In 1905, a note was published about him: “To have an idea of ​​​​the extraordinary growth of this giant, it is enough to say that boots with tops that barely reach his knees reach the waist of an ordinary mortal, and a 12-year-old boy can fit in them completely free with your head. A silver ruble passes through the ring that the giant wears on his index finger.

And in December 1906, the St. Petersburg newspapers wrote: “The other day, the Russian giant Fedor Makhnov, who is 2 meters 68 cm tall, has arrived in St. Petersburg and will be shown in one of the auditoriums, which growth has not yet been seen in any part of the globe” ...

By that time, the Russian giant had already managed to turn into a "world famous living exhibit", and this fabulous exclusivity was not comparable to that short life lived by this amazing man.

IN tsarist Russia the peasant Fyodor Makhnov was called the Russian giant. Despite the quite decent growth of his parents and two brothers, the growth and size of the young Fedor were impressive - already in his youth he was about 2.5 meters. The length of his foot was 51 cm, the length of the palm was 31 cm. At the same time, he weighed 182 kg and was extremely strong.

At that time, Fedor was considered not only the tallest man in the Russian Empire, but also the tallest man who ever lived on Earth. His height, according to unofficial data, was 285 centimeters. And the officially recognized record is 272 cm. It belongs to the American Robert Wadlow. It is the growth of the American giant that is considered to this day undoubted and recognized, listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Fedor Andreevich Makhnov, a native of the small village of Kostyuki near Vitebsk, was born on June 6, 1878.

The boy was the firstborn in an ordinary peasant family. Fedor's mother soon dies after a difficult birth. The newborn was too big. The child was taken in by the grandparents.

Until the age of 8, Fedor's growth did not cause much surprise and did not differ much from the growth of his peers. However, after that it began to grow "prohibitively" quickly.

Fedya grew up as a very strong boy.

At the age of 10, the father took the grown boy to him. Helping his father with the housework, Fedya got stronger and hardened.

Large for his age, he could easily drag a peasant cart loaded with hay up the mountain or lift an adult on a dare.
Neighbors often used his abilities in the construction of houses, where he helped to lift logs.

The local landowner Korzhenevsky, having learned about the abilities of the young strong man, hired him to clean the nearby Zaronovka River from boulders that interfered with the operation of the water mill. long-term work in a very cold water played a very unfavorable role in Fedor's life. He caught a cold, and the illnesses that followed later made themselves felt for the rest of Makhnov's life.

By the age of 14, a 2-meter young man ceased to fit in the house.

Because of this, my father had to build up walls on several crowns. The local blacksmith was ordered to make an individual bed, but he, overloaded with work, made it all summer. In the end, it turned out that Fedya had outgrown this bed as well.

It was problematic to dress and shoe a tall guy. Everything was made to order. Money for clothes had to be earned in Vitebsk at the Polotsk Bazaar. It was there that the German Otto Bilinder, who owned a traveling circus, noticed an unusual teenager. Being a business man, he quickly realized the prospects of this man in his troupe, and persuaded his father to let Fedor go with the circus. Bilinder undertook to take over all the content of the guy, and in addition he promised that Fedor with his data would be able to make good money and help his family.

It didn’t take long to persuade his father, and the 14-year-old boy went to conquer Europe with his abilities. Otto Bilinder took custody of Fedor. First, for an illiterate guy, he hired teachers who taught him German. Otto took over the teaching of circus art. Fedor's training lasted almost two years. When he was 16 years old, a contract was signed with him for performances. So Fedor Makhnov became a circus artist.

Makhnov became a circus artist. The bet in his performances was made on power numbers. More than two and a half meters tall, the giant bent iron horseshoes with one hand, smashed bricks with a blow of his hand, twisted metal rods into a spiral, and then straightened them again.

Particularly successful were the numbers when he, lying on his back, raised a wooden platform with an orchestra of three musicians.
In those days, Greco-Roman (classical) wrestling tournaments were very popular in circuses. Famous strongmen and world-class wrestlers, including Russian titans Zaikin and Poddubny, took part in them. Fedor Makhnov also participated in similar tournaments. True, he did not become a great athlete due to the fact that the world's best wrestlers always came out against him, and a chronic back disease did not allow him to fully show his talents. However, his appearance in the arena alone caused a storm of delight from the public.

