He was the most powerful man. It was he, Fedor Besov, and not the already famous Poddubny or Zaikin, who was able to move and roll back a 70-ton steam locomotive a few meters.
Two-pound weights flew overhead like balloons - the audience was delighted. Ah, this Russian hinterland, this peasant cunning with a squint. This is for a snack - who from the public wants to try to lift the weight of a circus strongman? Now you can laugh in your mustache, let's, let's, bast shoes))
- And if someone can overcome the strongman Fyodor Besov, he will receive 25 rubles !!! - this is for a red word, you can promise at least a hundred rubles. But people like it. - Well, who is interested?
- It's possible... A shaggy monster, the goblin from Russian fairy tales, made its way to the arena from the upper rows.
A bearded giant, clumsy, in an unbuttoned cloak, in vat homespun ports. Wrapped onuchami, in bast shoes.
The fight was short. As soon as Fyodor Besov tried to capture, he felt that his legs had come off the ground, the earth and sky had changed places, and then it became dark...
The giant's name was Grigory Kosinsky, and he was a peasant in the Vyatka province, and he was exactly 33 years old, like the legendary Ilya Muromets, who at this age tears from the oven. Grigory did not lie on the stove, all his fellow villagers knew about his incredible strength ...
It cost nothing to Grisha to pick up the log with the peasants and, turning it over his head, arrange a merry carousel. One day, a horse got stuck in a hedge trying to jump over a fence. Grisha took her by the front legs and threw her across the garden, grumbling: “Where the hell did you take you?”
The power was overflowing. Hearing somehow the mooing of a cow, he saw that she had fallen into the cellar. He grabbed her by the horns, pulled her out, but at the same time twisted her neck.
One day the mother heard the cry of the boys and looked out the window. Her son was pushing a cart without a horse, loaded with sacks of grain. There are twenty poods on the cart, and even the neighbor's guys on sacks.
- Where is the horse?
- Why drive her in vain? Let him rest. Left it on the floor.
In winter, everyone was engaged in carting. Through the snow we were drawn to the neighboring Sosnovka to the distillery. The manager immediately offered the young strong man a job in the warehouse. Barrels of alcohol were weighed on a rolling pin, while three or four men loaded the barrel onto a rolling pin, and weights of 25-30 pounds were placed on another. At first it was hard, in the evening I could hardly reach the rooming house ...
Time passed, muscles filled with strength. And soon he alone put the barrel on the scales. To the envy of the loaders, he was baptized dozens of times with a two-pound weight.
Once a storekeeper - a cunning and greedy man - said to him:
- Strong, but twenty-five pounds can not carry you.
- And what to tear in vain?
- Carry around the warehouse, I'll pay five. In vain, or what, praise your strength?
Angry, Grigory tied 12 two-pounders with a rope. He added a pood weight and, staggering, carried it along the log house. Walked around the warehouse, threw weights on the ground.
- Get the money.
- What? Yes, I joked.
Good-natured by nature, Grigory was angry this time in earnest. He plucked a hare treuh from the joker, lifted the log house with his shoulder and squeezed his hat between the logs. Clenching his fists, menacingly went to the offender.
- What are you doing? - frightened he babbled. Quickly taking out a blue banknote, he gave it to Grigory.
And then the circus arrived with the famous Fyodor Besov ...
They began to perform together, showed power tricks, urged the audience to measure themselves with power.
In 1906, at the Kazan Fair, a happy chance brought Kashcheev together with a real wrestler - the European champion Ivan Zaikin, who led the wrestling championship in the Nikitin circus. This meeting finally decided the further fate of Gregory. Zaikin helped to master the wrestling technique, brought to the big arena. Soon the Vyatka peasant became a thunderstorm of venerable wrestlers, calmly laid the famous champions on the shoulder blades.
In 1905, Grigory, who took the pseudonym Kashcheev, first entered the arena in a fight with Fedor Besov, and just three years later, in 1908, together with the great Ivan Poddubny and Ivan Zaikin, Grigory Kashcheev went to Paris for the World Championship at the Casino de Pare ”, where the strongest wrestlers at that time gathered - the Hungarian Janos, the Greek Karaman, the Turk Pengal, the German Schneider, the Japanese Ono Okitaro, the French Eugene and Embal Calmette, the Italian Raytsevich. All of them were defeated by Russian heroes. And on the personal account of Grigory Kashcheev there were five broken ribs and three fractures of the hands of overseas strongmen. And only Grigory could not defeat his teacher Ivan Zaikin and the champion of champions ... (Or didn’t he want to?)
