Russian skates. The history of the creation of ice skates. Who brought skates to Russia

Reports: according to the testimony of ancient historians, the most ancient skaters were the Cimmerians, who skated on bone skates on the surface of the frozen Dnieper estuary. Bone skates were used several centuries later. So in the 12th century, the monk Stephanius, the author of the Chronicle of the Noble City of London, wrote: “When the large swamp washing the city rampart at Moorfield from the north freezes, whole groups of young people go there. Some, walking as wide as possible, simply glide quickly. Others, more experienced in playing on ice, tie the shin bones of animals to their legs and, holding sticks with sharp tips in their hands, from time to time they push off from the ice with them and rush as fast as a bird in the air or a spear launched from a ballista ... "

Medieval bone skates, Museum of London
via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medieval-skates-London.jpg

2.

Pair of bone skates, 11th century/ A pair of 11th century ice skates made from horse metacarpal bones.
The link in the image will open a file 2,768 × 1,600 pixels, file size: 1.3 MB
via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BoneSkatesBedfordMuseum.JPG

3.

Skates made of bone/ Eiríksstaðir. Ice skaters made of bone.
The link in the image will open a file 2,560 × 1,920 pixels, file size: 1.68 MB
via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eir%C3%ADkssta%C3%B0ir_-_Schlittschuh_auf_Knochen.jpg

In the 13th century, changes occurred in skate manufacturing technology in Holland and Iceland. Animal bones were replaced with metal and wood. Sharpened metal strips began to be inserted into wooden blocks. From the beginning of the 18th century, wooden bars were gradually replaced by steel tubes.

4.

Vintage Dutch skates. via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oude_schaats_uit_Nederland..JPG

5.

Old skates from Finland / Old skates. Picture taken on the Kylmäpihlaja lighthouse island in front of town Rauma, Finland
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_skates_at_Kylm%C3%A4pihlaja_lighthouse.jpg

6.

Skates, America, mid-19th centuryMetropolitan Museum/ 1840-59. Culture: American Medium: leather, wood, metal Dimensions: 113 in. (287 cm). Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/80096269

In the 50-60s of the 19th century, the craze for skating came to the United States. Metropolitan skates are made from an old Dutch design that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

7.

Skates of the year and century are not clear. via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heulenaars.jpg

One of the problems was attaching the skate to the shoe. Historical chronicles tell about Peter I, who amazed the Dutch with his extraordinary decision: he screwed skates directly to his boots and dashingly glided to the shipyard where he was doing his internship. Upon returning to Russia, he ordered the production of skates to be established in Tula. With the death of Peter, the passion for skating faded away, however, a hundred years later, Pushkin noted “how fun it is, shod with sharp iron on your feet, to glide along the mirror of standing, flat rivers.”

8.

Various skates from the museum of the German city of St. Blasien / Sankt Blasien
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StBlasien_Schlittschuhe.jpg

In the United States, in 1848, an inventor from Philadelphia patented durable skates with an all-metal sole.

9.

Advertisement from the Boston Almanac, 1864
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1864_skate_BostonAlmanac.png

In 1842, Londoner Henry Kirk filled the first skating rink. Man-made ones have been added to the natural winter skiing areas.

Skates in painting

10.

Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450-1516)Tripti The Garden of Earthly Delights, between 1480/90 and 1510.
Right wing, detailWood, oil. 389×220 cmPrado Museum, Madrid

In the winter landscapes of the small Dutch, people on skates occupy a place of honor. I will limit myself to one artist.

For example, here are three works by the Dutchman Hendrik Averkamp (1585-1634), a master of winter landscapes. In early childhood, his family settled in Kampen (Overijssel province), where his father ran a pharmacy. Hendrik Averkamp was mute from birth, hence his nickname (Stomme Campen, the mute from Campen). Avercamp specialized in winter landscapes in his work, becoming the most famous painter of this theme in European art. The artist organically combined landscapes with genre scenes and depicted the leisure time of citizens. The Pushkin Museum has his winter landscape.

