The great Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov.

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Yuri Vlasov's card.
Date: 1960
Author: Panini Group

 

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Yuri Vlasov/ Weightlifting/ Vintage 1960 Hemmets Journal/
Sports card from Sweden.

 

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The 36th USSR Weightlifting Championships were held from December 19 to 22, 1961, in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR. Two hundred and ten athletes participated, divided into nine weight categories, and competed in the three-event competition (bench press, snatch, and clean and jerk). Pictured: Leonid Zhabotinsky, second from right. Yuri Vlasov, third from right.

 

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Yuri Vlasov at a painting exhibition.

 

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Yuri Vlasov at a shot put competition in the 1950s

 

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Yuri Vlasov on a walk.

 

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Vlasov heading the Soviet team at the 1964 Olympics

 

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“Once I was asked to bend a five-kopeck coin. I couldn’t, but the man who suggested it did. Yet I could see: he would be crushed in deadlifts or squats by weights that are utterly ordinary for any weightlifter. Only his hands were developed — and developed, as he admitted, through ten years of daily exercises. But that is not strength as such; it is merely the quality of a single muscle group, and a very limited one at that.
One must not confuse the strength expressed by the whole musculature with the strength of its individual groups. They say: a man lifts 400–600 kilograms. I already know in advance — that is deadlifting strength, supported by leg power, and even then displayed only at strictly defined ‘angles’ — degrees of leg extension (which is very important)… As a rule, his arms and shoulders are incapable of pressing even a hundred kilograms.
A person can achieve impressive results in developing individual muscle groups — for example, squatting with unprecedented weight. Yet in all-around competition he will be beaten. That is the difficulty of athletic training: to have all muscles prepared.
But even with harmony, strength alone is not healthy strength. One must run, swim, and do other exercises for endurance and flexibility. Without them, strength is diseased.
A first-class athlete may be smothered in muscle, yet for health those muscles are useless, even harmful. For such a superman, digging a garden bed is already a task. Unfortunately, the professionalization of strength is steadily increasing in weightlifting (and not only in weightlifting). Therefore modern training, with its tendency toward narrow specialization, must include endurance work. This is a requirement of both competition and health — not a whim.”
(Yuri Vlasov — Fairness of Strength)

 

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“Photo of Yuri Vlasov in the magazine Soviet Warrior, No. 19, 1964.”
Translation of the text:
“On the eve of the XVIII Olympic Games, army athlete Yuri Petrovich Vlasov presented his country and Soviet sport with a remarkable gift. New world records have been entered into the world record tables in his name: in the press — 196 kg! in the snatch — 170.5 kg! and in the total of the three lifts — 580 kg!
It is characteristic that Vlasov himself does not consider this figure the limit. ‘The real records lie ahead,’ Yuri Petrovich asserts. ‘They are only just beginning, for only recently have athletes learned how to develop strength intelligently.’ And that means Soviet sportsmen will present their Motherland with more than one phenomenal achievement in weightlifting.”

 

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“What matters is not success in the eyes of others, nor what is taken for values (for which you burn your life), but your own judgment of yourself before your own conscience.
There is nothing more degrading than a life lived solely to satisfy ambition, to prove one’s supposed uniqueness or superiority — even if only one’s significance. Above all, it insults you… it insults you.
Any violation of the naturalness of feelings is already a discord within oneself and a winding road through life — often like a noose…”
— Yuri Vlasov, “The Justice of Strength”

 

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Yuri Petrovich Vlasov
On Sycophants…
I must tell you that sycophants live well under any system, under any form of power — socialist or capitalist, it’s the same everywhere. If you have no backbone, if you’re ready to crawl and flatter, you’ll be considered very useful in any system… and you’ll make a very fine career. But if you have an inner core and your own principles, then under any system you’ll be ground down and crushed… such people are not wanted…

 

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“Is this a book about sport — about training, contests, records, glory, and the deceptions of glory and by glory?…
It is a book about people and about life. People were building something new in life. This new thing did not come easily and often punished them for it. Yet they did not yield, though they bent beneath defeats and suffering.
It was an ordinary and an extraordinary life — a small fragment of it, with its own distinctive order of struggle. People called this fragment Sport, but it was still the same life — or rather, it was one part of the single, boundless life of all.
The peculiarity of this life called Sport is that it unfolds mostly before everyone’s eyes, and it is very short, far shorter than what we call ordinary life — that is, the life of all.
No, these are not memoirs about Sport; this is rather a confessional book about hopes, faith, the collapse of hopes… and the inextinguishable fire of faith.”— Yuri Vlasov, “The Justice of Strength”

 

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“A full-fledged culture nurtures people with a healthy psyche, a broad outlook, an awareness of their responsibility to society, and an understanding of the value of life — that is, it forms true citizens.”
(Yuri Vlasov, “We Are and We Shall Be”)

 

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"Не потеряй себя человек, иначе судьба отнимет у тебя жизнь!"
(Юрий Власов. "Великий передел").
“Do not lose yourself, man — otherwise fate will take life itself from you!”
(Yuri Vlasov, The Great Redistribution).
«No te pierdas a ti mismo, hombre — de lo contrario el destino te arrebatará la vida».
(Yuri Vlasov, La Gran Redistribución).

