History

Although traditionally Gorodki is a folk game, it was played by such Russian historical figures as emperor Peter I, generalissimus Alexander Suvorov, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin, as well as cultural luminaries like Ivan Pavlov, Leo Tolstoy, Maksim Gorky, Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky, and others. The game as it existed prior to 1923 had no rules per se. It was organized into a legitimate sport and its rules codified by 1923, when the first All-Soviet-Union competition was held, and it became an event at the first All-Union Olympiad in 1928.