In 1903, the famous Russian athlete Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny went to the world championship in French wrestling, which was held in Paris. 130 athletes from all over the world arrived at the tournament. Despite the fact that this was the first world championship for Poddubny, he had a good chance of winning.

The beginning of the tournament was successful for the Russian, he confidently won eleven victories in a row. In the twelfth fight, he was to meet with the French wrestler Raul Musson, nicknamed "le Boucher" (The Butcher). The twenty-year-old athlete was a favorite of Parisian wrestlers. He began his sports career at the age of thirteen and quickly gained popularity in the wrestling world. Raul quit his job at the butcher shop and became a professional wrestler.

The Frenchman was 12 years younger than his rival, with a height of 188 centimeters and a weight of 120 kilograms, he had tremendous strength, while being distinguished by speed and agility. But Poddubny was clearly not going to give in to the young Frenchman.

A few minutes after the start of the fight, Ivan's hands suddenly began to slide over the body of Raoul le Boucher. The Parisian easily escaped from the mighty captures of Podubny. Ivan Maksimovich addressed the judges, saying that his opponent was oiled. The arbitrators examined the French wrestler and recognized that his body was indeed covered with oily sweat. It turned out that Le Boucher had smeared himself with olive oil.

Surprisingly, the fight continued. The arbitrators made a truly “Solomonic” decision: to stop the fight every 5 minutes and wipe the French wrestler dry. But the oil came out again with the sweat.

So the "slippery" Raul le Boucher managed to survive until the end of the fight. As strange as it may seem, it was he who was recognized as the winner "for beautiful departures from receptions."

The Russian Athletic Society sent Raul an offer to meet Poddubny again, promising a prize of 10,000 francs in case of victory. But he was able to slip away here too: he delicately refused to fight again.

However, the wrestlers met a year later at the next World Championship in St. Petersburg. Revenge was cruel - the Russian wrestler kept his opponent for 42 minutes, in a knee-elbow position, to the whistle and hooting of the public, until the judges took pity on Le Boucher.

The life of Raoul le Boucher ended tragically. During Ivan Maksimovich's tour in Italy, de Boucher "ordered" Poddubny to local bandits. This conspiracy was overheard by another French wrestler, Emble de la Calmette, and was killed on the spot. But Poddubny simply scattered the bandits. And, although the “work” remained unfulfilled, the bandits began to demand payment from the customer. He refused to pay, for which he received a fatal blow to the head with a rubber stick. It was announced to the public that Raoul de Boucher had died of meningitis. He was barely 24 years old.

In 1903, the famous Russian athlete Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny went to the world championship in French wrestling, which was held in Paris. 130 athletes from all over the world arrived at the tournament. Despite the fact that this was the first world championship for Poddubny, he had a good chance of winning.

The beginning of the tournament was successful for the Russian, he confidently won eleven victories in a row. In the twelfth fight, he was to meet with the French wrestler Raul Musson, nicknamed "le Boucher" (The Butcher). The twenty-year-old athlete was a favorite of Parisian wrestlers. He began his sports career at the age of thirteen and quickly gained popularity in the wrestling world. Raul quit his job at the butcher shop and became a professional wrestler.

The Frenchman was 12 years younger than his opponent, with growth 188 centimeters and weight 120 kilograms , he possessed great strength, while being distinguished by speed and agility. But Poddubny was clearly not going to give in to the young Frenchman.

A few minutes after the start of the fight, Ivan's hands suddenly began to slide over the body of Raoul le Boucher. The Parisian easily escaped from the mighty captures of Podubny. Ivan Maksimovich addressed the judges, saying that his opponent was oiled. The arbitrators examined the French wrestler and recognized that his body was indeed covered with oily sweat. It turned out that Le Boucher had smeared himself with olive oil.

Surprisingly, the fight continued. The arbitrators made a truly “Solomonic” decision: to stop the fight every 5 minutes and wipe the French wrestler dry. But the oil came out again with the sweat.

So the “slippery” Raul le Boucher managed to survive until the end of the fight. As strange as it may seem, it was he who was recognized as the winner "for beautiful departures from receptions."

The Russian Athletic Society sent Raul an offer to meet Poddubny again, promising a prize of 10,000 francs in case of victory. But he was able to slip away here too: he delicately refused to fight again.

However, the wrestlers met a year later at the next World Championship in St. Petersburg. Revenge was cruel - the Russian wrestler kept his opponent for 42 minutes, in a knee-elbow position, to the whistle and hooting of the public, until the judges took pity on Le Boucher.

