The accountant's name was Klim Ivanovitch. Being the eldest son of a wealthy family, he was a secure and independent man. Nevertheless, he suffered from the fragility of his own body. His younger brothers closely resembled heroic giants. They excelled in any type of work, whether it be toiling in the fields, doing carpentry, or blacksmithing. Klim’s body however was not very good looking. He was pale, thin, and sallow. Lifting a blacksmith's hammer or even a simple bag of grain was impossible for him. When he was a boy, his father Ivan Fadeich would look upon him and simply sigh the words...”not a worker, definitely not a worker”.
Since he was too weak to work, Klim Ivanovitch decided to get a degree in accounting. After he graduated, he went on to live quite well, however he still resented the hand he was dealt and decided to do something about it. He subscribed to every sports book and magazine he could find. He bought many weights and strength training machines. Then he quietly began training in his little room. He would often fall exhausted onto the floor. He would experience relentless nosebleeds. Even though he wasn't experiencing any special benefits from it, Klim refused to give up on his training.
This was a man who bitterly resented the fragility of his body. Then one magical day, he found little Shura in the basement. Shura and Klim soon developed a nice friendship. They were a strange couple. One was a thin, sickly-looking man of thirty years and the other a small yet sturdy twelve-year old. They spent almost every night together. Amongst the chaotic sport literature that was dumped into one pile in accountant’s room, Shura found a lot of magazines and all sorts of instructions for “the development of strength and improvement of the figure." With mixed feelings of frustration, envy and good-natured friendship Klim Ivanovitch helped his new friend understand the stunts of circus and sports terminology. He also learned new exercises with him and told him all kinds of stories about weightlifters, strongmen, gymnasts, and wrestlers of whom he had read about. A whole new world of fantastic strongmen opened up in front of little Shura’s eyes.
It should be noted that the passion of Klim Ivanovitch was not something exceptional in contemporary Russia. Wrestling, weight lifting and acrobatics gained extraordinary popularity during this period. Fights were held everywhere. You could see them in the luxurious St. Petersburg Circus called "The Modern" or at the garden of the Puritan society called "The Guardianship of National Sobriety". You could even witness fights in the local theaters of Odessa (modern day Ukraine) and Stavropol (modern day Russia), in the parks of Penza (Russia) and Orenburg (Russia). Even women paid tribute to the overall enthusiasm of strength.
For example, magazines published such informational notes as "Archangel - the male wrestling competition will be replaced by female fighters such as Ettinger, Sokol'skaya, Morozov, Poddubnaya and so on ...The times are changing", or "Chisinau (modern day Moldova) - A new ladies championship consisting of 12 wrestlers is coming soon. A bit of let down for us because we were expecting to watch male wrestlers and not female". Despite some skepticism regarding female wrestling, it nevertheless continued to exist. It is difficult to say whether or not these kinds of "sports events” were beneficial, however, the mere existence of a women's "championship" is convincing enough evidence of exactly how widespread the sport of strength was in Russia during the early 20th century.
Back then, circus and sports were closely related. Popular performances and serious training worked side by side. One can say with complete certainty that the circus was the first promoter of the sport of strongman. Of course, hundreds of savvy entrepreneurs grew rich off of the championships of wrestlers and weightlifters.
Naturally, these performances were a far cry from true physical culture. They did however succeed in glorifying the power and beauty of the human body. The cult of strength marched triumphantly across the country. The reasons for this were quite manifest. Russia, originally a country of peasants, was entering the path of capitalistic development. With an enormous bureaucracy constructed of monstrously widespread offices, banks and other non-productive institutions, many people were cut off from their traditional rural way of life. The daily grind of work requiring physical effort was becoming less and less prevalent. Regardless, the Russian people had developed temperaments, moods and inclinations which still gravitated towards manual labor requiring crucial physical activity. A passion in strength training was a natural rebuttal for the people of Russia during this time.
This passion was fueled by other reasons as well. If the intelligentsia saw it as a return to the "golden age" of antiquity or to the culture of beautiful bodies, then the poor and uneducated considered the sport to be beneficial on practical terms. There were legends in the villages about peasant boys who became world champions and later returned to their native villages with lots of money to be spent on purchasing cattle or improving the overall economy of their families. These naïve stories drove many of the young village boys toward the circus stage, where they became easy prey for traffickers.
Very few of the strongmen returned to their native homes. Most were bound by contracts that they had to fulfill, that is, until they had made a good sum of money for their owners. Nevertheless, more and more Russian strongmen found their way to the circus arena. They hoped to profit from the only thing that separated them from their peers...their incredible strength.
All this, of course, was obscure to little Shura while he was rummaging through the books and magazines in Klim Ivanovitch's room. Within the pages of those books he saw legendary figures...He read about “Ilya of Murom” defeating the “Nightingale Robber” and about the evil “King of Kalina” who came from Golden Horde. He read about Svyatogor, the epic hero who competed with the farmer Mikula Selyaninovicht and about how Nikita Kozhemyaka fought and defeated the best fighter in all of Pechenegs. In honor of his victory in Kiev, Prince Vladimir founded the city of Pereslavl. Shura kept reading and learned how Alexander Nevsky had defeated Baron Von Birger who was reputed to be the great knight that would "Put a stamp on his name with the edge of your spear".
