Yury Petrovich Vlasov (russian: Юрий Петрович Власов; 5 December 1935 – 13 February 2021) was a Russian heavyweight
weightlifter
Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...
, writer and politician. He competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1960 and a silver in 1964; at both games, he was the
Olympic flag bearer for the Soviet Union. During his career, Vlasov won four world titles and set 31 ratified world records. He retired in 1968 and became a prominent writer and later a politician. He was a member of the
Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (russian: Съезд народных депутатов СССР, ''Sʺezd narodnykh deputatov SSSR'') was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.
Backg ...
(1989) and then of the Russian
State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
(1993) and took part in the
1996 Russian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Russia on 16 June 1996, with a second round being held on 3 July. It resulted in a victory for the incumbent President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, who ran as an independent politician. Yeltsin defeated Communist ...
.
[Yury Vlasov]
sports-reference.com
Early life and competitive career
![Yury Vlasov 1964](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Yury_Vlasov_1964.jpg)
Yury was born in
Makeyevka
Makiivka ( uk, Макіївка, Makíyivka, ; russian: Макеевка, Makeyevka, ), formerly Dmytriivsk, is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Located from the capital Donetsk, the two cities are practically a conurbati ...
,
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
, to the family of
Pyotr Vlasov (1905–1953), a military journalist and
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
agent, and Maria Danilovna Vlasova (née Lymar), a
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks (russian: кубанские казаки, ''kubanskiye kаzaki''; uk, кубанські козаки, ''kubanski kozaky''), or Kubanians (russian: кубанцы, ; uk, кубанці, ), are Cossacks who live in the Kuban re ...
. His father worked as the General Consul in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
and then the Ambassador to
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
.
[ Both his parents were born in Russia.
Yury studied at the ]Saratov
Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...
Suvorov military school (1946–1953), then at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in 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 million ...
, from which he graduated with honors in 1959. In 1956, while studying at the academy he became interested in weightlifting, joined the Armed Forces sports society and soon became Master of Sport of the USSR (1957). He was noticed in 1958 when he finished third at the Soviet Union championships. Between 1959 and 1963 he won all the competitions he participated in, with a major success at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics
The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...
where he set three world records and became the first man to clean and jerk
The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...
more than 200 kg (202.5). He was proclaimed the best sportsman of the 1960 Olympics and the "Strongest Man on the Planet". Going against the stereotype
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
s attached to weightlifting, he was considered a nerdish intellectual in rim glasses.
At the 1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
he finished second, after another Soviet weightlifter, Leonid Zhabotinsky
Leonid Ivanovich Zhabotinsky ( uk, Леонiд Іванович Жаботинський; 28 January 1938 – 14 January 2016) was a Soviet and Ukrainian weightlifter who set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class, and won gold medals ...
. Vlasov was breaking world records at the 1964 Olympics and was aiming to retire from competitions with the gold medal. He was bitterly disappointed by the tactical tricks played by Zhabotinsky during the final clean-and-jerk event, which he considered dishonest – Zhabotinsky intentionally failed his second attempt, and talked and behaved as if he would not compete for the gold medal. In reality Zhabotinsky merely positioned himself behind Vlasov, who started the event first, and in his last attempt would order (and lift) any weight required to win the overall competition.[YURY VLASOV: Biography]
chidlovski.net
Although Vlasov announced his retirement after the 1964 Olympics, he resumed top-level training in 1966 for financial reasons. He set his last world record on 15 May 1967, by pressing 199 kg,[ for which he received 850 rubles. Vlasov retired from senior competitions in June 1968. Around the same time he also retired from the Soviet Army, where he worked as a sports instructor. He held the rank of captain. In 1969, while lecturing in Norway, he was asked to lift 200 kg, which he easily did despite a year-long break in training.][Yury Vlasov (1989)]
Chapter 8
in ''Справедливость силы''. Lenizdat. .
