Vasily Sergeevich Oshchepkov is rightfully considered one of the founders of the Russian school of martial arts. It was this man who took the first steps to popularize judo in Russia, and was also one of the ideologists of the creation of the most famous Russian type of martial arts - Sambo.
By the way, before Oshchepkov, none of the popular martial arts at that time was widespread in Russia, just as there was no Russian style of its own. Therefore, Oshchepkov's arrival in Russia in 1914 from Japan, where he studied judo with the famous master Dzigoro Kano, came in handy. Literally a couple of months after his arrival, Oshchepkov opens a judo school in Vladivostok. In the same place in Vladivostok in 1917, the first international judo tournament was held, in which Oshchepkov's students and students from Japan took part. Perhaps it was during this tournament that Oshchepkov decided to return to Japan again, only this time not to study martial arts, but to spy for the Land of the Soviets. Formally, he was recruited by the Kolchakites and worked as an interpreter in the Japanese Office of Military Field Communications, but in fact he was an employee of Soviet intelligence and was one of the most useful agents operating in the Land of the Rising Sun.
In 1927, Oshchepkov returned to Russia again and already in Novosibirsk organized a circle for the study of self-defense skills for the staff of the headquarters of the Siberian Military District. Naturally, the original coach and talented organizer could not fail to be noticed in the capital. In the same year he was transferred to Moscow, where he began to conduct a two-month course in judo at the Central House of the Red Army (CDKA). At the same time, Oshchepkov, for the first time in the USSR, publishes methodological manuals "Guide to physical training of the Red Army" and "Physical exercises of the Red Army". Much of what is mentioned in these manuals is used to train hand-to-hand combat skills in the Russian army and police to this day.
In the early 30s, Oshchepkov began teaching martial arts at the Moscow Institute of Physical Education, as well as at the Aviakhim Sports Palace. However, due to health problems that arose, in 1935 he gave the section at Aviakhim to his most talented student Anatoly Kharlampiev. Oshchepkov seemed to have a presentiment that he had not much time left, and he was right. In October 1937, he was arrested on an absurd charge of spying for Japan and, literally a few days after his arrest, died in a cell from a heart attack.
A year after the death of Oshchepkov, Kharlampiev, on the basis of his methods, creates a "freestyle wrestling", which in the future will turn into a well-known Sambo. And although it is Kharlampiev who is officially considered the founder of Sambo, it should be noted that Oshchepkov's merits are no less. Emphasizing the contribution that Oshchepkov made to the popularization of martial arts in Russia and the creation of Sambo, annual tournaments named after him are held.