Makhnov devoted nine years to work in the circus, after which he became a completely wealthy person. However, great growth also brought a lot of trouble to Fedor. It was hard for him to move, since all transport, hotels, establishments Catering calculated only on people of standard sizes. Because of this, Fedor returned home to his native Kostyuki at the very beginning of the 20th century. With the money earned in circus performances, he bought from the landowner Korzhenevsky, who left for France, his land and house.

Makhnov rebuilt the estate to fit his height, furnished it with suitable furniture and renamed it Velikanovo.
All the necessary building materials and furniture were sent to him from Germany by Otto Bidinder, with whom Fedor maintained close friendly contacts until the end of his life.


Fedor with his wife Efrosinya

Having settled in a new place, Makhnov decided to get married. And although by nature he was very kind, and he was not deprived of finances, he found a bride with great difficulty. She became Efrosinya Lebedeva, who worked as a rural teacher. As a girl, she was tall, but still inferior to her fiancé by almost a meter. In 1903, the first daughter Maria appeared in the family, and on next year son Nicholas was born.

To top up family budget, from time to time Fedor went to various wrestling tournaments, performed in circuses, demonstrating his abilities in various cities of the Russian Empire.

Such trips, together with some anthropological details of "Vitebsk Gulliver", were regularly covered by the then press. It was written, in particular, that Fedor has a weight of 182 kg, 15-centimeter ears and 10-centimeter lips. The length of his palm was 32 cm, his feet - 51 cm. Makhnov's height slightly decreased on weekdays and increased over the weekend.


Fyodor Makhnov is preparing dinner for himself

The giant's meals were four times a day, but the portions were truly impressive.

For example, breakfast was a set of 8 round loaves of bread and butter, 20 eggs and 2 liters of tea. Lunch was 1 kg of potatoes, 2.5 kg of meat and 3 liters of beer. Dinner consisted of 2.5 kg of meat, 3 loaves of bread, 2 liters of tea and a bowl of fruit. And before going to bed, he was served 1 more loaf of bread, 15 eggs and 1 liter of tea or milk.

In 1905, the Makhnov family went on a tour abroad. Traveling through Western Europe, they visited France, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Italy.

The Pope himself honored them with an audience. According to family tradition, he took off his golden cross and gave it to the giant's daughter.
The Makhnovs also visited the USA. To do this, however, had to redo the cabin of the steamer.

These trips were not without incidents. At receptions in palaces, Fedor lit cigarettes from candles from the upper tiers of chandeliers, which extinguished them.

In Paris, he had a skirmish with several citizens. The police officers who arrived wanted to send the giant to jail, but not finding a suitable cell, they limited themselves to a conversation.

During dinner at the German Chancellor, a huge tea set was placed in front of Makhnov, but Fyodor did not appreciate such a “joke”, demanding to replace it with an ordinary mug.


Makhnov on a trip abroad

But although receptions at the most high levels and were hospitable, traveling the world was difficult. First of all, the unsuitable sizes of transport, housing and restaurants affected. In addition, various scientists began to besiege Makhnov, who offered to conclude a contract for him to transfer his skeleton to them for study after death. Suspecting that they might kill him for this, Fedor interrupted his foreign tour and returned to his home at Velikanov Khutor.

A long nomadic life undermined the already not very good health Makhnov. The chronic disease of the joints, earned in childhood in the cold water of Zaronovka, aggravated. It became more and more difficult to walk. Otto Bilinder tried to help Fedor by sending a heavyweight horse from Germany. Unfortunately, the sent animal did not solve the problem, because with its nearly three-meter height, the giant's legs still dragged along the ground when he mounted it. And although Fedor became very attached to the horse, he preferred to take the troika as the main means of transportation on trips.

Traveling abroad brought a lot of new things to the economic life of Fyodor Makhnov. Almost the first in the district, he began to use agricultural machines, purchased by him in Germany and kindly sent by Bilinder. For a while, he even bred horses.


