The Historical and Sports Museum of the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism has put together the online exhibition, called "Battalions of E. Chumakov", on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Chumakov was an Honoured Master of Sports of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and an Honoured Trainer of the USSR.

Born on February 16 in 1921 in Gzhatsk, Chumakov began competing in the sport in 1937 before winning featherweight gold at his first National Championship aged 18.

Serving as a foreman of the medical service, Chumakov received a military award for courage in December 1942 after carrying around 200 wounded soldiers from the battlefield during the Second World War.

Chumakov sustained a shrapnel wound to his right forearm resulting in nerve damage.

After restoring the mobility of his hands, Chumakov went on to become a four-time national champion.

"Before the last fight, Yevgeny Mikhailovich broke the metatarsal bones of the ankle, and just to get out on the carpet, hiding his ailment from both doctors and his opponent, he needed incredible willpower," said one of Chumakov's pupils about his victory in the 1947 USSR Championship.

"To ease the pain, he tied a piece of plywood to the sole of his foot and walked out onto the carpet as if nothing had happened."

In 1946, Chumakov entered the State University of Physical Culture and Sports where he became the head of the integrated scientific group of the USSR sambo team.

He also carried out an experiment studying the process of teaching technique and its improvement in the process of training, and became known as "The Grandmaster of the Carpet".

Between 1954 and 1968, Chumakov's students collected 36 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze medals in competitions at all levels.

Among those included European champions Stepanov Oleg Sergeevich and Yudin Anatoly Yegorovich, and Sergei Eliseev, President of both the All-Russian Sambo Federation and the European Sambo Federation.

Chumakov trained 15 candidates of pedagogical sciences and published more than 200 manuals and publications on sambo.

His system of training sambists is known as "the school of EM Chumakov".

To mark the 100th anniversary of Chumakov’s birth, there are plans to reissue his book "100 Sambo Lessons", while the All-Russian Wrestling Federation is set to release a commemorative album about his life.

A scientific conference to mark Chumakov's 100th birthday has been postponed until November because of the coronavirus situation in Russia.

In 2018, a bust of Chumakov was installed on the Alley of Sports Heroes of the Russian State University of Physical Culture and Sports while a lane was also named after him in his home city.

The exhibition, in Russian, can be seen here.