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The link in the image will open a file 4,083 × 2,670 pixels, file size: 2.77 MB. vi http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_Avercamp_-_Skating_Scene_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Hendrik Averkamp 1620s, oil, 240x380 mm, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

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The link in the image will open a file 10,718 × 5,438 pixels, file size: 20.18 MB. via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_Avercamp_-_A_Scene_on_the_Ice_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Hendrik Averkamp. Scene on Ice, circa 1625, oil on panel, 39.2 x 77 mm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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via the link in the image picture 4271×4226 px, file size 5.7 Mb, from here http://gallerix.ru/album/National-Gallery-London-3/pic/glrx-444597196
Hendrik Averkamp. Winter scene near the castle.

Sources are inside the text.

Earlier on the winter topic and about small winter Dutchmen: Snowball fights in Europe, 14th to 17th centuries:

Apparently, the Cimmerians also skated across frozen rivers. And this happened about 3200 years ago in the Northern Black Sea region. In 1967, archaeologists found on the banks of the Southern Bug River, not far from Odessa, the oldest skates to date - they were made from the bones of domestic animals and attached to the legs with leather cords. And they rode them like skis - they pushed off with the help of wooden sticks. But it is difficult to say whether the invention of skates can be attributed to the pre-Scythian tribes, because other peoples also had similar devices.

For example, the ancient Chinese, who, however, used their favorite bamboo instead of bones. And according to Italian researchers Federico Fermenti and Alberto Minetti, who calculated the energy costs of moving through deep snow and ice, bone skates were also used by the inhabitants of modern Finland 3,000 years ago. According to the same scientists, they were also in demand among the ancient inhabitants of what is now Germany. Bone “blades” are found at excavations in ancient Novgorod, Staraya Russa and Staraya Ladoga. This means that the Slavs also willingly used fast-moving “bones,” but the inhabitants of Siberia attached walrus tusks to their legs. First of all, this was probably done not for the love of fun, but to increase the speed of movement in the winter.

But skates were held in special esteem in Holland and England. True, this happened already in the Middle Ages - it was from those times that many finds and written evidence of the use of skates have been preserved. In the 12th century, the author of the Chronicle of the Noble City of London, monk Stephanius, wrote: “When the large swamp that washes the city rampart at Moorfield from the north freezes, whole groups of young people go there. Some, walking as wide as possible, simply glide quickly. Others, more experienced in playing on ice, tie the tibia bones of animals to their legs and, holding sticks with sharp tips in their hands, from time to time they push off the ice with them and rush as fast as a bird or a spear launched from a ballista ... "The price for such entertainment included broken legs, arms and ribs.

In the 13th century, in Holland and Iceland they finally figured out how to make skate blades not from poorly gliding and poorly controlled animal bones, but from wooden blocks to which sharpened metal knives were attached (iron or bronze; there was, of course, no steel in those days ) stripes. In the old fashioned way, they were attached to shoes with leather straps, but the sticks could be thrown away, because in order to give yourself acceleration, from now on it was enough to just push off with your foot. Therefore, skates are increasingly used not only for transportation, but also “as a luxury” - for winter fun. Countries that had many canals and rivers that froze in the cold were especially lucky.

This is clearly evidenced by the works of the Dutch artist Henderik Averkamp, ​​painted in the early 1600s and depicting cheerful inhabitants of the Low Countries, dashingly gliding across the ice, and some with what looked like hockey sticks in their hands. This is exactly how Peter I saw Holland during his famous trip to Europe at the end of the same 1600s. And, among other innovations, he brought European skates with him to Russia, ordering their production to be established in Tula. It is even believed that it was the great reformer who was the first to think of nailing skates directly to shoes, rather than tying them with cords. Historical chronicles tell how Peter screwed the blades to his boots and cheerfully glided “towards the shipyard where he was doing his internship.” By the way, in those days craftsmen often carved horse figures on the long, curved toes of skates. This didn’t make the riding any more comfortable, but it was beautiful! The word “skates” comes from these horses.