Once the temperamental French rushed to the arena to deal with Zaikin, who broke the leg of their countryman (there were severe fights then, not like the current ones). Grigory broke a planted log out of the scenery and went to help, with one look reasoning with the unbridled spectators.
Here are the morals. I’ll give up everything, return to the earth, - Grigory lamented once again.
But the return to Moscow was truly triumphant. Each tournament organizer tried to get Gregory into their championship. There was no rebound. Everyone considered it an honor to meet him; noble people took off their hats to him, the officers vied with each other inviting him to their table.
But he took it and left the circus arena, returned to his native Saltyki, where for some time he was engaged in agriculture. Bought a horse, but not one. Yes, only sometimes he unbuckled it, and he himself took on the shafts. It’s more convenient for yourself, and you need to put the power somewhere ...
He died in 1914 at the forty-first year of his life.
Hercules magazine wrote:
“On May 25, 1914, the giant wrestler Grigory Kashcheev, who left the circus arena and was engaged in farming in his village of Saltyki, died of a broken heart. The name of Kashcheev not so long ago thundered not only in Russia, but also abroad. If there had been another person in his place, more greedy for money and fame, he could have made himself a world career, but Grigory Kashcheev was a Russian peasant farmer, and he was irresistibly drawn from the most profitable engagements home, to the earth.
PS The growth of Grigory Kashcheev was 2 meters 20 centimeters. This is 7 centimeters more than Nikolai Valuev.
In Russia in the middle of the 19th century, in the tsar's office, there was the position of "Chief Supervisor of the physical development of the population." The representatives of the Russian population, who developed under such supervision, still surprise us with this very development.
For example, in weightlifting, those who "pulled" less than 100 kilograms had nothing to do in the Strong Club.
Sergei Eliseev (1876 - 1938). Light Weightlifter
Sergei Eliseev and Georg Hakkenshmit
The world record holder, a hereditary hero of small stature, he accidentally became famous at a city festival in Ufa - he won a belt wrestling tournament against a multiple champion. The next day, three rams were brought to Eliseev's house as a generous act of recognition from the defeated ex-champion.
Trick. He took a kettlebell weighing 62 kg in his right hand, lifted it up, then slowly lowered it to the side on a straight arm and held the arm with the kettlebell in a horizontal position for several seconds. Three times in a row he pulled out two unbound two-pound weights with one hand. In the bench press with two hands, he lifted 145 kg and pushed 160.2 kg.
Ivan Zaikin (1880 - 1949). Chaliapin Russian Muscles
World wrestling champion, weight lifting champion, circus artist, one of the first Russian aviators.
Foreign newspapers called him "Chaliapin of Russian muscles."
His athletic numbers became a sensation. In 1908 Zaikin toured in Paris. After the athlete's performance, the chains torn by Zaikin, an iron beam bent on his shoulders, "bracelets" and "ties" tied by him from strip iron were exhibited in front of the circus. Some of these exhibits were acquired by the Parisian Cabinet of Curiosities and were displayed along with other curiosities.
Trick. Zaikin carried a 25-pound anchor on his shoulders, lifted a long barbell on his shoulders, on which ten people sat, and began to rotate it ("live carousel").
Georg Hackenschmidt (1878 - 1968). Russian lion
World wrestling champion and world record holder in weightlifting. From childhood, Gaak trained: he jumped 4.9 meters in length, 1.4 meters in height from a place, ran 180 meters in 26 seconds. To strengthen his legs, he practiced climbing a spiral staircase to the spire of the Olivest church with two-pound weights.
Haak got into sports by accident: Dr. Kraevsky, “the father of Russian athletics,” convinced him that “he can easily become the strongest man in the world.” In 1897, Haak broke into St. Petersburg, where he smashed the capital's heavyweights to smithereens. Training with Kraevsky, Gaak quickly takes all the first places in Russia (by the way, he ate everything he wanted, but drank only milk), and goes to Vienna. Further - Paris, London, Australia, Canada, America - and the title of the Russian Lion and the Strongest Man of the late XIX - early XX century.
Trick. With one hand, he squeezed a barbell weighing 122 kg. He took 41 kg dumbbells in each hand and spread his straight arms horizontally to the sides. I squeezed a barbell weighing 145 kg on the wrestling bridge. With his arms crossed on his back, Gaak lifted 86 kg from a deep squat. With a 50-kilogram barbell, I squatted 50 times. Today the trick is called "gaak-exercise" or simply "gaak".
