Part I
Last years there were more and more talks and disputes about the Russian martial art. Some people praise its almost mythical effectiveness, others state that the Russians never had and it was impossible for them to have a combat school of their own and there was only some manners to fight in separate villages and clans.
In this article I’ll try as consistent as possible to explain the essence of the Russian hand-to-hand combat by taking as an example one of the adherent of the Russian martial art known as the Kadochnilov Systema. We are going to look through the history of its creation and some peculiarities of its technique. I think I have earned the right to do this as a disciple and old friend of Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov. Concerning other schools of the Russian martial art I can’t assess their peculiarities and effectiveness as I’m not a specialist in this field; I can only observe that mostly they use the same “arsenal”.
Right up to 80-s there was no such term as “Russian martial art”. It appeared later. Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov called his Systema a combat sambo and distinguished two more schools: semicombat sambo and sport sambo (the last one is well-known as the sambo worked out by Harlampiev).
After training in special subdivisions of the navy as a combat swimmer Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov got the material that he used as a basis for his system and school. Today the whole country knows it as “the Kadochnikov Systema”. Actually it took Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov whole life.
After the Revolution many people tried to revive the Russian martial art. The most popular among them are Oznobishin and Spiridonov. They took as a basis the system of the Russian hand-to-hand combat used in the Russian army. This statement is often contested but if you think over the situation at that period of our history, everything becomes clear.
The Russian officers were the source of this system. No wonder foreign countries willingly accepted former officers as instructors.
If you look back in the past you will make sure the Russian army paid great attention to the hand-to-hand combat. The effectiveness of the Russian martial art can be proved by lots of world known armies who had experienced its power.
This context to my mind gives to the well-known expression of Aleksandr Suvorov “a bullet is a fool but a bayonet is good” especial meaning. There was a technique and a school but it was not so propagated. As a result there is an opinion of some “specialist”: “The last 3-4 ages there wasn’t any “Russian combat schools” neither esoteric nor of some other kind. There were only original manners and ways to fight in various regions, villages, clans”. Was it really so? Or was it just forgotten?
The creation of the martial art is a sacred act just like the birth of a child. Believe me there is no such system that was produced as a result of “a creative activity of masses”. This is an inspiration of a single man the way Newton discovered the laws of the mechanics and Mendeleev worked out his periodic system. Just as traits of character, appearance and nationality of a child are determined by his parents the developed system will have national characteristics of its own.
And it isn’t associated with ceremonies and other things that appear much later. That’s why we can and should distinguish Russian, Chinese, Japanese and other systems of martial arts.
Further development of a system can run in two ways – the system may grow becoming stronger obeying its potency or it can undergo changes developing in the sport direction. In the last case traumatic and consequently the most effective elements are eliminated. The “body” of the system is dismembered into a number of separate technical elements – “holds” which are formed in a way it is better to produce a spectacular show. As a result appears a completed sport system. Its inner development is hardly possible due to the methodology of its creation.
A semicombat system is often made on the basis of the sport one when a combat system is either forgotten or closed for grassroots; that’s why it’s nonviable from the very beginning.
Thus the eastern martial arts actively imported in our country can’t be used as combat systems in the exact meaning of this word. That’s why Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov says that cultivation the eastern systems of martial arts in the Russian army undermines its fighting capacity.
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