Anatoly Arkadievich Harlampiev

b. October 29, 1906 – d. April 16, 1979

Beginning of a Prominent Life Road

The influence of a family upon the choice of a person’s life road may be difficult to overestimate! Anatoly Harlampiev was born into a truly sports dynasty. His grandfather was unbelievably strong and became famous as a gymnast and a pugilist while his father actually introduced box as a kind of sports in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union.

No doubt, that Anatoly Harlampiev was simply doomed to have a sports future. He started his sports career in a circus as a trapeze artist performing effectively and impressively. At the age of 28 he entered a school of trainers and became a member of the third training group supervised by Vasily Oschepkov thus getting acquainted with Vasily Oschepkov himself and Nicolay Galkovsky.

Years of Maturity and a Major Contribution to Development of SAMBO

Though his career of a fighter started successfully (twofold champion of Moscow) he finally voted for the career of a coach. First he worked at Krylia Sovetov club, then he moved to the famous Dynamo; Burevestnik club was still another place for him to work at.

An excellent teacher, in 1949 Anatoly Harlampiev wrote a wonderful book “SAMBO Fighting” though this was not his only book as one of his major contributions was a truly laborious work on the development of the system. He was so keen on the subject of his studying that he was never tired of going around the world accumulating experience and practising the fighting skills himself. Practice was more than important and Mr. Harlampiev knew it.

Some time later this faithful worshipper of sports was elected Head of SAMBO Federation of the USSR. He soon, however, went off to war as a volunteer and courageously fought for the freedom of his Motherland.

The Great Remain Alive as Long as They are Kept in Our Memories

Anatoly Harlampiev died at the age of 73. His life was full of events, and his fame and good name still hold. At the end of the last century, in the year that followed the year of his death there was a film shot in memory of this outstanding personality, entitled “The Invincible”. Nowadays, in commemoration of him, in the capital of Russia they annually hold tournaments within the World Cup stage known as A.A. Harlampiev’s Memorial.