At one time he was known all over the world, but now he is almost forgotten. This year he would have turned 135 years old. Weighing 182 kilograms, his height was … 285 centimeters!
Fedor Andreevich Makhnov was born on June 6 (18th according to the new style) June 1878 in the village of Kostyuki, Staroselskaya volost, Vitebsk district. He came from an ancient family whose ancestors moved to Russia from the south, from Syria. Makhnov's parents, as well as his two sisters, were quite normal in height; his grandfather was very tall, but, in any case, not a giant.
The boy was born very large, and his mother died during childbirth. Fedya was brought up by his grandfather, who loved him very much. The gifts of an amazing child showed up early. At 8 years old, the kid could raise an adult, his father taught him to play the harmonica.
At the age of 12, he took the "plank" of 2 meters. He could sleep for more than 24 hours in a row.
Other children laughed at him because of his height. For this, he took off their hats and hung them on the ridge of the roof of a bath or shed. Due to the growth of his son, Fyodor's father had to rebuild the hut, raising the ceilings. With the growth of growth, the boy's strength grew. He could lift an adult, independently pull a cart with hay, help in the construction of houses, lifting heavy logs.
The local landowner Korzhenevsky, having learned about the abilities of the young strongman, hired him to clean the nearby Zaronovka River from boulders that interfered with the work of the water mill. Long-term work in very cold water played a very unfavorable role in Fyodor's life. He caught a cold, and the illnesses that followed later made themselves felt for the rest of Makhnov's life.
By the age of 14, the 2-meter young man no longer fit in the house. Because of this, my father had to build up the walls by several crowns. A local blacksmith was ordered to make an individual bed, but he, overloaded with work, did it all summer. In the end, it turned out that Fedya had outgrown this bed too.
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Dressing and shoeing a tall guy was problematic. Everything was made to order. They had to earn money for clothes in Vitebsk at the Polotsk bazaar. It was there that the unusual teenager was noticed by the German Otto Bilinder, who owned a traveling circus.
The enterprising German quickly realized what benefits could be derived from the boy's growth and suggested that Fedya's father let his son go to Germany - to perform in a circus.
Performance poster
It didn't take long to persuade his father, and the 14-year-old boy set off to conquer Europe with his abilities. Otto Bilinder took custody of Fedor himself. At first, for an illiterate guy, he hired teachers who taught him German. Otto took over the teaching of circus art. Fyodor's training lasted almost two years. When he turned 16, a performance contract was signed with him. So Fyodor Makhnov became a circus artist.
In Berlin, Otto Bilinder settled a guest at his home, taught him circus tricks. Fyodor smashed bricks with the edge of his palm; unbend and bend horseshoes and thick nails; lying on his back, he lifted the platform with three musicians along with the instruments. But people came to the circus to look first of all at the artist himself - the real Gulliver. And he grew by leaps and bounds. By the age of 25 he reached 2 m 85 cm.
The rate in his performances was made on power numbers. The more than two and a half meter giant bent iron horseshoes with one hand, smashed bricks with a blow, twisted metal rods into a spiral, and then straightened them again. The performances were especially successful when he, lying on his back, lifted a wooden platform with an orchestra of three musicians. In those days, Greco-Roman (classical) wrestling tournaments were very popular in circuses. Famous strongmen and world-class wrestlers, including the Russian titans Zaikin and Poddubny, took part in them.
Fedor Makhnov also participated in similar tournaments. True, he did not become a great athlete due to the fact that the best world wrestlers always came out against him, and his chronic back disease did not allow him to fully show his talents. Nevertheless, his mere appearance on the arena caused a stormy admiration of the public.
Makhnov devoted nine years to working in the circus, after which he became a well-to-do person. However, the big growth also brought a lot of trouble to Fedor. It was difficult for him to move, since all transport, hotels, catering establishments were calculated only for people of standard sizes. Because of this, Fyodor returned home at the very beginning of the twentieth century to his native Kostyuki. For the money he earned in circus performances, he bought his land and house from the landowner Korzhenevsky, who had left for France. The Makhnov estate was rebuilt to fit his height, furnished with suitable furniture and renamed Velikanovo. All the necessary building materials and furniture from Germany were sent to him by Otto Bidinder, with whom Fedor maintained close friendly contacts until the end of his life.
Having settled in a new place, Makhnov decided to marry. And although by nature he was very kind, and he was not deprived of finances, they found a bride for him with great difficulty. She was Efrosinya Lebedeva, who worked as a rural teacher. She was a tall girl, but she was still almost a meter inferior to her fiance. In 1903, the first daughter Maria appeared in the family, and the next year a son, Nikolai, was born.
To replenish the family budget, from time to time Fedor went to various wrestling tournaments, performed in circuses, demonstrating his capabilities in various cities of the Russian Empire.
