Slavic – Eurasian Fighters: Why are they So Dominant?
By Simon “Simon Says” Traversy
In my first article, I discussed Artur Beterbiev’s latest destruction of Alexander Johnson who served as yet another stepping stone towards contendership. In this article, I will Marty McFly all of you with my Microsoft Word Delorean and take you all on a very long walk back in time in hopes of explaining why Slavic and/or Eurasian fighters are so dominant and dreaded.
The Early Years before Mother Russia
The early Slavs consisted of a diverse group of various tribal clans which formed during the Migration period and early medieval Europe (c. 5th to 10th centuries). These tribal organizations indirectly created the foundations for today’s Slavic nations as we know them. According to what Polish historian Gerard Labuda theorized, the ethnogenesis of Slavic people allegedly spawned from the Trzciniec culture. Today more or less 300 million people speak a modern Slavic tongue. The Khazars, also known as Tatars, were also an important group composed of semi-nomadic Turkish people whose influence greatly shaped up the course of history from a socio-geographical standpoint.
The Middle Ages- Previously, On Vikings
Mankind has produced formidable fighters throughout its history. From the Spartan warriors, to the Roman Gladiators, without forgetting the mighty Samurai. But no warrior has ever been feared on a massive scale like the Vikings (bay pirates) have. What gave lieu to the Viking conquests was both the feudal system was organized and how the family estate was passed on once the patriarch of a family passed away. Back then in mainland Scandinavia, a man could have as many wives as he wanted (I know, right?), but he had to provide for all of them and especially the kids. The real issue occurred when the father passed away.
Only the eldest son inherited the father’s land and belongings. Now with families of a dozen children, you can imagine how #2 all the way to # 20 felt when they saw big brother walk away with everything. Adding insult to injury, the kings who ruled with an iron fist were for the most part as greedy as them came. What happened then? Well, they simply took off and decided to make their own fortune. In spite of not being the most technologically-advanced society, the Vikings, also known as Normans in Central and Southern Europe and as Varangians or Varyags (Rus) in Eastern Europe, were formidable fighters and great navigators. They were naturally bigger and stronger than most Europeans and non-Europeans. Norwegian Vikings sailed west to Northern England, Scotland, Ireland and the Faroese Islands. They namely discovered Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (North America) and they settled there permanently except in North America. The Norwegian Vikings mainly raided for land to farm. Danish Vikings were the warriors of the three. Human sacrificial offerings, warmongering, blood eagle torture, simply all the good stuff you wish you could do to your old snoopy neighbour and her friggin’ husband who thinks it’s a good idea to whistle at 7am on Sunday mornings. I guess that means he pops the blue pill the night before, (and I’m not talking about the same blue pill Morpheus offered Neo…or was it?).
Not that the other Viking groups didn’t do it or enjoy it as well, but Danish Vikings simply seemed to like it most. What can I say: they had to quench their lust for blood, and who can blame them, right? They mainly raided in England, France (Normandy), Ireland, and even went all the way to Sicily where the remnants of their conquests is still apparent. The Swedish Vikings, which interests us most, went east by navigating through the Volga, Dnieper and Dniester rivers and founded the cities of Kiev and Novgorod. The Varangian went as far as Jerusalem, spoke many languages and were mostly traders and merchants who sold slaves and goods to Islamic and Byzantine markets. And by the way, the movie the 13th Warrior is based on a true story.
Although they failed to conquer Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor was so impressed by their prowess in combat and their fearlessness, that they hired the Varangian as his personal guard and granted them special status in the city. The Varangian eventually settled down in the territories they had conquered, and merged with the local culture, language and customs of those respective territories. Despite being assimilated, the influence of the Varangian is still noticeable to this day. Igor for instance is derived from the Old Norse name Ingvar, and Oleg originated from the name Helgi. Such names appear on the Byzantine Treaty of 911 A.D. Rurik, who was invited in 862 A.D. to rule over the people of Novgorod (see Garðaríki; Holmgarðr), is widely regarded as the founding father of Russia (although this has been disputed by certain scholars).
The First Traces of Boxing in Russia
The first account of fist-fighting dates back to the 13th century, even before the Christianisation of Kievan Rus’. Some historians claim that there are indications that fist fighting was practised as early as in the 9th century. Fist fighting tournaments occurred during a celebration in the name of the Slavic pagan god Perun, the god of thunder and lightning and mightiest of them all. After Christianity was established in Eastern Europe, Metropolite Kiril declared in 1274 that anyone who wouldn’t say a prayer or sing a hymn at the burial of a fighter who had died during a fist fight would be excommunicated. From that point on the Russian aristocracy, known as boyars, used fist fighting as a means to entertain the masses and acquired the best fighters in order to offer the best spectacle possible. Those contests often occurred during holydays and in winter, such events took place on ice. The younglings usually went first and the adults went last. In 1684 and in 1686 two orders had been issued to ban fist fighting. Nevertheless fist fighting survived. Every region in the country had its heroes, but the most proficient one is said to be the city of Tula. Some literature suggest that Peter the Great enjoyed organizing fist fighting contests in order to display the ability of the Russian people. In 1751 a mass fist fighting tournament was organized in the streets of Saint-Petersburg, much to the dismay of Empress Elizabeth. After which, fist fighting was banned in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. During the reign of Catherine the Great, fist fighting was given a ‘’second wind’’ and thrived once more. It is said that count Orlov was a good fist fighter. There are claims that aristocrats preferred fist fighting over armed duels as a means to settle differences, which would thus support the claim that ‘’boxing was the sport of kings’’, while other scholars claim the opposite. In 1832 emperor Nicholas I completely forbade fist fighting as he considered it to be ‘’ harmful fun’’.
