Combat Sambo is an internationally recognized type of sport created in Russia that combines the best developments of the world culture of combat, self-defense and hand-to-hand fighting, the most effective type of training for military and enforcement activity in the present-day conditions.

The history of combat sambo creation has not been yet written. We know only the names of several enthusiasts-creators of sambo fight, the international fight, and of several Masters - founders of the Combat Sambo in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of USSR.

Yet before the World War I, the search for fusion of the experience accumulated by various nations in the martial arts and combats began in Russia. Ivan Lebedev, a well-known Russian fighter and “professor of athletics” was at the very origin of this process.

During 20s years the work was resumed by Spiridonov, Koronovskyi, Oznobishin, Yakovlev, and Solonevich. Their activity was motivated by acute need to arm the public militia and chekists by techniques of attack and defense. Dinamo Union founded in 1923 in Moscow took such service on. The section on study and development of the applicable self-defense techniques was headed by Viktor Afanasyevich Spiridonov. The programs for special courses of self-defense and the combat part were developed in Dinamo section. Viktor Afanasyevich knew well the Japanese system of jujitsu, so its best techniques were included to a new Russian fight. Some techniques and holds were borrowed from French fight, and punches – from English box. Combat and sports parts of sambo framed a unique as to its multiplicity armoury of hand-to-hand combat techniques among a variety of native and foreign combats.

On the initiative of Spiridonov, sections began to function in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), Rostov-na-Donu, Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg), Saratov, in towns and cities of Siberia, Ukraine and Transcaucasia. At the same time his books were published. V.Oshchepkov, one of the first Europeans having Black Belt in judo, a graduate of Japanese Institute in Kodokan, brought up a series of enthusiasts that became afterwards the honoured trainers; among them A.Kharlampiev, I.Vasilyev, L.Turin, and R.Shkolnikov may be found.

Anatoliy Kharlampiev was strongly enthusiastic about the new type of martial art. He continued his teacher's quest and started promoting the art of self-defense by developing and demonstrating it at the shows, competitions, and meetings. A.Kharlampiev wrote several books on techniques and tactics of sambo, brought up many famous sportsmen.

The first sambo competitions were held on December 27, 1937. On November 16, 1938, a new system called “freestyle soviet fight” was approved by the Sport Committee of USSR, and from 1939 the sambists’ championships, seminars and meetings of trainers began to be hold. Intelligence men, chekists and soldiers were armed with severe techniques of combat sambo. Evgeniy Chumakov, USSR's first sambo champion, Ivan Vasileyv, veteran sambist based in Leningrad and honoured trainer of Russia as well as many others went through the war. At a later time Evgeniy Chumakov organized a section in the Institute of Physical Culture, where Oleg Stepanov, an eight-time USSR sambo champion and honoured master of sports, Genrih Shults, a six-time USSR champion, Evgeniy Gloriozov, a five-time USSR champion, Anatoliy Yudin, a four-time USSR champion, and multiple champions of the country such as Ilya Tsipurskyi, Vitaliy Doroshkevich, Boris Kornyushyn, Aleksandr Lukichev and others were brought up.

After the war the attempts were made to hold competitions on self-defense. Generally they demonstrated “test exercises” or implement the specific combat fight elements on the unresisting “opponent”. However there always was a tendency to hold the competitions that are closer to a real combat situation, particularly street fight, force operation on detention of criminals or real fight.

Combat sambo continues to shows major trends. Kostrov’s Universal Fisticuffs is by right one of them.