Olympic champion in 1964 in Tokyo, two-time champion Europe, seven-time champion of the USSR, Honored Master of Sports. The decade of Valery Popenchenko's victories became part of the history of Soviet sports as a time of international triumph for the national boxing school. With his fighting style, Popenchenko outplayed the traditional understanding of a boxing match. Valery Popenchenko proved that the decisive blow is the result of a tactically thought-out combination. Valery Popenchenko was characterized by an attacking style of fighting, where multi-hit series prevailed, ending with a long right side kick. A similar fighting technique is still called the “Popenchenko style”. Not a single Soviet Russian boxer for the next forty years he could not approach the style of a great champion.

In 2000, the Boxing Federation of Russia Valery Popenchenko was awarded the title of "The Best Boxer of the Outgoing XX Century".

Born on August 26, 1937 in the city of Kuntsevo (now one of the districts of Moscow). Valery's father died in the war, and his mother, in order to protect her son from the influence of the street, sent him to the Tashkent Suvorov School. He started boxing quite late - almost 13 years old. The first coach of the athlete was Yuri Matulevich, the founder of the boxing section in Tashkent. Valery shows enviable perseverance in training, becoming one of the best pupils of the boxing section. Soon he wins his first city competition. In August 1955, at the USSR championship in the city of Grozny, he won gold. Popenchenko is included in the youth team of Uzbekistan. In the same summer, he graduated with honors from a military school in Tashkent and in September entered the Higher Border Naval School in Leningrad. He continues boxing in the Dynamo sports society under the guidance of a new coach - Grigory Kusikyants.

In 1959 he won the title of champion of the USSR in the second middle weight. After this victory, he was included in the national boxing team. Since 1961, Valery Popenchenko has been winning the title of champion of the USSR for five years in a row. In 1963, in Moscow, at the European Boxing Championship, he won his first international competition and was already approaching the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964) as the main contender for gold medal.

On boxing Olympic tournament Popenchenko's first opponent is the Pakistani Sultan Mahmud, who cannot withstand the onslaught of the Soviet boxer, ends the fight after two knockdowns. In the second fight, with the Ghanaian Joe Darcy, Valery wins on points. In the next one, with a boxer from Poland, Tadeusz Walasek, he wins with a clear advantage. The final fight for the title of champion of the Olympic Games lasts less than a minute. Boxer from Germany five-time champion Germany Emil Schulz was knocked out at the beginning of the first round.

Recognized as the most technical boxer of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Valery Popenchenko was awarded the most prestigious award in the boxing ring - the Val Barker Cup. He became the first Soviet boxer to receive this award - in the entire history of the Cup (since 1936). After Popenchenko, the Barker Cup will be won by Olympic champion Oleg Saitov - 36 years later, at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

After the Tokyo Olympics, Valery Popenchenko wins the European Championship again and after that completes his sports career.

On account of his 213 official fights. At 200 he won.

In the late 60s, Valery Popenchenko moved to Moscow. He defended his PhD thesis. The topic is the life support of spacecraft and submarines. In 1970–1975 he headed the department physical education Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. He created and headed a scientific and technical laboratory that dealt with the issues of training and recovery of athletes. Author of several books about boxing. Prepared for the defense of a doctoral dissertation.

In the history of Soviet sports there were many champions. However, Valery Popenchenko not only earned fame best boxer USSR, he was not like most of his boxing comrades, even from the first echelon. Alas, the mysterious death cut short the life of an athlete in the prime of his life.

First victories

Valery Vladimirovich Popenchenko was born on August 26, 1937 in Kuntsevo near Moscow. After his father, a military pilot, died at the front in 1941, his mother, Rufina Vasilievna, raised her son alone. Dreaming of raising a real man from a boy, she sent him to the Suvorov School in Tashkent.

Valera started boxing at the age of 12. First coach future star sports became a school teacher - Captain of the Armed Forces Yuri Matulevich-Ilyichev. In 1955, the cadet received the title of champion of the USSR among youths at a tournament in Grozny.

In the autumn of the same year, after graduating with honors from Suvorov, Valery Popenchenko entered the Leningrad Higher Border Naval School, where he got to the coach of the Dynamo sports society, Grigory Kusikyants.

The success of a talented student was not long in coming. In 1959, Popenchenko won the title of champion of the USSR in the second middleweight. Alas, he could not participate in the European Championship, as qualifying competitions lost to Gennady Shatkov. But since 1961, for 5 years, he has consistently won the national championship.

