Among the acquaintances of the famous strongman there were many famous people of his time, among them was the writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. Once it happened that Fortuna, hitherto zealously guarding Ivan Zaikin, turned away from him, and the fascination with aviation almost cost the life of the Volga hero and many innocent people.

In November 1910 in Odessa, watching with admiration the aerial stunts of Ivan Zaikin during a demonstration flight, Kuprin, who also loved risk and was not alien to adventurism, wished to try the "iron bird". Ivan Zaikin at that time was not yet a sufficiently experienced pilot and could not soberly assess the dangerous advantage - together with the passenger, they amounted to almost 13.5 pounds, which was no longer possible for a fragile airplane. To top it off, a strong wind rose during the risky flight, which almost turned into a terrible tragedy - the airplane began to fall directly onto the crowd of onlookers.

“I saw with some strange indifferent curiosity that we were being carried to the Jewish cemetery, where there were thousands to three people in a cramped space ...” - Kuprin later recalled in his essay “My Flight”, published in “Odessa Vedomosti”.

The inexperience of a circus aviator could lead to many casualties, but Ivan Zaikin miraculously managed to steer the airplane away from the crowd, and the car crashed to the ground without causing harm to anyone. The pilot and passenger, fortunately, also remained intact. Perceiving the dangerous accident as an exciting adventure, Kuprin fiercely defended the innocence of his comrade in the incident: “... The fault of IM Zaikin's fall together with the airplane and me was only me, the undersigned. I sincerely thank IM Zaikin for a lot: for saving several human lives ... for his resourcefulness, composure, courage, and finally, for my own precious existence, which I am entirely indebted to him alone, "he emphasizes in the essay.

Nevertheless, after this incident, Zaikin no longer sat at the helm of the airplane. He returned to big sport, then in 1928 he moved to live in Chisinau, where he performed at the circus arena, and last years he devoted his life to training young personnel as a coach. The Volga hero Ivan Zaikin died on November 2, 1948 at the age of 68.

Russian empire →the USSR

Ivan Mikhailovich Zaikin(November 5, the village of Verkhnee Talyzino, Simbirsk province - November 22, Chisinau) - Russian wrestler, aviator, circus artist. Stage name - Air captain and Iron king

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Biography

The beginning of the way

In childhood and adolescence, he experienced need and poverty. I had to work from the age of 12. V adolescence dreamed of becoming as strong as his father - a fist fighter known on the Volga.

Soon Zaikin got a job with the merchant Konstantin Ivanovich Merkuliev, who kept the athletic arena in Tsaritsyn. From this arena, champion wrestler Ivan Zaikin went to the "people".

In 1904, Merkuliev sent him to the All-Russian Amateur Championship, where Zaikin won the first prize in kettlebells. From that year on, he became a professional athlete and wrestler. His wrestling debut took place in Tver.

Together with Ivan Poddubny

Ivan Mikhailovich was considered a student of Ivan Poddubny. Many strong wrestlers, having met this champion-champion - Poddubny, then avoided this "pleasure". The wrestler Zaikin met Ivan Maksimovich on the carpet 15 times, from Voronezh in 1904 to Tiflis a year. Poddubny, as you know, taught by a simple method: "For one beaten two unbeaten give."

Their contractions took place in different ways. In Oryol on February 7, 1905, she was described as follows: “... Poddubny fought with Zaikin in the Swiss wrestling (“ on the belts ”). Poddubny picked up Zaikin, took him to the mill and threw him on his shoulder blades. It was their first fight. "

Celebrity

A versatile person, he was friends with Kuprin, Gorky, Chaliapin, Blok, Alexei Tolstoy, Kamensky.
Zaikin was also friends with Rasputin. He met him through the Tsaritsyn priest Iliodor, who was building the Holy Spirit monastery. When Rasputin was stabbed by a resident of Tsaritsyn Khioniya Gusev, Zaikin sent him a letter: "I pray to God to strengthen your mental and physical health."