After the death of the “Russian Hamlet,” the passion for skating in Rus', of course, came to naught. But a hundred years later, Pushkin wrote “how fun it is, shod with sharp iron on your feet, to slide along the mirror of standing, level rivers.” However, as you might guess, the “smooth standing rivers” were by no means smooth and caused a lot of inconvenience to the skaters. And in 1842, a certain Londoner named Henry Kirk filled the first skating rink - its surface was smooth and the risk of falling under water was minimal. And in January 1889, the first ever world speed skating championship was held in Amsterdam. It is especially pleasant that the winner was not a Dutchman with a hereditary passion for skating, but a Russian speed skater named Alexander Panshin. By the way, it is he who is credited with the invention of running skates, in which the front curl, which interferes with the development of speed, was removed and the blade was lengthened (also to increase speed). And in 1892, a certain Norwegian H. Hagen further improved the running skate by soldering the blade into a tube.

And then it started. In 1908, figure skating (which officially appeared in 1871) became the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games program. At the same time, the Swedish figure skater and the world's first figure skating champion at the London Games, Ulrich Salchow, proposed making notches on the front of the blade for better braking. In 1914, American blade maker John Strauss invented the world's first closed steel toe for skating boots to increase rigidity and protect the foot. Throughout the last century, skates changed the shape of the blade, sometimes shortening it, sometimes lengthening it. For example, in the late 1950s, hockey players called their skates “spotty skates” because it was not very convenient to drive the puck on them - they looked more like figure skates due to the almost right angle of the blade. But in the 1990s, a fundamentally new type of skates appeared - convenient for fast running. They were nicknamed “flip-flops” because of the “coming off” heel. And in 1994, at the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, the world saw “irons” - skates on a solid blade, which brought the former world champion in skating, Dutchman Rintje Ritsma, to a bronze medal (with which he was dissatisfied, so in the next distance he put on his old skates - with holes in the blades).

There are a lot of subspecies of modern skates, but there are only six types: recreational, recreational for tourism (differing from the first in a longer and also replaceable blade; easily replaced with skis), short track skates, speed skating, hockey and figure skating skates .

https://www.moya-planeta.ru/travel/view/istoriya_veshhej_konki_43716/
This is a copy of the article located at

At the end of the 17th century, Russian carpenter Pyotr Mikhailov came to Holland. He tried to be no different from other masters. He led a very ordinary life - he studied shipbuilding, went to buy supplies for lunch, and in the absence of the hostess, he cooked the food himself. In his free time, he enjoyed skating on ice. At that time, skates were tied to boots with straps each time. The carpenter quickly got tired of this boring task, and he simply nailed the skates tightly to the soles.

Soon curious people began to gather around the carpenter, but not because of his invention - few people paid attention to the skates.

The Dutch, who were in Russia on trade business, “identified” the Russian Tsar Peter I in the carpenter and told about it. Here is the entry left in his diary by the inquisitive Dutchman Jacob Nomen, a character in A. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great”: “The Tsar managed to live incognito for no more than a week; some who were in Muscovy recognized his face. The rumor about this soon spread throughout our fatherland. On the Amsterdam stock exchange people bet big money and bet whether this was really the great king or just one of his ambassadors.”

More than 150 years have passed, and the American Jackson Heine, who is considered the father of modern figure skating, came to St. Petersburg. He came up with a new skate blade and attached it firmly to the boot. But when he began to advertise his invention, he was saddened to learn that it was not new at all and Peter I should still be considered the real inventor.

Vintage Japanese and European skates.