Fedor Makhnov in Velikanovo with friends

Unfortunately, Fyodor Makhnov did not live long. In 1912 chronic diseases the giant’s health was finally crippled, and he died at the age of 34, having managed, however, before that to rejoice at the birth of three more of his children: daughter Masha (1911) and twin sons Rodion (Radimir) and Gabriel (Galyun), who were born in just six months until his death.

The exact reason for this early care their life Makhnov was never determined. In some documents it is written that he died of tuberculosis, in others - from chronic pneumonia.

The Vitebsk giant was buried at the local cemetery near the village of Kostyuki. Russian Sport magazine published an obituary announcing his death.

The growth of Fyodor Makhnov, even after his death, continued to amaze everyone. The undertaker, thinking that an error had crept into the order for the coffin and the fence, did the work based on ordinary person. When it turned out that he was mistaken, he had to urgently redo the coffin, and there was no time left to remake the fence, and he had to leave it.

On the surviving tombstone, one can still read the inscription: “Fedor Andreevich Makhnov, born on June 6, 1878, died. On August 28, 1912, in the 36th year, the Biggest Man in the World Rostom Was 3 arshins 9 vershoks.
The story about Fyodor Makhnov can be supplemented by the fact that his height on the tombstone is indicated incorrectly. He was taken from a contract with Bilinder, signed by the giant at the age of 16. Since that moment, Fedor has grown another 30 cm.


Tombstone on Makhnov's grave

The giant's wife subsequently wanted to correct the mistakes on the tombstone and remake the fence, but the First World War and the revolutionary events that followed her prevented her from doing so.

Once one of the sons of the Belarusian giant, having entered the medical University, told the professors what an unusual person his father was. Then the scientists persuaded the widow Euphrosyne to give permission for the exhumation of the remains. The skeleton of Gulliver from the Belarusian outback was studied by scientists from Belarus and Russia, and they came to the conclusion that the huge growth was the result of a disease of the pituitary gland of the brain, which did not produce hormones correctly, but was not hereditary, so Makhnov’s children most likely received their usual human height from her mother - she was not a little lady at all.

Before the war, the skeleton of the tallest man in the world was kept in the anatomical museum of the medical institute. And when the Nazis occupied the capital of the BSSR, the unique exhibit disappeared along with many other relics.

According to the stories of old-timers, Minsk Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube was very proud of this "find" and was awarded for it, because Hitler, who, as you know, raved about the idea of ​​an Aryan supernation, was delighted to receive such a gift, and Nazi scientists spent a lot of time and human lives, trying to influence the pituitary gland in order to get a whole army of such giants.
The granddaughter of the giant, Alla Dmitrieva, lives in Minsk and knows her grandfather only from the stories of her mother: “He was a very kind and generous person, he did not refuse help to anyone, they turned to him from all around for money. Grandfather generally loved his homeland very much, because he was treated like a person, and completely refused the offer of his entrepreneur to be buried in Berlin - he did not want them to make an attraction out of him even after his death.


Fyodor Andreevich Makhnov who lived on turn of XIX-XX centuries, is called the tallest man in the world. His height was 285 centimeters! The dimensions of the giant were such that a 12-year-old child could fit in his boot. Each meal consisted of several kilograms of food, and Makhnov could sleep for as long as 24 hours. In Europe, the giant was a real curiosity and a favorite of the public.




Fyodor Andreevich Makhnov comes from the village of Kostyuki, Vitebsk district (former Russian Empire, now Belarus). In addition to him, two more sons grew up in the Makhnov family. Their growth was above average, but Fedor "outdid" everyone. The grandfather took his grandson to be raised, because Fedor's mother died in childbirth, the fetus turned out to be too large.

As they say, the boy grew by leaps and bounds. At the age of 12, his height was already 2 meters. Fedor also had the corresponding strength in his hands. He could lift an adult man on one arm, dragged huge logs, harnessed instead of horses and transported hay carts.



At a young age, the boy was hired by a local landowner to clear the river of boulders. They interfered with the normal functioning of the mill. Work in cold water turned into illnesses for Fedor, which manifested themselves more than once in the future.

When the young giant was 14 years old, he began to hit his head on the ceiling, he had to rebuild the hut. They were supposed to make an individual bed for Fedor, but the blacksmith delayed the execution of the order, and the boy managed to outgrow it.

