Georg Lurich | Namenspatron
Georg Lurich (geb. in Väike-Maarja, Estland, 1,76 m, 90 kg) war ein Kraftrecke von nicht alltäglichem Format. Seine Erscheinung war imposant und wurde von vielen Bildhauern als Modell gewünscht. Der Berliner Professor Begas erklärte, er hätte niemals eine so schöne und proportionierte Männergestalt wie die Lurichs gesehen. Die "Illustrierte Zeitung" vom 8. November 1900 schrieb: "Georg Lurich … verfügt über einen geradezu idealen schöngewachsenen Körper, der keine Spur von Fettansatz aufweist und nur aus Sehnen und Muskeln zu bestehen scheint. Eine 80 kg schwere Stange wurde von ihm mit einer Hand 15-mal von der Schulter zur Armhochstrecke gestoßen. … Lurich ist ein gebildeter junger Mann und spricht geläufig sechs Sprachen. Seine Lebensweise ist von musterhafter Mäßigkeit."
Auch andere Quellen schreiben Lurich einen polyglotten Charakter (bis zu zwölf Sprachen) zu und beschreiben ihn außerdem als komischen Kauz. So ließ er sich seine Gage grundsätzlich nur in Goldstücken auszahlen. Diese trug er dann lose bei sich und bezahlte alles und jedes mit so einem Goldstück. Er war imstande, in einem Kaffeehaus für einen Kaffee, der nur einige Heller kostete, ein Zehn-Kronen-Goldstück hinzulegen.
Einig sind sich alle Quellen darüber, dass Lurich sowohl im Ringen als auch im Gewichtheben großartige Leistungen vollbrachte. Viele seiner Rekorde erreichte er mit Übungen, die heute nicht mehr im Kraftsport üblich sind. Eine seiner Kraftleistungen bestand darin, in der linken Hand eine Kugel mit 100 Pfund und in der rechten eine mit 105 Pfund zu halten, mit diesen Kugeln in der Hand eine tiefe Kniebeuge zu machen und dann die Gewichte zur Hochstrecke zu bringen. Als Ringer arbeitete Lurich ständig an der Verbesserung seiner Technik und erforschte neue Griffe und Tricks, die er in ernsten Kämpfen gleich ausprobierte. So unterlag er oft Gegnern, die ihm sportlich eigentlich nicht gewachsen waren. Trotzdem musste er immer wieder neue Dinge erproben und nach neuen Gegnern suchen, um sich mit ihnen zu messen.
Er kam durch die ganze Welt und starb in den Wirren der Russischen Revolution im Alter von 44 Jahren in der kaukasischen Stadt Armawir an Flecktyphus. An dieser Seuche war zuvor sein Stiefbruder Alexander Aberg – ebenfalls Ringer und Gewichtheber – erkrankt. Lurich pflegte ihn, so gut er konnte und starb acht Tage nach seinem Stiefbruder. Die Gräber sind verschollen.
In Estland spielt Georg Lurich bis heute eine bedeutende Rolle nicht nur im sportlichen, sondern auch im nationalen Bewusstsein der um Identität ringenden Esten.
Im Jahr 2006 war der 130. Geburtstag Georg Lurichs
Am 22. April 2006 wurde in Väike-Maarja, West-Virumaa, Estland, der 130. Geburtstag Georg Lurichs gefeiert.
Zu Ehren des estnischen Nationalhelden fanden am 21. April 2006 eine Konferenz und am 22. April 2006 ein großes Sportfest statt. Zu Gast waren der damalige Präsident der Republik Estland, Arnold Rüütel, sowie die Präsidenten des nationalen olympischen Komitees und des nationalen Ringer-Verbandes. Der Sport-Club Lurich aus Berlin war zu diesen Feierlichkeiten ebenso eingeladen. Wir haben die Geschichte des Vereins seit 1902 und unsere derzeitigen Aktivitäten präsentiert. Alle geladenen Gäste wirkten mit bei der Eröffnung des "Georg-Lurich-Nordic-Walking-Pfades".
