In the young Land of the Soviets, hand-to-hand combat developed in a special way. This direction coincided with the vector of the country's development. The rejected "legacy of autocracy" left the popular fist fighting and the schools of technical training in hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting, which were used in the tsarist police and army. But the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, the people's militia and the nascent special services needed the skills of applied hand-to-hand combat. For its revival, instructions are given and specialists loyal to the new government are attracted.
In 1919, a hand-to-hand combat training program was published in the Red Army. In the same year, the "Guide to Bayonet Fighting" was approved. In 1923, the first official manual on physical training was published, which was called "Physical training of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and pre-conscription youth." It included sections: "Possession of cold weapons" and "Methods of defense and attack without weapons." Since the old school of training was largely lost, it was replaced by Western boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling and Eastern judo and jujitsu. In the early 20s of the last century, sports sections were created in which they study methods of defense and attack without weapons, the possession of cold weapons.
On April 16, 1923, the Dynamo Moscow proletarian sports society was established, in which the self-defense section worked under the leadership of Viktor Afanasyevich Spiridonov. In 1928, he published the book Self-Defense Without Weapons, in which he synthesized jiu-jitsu with the technique of French wrestling. In 1930, V. S. Oshchepkov was invited to the Department of Defense and Attack of the State Center for Physical Culture and Sports as an elective teacher in judo. The curriculum of the department included the study of the basics of sports training in classical wrestling, boxing, fencing, bayonet fighting and strength training. It was during these years that striking and wrestling techniques were combined into a single complex of applied nature.
In 1930, for the operative employees of the GPU and the police N. N. Oznobishin published the manual "The Art of Hand-to-Hand Combat". The author critically assessed and compared various martial arts known at that time. Based on the personal experience of N. N. Oznobishin developed an original combined system. This was the first attempt in the country to unite hand-to-hand, close-range firefighting and the psychological setting of a fight into a single whole.
Spiridonov, for the first time in world practice, implemented a feedback system, when the Cheka employees, after the arrest of the criminal, filled out special, "prepared in advance" questionnaires, in which they indicated the methods and techniques used in the arrest of the criminal.
Not only law enforcement agencies, but also the Red Army had to apply their skills in practice.
The events on Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, as well as the Soviet-Finnish war, showed that the massive use of hand-to-hand combat in modern warfare is unlikely. This is a war of technology, motors and maneuver with fire defeat. The Finnish war also showed the need for comfortable warm uniforms, the absence of which made the classical use of hand-to-hand combat difficult even in reconnaissance. As a result, the Finnish war left very few examples of hand-to-hand combat.
The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War pushed the development of the sports direction of hand-to-hand combat to the background. In the ensuing battles, applied hand-to-hand combat was used. These contractions are conventionally divided into two categories:
- massive battles in combined arms combat;
- skirmishes during reconnaissance raids, searches and ambushes.
The first category, although it showed the massive heroism and cruelty of the war, did not require systematic combat from hand-to-hand combat.
Professionally trained military scouts and saboteurs. They were taught to plan contractions, to conduct them meaningfully, achieving the necessary goal.
There were selected fighters who can think, with good physical characteristics. During the war, the system for their training was improved and well debugged. Here is a short combat episode from the book of the naval reconnaissance officer twice Hero of the Soviet Union V. N. Leonov: “Barinov's platoon is closer than others to the fence. Tearing off his quilted jacket, Pavel Baryshev threw it onto the barbed wire and rolled it over the fence. Tall Guznenkov jumped over the wire on the move, fell, crawled away and immediately opened fire on the barrack doors.
The scouts began to pull off their jackets and raincoats, approaching the barbed wire. And Ivan Lysenko ran up to the iron crosspiece, on which the wire hung, bent down, with a strong jerk lifted the crosspiece onto his shoulders, slowly rose to his full height and, spreading his legs wide apart, shouted hysterically:
- Go ahead, lads! Dive!
- Well done, Lysenko!
I slipped into the gap formed under the fence.
Overtaking me, scouts ran to the barracks and cannons, to the dugouts and dugouts.