One day, a giant teenager, who worked part-time at the Polotsk Bazaar in Vitebsk, was seen by Otto Bilinder, the owner of a traveling circus. It should be noted that this was late XIX century, at that time the performances of miracle people enjoyed tremendous popularity. The German persuaded Fyodor's relatives to let him go to Germany.



So the young giant came to Europe. At first, Fedor studied German and, in parallel with this, mastered the circus craft. He learned to effectively unbend horseshoes, break bricks with his palm.

At the age of 16, Fedor Makhnov signed a contract to work in a circus. The audience was delighted. People came to the performances not only to look at the tricks, but simply to see with their own eyes the giant, whose height was more than 2.5 meters. Fyodor Makhnov, lying down, easily lifted the platform with a small orchestra.



By the age of 25, Fedor Makhnov's height was already 285 cm. Naturally, with such dimensions, the giant also had proper nutrition. For breakfast, he ate an omelette of 20 eggs, 8 loaves of bread, and drank 2 liters of tea. Lunch consisted of 2.5 kg of meat, the same amount of potatoes, a bowl of vegetables. The giant could sleep for more than 24 hours.

Fedor Makhnov worked for 9 years in a circus, and then returned to his native village. With the money earned, the giant bought the land and his house from the local landowner, which he rebuilt for himself. It is worth noting that Otto Bidinder always continued to help him. The circus owner and artist remained friends.



Fyodor Makhnov married a local teacher, Efrosinya Lebedeva. Her height was more than 180 cm, but the wife still looked like a baby next to her husband. The family had five children.

When the supply of money came to an end, the giant again went to Europe, where he was met with invariable success. After the speeches, Fyodor Makhnov and his wife were invited to social events. Even there, Fedor managed to amuse the audience: he lit cigarettes directly from the chandeliers. Several times for hooliganism or non-compliance with the contract, the police tried to arrest him. But every time Makhnov was released, because there was simply no cell in which he would fit.



Fedor Makhnov died at the age of 34. According to one version, the consequences of a cold suffered in childhood affected. It is written on the tombstone that the giant's height was 3 arshins 9 inches, i.e. 254 cm. However, this information is not correct. The figure was taken from Makhnov's contract with Bidinder when the giant was only 16 years old. Then he grew another 31 cm. The wife wanted to correct the unfortunate oversight, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented her.



While Fyodor Makhnov entertained the public in Europe, on the other side of the ocean in the United States, people went to the performances of a married couple.

According to the Russian Book of Records, the tallest man in world history was Russian citizen Fedor Makhov! His height was 2 meters 85 centimeters (with a weight of 182 kilograms).

The correspondent of the magazine "7 days" reports that he personally saw the grave of our hero - on railway station Old Village near Vitebsk. Today, the giant is called in the newspapers either Makhnov or Makhno. However, the text on the time-worn obelisk read:

"Fyodor Andreevich Makhnov. Born June 6, 1878. Died August 28, 1912. The tallest man in the world. He was 3 arshins 9 inches tall."

He died at the age of 35. The height indicated on the grave, corresponding to 254 centimeters by modern standards, he was in his youth, but, according to numerous testimonies, after that he grew significantly. Fedor Makhnov was born into a peasant family on a farm near the village of Kostyuki. And today, local residents can indicate the place where he was born, nicknamed the Velikanov farm.
The gifts of an amazing child appeared early. At the age of 8, the kid could lift an adult, his father taught him to play the harmonica. At the age of 12, he took the "bar" of 2 meters. I could sleep more than 24 hours in a row. A shoemaker from the nearby village of Yazvino, Vasily Orlov, left evidence of the length of the giant's foot: 51 centimeters. The palm was 31 cm. Fyodor Makhnov bent horseshoes, once one lifted the roof of a hut. His brothers Stepan and Nikolai were slightly taller than average. He developed strength talents in the circus, where he twisted spirals from iron bars, and then straightened them, smashed a brick with a blow of his fist, while lying down raised a wooden platform on which the orchestra played. He also did wrestling. The Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore contains materials that tell how Fyodor Makhnov got into the circus and about his tour of Europe and the USA. He signed a contract with entrepreneur Robert Cook (and according to another version, a local landowner Bronislav Korzhenevsky made an offer to conquer Europe to Fedor) and set off around the world. The journal "Nature and People" for 1903 placed the following note about him:

"The tallest man in the world"

The Russian giant Feodor Makhov is now unanimously recognized as one of them. At present, he has arrived with his impresario in Berlin, where he is shown in a freak show. In the Berlin Anthropological Museum, Makhov was carefully measured and weighed, and he was given a document with the following content: "Feodor Makhov, who was born in Russia, in the town of Kustyaki, Vitebsk province, has a height of 238 cent. [misprint - V.V.] and belongs to number of the tallest giants that ever existed on the globe. In many respects, he is of great interest to science. "And indeed, all the giants that have been shown so far in Europe were in most cases 12-15 cent. below Machov.
Feodor Makhov comes from an ancient family whose ancestors moved to Russia from the south, from Syria. Makhov's parents, as well as his two sisters, are quite different. normal growth; his grandfather was very tall, but in any case not a giant. Feodor Makhov is currently only 22 years old. To give at least some idea of ​​the size of his body, let's say that his boot, barely reaching the giant's knee, reaches to the chest normal person, and a 12-year-old boy could fit his head in it. The impresario pays Makhov 5,000 rubles a year and, in addition, maintains it at his own expense. It was only with such a huge amount of money that the impresario managed to persuade the giant to show himself in panopticons, since Makhov, an intelligent and not needy person, for a long time refused such an honor.

When the giant came on tour to St. Petersburg, the capital's reporters found out how he eats. In the morning he drank about two bottles of milk or tea, while eating a dozen and a half hard-boiled eggs and 6-8 slices of bread. At noon he was served a kilogram fried meat, more than a kilo of potatoes, a kilo of bread and a bottle of beer. At lunch, I managed with several plates. meat soup and two bottles of beer. For dinner, Fedya ate 10 to 15 eggs and several slices of bread.

However, the entrepreneur, profiting from him, fed him poorly, he was annoyed by the hardships of a nomadic life. Peasant's son all this turned out to be not to his liking, and he returned to his native station Staroe Selo. He built a farm with the money he earned. The people called the new place of residence Velikanov farm. Fedor's house has not survived to our times - it was destroyed during the war. But the villagers still call this place Giant. Here he and his wife, teacher Efrosinya Lebedeva, who was 70 centimeters shorter than him, gave birth to five children. All were tall, but no one was taller than 2 meters.

Having caught a cold while cleaning the bed of the local river Zaronovka, Fyodor Makhnov suffered from a leg disease. He died, believed to be of lung disease. But it was rumored that he was poisoned by rivals on the wrestling mat. An obituary appeared in the Russian Sport magazine announcing this unfortunate event. One of Makhnov's sons, Radimir, or, as he was also called, Rodion, studied at the Minsk Medical Institute. Once at a lecture I heard a mention of his phenomenal father. Named himself. Scientists became interested and sent through Radimir a proposal to the widow to sell a unique skeleton. For him, 5 thousand rubles were offered, and in those years it was a substantial amount. A loaf of bread, for example, then cost 14-20 kopecks. 27 years after the burial of the bone from under the monument "The Most big man in the world" were removed, put in a box and taken away by scientists. The coffin and the monument were returned to their original place.
The grandson of the giant, Yevgeny Nikolaevich, still keeps the memory of his ancestor: postcards, photographs, newspaper clippings ... It is from the words of the grandson that there is a version that Fedor, having moved to the farm, did not leave the performance in the circus. He often traveled to Germany with his family.

At one time he was known all over the world, but now he is almost forgotten. He would have turned 135 this year. With a weight of 182 kilograms, his height was ... 285 centimeters!

Fedor Andreevich Makhnov was born on June 6 (18 according to the new style) June 1878 in the village of Kostyuki, Staroselsky volost, Vitebsk district. He came from an ancient family, whose ancestors moved to Russia from the south, from Syria. Makhnov's parents, as well as his two sisters, were of quite normal growth; his grandfather was very tall, but in any case not a giant.

The boy was born very large, and his mother died in childbirth. Fedya was brought up by his grandfather, who loved him very much. The gifts of an amazing child appeared early. At the age of 8, the kid could lift an adult, his father taught him to play the harmonica.