 

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"Не верь, будто твоя правда тонет в миллионах голосов и ее не слышно и потому она бесполезна, бесплодна и никому не нужна.
Не верь, что ты ничего не можешь изменить, а потому лучше, как говорится, не высовываться.
Все это – мудрость больших серых крыс".(Юрий Власов. "Справедливость силы").

“Do not believe that your truth is drowned in millions of voices, unheard and therefore useless, barren, needed by no one.
Do not believe that you can change nothing and thus, as they say, it is better not to stick your neck out.
All that is the wisdom of big gray rats.”.(Yuri Vlasov. The Justice of Strength).

“No creas que tu verdad se ahoga entre millones de voces, que no se oye y por eso es inútil, estéril y nadie la necesita.
No creas que no puedes cambiar nada y que, por eso, como se dice, es mejor no sobresalir.
Todo eso es la sabiduría de las grandes ratas grises.”(Yuri Vlasov. "La justicia de la fuerza").

 

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"Чемпионаты мира в Варшаве, Софии, Олимпийские игры в Риме — тогда я не принимал «железо» всерьез...
На фотографиях тех лет я смеюсь. В моих руках рекордное «железо», а я смеюсь.
Я не бравировал и не кокетничал. Слава, восторг публики, внезапный и жадный интерес газет ко мне, щедрые награды... в самом деле, какая нелепая, но веселая шутка! Ведь штанга весит сущие пустяки, нужно быть лишь очень уверенным, и она сама охотно ляжет на вытянутые руки. За три года я наштамповал около двадцати рекордов, и большинство мировых...
Тренировки были для меня удовольствием. Я насыщался мускульной радостью. В этом древнем инстинкте столько тонкого и благородного чувства! Я поднимал «железо», не задумываясь, в какие цифры оно превратится в газетных строчках. Пусть репортажи городят что угодно: «И фантастически, и феноменально, и великолепно!..» На мою штангу еще можно навешивать и навешивать диски. Мне было даже чуточку не по себе. Казалось, я дурачу людей".(Юрий Власов. "Белое мгновение").

“At the World Championships in Warsaw and Sofia, and at the Olympic Games in Rome, I did not yet take the iron seriously…
In photographs from those years I am smiling. The record weight is in my hands, and I am smiling.
I was not showing off, nor was I being coquettish. Fame, the crowd’s delight, the sudden and eager interest of newspapers, generous awards… truly, what a ridiculous yet cheerful joke! After all, the barbell weighs next to nothing — one only has to be very confident, and it willingly settles onto outstretched arms. In three years I stamped out about twenty records, most of them world records…
Training was a pleasure to me. I feasted on muscular joy. There is so much subtle and noble feeling in this ancient instinct! I lifted the iron without thinking what numbers it would turn into in newspaper lines. Let the reports pile up whatever they wish: ‘fantastic,’ ‘phenomenal,’ ‘magnificent!’ More and more plates could still be loaded onto my barbell. I even felt a little uneasy. It seemed I was fooling people.”
(Yuri Vlasov, White Moment).

«En los Campeonatos del Mundo de Varsovia y Sofía, y en los Juegos Olímpicos de Roma, aún no me tomaba el “hierro” en serio…
En las fotografías de aquellos años estoy sonriendo. En mis manos está el peso récord, y yo sonrío.
No presumía ni coqueteaba. La fama, el entusiasmo del público, el repentino y ávido interés de los periódicos por mí, los generosos premios… en verdad, ¡qué broma tan absurda y a la vez tan alegre! Al fin y al cabo, la barra pesa poquísimo: basta con tener mucha confianza, y ella misma se acomoda dócilmente sobre los brazos extendidos. En tres años fabriqué cerca de veinte récords, la mayoría mundiales…
Entrenar era para mí un placer. Me colmaba de alegría muscular. ¡Cuánto sentimiento fino y noble hay en ese instinto antiguo! Levantaba el “hierro” sin pensar en las cifras en que se convertiría en las líneas de los periódicos. Que los reportajes digan lo que quieran: “¡fantástico!”, “¡fenomenal!”, “¡magnífico!”. A mi barra todavía podían seguir añadiéndole discos y más discos. Incluso me sentía un poco incómodo. Me parecía que estaba engañando a la gente».
(Yuri Vlasov, Instante blanco)

 

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"Вот как это может быть? Работали все люди, создавали ценности : дома, дороги, каналы, заводы - а покупает один, два?
А все, кто это создал? Они, выходит, ни при чём?". ("Юрий Власов "Кто правит бал").


