Georg Lurich - Early Life

Early Life

Born Georg Luri on 22 April 1876 in the village of Väike-Maarja in Viru County, Russian Empire (now Lääne-Viru County, Estonia), he was a son of a shopkeeper named Jüri Luri. Although ethnically Estonian, his family later altered their surname to Lurich after changing religious congregations from a Lutheran Estonian congregation to a predominantly ethnic Baltic German congregation. Lurich's family believed members of the German congregation had better possibilities to educate their children in town schools. Lurich began participating in sporting activities at an early age.

After graduating from Peter's Modern School in Tallinn in 1895, he traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia where he practised weightlifting and wrestling under the supervision of the athletics coach Dr. Wladyslaw Krajewski. Lurich performed in St. Petersburg's summer gardens, competed with local wrestlers and made various lifting demonstrations together with fellow strongman Gustav Boesberg. His popularity convinced him to follow a career in as a professional athlete.

Lurich became the first Estonian to set world weightlifting records. The Estonian public eagerly attended his matches and Lurich's popularity in his homeland soared. From 1897 to 1898 Lurich toured Estonia and his successes helped popularize athletics in Estonia and dozens of athletic clubs were established. In 1896, Lurich befriended an 18-year old fellow countryman by the name of Georg Hackenschmidt and began to train the young man. Hackenschmidt would later go on to create a name for himself in weightlifting and wrestling.

Lurich's popularity in Estonia also helped galvanize the move toward Estonian independence and instilled a sense of nationalist pride among the people. Estonia was at that time occupied by tsarist Russia, and many higher ranking Estonian officials and intellectuals touted Lurich's accomplishments as proof of the "unbreakable Estonian spirit".