Little Shura greedily swallowed all of these stories of deep antiquity. He especially admired the King “Peter the Great”. Peter was said to break horseshoes without any effort at all. He could also roll silver plates into a tube and could tie a fire-poker into a knot. One day, Peter the Great and the King of Poland “Augustus” (who was also known for his mighty strength) began arguing over which one of them was the strongest. Peter ordered one of his servants to bring him a piece of chain-mail. Upon reception, he tossed it into the air cut it clean in half with one blow of his dagger.
Augustus could not repeat the feat.
The legends got even better as Shura read on! Another day, King Peter was out riding his horse. Along the way, his horse had lost a shoe and Peter stopped at the first available blacksmith. The blacksmith did not recognize the mighty Tsar. Peter was accompanied by several soldiers from the Preobrazhensky Regiment wearing modest dark-green uniforms. King Peter was wearing the very same uniform as his soldiers. The blacksmith assumed that the king was also a soldier. The blacksmith started a fire, took out a horseshoe, lifted the horse’s leg and was ready to begin his work when Peter stopped him
“Wait a minute, blacksmith! Come hither so I may observe that horseshoe...”
The blacksmith brought the horseshoe to him. Peter picked it up, broke it in half and threw the pieces into through open door of the forge.
“No, blacksmith, that shoe was no good!”
Surprised by the strength of the "soldier", the blacksmith took another horseshoe, this time one much thicker. Peter broke this one in half as well.
“That one was no good either, blacksmith!”
Silently, the blacksmith forged a new horseshoe and made it so strong that no matter how hard Peter tried, he could not break it.
“Now here is a real horseshoe!” said Peter approvingly.
When the job was done, the blacksmith received a copper coin from Peter. This time, however it was the king who was surprised. The blacksmith took the coin which he was given and snapped it in half with one movement of his fingers.
“No, soldier, this coin is not good enough!” said the blacksmith. Peter gave him a silver ruble, but the blacksmith broke this ruble just as easily as the copper one.
“This one is no good either, soldier! Fascinated by the power of the blacksmith, Peter took out a golden coin.
“Now this is a real coin!” laughed the blacksmith.
Upon his departure, Peter said unto the blacksmith...“Your strength is not at all inferior to mine”
“I think it's because we are both men of Russia. My entire family is strong...my father, grandfather, and my children...”
Little Shura was also inspired by the strongman legends of his own day. In August 1885 Dr. W. F. Krajewski, organized a circle of athletic enthusiasts in St. Petersburg.
Much had been written about Krajewski, both in Russia and abroad. Among the participants of the circle were George Hackenschmidt, Ivan Poddubny, Ivan Zaikin, Peter Krylov, as well as many other strongmen. Krajewski was once quoted as saying "I am confident that weightlifting will become very popular in Russia. This is the future.
No country besides Russia has such a mighty collection of exceptionally strongmen".
After reading this quote, little Shura felt as if the Krajewski’s words were addressed directly to him... Alexander Zass...the future “Iron Samson”.
The sight of medals, badges, winning prizes and trophies were spinning before little Shura's eyes.
He once read an article by the “King of Weights” Peter Fedotovich Krylov. Peter had gotten a job in 1895 at the Virgin Field of Likhachev in Moscow after surprising his master with 41-centimeter biceps.
The article read as follows...
”Likhachev felt me from all sides” remembered Krylov “and said to me 65 rubles a month, and you must work everyday'”.
The contract was signed and circus tours throughout the fairs of provincial towns began. Almost every hour he had to do alternate kettle-bell snatches with the weights, and even fight using belts with amateurs. Then “The King of Weights” went to the Kamchatsky Circus and got a “higher rank”. Remembering the work in this circus, Krylov said that he had to perform 12-15 times a day, and in between the performances he had to stand on the balcony of the circus with clowns and attract the crowd.
The "King of Weights" playing the role of the barker??? This puzzled the boy, but not for long.
His favorite hero was Eugene Sandow. In those years (as well as many years later), Sandow stirred up the imagination of thousands of people. Both oral and published narrations of his fantastically beautiful strength established the foundation of athletic literature. Now, as well as half a century ago, people would talk and argue about Sandow. Even today, he is being attacked and admired as though it were a discussion over one of our contemporaries...as if that fatal car accident which killed this remarkable athlete in October 1925 had never occurred.
Far away in the village of Zavolzhskoe, little Shura was idolizing Sandow. His book, "The Construction and Reconstruction of the Human Body" was like a Bible for Shura. With bated breath, he intensely followed the biography of his favorite sports hero.
Sandow, a sickly medical student, was passionately interested about human anatomy. He decided to become a professional wrestler and aimed to apply his knowledge in order to improve the body, not just not just heal it medicinally. Sandow always said "You can be better, stronger and more beautiful" to his friends and colleagues and he proved this to the world with his own life.