Wer sich für die Person Georg Lurichs und deren Bedeutung für unsere europäischen Nachbarn interessiert, möge den Vortrag von Kalle Voolaid, wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter des Sportmuseums Estland in Tartu, studieren. Kalle Voolaid hat bereits im November 2003 im Kreuzberg Museum über Georg Lurich referiert. Er leitete seinen Vortrag damals wie folgt ein:
Different Aspects Of Understanding Lurich
Kalle Voolaid
Estonian Sports Museum, Tartu
In the following paper the author will give an overview of a professional wrestler of the Estonian origin Georg Lurich - of his life and some aspects in his activity. Hopefully it will help to open up the background of Georg Lurich and his special meaning to the Estonians. Hopefully it will also turn out why the author's enthusiasm and emotions were so high when he accidentally found (while surfing the net) that there was a club named after Lurich working in Berlin up to now. The author sought contact with the club's members - and here he is.
GEORG LURICH
B: 22 April 1876 (Väike-Maarja)
D: 22 January 1922 (Armavir)
Length: 176 cm, competitive weight: 90 kg
Graduated from Tallinn Peter's Modern School in 1895
Weightlifter and wrestler, sports promoter
Biographical data
Georg Lurich was born in the borough of Väike-Maarja on 22 April 1876 in a family of a shopkeeper Jüri Luri (later Georg Lurich). The change of his parents' name from Luri to Lurich was caused by their transition from Estonian congregation to German one. The reasons for the change were simple - the members of German congregation had better possibilities to educate their children in town schools.
The borough and parish of Väike-Maarja with 5000 inhabitants are situated in Western Virumaa on the Pandivere Heights. The first written data on the region date from the 13th century. In the 14th century the church parish of Väike-Maarja was formed and a church was built.
Though the first school was opened there in 1723 already, the faster development of the borough began in the middle of the 19th century. Väike-Maarja became a considerable economic and cultural centre of the region at that time. Jakob Tamm, Jakob Liiv, Mihkel Kampmaa, etc. have lived and worked there.
When Georg Lurich junior was 10 years old he began studying at Tallinn Peter's Modern School. He lived at his cousin Hans Luur who owned a bakery. There he got interested in the development of body and physical training. Hans Luur's apprentices eagerly practised with weights and young Lurich in his turn witnessed their trainings with interest. Little by little, he began to practise himself at schoolmate's Harri Grage's place. There was a scrap metal shop in Grage's house and various metal parts suitable for lifting lay around in the yard. Instructions found in German sports papers were of great help.
When the young man had gained more strength, he began to practise by Gustav Boesberg and Adolf Andruškevitš in the Linda storehouse thanks to the encouragement of the baker apprentices Gustav Vain and Jüri Kanep.
Lurich graduated from school in 1895 and went to St. Petersburg where he practised under the supervision of the famous heavy athletics coach Dr Wladyslaw Krajewski. He performed in St. Petersburg summer gardens, competed with local wrestlers and made various lifting demonstrations together with Gustav Boesberg. Their success made Lurich finally choose the career of a professional athlete.
The weightlifting records and wrestling victories of the talented strongman made him famous throughout Russia in a short time. He was named the first wrestler of Russia and the champion athlete of Russia. At first Lurich competed much in weightlifting too, he broke several Russian and world records. In 1896 he set a record of Russia, pushing up a 112 kg bar with two hands, then shifted it on his right hand and lifted a 37 kg heavy weight with a handle that he also pushed up. So the total amount of the weights lifted overhead was 149 kg.
As a new professional, the Estonian strongman performed successfully in the towns of Russia from 1897 to 1898. Among others he won the famous muscleman Ivan Poddubnõi. Being a clever popular man, Lurich included various attractive elements in his show - to increase his popularity.
Lurich often performed in his homeland Estonia. He wrestled with local strongmen, organised wrestling and weightlifting competitions between them, lifted various weights and performed other kind of strength shows. At these demonstrations the speeches where he stressed the usefulness of the healthy life-style and gave instructions for the beginning of practice were important. Lurich's demonstrations and competitions both in Estonia and elsewhere caused great sports enthusiasm in Estonia, encouraged the youth to go in for heavy athletics and raised Estonians' national self-knowledge.
Väike-Maarja was still an important place in his life. Between his long journeys he often rested there and gained strength for new challenges. Naturally, the outstanding athlete was often a topic for the people of Väike-Maarja. For example, it was told that the athlete had helped his father in the farm work and sometimes when the horses had become tired of ploughing, Lurich had replaced them. When Lurich's father was building a new house, his son was said to have brought the logs home from the wood on his back. In the same way he was said to have carried the stones needed for the building.