Grigory Kashcheev (real - Kosinsky, 1863 - 1914). Giant Downshifter
A hero from the village with an advantage in height - 2.18 m. At the village fair, he defeated the visiting circus performer Besov, who immediately convinced him to go with him - "show strength."
“We are coming with Grisha to a deaf, deaf town. We didn't see people like us there. Kashcheev (pseudonym of Kosinsky) is shaggy like a beast, and my surname is Besov. We don't have a human form. They decided that we were werewolves ... Without saying a bad word, they lassoed us, took us out of the city and said: “If you don’t leave our city good, then blame yourself!” Besov recalled.
In 1906, Grigory Kashcheev met world-class wrestlers for the first time and became friends with Zaikin, who helped him enter the big arena. Soon Kashcheev put all eminent strongmen on the shoulder blades, and in 1908, together with Poddubny and Zaikin, he went to Paris for the World Championship, from where they brought victory.
Trick. It would seem that now the real wrestling career of Kashcheev has begun, but, refusing the most profitable offers, he abandoned everything and went to his village to plow the land.
“I had to fully see the original people in my time as the director of the wrestling, but nevertheless, the most interesting in terms of character, I must imagine the giant Grigory Kashcheev. In fact, it is hard to imagine that a gentleman who has made a European name for himself within 3-4 years, voluntarily leaves the arena back to his village, and again takes up the plow and harrow. That gentleman was of enormous strength. Almost a sazhen in height, Kashcheev, if he were a foreigner, would earn big capital, because he surpassed all foreign giants in strength ”(Hercules Magazine, No. 2, 1915).
Pyotr Krylov (1871 - 1933). Kettlebell King
A Muscovite who, having changed his profession as a navigator of the merchant fleet to the craft of an athlete, went all the way from fairs and "booths of living miracles" to major circuses and French wrestling championships. He (attention!) was the permanent winner of competitions for the best athletic figure, taking as a child an example from the athlete Emil Foss, who entered the arena in silk tights and leopard skin. He began his first workouts at home with irons that he tied to a broom.
Trick. Krylov set several world records. In the “wrestling bridge” position, he squeezed 134 kg with both hands, and 114.6 kg with his left hand. Press in the "soldier's stance": with his left hand he lifted a two-pound weight 86 times in a row. The ancestor of spectacular tricks that other athletes then repeated, and today paratroopers: bending a rail on their shoulders, driving a car over the body, raising a platform with a horse and a rider. Performing athletic numbers, Krylov commented on them cheerfully. His remarks have always been persuasive. For example, when he broke stones with his fist, he invariably addressed the audience with these words:
“Gentlemen, if you think that there is a falsehood in this number, then I can break this stone with my fist on the head of any interested person from the public.”
From practice, Krylov could easily switch to theory and give a lecture on physical culture.
Alexander Zass (1888 - 1962). Russian Samson
The father of Alexander Zass was just the kind of person who could go out in the circus against a visiting strongman and win the fight. It is not surprising that Alexander got into the circus and took up everything at once: aerial gymnastics, horse riding, wrestling. In 1914, a world war broke out, and Alexander was drafted into the army in the 180th Vindava Cavalry Regiment. Once he was returning from reconnaissance and suddenly, already close to the Russian positions, the enemy noticed him and opened fire. The bullet went through the horse's leg. The Austrian soldiers, seeing that the horse with the rider had fallen, did not pursue the cavalryman and turned back. And Alexander, making sure that the danger had passed, did not want to leave the wounded horse in no man's land. True, there was still half a kilometer to the location of the regiment, but this did not bother him. Throwing a horse on his shoulders, Alexander brought it to his camp. In the future, Alexander will include in his repertoire wearing on the shoulders of a horse. Once in Austrian captivity, the strong man escapes on the third attempt, since he knew how to unbend the bars and break the chains. Once in Europe, he defeated all the strong men of Europe and became the "Russian Samson".