Fedor in Europe
Preserved archival information about the stay of the giant Makhnov in the German capital in 1904. The Germans were ready to fulfill any whims of the Belarusian gulliver. In the middle of winter, Fedor wanted strawberries - they were delivered to him. In Holland, in Paris, he repeatedly violated his contract, once they wanted to jail him for hooliganism, but the cameras of the Parisian police did not accommodate people of this height.
Fedor with his wife Efrosinya
In 1905, the Makhnov family went on a foreign tour. Traveling to Western Europe, they visited France, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Italy. The Pope himself honored them with an audience. According to family legend, he took off his golden cross and presented it to the giant's daughter. The Makhnovs also visited the United States. For this, however, it was necessary to remake the steamer's cabin.
During these trips, there were some curiosities. At receptions in the palaces, Fyodor lit cigarettes from candles from the upper tiers of the chandeliers, thereby extinguishing them.
In Paris, he had a skirmish with several townspeople. The police officers who arrived wanted to send the giant to jail, but not finding a suitable camera, they limited themselves to talking.
During a dinner at the Chancellor of Germany, a huge tea set was placed in front of Makhnov, but Fedor did not appreciate such a "joke", demanding to replace it with an ordinary mug.
Fedor on a trip abroad
While in Germany, Fedor all the time wanted to return home. When he saved enough money, he left for his native Kostyuki, despite the fact that the owner persuaded him to stay. He did not allow growth to live in his father's house. At this time the landowner Krzhizhanovsky was just selling his estate. Makhnov bought it along with the land, rebuilt the house according to its parameters. Otto Bilinder sent him furniture from Germany. I thought of getting married. It turned out to be the most difficult question! Girls of ordinary height did not dare to marry such a thug. And where to find him to match? Finally, the whole world found a bride - teacher Efrosinya Lebedeva. For a girl, she was tall - 1 m 85 cm. She was two years younger than Fedor, but outlived her husband by 35 years, she died in 1947. Played a wedding. In 1903, they had a daughter, Maria, and in 1904, their son Nikolai. In 1911-12, three more children were born to the Makhnovs. Thus, the Makhnovs had five children in total. None of them grew more than two meters. They lived together, in love and harmony. Fyodor was a kind person, he loved his children, he helped the peasants. And from Germany there were invitations to return to the circus …
Together they traveled the world. Fyodor attended a reception with the German Chancellor, at an audience with the Pope, who liked Fyodor's little daughter Maria so much that he took off a gold cross on a chain and presented it to the girl at a reception with US President Theodore Roosevelt. So that Makhnov could cross the ocean, the steamer's cabin was redesigned for him. Efrosinya liked this life, she even wanted to stay in Germany.
But when German doctors began to persuade him to sign a contract, according to which, after death, the giant's corpse would be left to him for scientific research, she was afraid that something might suddenly happen to Fedor, and they left home.
In Paris, almost all the members of the Anthropological Fellowship showed great interest in the giant's extraordinary physical characteristics. They wanted to examine him more carefully, but Makhnov all his life refused to undress in front of doctors, allowing them to measure only the length of their feet and palms - 51 cm and almost 35, respectively.
His ears were 15 cm long and his lips 10 cm wide, which should have made a certain impression on his wife, a woman of normal size, when they kissed. After a few days of rest, he always got taller. This was due to the extraordinary ability of his spine to shrink and contract under the influence of heavy loads.
He ate, like everyone else, four times a day, but his breakfast could feed an average family for two days. From the materials of the press, it is known how our giant ate. In the morning he ate 20 eggs, 8 round loaves of white bread with butter, drank 2 liters of tea. For lunch - 2.5 kg of meat, 1 kg of potatoes, 3 liters of beer. In the evening - a bowl of fruit, 2.5 kg of meat, 3 loaves of bread and 2 liters of tea. And before going to bed he could still swallow 15 eggs and a liter of milk.
As anthropologists rightly noted, this resident of Belarus is “only legs.” His boot, barely reaching the knee of a giant, reached the chest of a normal person, and a 12-year-old boy could fit into it with his head. If Fyodor was born without legs, he would hardly have reached average height. His head, which was unusually small with such a huge body, gave him an unusually ridiculous look, which he tried to hide by wearing an ornate Cossack uniform.
Long nomadic life undermined Makhnov's already not very good health. Chronic joint disease, which was earned in childhood in the cold water of Zaronovka, has worsened. It became more and more difficult to walk. Otto Bilinder tried to help Fedor by sending a heavy horse from Germany. Unfortunately, the sent animal did not solve the problem, since with its almost three-meter height, the giant's legs still dragged along the ground when he sat astride him. And although Fedor was very attached to the horse, he preferred to take the troika on trips as the main means of transportation.
