"Russian means strong!" There has always been a cult of physical strength in Russia. It is no coincidence that the main heroes of folk legends were hefty heroes. There are too many strongmen in our history.
The strongest king: Peter the Great
Peter the Great can hardly be called a simple king. Among the Russian autocrats, he stood out both for the physical article (height 204 cm), and for his love for manual labor (he owned 14 craft specialties, was one of the best shipbuilders not only in Russia, but also in Europe, personally wielded tools).
The irrepressible energy of the Russian emperor amazed his contemporaries. Peter twisted coins with his fingers, rolled cast-iron pans “into a ram's horn”. Returning in 1698 from the Great Embassy, near Riga, he bought a horse, later named Lisette, and decided to reforge it.
The tsar tested the strength of the horseshoe in his own way. If he can twist it, it's a bad horseshoe. If not, good. The blacksmith reworked the work several times. Finally, Peter was satisfied with the quality, he gave the blacksmith a copper penny. The blacksmith was not so simple either. Twisting the nickel with his fingers, he said that the quality of the coin did not suit him. So the blacksmith bargained for the "gold". There was even a fairy tale about this episode from the life of the king among the people.
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The strongest voivode: Evpatiy Kolovrat
Evpatiy Kolovrat, despite the epic halo, is a historical figure. He was born in the village of Frolovo, Shilovskaya volost.
According to "The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu", Evpatiy Kolovrat learned about the Mongol invasion of the Ryazan principality and with a small detachment moved to the rescue, but found the city already ruined. "… the sovereigns killed and many people perished: some were killed and beaten, others were burned, and others were sunk."
Having overtaken the Mongols already in the Suzdal lands, the squad of Evpatiy Kolovrat killed the Mongol-Tatar rearguard. "And Evpatiy beat them so mercilessly that the swords were dulled, and he took the Tatar swords and whipped them."
Batu sent his best warrior Khostovrul against Kolovrat, but Evpatiy defeated the Tatar hero in a battle, cut him to the saddle. Despite the huge numerical superiority, the Tatars could not defeat the Kolovrat squad until they came up with the idea of using stone-bit siege weapons against them.
In tribute to the Russian soldier, Batu gave the body of the murdered Evpatiy Kolovrat to the remnants of his squad and ordered them to be released in peace. This is an extraordinary case for the history of Ancient Rus.
Bulls and Bears Winner: Grigory Rusakov
The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was surprisingly prolific for strongmen. One of them was Grigory Rusakov, a resident of Kursk, who was born in 1879 into a family of a simple peasant.
As a wrestler, Rusakov performed in 1909 in the Donbass, where he worked at a mine. Rusakov quickly became a local champion and received an invitation to work in a Moscow circus. So he became a professional wrestler. Fortunately, the parameters allowed - two-meter height and 150 kilograms of weight.
Rusakov was also known for repeatedly engaging in demonstration fights with bears, bent horseshoes and rails, and once in London he won a bull fight.
Invincible: Ivan Poddubny
Oddly enough, the sports career of the invincible Poddubny began with a defeat. He worked as a loader in the port, then he decided to try his hand at wrestling in the circus of Ivan Beskoravayny. Ivan lost his first fight. Since that time, he set himself a tough training regimen, exercised with two-pound kettlebells, a 112-kilogram barbell, gave up tobacco and alcohol, doused himself with cold water. Until the end of his life, he carried a cast-iron cane with him.
Soon he became one of the most famous wrestlers not only in Russia, but also in Europe. His main opponent was the Frenchman Raoul de Boucher. They converged three times. Despite the dirty methods that the Frenchman practiced, Poddubny not only defeated him, but also arranged for the cunning Frenchman in St. Petersburg 20 minutes of shame, keeping him in an iron grip.
"Iron Samson": Alexander Zass
Alexander Zass remained in history as "Iron Samson". Fame came to him during the First World War. He escaped from Austrian captivity, carried a wounded horse from the battlefield.
He found his destiny in the Hungarian circus, designed the numbers himself, carried a horse or a piano around the arena with a pianist and a dancer sitting on the lid; I caught a 90-kilogram ball with my hands, which was fired from a circus cannon from a distance of 8 meters; tore off the floor and held in his teeth a metal beam with assistants sitting at its ends; having threaded the shin of one leg into the loop of the rope, fixed under the very dome, he held in his teeth a platform with a piano and a pianist; lying with his bare back on a board with nails, he held a stone weighing 500 kilograms on his chest, which was beaten with sledgehammers.
"Russian Bear": Vasily Alekseev
Vasily Alekseev can be called the last hero of the Soviet era. He was born in 1942, since 1966 he has lived almost permanently in the Rostov city of Shakhty. Despite world fame, Alekseev led a modest life, devoting himself entirely to his beloved work - weightlifting.
"Russian Bear" (as foreign fans called him) twice became Olympic Champion, six times - World Champion, six times - European Champion, seven years held first place in the USSR championships.
During his sports career, Vasily Alekseev set 80 world records and 81 USSR records. He is also the "eternal" holder of the current world record for the sum of three exercises - 645 kg (now there are no competitions in this discipline).
Vasily Alekseev competed with himself, setting new records in the championships from time to time. It was he who opened the era of "six hundred", the first to conquer the six hundred kilogram peak.
"San Sanych": Alexander Karelin
If you ask anyone, even someone who is far from sports, to name a famous Russian wrestler, the name of Alexander Karelin will sound. And this despite the fact that he left the big sport 15 years ago, in 2000.
At birth, "San Sanych" weighed 6.5 kilograms, at the age of 13 he was 178 cm tall and weighing 78 kilograms. At 14, he enrolled in the Greco-Roman wrestling section in his native Novosibirsk. The first coach, Viktor Kuznetsov, remained Karelin's mentor throughout his sports career. 4 years after joining the section, Karelin has already become the world champion among youth.
During his sports career, the wrestler collected all sorts of titles, won 887 fights, lost only two times. He took Olympic gold three times, became world champion 9 times, European champion 12 times, took gold 13 times at the championships of the USSR, CIS and Russia. Alexander Karelin was awarded the Golden Belt four times as the best wrestler on the planet.