Trick. For several decades, his name, or rather his pseudonym, Samson, did not leave the circus posters of many countries. The repertoire of his power numbers was amazing: he carried a horse or a piano around the arena with a pianist and dancer located on the lid, caught with his hands a 90-kilogram cannonball, which was fired from a circus cannon from a distance of 8 meters. "Russian Samson" tore off the floor and held in his teeth a metal beam with assistants sitting at its ends. Having threaded the shin of one leg into a loop of a rope fixed under the very dome, he held in his teeth a platform with a piano and a pianist. Lying with his bare back on a board studded with nails, Zaas held a stone weighing 500 kilograms on his chest, which those who wished (from the public) beat with sledgehammers. In the famous attraction "Projectile Man", he caught with his hands an assistant flying out of the muzzle of a circus cannon and describing a 12-meter trajectory over the arena. In 1938, in Sheffield, in front of an assembled crowd, he was run over by a truck loaded with coal. Samson stood up and, smiling, bowed to the audience.
Frederick Müller (1867–1925). Eugene Sandow
Few people know that the weightlifting record holder and the “magician of the pose” Eugene Sandow is Frederic Muller. Not only the strongest athlete, but also a savvy businessman, Mueller realized that a career in strength sports would go faster if he took a Russian name. The newly minted Sandow differed from the frail Muller in his outstanding strength, achieved through training and physical education.
Trick. Weighing less than 80 kg, he set a world record by pressing 101.5 kg with one arm. He did a back flip, holding 1.5 pounds in each hand. Within four minutes, he could do 200 push-ups on his hands.
Business trick. In 1930, under his Russian name, he published the book "Bodybuilding", giving the name to this sport in all English-speaking countries and also giving reason to believe that the Russians came up with bodybuilding.
The popular strongman Fyodor Besov arrived in the city of Slobodskoy, in the Vyatka province. He demonstrated mind-blowing tricks: he tore chains, juggled blindfolded three-pound weights, tore a pack of cards, bent copper nickels with his fingers, bent a metal beam on his shoulders, smashed a cobblestone with his fist ... And in general, plunged local residents into indescribable ecstasy. At the end of the performance, Besov, as he constantly practiced, turned to the audience: "Maybe someone wants to compete with me on the belts?" The hall is silent. There were no applicants. Then the athlete called an assistant and took ten rubles from him, raised his hand up, and again turned to the audience with a smile: "And this is for the one who can hold out against me for ten minutes!" And once again silence in the hall. And like a devil from a snuffbox, from somewhere in the gallery, someone's bass rumbled: "Let's try." To the delight of the audience, a bearded man in bast shoes and a canvas shirt entered the arena. He turned out to be a sazhen in height - more than two meters, his shoulders could hardly crawl through the gate. It was Grigory Kosinsky, a strong man-peasant from the village of Saltyki, eminent throughout the province. There were legends about him. Grisha could, in particular, tie twelve two-pound weights, put them on his shoulders and walk around with this colossal load. They say that once he put in a sledge, in which a contractor who was calculating workers, a forty-pound woman for driving piles rode.
The battle has begun. Neither knowledge of techniques, nor tremendous skill could save Besov from defeat. The audience gasped with delight when the bearded giant pinned a visiting athlete to the carpet.
Besov realized that he had met a nugget. After the performance, he took Grisha backstage and for a long time urged him to go with him - "to show strength." Besov enthusiastically told about Grisha's future career, about what glory awaits him. He eventually agreed. A new existence began, but, of course, not as sweet as Besov had painted for him. Performances were held in the provinces, most of all in the open air, with great physical exertion. There were also curious cases in these tour wanderings. Here is what Besov told about one of the cases, the one that happened to them. “We’re coming with Grisha to a deaf, deaf town. We didn’t see people like us there ... Kashcheev (Kosinsky’s pseudonym) is shaggy like a beast, and my last name is Besov ... We don’t have a human appearance. We decided that we - werewolves ... Without saying a bad word, they lassoed us, took us out of the city and said: "If you don't leave our city in a good way, then blame yourself." So Grisha and I - God bless us ...
Kashcheev's performances were a huge success, but more and more often he said: "No, I will leave the circus. I will return home, I will plow the land." In 1906, he faced world-class wrestlers for the first time.
He made friends with Ivan Zaikin, the one who helped him get out into the big arena. Soon Kashcheev puts many eminent strongmen on the shoulder blades, and in 1908, together with Ivan Poddubny and Ivan Zaikin, he goes to the world championship in Paris. Our heroes returned home with victory. Kashcheev took a prize position. It would seem that now the real wrestling career of Kashcheev began, but he nevertheless threw everything and went to his village to plow the land. The best description of the Russian hero-giant Grigory Kashcheev is the words of the famous organizer of the French wrestling championships, editor-in-chief of the Hercules sports magazine Ivan Vladimirovich Lebedev: It's really hard to imagine that a gentleman who has made a European name for himself for 3-4 years, voluntarily left the arena back to his village, again took up the plow and harrow. a sazhen tall, Kashcheev, if he were a foreigner, would earn big capital, because he surpassed all foreign giants in strength. (Journal "Hercules", No. 2, 1915).
