Underground fighter, champion and NKVD prisoner: how the system ruined the life of the strongman from Zhovtneve

He lifted 229 kilograms with his teeth, rescued people from the Nazis, but was sentenced to six years in the camps: the story of Ivan Kruts

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19 Jul 2026

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In old photographs he appears as a stocky man in a wrestling singlet, once known far beyond Mykolaiv. Ivan Semenovych Kruts was a wrestler, weightlifter, circus performer, coach, and one of the most famous strongmen of his time. In the then town of Zhovtneve, which is now part of the Korabelnyi District of Mykolaiv, his performances drew full houses.

However, the athlete’s life was not only victories, applause, and incredible strength feats. During the Nazi occupation he aided the underground and saved people from persecution and deportation for forced labor. After the return of Soviet power the strongman was arrested, his property confiscated, and he was sent to the camps.

Where Ivan Kruts was born: discrepancies in the biography

Local history materials about the childhood of Ivan Semenovych Kruts contain different accounts. One description of his life stated that he was born in Kursk, and a few years later the family moved to the south of Ukraine.

At the same time, in his own autobiography and during interrogations in the criminal case Ivan Semenovych Kruts named Mykolaiv as his place of birth. According to these documents, he was born in 1906 into the family of a merchant fleet sailor.

The Kruts family, fleeing famine, moved to the village of Rozdol in Holovanivsk uyezd of Yelysavethrad Governorate – on the territory of present-day Kirovohrad Oblast. There the future athlete spent his childhood years.

Worked as a dock laborer and stepped onto the wrestling mat

In 1920 the young man began attending a sports section at a labor school. After finishing his studies in 1922 he worked as a dock laborer and at the same time performed on stage and in the circus as a wrestler.

From 1926 sports and circus performances became his main occupation. Ivan Semenovych Kruts toured towns and villages, faced well-known athletes on the mat, and demonstrated strength acts.

In his youth he performed for a time together with gymnast Vasyl Dziuba. According to accounts, during one of the performances in Odesa the gymnast fell from an apparatus and died. There was a version that the equipment might have been deliberately damaged, but there is no documentary confirmation of that assumption. After the tragedy Ivan Semenovych Kruts began performing solo.

Posters presented him as a Ukrainian strongman, athlete, wrestler, and former champion of the Soviet Union. There were always plenty of people eager to see his shows.

“Mill” with 6 boys and almost 229 kilograms in his teeth

To the residents of Zhovtneve Ivan Semenovych Kruts was remembered primarily as an athlete who demonstrated incredible physical strength. Each year in the local club he held exhibition performances that became a real event for the whole town.

During one of the acts 6 boys were invited onto the stage. They were tied together with towels, after which the strongman lifted the entire group onto his shoulders and spun them, performing the so-called “mill”.

An even more difficult act involved 7 “doubles” – paired cast-iron weights. They were chained together, and the total weight of the contraption was 14 poods, or approximately 229 kilograms. The athlete lifted this load with his teeth and swung it from side to side.

Ivan Semenovych Kruts also drove a 150-millimeter nail into a wooden floor with his palm. He wrapped his hand with an ordinary handkerchief and drove the nail in up to the head. According to the memories of old-timers, after that the athlete could pull it out with his teeth.

The program included other strength tricks. The strongman twisted nails into spirals with his fingers, tied steel rods into “ties”, bent horseshoes with his hands, and tossed a metal ball weighing 45 kilograms over himself.

In another act he interlocked his fingers and had horses hitched to both his hands. The animals could not break the athlete’s grip. Such an act required extraordinary strength, so it was performed by only a few athletes of that era.

A truck with people drove over the strongman

The program of Ivan Semenovych Kruts also included particularly dangerous spectacles. The athlete would lie on the ground, thick boards were placed on his chest, and then a vehicle would drive over them.

One such performance took place in Petrovskyi Garden in Mykolaiv on August 20, 1942. The event was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the strongman’s sporting and performing career. A truck carrying people drove over him; afterwards the athlete rose, jumped onto the vehicle, and thanked the audience.

The circus troupe during the Nazi occupation

During the Second World War Ivan Semenovych Kruts remained in the occupied territory. He organized a group of performers, boxers, and wrestlers with whom he performed in Mykolaiv, Bratske, Voznesensk, Kherson, and Odesa.

The troupe usually numbered from 6 to 7 performers. Sometimes an orchestra of 5–6 musicians joined them. In Voznesensk and Kherson the troupe performed in circus venues designed for approximately 250–300 spectators.