Aviator

Opinions of contemporaries

• The popularity of the fighter Zaikin was enormous. As his pupil, circus athlete V. Hertz recalls: "Zaikin's enormous, out of the ordinary strength, his highest skill, artistry and irresistible charm invariably ensured him a resounding success." When it came to principled, drilling battles, Zaikin did not make any compromises.
• A. Kuprin, who was friends with Ivan Mikhailovich, wrote in the magazine "Hercules": "Every sport should contain at least a shade of risk, disregard for pain and contempt for death." All this was enough in the fate of the fighter-aviator I. M. Zaikin! "
• He was highly appreciated by the wrestling expert IV Lebedev: "One of the smartest fighters in the world, merciless in the fight and using his colossal strength at such moments when the enemy least of all expects his attack ... Terribly strong, very dexterous and very cunning in the fight" ...
• Artist Tsitovich August 15, 1920, in the year of the 40th anniversary of I. M. Zaikin, in the almanac "The Himalayas" (the city of Singapore), under a reproduction of his painting, where a plowman-hero was depicted, wrote: "Ivan Zaikin, emerging from the very thick of the great Russian people, itself is its vivid, as it were, symbolic, reflection: inhuman strength, lion's courage, sharp wit, indestructible energy and in all its wide scope - were combined in it with a gentle and open soul, with a meek, humble heart. That is why Zaikin loves the Russian people so much ... "

• In 1909, at the Ciniselli circus, who fought there famous champion Pole Stanislav Zbyshko-Tsyganevich made a challenge to all the fighters: "Whoever can stand against me for half an hour, I'll pay 500 rubles." Zaikin accepted the challenge. Stanislav Zbyshko, no matter how hard he tried, could not do anything with Zaikin. Only once did he manage to take Ivan to the front belt, but with the force of his back, he instantly broke the grip of his mighty rival. The fight ended in a draw and Zaikin won 500 rubles.
• Despite a very difficult start in life, Ivan Mikhailovich did not grow up to be a gloomy man who fights with the "brow of frowning eyebrows." Here is what eyewitnesses told about him: “ High growth, proportionally built, with powerful wrestling muscles without relief. A constantly good-natured expression on a wide face with light eyebrows and cheerful gray-green eyes harmonized well with the general manner of Zaikin's struggle - without fuss, with smooth movements of his hands, with a constant movement forward towards the enemy. Only at the decisive moment there was a lightning-fast movement, barely perceptible, like an explosion, and the enemy was lying on his shoulder blades.

Literature

• Boris Porfiriev"Fighters", Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House, Gorky, 1974, 100,000 copies. ...
• Alexander Svetov"Ivan Zaikin", publishing house "Physical culture and sport", Moscow, 1957, 90,000 copies. (part of this book was included in the collection "Russian Bogatyrs", publishing house "Soviet Russia", Moscow, 1960, 32,000 copies)

Today marks the 138th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding wrestler and aviator Ivan Zaikin. The famous athlete spent his last years in Chisinau.

The name of Zaikin was preserved by the capital street in the lower old town, which was so named during the Soviet Union. It was on this street that the house stood where Ivan Mikhailovich lived with his wife.

Before, before the revolution, the street was called Kamenolomnaya - stone was mined there for the construction of houses. The adits, which have remained in the thickness of the earth so far, are today mistakenly considered a kind of "underground city".

The very name "Quarry" seems to match Ivan Zaikin, a stone man, unbending with life, but at the same time kind and sympathetic, who helped many, especially children. During the Romanian occupation, the street had a different name - Dragos Voda, which is also symbolic.

Zaikin died on November 22, 1948. His body was buried in the Central Orthodox (Armenian) cemetery. The grave of the famous Bessarabian can be found there to this day.

Zaikin, who was considered a student of Ivan Poddubny himself, a favorite of thousands and thousands of sports fans and an example for those who profess a healthy lifestyle, for many of us is almost mythology.

A native of Chisinau, and now a resident of Israel, Semyon Katsyv, remembered one thing interesting fact... Ivan's biographers hardly mention him. But we can safely say that thanks to such memories, the historical figure associated with Bessarabia and modern Moldova is becoming closer to the younger generation of Chisinau residents.

Here is the story.

"We lived in a semi-basement room on Kagulskaya Street, 5-a together with my father, mother and sister. I loved listening to my father's stories about his childhood and boy friends. I went to school and just went to the first grade. It was 1965. And Once my dad told me a story about how in the post-war 40s all boys and girls had a patron - Ivan Zaikin, who taught them many good things and who never parted with his cane with incomprehensible holes and a huge yellow lion head Instead of a knob, and when they asked him what those holes were, he replied that there were diamonds, and the lion's head was gold. Everyone laughed together, but he just smiled.