Sandow experienced sensational victories on the carpet time and time again.
Sensational, because the public at the time had gotten used to giant athletes weighing 150 kilograms or more.
Sandow was different. He was of average height and weighed only slightly more than 80 kilograms. It would seem that this did not leave him any chance of success fighting someone like “Cyclops” whose body resembled an awkward, yet impenetrable cabinet. Sandow was known for the grace of his body and elegance of his poses.
However, this athlete was not only able to pose. He broke the world record in pressing using only one arm. While standing on a handkerchief and with one and a half pood dumbbells in his hands, Sandow would jump into the air, do a full backflip and land exactly on the same handkerchief. He once even risked his life in fighting a lion.
The unusual combination of agility, strength and physical beauty (all at a very modest weight) made him a most favorite athlete and artist of the circus.
It seemed as though an unbridgeable gulf lay between the world champion and the boy from a small village lost in the vast steppes of Russia. Shura thought differently though. He decided to not only learn from Sandow’s system, but also to achieve the same perfection in his own body. (Looking ahead, we would like to note that twenty years later "Health and strength" magazine printed both Sandow's and Zass's portraits side by side on a special color cover)
So began Zass's invisible competition with Sandow.
Little Shura now started every day with gymnastics and jogging. Every spare minute he would spend in the backyard, where he had built his own makeshift arena, complete with a trapeze, homemade stone weights, a springboard and other projectiles.
The boy could feel how his body was becoming stronger as if it were filled with new strength.
Sandow traveled to America. He was examined by a doctor there. It is said that the athlete asked the minister of Aesculapius to stand on his palm with one foot. Sandow then proceeded to lift the doctor on his outstretched hand and place him on the table.
After reading this story Shura did not lose his hope. Besides Sandow’s book he had already became acquainted with the works of such Russian athletes like Anokhin, Dmitriev-Moreau and many more.
Now a stubborn teenager, Shura improved his manege. He constructed two horizontal bars for flights from one bar to another, making heavier weights and carving bars from stone. As a reward for all his hard work came his first success. Shura succeeded in “spinning the sun" on the bar, doing a pull up with one hand, and catching a stone thrown from the springboard.
He was particularly proud of the latter stunt. This is what it looked like. A big board was stacked across a large log. At one end there was a half pood boulder. The other end was free and Klim Ivanovitch was to jump on it. The stone flew up into the air and little Zass was to catch it.
The old stable man Uncle Grisha (who was the only person who shared the same passion for the circus as the two friends) was watching these exercises, and shaking his head disapprovingly. "You are going to break your foreheads, I tell you what. You are gonna cripple yourselves," he exhorted at the amateur circus performers.
Sometimes the stone would fly within a millimeter of Shura’s head. One time, Shura failed to keep the stone in his arms and it broke his collarbone. He had his arm in a sling for a month. Then he started all over again. It was no wonder that after many years in the circus arenas, Alexander Zass would be amazing the audience with his two
"death defying" acts. First, he would catch a 90-kilo cannonball, shot from a specially made cannon. Then, in order to make the stunt even more complicated, Zass's partner would be launched from a cannon, fly across the entire arena, and land in Zass's iron arms. He called this the “human cannonball”.
Well, everything will work out in the future ...Getting back to our story however, Shura the boy, was still competing in absentia with the world champion (Sandow). The forces were not equal. The champion had special weights, coaches, doctors, experience and knowledge. Shura Zass had clumsy, self-made, crooked horizontal bars and a sickly Klim Ivanovitch as a coach/teammate. The kid was stubborn, very stubborn.
One day, the teenager Shura Zass got some fresh news about his idol Eugene Sandow. Sandow was organizing the first contest of athletic bodybuilding in London. A parade of strongmen was going to be hosted by England’s most famous icons, one of which was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous writer. The contest turned out to be a great success.
“If there was going to be a contest, then let there be a real contest” Shura thought to himself. He dared himself to partake in a risky venture. He wanted to get to Saransk and compete. If he couldn't face Sandow, then he would at least compete with local the strongman Vanya Pood. After all, Vanya himself promised to give 10 rubles to anyone who could compete with him. No one was able to do the things that Vanya did.
However, little Shura could. Zass would not submit to Ivan Pood. The audience would applaud him just like they were applauding for Sandow in a distant foggy London.
Shura began to train for the competition without telling anyone about his plans.
He couldn’t find an iron rod to bend so he replaced it with the thick branches of a poplar tree that grew by the side of the road, not far from his home. Still spending his time training with Klim Ivanovitch, the small competitor would sneak out at 3 o'clock in the morning for more training. He would climb that tree like a monkey and try to bend the branches of this old steppe giant. These routines did not only require strength, but also skill, courage, and the ability to maintain balance. It all came in handy for Samson later.
For now, all he was getting were stubborn green crowns, calluses on his palms, and bruises on knees...
Finally, Shura decided that he was ready for the competition. How this unwavering confidence about his strongman capabilities came about during that time he
Finally, Shura decided that he was ready for the competition. How this unwavering confidence about his strongman capabilities came about during that time he