For a long time, Popenchenko was not taken to the national team because of his supposedly “clumsy” technique. The fact is that he moved around the ring with his head slightly thrown back and his arms lowered low, and he delivered blows as if in street fight- harsh and sloppy.

Everything changed after Valeriy knocked out the Romanian boxer Ion Monia in the second round of the final match in the 1963 European Championship. At the 1964 Olympics, Popenchenko won several fights with strong athletes at once and was awarded the honorary Val Barker Cup, which at these prestigious international competitions awarded to the most technical boxer. This was the only time that a Soviet athlete received such an award.

Retirement from big sport

A series of long-term victories made Popenchenko famous. His face constantly flashed on television, photographs of the athlete now and then appeared in the press. However, after 213 fights, in 200 of which he won, Popenchenko decided to leave the big sport. However, in addition to sports, there were things in his life that he considered perhaps more important: service at the Higher Engineering and Technical School, where he defended his dissertation and received a PhD in technical sciences, membership in the Central Committee of the Komsomol. And Popenchenko was fond of art, he knew perfectly English language and wrote poetry. He played chess at the level of a master of sports and once beat Anatoly Karpov himself. For all this, he was nicknamed the "intellectual boxer."

With his future wife, a student of the shipbuilding institute Tatyana Vologdina, Popenchenko met in the Hermitage at the Rodin exhibition. Three months later, Valery and Tatyana got married. After the birth of their son Maxim, the family moved to Moscow, where Valery's mother lived.

someone else's grave

In the capital, Popenchenko became the head of the department of physical education at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and was going to defend his doctoral dissertation. At this time, in the mid-70s, new buildings were being built at the university. Popenchenko controlled the work of builders and often visited construction sites. On February 15, 1975, tragedy struck. Running down the stairs with low railings, Valery suddenly lost his balance at the next turn and fell into the flight. Eyewitnesses claimed that at the same time Popenchenko did not make a sound. The death was classified as an accident.

There were, however, rumors that Popenchenko did not fall down the stairs himself, but was thrown by someone already in an insensible state. According to one version, he had a conflict with the foreman of the construction team, who had a financial shortage. He hired some criminals who dealt with the former boxer. Another version says that Popenchenko had a mistress, her husband found out about their romance and started a fight, which resulted in a fall.

Valery Popenchenko was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery, in a grave intended for the writer Vasily Shukshin. At the last moment, someone from the government ordered Shukshin to be buried at the more prestigious Novodevichy cemetery. The prepared grave was left unoccupied. That came in handy when the famous boxer died ...

Valery Popenchenko

1937 - 1975

Six-time champion of the USSR;

Two-time European champion;

Olympic champion 1964;

The best amateur boxer in the world

A truly brilliant career of Valery Popenchenko began back in 1955. Then still unknown young but self-confident Valery took part in the championship Soviet Union among young people in Grozny. The strange manner of fighting immediately attracted the attention of boxing fans.

At first glance, the boxer, "clumsy" by all classical standards, surprisingly easily dealt with his rivals. In the finals of the competition, he had to fight with the reigning champion of the Union Igor Kovrigin.

The fight was not very easy. Thanks to his great experience and excellent technique, Kovrigin won the first round, and in the second he managed to send the debutant into a heavy knockdown. Valery barely continued the fight. In the third round, Kovrigin was in for a surprise. Confident in his victory, Igor rushed to finish off, and as a result, he himself ended up on the floor of the ring. Valery became the new champion of the Soviet Union. So in the world of boxing, a new superstar lit up.

Valery Vladimirovich Popenchenko was born in Moscow on August 26, 1937. At the age of five, his father died, and his mother alone raised a restless child. Valera was an impudent and quick-tempered boy. Almost all teenagers in the area of ​​Trubnaya Square were familiar with his fists.

It was not easy for the mother to raise the pugnacious Valery, and she sent him to the Suvorov School in the city of Tashkent. There he met his first boxing coach Yuri Borislavovich Matulevich.

