Bodybuilding in the USSR.

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1983. Kaunas. Komsomol Cup. Category over 90 kg. R. Ivanauskas (Lithuania), Arkady Ayu (Estonia), Vladimir Goryunov (RSFSR), Sergei Levenok (Latvia), Evgeny Zhurtsev (Lithuania).

 

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Tajik SSR. Dushanbe, 1987. First demonstration performances. Palace of Trade Unions. Pyotr Skotnikov, Vitaly Starkov, Marat Sadekov, Alexander Piskunov, Eduard Kesayev, Bakhtiyor Alimuradov, right-winger Vladimir Vodyanykh.

 

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Победители Чемпионата Эстонской ССР 1990 года-Айн Пааво и Инна Уйт.

 

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Poster advertising a bodybuilding competition. Kaliningrad. 1988.In the photo: Boris Velikoivanenko.

 

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Poster for the White Sea Cup tournament in Severodvinsk in 1972.

 

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Igor Ivanov (Veliky Novgorod). Photo from 1991. Winner of the Dovmontov Cup tournament in Pskov.

 

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Participants in the 1989 RSFSR Championship in Astrakhan. 65 kg category. Left in the photo: Pyotr Kratenok (Arkhangelsk Region), who took 10th place. Second from left: Dmitry Polyakov (Smolensk), who took first place in his category. The two athletes on the right are unknown.

 

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Strength and grace. Vladimir Fedak and Svetlana Lomachevskaya from Smolensk. Photo from 1990. "Mr. and Miss Ural-90" tournament in Ufa.

 

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Bodybuilder Alexander Vasin. City of Luga.Photo by A. Chernykh.

 

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Some of the first bodybuilders in Kaliningrad were Mikhail Synkov and Yuri Smolyakov. They participated in tournaments held in the 1970s in Severodvinsk, Tallinn, Kalinin, and Kaliningrad. In 1987, Yuri Smolyakov headed the regional athletics federation.

 

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Strength and grace. Olga Pavlichenko and Andrey Shipitsa (Astrakhan). Photo from 1987. Astrakhan Region Open Championship.

 

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Vladimir Durnenko, the founder of bodybuilding in Omsk. In 1964, he founded the Hercules athletics club, where he served as a coach for many years. In 1966, he ran a bodybuilding column for the Molodoy Sibiryak newspaper, "School of Strength and Beauty." He participated in tournaments in Tyumen, Tallinn, and Kaunas. In the 1980s, he was the head of the Omsk Federation.

 

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The 1990 Chelyabinsk Open Championship.
On stage, a pairs performance by Alexander Turgenev and Natalia Usenko.

 

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1990. RSFSR Cup in Smolensk. Pairs. In the foreground, left: Elena Davydova and Andrei Nosov (Tyumen); on the right: Olga Kondratieva and Viktor Maleev (Astrakhan). In the background, left: Margarita Filchenkova and Pavel Danilov (Smolensk); the right pair is unknown.

 

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Oleg Ilyin. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk champion, winner of all-Union tournaments.

 

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One of the first tournaments in Soviet Armenia. Yerevan, 1989.

 

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Strength and grace. Igor Omelnitsky and Svetlana Mavrina. Yaroslavl Region Championship, 1989.

 

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In 1967, a group of athletics enthusiasts founded an athletic club in Pavlovsk. Its organizer and driving force was Viktor Dudanov. The club was named “Samson-2”, as several members of the group had previously trained at the Leningrad club “Samson”, led by the well-known athlete of that time, Nikolai Ilyeshin.
Only physically strong young men — true devotees of athletic training — were admitted to the club. The club’s athletes formed the core of a voluntary people’s patrol that assisted the police in maintaining public order in the city. All of this helped the club survive the difficult 1970s, when bodybuilding was officially banned in the USSR. During this period, the first competitive athletes began to emerge, including Gennady Pryanikov and Vladimir Malin.
In 1976, the club moved to the building it still occupies today and became part of the youth club “Raduga” as a section of athletic gymnastics, led by Gennady Pryanikov and Igor Golubev. The club became more accessible, and the number of participants increased many times over. Internal club competitions began to be held.
In 1979, Igor Golubev competed in athletics events in Tallinn (the Georg Tõnno Memorial), which served as an unofficial USSR championship, where he achieved an honorable fourth place. During the 1980s, the club gradually formed a representative team whose athletes took part in popular tournaments of that era in Luga, Narva, Vilnius, Tallinn, Kaunas, Vitebsk, and Kharkiv.
After the establishment of the Athletics Federation, the club’s athletes regularly participated in city and national championships. Among the leading athletes of that period were I. Golubev, S. Makovitsky, A. Gorbachev, Yu. Govyadko, A. Serov, L. Aleksashin, A. Gavrilyuk, and others.
As many of the athletes were residents of the town of Pushkin, and at their request, in 1986 — with the assistance and support of the organization SevZapEnergoMontazh — Igor Golubev and Sergey Pechnikov founded the “Energetik” club in Pushkin (later renamed “Atlant”). Many outstanding athletes were trained there, including Yuri Bochkov, Ilya Nazin (World Champion, 2010), Vladimir Galimov, and brothers Vadim and Vitaly Yurenya (Masters of Sport in powerlifting), among others.
In 2001, on the initiative of V. A. Safronov, V. Yu. Kalya, and I. A. Golubev, the first city-wide Athletic Youth Festival was held in the Pushkin District. Having become a traditional showcase for young athletes, the Festival continues to be held annually in various districts of Saint Petersburg.
Also in 2001, based at the youth club “Raduga”, two clubs — “Atlant” and “Raduga” — were merged, and Raduga was granted the status of an athletic club.
At the club’s 40th anniversary in 2007, the event was attended by 12-time world champion Alexander Vishnevsky, the outstanding bodybuilder, judge, and coach Andrey Prokofiev, while young Alexey Lesukov performed a freestyle routine. Since 2008, the Raduga Athletic Club has been part of the District Youth Center “Pushkinets”, where free training groups for teenagers were organized.
Annual competitions for the Strongest Athlete of the Club Cup were introduced. The cup was repeatedly won by Sergey Belkin, Vladimir Ivanov, and Roman Krasikov. The club’s athletes regularly participate in competitions organized by the Athletic Youth Center and by the Saint Petersburg federations of powerlifting, bodybuilding, and fitness.
On May 21, 2017, the club celebrated its 50th anniversary.

 

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athletic club "Raduga" in Pavlovsk. 1969.

 

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Athletic club "Raduga" in Pavlovsk.V. Malin and I. Fregatov