The life of Raoul le Boucher ended tragically. During Ivan Maksimovich's tour in Italy, de Boucher "ordered" Poddubny to local bandits. This conspiracy was overheard by another French wrestler, Emble de la Calmette, and was killed on the spot. But Poddubny simply scattered the bandits. And, although the “work” remained unfulfilled, the bandits began to demand payment from the customer. He refused to pay, for which he received a fatal blow to the head with a rubber stick. It was announced to the public that Raoul de Boucher had died of meningitis. He was barely 24 years old.

In 1903, the famous athlete Ivan Maksimovich Poddubny went to the world championship in French wrestling, which was held in Paris. 130 athletes from all over the world arrived at the tournament. Despite the fact that this was the first world championship for Poddubny, he had a good chance of winning.

The beginning of the tournament was successful for the Russian, he confidently won eleven victories in a row. In the twelfth fight, he was to meet with the French wrestler Raul Musson, nicknamed "le Boucher" (The Butcher). The twenty-year-old athlete was a favorite of Parisian wrestlers. He began his sports career at the age of thirteen and quickly gained popularity in the wrestling world. Raul quit his job at the butcher shop and became a professional wrestler.

The Frenchman was 12 years younger than his rival, with a height of 188 centimeters and a weight of 120 kilograms, he had tremendous strength, while being distinguished by speed and agility. But Poddubny was clearly not going to give in to the young Frenchman.

A few minutes after the start of the fight, Ivan's hands suddenly began to slide over the body of Raoul le Boucher. The Parisian easily escaped from the mighty captures of Podubny. Ivan Maksimovich addressed the judges, saying that his opponent was oiled. The arbitrators examined the French wrestler and recognized that his body was indeed covered with oily sweat. It turned out that Le Boucher had smeared himself with olive oil.

Surprisingly, the fight continued. The arbitrators made a truly “Solomonic” decision: to stop the fight every 5 minutes and wipe the French wrestler dry. But the oil came out again with the sweat.

So the "slippery" Raul le Boucher managed to survive until the end of the fight. As strange as it may seem, it was he who was recognized as the winner "for beautiful departures from receptions."

The Russian Athletic Society sent Raul an offer to meet Poddubny again, promising a prize of 10,000 francs in case of victory. But he was able to slip away here too: he delicately refused to fight again.

However, the wrestlers met a year later at the next World Championship in St. Petersburg. The revenge was cruel - the Russian wrestler held the opponent for 42 minutes, in a knee-elbow position, to the whistle and hooting of the public, until the judges took pity on Le Boucher.

The life of Raoul le Boucher ended tragically. During Ivan Maksimovich's tour in Italy, de Boucher "ordered" Poddubny to local bandits. This conspiracy was overheard by another French wrestler, Emable de la Calmette, and was killed on the spot. But Poddubny simply scattered the bandits. And, although the “work” remained unfulfilled, the bandits began to demand payment from the customer. He refused to pay, for which he received a fatal blow to the head with a rubber stick. It was announced to the public that Raoul de Boucher had died of meningitis. He was barely 24 years old.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Ivan Poddubny showed the whole world that the most powerful people live in Russia. His physical appearance, character, unheard-of victories among people from all over the world were associated with the country where he was born. Russia is heard in the very name of the invincible wrestler. And the whole life of the “champion of champions” fits into an exclusively Russian plot, where the happiness of victory, national glory and the tragedy of oblivion merge into one inseparable whole.

Poddubny were from the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Their ancestors fought in the troops of Ivan the Terrible, defending Russia from the Tatars, and under Peter I they fought with the Swedes near Poltava.

Ivan was born in the Poltava province in 1871. After the first-born, the Poddubny couple had three more sons and three daughters. Ivan, as the eldest of the children in a family where they are used to counting pennies, was accustomed to hard peasant work from childhood and did it jokingly. The villagers were not surprised that he threw bags of grain on the cart as if they were stuffed with hay. An apple does not fall far from an apple tree: the head of the family, Maxim Ivanovich, himself was of heroic growth and Herculean strength.

After many years, being a world famous champion, Poddubny will say that a person is stronger than him only his father.

For his son, Maxim Ivanovich became both the first coach and the first opponent. On holidays, to the delight of the villagers, they wrestled. Both strong men, surrounded on all sides by a close wall of fellow villagers, took each other by the belts and did not let go until someone was lying on the shoulder blades. Sometimes Maxim Ivanovich, sparing the vanity of his teenage son, was generous and succumbed. Never again will Ivan have such noble rivals - fierce, cunning, dishonest ...

Crossing the lines of love and talent

Ivan was forced to leave his native place by a heartfelt drama: Alenka Vityak, the daughter of a wealthy owner, with whom he had his first love, was not given away for him, a poor man. Ivan went to Sevastopol. A hefty guy was immediately taken to the loaders of the Greek company Livas. The fourteen-hour working day, when Poddubny with pood bags scurried back and forth along the ladder, did not seem so exhausting because of the hope of earning more money, returning to the village and taking Alena for himself.