“How can this be? All the people worked, created values — houses, roads, canals, factories — yet one or two buy it all? And those who created it? Are they, then, as if they had nothing to do with it?”
(Yuri Vlasov, “Who runs the show?”.

«¿Cómo puede ser esto? Toda la gente trabajó, creó valores — casas, carreteras, canales, fábricas — y sin embargo uno o dos lo compran todo. ¿Y los que lo crearon? ¿Resulta que ellos no tienen nada que ver?»
(Yuri Vlasov, Quien marca el compás)

 

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Парад тяжелоатлетов. Победители 37-го чемпионата CCCP, который проходил в Тбилиси в мае 1962 года.
Парад чемпионов (слева направо):
Юрий Власов (ЦСКА Москва, 110 + кг, золото), Роберт Шейерман (ЦСКА Свердловск, 110 кг, золото), Василий Степанов («Динамо Рига», 90 кг, серебро), Эдуард Бровко («Спартак», 90 кг, золото), Вячеслав Козлов («Спартак» Днепропетровск, 75 кг, бронза), Владимир Каплунов (ЦСКА Хабаровска, 67,5 кг, золото), Рафаэль Чимишкян («Динамо Тбилиси», 60 кг, бронза), Арнольд Хальфин («Спартак Львов», 52 кг, серебро), Владимир Сметанин (Армия Свердловск, 52 кг, золото ).

Weightlifting parade. Winners of the 37th USSR Championship, held in Tbilisi in May 1962.
Parade of champions (left to right):
Yuri Vlasov (CSKA Moscow, 110+ kg, gold), Robert Scheierman (CSKA Sverdlovsk, 110 kg, gold), Vasily Stepanov (Dynamo Riga, 90 kg, silver), Eduard Brovko (Spartak, 90 kg, gold), Vyacheslav Kozlov (Spartak Dnepropetrovsk, 75 kg, bronze), Vladimir Kaplunov (CSKA Khabarovsk, 67.5 kg, gold), Rafael Chimishkyan (Dynamo Tbilisi, 60 kg, bronze), Arnold Khalfin (Spartak Lviv, 52 kg, silver), Vladimir Smetanin (Armiya Sverdlovsk, 52 kg, gold).

Desfile de halterofilia. Ganadores del 37 Campeonato de la URSS, celebrado en Tbilisi en mayo de 1962.
Desfile de campeones (de izquierda a derecha):
Yuri Vlasov (CSKA Moscú, 110+ kg, oro), Robert Scheierman (CSKA Sverdlovsk, 110 kg, oro), Vasily Stepanov (Dynamo Riga, 90 kg, plata), Eduard Brovko (Spartak, 90 kg, oro), Vyacheslav Kozlov (Spartak Dnepropetrovsk, 75 kg, bronce), Vladimir Kaplunov (CSKA Khabarovsk, 67,5 kg, oro), Rafael Chimishkyan (Dynamo Tbilisi, 60 kg, bronce), Arnold Khalfin (Spartak Lviv, 52 kg, plata), Vladimir Smetanin (Armiya Sverdlovsk, 52 kg, oro).

 

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«Портрет чемпиона мира, тяжелоатлета Юрия Власова», 1961 г. Холст, масло. Художник Федор Модоров. Государственный Владимиро-Суздальский историко-архитектурный и художественный музей-заповедник.

"Portrait of World Champion Weightlifter Yuri Vlasov," 1961. Oil on canvas. Artist: Fyodor Modorov. State Vladimir-Suzdal Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve.

"Retrato del campeón mundial de halterofilia Yuri Vlasov", 1961. Óleo sobre lienzo. Artista: Fyodor Modorov. Museo Estatal de Historia, Arquitectura y Arte de Vladímir-Súzdal.

 

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Значок с портретом Юрия Власова работы художника Федора Модорова.

A badge with a portrait of Yuri Vlasov by artist Fyodor Modorov.

Una insignia con un retrato de Yuri Vlasov realizado por el artista Fyodor Modorov.