Anatoly Kharlampiyev
Анатолий Аркадьевич Харлампиев
Soviet wrestler and coach (1906–1979), one of the three founders of sambo, a student of Vasili Oshchepkov and author of the 1949 book Borba Sambo.
Quick Facts
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Anatoly Kharlampiyev was a Soviet wrestler and coach, one of the three founders of sambo, whom both the All-Russian Sambo Federation and the international federation FIAS name together with Vasili Oshchepkov and Viktor Spiridonov. He was born on 29 October 1906, according to the Russian Wikipedia in Smolensk, and died on 16 April 1979 in Moscow.
He came from a sporting family: his grandfather was a gymnast and fist fighter, and his father Arkady was, according to FIAS, the founder of boxing in Russia. As a child he performed in the circus as an aerial acrobat. At 28 he entered a coaching school, where he studied under Vasili Oshchepkov and Nikolai Galkovsky, and in 1935 he took over the section from Oshchepkov. He twice won the Moscow wrestling championship.
According to the Russian Wikipedia, in 1938 he was the head coach of the first all-union congress of coaches of the new wrestling, whose development was approved by order No. 633 of 16 November 1938, and in 1947 he chaired the congress at which the wrestling was renamed sambo. During the war he served as a volunteer in the Red Army from 1941. In 1947 he received the title Honored Master of Sport, in 1949 he published the book Borba Sambo, and he coached at Krylia Sovetov, Dynamo and Burevestnik. From 1953 he taught at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.
Moscow annually hosts the A. A. Kharlampiyev Memorial as part of the Sambo World Cup. At the Moscow Power Engineering Institute there is a memorial plaque from 2006, a museum, and since 2018 an institute for the development of sambo named after him.
Early life
Anatoly Arkadyevich Kharlampiyev was born on 29 October 1906, and the Russian Wikipedia gives Smolensk. According to the mountaineering website mountain.ru, the family in Smolensk was nicknamed the Smolensk gymnasts: his grandfather Georgy was a gymnast and fist fighter, and his father Arkady performed in the circus as an acrobat, boxer and wrestler and boxed professionally in Paris under a pseudonym. FIAS calls him the founder of boxing in Russia and the USSR.
From childhood he was trained by his grandfather and father, and according to FIAS he began in the circus as an aerial acrobat. According to the Russian Wikipedia he also devoted himself to music, painting and sculpture, and at sixteen he was an all-round athlete. In 1933 he took part with his younger brother Georgy in an expedition to the Pamirs. The brother was arrested and executed in 1938 and rehabilitated in 1957.
Training and teachers
According to FIAS, at the age of 28 he entered a school for coaches and the third group of Vasili Oshchepkov, where Nikolai Galkovsky also taught him. According to the Znanie Rossii encyclopedia, in 1936 he defended a diploma at the Central Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow with techniques that he had learned from Oshchepkov and collected himself. In 1935 he took over from Oshchepkov his section at the Aviakhim Sports Palace.
He twice won the Moscow wrestling championship. According to the newspaper Weekend Rambler, he traveled through the Caucasus and Central Asia and learned the techniques of national wrestling styles, for example Georgian chidaoba, Armenian koch and Tajik gushti. We have not found the years of his travels in the sources.
Contribution and innovations
According to the Russian Wikipedia, in 1938 he was the head coach of the first all-union congress of coaches of the new wrestling. Order No. 633 of 16 November 1938 on the development of freestyle wrestling, as sambo was then called, is regarded as the date of birth of sport sambo. The first USSR championship took place in 1939, and in 1947 he chaired the second congress of coaches, where the wrestling was renamed sambo.
According to the English Wikipedia, he served as a volunteer in the Red Army from 7 July 1941. In 1947 he received the title Honored Master of Sport and in 1949 he published the book Borba Sambo. According to the newspaper Vecherniaya Moskva, he divided sambo into a sport part and a combat part, whose techniques remained reserved for special units for a long time. From 1945 to 1952 he was the head wrestling coach at Krylia Sovetov and Dynamo, and from 1953 an associate professor at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, where he trained dozens of masters of sport.
Legends and documented facts
In Soviet times Kharlampiyev was presented as the sole creator of sambo. Today the All-Russian Sambo Federation names three founders, and its president Sergey Eliseev said in 2018 that there is no point in deciding who did the most. His former student Boris Dyakov stated, according to the Russian Wikipedia, that Kharlampiyev always spoke well of Oshchepkov.
The word sambo is attributed to Kharlampiyev or to the congress of 1947. The All-Russian Sambo Federation, however, states that the book Sambo was published as early as 1940 by V. P. Volkov, a student of Viktor Spiridonov. The claim that his father Arkady was champion of France and Europe in boxing is described as unproven by both the English and the Russian Wikipedia. The website of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute wrote in 2018 about the 110th anniversary of his birth, but FIAS and Wikipedia give the year 1906.
Legacy
He died on 16 April 1979 in Moscow and, according to the Russian Wikipedia, is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. According to the official website of Moscow, the film Nepobedimy from 1983 was partly inspired by his travels to learn national wrestling styles. According to Wikipedia, a tournament in his memory has been held since 1980, today the A. A. Kharlampiyev Memorial as part of the Sambo World Cup.
On 21 November 2006 a memorial plaque to him was unveiled at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. On 18 October 2018 the A. A. Kharlampiyev Institute for the Development of Sambo was established there, with his museum, a monument and an avenue. In 2017 Moscow approved the naming of Kharlampiyev Street, and on 18 December 2020 a monument to the founders of sambo was unveiled at Luzhniki.