How old are the skates? No one, unfortunately, will answer this question. One can only assume that they first appeared where there was a lot of smooth ice, while skis appeared in places where there was a lot of snow. One thing is known: already several thousand years ago, our ancestors were fond of skating, made from the ribs or tubular bones of large animals. Typically, the bone was sawed lengthwise, polished, and several holes were drilled to tie it to shoes. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations. The British Museum houses skates that were used several thousand years ago. For a long time they were considered the most ancient, and England and the Scandinavian countries were considered the birthplace of skates. But recently, perhaps the most ancient skates on Earth were found in Kazakhstan. They belong to the Bronze Age. These are carefully polished bones of some animal. There are holes in the toe and end of the skate for fastening.

Ice skating rink of the 18th century.

As time passed, the shape of the skates, the method of fastening, and the material from which they were made changed. In the 17th-18th centuries, skates were made of wood and covered with iron on the bottom and front.

And why, strictly speaking, “skates”? Where does this name come from? “Skates” is a purely Russian word. It was formed from the word “horse” - the front part of the skates was often decorated with the head of a horse. So the name of the object came from its decoration - small horses carrying us forward. By the way, the word “horse” has another meaning. Horse or prince, horse, prince - the top edge, the ridge of the roof. In Russian buildings, the top of the ridge was covered with a thick hollowed out log for greater strength. It was called “okhlupen”, and its end facing the façade was carved in the shape of a horse or a warbird.

Nowadays, with the light hand of Peter I, skates are tightly attached to shoes. Figured ones - with the help of screws, and hockey and running ones - with the help of rivets.

There are many types of skates. For those who are just getting started with this sport, “snow maidens” are suitable - they are stable. If you like speed, you need lightweight skates with a long thin blade - racing skates. Hockey players use two types of skates: Russian hockey and ice hockey. The former have slightly shorter blades than the running blades, while the latter have slightly curved blades. This is no coincidence: during intense, high-speed play, these skates are easier to maneuver on the ice. Skaters have special skates with teeth on the front and the blade is sharpened with a groove.

But no matter how comfortable the skates are, they can fail if the ice turns out to be bad. Those who make ice at large skating rinks are called ice makers. Making good ice is both a science and an art. This is how, for example, they fill a treadmill. This is usually done at night, when the frost is stronger.

The pouring machine goes through the first circle, then stops to form an ice crust. Then we hit the road again, but it’s not close. To get a 20-centimeter layer of ice, the car needs to drive in a circle 800 times - 320 kilometers!

For a hockey field, ice is prepared differently: first, the field is covered with snow and then rolled. And only after that they pour water. Among other things, the ice is “cut” - planed, polished, and filled with hot and cold water. It all depends on the skill and experience of the ice makers. After all, it is necessary to take into account the condition of the ice, the air temperature, the presence of precipitation, and much more.

The work of ice makers was greatly facilitated by the advent of refrigeration equipment. The first artificial ice skating rink was built in 1876 by the Chelsea refrigeration plant in the USA. By the end of the century, Paris, London and other cities around the world acquired ice arenas.

But there are skates that you can skate on without thinking about the condition of the ice. Because it is not needed at all. But you need special skates - roller skates. By the way, they are not as young as they seem. They are over 200 years old. The story of their demonstration to the public is both funny and sad. Roller skates were invented by a master of musical instruments. He lived in London. To attract attention to his invention, he once drove them into a magnificent masquerade ball, playing the violin, but was unable to brake in time. As a result... the violin is broken, a huge mirror is broken, and the inventor himself is seriously cut.

There are sometimes strange turns in the history of inventions. It would seem that after such a “premiere” the reputation of roller skates was forever undermined. But a short board with wheels, which is attached to shoes with a strap, began to conquer the world. Since the middle of the last century, halls and paved areas for roller skating have been built in Europe and America. Russia is not lagging behind Europe either. However, at first, “roller skaters” appear only at fairgrounds and perform in variety revues. But then athletes, then ballet dancers, got on new skates. Well, how could the ubiquitous boys get behind them, especially if they are “in business”?

Roller skates from the 19th century.

