Europe

Biady (Poland)

Biady (Poland)

  • Name of sport (game): Biady
  • Name in native language: Biady
  • Place of practice (continent, state, nation):

    Kurpie and north-eastern Masovia, Poland

  • History:

    The Polish word biady (often pronounced ‘bziady’ in the Kurpie region) is attested as a synonym to ‘wrestling’ (Polish: zapasy) since the 19th century (Gloger 1893: 715). Its use in an early-20th-century novel by Stefan Żeromski, in a context suggesting close-quarters combat, implies that it was familiar to an ordinary reader at the time:
    Dnia 26 marca od samego rana zwaliły się na nas dywizje francuskie. Młode bestie, żołnierz z pieluch, toteż to szło w biady, sięgało ci do gardła jak we szkole. Dawaj bić! Bagnet szczęka w bagnet, oczy łypią w oczy. A staremu wiarusowi (…) nie tak znowu łatwo broń z garści wytrąci bele smyk, choćby, bestia, i młodymi zębami kłapał.
    On the 26th of March, early in the morning, two French divisions assaulted us. Young beasts, soldiers freshly out of nappies, so they immediately went for biady, reaching for the throats like schoolers. Come on, fight! Bayonette meets bayonette, eye to eye. But an old campaigner (…) is not easily disarmed by a kid, even a beast of a man snapping his teeth.

    • after Żeromski 1902: 196; transl. MT, emphasis added.


    The earliest account documenting the word biady used to denote a particular wrestling style comes from a memoir written in 1919 by Aleksander Pieńkowski, then a Polish soldier in the Polish-Soviet War, born in Drozdowo in north-eastern Masovia. There, he recounts his time at the recruits’ camp, where he used to do biady regularly, even attaining some skill and local fame:
    W czasie przerwy chodziłem w biady dla rozgrzewki i tak się przyzwyczaiłem, że co dzień się biadowałem. Porucznik przechodzał się po wałach, czasem się zatrzymywał i przyglądał, kto kogo obali, a plutonowy Dobranowski z naszej kompanii zaczął wybierać silniejszych żołnierzy i przyprowadzać do mnie. „Jak tego obalisz, to w południe dwa piwa ci zafunduję" – mówił. Nie byłem taki bardzo silny i nie wyglądałem na siłacza, ale w tym fachu się wyrobiłem. Chociaż nawet mój przeciwnik był silniejszy, ale gdy tylko stąpnął jedną nogą źle, to już leżał.
    During breaks I would do biady to warm up, getting so used to it that I did it every day. The lieutenant would walk around the earthworks, pausing from time to time to see who takes down whom, while Corporal Dobranowski from our company started to pick the strongest soldiers and bring them to me. “If you take this one down, then I’ll buy you two beers in the afternoon!” – he would say. I wasn’t all that strong, and certainly didn’t look like a strongman, but I learned this craft quite well. Even if my opponent was stronger, one false step and he would end up on the ground.

    • after Pieńkowski 2020; transl. MT, emphasis added.


    The memoir entries narrating about his biady matches are very colourful and often rich in technical details and specific vocabulary, as in the following example from October 1919:
    … No to chodź, się rozgrzejemy – odpowiadam. Złapaliśmy się na krzyż. Chciałem go do siebie przycisnąć, unieść do góry, a potem obalić, ale on się nie dał i tak kręciliśmy się dokoła. Chciał mnie obalić, ale też się nie dałem. Znowu jego chcę obalić, ale on dużo grubszy, nie mogę go dobrze objąć. Otoczyła nas cała kompania i się przygląda. Wreszcie jakoś odsunąłem go od siebie, potem prędko przyciągnąłem, uniosłem na brzuchu i powaliłem. Alem się strasznie zmęczył!.
    … “Come on then, let’s warm up!” – I replied. We took the crosswise hold [Polish: na krzyż]. I wanted to squeeze him hard, lift up, and then take down, but he defended and so we circled round and round. Then he tried to take me down, but I resisted. I attempted to attack him again, but he was much larger, I couldn’t get a good hold. The whole company surrounded us to watch. Finally, I somehow managed to push him away and then immediately pulled back, lifted him up on my belly, and threw down. But, man, was that exhausting!