Years have passed. In 1991, my whole family and I immigrated to Israel. One fine evening of the 21st century, my wife Firushka and my children were with our parents. The 1975 film "Aeronaut" was on TV. And suddenly dad exclaimed: "Uncle Vanya! Uncle Vanya!" The film tells about the world champion in freestyle wrestling Ivan Zaikin. We all stared at the screen. And here comes the moment of Zaikin's farewell to the public and residents of the city at the Odessa circus before his departure to Paris, where he was heading to study flight. Many come out to the arena and present gifts to him. Representatives of the merchant class appear and present Zaikin with a cane decorated with diamonds and a golden lion's head instead of a knob. I looked at my father - he was crying ... ".

This story about Zaikin and his cane, about the fact that the famous wrestler and world champion, after all, did not fantasize, but spoke the truth, is valuable for its pieceiness.

It can be assumed that Zaikin sold the diamonds with which the cane was encrusted in difficult years. After all, financially winning performances did not always take place, especially since the athlete earned several severe injuries, after which, obviously, rehabilitation was required, so for some time the doctor was strictly forbidden to go to the arena.

... And after reading this memory and remembering the image of Ivan Zaikin, captured in many photographs and newsreels, one can even imagine how an elderly wrestler, honestly telling young friends about the history of his cane, good-naturedly, and maybe with pity in his eyes, smiles, seeing the cheerful disbelief of post-war children in such facts. After all, then it was not just precious stones - sweets and, in general, good nutrition for several more difficult years remained available for these boys and girls only in pictures ...

Four facts about Ivan Zaikin:

- In addition to wrestling fights, I also performed with athletic numbers. I carried an anchor for 25 pounds (409.5 kg) on ​​my back across the arena, a barrel for 40 buckets of water, lifted the bar with a dozen spectators, and so on. He lay down in the arena, and a car with passengers drove along the boards on his chest. An I-beam was bent on Ivan's shoulder, and he made ties from sheet iron. With these numbers he toured Europe, Africa, America and even Australia.

- I was friends with Alexander Kuprin, Maxim Gorky, Fyodor Chaliapin, Alexander Blok, Alexei Tolstoy and even with Grigory Rasputin. He met him through the Tsaritsyn (Tsaritsyn - now Volgograd) priest Iliodor. When Rasputin was stabbed by a resident of Tsaritsyn, Khioniya Gusev, Zaikin sent him a letter containing the following words: "I pray to God to strengthen your mental and physical health."

- In 1910 he became an aviator, made a number of demonstration flights. This career ended in failure. In Odessa, the famous writer Alexander Kuprin became a passenger on Zaikin's airplane. The heavy weight of both caused the plane to crash. Fortunately, both Zaikin and Kuprin survived, but Ivan Mikhailovich's sponsors have since stopped any joint ventures with him.

- Moved to Chisinau in 1928. Organized by " Sports arena"- an ensemble of professional athletes-wrestlers. Their performances, which took place on the territory of Bessarabia and Romania - in Chisinau, Orhei, Hincesti, Iasi, Galati and were of an educational and educational orientation. Superbly built, strong and dexterous heroes were excellent agitators physical culture and healthy way life.

Zaikin Ivan Mikhailovich (1880-1948).

Born on November 5 (17), 1880 in the village of Verkhneye Talyzino, Kurmysh district, Simbirsk province (now Sechenovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region).

In childhood and adolescence, he experienced need and poverty. I had to work from the age of 12. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming as strong as his father, a fist fighter known on the Volga. Soon luck smiled at him when he got to work for the merchant-millionaire brothers Merkuliev in Tsaritsyn, where they kept an athletic arena. From this arena, champion wrestler Ivan Zaikin went to the "people". In 1904, the Merkulievs sent him to the All-Russian Amateur Championship, where Zaikin won the first prize in kettlebells. From that year on, he became a professional athlete and wrestler. His wrestling debut took place in Tver.

Ivan Mikhailovich was considered a student of Ivan Poddubny. Many strong wrestlers, having met this champion-champion - Poddubny, then avoided this "pleasure". The wrestler Zaikin met Ivan Maksimovich on the carpet 15 times, from Voronezh in 1904 to Tiflis in 1916. Poddubny, as you know, taught by a simple method: "For one beaten two unbeaten give."