However, things turned out differently. Transferred to the port of Feodosia, Ivan settled in a rented apartment with two students of seafaring classes. His neighbors turned out to be inveterate athletes, and it was from them that Poddubny learned what physical exercises and training system.

And then the circus of Ivan Beskorovayny arrived in Feodosia. The troupe, along with the usual characters: jugglers, "rubber girls" and sword swallowers, included famous athletes and wrestlers, whose portraits adorned all the city bollards. The posters said that everyone can measure their strength with them.

Fate, as they say, pushed Poddubny in the back: after watching several circus performances, he volunteered for a duel with professional athletes and suffered a severe defeat.

This provoked the future hero. He realized that strength alone is not enough. Need more and sports equipment. The realization of this was costly: from now until the end of his life, Poddubny will not leave his body alone, will not rely on his truly phenomenal data. Strength, like any gift of nature, requires work, self-restraint, and discipline in return. He set himself the most severe sports regime: exercises with 32-kilogram weights, 112-kilogram barbell. He was drenched cold water, ate in a special way, completely and forever refused alcohol and smoking.

Sport has become the core of life for Poddubny. The best place to demonstrate his talents, he considered the circus, besides, performances in the arena could bring good money. With the Greek office, he paid off to become a professional wrestler. In early January 1898, twenty-seven-year-old Ivan reappeared in Sevastopol.

The ex-loader became a circus fighter of the Italian Enrico Truzzi. The very first performances brought him fame. Tall, well-built, with clear, courageous features, the wrestler quickly acquired admirers and admirers.

He was amazing in the arena. They put a telegraph pole on his shoulders and ten people hung on both sides until the pole broke. The storm of applause after this number caused only a condescending smile on his face. Behind such a trifle-warm-up, what Poddubny entered the arena for began - the original Russian wrestling on sashes: the rivals threw leather belts around each other's waists, trying to knock them down. Poddubny had five minutes for his opponents. Newspapers printed portraits new star circus, the young ladies carved them as a keepsake, and went to the performances with bouquets of flowers for their idol.

The heart of the idol turned out to be quickly occupied by the fatal circus diva Emilia. A lady under the age of forty, but an insanely temperamental Hungarian tightrope walker, made the girlishly innocent image of Alenka pretty dim in Ivan's memory.

Poddubny learned what the passion of a mature woman, highly experienced in amorous affairs, is. He was completely bewitched, offered his hand and heart, not suspecting that he was not the only owner of the beauty's charms.

Meanwhile, a fellow villager who happened to be at a circus performance and caught something from the local rumors brought Maxim Ivanovich sad news that his son, in the most “shameful” form, in tight tights, instead of doing business, was throwing weights. And besides, they say that “a Hungarian girl lured him, who walks on a tightrope in their circus. He seems to be planning to marry her."

Soon Poddubny received a letter from the brothers: “Father is angry with you and threatens to break off the shafts about you. Don't come by Christmas."

He already had no time for the holidays: the insidious tightrope walker ran away with a rich admirer. And he, having decided to get rid of difficult memories, moves to Kyiv.

They said that when asked if there was anyone in the world who could defeat him, Poddubny answered without delay: “Yes! Babs! All my life, I, a fool, have been led astray.” You can treat this statement as a joke, but there are really a lot of dramatic pages in the biography of the hero.

In the troupe of the Kyiv circus of the Nikitin brothers, with whom Poddubny signed a contract, he met a charming young creature Masha Dozmarova. He could have seated her in the palm of his hand, she was so tiny and graceful. A hot feeling overwhelmed the giant. Poddubny understood what it was - a sinking heart. But it, powerful, not losing its rhythm under superhuman loads, just froze when he, with his head thrown back, watched what tricks Masha was doing on her trapeze under the dome of the circus. The love was mutual. Poddubny decided to marry and called the girl his bride.

Everything was broken in an instant. Poddubny was waiting for the Machine Number to end behind the heavy drapery that separated the stage. Suddenly there was a dull thud, women's squeals. Jumping into the arena, he saw a prostrate body. He picked him up. Masha was dead.

Bound by a contract, Poddubny went out to the public without the slightest desire. The Kyiv arena became for him a place of terrible memories. In order to be alone with himself as little as possible, he frequented the club of athletes. The Kyiv intelligentsia gathered here - lawyers, doctors, and simply influential people in the city. All of them were very fond of French wrestling, which made it possible to more maneuver on the mat and required not only strength, but also dexterity, excellent body control, and special tactics of waging a duel.