The Various Forms of Fist Fighting
Russia, on its own, is the largest country in the world. Therefore unsurprisingly their rules [of fist fighting] varied from one region to another. Some fought bare-armed, others just rolled up their sleeves above their fists, some fighters cheated by hiding pieces of metal under their sleeves. Three types of fist fighting were practised; the least popular one called “catch drop” (which I absolutely have no clue what it is; if someone does, please contact me, fill me in and you be mentioned in my next article. Bragging rights included). Another type of fist fighting was the single type which in turn had more than one variation: one version resembled modern-day boxing where contestants would try to hit their opponents wherever, whenever.
Another variation was to take turns; one fighter would hit the other, and the other would hit back and so on (just think of Cartman’s roshambo but with fists and thrown above the gonad area). Lateral movement, bobbing and weaving, or sucker punching your opponent by throwing a punch when it wasn’t your turn were completely forbidden (Floyd would’ve hated every single aspect of this type of fighting). Punches to the throat, groin, running after a fighter that was trying to escape or striking a downed opponent were also against the rules. You could however strike a man while he was trying to rise (because hitting a man who’s off-balance is so much better than hitting him when he’s down). Regardless if you fought under the Shakira rules or the Cartman rules, it was common custom for fighters to embrace three times as a sign of sportsmanship and that nobody harboured ill will.
The third variation called the wall-on-wall was by far the most intriguing and the most wide-spread form of fist fighting. The wall-on-wall was especially popular in the Pskov region. This form of fist fighting was intriguing for two reasons: 1) it involved many aspects and components of military warfare such as tight formations, breaching the line using a heavier fighter, false strategic retreats, encircling, etc. For instance each side had a chief who acted as both commander and strategist. He was in charge of choosing the appropriate tactics in order to push the other side [wall] outside the limits of the game area. The wall-on-wall form of fighting could obviously last quite a while. What’s interesting about the wall-on-wall form of fist fighting is that there seems to be a resurgence of this type of fighting today. If you search on YouTube, you can actually see fighters going at it in groups. It’s hard to say if the group fighting displayed was influenced in any way by the traditional wall-on-wall form of fist fighting, or if it was just an idea some promoter had which had nothing to do with the wall-on-wall fist fights. At first glance, it looked far more archaic and barbaric than in the above-mentioned description. However it is worth investigating which I will try to do (*adding post-it).
The end of the 19th Century & Boxing before the Great War
Before we move on to the next order of business, I would like to give a shout out to Bad Left Hook’s Kyle McLachlan, who did a phenomenal job on synthesizing and condensing centuries’ worth of information on Russian, Kazakh and Soviet boxing. I usually don’t bother quoting or citing the sources of my information because 1) this is a boxing website, not a Ph.D. thesis submission and 2) I don’t do so if the information is easy to find and available on various different sources of information. I don’t really know how many hours of research I’ve put in so far, but I know for a fact that it’s not something Mr. McLachlan did casually in the morning while sitting on the ‘’porcelain throne’’, waiting for nature to call. His articles are very interesting and I strongly encourage you to read them to supplement this current read.
Okay, back to business. So the 19th century is about to end and the 20th century is about to begin. English fist-fighting had modestly made its way to Moscow. Enter Mikhail Kister. Kister was ‘’high-born’’ and as any typical aristocrat, he had a keen interest for activities which were deemed “refined” and gentleman-like. Fencing and fisticuffs, which was a form of fist-fighting performed during the Victorian period without a jacket, sleeves rolled, and could last up to 45 days (that’s right ‘’days’’; it’s Tuesday, still sober). The practitioners circled around each other slowly and went at it, sometimes while even smoking a cigar (brandy sometimes included). Kister read and translated into Russian the very popular “Tutorial with Drawings-English Boxing” in hopes of sharing his interest for fisticuffs with other members of the elitist class.
In 1895, after organizing several previous boxing exhibitions with the help of other individuals who shared his passion, Kister organized the first gloved boxing tournament in Russia which took place at Moscow’s Khodinka field. Other sports such as wrestling and weight lifting and which Kister also enjoyed, were also featured. The event, and perhaps Kister’s translated boxing book, seemed to have been received with positive reviews as other parts in Russia expressed their wish to learn English boxing. Enter Ernest Loustalot. Ernest Loustalot was as athletic as cheetahs are fast. He not only practised but was proficient in several sports such as fencing, swimming, la boxe française-savate (French kickboxing), and of course boxing. Loustalot was invited in 1897 at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. The first ever boxing match took place a year later on March 25th in the Winter Stadium between Loustalot himself and his student ‘’Bines’’. As McLachlan mentioned in the second part of his series of articles on Kazakh boxing, the mainstream acceptance of boxing took some time.
The reason for that was because back then, boxing was seen more as a manly art, than as a sport itself. People fought with their fists to settle legal disputes or quarrels of any kind. In Ireland and some areas of Great Britain, it is still a common occurrence. As Loustalot began training more and more athletes such as weight lifter Guido Meyer, boxing became increasingly more and more popular. A year after Loustalot’s public exhibition, boxing was included in the third annual Russian weight lifting championships. The association that boxing and other strength-related physical activities were indeed connected was slowly being instilled in the minds of the general population.
I could go on and on, but I need to stop here. “Bad” Brad warned me that lengthy articles tend to give nose bleeds to certain readers prone to brain aneurysms. However next time, we will start digging into the good stuff starting with the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union. Until then, Simon says: stay safe, take care of yourselves and what’s around you, and make sure to think of me first whenever you feel like making a donation.