Viktor Spiridonov

Quick Facts

Date of Birth12/20/1882

Date of Death9/7/1944

Country of OriginRussia

OccupationSoldier, Police officer

Biography

Viktor Spiridonov was a Russian officer and one of the three founders of sambo, whom the All-Russian Sambo Federation and FIAS list together with Vasili Oshchepkov and Anatoly Kharlampiev. He was born on 20 December 1882 in the Vyatka Governorate, FIAS gives 1883. He died on 7 September 1944 in Moscow.

At seventeen he joined the army as a volunteer and served in the Kremlin Battalion. In the Russo-Japanese War he served in cavalry reconnaissance and received the orders of St Anna and St Stanislaus. In the First World War he commanded an infantry company as a lieutenant, was severely shell-shocked and after a year in hospitals left the service. According to the newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva, he studied martial arts on his own from 1906, and he knew boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu.

In 1923 he was present at the founding of the sports society Dynamo, where he led the defense and attack section for security and militia personnel. The system was first called SAM, then SAMOZ and finally SAMBO. He wrote three manuals, from 1927, 1928 and 1933, intended for the NKVD and not public. In 1934 he secured the abolition of the program of Oshchepkov at the Central Higher School of the Militia. Late in life he taught close combat to soldiers of the OMSBON brigade.

He is buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery, where his grave was long considered lost. On 20 December 2012 a gravestone with a bust was unveiled there.

Early life

Viktor Spiridonov was born in the Vyatka Governorate. The All-Russian Sambo Federation gives the year 1882, English Wikipedia the exact date of 20 December 1882, the international federation FIAS the year 1883 and the encyclopedia Znanie Rossii the year 1881 or 1883. At the age of seventeen he joined the army as a volunteer and because of his build was assigned to the Kremlin Battalion. He graduated from the Kazan Infantry School.

In 1905 he went as a non-commissioned officer to Manchuria, where in the Russo-Japanese War he served in cavalry reconnaissance. According to the All-Russian Sambo Federation he received the orders of Saint Anna, 4th and 3rd class, and of Saint Stanislaus, 3rd class, with swords and bow, while English Wikipedia gives Stanislaus without swords. In the First World War he commanded an infantry company as a lieutenant, was severely shell-shocked and after a year in hospitals left the service with a promotion.

Training and teachers

We have not found a teacher in martial arts for Spiridonov in the sources. According to the newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva he devoted himself to self-study of jiu-jitsu from 1906, and the All-Russian Sambo Federation states that he knew boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu well. After the revolution he worked in the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army and led a school for militia instructors.

We know little about his training, because according to the newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva his personal file was destroyed in the early nineteen-forties. We infer that his system was based on practice: with the first group of fourteen Dynamo operatives he himself went on arrests.

Contribution and innovations

In 1923 he was present at the founding of the proletarian sports society Dynamo and from the beginning led its section of defense and attack, in which a new school of unarmed self-defense was formed. The system was first called SAM, then SAMOZ and finally SAMBO. In 1927 he published a manual of unarmed self-defense according to the jiu-jitsu system, in 1928 a book on training and competitions and in 1933 a book on fundamentals and methodology. All were intended for the NKVD and were not allowed to be published.

In February 1929 the first championship of Moscow Dynamo in his system took place. Spiridonov trained a number of instructors, and self-defense sections arose in many regional Dynamo organizations. In 1934 he secured the abolition of the program of Vasili Oshchepkov at the Central Higher School of the Militia on the grounds that it contradicted his own approved program. In 1940 his student V. P. Volkov published the book Sambo.

Philosophy and principles

In his second book from 1928, Spiridonov wrote that he does not regard the self-defense system as closed and that it will continue to be perfected according to practical experience. We infer that he understood the system as open and changeable, which also corresponds to how its name changed over the years.

Legends and documented facts

The rivalry of the three founders meant that for a long time only one of them was regarded as the creator of sambo. The president of the All-Russian Sambo Federation Sergey Eliseev said in 2018 that there is no point in deciding who did the most and all three are revered equally. What is documented is that Spiridonov and Oshchepkov worked in parallel and in conflict: in 1934 Spiridonov secured the abolition of the teaching of Oshchepkov at the militia school.

The sources differ on the year of birth (1881 to 1883) and of death: FIAS gives 7 September 1944 in the heading, but in the text the year 1943. The All-Russian Sambo Federation and the gravestone from 2012 are based on 1944.

Legacy

In his last years he taught close combat to soldiers of the Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of Special Purpose OMSBON, whose core consisted of Dynamo athletes. He died on 7 September 1944, FIAS gives the year 1943 in the text, and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery. His grave was for decades considered lost, it was found by members of the Society of Necropolists, and on 20 December 2012 a gravestone with a bust by the sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov was unveiled there.

On 18 December 2020 a memorial to the founders of sambo, Spiridonov, Oshchepkov and Kharlampiev, was unveiled in Luzhniki in Moscow. FIAS lists him in its hall of fame among the three founders.

Teachers, students and family

Associated Martial Arts

Quotes