Newsboys rushed along the streets of American cities on roller skates; letter carriers and couriers, often people of advanced age, quickly mastered the innovation. In many countries, airport employees, weavers when servicing machines, workers in large assembly shops, and tour guides in museums began to spend most of their working day on roller skates. If you manage to visit the Louvre, they may offer you such skates.

Modern roller skates.

Very soon it turned out that roller skating was not only pleasant, but also useful. It promotes the development of coordination and improves the vestibular apparatus. Almost everyone can use rollers, and age has absolutely nothing to do with it. To ride them while maintaining balance, you do not need any special training.

But the videos are not as harmless as they seem at first glance. For example, in 1978, the year of the roller skating boom in America, 93 thousand young men and women ended up in hospitals with broken arms and legs. And this is thanks to the so far simple videos, on which no special means were used to increase speed. And there are many such funds. Here are just a few of them.

1906 France. Motorized roller skates have been tested in a Parisian park. Each horse had its own miniature single-cylinder gasoline engine with a gas tank and battery.

1915 USA. Wheeled skates have been invented that move with the help of a small electric motor, and the battery is attached to a wide belt.

1980 Germany. Motorized skates have been improved, their motor has become more miniature, and control is carried out using a special drive.

1983 France. A young man is skating along the asphalt on roller skates. He has a fan in his hands. The traction force is such that it carries a person forward.

Relatively recently in America, roller skates turned into a “board on wheels.” Riding it requires great courage and dexterity. Maybe that's why she quickly gained popularity among young people all over the world? Competitions are already being held in the new sport; on sidewalks and asphalt areas you can often see children deftly balancing on rapidly moving boards on wheels - skateboards...

Do you know?

Another name is cedrate (Citrus medica). Plant of the genus Citrus of the Rutaceae family. Homeland - India and Southern China

Lemon is an evergreen fruit tree of the Rutaceae family; lemon is not now found growing wild. A small evergreen tree with a pyramidal

As a child, I really loved watching figure skating with my parents. And if my mother empathized with the failures of the athletes, full of some specific terms denoting the elements that the skaters performed, then I, a little girl, looked at the costumes of the performing girls with all my eyes. Shiny dresses, just like real princesses, and jumps and take-offs - like magic. The magic of figure skating still lives in that little girl who wakes up in an adult when this sport comes into my field of vision. And, it seems to me that if theater begins with a hanger, then figure skating begins with skates.

How a person first came up with the idea of ​​ice skating is unknown. It is possible that a certain Cimmerian (historians attribute to the representatives of this nomadic people the creation of the prototype of modern skates) went out one day, and in place of the usual surface of water of the river flowing next to the house, he did not see this very surface. Actually, the surface was there, but it changed its structure: it was impossible to swim, and walking was slippery. What should our Cimmerian do? After all, he urgently needed to get to the other side of the river for his nomadic affairs! Why he did not use a method more familiar to him for this purpose - we will never know. Maybe this Cimmerian had the nature of a true inventor? Otherwise, it would not have occurred to him to create the world’s first bone skates to quickly and easily move along the frozen Dnieper estuary.

Bone skates similar to the Cimmerian ones were used much later: skaters moved along the mentioned estuary on them back in the 8th-7th centuries BC, and Europeans skated on approximately the same ones in the 12th century. There is a mention of this in the “Chronicle of the Noble City of London”: its author, monk Stephanius, writes about the skaters like this:

When the large swamp that borders the city ramparts at Moorfield to the north freezes over, whole groups of young people go there. Some, walking as wide as possible, simply glide quickly. Others, more experienced in playing on ice, tie the tibia of animals to their legs and, holding sticks with sharp tips in their hands, from time to time push off from the ice with them and rush as fast as a bird in the air or a spear launched from a ballista...