Semyon Agafonov climbed onto the roof of the dugout, near the cannon. "Why is he?" - I wondered. Two officers jumped out of the dugout. The first was shot by Agafonov (later it turned out that it was the commander of the battery), and the second, the lieutenant, was stunned with a blow from the butt of a machine gun. Jumping off, Agafonov caught up with Andrei Pshenichnykh, and they began to pave the way for themselves to the gun with grenades.
Agafonov and Pshenichnykh were still engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a gun crew, and Guznenkov with two breeders, Kolosov and Ryabchinsky, were already turning the cannon towards Liinkhamari. The description of the encounter shows a combination of melee and hand-to-hand combat.
They began to systematize and describe the experience gained after the war. So, in 1945, KT Bulochko's manual "Physical training of an intelligence officer" was published, in which the author, using military experience, describes the techniques and methods of hand-to-hand combat. Moreover, almost everything given in the book has not lost its relevance now.
The NKVD troops showed themselves in many ways. It is worth remembering the unit called the troops of the special group of the NKVD. In 1941, the unit was renamed a separate motorized rifle brigade for special purposes. Many prominent athletes of the Soviet Union served in the brigade: shooters, boxers, wrestlers, etc. Thanks to their experience and skills, prisoners were captured, raids and ambushes in territories captured by the enemy. Moreover, a significant part is silent, only with hand-to-hand combat techniques.
In the war of the Land of the Rising Sun with the USSR, the Japanese did not even think of measuring their strength in hand-to-hand combat with Soviet soldiers. If such fights took place, then our fighters emerged victorious. There are no mentions of the practical benefits for the Japanese in these martial arts bouts.
Based on the experience of past wars, the place of hand-to-hand combat in the training of a warrior was determined as a means of physical and psychological training. Hand-to-hand combat was used to develop motor skills and skills, correct orientation in close combat, to be the first to fire a shot, throw a grenade, strike with melee weapons, and perform a technique.
In close combat, first of all, the defeat of the enemy with fire was used, and edged weapons and martial arts techniques were used only in a sudden collision with the enemy, in the absence of ammunition or the refusal of firearms, if necessary, destroy the enemy silently or when captured. This prompted the fighters to instantly navigate in a rapidly changing environment, showing initiative, acting decisively and boldly, fully using the received practical knowledge.
In connection with the change in armament, technology, tactics, tasks and doctrine of warfare, the attitude in the army towards hand-to-hand combat is changing. So, in the "Manuals on physical training" of 1948 from the section "Hand-to-hand combat" actions with improvised means and methods of attack and defense without weapons are excluded.
Since 1952, hand-to-hand combat sports have ceased to be held in the army. In 1967, the cultivation of fencing on rifles with an elastic bayonet ceased in the Soviet army. This is primarily due to the consequences of the military-technical revolution.
Despite the above, interest in self-defense techniques, somewhat fading in one place, was more pronounced in another. The development of hand-to-hand combat from one phase passed into another, it was revived with renewed vigor through the sambo system.
Once again, attention to hand-to-hand fighting was returned by the events on Damansky Island, where the provocations of the Chinese were massive and regular. The Chinese sought to provoke the Soviet border guards to use weapons. As a result, fierce hand-to-hand fights ensued. Here is how it is described in his book "Bloody Snow of Damansky" Hero of the Soviet Union, the first commander of "Alpha" Major General Vitaly Bubenin, who commanded at that time one of the frontier posts on this section of the border: “And so it began. Thousands of selected, healthy, strong, angry fighters grappled in mortal combat. A powerful wild roar, groans, screams, cries for help echoed far over the great river Ussuri. The crackle of stakes, butts, skulls and bones added to the picture of the battle. Many of the assault rifles no longer had stocks. The soldiers wrapped their belts around their arms and fought with what was left of them. And the loudspeakers continued to inspire the bandits. The orchestra did not stop for a minute. Another ice battle in Russia since the time of the battle of our ancestors with the knight-dogs”. The book contains many detailed descriptions of individual and group contractions. The conflict ended with the use of tanks and artillery, including Grad multiple launch rocket launchers, and casualties on both sides. Nevertheless, it became clear to everyone that hand-to-hand combat still requires study and development.
The country entered a stagnant but relatively calm time. The absence and reluctance of changes in society affected the development of hand-to-hand combat.