For Estonia the end of the 19th century was a time when each fellow countryman's success met a fruitful ground and a national hero was a hero indeed. It was the time of the national awakening of the Estonians, everything national was extremely important, the success of compatriots increased the self-confidence of all Estonians. Lurich's victories over foreign strongmen confirmed the Estonians that they could achieve something as well. Lurich was a man in a right place at a right time. Great physical ability, skill and strength shows unseen before caused real glory around his name. Lurich's name became the symbol of strength. He was definitely not the first Estonian athlete nor the introducer of heavy athletics in Estonia but he was the most popular athlete of his time.
In autumn 1899 Lurich went to his first tour in Western Europe where he competed both in wrestling and lifting weights. Victories over several strong wrestlers (Jacob Koch, Michael Hitzler, Constant le Boucher, etc.) and attractive performance made his name hot among European wrestlers. Among other things he is said to have amazed the world with his great knowledge of languages. According to his contemporaries, in addition to the Estonian languages he also knew the ones of Russian, German, French, English, Finnish, Polish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Tatar and Turkish as well. Thus, 12 different languages!
The career of the Estonian included victories at great wrestling tournaments in Hamburg in 1901, in Riga in 1902, in Budapest in 1906 and in Lisbon in 1907. Due to the success he received the title of the world champion. Nowadays international statistics does not confirm it. Resounding titles were won at many tournaments in Europe but their trustworthiness was mainly in the conscience of the organisers or the title owners themselves. The resounding names of wrestling competitions and titles given there were to help increase the public interest. It was a time when no umbrella organisation covered professionals' heavy athletics and so it is difficult to decide who the champions were indeed and who were not. There was a real organisational chaos in the states where the wrestling competitions of professionals were held as the central control system was missing. Therefore different sources give different data on the wrestling world champions' titles.
Since 1901 Lurich mainly practised and travelled together with a talented young wrestler Aleksander Aberg. He hoped Aberg to become his worthy successor. They remained together even in the hardest moments.
Lurich went to a competition tour in North America at the end of 1912. He set a goal to break through as a wrestler there too. He was followed by Aberg some time later. In America Lurich competed mainly in freestyle wrestling that was popular there. His highlight was the bout against the ruling world champion Frank Gotch in Kansas City in 1913 in front of 17 000 spectators. Unfortunately the Estonian clearly lost. Despite that, he achieved several beautiful victories, the best-known defeated rival was the top-class wrestler of the Americans doctor Benjamin Roller.
After the loss to Gotch Lurich wrestled in North America with mixed success. Together with Aberg he came back via Japan and China to Russia in 1917 and arrived in Estonia in autumn. They participated in a wrestling tournament in Tallinn that remained unfinished due to the approach of the German troops. The athletes went to St. Petersburg and on to South Russia. The war meant an end to work in St. Petersburg and Moscow. It seemed better in the southern region controlled by white guards. However, the war spread and the men had to move further inside Russia. They could stop only in a far corner of South Russia Armavir. Their aim was to leave Russia across the Black Sea by boat.
Unfortunately things took a dramatic turn in Armavir at the beginning of 1920. The front reached them, the town passed from hand to hand in battles several times, many perished and there were masses of funerals. Warm winter brought on typhoid. Due to the war, medical aid was difficult to get. Typhoid did not pass by our sports celebrities. Lurich fell ill first and could not be rescued. He died on 22 January 1920. Mourning Aberg had also become infected but he managed to win the illness. Unfortunately he rushed to get up, caught pneumonia and died on 15 February 1920. The wrestlers were buried in one grave in Armavir German cemetery.
Lurich as educator
Some words about Lurich's outlooks on health and his activity to educate people.
Lurich knew his body thoroughly and formed his own system for the methodical development of all the muscle groups. According to some sources, he could overcome the health problems that had troubled him in the youth (he was said to have had weak lungs) thanks to his persistence and tough training.
Resulting from personal experience, he decided to introduce it also in the world as well. He felt that it was not much use when the knowers keep their knowledge. So Lurich's thoughts and ideas on body education, heavy athletics and abstinent lifestyle became an important part in his strength shows. He invited all Estonian men to go in for weightlifting and wrestling as these were the best means to strengthen one's health. In his speeches and writings on abstinence he castigated the greatest enemy of mankind, vodka, which was unfortunately rather widely used in Estonia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. According to Lurich, doing sports was a great opportunity to stop the spread of drinking alcohol.
