestling techniques. Soon he returned to the circus stage and defeated famous athletes several times.
After that, he was invited to Enrico Truzzi's troupe in the role of a professional circus fighter. From that moment on, the brilliant career of twenty-seven-year-old Ivan Poddubny began. Like all wrestlers of that time, Ivan performed more than one role.
The strongman demonstrated unique techniques, for example, a telegraph pole was attached to his shoulders, on which ten people were suspended at the edges, as a result, the pole broke. The spectators screamed with pleasure. The main goal of the athlete was to fight.
All of Russia began to talk about Poddubny; he had no analogues in classical Russian sash competitions.
With Maria Semyonovna Poddubny lived in peace and love, invariably calling her “my Masha”
Russian hero
He really looked like a real hero: Ivan Poddubny’s height was 185 cm. Chest volume - 130 cm, biceps - 45 cm. At that time, these figures were very impressive. At the invitation of G.I. Ribopierre, Poddubny entered the St. Petersburg Athletic Society and began to seriously engage in French wrestling. Under the guidance of coach Eugene de Paris, the athlete was preparing for three months. And so the Russian hero goes to Paris, where the championship was held at the Casino de Paris.
Personal life
In 1910, Ivan left for his homeland. The fighter bought himself a new house with land and started a farm. Ivan thought that all the awards had already been won and decided to end his professional career. But Poddubny did not become a businessman. The wife's requests reduced the man's financial capital. The wrestler was unlucky in love.
After unsuccessful attempts to establish family ties with a tightrope walker and gymnast, Poddubny decided not to marry. But soon the man changed his own opinion. The wrestler’s first official wife was Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko, who spent her husband’s money. And then she ran away, stealing part of his rewards. In 1922, Ivan remarried, but this time to the mother of the young wrestler Ivan Mashonin. There were no children.
The Making of a Great Strongman
At the age of 21, Ivan went to Crimea. There he worked in the port as a loader and was famous for his great endurance and strength. There he spent 15 hours a day on the ladders, dragging loads. At the same time, he worked with ease and very quickly. Even experienced loaders were surprised when he hefted a huge box onto his shoulders, which was too big for even three people, stretched out to his full height and walked up the trembling gangway.
Soon, Poddubny became known in all Crimean ports. After some time, he met Anton Preobrazhensky and Vasily Vasilyev, who were studying at the school of navigation. They also did weightlifting and insisted that Ivan, who was critical of this, try to train.
Ivan's interest in sports grew after reading the autobiography of the athlete Karl Abs, which Preobrazhensky gave him. Karl Abs wrote in his book that he increased his strength through training to three times what he originally had. Thus, weights became Ivan Maksimovich’s daily companions. He and Anton ran together and did gymnastics in the courtyard of the nautical school. As Poddubny later wrote, he achieved a lot within six months, became stronger than Preobrazhensky, and sport took over his whole life.
Interesting facts from the life of Poddubny
Before World War I, Poddubny had to return to the arena, as his first wife quickly squandered her funds. Ivan began to win again in any fights. The great man was not involved in politics. Even during the Civil War, he was well received by both whites and reds.
I remember the moment: at the end of the war, the fighter was almost shot by the Red Guards. They confused the famous man with the organizer who organized pogroms of Jews, but quickly sorted out this misunderstanding.
In 1922, Poddubny was over 50; the wrestler continued to perform in the circus. After a medical examination, doctors said that the patient was healthy. In 1924, the wrestler went on a long tour of America and Germany. Although he was already 53 years old, Poddubny looked younger and was full of strength.
In the United States, where the competition rules were far from European and more reminiscent of a street fight, the wrestler quickly found his bearings. The athlete became a winner at many venues in cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
The hero wore the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, received in 1939, on his jacket.
Ivan fought his last battle in 1941 at the age of seventy. After the Nazi occupation of the city at the beginning of World War II, the fighter did not leave with the refugees. The strongman began to complain of pain in the heart area, so there was no fear that he might be captured.
But thanks to worldwide fame, the Germans did not touch the elderly man, but invited him to train wrestlers. But Poddubny sharply refused, and they stopped bothering Ivan. They even allowed a celebrity to work in a billiard marker.
At the same time, he worked as a bouncer in a bar. It was funny: a huge man with an order on his chest was throwing very tipsy Krauts out the door. And in the morning they wrote letters to their wives, telling them that Poddubny himself had thrown them out of the bar.
A monument was erected in his honor at the grave of wrestler Ivan Poddubny
last love
Maria Mashoshina became the last love of the 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 Yeysk on the shores of the Azov Sea. They had no children together, but Poddubny was very attached to Maria’s son and treated him with paternal warmth. The adopted son, Ivan Mashoshin, left professional wrestling, graduated from a technical university and began working as the chief engineer of the Rostov Auto 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.
Awards
In the liberated city, state security structures checked Poddubny’s connection with the occupiers and found no criminal actions, discovering that the retired fighter did not betray his homeland, and “trade is trade.”
At the end of the war, the titled athlete received the title of Honorary Master of Sports of the Soviet Union. The circus athlete received his first award in 1939. The strongman became an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.
Unfortunately, the won regalia did not help Poddubny in peacetime. The celebrity was not persecuted for political reasons, the problem was different - for ordinary life, the giant needed more food than the average person, few products were allocated on cards.
Death
Poddubny turned to local authorities, the services helped as much as possible. Poddubny sold his own awards to buy products. Maybe it would have been easier for Ivan Poddubny in Moscow, and the small town lived by its own rules.
One day, while walking from the market, an elderly man fell and broke his hip. Since then, the famous hero walked with a stick. On August 8, 1949, Poddubny suffered a heart attack; doctors were unable to save the wrestler. The old athlete was buried in a city park near the graves of soldiers who died in World War II.
Still from the film “Poddubny”, where Mikhail Porechenkov played the main role
The collapse of a quiet life
Poddubny Ivan was engaged in farming for only three years. The family for whom he tried so hard could not keep everything he gave them: the mill was burned down by his younger brother, the second mill was sold to pay off debts. The competitors in the person of Rabinovich and Zarkhi defeated the great athlete in this “battle”. He returned to the carpet in 1913.
Ivan Poddubny continued to show excellent results and arouse the admiration of fans and spectators. He never violated his principles and fought until a fair victory. But time passed, life changed. Global changes were taking place in the world: war, revolution. All this affected the lives of many athletes and artists and cultural figures.
