Russian fist fighting (Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 - Кулачный бой Kulachniy boy "fist fighting, pugilism) is the traditional bare-knuckle boxing

Bare-knuckle boxing

Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports...

 of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

History

The earliest accounts concerning the sport date to the 13th century.
Supposedly, fist fighting was practiced even prior to the Christianization of Kievan Rus', at celebrations dedicated to Perun

Perun

In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were the fire, mountains, the oak, iris, eagle, firmament , horses and carts, weapons and war...

.

Metropholite Kiril, in 1274, created another one of many personally-instituted rules, declaring expulsion from Christianity for any of those who fist-fight and do not sing a prayer or hymn at the burial of someone who died during a fist fight. The government itself never supported, but also never opposed fist fighting.

Russian boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

s used the sport as mass entertainment, and acquired the best fighters for competitions.

The fights most often took place in holiday times and in crowded places. At winter it took place on ice. First the young children fought, then every pair was more grown up then the previous, and the last fighters were the most notable fist fighters.

In two orders released in 1684 and 1686 fist fighting was forbidden, but the sport continued to live.

All regions had their heroes at that sport, but the region with the most famous once historically is Tula

Tula, Russia

Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...

.

There are documents saying Peter the Great liked to organize fist fights "in order to show the ability of the Russian people

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

".

In 1751, a mass fist fight took place on a street in Sankt Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, about which the Empress Elizabeth of Russia found out. After that the Empress forbade the organization of fist fights on the territory of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and Sankt Petersburg

During the reign of Catherine the Great, the popularity of fist fighting was growing again, and it is said that count Orlov

Orlov

Orlov is the name of a Russian noble family which produced several distinguished statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers. The family first gained distinction in the person of four Orlov brothers, of whom the senior was Catherine the Great's paramour, and the two junior were notable military...

 was a good fist fighter himself and even invited notable fist fighters to compare powers.

In 1832, Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 completely forbade fist fights as "harmful fun".

Legacy

In 1941 the most important then Soviet specialist in Boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, K.V. Gradopolov, wrote a book about the right way to fight with fists. In that book, he offered a new exercise, called "group boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

", and he mentioned it was an ancient Russian sport (what he talked about was the "Stenka na Stenku" version).
Christopher Hinton was a great champion of the 1990's throughout Siberia. He was unbeaten until a run in with a pilot named Sheibley who destroyed him in a hand to hand epic battle to be talked about for years to come. He nows lives in isolation with his girlfriend's parents in a cabin in America.

Rules and types

Every region in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 incorporated different rules unlike the sport of boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

. In some places they fought with bare arms, while in other they stretched the sleeves over the fists. There were cases where participants would cheat by putting iron under their sleeves.

There are three types of Russian fist fighting: the first is the singles type, a one-on-one fight; the second type is a team fight also known as "wall on wall". The third one, "catch drop", was the least practiced. There were several versions of the singles fight. One version was like modern boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, where one fighter hits the other wherever he wants or can. The other version is when the fighters take turns hitting each other. Escaping from a punch, answering it not on turn, and moving aside were not allowed; all that could be done was to use the hands to try to protect one's own body. Victory could come in few cases: when one of the fighters falls, till first blood, or till one of the fighters gives up.

The "wall-on-wall" fight (with anywhere from dozen to several hundreds participants) was performed strictly by rules and could go on for hours. Both "walls" had a chief fighter, who served as a tactician and a commanding officer. "Walls" themselves were tight straight formations 3-4 ranks deep. Repeated attacks were performed, aiming to push the opposing "wall" out of the game area. Basic tactics were used, such as breaching using heavy fighters (who were usually held in reserve), encircling, false retreat and others; but as a rule, tight wall formation never broke. Tactics also included battle planning. The "wall-on-wall" fights, while performed for entertainment, were in fact close to military training. For example, notable ethnographer V. Gilyarovsky recalled that during his voluntary service in an infantry regiment soldiers often staged wall-on-wall fistfights with factory workers.