Thus, according to Lurich, the abstinence and healthy lifestyle were essential preconditions for achieving athletic success. Among others, Lurich had his own nutrition system. He ate in moderation and preferred vegetarian food. His special favourites were fruit and green vegetables (salads).
To introduce his principles, Lurich even distributed once in Tallinn leaflets with five instructions to be followed by everyone who wanted to succeed in sport:
1. Don't use alcohol!
2. Don't smoke!
3. Don't deal with girls!
4. Don't eat salty food!
5. Don't play cards!
Some words about two other essential aspects in Lurich's enlightenment activity. On 7 November 1910Lurich made his famous speech Tervisest ja karskusest (About health and abstinence) in Tallinn in the rooms of the temperance society Valvaja. In this speech Lurich presented his principles of health development confirming that health and strength were the most important matters for a person. Only healthy people could become strong. Lurich also called on putting more stress on physical education at schools and assured that parents should inspire their children to do sports by their personal example. He also thought that more printing space could be found for sports topic in newspapers too.
According to newspapers, over 600 people gathered to listen to Lurich's speech. It was definitely a record number at Valvaja's undertakings. The newspaper wrote about the reasons for that great interest: Of course, not the topic did influence the gathering but the person speaking. Everybody wanted to see the strongest national hero in person and listen to his speech. His entrance to the stage was greeted by a long-lasting ovation.
Secondly, to form his principles Lurich compiled a longer writing Võitlus - tervise allikas (Fight - the source of health). There he said: Health and strength make a couple and are two inseparable concepts. […] Strength is the barometer of health, its basement and sowing area as strength is health and health is strength, they are inseparable relative concepts. The most essential sport for Lurich was wrestling (fight). He assured that just wrestling had been the pioneer of modern physical culture and self-education. Through wrestling the body could develop most properly, advance all muscular groups and general physical skill.
In the writing Lurich gave an overview of his outlooks on the practice of wrestling, its usefulness and additional values. Among others, Lurich confirmed that physical exercises strengthened organism, helped to overcome diseases, helped to cope with everyday life and thus healed the whole society making people more benevolent and cutting down problems caused by alcohol etc.
Lurich supported the viewpoint of balanced harmony of physical and intellectual development approved today: The physical and intellectual development must take place in line and hand in hand. Neglecting one harmfully influences the other too. A healthy spirit lives in a healthy body only - mens sana in corpore sano. A spirit progressed to the top of perfection in a poor rotten body is like a castle built on sand.
He was critical towards health-hostile principles in society. No one should be surprised when somebody dies - we should be surprised that some people still live! Alcohol that ruined one's health and caused irreparable economic and moral harm was the greatest enemy of mankind for him.
Colourful national hero
Lurich became a national hero for Estonians and is it, in fact, even nowadays. On a referendum some years ago he was elected among a hundred Estonian great figures of the 20th century. It is said in the book Sajandi sada suurkuju (Hundred great figures of the century):
Lurich was a man who could encourage the Estonians to do sports. His tours, numerous performances, athletic or just showy, his belief in man's will, possibility of a free choice deeply sunk into people's mind. Even wars did not erase it, or perhaps deepened the knowledge that a person him/herself can also decide something - improve oneself, change one's world.
Pedagogues say that education must be carried out through positive examples. They assure that namely Lurich was such a positive model for the Estonians in sport. Being influenced by his activity and spirit, thousands of young people have come to sport.
The Estonians' need for national heroes probably arises from the fact that we are a small nation. A focused need for recognition, a desire to stand out is characteristic to a small nation. And they are sincerely glad when they have, no matter how, succeeded. The Estonians need such messages as the success or coping of a countryman in the world witnesses the competitiveness of the small nation as a whole.
The personality of the great wrestler has interested the film industry as well. The Hollywood film concern Warner Brothers is said to have wanted to make a film about Lurich's life in the 1930s already. Ivar Johansson, the Olympic champion in wrestling in Los Angeles in 1932, was to play Lurich. In Estonia a film was shot in the film studio Tallinfilm in 1983. The director was Valentin Kuik, the main role was played by a well-known wrestler Tõnu Lume.
There is nothing special in the formation of heroes in itself. It is a natural cause of matters. People need heroes to align after. The heroes have a great influence on their contemporaries, they arouse great reactions, they are the national pride. An English scientist Peter F. Radford confirms that not each outstanding athlete will become a hero. Fame may come slowly depending on how the public gets to know the hero.
