![Лубок](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/%D0%9B%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BA.jpg)
Russian boxing (russian: Кулачный бой, Kulachniy Boy, fist fighting, pugilism) is the traditional
bare-knuckle boxing
Bare-knuckle boxing (or simply bare-knuckle) is a combat sport which involves two individuals throwing punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time without any boxing gloves or other form of padding on their hands. It is a regulated ...
of
Rus' and then Russia. Boxers will often train by punching buckets of sand to strengthen bones, and prepare minutes before the fights.
History
The earliest accounts concerning the sport date to the 13th century.
Supposedly, fist fighting was practiced even prior to the
Christianization of Kievan Rus'
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
, at celebrations dedicated to
Perun
In Slavic mythology, Perun (Cyrillic: Перýн) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, f ...
.
[
]
Metropolite Kiril, in 1274, created another one of many personally-instituted rules, declaring expulsion from Christianity for any of those who fist-fight and do not sing a prayer or hymn at the burial of someone who died during a fist fight.
The government itself never supported, but also never opposed fist fighting.
Russian
boyars used the sport as mass entertainment, and acquired the best fighters for competitions.
The fights most often took place in holiday times and in crowded places. In winter it took place on ice. First the young children fought, then every pair was more grown up than the previous, ending with the last and most notable fist fighters.
In two orders released in 1684 and 1686 fist fighting was forbidden, but the sport continued to live.
All regions had their heroes at the sport, but the region with the most famous ones historically is
Tula.
There are documents saying
Peter the Great liked to organize fist fights "in order to show the ability of the Russian people".
In 1751, a mass fist fight took place on a street in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, which came to the attention of Empress
Elizabeth of Russia
Elizabeth Petrovna (russian: Елизаве́та (Елисаве́та) Петро́вна) (), also known as Yelisaveta or Elizaveta, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1762. She remains one of the most popular List of ...
. After that the Empress forbade the organization of fist fights on the territory of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
and Saint Petersburg.
During the reign of
Catherine the Great, the popularity of fist fighting was growing again,
and it is said that Count
Orlov was a good fist fighter himself and even invited notable fist fighters to compare powers.
In 1832,
Nicholas I of Russia
, house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp
, father = Paul I of Russia
, mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire
, death_date = ...
completely forbade fist fights as "harmful fun".
Legacy
K.V. Gradopolov, then the most important
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
specialist in
Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
, authored a 1941 work about using proper technique when fist-fighting. In that book, he offered a new exercise, called "group boxing", and he mentioned it was an
ancient Rus
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
sian sport (what he was talking about, was the "Stenka na Stenku" version).
Rules and types
Every region in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
incorporated different rules unlike the sport of boxing. In some places they fought with bare arms, while in other they stretched the sleeves over the fists. There were cases where participants would cheat by putting iron under their sleeves.
There are three types of Russian fist fighting: the first is the singles type, a one-on-one fight; the second type is a team fight also known as "wall on wall". The third one, "catch drop", was the least practiced. There were several versions of the singles fight. One version was like modern boxing, where one fighter hits the other wherever he wants or can. The other version is when the fighters take turns hitting each other. Escaping from a punch, answering it not on turn, and moving aside were not allowed; all that could be done was to use the hands to try to protect one's own body. Victory could come in few cases: when one of the fighters falls, till first blood, or till one of the fighters gives up.
The "wall-on-wall" fight (with anywhere from dozen to several hundreds participants) was performed strictly by rules and could go on for hours. Both "walls" had a chief fighter, who served as a tactician and a commanding officer. "Walls" themselves were tight straight formations 3-4 ranks deep. Repeated attacks were performed, aiming to push the opposing "wall" out of the game area. Basic tactics were used, such as breaching using heavy fighters (who were usually held in reserve), encircling, false retreat and others; but as a rule, tight wall formation never broke. Tactics also included battle planning. The "wall-on-wall" fights, while performed for entertainment, were in fact close to military training. For example, notable ethnographer
V. Gilyarovsky recalled that during his voluntary service in an infantry regiment soldiers often staged wall-on-wall fistfights with factory workers.
A famous phrase in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, "Do not hit a man when he's down", has roots in that sport.
Fist fighting in Russian popular culture
![Vasnetsov Kulachni boi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Vasnetsov_Kulachni_boi.jpg)
As for centuries fist fighting was so popular and was such a part of Russian folk life, it occurred frequently in
Russian literature and
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
.
The most famous portrayal of a Russian fistfight is in
Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...
's poem, The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov. There, the fistfight tales place as a form of honor
duel between an
oprichnik
Oprichnik (russian: опри́чник, , ''man aside''; plural ''Oprichniki'') was the designation given to a member of the Oprichnina, a bodyguard corps
established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572.
F ...
(government police agent) and a merchant. It is notable that, according to Lermontov, both characters use combat gloves ('rukavitsy' — reinforced mittens). Though it may be an example of poetic license, the poem states that the first connected blow by Kalashnikov bent a large bronze cross hanging from his opponent's neck, and the second fractured the opponent's temple, killing him. The fight also features in the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
''
The Merchant Kalashnikov
''The Merchant Kalashnikov'' (russian: Купец Калашников, translit=Kupets Kalashnikov, links=no) is a three-act opera by Anton Rubinstein, with a libretto by . It is based on the 1837 narrative poem ''The Song of the Merchant Kalas ...
'' by
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sa ...
(1880).
In the 19th century
Sergei Aksakov watched famous fist fights in the Kaban frozen lake in
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
, and later wrote about them in his "Story about student life". Some decades later, at the same lake, the young future opera-singer
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...
took part in a similar fight: "From one side came we, the
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
of
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
, from the other side the
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different . We fought hard without feeling sorry for ourselves, but never broke the historic rules of not to hit one that is already down, not to kick, and not to keep iron up one's sleeves". Later the young Chaliapin was attacked in a fight over a girl, but thanks to his proficiency in fist fighting, he won. He wrote: "He jumped to beat me, and even though I was afraid of the police, learning fist fighting at the frozen lakes of
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
helped me, and he humiliatingly lost".
The Russian poet
Sergei Yesenin in his autobiography notes "
About myself" told that his grandfather taught him fist fighting.
One of the heroes in the book "Thief" by the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
novelist
Leonid Leonov
Leonid Maximovich Leonov (russian: Леони́д Макси́мович Лео́нов; — 8 August 1994) was a Soviet novelist and playwright of socialist realism. His works have been compared with Dostoyevsky's deep psychological torment.
...
said: "In childhood, it happened, only in fist fights I found real friends... And was never wrong! Because only in a fight the whole human nature comes out".
Claims have been made that the
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire.
Up until the February Revolutio ...
favoured fistfights over duels, but on the other hand it has been suggested that the nobility actually were against fistfights and preferred weapons.
See also
*
Bare-knuckle boxing
Bare-knuckle boxing (or simply bare-knuckle) is a combat sport which involves two individuals throwing punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time without any boxing gloves or other form of padding on their hands. It is a regulated ...
*
Burmese bareknuckle boxing
References
;Notes
;Works cited
*
*
*
External links
Fist fighting in USSR (Rare video)(Russian)
(Russian)
A fist fighting fan-club(Russian)
Kievan federation of fist fighting(Ukrainian)(Russian)
(Russian)
An article about the Russian fist fighting(Russian)
{{Martial arts
Combat sports
Russian martial arts
Individual sports
Team sports
Russian inventions