Dr. Krajewski Uses Nicolai Petroff to Teach George Hackenschmidt a Lesson

The story of Nicolai Petroff dominating eager young George Hackenschmidt on the mat.

The following very interesting story involving the legendary George Hackenschmidt was published in the 1 March 1910 edition of the popular French magazine "La Culture physique". Let's first take a look at the story as it was written in the magazine and then I'll provide some context around it.

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THE GOOD LESSON

How Dr. Krajewski, with the help of Petroff, corrected the excessive passion of young Hackenschmidt for wrestling.

Nicolai Petroff and George Hackenschmidt

We know that the famous wrestler George Hackenschmidt, Тhe Russian Lion, was discovered and trained by Dr. Wladyslaw Krajewski of St. Petersburg, now deceased, who during his lifetime specialized in the training and raising of champions in wrestling and strength. Hackenschmidt was one of his most brilliant students; Georg Lurich and Sergei Eliseev were others. Dr. Krajewski had taken Hackenschmidt under his wing at a very early age. At sixteen or sixteen and a half years of age he had discovered in him great natural strength and had asked him what he intended to do.

"I would like," replied young Hackenschmidt, "to become a famous wrestler, to be able to defeat all who would dare to compete with me."

"Good!" - said Krajewski - "If you wish, you can be the king of wrestlers. You have the physical ability. Today I will become your trainer and I will make your dream come true; but you will have to listen to me and strictly follow the training that I will impose on you. You are strong: I will double your strength and, above all, I will give you the muscles that a wrestler needs."

Hackenschmidt accepted and from that day on he became Krajewski's pupil. He trained under his guidance in the doctor's athletics office, which the latter had decorated with all the photographs of famous athletes that he had managed to collect, a collection of which he was justly proud. But Krajewski was careful not to immediately introduce his young protégé to wrestling. Through a sensible program of physical training, he first developed his musculature in a general way and, as he had foreseen, doubled his strength. At nineteen years old, Hackenschmidt was indeed lifting 75 to 80 kilograms.

Then, considering his student strong enough, he focused on developing, through a series of special exercises, all the muscles that are especially important and useful for a wrestler: those of the neck, lower back, thighs and legs. But he always forbade him to wrestle. This did not suit Hackenschmidt at all! He felt strong, his blood was boiling and he did not understand at all the wisdom of his master's prohibition. Therefore, every time an athlete entered Krajewski's office, Hackenschmidt did not fail to offer - secretly, of course - sparring; and since until then this had always brought him easy victories, he no longer doubted anything and already believed that he was capable of defeating the strongest champions on the mat.

Krajewski saw through everything and decided to teach the arrogant young man a strict lesson. But he needed an opportunity. Now, some time later, the Bulgarian Nicolai Petroff, then in the prime of his form and strength, arrived in St. Petersburg. “This is my chance,” Krajewski said to himself. And immediately, without waiting for the visit that Petroff would undoubtedly pay him, he went to see him at his hotel. “I have a young lion cub at home,” Krajewski told him, “which I would like to raise as a real lion. But my lion cub feels its claws growing and is eager to use them all the time. So, although I have forbidden him to wrestle for the time being, he never misses an opportunity to do so with anyone he can get his hands on. He needs a serious lesson. Will you help me teach him one?”

"With pleasure."

"Okay, you're going to our place. I won't be there, and my young lion, Hackenschmidt, will meet you. Tell him your name. And when he finds out who you are, be sure that the brave young creature won't hesitate for a second to challenge you. Accept! And then give him one of those lessons he'll never forget. Rough him up as much as possible and give him a serious "massage". Can I count on you?

"Understood." - Petroff said simply with a smile.

As he had promised, he went to Krajewski's house at the appointed time. Hackenschmidt met him, and when he heard the name Nicolai Petroff, he felt his blood start to beat faster in his veins. What Krajewski had predicted came true point by point: Hackenschmidt did not fail to suggest to his visitor that they wrestle. But before that, he wanted to be sure of his strength and asked him to do a few weightlifting exercises. Petroff lifted 65 kilograms. Hackenschmidt, immediately proud of his strength, lifted nearly 80 and from then on became convinced that his superiority in weightlifting would be the same in wrestling and that Petroff would have no chance against him.

“What do you want us to do?” - declared the Bulgarian. “To play around little or to wrestle for real?”

“Oh! To wrestle for real!” - replied Hackenschmidt.

"So be it!" - said Petroff.

And the wrestling began. Poor Hackenschmidt! That day he experienced how far dreams can sometimes be from reality and that strong biceps are not enough to become a good wrestler! For twenty minutes Petroff led the young Russian lion in a terrible dance. He led him to every corner of the hall, not completing a single hold to the end, but executing each hold like a wrestler who knows his craft well: arm throws, all kinds of “belts”, head and arm holds, and above all neck holds that knocked the Russian to the mat like a child, and holds like “ties” and “collars” that made him groan.

Meanwhile, Krajewski, who was on the alert, entered. Embarrassed, like a schoolboy caught doing something wrong, Hackenschmidt wanted to get up and stop wrestling. “No,” said the doctor, “please continue. I do not regret taking this opportunity to find out what you can do and whether you are really capable of becoming a champion one day.”