Weightlifting achievements
*Olympic champion (1960); silver medalist in 1964;
*Four-time world champion (1959, 1961–1963); silver medalist in 1964;
*Six-time consecutive European champion (1959–1964);
*Set thirty four world records.[
]
Legacy and awards
At the peak of his popularity Vlasov was frequently included in international delegations visiting foreign leaders, such as Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
and Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
. He was a favorite of Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
; Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
offered him a position of a personal adviser on China, and Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
was supervising his book ''The Vladimirov diaries: Yenan, China, 1942–1945'' as it involved Soviet intelligence activities.[
]Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
, seven-times Mr. Olympia
Mr. Olympia is the title awarded to the winner of the professional men's bodybuilding contest at Joe Weider's Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend—an international bodybuilding competition that is held annually by the International Federation ...
, considered Vlasov as a major motivation for his career as a bodybuilder and a strongman. They first met at the 1961 World Championships in Vienna when Schwarzenegger was only 14. Vlasov did not recall what he said to Schwarzenegger then, but remembered that he was excited after winning the championships and encouraged Schwarzenegger to continue strength training no matter what. In 1988, while filming ''Red Heat
The practice of using colours to determine the temperature of a piece of (usually) ferrous metal comes from blacksmithing. Long before thermometers were widely available it was necessary to know what state the metal was in for heat treating it an ...
'' in Moscow, Schwarzenegger insisted on meeting Vlasov, who by then had fallen out of grace with the Soviet leaders, and gave him his photograph signed "To my Idol Yuri Vlasov".[
For his weightlifting victories Vlasov was awarded the ]Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...
(1960) and Order of the Badge of Honour
The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union.
It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...
(1964 or 1965).[ He was a member of the ]Union of Soviet Writers
The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
and was a member of the Union of Russian Writers
The Union of Russian Writers (russian: Союз российских писателей, translit=Soyuz rossiyskikh pisateley) is a non-governmental organization uniting Russian and writers (novelists, poets, essayists, etc.). It was established i ...
.
Post-retirement sports activities
Vlasov's health suddenly deteriorated in 1978–1979, which was related to a nervous breakdown due to his writing activities but not to weightlifting. Later he had a few surgeries on his spine.[Yury Vlasov (1989)]
Chapter 9
in ''Справедливость силы''. Lenizdat. . In the 1980s he returned to sport as a functionary – between 1985 and 1987 he was president of the Soviet Weightlifting Federation, and from 1987 to 1989 headed the Soviet Bodybuilding Federation.[ As a dope-free athlete he was stunned by the massive use of anabolic steroids by weightlifters and bodybuilders in those years.][
Vlasov continued training with weights through most of his life. In 2004, aged 69, he took part in a masters competition in Moscow and lifted 185 kg in the clean and jerk event. By then he lowered his body weight to 109 kg,] while his maximum senior weight was 136.4 kg at the 1964 Olympics.[
]
Writing
Vlasov became a professional writer and journalist years before his retirement from competitions – his short stories were published by Soviet newspapers back in 1959. In 1961 he won a prize for best sports story from the Union of Soviet Writers
The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
. Starting from the 1962 European Championships, he was attending international competitions not only as a weightlifter, but also as a special correspondent to the major Soviet newspaper ''Izvestia
''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...
''. Before the 1964 Olympics he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled ''Overcoming Yourself''.[
After retiring both from competition and military service, in 1968 Vlasov dedicated himself to writing. He published over 15 novels, most notably the ''Flaming Cross'' trilogy (1991–93) about life during and after the ]Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, and more than 10 short story collections. His books were translated into several languages, including English. In 1973 he edited and published his father's diaries titled ''The Vladimirov diaries: Yenan, China, 1942–1945'', which were translated into six languages, including English and Chinese.[ In that book, Vlasov uses the ]pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
of his father, Vladimirov.
Other books by Vlasov (with ISBN numbers) include
*
*
* (3 volumes)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Politics
Vlasov was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies for the Lublinsky district of Moscow in 1989 and broke from the Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
.[
In 1993, Vlasov was elected to the ]State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
of the Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.[
Vlasov's tenure in the State Duma saw him take a strong departure from his earlier politics. However, he moved away from liberal politics and adopted the policies of nationalists and ]Christian Democrats
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...