Poddubny then met A.I. Kuprin, who was often seen in the club of athletes. The writer appreciated in Poddubny not only a nugget, an amazing work of nature, but also a man of great inner strength.

Unable to forget about his grief, Poddubny thought about putting an end to the circus and returning to the port of Feodosia. However, as you know: "God spends eternity with our drama he composes, directs and looks."

self-affirmation

A turning point in the life of Poddubny was made by a telegram received from St. Petersburg. He was invited for an important conversation. What does all of this mean? Ivan Maksimovich re-read the name of the person whose signature appeared on the telegram more than once: the chairman of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society, Count Ribopierre.

In essence, Poddubny was delighted with this telegram only as an excuse to go somewhere and for some reason. He took a ticket to Petersburg.

Both the telegram and the interest of G.N. Ribopierre in a peasant who recently carried bags on the Crimean piers, who surprised the spectators of a traveling circus, had its own explanation. At the beginning of 1903, the count received an offer from the French sports society to send a representative of Russia to participate in international competitions for the title of world champion in French wrestling.

It turned out that Poddubny had already been in the zone of observation of the founders of the athletic society for quite a long time, there were enough messages about his victories in their piggy bank to make the candidacy of the Cossack hero seem the most suitable. Poddubny admitted to the count that he had only recently been engaged in French wrestling, to which he received an answer: he would have best coach, Monsieur Eugene de Paris, and three months to prepare.

Training began immediately. The Frenchman, himself a professional wrestler in the past, did not spare his ward. All techniques were worked out to automatism.

The championship in Paris was attended by 130 wrestlers, among whom were world celebrities. The conditions of the competition were tough a single defeat deprived the right of further participation in the competition.

All Paris was talking about the championship. Places in the theater "Casino de Paris" were taken with a fight. The unknown "Russian bear" won eleven fights. Poddubny, who was already 33 years old, had a duel with the favorite of the Parisians, twenty-year-old handsome athlete Raoul le Boucher. From the very first seconds of the fight, he went on a furious attack and soon ran out of steam. Poddubny only had to put it on his shoulder blades, but the Frenchman slipped out of his hands like a fish. It became clear that Raul was smeared with some kind of fatty substance. In response to the protest of Poddubny, who accused the opponent of cheating, the panel of judges, although they were convinced that olive oil had been applied to Raul's body, decided to continue the fight, and wipe Poddubny's "slippery" opponent with a towel every five minutes. Such a decision seemed like a joke, but that's exactly what happened.

For an hour of a fight with Raoul Poddubny, he failed to put the Frenchman on his shoulder blades, although the advantage was clearly behind him. Even the spectators, who were rooting for their compatriot, were indignant when the judges, who recognized Raul's fraud, awarded him the victory after all "for beautiful and skillful avoidance of sharp tricks."

Poddubny was shocked not even by the fact that he was undeservedly, brazenly withdrawn from further competitions. Speaking for the first time, he realized that even at such a representative authoritative forum in the face of many hundreds of spectators watching the fight, the triumph of the blackest lies and human dishonesty is possible. This lesson will forever make Poddubny an implacable, uncompromising enemy of "dirty sports".

In St. Petersburg, they knew about the Paris incident, but, not wanting a major scandal, they suggested by telegraph to the panel of judges to repeat the duel between Poddubny and Raoul. But the "winner" categorically refused. However, Paris turned out to be only the starting point for further clarifications on the carpet of the “Russian bear” and the favorite of the French. Fate now and then brought them together - people who, according to their convictions, personified the light and dark sides of the sport. Raoul le Boucher a strong, technical wrestler was able to fairly evaluate Poddubny. It was clear that in open combat he could not cope with him. I did not want to lose the title of the idol of the public, the star of French sports. And when Raul arrived in St. Petersburg for the International Championship, he offered Poddubny a bribe of 20 thousand francs. This proposal, which the strange Russian considered offensive, cost the "star" twenty minutes of standing on all fours to the whistle of the audience. "This is cheating for you! This is for the olive oil!” sentenced Poddubny. He released Raoul only at the insistence of the judges...

Another Frenchman, world champion Paul Pons, a tall athlete, known for his virtuoso mastery of all the fighting techniques that he brought down on the enemy with that lightning speed that did not let him come to his senses, became a much harder nut to crack for Poddubny.

Actually, this game was to become the main event of the championship. The circus of the Ciniselli brothers, with its three thousandth audience, seems to have been ready to explode from the pre-inflated tension.

Premonition of an easy victory over some peasant, not marked by a single medal, after the humiliating loss, to the laughter and hooting of the whole hall, Raoul left Monsieur Pons. World champion, an experienced man, he understood that his victory would not be easy.