And the dance began again. After ten minutes, the doctor signaled Petroff to stop. Hackenschmidt could not stand it any longer. Sweat was running down his beautiful, young, godlike body, his chest heaved like a blacksmith's bellows, his legs trembled under him, and he could no longer hold his head up straight, so vigorously Petroff was "massaging" his unfortunate cervical vertebrae. This defeated, grown-up child was ready to cry.

"Console yourself," Petroff told him, "today you are not able to do it, but the day will come when you will also overcome me, and with me many others, that is what Nicolai Petroff, the Bulgarian, tells you."

Petroff's prediction came true. Hackenschmidt apologized to Krajewski and swore that from now on he would blindly follow his advice. They built him up, and built him up well. Two years later, in Paris, he won fame and earned himself the glorious nickname "The Russian Lion," defeating men like Laurent le Beaucairois, Constant le Boucher, and that same Petroff the Bulgarian who had given him such a harsh lesson in his debut. After that, all the greats of the mat, including Paul Pons, had to bow before him, and he subsequently became the king of wrestlers, the Invincible and the Unbeatable, whom England showered with gold.

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The first obvious question to address here is how legit is that story? Of course, there's no way to answer the question with 100% certainty. As far as I'm aware, neither of the men from the story ever mentioned it publicly. That said, there are a couple of factors that lend credibility to the story and I'll discuss them below. Here are my thoughts on it.

• The author of the story is the Frenchman Edmond Desbonnet, who is generally regarded as the most knowledgeable wrestling historian of the early 20th century. He wrote a lot about wrestling and, while he did make some factual mistakes here and there, by and large his knowledge of the pro wrestlers was clearly outstanding. Furthermore, he was very well-connected and for sure knew all three of the participants in the story personally. In short, he's as legitimate of a source on wrestling as you can get for those years. 
• In 1971 the Estonian author Olaf Langsepp wrote a book about Hackenschmidt. Langsepp had studied Hackenschmidt's life and career in great detail and he was also good friends with Hackenschmidt himself. In that book, when talking about Hack's training with Krajewski, Langsepp wrote the following: "In addition to weightlifting, Hackenschmidt regularly perfected his wrestling techniques. These training sessions were facilitated by frequent visits to the club by professional wrestlers. At first, Hackenschmidt, of course, was still unable to defeat first-class wrestlers. This is evidenced by his loss to the famous Bulgarian wrestler Nicolai Petroff." He doesn't say when that happened, but from the context in the book one can deduce spring 1898 (we will talk more about the year in the next bullet point). He doesn't mention any other details beyond that one sentence, but it sure sounds like he's referencing the same encounter as Desbonnet.
• Based on my research Petroff first arrived in St. Petersburg in May 1899, and that contradicts the Langsepp timeline. There's always a possibility I may not be aware of an earlier visit, of course, but I checked pretty thoroughly in the St. Petersburg press and I don't think I missed anything.
• Another interesting fact that needs to be pointed out is that in his 1909 "The Complete Science of Wrestling" book Hackenschmidt himself said the following: "I graduated as a wrestler, under the able tuition of Nikolai Petroff". And there's also a photo of Petroff in one of the book editions where Petroff is listed as "Hackenschmidt's wrestling tutor". Have Petroff first humble Hack and then have him train Hack. From the Krajewski perspective, that makes perfect sense to me. 

Ultimately what do I think? Is the story legit? Well, if the most knowledgeable wrestling historian of the era is telling the story and the most knowledgeable Hackenschmidt biographer is kind of alluding to it, I believe it. However, I think both of their accounts are a bit off. In the case of Langsepp I think it's a simple matter of him getting the timeline slightly wrong - 1899, not 1898. As for Desbonnet I think his story is probably exaggerated for dramatic effect, to make for a better magazine article, particularly the part about Krajewski not letting Hack wrestle at all. By May 1899 Hackenschmidt had wrestled plenty, including reaching the finals of the 1898 Championship of Russia in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling (there was no winner in that final, the match ended in a draw). He had even wrestled some professional wrestlers in public matches (one being the top French star Paul Pons), but he himself was still an amateur wrestler, technically. The idea that Krajewski wouldn't let him wrestle at all is simply not correct - there's record of Hack wrestling publicly in St. Petersburg as early as April 1898 (just a few months after his arrival in St. Petersburg).

So what I think happened is this. I think the Hackenschmidt/Petroff encounter happened in May 1899 when Hackenschmidt was already considered the top amateur wrestler in the Russian Empire (that same month he became the amateur champion of Russia), but of course he would've lacked the particular set of skills that an experienced pro like Petroff would've had (by this point Petroff had wrestled professionally for about 5 years). I believe right after their encounter at Krajewski's Petroff trained Hack for a while. Petroff was definitely not Hack's first and only wrestling trainer, but I think he was the one who gave him his final training before Hack turned pro (hence Hack crediting Petroff as his wrestling tutor) and this was training geared more toward the pro style as opposed to all the amateur training Hack had received previously. And if you know your Hack history you would know that Hack indeed turned professional later that same year.

And as a sidenote, who was this aforementioned Nicolai Petroff? An interesting figure himself and a very well-known wrestling legend in his home country of Bulgaria to this day. We won't go into details here, but let's just say that he was someone who to one extent or another was involved in the training and rise to superstardom of "The Terrible Turk" Yousouf, George Hackenschmidt and Ivan Poddubny. In other words, three of the major pro wrestling names of the era. Quite the influence hat-trick!