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Ivan Piddubny

Ivan Maksymovych Piddubny (1871, the village of Krasenivka in the Cherkasy region — 8 August 1949, Yeysk) was an outstanding Ukrainian wrestler, six-time world champion in classical (Greco-Roman) wrestling, the "champion of champions," who over his 40-year career did not lose a single tournament. A Cossack of Zaporozhian lineage who emphasized his Ukrainian identity throughout his whole life; his athletic path began precisely in Crimea (Sevastopol, Feodosia). An example of the systematic appropriation by russian propaganda of a famous Ukrainian, who at the same time was tortured by Chekists for "Ukrainian nationalism."

Overview

Ivan Piddubny was born in 1871 in the village of Krasenivka in the Cherkasy region into a poor Cossack family. As a young man he went to Crimea to earn a living, where his athletic career began. In Sevastopol he worked as a stevedore for the Greek firm "Livas," hauling cargo up the gangplanks sixteen hours a day, and in his free time practiced kettlebell lifting. In 1895 he moved to Feodosia, where he met the pioneers of weightlifting, Anton Preobrazhensky and Vasyl Vasyliev. In 1896 he first stepped onto the wrestling mat at the Bezkorovainyi circus in Feodosia: he lost his first professional bout, and that defeat was his last — over the next 40 years no one could defeat him.

A Cossack to the seventh generation, Piddubny always and everywhere spoke Ukrainian, wearing an embroidered shirt both on holidays and on ordinary days. When asked about his greatest love, he answered: "Ukraine, of course — who else?" and when he entered the arena, he "prayed for Ukraine." Despite his worldwide fame, in the Soviet system his identity was constantly subjected to erasure: in 1937 he was issued a passport with the surname "Poddubny" and the nationality "russian," in which the wrestler personally made corrections — "Piddubny" and "Ukrainian."

Accused of "Ukrainian nationalism," Piddubny ended up in an NKVD torture chamber: after two weeks of torture, scars remained on his back for life (from then on he always performed in a leotard with a closed back), and in the Chekist dungeons of Odesa he stood waist-deep in cold water for a whole week awaiting his turn to be shot. After World War II, living in Yeysk, the famed wrestler literally begged and starved, exchanging his athletic awards for bread. He died on 8 August 1949. His tombstone is inscribed: "Here lies a russian bogatyr."

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Crimean start of his career: Piddubny went to Crimea to earn a living; a stevedore in Sevastopol (the "Livas" firm), 1895 move to Feodosia, 1896 debut at the Bezkorovainyi circus. It was here that his athletic credo took shape: "It is little to swing a bull by nature's gift; one must know how to organize one's strength, directing it into the needed channel."
  • Ukrainian identity: a Cossack of Zaporozhian lineage; his father's admonition — "for a Cossack, honor is dearer than his mother… betray your honor and you are no son of mine." In 1937 he personally corrected his passport to "Ukrainian." During World War II he refused the Germans, emphasizing who he was.
  • NKVD repressions: arrested and tortured for "Ukrainian nationalism"; scars on his back, awaiting execution in the Odesa dungeons. A paradox of the Soviet system: for the USSR — the "invincible russian wrestler," for the Chekists — the "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist."
  • Appropriation in Crimea: the book by Yevhen Bielousov "Invincible. Ivan Piddubny" (Feodosia, 2016) consistently presents him as "russian"; the literary editor is Professor Oksana Rieznik. The russian film "Ivan Piddubny" (2014, starring Mikhail Porechenkov) is not recommended for screening in Ukraine. A memorial plaque in Feodosia (2015, initiative of Kostiantyn Vynohradov) with the inscription "I am a russian wrestler, and I will remain one."
  • Change of rhetoric after 2014: before the annexation, the Crimean charitable foundation named after Piddubny (2013) planned a monument to the "legendary Ukrainian wrestler"; after September 2014 the Crimean media already called him "russian" and "ours."
  • Hostility of the "russian world": the memoirist Mykola Razin ("Half a Century Ago") described Piddubny's clash with Wrangel officers on the Kerch embankment, where the athlete was called a "khokhlyatskaya kharya" [Ukrainian mug] and they tried to shoot him.
  • Vandalism against his memory: in 1988 vandals smashed the tombstone and painted "Khokhol-Petliurist!" [Petliura's Ukrainian]; the grave was restored only after a reminder from the russian service of the BBC.
  • Soviet leveling: the historian Mykhailo Rybakov ("Kyiv Circus: People, Events, Fates") explains that the Soviet authorities created an artificial nationality of "Soviet people," listing outstanding Ukrainians as "russians" — the same was done to the Bezkorovainyi circus family.