Traveling abroad brought a lot of new things into the economic life of Fyodor Makhnov. Almost the first in the district, he began to use agricultural machines, which he bought in Germany and kindly sent by Bilinder. For a while, he even bred horses.
Unfortunately, Fyodor Makhnov did not live long. In 1912, chronic diseases finally crippled the giant's health, and he died at the age of 34, having managed, however, before that to rejoice at the birth of three more of his children: daughter Masha (1911) and twin sons Rodion (Radimir) and Gabriel (Galyun), born just six months before his death. The exact reason for such an early departure of their life Makhnov was never identified. German doctors considered that Makhnov died from bone tuberculosis, which suffered from many giants. According to other sources, he caught a cold and got pneumonia. The version of poisoning by rivals on the wrestling mat is also not excluded. According to the grandson, there is a version that Fedor, having moved to the farm, did not leave the circus. He often traveled to Germany with his family.
The Vitebsk giant was buried at the local cemetery near the village of Kostyuki. Russian Sport magazine published an obituary announcing his death.
The growth of Fyodor Makhnov, even after his death, continued to amaze everyone. The undertaker, thinking that a mistake had crept into the order for the coffin and the fence, did the job counting on an ordinary person. When it became clear that he was mistaken, he had to urgently redo the coffin, and there was no time left to alter the fence, and it had to be left.
On the surviving tombstone, you can still read the inscription: “Fedor Andreevich Makhnov, born on June 6, 1878. On August 28, 1912, at 36, the Biggest Man in Mir Rostom Was 3 arshins 9 vershoks."
The story about Fyodor Makhnov can be supplemented by the fact that his height on the tombstone is indicated incorrectly. He was taken from the contract with Bilinder, signed by the giant at the age of 16. Since that moment, Fedor has grown another 30 cm.
The giant's wife later wanted to correct the mistakes on the tombstone and remake the fence, but the outbreak of World War I and the revolutionary events that followed prevented her from doing this.
In 1934, the remains of Makhnov were exhumed for scientific purposes and sent to the Minsk Medical Institute for study. During the war, the giant's skeleton was lost, like many other things. Only a photograph and a description made by Professor D. M. Dove.
There is also such a version of how this happened: in 1935, Rodion's son, studied at the Minsk Medical Institute, and at one of the lectures on giantism the professor gave the example of Fyodor Makhnov. Imagine the amazement of everyone when Rodion stood up and said that it was his father. It was then that they asked him to talk to his family about the sale of his father's skeleton. The mother agreed to sell it for 5 thousand rubles. After the death of her husband, she remarried and gave birth to three more children. The money was needed … Many people were present during the exhumation, including a widow and children. In 1936, the Minsk professor D. M. Golub published an article on the acromegalic skeleton in the collection of works of the neuropsychiatric institute of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Acromegaly is characterized by hyperplastic changes in the bone system, soft parts and most of the internal organs. Simply put, all giants suffer from gigantism.
However, according to the information of the descendants, “nobody opened the grave, and even more so, nothing was sold! The remains disappeared after the Second World War; they were supposedly taken to Germany. even before the revolution, the German Academy of Natural Sciences wanted them."
Today the children of Fyodor and Efrosinya Makhnov are no longer alive. All have lived a difficult but worthy life. During the years of collectivization, they wanted to dispossess the Makhnov family and expel, but the peasants stood up and were left alone. Nikolai and Gavrila were officers, they went through repression. Rehabilitated. Rodion became a doctor and during the Great Patriotic War was shot by the Nazis for contacting the partisans. The eldest Maria worked all her life as a livestock technician, and the youngest Masha was an accountant. All the children were more likely to grow into their mothers - 180 - 190 cm. Makhnov's descendants were scattered throughout the cities and villages of Belarus and Russia. On the site of the former estate, only a birch remained, perhaps planted by Fyodor Makhnov himself. And the names of Giants Farm, Giants Forest remind local residents of the tallest man in the world who once lived in these places.
Monument at the grave of Fyodor. He suffered from bullets in 1943-44, when battles were taking place here. The height and age of Fyodor are incorrectly indicated on the monument. The giant's wife wanted to fix it, but did not fix it - the outbreak of the First World War, and then the revolution prevented
Instead of a conclusion
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the tallest person in history, about whose growth there is no doubt, is Robert Wadlow, who lived in America in the early twentieth century. His height reached 272 centimeters.
But this admission is wrong! After all, the growth of Fedor Andreevich Makhnov is 285 centimeters. And it is he who is the tallest man in the world in history. The height was measured and officially recorded by the Warsaw anthropologist Lushan. In addition, the record growth of our compatriot was noted in the journal "Science and Life" for 1970 and by science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev in the story "The Island of Lost Ships".
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