Everything You Need To Know About Russian Martial Arts

Even in modern day, there is still a shroud of mystery surrounding Russia from the west. Whilst we are able to see videos of Russia and hear news, unless we choose to dig deeper ourselves, there is a limited amount of information we can gather from populist sources.

Russian martial arts are no real exception to this rule as they are still not widely practiced in the west. Granted, you can probably find a sambo school in your city if the population is large enough, but the average person has no idea what sambo is. Further still, there are various other Russian martial arts that even the most seasoned practitioners have never really come across or trained.

Some secrecy of Russian martial arts is intentional. Originally the Soviet government did not want to give any of their secrets away to west across a variety of disciplines which included martial arts. Up until fairly recently, the west really did not know a lot about modern Russian martial arts with our only sources being history books and writings about the past.

Thanks to the internet, things have opened up a lot and you are able to view demonstrations of pretty much any Russian martial art you want on youtube. If you are able to type in Russian, this is made even easier since many videos have not yet been translated.

In short, Russia has a long and rich history in combat sports which can be seen through its success in various international competitions. Russia and the Soviet Union have had scores of successful boxers, dominated freestyle wrestling on a level which has never been seen before, had judo world champions and have also more recently become a rising force in MMA. The only country which can be compared to Russia on a combat sports level of success in the USA, with everyone else being some distance behind. It makes sense then to have a look into Russian martial arts and what makes them so successful.

Russian Martial Arts

Systema

Much like krav maga, systema is a martial art with no black belts, no preset forms and no rules. Systema is unlike Japanese martial arts which are bound with respect, a strict code of conduct and rigid rules. Instead, systema is the Russian martial art which is used by the military, KGB, spies and anyone else involved within state sponsored defense.

Systema does not have preset movements but does of course involve both drilling and sparring. Due to the arena where systema is used, a heavy emphasis is placed upon weapons training and true self defense. Systema is not a gentle martial art, neither does it use anything which is fancy or may not work. It is a brutal system based upon getting the better of your opponent by any means necessary.

You can usually instantly recognize systema being taught since the instructors will often wear Russian military uniform rather than a rashguard or kimono. In recent years, systema has begun to lose respect within the world of martial arts since it has become more commercialized. This has led to various “experts” setting up systems under their own names trying to build a brand for themselves. This does not take away from the roots of systema, but you should select carefully who your instructor is and what they are teaching.

Sambo

The most popular Russian martial art and a true international export of grappling is Sambo. Sambo was created in the 1920s after 2 Russian wrestling coaches trained judo in Japan under the legendary Kano Jigoro.

Sambo has a lot in common with other grappling martial arts and is considered to be a mixture of judo, catch wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with a primary emphasis on leg locks.

Instead of using colored belts like traditional martial arts, sambo instead uses a rating system to ensure that fights are fair and not mistmatched.

Perhaps the main difference between sambo and other forms of submission grappling is the uniform. Sambo uses a full kimono combined with wrestling shorts, which is not used in other martial arts – other styles preferring to use one complete style or the other.

There are two main types of Sambo which are the combat variation in which strikes to the head and body are allowed. The second is sport sambo which places a heavy emphasis on throws and submissions rather than striking. It should be noted freestyle sambo is more popular outside of Russia, which removes some of the restrictions on illegal submissions.

Much like other forms of grappling, sambo bouts can be won by scoring and/or submission.

Buza

Buza is not a widely practiced or recognized martial art even within the borders of Russia. This is because it is somewhat region specific, as well as being culturally related to the slavic people.

If you know about the Brazilian martial art capoeira, Buza is essentially the Russian version of this. Buza is a dancing based martial art that uses a lot of kicking techniques combined with spins and also can incorporate weapons. Much like capoeira, buza is almost exclusively a non-combat sport and more of a fighting dance. That is not to say the practitioners are untrained, as there is no doubt a spinning kick to the head would hurt, regardless of whether it was accompanied by music or not!

In short, buza is a cultural martial art and has never gained and popularity outside of Russia.

Slavic Hill Wrestling

Slavic hill wrestling is not just a martial art, but also an ideology. This concept may be difficult for westerners to understand as we usually keep these categories separate. For example, western boxing is a tough sport, but there is certainly no ideology, political or otherwise.

Founded in the 1980s by Aleksandr Konstantinovich Belov, Slavic hill wrestling is a Russian martial art similar to British catch wrestling, submission grappling and somewhat similar to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. As slavs are an ethnic group within Europe, it is not just practiced within Russia and is also popular in ex-USSR countries such as Belarus and Ukraine.

The ideology behind Slavic hill wrestling is a fairly conservative and moral view of the world. As mentioned previously, those who practice slavic hill wrestling are not just doing this for fitness and enjoyment, but also because of a unified view on how the world should be. This involves worshipping slavic gods, as well as rejecting Russian ideas such as communism, believing that men should rule themselves and not a centralized government.

To summarise, slavic hill wrestling is catch wrestling combined with political and ideological beliefs – not something we are familiar with in the west.

ARB

ARB roughly translates as “army hand-to-hand combat” and was developed as a competition for the Soviet airborne troops, before rapidly spreading out to other Soviet military branches.

The sport of ARB takes place on a 10×10 meter mat which is a smaller area than a judo mat but larger than a boxing ring.

Founded in 1979, ARB is the closest thing you will find to MMA. At the date of inception, ARB was somewhat similar to UFC in that it had champions of various Russian martial arts such as sambo, boxing and judo square off against one another in ARB. In modern day, fighters are more experienced and well-rounded.

ARB also has similar rules and win conditions as modern day mixed martial arts. Fights can be stopped by referees, fighters can win by decisions from judges, as well as similar rules for disqualification such as groin strikes and eye pokes.

If Russia had been as open and commercialized as the USA, it is likely that ARB would be far more popular than the UFC having succeeded it by over 10 years.

Russian Boxing (Bare Knuckle)

Russian boxing has a very long history that likely goes back long before it was first documented in the 1200s. Fights would be organized both casually and also at local events and group meetings with champions of each region facing off against one another. Although boxing was not professional at this point in time, there were still famous boxers all across Russia.

As with all other European countries boxing origins, Russians were boxing bare knuckle which is a tradition still continued today outside the word of professional sport.

At various points throughout history, various Russian tsars banned bare knuckle boxing which just pushed the sport underground before being legalized again.

Perhaps the most bizarre format of Russian boxing were “team events” in which one group of fighters would box against another group. This format is still somewhat popular in modern day amongst Russian soccer hooligans who will arrange fights against one another in groups of 10+ people.

The technical superiority of Russian and Soviet fighters can be seen from the various high level boxers the country has produced at both the Olympic and professional level.

What Fighting Style Does The KGB Use?

Even today, the KGB is a highly secretive organization with very few Russians in its ranks and even fewer westerners knowing anything beyond surface level information.

What we do know is that you must have some type of martial arts background before joining the KGB. It is well known that Vladimir Putin was in the KGB for over 16 years and has a strong judo background. Putin is no judo world champion, but has had regional success in judo tournaments and would easily beat 99.9% of men his age in a physical confrontation.

As for the KGB as a whole organization, the agency practices and uses the Russian martial art systema. It should be noted that systema is also learned and used by Spetnasz due to its application as a fighting style and not just a martial art. A comparison can be drawn with krav maga which is not just suitable for a gym setting, but also a real life battlefield where your life is genuinely at risk.