Russian Weightlifter Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Lieutenant Ivan Maltsev

Posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2022 by John Wood

Here’s one from the deep Iron Game archive: Lieutenant Ivan Maltsev sets a World Record with a left-arm clean and jerk of an astounding 114 kg, at a meet in Leningrad, circa November 12, 1949. After setting his first left arm clean and jerk record of 100.5 kg in Sevastopol in March, 1947, Maltsev methodically added about a half kg every few months for the next few years. Unfortunately (for many reasons), single arm lifts became officially defunct in 1961 — but they are still very worth practicing on your own.

Pavel Chechin

Posted on Thursday, May 5th, 2022 by John Wood

Pavel Mitrofanovich Chechin, lifting with the famed Lokomotiv Sport club, was the light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) class weightlifting champion of the USSR in 1937 with a 357.5 kg. total (107.5+102.5+147.5). Born in the city of what was then-known as Dnepropetrovsk, Chechin never set any World records, but did set 16 Ukranian records during his lifting career. Here he does a 1-arm jerk with a pair of heavy kettlebells.

Yakov Kutsenko

Posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2017 by John Wood

Yakov Kutsenko was a great Ukranian heavyweight who competed for the Soviet Union and won two European titles (1947 in Helsinki and 1950 in Paris) and two Silver medals at the world championships (1946 and 1950, both in Paris, both times losing to John Davis.) Kutsenko set three official world records, all in the clean and jerk and all in 1947.

Alexeev and Kettlebells

Posted on Friday, November 10th, 2017 by John Wood

Alexeev is among the many Russian Champions who maintained a love of kettlebells training throughout his career. Based on the throwing circle at his feet he’s using the kettlebell to warm up and probably about to do a little shot putting.

Yury Duganov

Posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2017 by John Wood

Yury Duganov is another in the long line of great Soviet weightlifters. Notice that Duganovw as an early adapter of the split-style which served him well. As a middleweight, he set eight world records in his career, all in the snatch. Duganov’s best official mark in the snatch was a 133 kg lift in 1955 in Podolsk, Russia although he did hit an unofficial record of 136.5 kg as a light-heavyweight at a meet in Beijing, China in 1956. Duganov won four Russian lifting championships (1950, 1953-1955) and finished second in two others (1949, 1951) but never did make it to the Olympics.

Nikolay Saksonov

Posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2017 by John Wood

Nikolay Saksonov, looking every bit the Russian weightlifter, was a featherweight lifter who won a Silver medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic games, a Gold Medal at the 1953 World Championships held in Stockholm, and set seven official World Records over his storied career.

Like many great Russian athletes, Saksonov was also a soldier and fought in WWII and other operations. During this time, for his efforts, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Medal of Bravery. This did not come without a heavy price: he also sustained shrapnel injuries to both his forearms which caused nerve damage and eventually greatly affected his ability to grip the bar. Saksonov became a champion by working extra hard to overcome this deficiency. It has been speculated that his marks might have been 10-20 kg higher had he not suffered these injuries. The image above is most likely his winning Clean & Jerk at the 1954 USSR Championships.

Fyodor Bogdanovsky

Posted on Monday, December 26th, 2016 by John Wood

The great soviet Fyodor Bogdanovsky graces the cover of the November, 6, 1957 issue of Health and Strength Magazine above. At the time of this publication, the 1957 World Weightlifting Championships were just about to commence in Tehran, Iran.

The above shot is actually from the 1955 World Championships held in Munich, Germany where Bogdanovsky finished with the Silver medal behind the America, Pete George in the middle weight class. In Tehran, Bogdanovsky again finished second, this time behind Tommy Kono (it was an epic battle: both lifters finished with an identical 420 kg total with Kono ultimately taking the Gold on bodyweight.)

Yuri Vlasov’s Bench Press

Posted on Friday, December 18th, 2015 by John Wood

How does a World Champion Olympic weight lifter build upper-body strength? The great Russian lifter Yuri Vlasov used the bench press (among other exercises) in his program back in the 50’s and 60’s. Of course, by the looks of things he sure didn’t mess around like the gym lifters of today.

“Getting stronger” and plenty of technique work were part of the game back then. It seems to have worked quite well for Mr. Vlasov, who set 34 Weightlifting World Records during his career… That’s 190kg above, over 400 lbs…. Maybe the bench press isn’t so bad of a lift after all?

Grigori Novak Circus Poster

Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 by John Wood

We’ve covered Grigori Novak’s weightlifting career previously. Novak got a handful of Olympic medals and set over a hundred lifting records but once his competitive career came to an end, he did what any great strength athlete would do: he ran off to the circus! For the next 25 years, Novak was a genuine performing strongman, lifting barbells, juggling kettlebells, supporting heavy weights and the like. Eventually his sons Roman and Arkady even joined the act. Above, you’ll see a rare poster of Novak’s circus days.

Arkady Vorobyev

Posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2015 by John Wood

Arkady Vorobyev took an interest in weightlifting while serving in the Russian Navy during WWII and it led to a hall of fame career. Vorobyev was one of the most dominant lifters of the 1950’s, taking gold in two Olympic Games (1956, Melbourne, 1960, Rome) five World Championships (1953-1955, 1957-58) and five European championships (1950, 1953-1955, 1958). Vorobyev set 16 World records over the course of his career. He went on to become a noted strength researcher and his “Textbook on Weightlifting,” written in 1978, is thought of as a modern classic in the field.