What were the reasons of Lurich's phenomenon, why did he break deep into the Estonians' memory? Valdemar Veedam, the author of a book Lurich Ameerikas (Lurich in America), refers to his specifically bright personality:
With his performances, spectacular outside and offering aesthetical enjoyment, with his ingenuity, élan and temperament, he enlivened and enriched his extraordinary athletic shows and wrestling bouts. His intelligence and talent as an actor made him a top-class show-man who enchanted not only on sports arena but also in a lectern or social life, in a village party or in the saloons and clubs of the privileged.
Lurich's contemporary, another famous strongman from Estonia Georg Hackenschmidt confirmed in his turn:
Lurich was definitely one of the outstanding persons among all strength athletes. He was well educated […] He developed himself - I have never seen any other strength athlete who would train with more commitment. He developed his training methods mainly on his personal ideas and partly according to the advices of Dr Krajevski.
Lurich was, for sure, a good image designer, classy strategist and clever businessman. For example he liked to wrestle in different-coloured suits all the time. He understood the meaning of advertising and was a good campaign organiser. A story is told about a tournament in Berlin where he had a problem with a local wrestler Pohl who was more popular among the local public than Lurich in the first evening. Pohl irritated Lurich - you see, you are not quite so popular. Lurich offered him a bet of 100 marks that he would be more popular the next day. A day later Lurich was seen walking in the streets of Berlin, a top hat on, and distributing his pictures that he signed if someone wanted. In the evening it turned out that Lurich had won the bet!
Such postcards in several languages can be found a lot in the collections of the Estonian Sports Museum too. Texts on them all confirm that Lurich was a world champion or a holder of some other major title.
Thus, Lurich understood early how important it was to make a colourful impression of himself and communication with the media as well.
Lurich in Estonians' memory
Lurich was able to leave a deep impression in the consciousness of the Estonians. Tales about him spread among people - he became a hero of folk tales. Tales of Lurich have spread among people about a hundred years already. The author found the first of them mentioned in the newspaper Postimees in 1898 and the last one he wrote down in 2003. There are about a hundred tales altogether, most of them can be found in the ERA and RKM folklore collections in the Estonian Literary Museum.
Lurich in folk tales
What kind of image does Lurich have in folk tales? Georg Lurich was a real historical person. Therefore a question arises to what extent the folk-tale-Lurich corresponds to the real historical individual. Lurich's particular quality (great strength) as well as his name that maintains or at least refers to concreteness are important in these tales.
All in all, these tales can be classified into three groups. We can get a different reflection of Lurich from the stories of each group.
1) the first group is made up of stories about Lurich as a real historical person and about his relationship with his students and other wrestlers. The majority of these stories are most likely collected from the wrestlers who knew Lurich directly. As these stories are too much based on specific facts, they are relatively less folkloristic and at the same time most believable;
2) the second, so-called transition group consists of stories which character - the real historical Lurich - has acquired new traits from the general narrative tradition. It seems that here the narrator does not ask if it is true or not. He creates an illusion of reality, of something that could really have happened;
3) to the third group there belong stories about Lurich as a traditional athlete - a hero whose actions have no connection with the historical Lurich. This is the most folkloristic part of tales about Lurich, they are the furthest from the historical Lurich and are most of all connected with traditional stories about a man of muscle. In case of this material, it is doubtful to what extent it was believed. Evidently its function was different. Lurich himself is not important, he is an image that expresses some other idea (the function of a defender).
I Tales about Lurich as a real historical person
These stories mainly talk about Lurich's relationship with his students and other wrestlers, also just about his performances-competitions. Most of them have been collected from former wrestlers who knew Lurich themselves or people who had witnessed Lurich in action. Lurich is drawn here as a real professional who does his wrestling work with full attention and demands such devotion from others too. These are mostly tales with a humorous undertone, narrating about tricks played by Lurich.
