Battle dance in the Russian tradition Buza

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

The article is devoted to Buza - the Russian northwestern military tradition that developed in the patrimonial squads of Novgorod Slovenians and Kriv ichs and that existed in village artels of fist fighters until the second half of the twentieth century.

Combat dance is a single, pair or group form of self-expression with a rhythm-accent beginning, which determines the type and nature of the movement, which contains elements of combat training. There are two main types of Russian combat dance.

The first is the squatting dance, a section of the ordinary, traditional Russian male dance. This tradition prepares the fighter for battle lying, sitting, and squatting. Special dance movements and movements in battle become blows and defenses. They say that before this tradition was obligatory in the training of riders, along with the acrobatics of horse riding. A rider who fell from a horse, using the squatting fighting technique, could get away from a saber strike, knock the enemy out of the saddle and take possession of his horse, slip under the belly of a walking horse, cutting its groin. In foot combat, it was used for fighting in the flea market and in the event of a fall to the ground.

Another variety is "breaking" or "booze"

This type of combat dance contains elements of hand-to-hand fighting while standing. Breaking does not at all resemble kata, tao or other complexes of martial movements. Breaking movements are not performing techniques without a partner. It is also not a bundle of attacks and defenses. Fighting elements of breaking are more likely “embryos” of movements, which are at the same time a maternal - a potential biomechanical model, from which, depending on the situation, blows, and defenses, and throws grow in battle. These elements are called "knees", their final number is unknown, it is likely that it has never been established, approximately from 7 to 15. These elements are connected in a dance spontaneously, stringing on a common dynamic dance canvas.

However, this is not what distinguishes breaking from simple dancing. Breaking the booze is breaking the rhythm in which the world around us moves. The raging fighter deliberately dances, breaking the rhythm of the dance and the harmony of the music with his movements, sings the choruses along with the fight, out of time and out of tune. Thus, he falls out of the general surrounding rhythm of the world, destroying the framework of his usual perception, and begins to see everything differently, as if from the outside. In this dance, as well, the best practice is "plyn" - a special Buzov state of perception. Against the background of the mischievous mood created by music and songs, changing the perception, the fighter trains spontaneously combined fighting movements. In this combination of trained qualities, there is another value of breaking in a buzz, wholeness is achieved. I would like to emphasize that breaking the buza is not a trance state of consciousness due to the fact that the dancer is in this real world, "here and now", does not go to "other worlds", does not communicate with spirits like shamans and does not change consciousness, only his is transformed perception of the surrounding world. You can break with or without weapons.

In short: In the old days, the breaking ceremony went something like this: The Artel (about 50 people) gathered somewhere at a crossroads, on a bridge, on a hill, usually at night. At night, because there was no time during the day. There, standing in a wide circle, they began to dance, replacing each other, to the accordion, tambourine, gusli or balalaika. It happened that several instruments played at the same time. After the dance, when the musicians were already starting to play bouza, they went out to break, first one at a time, then in pairs or groups. During breaking, they began to push, trying to throw off the push of the opponent and, having replayed, push themselves, preferably so that the opponent fell. After some time, one of the breakers could not stand it and struck, so the stage began, which today would be called sparring. The fighters changed each other, left the circle and went out to break again. This whole procedure lasted for hours (three to four). Despite the sleepless night spent in dancing and fights, in the morning everyone felt a surge of strength and, after a couple of hours of nap, went to work.

Buza is a martial art recreated in Tver by G. N. Bazlov in the 1990s. Includes combat dance, hand-to-hand combat, and weapon combat.

Wrestling is widespread in the north-west of Russia, on the territory of the modern Tver, Pskov, Vologda, Novgorod regions. There were many names for this homogeneous tradition, buza is one of the most common. Often the name of the actual struggle was absent, it simply did not exist and the tradition in different places was called by the name of the battle dance, under which the breaking, the fight took place. Here is a list of some of the names of combat tunes, by which the fighting tradition was also called: booze, galanikha, seventy-fourth, sharaevka, funny, amusing, under-fight, cheerfully, scraper, hunchback, dog, mammy …

"Buza" was the most common name and, along with the fighting tune and dancing, meant both a fight and a fighting technique. Etymology of the word buza: in modern Russian, two words "buza" of different origins are used. One is Türkic meaning a type of beer widespread in the Caucasus. This word was borrowed by the Russians and was already used as the name of some traditional types of Russian beer. This word has no direct relation to the name of the struggle.

Another - Slavic origin from the root "buz" - "busk" - "buzk". In East Slavic languages, the range of meanings of words formed from this root is associated with the meaning of "beat": "buzkat" - dialectal "beat", buzovka - a whip, buzdyga - a club for a fight. In West Slavic languages it is more often with the meaning "to rage": fire is buzue (Polish), which means: fire is raging. Also in the East Slavic dialects, the word "buuiz" describes the process of fermentation of young beer, the bubbling of boiling water, the beating of a spring spring or popular unrest. Briefly, you can limit the range of meaning of this word in the Slavic languages as "beating", "raging", "bubbling". Quite accurately illustrate this original meaning of the word "booze" fighting ditties, performed to the accompaniment of a fight:

Get it up, get it up

I want to get bogged down!

Young blood, hot

Asks for freedom!

