Ethno-code of Russian hand-to-hand combat

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Those who have served in the army know very well: sport is an integral part of combat training. Military science has been developing rapidly lately. We talked with a warrior, an athlete, an iconic person in the world of martial arts, Alexander Kunshin, about how the sport embedded in it is transforming.

Alexander is a former professional athlete, a combatant, one of the founders of the Russian Thai Fight Federation. For many years he worked as the chairman of the sports committee of the Voskresensky district of the Moscow region. He initiated and conducted hundreds of sports tournaments, cups and championships in various types of martial arts in Russia. He founded the school of military traditions "Spas". In it, he teaches everyone who is no longer sports, as before, but applied types of Russian, Cossack hand-to-hand combat, as well as working with a knife and using a saber.

- Alexander, old and young people in our country know about karate, aikido, judo, Thai boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and other exotic types of martial arts. At the same time, the traditional directions of Russian martial arts still remain in the shadows. Do they develop at all? And can they compete with all of the above?

- For decades Hollywood has hammered into our heads the idea that only in the East they know how to fight. But besides cinema, there is also life. Most foreign oriental systems are still combat sports. There are international federations that hold tournaments in a particular sport. They also exist in our country. By promoting the same eastern (and not only) martial arts in Russia, these federations receive state support. This is a whole industry. New sections open almost every day, a lot of championships are held. All this is beautiful, spectacular, and attracts attention. And those who want to learn how to defend themselves in a fight or want to reach athletic heights go to these sections and clubs.

Ethnic code of battle

- Is it bad?

- This is good. Boys turn into men on the carpet, tatami and in the ring. But our Russian martial arts are not only not inferior to the promoted oriental martial arts, but sometimes surpass them in many respects. And most importantly, our ethnic code is spelled out in our military traditions. Our ancestors practiced their skills in real battles. All actions in hand-to-hand combat are based on the culture of movement inherent in the culture of the people as a whole. And our applied species - Russian hand-to-hand combat - is much closer to us for studying. And since it is applied, the preparation is carried out for real life, where there are no tatami, rules and judges. It's just that today Russian and Cossack hand-to-hand fighting is less known and promoted, that's all.

- But they can already be found on the Internet …

- The Internet does not provide an accurate picture and a complete image of Russian and Cossack hand-to-hand combat. And there are not so many masters who practice this type, there is no single methodology. There is no sports direction, and accordingly there is no federation that would receive accreditation and state support.

- When did it become known about Russian hand-to-hand combat?

- In the late eighties, early nineties. Then all these previously secret techniques had just begun to emerge from the walls of the special services. At that time, I remember, the first film about Russian hand-to-hand combat, "Painful reception", was released. It was then that the brand "Russian hand-to-hand fighting" was entrenched for this type of martial arts.

- What is the essence of this direction and its fundamental difference from other martial arts?

- Firstly, this is our direction. It is based on natural body movements typical of the Russian people. These movements are typical for all spheres of life - in dance, manner of movement, in work. Everything is based not on techniques and formal exercises - like the same kata in karate, but on the principles on which techniques and strikes are built. There is no final strike phase or action. Everything flows from one to another, just like in life. The system of this battle is, to one degree or another, inherent in all military and martial arts. It is practical, energy-intensive, very efficient.

Russian hand-to-hand fighting is an applied form. There are no rules on the battlefield. On the street - too. Understanding this simple and cruel fact makes adjustments to the entire training process. You have to be prepared for any stress, any surprises, twists and turns and challenges of fate. Well, and most importantly, the warrior develops a willingness to meet the enemy face to face at any second. This is what brings victory under unequal conditions. Take two units that are fighting with each other. Those who are ready to break the enemy with their teeth have a better chance of winning. The spirit is always stronger than the flesh. He defeats her.

We do not store what we have. We are waiting for others to appreciate

-… if this kind of applied, then it, accordingly, and does not develop in the form of mass sports?

- Quite right. But mass sports are also advertising. In comparison with martial arts in our direction of advertising is much less. That is why there is so little information about our schools. It is very difficult to compete against this background. But what is interesting is that our masters are very popular in the East. The seminars they hold in China and Japan are in great demand among oriental masters.

- And how can this be explained?

- Take the same economy. The Japanese, lacking their own inventions, are in first place in terms of innovation. The Chinese copy the most advanced technology. It's the same in martial arts. They invite ours, watch, analyze, adapt and improve their systems. And then through Hollywood and martial arts they will sell them to us. Those who took it all from.

- But we always had our own - the same sambo, for example. Quite a hyped sport. A lot of films have been shot about him.

- Today's SAMBO is fundamentally different from the one that was founded by his godfather Kharlampiev. By the way, the combat and applied components of this sport have been classified for athletes for many years and were used only by special forces. And the sports direction in our time has largely lost the very component that is a distinctive feature of Russian hand-to-hand combat. Kharlampiev was a student of the famous Oshchepkov, who studied judo in Japan for many years. By the way, there is an opinion that it was judo that formed the basis of sambo. I have my own opinion on this matter. Oshchepkov left for Japan as an experienced fighter. Prior to that, he was known as a successful fist fighter and regularly participated in folk amusements. He was also a career officer, took part in battles. He had to fight his enemies hand-to-hand. And here's the question: what did he then learn from the Japanese masters?

- Receptions of judo.