Yuri Borislavovich was a kind of innovator of the then boxing, who came up with a fundamentally new fighting technique, in which the boxer worked with the body tilted back and transferring weight to the right leg. When a boxer working in such an unusual manner for everyone went forward, deviating the body to the side or slightly back, it became much more difficult to hit him. Wherein left hand liberated, and the right is not only freed from defensive work, but at any moment is ready to deliver a decisive blow. The impact force also increases, since at the time of its application, the body weight should be quickly transferred to left leg and a sharp turn of the body.

Under the leadership of Yuri Borislavovich, Valery Popenchenko became one of the first champions of the Union with a new, original manner of fighting.

After graduating from the Suvorov School, Valery moved to study at the Leningrad Naval Border School, because of which he had to part with Matulevich. So a new mentor Grigory Filippovich Kusikyants appeared in Popenchenko's career, who did not retrain Valery, but, on the contrary, continued to carefully polish his technique.

Together they set themselves a new goal, to defeat Gennady Shatkov himself, the winner of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1959, on the eve of the USSR championship, many were waiting for this fight. Since Gennady was a prominent representative old school boxing, and Valery was paving the way for a new style of fighting.

But alas, due to Shatkov's illness, the fight did not take place, and Popenchenko easily won his first title of champion of the USSR. He met Gennady only on next year for a place in the national team and, no matter how sad it was for fans of novelty, lost to him in all respects. Shatkov went to Lausanne, and then to Rome. After losing in Rome to Cassius Clay, Shatkov's career began to wane. In another principled fight, Popenchenko defeated Gennady, ending his career.

With the departure of Shatkov, the struggle in the second middleweight division intensified. Feofanov, Koromyslov and Pozdnyak seriously competed with Valery, and in the final of the USSR championship in 1961 he lost to Feofanov due to disqualification.

In the early sixties, he became the national champion twice in a row, but he was released for the European championship only in 1963.

Popenchenko brilliantly held the final fight with the Romanian Monya, who had terrible punches. True to his tactics of crushing everything in his path, the Romanian immediately rushed forward and ... ended up on the floor. Considering the knockdown he received as an unfortunate misunderstanding, Monya went forward again, hoping to catch Popenchenko with one of his monstrous blows, and ... again ended up on the floor. After the second knockdown, the Romanians slumped somewhat and no longer resembled that formidable hurricane that circled the ring in the preliminary fights. True, in the second round he still tried to repeat his cavalry attacks, but Popenchenko very quickly knocked him down, sending the mighty Romanian into a deep knockout. Well, when the referee raised his hand, it became completely clear to everyone: with the advent of Popenchenko, a new era had begun in boxing.

After winning the European Championship, Valery returned to Leningrad and entered the postgraduate course of the Higher Engineering and Technical School. On the eve of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the coaches were worried about whether Valery would be able to combine his studies with hard training.

But they worried in vain. Popenchenko finished his first fight with a knockout, and his second fight with a boxer from Ghana Darkay became a real decoration of the Olympic boxing tournament. Exactly brilliant victory over Darkay played a decisive role in awarding Valery the title of the strongest amateur boxer in the world. In the final, Valery easily dealt with a boxer from Germany, knocking him out in the first minute of the fight.

Popenchenko returned to his homeland as a national hero.

This was followed by the European Championship in Berlin and its the last fight in the final with the Englishman Robinson. To celebrate, he promised to deal with the invincible Popenchenko, but a minute later he was lying in the ring. The blow with which Valery threw his opponent to the floor was recognized as the best in his life. It was applied so easily and at the same time powerfully that when Robinson fell, Popenchenko looked in bewilderment at Kusikyants smiling at him from the corner. "What did he fall for? There was no blow!" “There was, Valera,” the coach continued smiling, “he was! And the best in your life!” And only then he explained to Valery that the blow was struck so cleanly and quickly that his consciousness did not have time to fix it.

On this beautiful note, Valery left the big sport, started a family and engaged in scientific work. Like any great master, he wished to remain undefeated in the memory of his numerous admirers.

He began to work as the head of the department at Moscow Higher Technical School and devoted himself to a new job in the same way as he had recently devoted himself to his beloved boxing.

In the mid-70s, the construction of new buildings of this school began, and Valery often went there to check the work of the builders. During one of these visits on February 15, 1975, tragedy struck. Popenchenko ran down the stairs with low railings and on the next turn he suddenly lost his balance and fell down into the flight of stairs. Death came instantly. An absurd incident claimed the life of a great athlete.

He was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery, near the grave of another great boxer - Nikolai Korolyov.