At the age of 12, he took the “bar” of 2 meters. I could sleep more than 24 hours in a row.

Other children laughed at him because of his height. For this, he took off their hats and hung them on the ridge of the roof of a bathhouse or a shed. Due to the growth of his son, Fyodor's father had to rebuild the hut, raising the ceilings. With the increase in growth, the strength of the boy also grew. He could lift an adult man, pull a hay cart on his own, help in the construction of houses, lifting heavy logs.

The local landowner Korzhenevsky, having learned about the abilities of the young strong man, hired him to clean the nearby Zaronovka River from boulders that interfered with the operation of the water mill. Prolonged work in very cold water played a very unfavorable role in Fedor's life. He caught a cold, and the illnesses that followed later made themselves felt for the rest of Makhnov's life.

By the age of 14, a 2-meter young man ceased to fit in the house. Because of this, my father had to build up walls on several crowns. The local blacksmith was ordered to make an individual bed, but he, overloaded with work, made it all summer. In the end, it turned out that Fedya had outgrown this bed as well.

It was problematic to dress and shoe a tall guy. Everything was made to order. Money for clothes had to be earned in Vitebsk at the Polotsk Bazaar. It was there that the German Otto Bilinder, who owned a traveling circus, noticed an unusual teenager.

The enterprising German quickly realized what benefits could be drawn from the growth of the boy and suggested that Fedya's father let his son go to Germany to perform in the circus.

Speeches poster

It didn’t take long to persuade his father, and the 14-year-old boy went to conquer Europe with his abilities. Otto Bilinder took custody of Fedor. First, for an illiterate guy, he hired teachers who taught him German. Otto took over the teaching of circus art. Fedor's training lasted almost two years. When he was 16 years old, a contract was signed with him for performances. So Fedor Makhnov became a circus artist.

In Berlin, Otto Bilinder settled the guest at his home, taught him circus tricks. Fyodor broke bricks with the edge of his hand; unbent and bent horseshoes and thick nails; lying on his back, he raised the platform with three musicians along with the instruments. But people came to the circus to look first of all at the artist himself - the real Gulliver. And he grew by leaps and bounds. By the age of 25, he reached 2 m 85 cm.

The bet in his speeches was made on power numbers. More than two and a half meters tall, the giant bent iron horseshoes with one hand, smashed bricks with a blow of his hand, twisted metal rods into a spiral, and then straightened them again. Particularly successful were the numbers when he, lying on his back, raised a wooden platform with an orchestra of three musicians. In those days, Greco-Roman (classical) wrestling tournaments were very popular in circuses. Famous strongmen and world-class wrestlers, including Russian titans Zaikin and Poddubny, took part in them.

Fedor Makhnov also participated in similar tournaments. True, he did not become a great athlete due to the fact that the world's best wrestlers always came out against him, and a chronic back disease did not allow him to fully show his talents. However, his appearance in the arena alone caused a storm of delight from the public.

Makhnov devoted nine years to work in the circus, after which he became a completely wealthy person. However, great growth also brought a lot of trouble to Fedor. It was hard for him to move, since all transport, hotels, catering establishments were calculated only for people of standard sizes. Because of this, Fedor returned home to his native Kostyuki at the very beginning of the 20th century. For the money earned in circus performances, he bought from the landowner Korzhenevsky, who left for France, his land and house. Makhnov rebuilt the estate to fit his height, furnished it with suitable furniture and renamed it Velikanovo. All the necessary building materials and furniture were sent to him from Germany by Otto Bidinder, with whom Fedor maintained close friendly contacts until the end of his life.

Having settled in a new place, Makhnov decided to get married. And although by nature he was very kind, and he was not deprived of finances, he found a bride with great difficulty. She became Efrosinya Lebedeva, who worked as a rural teacher. As a girl, she was tall, but still inferior to her fiancé by almost a meter. In 1903, the first daughter Maria appeared in the family, and the next year the son Nikolai was born.

To replenish the family budget, from time to time Fedor went to various wrestling tournaments, performed in circuses, demonstrating his abilities in various cities of the Russian Empire.

