PhD, Associate Professor D.A. Belyukov¹
I.V. Rumiantsev^1
1Velikie Luki State Academy of Physical Culture and Sport, Velikie Luki

Keywords: Games of the V Olympiad, the first Russian Olympians, A. P. Rodzianko, equestrian sports, World War I, Civil War, emigration.

Introduction. Biographies of the first Russian Olympians remain poorly studied. At the Games of the V Olympiad, the equestrian A. P. Rodzianko performed, whose fate reflects the controversial history of Russia at the beginning of the XX century.
The purpose of the study is to study the biography of the participant of the Games of the V Olympiad A. P. Rodzianko in its connection with the Olympic movement, military affairs and the history of Russia.
The results of the study and their discussion. Alexander Pavlovich Rodzianko (August 13, 1879 – May 6, 1970) was born in a noble family, graduated from the Page Corps (1899), the cavalry officer School (1907), the cavalry school in Saumur (France, 1908). Since 1899, A. P. Rodzianko served in the Cavalry Regiment, since 1912 - with the rank of colonel. In 1908-1909, he commanded His Majesty's squadron. At the same time as his military service, he devoted a lot of time to equestrian sports. In 1902, Russian skaters first participated in international competitions in Turin. The cornet of the Cavalry Regiment, Alexander Rodzianko, performed unsuccessfully, but brought to Russia the advanced methods of the natural school. To gain experience, Russian equestrians began to participate much more often in international competitions, in which they showed a number of high achievements. [1].
At the Games of the V Olympiad of 1912 in Stockholm, equestrian competitions were held in show jumping, long and high jump, triathlon and dressage. The Russian equestrian team consisted of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Colonel A. P. Rodzianko, Captain Mikhail Ekimov, lieutenants Mikhail Pleshkov, Sergey Zagorsky, Karol Rummel and Alexey Selikhov. Despite the rosy forecasts, only in show jumping our equestrians took the 5th team place [2].
At the beginning of the First World War, A. P. Rodzianko went to the front, served in the 2nd Kuban, 1st Line Cossack regiments, temporarily commanded the 16th Don Cossack General Grekov Regiment, served in the 8th Army. Later, A. P. Rodzianko became an active participant in the Civil War as part of the White Movement. From August 1918 he lived in Riga. From November 1918 – Major General, member of the formation of the Northern Volunteer Corps.
After the defeat of the White Movement, A. P. Rodzianko emigrated to Germany. In exile, he worked on the memoir "Memories of the North-Western Army", which was published in Berlin in 1921. Later he emigrated to the United States, where he was chairman of the regimental association of cavalry guards in the United States and chairman of the department of the Union of Pages.
We hope that the name of one of the first Russian Olympians, A. P. Rodzianko, will not be forgotten. After all, the biographies of the first Russian Olympians, in our opinion, deserve serious attention, since they reflect the contradictory history of our state and the Olympic movement at the beginning of the XX century.
Conclusion. In the course of the research, a theoretical approach is proposed to such a direction of the history of physical culture, sports and the Olympic movement as the study of biographies of Russian athletes-participants of the first Olympic Games of our time, the result of which could be a generalizing study "The first Russian Olympians".

Literature

1. Biography of A. P. Rodzianko / / Website of graduates of the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Suvorov Military School "Kadetka" / Access mode: http://www.kadetka-spb.ru/modules/news/article.php?storyid=202
2. E. Dolgopolova Olympic horse racing of Prince Dmitry Romanov / E. Dolgopolova / / Rodina Magazine. – 2016. – № 2.