It is difficult to imagine the skill of these “others” who managed to ride on bones. To offer such a means of transportation to modern athletes now - I think, at best, they will twirl the bones with straps in their hands, and at worst, they will simply refuse to pick them up. However, they may be interested in other options: for example, in the North, craftsmen used walrus tusks to make skates, and in China, in the absence of them, they took bamboo for the same purpose. We skated using the same principle, pushing off the ice with bamboo sticks. The first skaters had access to not only the direct skating technique: they could also move sideways, with slipping. Modern techniques became available only with the advent of steel skates, which did not slide on the ice, but cut it thanks to sharply sharpened edges.

In the 13th century, wood replaced the tibia. A metal strip, pointed on one side, was inserted into a wooden block, and on such a structure they slid along the ice. Only by the 18th century did the skates become completely metal, and their shape was the same as the customer himself desired. Anyone who wanted to ride would draw a rough sketch and bring it to the blacksmith. He assessed the complexity of the work, named the price, and if the customer and the performer were satisfied with each other’s conditions, then soon the future skater would receive the finished product. Hence the difference in the appearance of the skates: made according to individual drawings, they were practically never repeated. Some people preferred the toe of their skate to be smooth and neat, others, on the contrary, wanted to get skates with a dashing spiral, and others, guided by their aesthetic sense, asked to decorate their “transport” in the style of a ship. Most often, miniature horse heads appeared on socks, which decorated the bows of ships. Maybe this is where their modern name came from - “skates”?

The decorations were varied, but the shape, as well as the method of fastening, were standard. Thus, Peter I, having arrived in Europe, not only observed the entertainment of the Europeans, but also wished to join it himself. However, local skaters, having tied the blades to their shoes with a rope while skating, then untied their skates and continued on their way in the same boots or shoes. Peter found this very inconvenient and tightly screwed the pair given to him to his shoes. Of course, he is a king - he has any number of pairs of spare boots, any of which you can attach skates to. I rode it to my heart's content and put it away in a dark corner until next winter so that it wouldn't become an eyesore. The Europeans did not appreciate the noble idea of ​​their royal guest, and continued to tie their skates with ropes.

When Peter I returned home, one of his first orders was to organize his own production of skates, which was soon established in Tula factories. The Moscow and St. Petersburg nobility quickly became interested in the new product (I admit that not of their own free will, because after the death of the monarch the hobby lost its popularity, and the show skating to the delight of the innovator was just an attempt to suck up). Soon, on the frozen rivers and lakes, a cheerful noise was heard coming from the townspeople having fun. There is even a memory of how Muscovites, Peter’s contemporaries, embraced European entertainment:

Muscovites diligently learned to skate, and they repeatedly fell and were seriously hurt. And since they, through carelessness, sometimes skated on thin ice, some of them fell neck-deep into the water. Meanwhile, they tolerated the cold well and therefore were in no hurry to put on a dry dress, but continued to ride for some time in a wet one. Then we changed into dry clothes and went for a ride again. They did this so zealously that they made progress, and some of them could skate perfectly...

Maybe the Muscovites’ passion for skating was really just for show, out of fear of angering the hot-tempered ruler, but for the most part they liked the entertainment. Despite its decline after the death of Peter I, a century later Pushkin noted how fun it was to slide along the mirror of standing, flat rivers with sharp iron on your feet. Looking ahead a little, I will say that the “mirror” mentioned by Pushkin was not so smooth, and its unevenness caused skaters a lot of inconvenience, but the first skating rink appeared only in 1842: it was filled by British resident Henry Kirk.

What about Europe? And there - in particular, the Scots were the pioneers - in 1604 the first skating club was opened, the participants of which even organized competitions. Their essence was not just a race over a certain distance: along the way, they also had to jump over three hats placed on the path of the skater and pick up one coin. And, of course, arrive at the finish line first. The prize, with the exception of hats, went to the winner, and therefore the gambling Scots had at least a small, but still financially motivated. The Norwegians went even further: it was there, in 1888, that the first thin blades appeared, thanks to which racing skates could already be called professional. However, in the fight for the title of world champion in speed skating in the classic all-around, which began in 1889, it was not a Norwegian at all, but a descendant of those same Muscovites who not so long ago first started skating - Alexander Panshin. Around the same period, the St. Petersburg Society of Skating Fans was founded.