Kashcheev died in 1914. There were many legends about his death, but here is what is reported in the obituary published in the June issue of the Hercules magazine for 1914: in his close village of Saltyki. The name of Kashcheev not so long ago thundered not only in Russia, but also abroad. If there had been another uncle, more greedy for money and fame, in his place, he could have made himself a career in the world. But Grisha was a Russian peasant farmer at heart, and he was irresistibly drawn from the most profitable engagements - home, to the earth. The great was a hero. But how many people currently know about it?
Grigory Ilyich Koshcheev was born on November 12 (24), 1873 in the repair of Saltykovsky, Vyatka province, into a peasant family.
He amazed everyone with great strength - height 2m.08cm., Weight 160 kg.
At 15, Grisha was taller than all the men in the village. The father, pleased with such a son, said: “You will be a good helper
in family." In peasant work, he did not spare himself, he loved the land and became so attached to it that he could not imagine life without arable farming.
In 1896, the Perm-Kotlas railway was laid. Grisha went to build a railway to Zuevka. He worked more than for two: one lifted the rail, carried huge logs, coped with the pile driver, which was served by six before him.
Grisha in Zuevka could not stand it, seeing how the contractor cheated the workers. He left work ahead of schedule, and in the fall he again decided to go to the cart.
In the winter, when the field work ended, Grigory was engaged in carting at the Sokolovsky distillery, doing various hard work: he weighed barrels of alcohol on a rolling pin, one heaped a forty-pail barrel on the scales. The convoy with barrels went to the county town of Slobodskoy to the local winery.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all European countries were swept by a wave of passion for wrestling. Circuses burst with the public. The owners of Russian circuses ordered famous foreigners on tour: Miller, Diriks Pons, Olaf Anderson and others. Russia gave birth to its heroes: Ivan Poddubny, Vasily Babushkin, Grigory Koshcheev.
A wave of passion for wrestling also reached the Vyatka province, to the county town of Slobodsky. In November 1905, posters about the tour of the Russian strongman Fyodor Besov appeared on its streets. The quiet life of Slobodsky was disturbed. Crowds of people from nearby villages flowed into the city. Everyone wanted to see the famous strongman. Besov demonstrated his strength - he bent horseshoes, tore chains, he drove nails into a tree with his fist. In conclusion, Besov called those who wished to fight, promising the winner 25 rubles.
Grigory Koshcheev was persuaded to compete with Besov. Having seized the moment, Koshcheev lifted Besov into the air, twisted him over his head several times and threw him on his back.
The Saltykovsky peasant overcame the eminent wrestler. This was Grigory's first victory in the arena.
Of course, Besov was offended, but first of all, a businessman spoke in him, and he realized that you could make money on this nugget.
He persuaded Grisha to leave the cab and go with him to the circus. The prospect was tempting, and Grisha agreed.
It is hard to imagine that a person has made an almost European name for himself within 3-4 years. Koshcheev, if he were a foreigner, would earn the same money as Pons or Antonich.
But Grisha infinitely loved one thing in the world - his native village.
He only visited Paris in 1908, made huge collections there, made a sensation with his figure and bearish strength, and ... more abroad - for nothing.
There were many legends of various kinds about the adventures of the Saltykov hero. Either they said that he took off the hat from the storekeeper, raised the corner of the warehouse with his shoulder and put the hat there, then he hung weights, but such that they could not be removed, sawed logs. But it is reliably known that Grigory Koshcheev, grabbing the wheel, stopped the three horses at full gallop ...
At heart, Grisha Koshcheev was a very kind, even shy person. He loved the Russian land, its open fields, birches, he yearned for his native village, for horses, for harrows. Enjoying great success, he repeated more and more often: “No, I will leave the circus. I will return home, I will plow the land. And so, quite unexpectedly for everyone, he left the circus on the rise of his fame, and preferred the peaceful work of a plowman to a thunder of applause ...
