Anatoly Kharlampiyev

Kharlampiyev's father, Arkady Georgievich Kharlampiyev (1888-1936), graduated with honors from the Imperial Academy of Arts and was sent to Paris at the state's expense to continue his studies.

After a while, due to lack of funds to continue his studies, he began to fight in a professional European boxing ring.

He soon became the champion of France, and then Europe (in the absolute category).

After that he returned to Russia to begin making boxing popular.

He was considered one of the founders of the Russian boxing school.

From his early childhood, Kharlampiyev was trained by his grandfather and father.

At the age of six, he acted in a group of aerial acrobats in a circus.

By 16, he had already become a versatile athlete and a well-trained wrestler and boxer.

Kharlampiyev dedicated his life to the creation and development of a new application martial arts – Sambo.

Anatoly Arkadyevich Kharlampiyev (Анато́лий Арка́дьевич Харла́мпиев; 29 October 1906 – 16 April 1979), was a Russian researcher of various kinds of national wrestling and martial arts, Merited Master of Sports of the USSR, and Honored Coach of Sports of the USSR.

He was one of the founders of Sambo, a martial art technique developed in the Soviet Union (his predecessors in the creation of Sambo were Viktor Afanasyevich Spiridonov and Vasily Sergeyevich Oshchepkov).

Kharlampiyev worked as a physical education trainer at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, and also was a student of boxing, fencing, acrobatics, and mountaineering.

At the beginning of 1920, he began to collect and systemize national games containing methods of struggle, and in 1934 to describe and classify sports and fighting techniques.

Starting in 1935, Kharlampiyev led judo training at the Moscow Palace of Sports, known as the "Wings of the Soviets".

In 1936, he graduated from the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (Department of Judo directed by Vasili Oshchepkov).

In 1938, Kharlampiyev presented Sambo to the USSR All-Union Sports Committee, which recognized the martial art as an official sport.

Kharlampiyev's grandfather, Georgy Yakovlevich Kharlampiyev, was a gymnast and boxer.

For many years, he collected, studied, and classified various techniques of hand-to-hand combat and self-defense.

The development of a new kind of wrestling was halted by World War II when Anatoly Kharlampiyev volunteered and was sent to the front in the Red Army on July 7, 1941.

Since September 1941 he was with the 18th Infantry Division of the Leningradsky district of Moscow.

After the war, Anatoly Kharlampiyev stepped up his activities on the development and spreading of a new kind of wrestling.

From 1945 to 1952, he worked as the senior manager of the Central "Dynamo" Council.

Since 1947, the holding of the USSR championships continued.

In 1947, the Second All-Union gathering of trainers was held on the initiative of Kharlampiyev.

During this conference it was decided that the new kind of combat wrestling, cultivated in the Soviet Union would be called Sambo (abbr. from the "self-defense without weapons").

At the same assembly, it was decided to create a Federation of Sambo.

From 1953 on, he was Associate Professor of the Department of Physical Education (in Moscow Power Engineering Institute).

Kharlampiyev created the Sambo system including a sports subsystem (which is the foundation).

Sambo is commonly practiced by the Soviet, and later Russian, militaries (which was seen as the target application).

The sport subsystem eventually became known as Sambo Wrestling (or simply Sambo), and the combat form as Combat Sambo.

By creating the system of Sambo, Anatoly Kharlampiyev carefully studied judo and mastered it in practice (under the direction of Vasili Oshchepkov).

In the Sambo system, he saw a new kind of martial arts, enriched with the most effective techniques of other kinds of struggle.

During his years as physical training instructor at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (TAS) and the International Society of red stadium builders (OSMKS), Kharlampiyev continued to study different kinds of martial arts.

Comprehension of the essence of the struggle (both science and art) assisted learning techniques and tactics of fights from outstanding fighters (Ivan Poddubny, Klimenty Buhl et al.).

For a number of years Kharlampiyev traveled to the Central Asian and Caucasus republics for the study of national kinds of struggle.

He studied and systematized techniques and training methods.

He took part in the competitions.

With a body weight of 72 kg, he sometimes beat heavyweights.

The 1983 film Invincible was based on these journeys, and the character "Andrei Khromov" was based on Kharlampiyev.

His role was played by Andrei Rostotsky.