Valery Vladimirovich Popenchenko - an outstanding Soviet boxer who forever inscribed his name in world history sports.

Childhood boxer Valery Popenchenko

Popenchenko was born in Kuntsevo on August 26, 1937. Valery's father died in the war, and his mother decided to send the boy to the boxing section, and later to the Suvorov School, in order to protect him from the harmful influence of the street. When, like many children of the post-war years, he grew up without a father, his mother first of all tried to instill in Velera self-defense skills, self-confidence and courage, rightly deciding that boxing training would help him learn to stand up for himself. So at the age of 12, Valery Popenchenko first came to the boxing section.

The first successes of Popenchenko in boxing

He studied diligently and diligently, and the first successes were not long in coming. In 1955, Popenchenko won the championship of the USSR among youths, in 1959 he became the champion of the USSR among adults in the second middle weight. From 1961 to 1966, Valery won all the championships of the USSR, winning only gold medals.

The European Championship in 1963 was Popenchenko's first international experience and immediately brought him first place.

Triumph of Valery Popenchenko Olympic Games in Tokyo

In 1964, Popenchenko went to the Tokyo Olympics. Popenchenko spent all his preliminary fights on the way to the gold medal of the Olympics with an unconditional advantage. In the final of the Olympic Games, the opponent of the Soviet boxer was Emil Schulz, who won the title of champion of Germany five times in a row. However, already in the first round, Popenchenko knocked down Schultz, securing the victory and lifting him to an unprecedented height.

The most productive and technical boxer at the Olympic Games traditionally receives the Val Barker Cup as a reward. Valery Popenchenko is the only Soviet boxer to win the Cup. No one has been able to replicate his success so far.

In 1965, Popenchenko went to the European Championship, where he defended his title of the best on the continent. After that, Valery announces his decision to leave the sport.

Sports achivments Valeria Popenchenko

During his sports career, Valery Popenchenko fought 213 fights, of which he won 200, became the Olympic champion, two-time European champion, seven-time USSR champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.

After completing his career as an athlete, Valery Popenchenko was engaged in scientific activities - he defended his thesis for a candidate of technical sciences (1968), worked as head of the department of physical education at Moscow State Technical University. Bauman (1970-1975).

From 1966 to 1970 he was a member of the Komsomol Central Committee. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In 1975, on February 15, Valery Vladimirovich was descending the stairs of one of the Moscow Higher Technical School buildings under construction and, by a fatal accident, fell into the flight. It was not possible to save the great Soviet boxer.

Video - Mr. knockout: the riddle of Valery Popenchenko

Valery Popenchenko is a Soviet middleweight boxer. He is the champion of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, two-time European champion (in 1963 and 1965), six-time champion of the Soviet Union (between 1960 and 1965).

In 1964, after a successful performance at the Tokyo Olympics, he received the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Valery Popenchenko (see photo in the article) is the only Soviet boxer who managed to win the Val Barker Cup.

Popularity and recognition

In the period from the 60s to the 70s, absolutely everyone knew this boxer. He was a sports heritage not only of his homeland, but of the whole world. His boxing path developed at a powerful and rapid pace, surprising the entire public that showed interest in him.

Biography of Valery Popenchenko. The beginning of the way

Born on August 26, 1937, in the city of Kuntsevo (a former village near Moscow). He was brought up by his mother - Rufina Vasilievna, his father died during the Great Patriotic War. Mother always dreamed of seeing in her son a strong-willed, strong and wise man, so she brought him up properly. In 1949, they travel together to Tashkent so that Valery enters the Suvorov Lyceum. It is in these walls that he first gets acquainted with boxing: Yuri Matulevich comes to the military school and opens a section in this sports discipline. Matulevich became the first coach of the future great knockout.

Training process

The training regime was quite difficult and severe, there were four sessions every week. At the same time, about ten people were engaged, among whom Valery Popenchenko was not at all noticeable, but an obedient student. From training to training, the indicators of the future knockout king grew uphill: the guy perfectly mastered boxing technique and demonstrated phenomenal defense skills. Soon, Valentin becomes a leader among his own, and Yuri Matulevich places a significant emphasis on a promising cadet. From now on, his training is often individual. In the very first city boxing competitions, Valery Popenchenko wins gold.