Entrepreneur I.V. Lebedev said this about him: “Life played one of its evil and offensive jokes with this good man: bright days had just come for him - and the threads of life were cut ... The kind, always sad eyes of this black earth hero smile from the card, who came out of the earth and went back into it."
Grigory Ilyich Koshcheev was buried in the village of Kosa. The grave has not been preserved to this day.
In Russia in the middle of the 19th century, in the tsar's office, there was the position of "Chief Supervisor of the physical development of the population."
The representatives of the Russian population, who developed under such supervision, still surprise us with this very development. For example, in weightlifting, those who “pulled” less than 100 kilograms had nothing to do in the Strong Club.
1. Sergei Eliseev (1876 - 1938). Light Weightlifter
The world record holder, a hereditary hero of small stature, he became famous by chance at a city festival in Ufa - he won a belt wrestling tournament against a multiple champion. The next day, three rams were brought to Eliseev's house as a generous act of recognition from the defeated ex-champion.
Trick. He took a kettlebell weighing 62 kg in his right hand, lifted it up, then slowly lowered it to the side on a straight arm and held the arm with the kettlebell in a horizontal position for several seconds. Three times in a row he pulled out two unbound two-pound weights with one hand. In the bench press with two hands, he lifted 145 kg and pushed 160.2 kg.
2. Ivan Zaikin (1880 - 1949). Chaliapin Russian Muscles
World wrestling champion, weight lifting champion, circus artist, one of the first Russian aviators. Foreign newspapers called him "Chaliapin of Russian muscles." His athletic numbers caused a sensation. In 1908 Zaikin toured in Paris. After the athlete’s performance, the chains torn by Zaikin, an iron beam bent on his shoulders, “bracelets” and “ties” tied by him from strip iron were exhibited in front of the circus. Some of these exhibits were acquired by the Parisian Cabinet of Curiosities and were displayed along with other curiosities.
Trick. Zaikin carried a 25-pound anchor on his shoulders, lifted a long barbell onto his shoulders, on which ten people sat, and began to rotate it (“live carousel”).
3. Georg Hackenschmidt (1878 - 1968). Russian lion
World wrestling champion and world record holder in weightlifting. From childhood, Gaak trained: he jumped 4 m 90 cm in length, 1 m 40 cm in height from a place, ran 180 m in 26 s. To strengthen his legs, he practiced climbing a spiral staircase to the spire of the Olivest church with two-pound weights. Haak got into sports by accident: Dr. Kraevsky, “the father of Russian athletics,” convinced him that “he could easily become the strongest man in the world.” In 1897, Haak broke into St. Petersburg, where he smashed the capital's heavyweights to smithereens. Training with Kraevsky, Gaak quickly takes all the first places in Russia (by the way, he ate everything he wanted, but drank only milk), and goes to Vienna. Next - Paris, London, Australia, Canada, America - and the title of Russian Lion and the Strongest Man of the late XIX - early XX century.
Trick. With one hand, he squeezed a barbell weighing 122 kg. He took 41 kg dumbbells in each hand and spread his straight arms horizontally to the sides. I squeezed a barbell weighing 145 kg on the wrestling bridge. With his arms crossed on his back, Gaak lifted 86 kg from a deep squat. With a 50-kilogram barbell, I squatted 50 times. Today, the trick is called “gaak-exercise” or simply “gaak”.
4. Grigory Kashcheev (real - Kosinsky, 1863 - 1914). Giant Downshifter
A hero from the village with an advantage in height - 2.18 m. At the village fair, he defeated the visiting circus performer Besov, who immediately convinced him to go with him - "show strength."
“We are coming with Grisha to a deaf, deaf town. They didn't see people like us there... Kashcheev (Kosinsky's pseudonym) is shaggy like a beast, and my surname is Besov... We don't have a human appearance. They decided that we were werewolves ... Without saying a bad word, they lassoed us, took us out of the city and said: “If you don’t leave our city with good, then blame yourself.”
In 1906, Grigory Kashcheev met world-class wrestlers for the first time and became friends with Zaikin, who helped him enter the big arena. Soon Kashcheev put all eminent strongmen on the shoulder blades, and in 1908, together with Poddubny and Zaikin, he went to Paris for the World Championship, from where they brought victory.
Trick. It would seem that now the real wrestling career of Kashcheev has begun, but, having refused the most profitable engagements, he abandoned everything and went to his village to plow the land.
