Russian Martial Arts
Russian Martial Arts
Russian Martial Arts, sometimes referred to as RMA, is the generic term applied to a large number of martial arts both traditional and modern with their origins in Russia.
History Due to its territorial extent various ethnic groups in Russia were forced to rely on their local militias for defense at various times. Because of this they tended to develop their own separate martial art traditions.
In addition due too its geographic position Russian martial arts were influenced by Chinese, Japanese, West European, Greco-Roman, and Central Asian Martial art traditions.
Thus traditional Russian martial arts with their quite unique features were shaped by both indigenous traditions and cultural influences from a variety of neighboring countries. While there are certain common features in all the Russian martial arts, they also have strikingly different features both in techniques and in philosophy underlying them
During Communist years most traditional martial arts were suppressed. However most somehow survived and since the fall of communism they have made a significant comeback During communist era several special forces related combat systems were developed by the military forces adapting techniques from various other martial arts and even science. These too have begun to flourish as civilian self defense martial arts since the fall of communism.
Following are few (by no means exhaustive) of various Russian fighting arts.
Sambo Sambo also known as Sombo is a combat system developed in the former USSR around 1938. Word is an abbreviation of Russian phrase ?self defense without a weapon?. It was rooted in various folk martial arts of USSR and was the result of a state backed attempt to create the ultimate hand to hand combat system.
Systema This is more of a generic name meaning ?the system?. In fact during Soviet times there developed several systems of fighting among military and special units as detailed below. They were intended for real life application than for sport.
Kadochnikov's Systema This was created by Aleksey Alekseyevich Kadochnikov around 1960 using scientific know-how from biomechanics, mechanics, physics, and psychology. It was also influenced by other martial arts like Sambo. It was originally used for combat training of Russian military.
Sokoli Stalina This is a combat system developed by Stalin?s bodyguards (known as Stalin's Falcons) and by Special Military Operations Units thereafter, for operatives in high risk missions.
Ryabko's Systema This is a combat system derived from Sokoli Stalina by Mikhail Ryabko, a colonel in army, and used initially by the military. This is not the same as the Systema developed by Kadochnikov and its training methods and principles are different with much less emphasis on science.
Spetsnaz GRU hand-to-hand combat system This also called Popov's System is influenced by Chinese martial arts, especially Shaolin Kung Fu. It was taught to the special operatives of GRU who engaged in reconnaissance and other secret missions.
ROSS or Retuinskih System ROSS stands for Russian Native System of Self Defense in Russian. It was created by Alexander Retuinskih and is more a system of improving effective fighting skills of the performer in various martial arts, especially Russian ones, than a martial art system of its own. For this purpose it utilizes training methods used in Kadochnikov's Systema and others. Russian Kempo This known also as Agni Kempo is a martial art developed at the time of Kiev Rus and is a way of fighting with fists.
Buza This martial art was developed in the ancient Novgorod and includes both unarmed as well as armed techniques using medieval weapons. Folk martial arts. Russia has a variety of other folk martial art styles including still practiced, Pshkovian Skobar, Slavyano-Gortskaya Sorba, Ukrainian Spas, Ukrainian Kazak, Byelorussian Asilki, Various forms of Kuresh in central Asia, Georgian Chidaoba, Armenian Koch among others. Some of them originated in countries of USSR or other Slave Countries.