INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL “He returned triumphally to Russia with two single shells and a double. These boats had a very long and famous history, especially one single named Marti. Aleksandr Dolgushin, the best Soviet sculler of the ‘30s, used this boat and recorded a 7:15 time result. And in ‘40s and ‘50s, USSR Champion Igor Demyanov also raced in this boat. He recorded 7:07. The boat lasted until it broke in the 1960s under Anatoliy Sass, later the 1968 Olympic Doubles Champion. The double lasted long enough to be used in the 1950s by Emchuk and Zhilin3044 [who will be discussed later in this chapter]. “After 1917, Pereselentsev passed to coaching. He was Moscow teams Sports Academy teacher and coach. He taught ‘natural style,’ close to Fairbairn. His competed successfully, but in ‘30s he was denounced by some of his pupils and placed in concentration camp by KGB. He was released after the Patriotic War3045 but died unemployed and homeless.”3046 The Soviet Era Samsonov in 1962: “Rowing has long been popular in my country, though in international competition we are fairly new. “In USSR, there are nearly twenty thousand oarsmen, from 14 years up. It is encouraged among the young as a school sport; for this we have special children’s 3044 Demyanov, All About Rowing, per Ochkalenko 3045 World War II 3046 Ochkalenko, op. cit. Author boats. Our senior competition begins at 18.”3047 People’s Rowing Ochkalenko: “When Soviet Russia tried to develop rowing for the masses in ‘20s and ‘30s, that effort was limited by boat shortage. Clubs could not buy foreign boats, and domestic boats were unavailable. Some clubs tried to build primitive boats by hand, but this did not solve problem. “So Soviet govern- ment decided in ‘30s to manufacture simple, cheap boats. Many factories began to make single and double wooden boats of a standard design, and by the mid-‘30s many physical culture organizations had sufficient quantity of rowing craft. “As opposed to classical sports rowing, this version of sport was named people’s rowing, in Russian, Народная гребля, literally ‘national people rowing.’ “There were two standard designs: coxless-single and coxed-double boats, wooden, light to carry and to transport, clinker construction, rudder attached to the stern with cord for coxing, simple bench seat and foot stretcher, metal rotating gates. Outriggers and sliding seats were strictly forbidden by competition rules. The simple wooden sculls with leather buttons and collars were shorter and heavier than classical sculls, though from ‘60s to ‘80s, serious sportsmen used cut-down classical sculling blades in competition. 3047 Qtd. by Lanouette, Volga, pp. 125-6 849