For the first minutes, the opponents seemed to be looking at each other: the struggle was sluggish. The public, rooting for "ours", did not understand what happened to Poddubny. His style was already known to connoisseurs: the giant from the Poltava region never waited to be attacked. He was the first to go on the offensive and worked with all the muscles of his mighty body. However, this time Poddubny's actions were justified: in front of him was the world champion, a wrestler he had never seen before. In a matter of minutes, it was necessary to understand his tactics, to find weaknesses.

Everything that happened next is known from the words of an eyewitness then young, and later one of the most famous trainers, Boris Eder: “Pons was unlike the usual Pons. No one else treated him as boldly as Poddubny, he threw him around the arena ... Pons did not have to make a single move, he barely had time to defend himself from Poddubny. By the end of the fight, it was a pity to look at Pons: his bloomers went down, as if he had suddenly lost twenty centimeters at the waist, his T-shirt was pulled up, crumpled and turned into a rag that I wanted to squeeze out "...

Five minutes before the end of the two-hour fight, Poddubny put the world champion on both shoulder blades. The victory was still very hard, and the tension literally overshadowed consciousness. Ivan recalled that for a moment he lost control of himself. Having pressed the opponent to the carpet, he lay on it until he was pulled by his legs. Something unimaginable was going on around. Bouquets, student caps, caps, ladies' gloves flew into the arena. The audience rose from their seats. It was no longer a general jubilant cry, but a roar that, as they claimed, reached Nevsky Prospekt. “I did my job,” said the Russian hero. Russian honor did not shame. The French will remember me for a long time." The cab driver, who was carrying the winner that night through the living corridor of the people, who stood from the Cinizelli Circus along the streets and the Liteiny Bridge, to applause and shouts of “Hurrah”, turned to his rider: ..."

Golden five-year plan

At the beginning of the twentieth century, all of Europe was seized with interest in the new "queen of sports" wrestling. Schools, societies, athletic clubs sprang up like mushrooms after the rain. A whole cohort of wrestling celebrities appeared. Competitions were held very often, the audience fell on them in droves. Poddubny was invited to all major competitions. In 1905, in St. Petersburg, he received the first gold medal and a large cash prize.

But in the same year in Paris they were preparing for the international competitions for the title of world champion. And Ivan Poddubny already knew for sure what the goal was before him.

And Paris again... Competitions for the title of world champion were held in the famous Parisian theater "Folies Bergère". It was a review of the wrestling elite. Among the top 140 representatives of this sport were several world champions of past years. Fantastic sums were wagered. The little-known name of the Russian athlete did not appear on the list of those on whose victory bets were made.

And Poddubny moved irresistibly towards his cherished goal, confidently laying on the shoulder blades of those who stood in the way of this truly triumphant procession.

Here is another, already the third, meeting with Raoul le Boucher. With wild malice they look at the Poddubny eye and this time the defeated enemy. “You will pay for everything with blood,” Raul wheezes.

The Paris championship ended with a triumphant victory for Poddubny.

Ahead was a long tour of Italy, wrestling competitions in North Africa. He is seen in Belgium, Germany, where he put first-class German strongmen on the shoulder blades. All this creates a real sensation. The Golden Five-Year Plan from 1905 to 1910 turned Poddubny into a legend.

And in Nice, where he, already by that time a six-time world champion, was invited to a two-week performance, the figure of an old acquaintance, Raoul le Boucher, loomed on the horizon.

One day, four hefty guys surrounded Poddubny, who began to say that, they say, the Russian wrestler could treat the fans with champagne. At each of them, Poddubny noticed a knife hidden in a shirt sleeve. Realizing that he, unarmed, could not cope with them, he decided to act by cunning and invited him to his home, to which the Apaches (hired killers) willingly agreed.

Deciding to buy time, Poddubny made the right move. On the way, he met a friend. Poddubny with an imperceptible nod pointed at the subjects following him. Fortunately, he understood everything and turned to the police station.

At the entrance to the house, Poddubny told the guys that he would turn on the light now, and he pulled out a pistol from under the mattress with a throw. They were taken aback when they saw a muzzle aimed at them, and behind them - two policemen.

Rumor soon spread that Raoul had died suddenly of meningitis. The truth was that the Apaches, although they did not do their job, demanded that the customer kill the money. Raul refused them, and was beaten on the head with rubber sticks, from which he died.

This case and a number of similar ones did not relieve Poddubny from the painful feeling that the sport was more and more falling into the hands of businessmen, people without conscience and honor. “They traded wrestlers wholesale and retail, negotiated in advance the amount for which the athlete had to lie down on the carpet himself at some minute,” he recalled. And the press, which without a twinge of conscience called the fee, which will cost a word of praise? In a peasantly straightforward nature, Poddubny was jarred. He did not tolerate fraud, he quarreled with entrepreneurs, broke contracts, making himself famous as a man with a difficult, quarrelsome character.

