Answers of Alexey Alexevich Kadochnikov to the Frequently Asked Questions about the Russian Martial Art

Part I 

1.Your biography.

I was born in Odessa. I’m Russian. I live in Krasnodar since 1939. I’ve got higher education. I am an academician of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and an academician of ANZ. I’m a pensioner (a veteran of military service and a veteran of work). I’m married and have a son and two grandchildren. I was granted government awards. I’m serving my Fatherland and people. My credo: believing in the future, feeling the present and understanding the past. My dream: Russia of the 21^st century is the state of hope, peace and composure; health and happiness of the Russian people. My motto: to know to foresee, to foresee to avoid. My philosophy: to protect the Russian Federation with physical, spiritual and intellectual forces.

2. How come that you decided to work out the style of the Russian martial art of your own? Was it based on some historical material, meaning some combat style that the Russians used earlier?

Upbringing, school, time, friends.

3. Who is the author of the name: “The Russian Style”?

It is the folk, time, life meaning epoch.

4. What is the Russian martial art? Is there any definition? What are its main characteristics?

This is not skills; though I place it above all other matters. The Russian hand-to-hand combat is not an aim but the way to achieve the aim. The memorial of the Slavs tells: the Arabs have elephants, the Avars have poison, the Frjags have

armour, the Khazars have horses, the Bulgars have blackthorn, the Varangians have ships, the Slavs have themselves. It’s self-dependency.

5. Why didn’t you take as a basis one of the Eastern martial arts?

I am a Slav and I live on the territory of my Slavic ancestors. This land feeds, loves and teaches me. I’m the part of this land. I should love and protect it, keep the traditions of my forefathers.

6. Can you compare the effectiveness of your style and other martial art?

Yes, I can. First you need to reduce them to the same equivalent like fractions to a common denominator. To be effective and efficient is not the same.

7. Is your style of the Russian martial art chiefly defensive or offensive, or may be both? Why?

It is an army style and this speaks for itself.

8. What are the main elements of your Russian martial art?

Science and knowledge. The trinity of forces.

9. What was your aim when you created your style?

This is my life.

10. What famous expressions and Russian proverbs and sayings can characterize your combat style?

A prophet is not recognized in his own land. You can’t escape nature. The sun casts beams upon the lowest shrubs. Nature abhors a vacuum and some others.

11. What is important to learn your Russian martial art? What qualities should a disciple develop in himself to gain perfect knowledge of your style?

He should have sense of duty, responsibility and be an obliging person.

12. What qualities does a person obtain when he is engaged with the Russian martial art?

Love, Belief, Hope. Responsibility. Power, stamina, understanding, feeling.

13. Can a foreigner gain the knowledge of the Russian martial art in full?

Of course he can if he really wants it.

14. Do you have any system of relationships “the teacher – the disciple” the way it is in the Eastern martial arts?

Yes, I do. Nowadays the informational state of the society changes several times during the lifetime of one generation. This never happened before in the entire history of the mankind. Psychology and motivation of human activity concerning knowledge underwent qualitative changes. Several technologies replace one another during the lifetime of one generation. People have to reproduce their qualifications themselves. Otherwise they will be discharged. Let’s discuss economics for instance. With reducing the period of renewal of technologies to less than 10 years the possibility to make a mistake in administering in economics increases great deal. Now about ideology. Today it is necessary to brainwash the same generation many times during its lifetime. There is no way the sport movement can be developed dynamically. Because there is one law: a martial art appears due to its newness and mystery. But trainings bring disappointment: “to know” and “to learn” are different notions. It is similarly to “look” and “see”: you can look but see nothing. You should work, work and work all the time. As a rule groups are left by those who can’t cope with this. Leave those people who regarded the martial art only as something new. Their motivation fades having no moral support; it stops to inspire a person’s ego.

The first disciples feel like pioneers. They look at the activity like at new lands, new subject. With the lapse of time comes new wave of young people and then another and another. Now some pioneers start to protest: “Why do they learn it like this and we are not?” As a result after several years of unity divisions appear, meaning a breakup into various schools and styles full of antipathies to each other and wounded ambitions.

15. You defeat an enemy applying knowledge of mechanics and biology. This fact doesn’t explain the success of your Russian hand-to-hand combat. There are lots of people who have similar knowledge but they didn’t create the Systema you worked out. How do you think why it was you who worked out this outstanding style of the Russian martial art?

Fortune smiled on me.

16. Can we call your creative ability the talent or the gift of God?

“I live not to be assessed or labeled. I take a praise and slander with indifference” – used to say Aleksandr Pushkin.

17. There is a Proverbs in the Gospel about people who were given talents by God. Those people who according to the will of God used it to do good was rewarded and those who buried it were punished. In your opinion do you do everything in your power to sow the good seed with your talent or you kind of bury it?

There are 40 years of labour (since 1962 to 2002). I planted the seeds of my job and they gave fruits. For my work with young people of Kuban and Russia I was awarded by the Russian Orthodox and the government of our country. Brain without intellect is a disaster!

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