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Assyrian Star Magazine
Assyrian Wrestling Champion Victor Avdishev
Assyrians living in the Former Soviet Union have their own sports history that speaks of the success of the Assyrian community and their traditions of mutual support. They had many talented and outstanding athletes in different fields of Russian sport: in soccer - Piraev, in wrestling - Aivazov, Givalevich and Avdishev, in boxing - Osipov, in acrobatics -Nazarov, and many others. Victor Avdishev (Awdisho) is recognized as one of the most talented Assyrian athletes in the FSU. His grandfather came to Russia from the Van district of Turkey during the 19th century. Victor was born in March 10, 1956 in Khanlar, then a town in Soviet Azerbaijan. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 it was called Ellenindorph and there lived a small but concentrated Assyrian community. Later Victor's family moved to Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic.
Victor Avdishev, the champion of the Soviet Union in 1978. At the
start of the 1970' s Victor became a member of a sports school under
the patronage of Ali Kuli, his first coach for Free Style Wrestling.
By 1975 he had became a champion of the USSR (junior division). In
1976, he won the Junior Championship of Europe. Further success
followed two years later when he became the Champion of the World
(students division). In 1978, at the Mexico City competition, he won
a bronze medal in the World Championship. In 1978 and again in 1979
he won the championship of the entire USSR.
Victor Avdishev, the champion of the Soviet Union in 1978.
After retiring from competition, he began a new career as a wrestling trainer in Ukraine, where there is also a concentration of Assyrians in Kiev. At the same time, he entered the business field, where success crowned his efforts, and he became recognized as a caring philanthropist. One of the best examples of his attention to the economic problems of his Assyrian people came in the period of perestroika in the USSR during the secretary generalship of Mikhael Gorbachev when the upheaval of redesigning the economy led to major hardship for pensioners and the disabled. Victor Avdishev initiated a special program, in which, out of his own private funds, he organized an administrative and orderly way of providing regular and generous help to disabled and elderly Assyrians.
In 1995, he made a major donation to the Assyrian community of Ukraine for the construction of a new Assyrian church in Kiev. (see Assyrian Star LIV, 1) In 2000 this church was completed but awaits the appointment of a priest from the Assyrian Church of the East so that it can properly function as a religious institution and thus receive government permission as an active church. Victor Avdishev has done his part and more for the Assyrians in Ukraine.
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