Sambo as the martial art of the masses in pre-WWII USSR

This thread is inspired by an episode of ULTIMATE WEAPON I saw last night: now Vassili Oshchepkov, as 1 of the 1st Europeans to go to japan to learn judo & the main founder of the eclectic hybird fighting style which became Sambo, wished to have this martial art taught to the ordinary peasants & proletariat of the USSR instead of just being restricted to the elites of the GPU/OGPU/NKVD & Red Army. However, his populist idea for Sambo was frowned upon by Stalin's ruling elite, with Oshchepkov himself being sent to the gulags then liquidated in 1937.

WI somehow Oschepkov's idea for disseminating Sambo to everybody actually did eventuate ? WI also he hadn't fallen foul of the NKVD & had lived to see 1941- what impact could he have had if he'd been around to help fighht against BARBAROSSA ?
 
As proved by Norris and Van Damme Martial Arts are superior to artillery,tanks and planes.

Babrbarossa will be crushed in the first months and the Soviets will be in Berlin by christmas.
 
As proved by Norris and Van Damme Martial Arts are superior to artillery,tanks and planes.

Babrbarossa will be crushed in the first months and the Soviets will be in Berlin by christmas.

It totally depends on whether the Sambo-ists are followed by camera crews. If they are, it's pure win and afterwards a best-selling cinematic genre is established, in the long run winning the Cold War because of sheer awesome.
 
It totally depends on whether the Sambo-ists are followed by camera crews. If they are, it's pure win and afterwards a best-selling cinematic genre is established, in the long run winning the Cold War because of sheer awesome.

Now, that's a good idea! In OTL Soviet Union had nothing, just nothing in pop-culture what it could sell to the West. Maybe Sambo courses could infiltrate the rotten Western societies after pre-invasion of such Sambo flicks as "Fist of Fury" in which a KGB agent on vacation single-handedly derails a coup attempt in a third world country by capitalist mercenaries...
 
Now, that's a good idea! In OTL Soviet Union had nothing, just nothing in pop-culture what it could sell to the West. Maybe Sambo courses could infiltrate the rotten Western societies after pre-invasion of such Sambo flicks as "Fist of Fury" in which a KGB agent on vacation single-handedly derails a coup attempt in a third world country by capitalist mercenaries...

I agree. Soviet films were either too brainy, or too Soviet-specific, or too obvious as crude propaganda.

Soviet-fu would sell, however.
 
Massive implementation of SAMBO could serve 2 purposes: increasing Red Army rank and file's ability to wage a hand combat and increasing general endurance of Soviet troops. Neither was exactly in short supply when Red Army was adequately clothed, fed and led.
 
Martial Arts as a state-sponsored "craze" is actually a very plausible event. Athletic training and physical fitness were very popular and heavily encouraged in pre-war Soviet culture, and workout routines and paramilitary training were part of high school life for most young people. A competitive, athletic, and combat-oriented activity like Sambo really only needs a turn of fate to become popular, perhaps massively popular.

Witness the OTL mania for parachuting- with the full backing of organizations like DOSAAF and Komsomol parachuting classes were popular and large numbers of people had the opportunity to qualify. By the late 1930's, the USSR had more qualified parachutists than any other country.

Of course, for how this changed the course of the Great Patriotic War, I think the Sambo/Parachuting analogy is close once again. Nothing much came of the parachuting craze in military terms. Yes, the VDV was the largest and best trained airborne force in the world, but they lacked air transport and most fought on foot. Furthermore, the rot in the Red Army was systemic and no amount of individual training could change that.

A TL where Sambo is the "it" thing to learn among, say, more macho, physically-minded and (of course) patriotically eager Soviet youth maybe results in a few more muddy-bottom-of-trench scuffles won by Soviet soldiers. But that would be it.

The cultural ramifications of Sambo fighting as a cultural icon of Soviet virility and competence, however, is interesting, although I'm not sure how it would fit into existing Soviet pop-cultural hero mythologies (red sun of the desert, that one spy series about the SS double agent, etc.)
 
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