Nevertheless, since the end of the 60s of the last century, there has been a great interest in karate in the USSR. This type of wrestling was introduced to our country by foreign students who studied at Soviet universities, employees of foreign firms, and Soviet specialists who worked abroad.
Karate was gradually legalized. Official structures either fight him or provide support.
Along with the development of karate clubs, schools and other martial arts appeared: kung fu, taekwondo, vietvo-dao, aikido, jiu-jitsu, etc. Sports halls of many educational institutions were overflowing with those wishing to master the "secret systems".
This was the time when Bruce Lee made his films that revolutionized the attitude towards martial arts around the world. And in the Soviet Union, they acted better than any party propaganda. Naturally, martial arts were associated with bourgeois ideology and developed slowly. But they developed and were refined in the understanding of the Russian mentality. Thus, A. Shturmin and T. Kasyanov "Russified" karate by transferring the eastern basis to the Russian mentality. Later, Kasyanov went further, creating a sports hand-to-hand combat with techniques of karate, boxing, throws, running boards, sweeps and painful holds. Moreover, hand-to-hand combat in this direction included sambo techniques, and Kasyanov considers himself a student of A. Kharlampiev.
In April 1990, on the basis of CSKA, an all-Union educational and certification seminar was held for coaches - teachers of martial arts. The seminar was attended by 70 military instructors. An attempt was made on it to popularize hand-to-hand combat modernized by Kasyanov among the military and law enforcement officers. On the one hand, the instructors were not ready to accept the new requirements, on the other hand, the eastern basis did not fit the army requirements, as a result of which great success was not achieved. A. A. Kadochnikov was also present at the seminar, who had his own view of hand-to-hand combat.
Kadochnikov was the first in the world to apply an engineering approach to the construction of hand-to-hand combat. Information about him as a Kuban nugget reviving Russian combat systems dates back to the mid-80s of the last century. He worked at the Department of Theoretical Mechanics at the Krasnodar Rocket School, where he summed up the scientific theory for the practice of various actions in hand-to-hand combat. He also succeeded in what T. Kasyanov unsuccessfully sought. The initiative group, which included Alexei Alekseevich, receives an order for the implementation of research work from the Ministry of Defense. A non-staff reconnaissance company of the Krasnodar Missile School, formed on the initiative of the same group of like-minded people, becomes a practical base for practicing techniques. Subsequently, their initiative turned into the creation of a center for training special forces fighters according to the methods of the Russian combat system, which existed as a military unit until 2002.
In the period from the beginning of the 90s to the present, Kasyanov and Kadochnikov brought up many students who founded their directions in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts. The students who worked with Kasyanov created the Budo club in 1992, preserving and improving the ideas of martial arts with the Russian mentality. In 1996, the Alpha-Budo club appeared, which is closely associated with the association of veterans of the Alpha special unit. In preparing its students, this club synthesizes the eastern principle, the Russian mentality and the spirit of the fighting brotherhood of the special forces "Alpha".
Many founders of modern Russian combat systems began and interacted with Kadochnikov. So, the founder of the Russian system of self-defense ROSS A. I. Retyunskikh from 1980 to 1990 attended Kadochnikov's classes. The creators of the combat army system BARS S. A. Bogachev, S. V. Ivanov, A. Yu. Fedotov and S. A. Ten contacted V. P. Danilov and S. I. Sergienko, who worked together with Kadochnikov, and for their systems borrowed many of the principles of the school of A. A. Kadochnikov. Danilov and Sergienko, who served in the Krasnodar special forces training center, after being retired, established their own combat system. In this system, they adapted the experience of training spetsnaz fighters for self-defense actions in everyday life. This is how the COLLECTION appeared - the Russian combat system.
Kasyanov, Kadochnikov and many other founders of various areas of martial arts in their publications and interviews often speak with regret about the students who disagreed with them in views and began to develop their own schools and directions. To lament over this is a hopeless business, the modern information age makes knowledge publicly available. Knowledge cannot be closed in a bottle - it will flow out. Knowledge is not a rival resource. Even using them as a commodity has a peculiarity: passing to someone, they remain with the original carrier.
That is why, at the present stage, none of the existing systems will be accepted as the basis for training in the country's law enforcement agencies. The law enforcement agencies will use only the necessary of them, forming their own training system, taking into account the tasks at hand.