The 19th century comes with a “gift” for both amateurs and professionals of speed skating: three new models of skates. Both tubular and tubular, but with a blade inserted into the tube, and consisting of two separate parts attached to each other. A prototype of a modern skate appeared, created by the famous American figure skater Jackson Haynes. According to his individual order, craftsmen created skates without any tubes - just a straight thin blade, the end of which was sharply bent. Haynes was so confident in the superiority of his chosen form that he performed in these skates in front of the Russian imperial family. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses who were on February 7, 1865 in the garden of the Tauride Palace, the Romanovs were delighted with the art of the American speed skater, who very naturally depicted all the difficulties of a beginner in this sport, and then explained in detail how the skates invented by Haynes himself would help him. The praise of the crowned family was very flattering. But the name “Haines skates” did not catch on in Russia: in our country this form was dubbed “snow maidens”. They can be seen on any New Year's card, the plot of which develops around the Snow Maiden skating.

And then... then the skates develop rapidly. For several sports in which they are an integral part of the participant’s equipment, their own forms have appeared. For figure skating, for hockey, for running and for ice dancing, and, as an apotheosis - roller skates, for those who do not want to part with their favorite activity even in the hot season.

Skates! For Russia, as well as for the whole of Europe, this word has a special, almost sacred meaning. Rich and poor, young and old, boys and girls enjoy skating with equal pleasure, and every Russian schoolchild knows that “a coward does not play hockey.” But, despite the wild popularity of skates in our country, almost no one knows the history of their appearance.

BONE HUMPS

If you believe archaeologists, then skates are almost the same age as a stone ax! Indeed, archaeological excavations confirm that the runners of ancient skates were made from animal bones in ancient times. At the same time, the number and area of ​​discovery of finds allows us to talk about the craze of the ancient population of Eurasia for ice skating! Bone skates have been found in the Netherlands, Denmark, Bavaria, Switzerland, England, Norway, Sweden and Russia. It’s interesting that sometimes you can tell by the design of the skates in what area they were found. Thus, in Siberia, skates made from walrus tusks were especially popular, in China - from bamboo stems, and in Kazakhstan, even from horse bones. One of the most impressive collections of ancient skates is now on display in the British Museum. Here, for example, you can see skates that were used more than 2,000 years ago!

And the oldest of all the skates discovered by archaeologists were found not far from... Odessa. According to historians, these bone skates belonged to the Cimmerians who inhabited the Northern Black Sea region 3,200 years ago. True, scientists attribute the first use of skates to the Bronze Age and even the Stone Age. And the most amazing thing is that even then the skates had almost the same structure as they do today.

Ancient people took an animal bone, ground it down on one side, and made a hole on the other for attaching shoes. True, practical skates were something between short skis and skates themselves. Their blade was longer than a modern one, but shorter than a ski, and when riding they still had to push off the ice with sticks.

RUSSIANS - THE MOST ANCIENT

Today it has been proven that skates appeared in northern Russia much earlier than in Scandinavia. Excavations of the ancient settlements of Staraya Ladoga, Pskov and Veliky Novgorod eloquently testify to the presence of skates among the local population more than 3,000 years ago. But, as often happens, the Russian invention officially came to Russia from the West.

The first literary mention of skates belongs to a Canterbury monk. In 1174, in the Chronicle of the Noble City of London, he wrote:

“When the large swamp that borders the city rampart at Moorfield to the north freezes over, whole groups of young people go there to play ice sports. Some, walking as wide as possible, glide quickly. Others, more experienced in playing on ice, tie the shin bones of animals to their legs and, holding sticks with sharp tips in their hands, from time to time push off from the ice with them and rush as fast as a bird in the air or a spear launched from a ballista... »

Bone blades attached to wooden boots were used for a long time along with iron runners. In some places, bone skates could be found until the end of the 19th century! Norway and Iceland have proven to be particularly stubborn on this issue.