Increasingly, Poddubny refused to compete. From the second half of 1910, he retired from active work in the sports arena.

Olympic discipline
The sport in which Poddubny was to maintain the prestige of Russia originated in Ancient Greece. And soon wrestling became so popular that the second sport after running was included in one of the first Olympic Games. The baton of Ancient Hellas was picked up by the Romans, among whom this sport became very popular and later acquired the name of Greco-Roman wrestling. Having fallen into decay due to the attacks of the church in the Middle Ages, it was revived again in the 19th century. In 1848, the first International Tournament with the participation of wrestlers from Germany, Italy, Turkey, Russia and, of course, France. Perhaps in memory of this event Greco-Roman wrestling became known as French. In 1896, the charter of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society was approved in Russia, and a year later the first All-Russian Championship was held. He became the start of the French wrestling, the popularity of which went far beyond the northern capital. In French wrestling, unlike freestyle, only top part body. The fight ends when one of the opponents falls, that is, when one wrestler manages to put the other on the shoulder blades, at least for half a second. In the USSR, the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sports in 1948 decided to call French (Greco-Roman) wrestling classical. In 1991, they returned to their former name - Greco-Roman wrestling.

Landowner from Krasenovka

Poddubny, who wandered freely through cities and villages, unbearably wanted to live in his own home. This decision was prompted by changes in his personal destiny. In the forty-first year of his life, Poddubny married a woman of dazzling beauty, actress Antonina Kvitko-Fomenko.

Together with her and a two-pound chest of gold medals, he showed up in his native village of Krasenovka and decided to start a farm on wide leg. Regardless of the costs, he bought plenty of land, endowed all his relatives with it, and built a manor for himself with his beloved Antonina. The peasant bone made itself felt it occurred to him to start a mill, an apiary.

In this rural idyll, Poddubny lived for three years. True, he turned out to be not too dexterous as a landowner. In a word, the economy brought only losses, and the money ran out.

Poddubny again stepped onto the carpet. He was seen on the circus arenas, on the stage of summer theaters. It became more and more difficult for the demanding Antonina to earn a chic life: the champion’s sports uniform was no longer the same, and the years took their toll. From his tour, Ivan Maksimovich brought his wife not at all the amounts that she dreamed of. Now Krasenovka seemed to her a beautiful trap, where she fell, seduced by the championship gold, and most of all by what Ivan had left to lie in overseas banks.

Times were troubling. The revolution broke out. Poddubny was poorly versed in the alignment of forces that fought for power and promised soon the most wonderful life. But so far we have seen something completely different.

During the wrestling competition, which was somehow arranged by her great admirer, the head of a large tobacco company in Berdyansk, Poddubny was almost put against the wall by the Makhnovists who had flown in. In Kerch, an officer drunk in the smoke almost killed him by hooking his shoulder. Ivan admitted that sometimes he started performances with the Reds, finished it with the Whites.

During a tour in Odessa in 1919, he learned that his Antonina had run away with Denikin's officer, taking with her a fair amount of gold medals from the coveted chest.

This news literally knocked the giant off his feet. Ivan Maksimovich refused food, lay for days on end, stopped recognizing his acquaintances. Much later, he admitted that he was on the verge of real madness.

A few years later, the fugitive filed news of herself. She asked for forgiveness. Poddubny said: "Cut off."

In 1922, Ivan Maksimovich was invited to work in the Moscow Circus. He was already in his sixties. The doctors who examined him never ceased to be surprised: after training or performances, Poddubny did not notice even a slight fatigue of the heart muscle. "Ivan Zhelezny" they called him. Poddubny had a phenomenal organism that allowed him to instantly develop energy similar to an explosion.

Once, on a tour of the circus in Rostov-on-Don, Poddubny looked in on a young wrestler, his namesake, Ivan Mashonin, whom he instructed as a boy on the right wrestling path. Now, at the table set by his mother, a fine, pretty widow, they spent long hours drinking tea and talking. The tour had not yet ended, and Poddubny had already realized that seeing Maria Semyonovna every day had become necessary for him.