“I had to fully see the original people in my time as the director of the wrestling, but nevertheless, the most interesting in terms of character, I must imagine the giant Grigory Kashcheev. In fact, it is hard to imagine that a gentleman who has made a European name for himself within 3-4 years, voluntarily leaves the arena back to his village, and again takes up the plow and harrow. That gentleman was of enormous strength. Almost a sazhen in height, Kashcheev, if he were a foreigner, would earn big capital, because he surpassed all foreign giants in strength. (Journal "Hercules", No. 2, 1915).
5. Peter Krylov (1871 - 1933). Kettlebell King
A Muscovite who, having changed his profession as a navigator of the merchant fleet to the profession of an athlete, went all the way from fairs and "booths of living miracles" to major circuses and French wrestling championships. He is attention! - was the permanent winner of competitions for the best athletic figure, taking as a child an example from the athlete Emil Foss, who entered the arena in silk tights and leopard skin. He began his first workouts at home with irons that he tied to a broom.
Trick. Krylov set several world records. In the “wrestling bridge” position, he squeezed 134 kg with both hands, and 114.6 kg with his left hand. Press in the "soldier's stance": with his left hand he lifted a two-pound weight 86 times in a row. The ancestor of spectacular tricks that other athletes then repeated, and today paratroopers: bending a rail on their shoulders, driving a car over the body, raising a platform with a horse and a rider. Showing athletic numbers, Krylov commented on them cheerfully. And his remarks were always convincing ... For example, when he broke stones with his fist, he invariably addressed the audience with the following words: “Gentlemen, if you think that there is falsehood in this number, then I can break this stone with my fist on the head of any interested person from the public ". From practice, he could easily switch to theory ... and give a lecture on physical culture.
6. Alexander Zass (1888 - 1962). Russian Samson
The father of Alexander Zass was just the kind of person who could go out in the circus against a visiting strongman and win the fight. It is not surprising that Alexander got into the circus and took up everything at once: aerial gymnastics, horse riding, wrestling. In 1914, a world war broke out and Alexander was drafted into the army in the 180th Vindava Cavalry Regiment. Once he was returning from reconnaissance and suddenly, already close to the Russian positions, the enemy noticed him and opened fire. The bullet went through the horse's leg. The Austrian soldiers, seeing that the horse with the rider had fallen, did not pursue the cavalryman and turned back. And Alexander, making sure that the danger had passed, did not want to leave the wounded horse in no man's land. True, there was still half a kilometer to the location of the regiment, but this did not bother him. Throwing a horse on his shoulders, Alexander brought it to his camp. In the future, Alexander will include in his repertoire wearing on the shoulders of a horse. Once in Austrian captivity, the strongman escapes on the third attempt, since unbending bars and breaking chains is his profession. Once in Europe, he defeated all the strong men of Europe and became the Russian Samson.
Trick. For several decades, his name, or rather his pseudonym, Samson, did not leave the circus posters in many countries. The repertoire of his power numbers was amazing: he carried a horse or a piano around the arena with a pianist and dancer located on the lid; caught with his hands a 90-kilogram cannonball, which was fired from a circus cannon from a distance of 8 meters; tore off the floor and held in his teeth a metal beam with assistants sitting at its ends; passing the shin of one leg through a loop of rope fixed under the very dome, he held in his teeth a platform with a piano and a pianist; lying with his bare back on a board studded with nails, he held a stone weighing 500 kilograms on his chest, which was beaten by those who wished from the public with sledgehammers; in the famous attraction Man-Projectile, he caught with his hands an assistant flying out of the muzzle of a circus cannon and describing a 12-meter trajectory above the arena. In 1938, in Sheffield, in front of an assembled crowd, he was run over by a truck loaded with coal. Samson stood up and, smiling, bowed to the audience.
7. Frederick Müller (1867-1925) Eugene Sandow
Few people know that the weightlifting record holder and the "magician of posture" Eugene Sandow is actually Frederik Muller. Not only the strongest athlete, but also a savvy businessman, Mueller realized that a career in strength sports would go faster if he took a Russian name. The newly minted Sandow differed from the frail Muller in his outstanding strength, achieved through training and physical education.
Trick. With a weight of no more than 80 kg, he set a world record by squeezing 101.5 kg with one hand. He did a back flip, holding 1.5 pounds in each hand. Within four minutes, he could do 200 push-ups on his hands.
Business trick. In 1930 under his Russian name, he published the book "Bodybuilding", giving the name to this sport in all English-speaking countries and also giving reason to believe that the Russians came up with bodybuilding.