Although in the north of Russia skates have been used for centuries, the first official speed skater of our country was Peter I. Returning from Holland, he ordered ceremonial skating to be organized and even invented skates where the blade would not be separated from the boot, as was the case before. Since then, the shape of the blade and the material of the boot have changed many times, but the essence of the skates has remained the same.

In the second half of the 19th century, speed skating unexpectedly became one of the most popular sports in the world, especially in Canada, Norway, Sweden and Russia - countries where winter lasts almost six months. Literally all segments of the population, from aristocrats to the urban poor, took to skating. In our country, the first skating club was opened in St. Petersburg in 1864. The skates themselves, with all-metal curved blades, were manufactured in the arms capital of Russia - Tula.

The first organization of speed skaters in Russia had an unusual and fun name - “The Rusty Horse Society.” However, the humor was only in the name. Only a member of the society who was a hereditary aristocrat who provided serious recommendations from members of the “Rusty Horse” could get into the skating rink. Newspapers of those years even wrote: “The best families of high-ranking officials boldly sent their children to the Society’s skating rink.”

TEXTBOOK IN VERSE

Of course, such an ancient and popular sport could not do without a set of rules. The first such book was published in England in 1772. Today it is priceless - only three copies have survived. In addition to the rules of behavior at the skating rink, the tome contains practical recommendations for beginning speed skaters and figure skaters. The next skating textbook was published in Germany and became famous only for the fact that it was written in poetry. And in 1823, English artillery lieutenant Robert Jones wrote a book about skating, the title of which consisted of 24 words: “The art of skating, based on certain principles, drawn from long experience, by which these noble, healthy and enjoyable exercises have been brought to an art.” "

CLASSICS ON ICE

Many references to skating can be found in the classics of Russian literature - Pushkin, Tolstoy, Kuprin. In Europe, Wolfgang Goethe himself is considered to be the main singer of speed skating. The great poet, talking with his fellow writers, more than once compared the graceful rhymes of his poems with the pirouettes of figure skating. Walter Scott, the unsurpassed author of medieval novels, was so fascinated by ice skating that he initiated the first figure skating competitions. Even the famous mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya, a professor at the Royal University in Stockholm, was seen every day at the skating rink in winter! And ladies owe the appearance of short, flirty skirts among figure skaters to Princess Mary of England. The lady got tired of picking up her dress while skating and cut it off at the knee.

MASTER OF TUMPLERS

Figure skating itself appeared thanks to the American Jackson Haynes. He became the first man to win the American Championship in 1864. But he became famous not for his record, but for the fact that he was the first to include dance and ballet movements in his performance. Later, at performances in Vienna, the audience gave Haynes a standing ovation, sincerely wondering how it was possible to do such somersaults on the ice. Haynes himself died at age 35 from tuberculosis, but a figure skating school was established in Vienna, which continued to develop his style of ice dancing. On its basis, the International Skating Union was born, which still exists today.

ACCOUNTANT AND SKATES

Among the domestic speed skaters of past centuries, it is worth highlighting Nikolai Aleksandrovich Panin-Kolomenkin. The fact is that university professors at the beginning of the 20th century for some reason did not favor sports in general and skating in particular. In this regard, economics student Kolomenkin visited the skating rink and competitions under the pseudonym Panin. When the young man grew up, he was hired as an inspector for the Tsarskoye Selo district, but in order not to spoil relations with his superiors, he continued to skate under a pseudonym. Nikolai Kolomenkin was most amused when his patrons discussed articles in newspapers about the outstanding successes of the five-time Russian figure skating champion Nikolai Panin, without even knowing who he really was. The incognito was revealed after Nicholas won the 1908 Olympic Games. As a result, Nikolai was forced to leave sports for a career as a financier.