It was not difficult for such a hero to persuade her. The widow accepted the marriage proposal, although she did not represent exactly the full meaning of this name Ivan Poddubny. For him, finding a family was of great importance. At the insistence of Maria Semyonovna, he, a non-religious person, even married her. Having no children of his own, he treated his stepson with paternal tenderness. As the head of the family, Poddubny considered it his duty to adequately support his wife and son. And in Rostov-on-Don, where he stayed, on big earnings did not have to count. And now he decides to tour abroad. But in Germany, where he arrived and wasted for a year, the same story repeated itself: deceit pursued him. He was promised huge money for a deal with the impresario. The victory over him, albeit fake, remained a dream for the wrestlers. His very name, even decades after the first victories, still meant some almost mystical absolute power. The one who could cope with it, the press and advertising would instantly turn into a demigod.

“I tell them: “Have you forgotten Poddubny? Whoever puts under him I will lie down. And they answer: “Well, it’s up to you, if you don’t agree, you won’t fight like that.” I'm in another circus. Then to another city, to a third. Everywhere is the same. They have a trust. The wrestlers are fighting, and the owners are painting who should put whom, recalled Poddubny.

And he signed a contract with a Chicago entrepreneur. Upon arrival in America, however, the matter almost fell apart: according to American laws, athletes over thirty-eight years old could enter the carpet only with the permission of a special medical commission. Poddubny underwent a thorough examination. It was recognized that his health corresponds to the age of forty. Advertising shouted: 54-year-old "Ivan the Terrible" challenges the daredevils to a duel.

But here, too, there were pitfalls. Very quickly, Poddubny realized that the classic wrestling, which has a code of its own rules, is not interesting for the Americans. On the carpet, they wanted to see a spectacle of blood flowing, bones cracking, fighting screaming in pain.

What is taken here as wrestling, turned out to be its degeneration. In the midst was the glory of Ed Lewis, nicknamed the Strangler for his practiced technique - a head grab, forcing the enemy to surrender, under the threat of being strangled. Realizing that one must be ready for anything, including real wildness, Poddubny urgently mastered the skills of freestyle wrestling.

The first contractions justified the worst expectations. The rival the Canadian, whom he laid on the carpet and squeezed with his chest, grabbed him by the mustache, for which, however, he immediately paid the price ...

Having brilliantly held meetings with famous wrestlers, Poddubny fought in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco. He collected full halls. But the local customs, the very mercantile spirit of sport, even if not veiled in any way, evoked in him a feeling similar to disgust. And he decided to terminate the contract, while losing a lot of money. No persuasion and promises of entrepreneurs helped.

Poddubny's American tour was covered in the Soviet press. Quite clearly, they staked on him as the embodiment of the strength and power of the country of victorious socialism. In the Leningrad port, where Maria Semyonovna came to meet her husband, she was surprised by the huge crowds of people who were eager to see the legendary hero.

In honor of Poddubny, a grand celebration was arranged, in which all the eminent athletes of the city took part. The news that on June 17, 1928 the unfading "champion of champions" would fight on the open stage of the Tauride Garden instantly spread through the city. All police cordons were broken by the beginning of the competition. The trees were covered with boys who had heard from their grandfathers and fathers about a man who came into real life, it seemed, from the pages of epics and fairy tales ...

In Leningrad, Poddubny issued a statement stating that "in view of his respectable years, he decided to leave the profession of a wrestler." According to him, the purpose of life now for him will be to popularize classical wrestling among young people, transferring his vast experience to her in order to "find himself among the Russian wrestlers a real successor."

In 1934, forty years have passed since the moment when the loader of the Feodosia port came out on the carpet. He still did not leave him, laying much younger ones on his shoulder blades. The history of wrestling sport will not remember such longevity. How will he not remember such a long, passing glory from generation to generation.

Poddubny took part in a sports parade on Red Square in 1939. Lived at the Moscow Hotel. Together with their colleague in sports, the champion of the USSR in wrestling in 1939 Alexander Senatorov, they walked in front of the Mausoleum, went down to St. Basil's, and then the people, not paying attention to the young champion, recognized Poddubny. The police could not do anything with the crowd pressing from all sides. Senatorov recalled: “I see that things are bad: Poddubny will be remembered or completely crushed. I have a trained eye. I previously served in the police. I say: “Ivan Maksimovich, we are saving ourselves!” He looked and replied: "You have to tick, Sasha." I don’t remember how we got out of this alteration ... "

In the same 1939, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Poddubny "for outstanding services in the development of Soviet sports" was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Poddubny spent the last 22 years of his life in Yeysk on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov. Today it is Yeysk, a 100,000-strong resort city with healing mud that is not inferior, as they say, to the advertised mud of the Dead Sea. Before the war, the cozy town was quiet, not crowded. The house of the Poddubnys stood on a high cliff above the estuary.

But the war began. In August 1942, the Germans entered Yeysk. This period in the biography of the “Russian hero Ivan Poddubny” is either not covered at all, or the authors get off with unintelligible phrases. However, as often happens, folk memory has the ability to store information, although not always accurate, subjective, but still allowing, at least in general terms, to restore the missing link in the past. And in the biography of Poddubny, this missing thing turned out to be bitter, tragic.

