Nikolay Koshelev: The Father of the 1st Soviet Shtanga
History in Color
Nikolay Koshelev (1908-1986) is a historical figure in the Soviet Olympic weightlifting. He was born in the suburbs of Leningrad (St. Petersburg, Russia) and all his career and achievements are connected with his hometown.
As a distinguished athlete, Koshelev competed for the local weightlifting clubs (Metallist, Zenith, Trud) in the middleweight class in the pre World War 2 national tournaments. He won 4 gold medals (1934-1937) and 1 silver medal (1938) at the USSR Championships.
He set 28 national records in the 67.5kg, 75kg and 82.5kg classes and 11 unofficial world records. Afterwards, he worked as a coach and a referee in Leningrad.
By trade, Nikolay Koshelev was a locksmith and mechanic. He constantly worked on development of weightlifting equipment and, in the 1950s, Koshelev created the first Soviet shtanga which was certified by the international federation and was considered state-of-the-art barbell set at the time it was made.
Koshelev is often called as the “father of the Soviet shtanga” and Lenigrad was the main place in the USSR where Olympic weightlifting sets were manufactured. In fact, the famous shiny chrome “leningradkas” sets were a further development of Koshelev’s ideas and were manufactured in Koshelev’s hometown Leningrad.
This is actually a question. Was the shtanga barbell what became the sets used by the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics and other national and international events in the 70’s and 80’s? Of course bumper plates were added by that time.
Hi Kevin:
The Koshelev’s shtanga was the first Soviet shtanga certified by the international federation. It was the state-of-art at the time. The locks in the set were probably far ahead of times. As I wrote in this article, it was made in Leningrad and it became THE place where the best Soviet shtangas were made in the following decades. They were called “Leningradkas” 🙂 Of course, there was an evolution process… In our place in the late 1970s, we had one Koshelev’s shtanga and it wasn’t as good as more modern makes. It was thicker, heavier and had a poor bend/spin compared to later models. Few of us really wanted to train with it in the classic lifts. So, eventually it was moved to the squad rack 🙂