Vasili Oshchepkov

Vasili Sergeyevich Oshchepkov was a Russian and Soviet researcher of different types of national wrestling and martial arts. He was ranked as a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR and an Honored Coach of the USSR. He was one of the founders of Sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet Union. During the Great Purge, Oshchepkov was arrested in 1937 and accused of being a Japanese spy; he was executed in prison as a result.