The athlete performed acts such as driving in nails, bending horseshoes, lifting people and heavy objects. Both local residents and German and Romanian soldiers attended the performances. These shows later became one of the grounds for accusations against the athlete after the occupation ended.

Distributed leaflets and rescued people

Archival materials indicate that touring allowed Ivan Semenovych Kruts to move around the occupied territory. In the autumn of 1942 in Bratske he met underground member Dmytro Kharchenko.

After that the strongman received underground leaflets and distributed them in villages and during trips. A secret stash was arranged in the athlete’s house at 2nd Slobidska Street, 43 in Mykolaiv.

According to the case materials, Ivan Semenovych Kruts helped people avoid captivity, persecution, and forced deportation to Germany. He took into his troupe an escapee from captivity Yusuf Yevlampiyev, hid Fan Pyzh from a Jewish family, helped Valentyna Prostyakova, and changed the year of birth in documents for Sergiy Voroshilov.

Members of his troupe received passports, which prevented them from being sent to forced labor in Germany. Participation of Ivan Semenovych Kruts in underground activities was confirmed by numerous witnesses in the underground materials.

Instead of thanks — arrest, confiscation, and camps

After the liberation of Mykolaiv the strength performances before German and Romanian soldiers were used against the athlete. What could have been a cover for underground activity and a way to save troupe members was interpreted by the Soviet investigation as collaboration with the occupying authorities.

The regional prosecutor authorized the athlete’s arrest on December 23, 1944. Ivan Semenovych Kruts was arrested on January 29, 1945.

By the sentence of the military tribunal of the NKVD troops in the Mykolaiv region dated June 4, 1945, the strongman was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment in corrective labor camps. Additionally, he was deprived of rights for 3 years and his property was confiscated.

During the case review in 1965 Dmytro Kharchenko again confirmed the athlete’s cooperation with the underground. He provided a list with 37 surnames, addresses of safe apartments, and information about the leaders of underground groups.

However, during his lifetime Ivan Semenovych Kruts never received full exoneration. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1991.

Return to Zhovtneve

In the camp Ivan Semenovych Kruts met his future wife Oksana, who was also serving a sentence. The couple had a son, Yurii.

After his release the family lived in Kirovohrad region. There the strongman performed again, worked as a coach, and was the captain of a team at regional, republican, and all-Union competitions among rural athletes.

Later the family moved to Zhovtneve. There Ivan Semenovych Kruts built a new house, continued to tour settlements of the Mykolaiv region, and taught young people wrestling and weightlifting.

The wrestling club where the athlete trained young men was located on the then Mlynna Street. Even after the repressions he had endured, he remained a person deeply in love with sport and eager to pass his knowledge on to the next generation.

The strongman’s grave has been preserved in the Korabelnyi District

In his later years the athlete had serious leg problems, but continued to work as a club manager. Ivan Semenovych Kruts died in 1968 and was buried in the cemetery in Zhovtneve.

The athlete’s tombstone bears an inscription that reminds who he was considered by contemporaries and relatives.

“Ivan Semenovych Kruts (1906-1968) – Ukrainian strongman, athlete, former USSR champion in classical wrestling”.

In 2015–2017 Mykolaiv local historians and activists called to commemorate the strongman’s name in the toponymy of the Korabelnyi District and to install a memorial plaque. After all, the fate of Ivan Semenovych Kruts is not only the story of incredible physical strength, but also an example of a person whom the Soviet repressive system punished despite his assistance to the anti-Nazi underground.

The editorial office previously told in detail about the athlete’s life path, his strength acts, and the years he spent in Zhovtneve in the article “Strongman Ivan Kruts — a uniquely strong athlete from the Korabelnyi District who was undeservedly forgotten”.

Criminal case documents state that Ivan Semenovych Kruts was born in 1906 in Mykolaiv. He was arrested on January 29, 1945, and by the sentence of the military tribunal dated June 4, 1945 he received 6 years in camps, a 3-year restriction of rights, and confiscation of property. The editorial office published materials of this case in the article “Confession from behind bars. Materials of the criminal case of our famous countryman found in the SBU archive”.

Archival documents about Ivan Semenovych Kruts‘s performances during the Nazi occupation, his ties to the underground, help to persecuted people, and subsequent Soviet persecution were published in a separate piece “From the SBU archive. The fate of the outstanding weightlifter, our countryman Ivan Kruts, in documents”.

The need to preserve memory of the strongman was also voiced during local history events in the Korabelnyi District. In particular, schoolchildren were told about famous countrymen, among whom was Ivan Semenovych Kruts. You can read about this in the publication “Pupils of School No. 1 were told about famous countrymen”.