- Of course. But the most important thing, in my opinion, is different. He learned from the Japanese how to organize the combat system. After all, before that we did not have our own hand-to-hand combat system in its pure form. There were fist fights and wrestling competitions - on holidays. The skills practiced in these folk amusements were, in fact, very serious. They were in no way inferior to their eastern and European counterparts. And sometimes they surpassed them. “… The enemy experienced a lot that day, which means a daring Russian fight, our hand-to-hand combat!..” - said the poet, “… it is impossible to approach these samurai…” - the Japanese said about the Russian Cossacks. It was true. The speed of a blow with a Cossack saber surpasses the speed of any other melee weapon. And taking the systematization of judo, Oshchepkov's student Kharlampiev created our national system - sambo. At the heart of the work of the old-school sambists, Kharlampiev's students, a rational approach is clearly traced. An understanding of biomechanics is the foundation here. Many techniques exactly correspond to the principles of today's Russian hand-to-hand combat - the only difference is that they are adapted to the sport.

- If the people already knew how to fight and fight, why was it necessary to create a system?

- The revolution destroyed a whole layer of folk traditions, including military ones. A replacement was urgently needed. So it was created in 1930 - first for the NKVD and internal troops. In 1938, the Sports Committee of the USSR included sambo in the number of sports cultivated in the country. Sambo is rather a Soviet type of combat sports, which unites many types of folk wrestling. But, unfortunately, this struggle cannot convey all the diversity of possibilities of our military culture.

- What is the difference between the sports approach and the applied one? What is characteristic of our direction?

- The main goal in any sport is to achieve the highest result. A coach's salary directly depends on the victories of his students. This is what his whole methodology is based on. And the foundation of the basic movements suffers from this. This often leads to injury to the athlete. In addition, sports have competition rules that do not and cannot be in real combat. The sports methodology does not take into account the culture of movement inherent in certain peoples. So it turns out that the Russian man has been studying the combat system for years, the methodology of which was developed in the East. This is despite the fact that we have a different anthropology, a different biomechanics, a different way of thinking. Developing someone else's kind of martial arts, we move away from our own culture. And by absorbing someone else's, we become weaker, we lose the genetic code of our ancestors, who, by the way, beat our today's teachers. The goal of the applied approach is to survive. Survive the most difficult, extreme situations. And, of course, the base is different. Russian and Cossack hand-to-hand fighting is based on natural movements prescribed by our ethnocode. After all, before, from birth, a child lived in an environment where the ability to fight was important. He absorbed motor biomechanics through dancing, games, competitions, fistfights and wrestling. Growing up, he was already becoming a serious fighter. That is why we have not preserved any treatises on how to fight. In the East, after all, no one went wall to wall. Therefore, schools were created there where one could learn this art. And for us, fighting was as commonplace as breathing, dancing at the holidays or singing - depending on the mood.

National Business Cards

- Do government agencies help to promote Russian martial arts?

- Unpleasant topic. Any state promotes and develops its national martial art. They are the calling card of the country. Here, they say, look, we have our own military system, thanks to which we survived in this world. And those who do not have such, as it were, do not have the right to exist. How, for example, we, not having our own system, won wars? It's impossible! - say the man in the street. And then he will believe that the Americans won the Second World War, and we have been under oppression all our lives and, in general, a mediocre people. And the Japanese who lost that war at this time are promoting judo, aikido, karate, jiu-jitsu all over the world. Thais are investing heavily in Muay Thai. There is even a Muay Thai academy there. Koreans are promoting taekwondo with all their might. Filipinos are a knife fight that, strictly speaking, has never been Filipino. They simply copied the drawing of the battle from the Spaniards, who at one time colonized their country, adapted it to their anthropology and passed off someone else's school as their own. And only we, with manic persistence, develop foreign karate, grappling, jiu-jitsu and other martial arts that have come to us from abroad, promoted by Hollywood and the media. At the same time, we do not notice or simply ignore our military traditions, rooted in the depths of centuries.

In our country, the creation of any federations and their promotion falls entirely on the shoulders of enthusiasts. For example, the "Kazarla" Sword Cutting Federation, which is very popular among the Cossack community, arose out of the pure enthusiasm of Nikolai Eremichev. And to date, it has not yet received government support, although it arouses genuine interest from government agencies.

It is much easier to promote a type of martial arts widely known in the world. Schools of Russian and Cossack hand-to-hand combat were created relatively recently. They have to prove their worth. And competition in application systems can harm rather than benefit.

- But nevertheless, skills need to be honed in practice …

- There are two ways. The first one is to adapt to the already existing types of martial arts: army hand-to-hand combat, combat sambo, MMA, etc. The second is to create a fundamentally new mass sports direction, which will be based on age-old traditions. Alternatively, develop our art through festivals. But in any case, we need support at the state level if we want to have our national business cards in the world of martial arts. And there should be a lot of these business cards. They will once again show everyone our ancient ability to win on the battlefield. In little Japan there are more than ten types of martial arts, in China there are a lot of wushu styles. And we only have SAMBO, and even then it comes from the USSR. And now we need our schools of our traditional military systems like air. They provide the basis that not only does not destroy health (unlike many sports systems), but, on the contrary, strengthens it. And now, on this basis, you can study any single combat.

Ideally, we need a state program for the development of national types of martial arts. We need the same interest of our state as in other countries. Only in this way will we be able to declare ourselves on the world stage as a power created by the victories of our ancestors - the very ones who nailed their shield on the gates of Constantinople.