    • after Pieńkowski 2020; transl. MT, emphasis added.


    The ‘crosswise hold’ (na krzyż) is a characteristic feature of most biady variants known today. The technical descriptions left by Pieńkowski in the 1920s agree closely with the praxis described and demonstrated by actual biady practitioners interviewed in the years 2017–2023 (see Description below), which suggests that the style did not change much between the 1920s and the 1980s, when it abruptly disappeared.
    Nowadays, biady is no longer practiced, but the available interviews and historical data indicate that it used to be widespread among the rural population of north-eastern Poland. Biady matches were reportedly regular occurrences, accompanying various daily tasks undertaken by men, usually young and unmarried, and boys, such as travelling to and from the farm fields, grazing cattle, reaping, threshing, or scything. It was also a common form of entertainment during larger social gatherings, such as weddings, Sunday masses, or fairs.
    The practice appears to have been largely unstructured and devoid of internal hierarchies. Apart from the name of the activity (biady, bziady) and several technical terms referring to holds and hand positions, there was no practice-specific vocabulary, such as names of throws or other wrestling techniques. Teaching was similarly amorphous, with boys learning how to biady by imitating their peers and seniors, or sometimes by wrestling with their fathers or other male relatives. No official biady contests have been attested in the sources investigated so far, so formally there were no ‘champions’. However, skilled biady wrestlers did win some reputation within their communities, as confirmed by Pieńkowski and the interviewed practitioners. In case of the young boys, proficiency in biady could help them gain recognition by older colleagues and enter the ranks of young men (the so-called kawalerowie).
    Biady was a strictly gendered activity, with boys and men as the only participants. It was also unusual for married men and elders to compete in biady. Girls and women are attested as interested members of the audience, sometimes actively motivating or provoking men to compete. From an evolutionist perspective, this involvement of women may perhaps be seen as a way to gauge the strength and resilience of their potential future husbands. Testing strength (Polish: krzepa) was explicitly stated by interviewees as the main purpose of biady, revealing its dual nature as both an individual and a community practice: Wrestlers tested themselves but also participated in sort of public theatre, winning recognition and allowing others to do the same. At the same time, as there were neither formal ‘championships’ nor any sort of material prizes, participation seems to have been more important than victory for the social function of biady.

    biady photo

    ‘Boys doing biady by the Narew River’, photograph by Adam Chętnik, 1928. Source: Chętnik 1971: fig. 17.

  • Description:

    Biady was a widespread practice, but its unstructured character meant that certain variations existed in parallel across its geographical span. Different villages or communities may have had slightly different rules or even entirely unique variants of the game – the interviewed practitioners confirmed several of those, which are listed below:
    • ‘crosswise biady’ (biady na krzyż) was by far the most common type of biady. The rules of the game required wrestlers to establish a symmetrical bodylock with the hands joined behind each other’s backs. One arm (usually right) went over the opponent’s shoulder, and the other under his armpit, thus making the eponymical ‘cross’. From there, wrestlers would try to overpower each other with the strength of their hold and force the opponent to the ground. Apparently many subvariants existed – in some communities the only acceptable technique was squeezing the opponent hard enough to make them yield (e.g. the village of Kadzidło in the 1980s), whereas in others lifting the opponent would often precede take-downs (e.g. the vicinity of Łomża in the 1950s). Leg techniques, such as sweeps or grapevines, were usually forbidden, but this could sometimes vary, especially under mutual consent between rivals.
    • ‘half-hold biady’ (biady w pół) was a variant attested for the Kurpie region, allegedly used to even out the playing field in matches with significant strength and/or height discrepancy between wrestlers. It employed an assymetrical hold, in which one wrestler (the stronger or higher one) would bodylock the other with both his arms above the shoulders of the opponent (weaker or smaller). In result, the latter would be given a stronger bodylock with both arms under the opponent’s armpits. Other than that, the variant followed the ordinary rules described for the ‘crosswise biady’. Certain historical accounts suggest that the ‘half-hold’ could sometimes require wrestlers to grab each other’s belts, but this lacks substantial support in the available sources.
    • ‘biady by the lapels’ (biady w klapy) was an allegedly popular and distinct variation played in jackets. Wrestlers would grab each other by the shoulder parts (lapels) of their everyday jackets and work for a take-down. According to oral testimonies, this variant was the most spectacular, often involving high amplitude throws. Leg techniques were allegedly accepted in this context, especially sweeps. So far, ‘biady by the lapels’ has been attested only in traditional interviews, so its physical form and specific wrestling techniques remain unknown.
    • ‘biady on the ground’ (biady leżąc) is a variant reported in one ethnographic work from the early 20th century (Chętnik 1971: 90), but unattested in later interviews. According to the description, it required a wrestler to lie down on the ground, wrap one leg around that of the opponent and then try to pull him over oneself. No specific techniques are known for the variant.
    The repertory of wrestling techniques has been significantly reconstructed only for the ‘crosswise biady’ and is freely available in an open-access data repository hosted by the University of Warsaw (Talaga 2024). It demonstrates that biady was a relatively simple wrestling style, employing a narrow set of unornamented techniques and tactics, that nevertheless required both strength and cunning. Some techniques which could be easily performed from the biady bodylock, such as suplex or leg sweeps against the knee joint, appear to have been forbidden due to safety concerns, once again highlighting the social and amicable character of the practice.

    Waclaw Nizinski demonstruje chwyt biadowy Lomza 2017

    Wacław Niziński presents a grip biady, Łomża (Poland) 2017

  • Current status:

    Almost extinct (only elderly practitioners left).
    Attempts at reconstruction and revival underway.

  • Contacts:

    “The Biady Project” – a research initiative affiliated at the University of Warsaw aimed at documenting and reconstructing the wrestling techniques of biady.
    Website: https://www.facebook.com/ProjektBiady/
    Tel. +48 507 559 493
    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  • Sources of information :

    Additional information:
    Documentary on biady (Polish with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O038bJY6SZA
    Raw ethnographic and historical data on biady (in Polish): https://doi.org/10.18150/AJVJOS

    Cited works:
    Chętnik Adam (1971), Życie puszczańskie Kurpiów, Warszawa.
    Gloger Zygmunt (1893/2016), Słownik gwary ludowej w okręgu tykocińskim. In Pisma rozproszone. Tom III: 1890–1910, eds. Jarosław Ławski and Jan Leończuk, Białystok. URL: http://www.ksiaznicapodlaska.pł/statics/gloger.html 
    Pieńkowski Aleksander (2020). Wspomnienia 1919–1921, ed. Marcin Rydzewski, Drozdowo. URL: https://www.muzeum-drozdowo.pl/poczytaj-ksi%C4%85%C5%BCk%C4%99/66-aleksander-pie%C5%84kowski-wspomnienia-1919-1921/1018-aleksander-pie%C5%84kowski-wspomnienia-1919-1921-odcinek-vi.
    Talaga Maciej (2024), Katalog rekonstrukcji technik zapaśniczych stosowanych w „biadach", ludowym stylu zapasów z północno-wschodniej Polski, RepOD (University of Warsaw open data repository), DOI: https://doi.org/10.18150/MKLP9X.
    Żeromski Stefan (1902), Popioły, vol. 1, online edition by Wolne Lektury. URL: https://wolnelektury.pl/media/book/pdf/zeromski-popioly.pdf.

    Top image:
    ‘Boys doing biady by the Narew River’, photograph by Adam Chętnik, 1928. Source: Chętnik 1971: fig. 17.

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