Ivan Poddubny
Encyclopedia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
wrestler of Ukrainian Cossack descent. He began his sports career around 1900 and his career lasted for about forty years.
Poddubny was born into a Zaporozhian Cossacksfamily in the village of Krasenivka, Zolotonosha Uyezd, Poltava Governorate
Poltava Governorate
The Poltava Governorate or Government of Poltava was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate which was split between the Chernigov Governorate and Poltava Governorate with an...
(now in Chornobay Raion of Cherkasy Oblast
Cherkasy Oblast
Cherkasy Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine located along the Dnieper River. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Cherkasy).-Geography:...
, Ukraine). As a young man, Poddubny worked as a fitter in the ports of Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
and Feodosiya for seven years, and in 1898 he started traveling with circus tours.
In November 1939, he was given the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR, and in 1945 that of Honored Master of Sports
Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR
Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for athletes. The classification was established in 1935 and was based on separate classifications, which existed for several sports disciplines before...
.
During the German (Nazi) occupation, he refused to leave the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
train German wrestlers.
Piddubny maintained a lifelong professional rivalry with wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko
Stanislaus Zbyszko
Stanislaus Zbyszko was a Polish strongman and professional wrestler popular in the United States during the 1920s. He was one of the most influential European grapplers of all-time, he was also among the sport’s great pioneer champions...
. He died undefeated on August 8, 1949, in the town of Yeysk
Yeysk
-External links:* *...
, in the Kuban
Kuban
Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
region in Southern Russia.