Seventy-year-old Poddubny did not want to evacuate: “Where to run? Die soon." His heart really began to flutter. Not trusting medicines, he was treated with tinctures from steppe Kuban herbs.

In the very first days of the occupation, he was detained by people from the Gestapo. They saw an old man calmly walking along the street in a straw, battered hat, in a gray shirt loose and with a five-pointed star on it - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, which Poddubny never took off.

Nevertheless, the old man with the star was released from the Gestapo. Glory saved Poddubny there his name was well known. Moreover, he soon began working as a marker in the billiard room he had to feed his loved ones. But since there was a bar nearby, Poddubny, who had gone over the players, like kittens, threw them out the door of the billiard room, thus fulfilling the role of bouncers.

According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, residents of Yeysk: “The rowdy Fritz were very proud that Ivan the Great himself put them on the street. One day a representative of the German command came to Poddubny and offered to go to Germany to train German athletes. He refused: “I am a Russian wrestler. I will stay with them." And this statement got away with Poddubny. The Germans bowed before his strength and worldwide fame.

It was rumored that local old people came to the billiard room to Poddubny quietly to listen to our radio. In February 1943, units of the Red Army entered Yeysk. Denunciations rained down on Poddubny, saying that he worked for the Germans. The NKVD took over Ivan Maksimovich. They conducted a thorough check, they did not find any facts of cooperation with the Nazis. As for the billiard room, it was qualified "as a purely commercial institution." Of course, Poddubny was lucky: then it cost nothing to condemn and send him to the camp. This magical surname, apparently, had an effect on the hottest heads of SMERSH.

After the liberation of Yeysk, Ivan Maksimovich traveled to nearby military units and hospitals, spoke with his memoirs.

The times were not easy. The people were starving That ration, on which the whole Yeysk sat, could not even to a small extent satisfy the needs of the mighty body of a fighter. He wrote to the Yeisk City Council: “According to the book, I get 500 grams of bread, which I don’t have enough. I ask you to add another 200 grams to me so that I can exist. October 15, 1943".

He asked for help from Voroshilov, but did not receive an answer from Moscow.

The Germans gave him 5 kilograms of meat a month. Now he often came to the director of the Yeysk bakery. He never refused the old man a piece of bread. If Poddubny was sent from Krasnodar an additional sugar ration for a month, he ate it in one day. To support himself, he wore one medal after another. Sometimes, from malnutrition, he fell into bed and lay for several days to build up strength.

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

Always a broad nature, unmercenary, he became tight-fisted. Having poured flour into the box, he put fingerprints on it so that no one could take even a pinch. Such small details, better than any lengthy descriptions, give an idea of ​​​​the last stage of the life of the most famous and invincible of the Russian heroes.

But somewhere in the West, on the accounts of Poddubny, there were huge sums that he did not use, which were of great interest to his distant relatives.

Poddubny died in 1949 at the age of seventy-eight. Those who knew their family said that for the Poddubnys this is not an age they died there for far over a hundred years. Dumpy family was, eternal ...

Having received a telegram from Moscow “To bury as it should be”, the coffin with the body of Poddubny was installed in the building of the sports school. He was buried not in the cemetery, but in the city park, where the graves of the pilots who died here remained from the war years. They put up a simple fence, writing on the board with red lead: "Ivan Poddubny."

Soon the entire area was covered in grass. Quietly and peacefully, local goats and cows grazed here. But one day, the BBC reported that in the city of Yeysk, in desolation, almost wiped off the face of the earth, is the grave of Ivan Poddubny - a man whom no one could ever put on the shoulder blades. Then the authorities began to look for a burial place and erected a granite monument. On a black stone is carved: "Here lies the Russian hero."

Probably, the names and faces of the past come back to us not by chance and not even on the occasion of a round date, but when there is a public need for it. It is intangible, but the fact of its existence cannot be denied. In our life today, when everything seems to have a price and a fee, the figure of Ivan Poddubny is not only an unsurpassed sports phenomenon, but a reproach. This is felt even by very young people who recently wrote about him like this:
“Among professional wrestlers, there were the concepts of “chic” and “boer”. The first meant working for the viewer an artistic demonstration of spectacular techniques. The final "chic" was known to the wrestlers in advance. In the “drilling” fight, the strongest is determined ... Poddubny never lay down on the shoulder blades by order of the organizer of the championship.

For this alone, we, who spend most of our lives in "chic", are obliged to remember Poddubny.

And there is nothing to add to this.

Ludmila Tretyakova