From now on, Valery devoted to boxing and training every day. Sport section the cadets liked it, because it made it possible to leave the walls of the military school at least for an hour or two. An alternative to sports was dismissal to the city, and although then Tashkent was not at all equal to the current one, the boys still happily walked around all the nooks and crannies of the Uzbek capital. They knew the city like the back of their hand: every street in Aksalinsky district, every bush of Communist Street, and so on. Previously, Valery was the same as everyone else - an optimistic and freedom-hungry cadet, but now he was less and less allowed to go into civilian life, because he free time was completely tied to training and learning boxing techniques.

The beginning of a professional career

In 1955, Valery graduated with honors from the Suvorov Military School. In his certificate there are only fives, and a gold medal hangs around his neck for diligent and conscientious study. From now on, the fate of all cadets was decided - where to go to study further. Of course, many went to military universities. Popenchenko's further activities were already predetermined - the guy is included in the youth boxing team of Uzbekistan. A couple of months later, he was sent to the boxing championship of the Soviet Union, which was held in the city of Grozny.

Feat at the national championship against the reigning champion

Boxer Valery Popenchenko coped with the preliminary rivals without much difficulty and reached the final stage of the tournament. Waiting for him at the finish line current champion Soviet Union - Moscow fighter Kovrigin. This confrontation shocked all spectators and fans. In the first round, there was no resonance: the fight was measured and calm - the rivals simply looked at each other. From the first seconds of the second round, Kovrigin began to carry out a series of aggressive attacks, and already in the first minute Valery conceded powerful blow in the head and is in a supine position. After listening to the referee's six-second countdown, Popenchenko was able to get up and continue the fight. At this time, the entire hall rejoices and showers the leading athlete with applause. Inspired by the support of the public, Kovrigin continued to attack the novice boxer and soon hit him with the strongest uppercut to the solar plexus. Valery again collapsed onto the platform of the ring, and the judge began to count the seconds, but did not have time, as the gong sounded to end the round.

With the start of the third round, no one doubted Kovrigin's triumph. It was obvious to everyone that the "Tashkent rookie" would not be able to resist him. The Moscow champion went on the attack again and gave Valery a few more rough blows. Closing in the block, Valery Popenchenko noticed a "hole" in the opponent's defense and inflicted his trademark powerful cross-punch, honed in the lyceum. A hopeless blow to Kovrigin's face turned out to be victorious - the opponent fell down with a roar on the platform of the ring and did not get up again. It was an unconditional knockout: Valery Popenchenko won his first gold medal at a high level.

Series of failures

After the triumph at the USSR Championship, the tandem of Yuri Matulevich and boxer Valery Popenchenko broke up. Fate decreed that the coach returned to Tashkent, and the new champion of the country went to Leningrad to enter the border university. Having entered the university, Valery almost did not go in for boxing, although he was given such an opportunity. The thing is that he did not like the coach. Despite this, after a couple of months, contact between them improved, and Popenchenko enters the competition on behalf of his university. Apparently, the lack of training played a cruel joke on the athlete - in the very first martial arts, Valery Popenchenko, whose fights always ended in victories, lost by knockout from Muscovite Sosnin. The first boxing defeat affected Valery's mood. At that time, it seemed to many that the boxer would no longer return to the big sport. However, life is used to dictating its own rules: once on football stadium Dynamo Valery Popenchenko crossed paths with coach Grigory Kusikyants. In the end, the two agreed that they would cooperate.

Under the direction of Kusikyantsev

The first confrontation in the ring followed a week after meeting Kusikyantsev. New coach, completely unaware of the skills and potential of his ward, released him into the ring to assess his boxing qualities and talents directly in business. These were the competitions of the Leningrad Spartakiad. Here Valery showed off his experience and skill and reached the final, where he met with the ex-champion of the Soviet Union - boxer Nazarenko. During the fight, both professionals looked worthy and equivalent, but Nazarenko turned out to be more technical, due to which he won on points. At this moment, Valery Popenchenko realizes that he needs to catch up in order to prevent the third defeat from tarnishing his sports biography.

In the next three years, Valery actively trained under the tutelage of coach Grigory Kusikyants. Despite the fact that the bulk of the time had to be devoted to studying, Popenchenko still found a place to train. Soon, in 1959, the master of knockouts in brilliant style wins the championship of the Soviet Union. The country's boxing association raised the issue of including V. Popenchenko in the Soviet team, which should soon go to the European Championship, which will be held in Lucerne. But this time the stars did not agree: the boxer could not pass qualifying round, losing to the Olympic weltmeister Gennady Shatkov. It is noteworthy that the offender Valery eventually won gold in this championship.