Get it up, get it up

I want to get bogged down!

And to tell the truth, So I want to beat!

There is an interesting assumption of linguists that the Slavic "busk" goes back to a certain Indo-European primordial basis and is related to the root "boks" - "box". In modern Romance and Germanic languages, this root basis has given rise to the name of various types of European boxing. Thus, it turns out that buza and boxing are cognate words.

WHAT IS BUZA?

In the early nineties, largely due to the wide distribution of foreign videos in our country, various martial arts began to enjoy great popularity. Sections in karate, wushu, taekwondo, aikido could be found at every corner. Being underground in Soviet times, with the advent of glasnost and perestroika, they crawled out. Those who offered to engage in primordially Russian martial arts: Slavic-Goritsky wrestling, Spas and many others did not stand aside. Each teenager considered it his duty to be enrolled in one or another section in order to subsequently become an unsurpassed master.

But, as the ancients said, "time heals", and after only a few years, the fashion for martial arts passed. Not everyone began to engage in martial arts, but who really wanted it. Still, any fight is not just a series of methods for fighting, it is, first of all, faith in oneself, in one's friends and spiritual faith. The martial arts of all peoples of the world are based on approximately these principles. Including the Russians. In particular - booze.

So what is booze? This is the Russian northwestern military tradition that has developed in the patrimonial squads of the Novgorod Slovenians and Krivichi. Until the second half of the twentieth century, it was used by fist fighters in village artels. Includes battle dance, methods of fighting with weapons and bare hands. With the help of this struggle, Russian soldiers more than once emerged victorious from battles with the Polovtsy, Crusaders, Poles, Swedes and so on up to the present day. Even with the advent of Soviet power, when the Russian martial art, declared a relic of the past, was practically destroyed, the elements of this struggle were adopted by other combat systems.

In buz, as in Russian hand-to-hand combat, there are many elements inherent in the martial art: punches and kicks, throws (tacks), painful (creases), suffocation and much more. The experience of the people, accumulated over the centuries, was preserved and multiplied and eventually reached our days. For centuries, the buzu has been armed with only what will help to survive in any critical situation.

How did such a rich tradition of Russian hand-to-hand combat survive? After all, none of the archaeologists or historians have found any documents that would describe the teaching methods, techniques and techniques of Russian hand-to-hand combat. There are no books on this struggle today. This tradition was passed on in the artels of fist-fighters. From mouth to mouth, from heart to heart, and exclusively to people, "for the good of those born." Selfish and evil people were not taught hand-to-hand combat.

Materials on the military equipment of the Buza were collected and continue to be collected to a large extent during special ethnographic expeditions to the villages and villages of the North-West region (Tver, Novgorod, Vologda, Pskov regions), which are conducted by the candidate of historical sciences Grigory Bazlov and his comrades. The inhabitants of our villages are not the Japanese peasants from the Kurasawa films. These are warriors, soldiers and officers, infantrymen, artillerymen, scouts who defeated the war machine of Germany, fought with the Japanese and Americans. In general, people who know about the war firsthand. And here it is important to understand that every year there are fewer and fewer carriers of traditional martial culture. In general, it is no longer always possible to learn a military tradition (technique, military ethics, rituals) from one person, so you have to collect it, restore it piece by piece. We have to take into account the fact that over the past 70 years, a lot of efforts have been made to destroy the original folk culture. Since the 20s of the last century, they were sometimes imprisoned for combat dance and hand-to-hand combat.

DOES BUZA HAVE RELATED SYSTEMS?

Yes, of course, like any other martial art, booze has related systems. These include "spas", the Russian hand-to-hand combat systems of Kadochnikov and the generic style of Prince Golitsyn.

First, the battle system of Prince Golitsyn can be considered as such on the grounds that the patrimony of the princes Golitsyn was in the north-west of Russia. She was the perfect version of the northwestern martial art and was formed mainly in the Pskov and Novgorod regions. Buza - after all, this is also the northwestern system. Second, there are great similarities. And thirdly, the most important thing - some of the techniques of the princes Golitsyn are now included in the booze. Here it is necessary to clarify that in the family of the Golitsyn princes, according to family legends, all men were always warriors, therefore combat experience was constantly accumulated in the princely squad, refined and improved. The prince and the squad were in a relationship of brotherhood, ate together, trained, fought. Having changed somewhat, the squad disguised as courtyard people remained in their ancestral line until the revolution. The fighting traditions of the Golitsyn family were very rich. The centuries-old family military experience, the last descendant of the Golitsyn princes, Boris Vasilyevich Timofeev-Golitsyn, later passed on to two students - the aforementioned Grigory Bazlov and Dmitry Semyonov, who were fortunate enough to learn from the prince. Not many could recognize in the short disabled veteran the prince-warrior, the last carrier of one of the best Russian combat systems.

Aleksey Alekseevich Kadochnikov said the following about Buza: "We need to take all the best, restoring the unified Russian system of combat, which gave options for fighting styles, and what I give - both the hand-to-hand combat of Prince Golitsyn and the booze."

WHAT IS BUZA BUILT ON?

- "THERE ARE four whales on which the booze stands: accuracy, correctness, strength and speed. These are precisely the terms by which, like steps, you can get to the heights of mastery." (Grigory Bazlov).