Examples:
When athlete Aruküla went to St. Petersburg to join G. Lurich's group, he came to the old Riga hotel in Uus Street where Lurich was lodging. At that time there were even more Estonian athletes there who were spending their time at a glass of beer, having a talk and they had already emptied some bottles. Lurich told athlete Erdmann to ring the bell and order some more bottles. Erdmann pushed the button in the doorjamb. Soon the waiter came and brought what was ordered. When they had drunk it, Lurich told Aruküla: "Ring for some more beers!" Aruküla went to the door, pushed against the doorjamb, but to no avail. Lurich said: "Ring again, but push harder." Aruküla pushed as hard as he could but the waiter did not come. Then Lurich said: "You do not have any strength. See, when I ring, the waiter comes at once." Saying so, he pushed against the doorjamb and the waiter appeared at once. Aruküla had not noticed the button, he thought it was necessary to push the doorjamb.
When Lurich gave athletic performances in Viljandi, he had quite good income there - the hall had been crowded every night and all tickets had been sold out to the very last. Before the last night Lurich had announced on the wall posters that every guest would get a picture of him as a memento. That night there were even more people, each one wished to get the promised picture. When the program was over, Lurich had come to the stage, put his hands on hips and said that that was the picture, the most perfect picture of him. People had not been satisfied with such a picture but demanded that they had been promised a picture to take away with them. When people started to demand their money back, Lurich had said that they would get a picture in the size of a post stamp and the one who got to the box office first would get a large picture. Then people had started to pour out and the fastest had got a large picture. But the police had made a report, it is not known what the result was.
II Tales of the transition group
In the tales of this group Lurich has slightly changed in comparison with the Lurich of the previous group. The tales are more varied in subject matter, there are variations in the behaviour of the hero, in his companions and locations. It is characteristic that in the stories of this subgroup Lurich gets on well with common people, he is always ready to help them and punish evil forces. He does not mind using his great strength, he is helpful and well disposed towards people. As a rule, the existence of strength is connected with some magic pattern.
When Lurich's mother had been pregnant, she had gone through the wood and happened to see a bear there that had frightened her. The result of the fright was the birth of a son with bear's strength as the bear's strength had gone into her son.
Near Pärnu people say that Lurich had so much strength because his two lower ribs had grown together and he is said to know a weak point in man's body, so that if you push it, the man will be feeble.
Once Lurich was walking in the forest and saw two men there whose load of logs had fallen over. Lurich lifted the load and pulled it onto the road.
Peasants set the manor on fire. The lord of the manor had insured the manor, the government paid the money. They themselves agitated the peasants on the manor. Then the landlords complained to the tsar about the peasants. All did so. The Estonians could not move. But once Luuri went to talk to the tsar. He was not let through, the guards were there. So he pulled open his shirt. Medals all over his chest, he was let through.
Well, he was a strong man. So he talked how peasants were beaten, forced to work night and day.
III Lurich as the traditional hero of a folk tale
This group is smaller in its extent as the ones mentioned before. As an answer to the question why this is so, one reason might be that the tales about Lurich in this group are mainly carried by a specific function - to show the hero as a protector, helper, keeper (Lurich as a symbol) and therefore could be exhausted quite soon due to the lack of variety. In the tales of this group Lurich is less colourful than in the previous ones. He is helpful, always ready to help the one in need and use his great strength. The name of Lurich becomes the symbol of a strong man, defender and helper of people. Examples:
Once an old woman's cow had gone over the fence. The old woman was in trouble. Luuri saw that and asked her if she could not get the cow over the fence. Went there, took the cow in his hands and lifted over the fence.
Once he [Lurich] had unharnessed the horses from the plough and started to plough the field himself instead of the horses.
A strong man lived in Pühajärve parish in the old days. He was so strong that when he rode a horse, and when the horse was tired, he carried it on his back. Once he had lifted the coachman's two horses up at a time. That strong man's name was Luuri.
In summary
In general we may say that Lurich as a hero of Estonian folk tales has become a hero mainly due to his great physical strength and because he was not ashamed of using his strength. Considering the whole material, his character is much richer in nuance: from a humorous, short-tempered and demanding wrestler and coach (tales of the first group) becomes a prototype of a traditional man of muscle (tales of the second and especially the third group) through which Lurich became a symbol, the bearer of a specific function.
What is the proportion of historical truth and narrative truth in the tales about Lurich? There is no doubt that the tales of the first group were believed, they had a sound historical background. In the second group the narrator has created an illusion of reality: what is narrated in the stories might really have happened historically, the stories reflect the narrator's wishful thinking. The third group is completely based on narrative truth, which is expressed in the style of the narratives and in the narrators' attitude to the hero as well. Lurich is seen as a character who, in the opinion of the narrator, performs essential (heroic) deeds.
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