A famous phrase in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, "Do not hit a man when he's down", has roots in that sport.

Fist fighting in Russian popular culture

As for centuries fist fighting was so popular and was such a part of Russian folk life, it occurred frequently in Russian literature

Russian literature

Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...

 and art.

The most famous portrayal of a Russian fistfight is in Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...

's poem, The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov. There, the fistfight tales place as a form of honor duel

Duel

A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

 between an oprichnik

Oprichnik

An oprichnik was a member of an organization established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern the division of Russia known as the Oprichnina ....

 (government police agent) and a merchant. It is notable that, according to Lermontov, both characters use combat gloves ('rukavitsy' — reinforced mittens). Though it may be an example of poetic license, the poem states that the first connected blow by Kalashnikov bent a large bronze cross hanging from his opponent's neck, and the second fractured the opponent's temple, killing him. The fight also features in the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 The Merchant Kalashnikov

The Merchant Kalashnikov (opera)

The Merchant Kalashnikov is a three-act opera by Anton Rubinstein, with a libretto by Nikolai Kulikov. It is based on The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov by Mikhail Lermontov.-Background:...

by Anton Rubinstein

Anton Rubinstein

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...

 (1880).

In the 19th century Sergei Aksakov

Sergei Aksakov

Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fishing.- Early life :...

 watched famous fist fights in the Kaban frozen lake in Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

, and later wrote about them in his "Story about student life". Some decades later, at the same lake, the young future opera-singer Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...

 took part in a similar fight: "From one side came we, the Russians

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 of Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

, from the other side the Tatars

Tatars

Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...

. We fought hard without feeling sorry for ourselves, but never broke the historic rules of not to hit one that is already down, not to kick, and not to keep iron up one's sleeves". Later, the young Chaliapin was attacked in a fight over a girl, but thanks to knowing fist fighting he won. He wrote: "He jumped to beat me, and even though I was afraid of the police, learning fist fighting at the frozen lakes of Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

 helped me, and he humiliatingly lost".

The Russian poet Sergei Yesenin

Sergei Yesenin

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was a Russian lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30...

 in his autobiography notes "About myself" told that his grandfather taught him fist fighting.

One of the heroes in the book "Thief" by the Soviet novelist Leonid Leonov

Leonid Leonov

Leonid Maximovich Leonov was a Soviet novelist and playwright. He has been dubbed the 20th-century Dostoyevsky for the deep psychological torment of his prose.-Early life:...

 said: "In childhood, it happened, only in fist fights I found real friends... And was never wrong! Because only in a fight the whole human nature comes out".

There was a claim brought up that the Russian nobility

Russian nobility

The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...

 preferred fistfights over duels, but the scholars show that the nobility actually were against fistfights and preferred weapons.

The title track of Stenka Na Stenku

Stenka Na Stenku

Стенка на стенку is an EP by the Russian folk metal band Arkona. It was released on May, 2011 through Napalm Records.-Track listing:-Album description:...

, a 2011 EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 by Russian pagan metal

Pagan metal

Pagan metal is an umbrella term for heavy metal music which fuses extreme metal with "the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region through thematic concept, rustic melodies, unusual instruments or archaic languages", usually referring to folk metal or black metal. The Norwegian band...

 band Arkona

Arkona (band)

Arkona is a Russian pagan metal band. Their lyrics are heavily influenced by Russian folklore and Slavic mythology, and their music incorporates several traditional Russian musical instruments...

, is about the wall-on-wall fighting. The band has made a video for the song, in which a fight of this type is shown.

External links

• Fist fighting in USSR (Rare video)
• About the sport from the Russian ethnic games collection (Russian)
• Fist fighting in ancient Rus (Russian)
• A fist fighting fan-club (Russian)
• Kievan federation of fist fighting (Ukrainian)(Russian)
• A downloadable book about Russian fist fighting (Russian)
• An article about the Russian fist fighting (Russian)