Ivan Mikhailovich was a very versatile person, he was friends with Kuprin, Gorky, Chaliapin, Blok, Alexei Tolstoy, Kamensky. Zaikin was also friends with Rasputin. He met him through the Tsaritsyn priest Iliodor. The one who built the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. And when Rasputin was stabbed by a resident of Tsaritsyn Khioniya Gusev, Zaikin sent him a letter: "I pray to God to strengthen your mental and physical health."

Once on a tour in Odessa, he saw an airplane hovering in the sky and decided that he would definitely become an aviator. At that time, the number of pilots in Russia could be counted on one hand. It was possible to earn money on demonstration flights, and Odessa merchants Ptashnikovs became Zaikin's sponsors.

The athlete took aviator courses in France and became the ninth Russian pilot. In 1910, Ivan Zaikin made a series of demonstration flights in Russian cities on an aircraft owned by the Ptashnikovs. He was attracted by risk, new sensations in aviation. And perhaps he would have continued a successful career as an aeronaut, if not for the fatal accidental promise to ride on a fragile airplane by the familiar writer Kuprin, the owner of the same large figure and heavy weight... They met again in Odessa, where Zaikin no longer acted as an athlete, but as an aviator. I wrote circles over the airfield to the delight of the public, rolled the brave ones. The writer Kuprin was also on the podium.

“At this time, God knows why, I raised my hand up and waved my hand. Noticing this, Zaikin naively and good-naturedly stretched the crowd, came up to me and said: "Well, then, Leksandra Ivanovich, shall we fly?" - the author of "Olesya" and "Pomegranate Bracelet" will write later by a miracle in his essay "My Flight". Someone put a fur hat on the writer and now Zaikin and Kuprin are going to the airplane. Take off, turn and suddenly ...

At first I saw Zaikin a little below my head. Suddenly I saw his head almost at my knees. Neither I nor him (as I later found out) had a feeling of fear for a single second. With some strange indifferent curiosity I saw that we were being carried to the Jewish cemetery, where, in a narrow space, there were thousands to three people ... "- said Kuprin. At this moment, Zaikin turned abruptly, leading the airplane away from the crowd, apparently deciding to sacrifice two lives, but save a few more. If the airplane fell into the audience, the victims would not have been avoided. Fortunately, both the pilot and the passenger survived. But Zaikin no longer ascended into the sky. Sponsors Ptashnikovs took his aircraft, the failed aviator was forced to return to the arena. And the writer Kuprin reproached himself for a long time and publicly admitted that he and he alone was to blame for the crash of the airplane and hoped that Zaikin did not take offense at him.

From 1928 until the end of his life he lived in Chisinau, in Bessarabia, then belonging to Romania, and annexed to the USSR in 1940. Organized the "Sports Arena" - an ensemble of professional athletes-wrestlers. Their performances, which took place on the territory of Bessarabia and Romania (in Chisinau, Orhei, Gancheshty, Yassy, ​​Galati), were of a spectacular and educational orientation. Superbly built, strong and dexterous heroes were excellent agitators of physical culture and a healthy lifestyle. On July 20, 1930, while performing the "Living Bridge" stunt in Ganchesti, he received a serious injury to his shoulder and head, and suffered another serious injury in Ploiesti. Took part in the 1934 wrestling tournament in Riga.

In December 1945, when the 60th anniversary of Russian athletics was celebrated, the famous hero was invited to a celebration in Leningrad. Here he met with famous wrestler and the arbiter I.V. Lebedev, who made an indelible impression on the audience.

On November 22, 1948, at the age of 69, Ivan Mikhailovich Zaikin died. Buried at the Central (Armenian) cemetery in Chisinau. In the memory of grateful descendants, he remained a pioneer of aviation, the brightest representative of national athletics.

In 1975, the feature film "Aeronaut" about IM Zaikin was shot.

I.M. Zaikin during sports career.

Lev Matsievich with a passenger, famous wrestler Ivan Zaikin.

Aviator I.M. Zaikin at his airplane talking with the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich.

List of sources:
B.A. Porfiriev. Wrestlers.
A.A. Svetov. Ivan Zaikin.

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