Sports resuscitation V. Popenchenko

Before getting into the Soviet team, Valery had to wait two whole years. During this period of time, he managed to win the championship twice at the national championship. At this time, many sports experts formed the opinion that Valery Popenchenko's boxing is clumsy and clumsy, and his victories are completely unforeseen accident.

At the European boxing championship, held in Moscow, Popenchenko forced to change the opinion of the fans about his incompetence. In the first fight, the boxer scored an Italian professional in “one wicket”, and in the second, he skillfully beat the experienced Yugoslav on points (who at that time had over 400 fights). And in the end, he defeated the Romanian boxer Ioan Monyu, inflicting a crushing knockout on him. This was the first triumphant victory of Valery Popenchenko at the European Championship.

Achievements of boxer V. Popenchenko

Over the next few years, the boxer managed to win gold again at the European championship, become the USSR champion four times (6 times in total), and even conquer Japan at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. During these periods, V. Popenchenko was the main star of the Soviet Union. He was invited to high-rated television programs and printed photos on the pages of newspapers! And loyal fans and admirers named their children after him.

Unexpectedly for everyone in 1965, the leading athlete of the USSR announced that he was leaving the world big sport. This news stunned the entire boxing community, people wondered: “how”, “why” and “why”, because with the naked eye it was clear that the athlete was at the peak of his career and could still win many trophies and titles. They tried to dissuade him and argue, but all was in vain. The boxer explained his position by the fact that he was loaded with other concerns: scientific works at the Higher Engineering School (writing and defending a dissertation), activities in the Central Committee of the Komsomol (joined in 1966) and a young family. As a result, there was simply no place for sports in his busy schedule.

Personal life

Valery Popenchenko's wife was a sweet student who studied at the Maritime Institute - Tatyana Vologdina. The couple met on a tour of the Hermitage: Tatyana came with her best friend, and Valery with a friend. Thanks to Tatyana's girlfriend, they met. In the corridor turmoil among hundreds of people, the girls struck up a relationship with the guys. Tatyana thought Valery's face was very familiar, but for a long time she could not remember how she knew him. Future spouse the great athlete rarely watched boxing broadcasts, however, due to the fact that Popenchenko was incredibly popular, almost everyone knew him (visually, in absentia and out of the blue). During the conversation, everything became clear when a handsome young man introduced himself: Valery Popenchenko. That evening, young people walked around Leningrad for a long time, and a love spark ran between Valery and Tatiana.

They met for four months, after which Valery proposed to her. In response, he heard a happy "yes", followed by family life. Tatyana Vologdina was from a good family, her parents accepted the young famous athlete with enthusiasm and joy. Soon the marriage of the young was made happy by the birth of their son Maxim.

In the late 60s, Valery and his family decided to move to Moscow, to live with his mother. Rufina Vasilievna suffered from loneliness, so she constantly called the young to her. In addition, she wanted to babysit Maxim's grandson. In the capital, Valery was offered many vacancies: some wanted to lure him into sports commentators, others called him to work as a coach in various sports clubs. But Valery chose the teaching path - at the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman - took the post of head of the department of physical education.

Mr Knockout. The riddle of Valery Popenchenko

In the 70s, new buildings began to be erected in Baumanka, including a sports complex. Work was in full swing, construction was in full swing. V. Popenchenko liked to visit the construction site to check the progress. Often he came in the morning - in a marine uniform and trousers. Here he could sit until the evening and even help the workers with something, he really liked it. One of the days a tragedy happened, it was February 1975. Many still do not believe in the absurdity of this story.

V. Popenchenko quickly descended the stairs, where there were low temporary railings, and at the next turn he suddenly lost his stability and flew down into the flight of stairs. The death of Valery Popenchenko came in an instant. The investigative services were unable to substantiate and actually confirm what happened at the construction site that day. Several eyewitnesses claimed that during the fall, Valery did not make a single sound - he flew down silently. This fact makes one think about someone's malicious intent, but the investigation did not find any motives for the crime. It was just an accident. The death of Valery Popenchenko was a tragedy for the whole country, because he was only 37 years old. He was an excellent teacher, a good family man and a first-class boxer.