.[ During his Soviet political career, and his very early Duma career, Vlasov had been supportive of democratic reforms.] When he first entered the Duma, Vlasov was a member of the liberal Inter-regional Deputies Group, along with Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
, Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Soviet and Russian politician, a co-author of the ...
and Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
.[ However, as a member of the Duma, Vlasov subsequently strongly embraced ]authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
policies.[ Ultimately, Vlasov's post-Soviet politics would be characterized as ]nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
.[The 1996 Russian presidential election / Jerry F. Hough, Evelyn Davidheiser, Susan Goodrich Lehmann. Brookings occasional papers.] The 1996 election would also feature prominent antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
rhetoric.
Presidential campaign
Vlasov ran as an independent candidate
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views th ...
in the 1996 Russian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Russia on 16 June 1996, with a second round being held on 3 July. It resulted in a victory for the incumbent President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, who ran as an independent politician. Yeltsin defeated Communist ...
. He dubbed his politics as "people's patriotism". He also likened his politics to Gaullism
Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withd ...
. He claimed that his politics were a more effective unifying force than communist or democratic ideals.[ His campaign platform proclaimed, "There is only one single force that is able to unite almost all and at the same time become the ideological basis of the Russian state – popular patriotism".
Vlasov alleged that Yeltsin's policies had pushed 40% of Russia's populace below the poverty line and brought the government only 3% of the real value of privatized state property.][ Vlasov accused the Communists of stealing many of his ideas, including the name of his People's Patriotic Party, as ]Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
nominee Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (russian: Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician, who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as ...
had taken to referring to himself the leader of a "coalition of popular-patriotic forces".[ Vlasov's campaign saw very little media coverage.][ While Vlasov was nominally an independent candidate, Vlasov's campaign was supported by the ]People's National Party
The People's National Party (PNP) is a Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Jamaica, political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by independence campaigner Osmond Theodore Fairclough. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in ...
. However, by the end of the election, many in the party grew dissatisfied with Vlasov's campaign style, believing he failed to campaign aggressively enough.[
Despite the fact that he was polling at under one percent, Vlasov had stated that he anticipated capturing between six and seven percent of the vote.][ He pledged to refuse supporting either Yeltsin or support Zyuganov in the runoff.][ Ultimately, Vlasov received only 0.20% of the vote in the first round of the election.][ Following his presidential defeat, Vlasov retired from politics.][
]
Personal life
Vlasov had a brother Boris.[ He first married in 1957, to Natalia Modorova, a student of the Moscow Institute of Arts who was visiting his gym to draw athletes. They had a daughter Yelena. Vlasov remarried in 1976, after the death of his first wife, to Larisa Sergeyevna Vlasova, a student 21 years his junior.][Юрий Петрович Власов]
olimpic.su In his memoirs Vlasov mentions that he had another daughter, perhaps with Larisa.[ According to his 1960 Olympic teammate ]Boris Nikonorov
Boris Nikolayevich Nikonorov (russian: Борис Николаевич Никоноров, 25 January 1939 – 30 August 2015) was a Russian amateur boxer who won a silver medal in the featherweight division at the 1963 European Championships. ...
, Vlasov spoke fluent English at the Rome Olympics.[Boris Valiyev]
Борис Никоноров: Я и сейчас уверен, что на Олимпиаде в Риме и чемпионате Европы в Москве не проиграл
bmsi.ru (interview in Russian) Vlasov underwent several surgeries, with the final surgery occurring in 2019 or 2020. He fully recovered some time afterwards, and had no illnesses.
Vlasov died of natural causes on 13 February 2021, in Moscow, Russia.
References
External links
*
Власов Юрий Петрович
panlog.ru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlasov, Yury
1935 births
2021 deaths
Sportspeople from Makiivka
Russian male writers
First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Soviet male weightlifters
Russian male weightlifters
Olympic weightlifters for the Soviet Union
Weightlifters at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Weightlifters at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union
Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union
Armed Forces (sports society) sportspeople
Russian sportsperson-politicians
Soviet anti-communists
Russian anti-communists
Soviet politicians
Olympic medalists in weightlifting
Ukrainian emigrants to Russia
Candidates in the 1996 Russian presidential election
Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
World Weightlifting Championships medalists
European Weightlifting Championships medalists
Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Soviet male writers
Soviet journalists