Fedor in Europe

Archival information about the stay of the giant Makhnov in the German capital in 1904 has been preserved. The Germans were ready to fulfill any whims of the Belarusian Gulliver. In the middle of winter, Fyodor wanted strawberries - they delivered them to him. In Holland, in Paris, he repeatedly violated the contract, once they wanted to imprison him for hooliganism, but the cells of the Paris police could not accommodate people of such height.

Fedor with his wife Efrosinya

In 1905, the Makhnov family went on a tour abroad. Traveling in Western Europe, they visited France, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Italy. The Pope himself honored them with an audience. According to family tradition, he took off his golden cross and gave it to the giant's daughter. The Makhnovs also visited the USA. To do this, however, had to redo the cabin of the steamer.

These trips were not without incidents. At receptions in palaces, Fedor lit cigarettes from candles from the upper tiers of chandeliers, which extinguished them.

In Paris, he had a skirmish with several citizens. The police officers who arrived wanted to send the giant to jail, but not finding a suitable cell, they limited themselves to a conversation.

During dinner at the German Chancellor, a huge tea set was placed in front of Makhnov, but Fyodor did not appreciate such a “joke”, demanding to replace it with an ordinary mug.

Fedor on a trip abroad

While in Germany, Fedor always wanted to return home. When he saved up enough money, he left for his native Kostyuki, despite the fact that the owner persuaded him to stay. Height did not allow living in his father's house. At this time, the landowner Krzhizhanovsky was just selling his estate. Makhnov bought it along with the land, rebuilt the house according to his own parameters. From Germany, Otto Bilinder sent him furniture. Thought about getting married. It turned out to be the hardest question! Girls of ordinary height did not dare to marry such a thug. And where to find him to match? Finally, the whole world found a bride - teacher Efrosinya Lebedeva. For a girl, she was tall - 1 m 85 cm. She was two years younger than Fedor, but outlived her husband by 35 years, she died in 1947. Played a wedding. In 1903, their daughter Maria was born, in 1904 their son Nikolai was born. In 1911-12, the Makhnovs had three more children. Thus, the Makhnovs had five children in total. None of them grew above two meters. They lived together, in love and harmony. Fedor was kind person, loved his children, helped the peasants. And from Germany there were invitations to return to the circus again ...

Together they traveled the world. Fedor attended a reception at the German Chancellor, at an audience with the Pope, who liked Fedor's little daughter Maria so much that he took off his gold cross on a chain and presented it to the girl, at a reception at US President Theodore Roosevelt. So that Makhnov could cross the ocean, the cabin of the ship was remade for him. Efrosinya liked this life, she even wanted to stay in Germany.

But when the German doctors began to persuade them to sign a contract, according to which, after death, the corpse of a giant would be left to them for scientific research, she was afraid that something might suddenly happen to Fedor, and they went home.

In Paris, almost all members of the Anthropological Association showed great interest in the extraordinary physical data of the giant. They wanted to examine it more thoroughly, but Makhnov refused all his life to undress in front of doctors, allowing them to measure only the length of his feet and palms - 51 cm and almost 35, respectively.

His ears were 15 cm long and his lips were 10 cm wide, which must have made a certain impression on his wife, a woman of normal size, when they kissed. After a few days of rest, he always got taller. This was due to the extraordinary ability of his spine to decrease and contract under the influence of large loads.
He ate, like everyone else, four times a day, but his breakfast could feed average family during two days. According to the materials of the press, it is known how our giant ate. In the morning he ate 20 eggs, 8 round loaves white bread with oil, drank 2 liters of tea. For lunch - 2.5 kg of meat, 1 kg of potatoes, 3 liters of beer. In the evening - a bowl of fruit, 2.5 kg of meat, 3 loaves of bread and 2 liters of tea. And before going to bed, he could still swallow 15 eggs and a liter of milk.

As anthropologists rightly noted, this inhabitant of Belarus “is only legs.” His boot, barely reaching the giant’s knee, reached the chest of a normal person, and a 12-year-old boy could fit in it with his head. If Fedor had been born without legs, he would hardly have reached average height. His head, which was unusually small with such a huge body, gave him an unusually ridiculous appearance, which he tried to hide by wearing a richly decorated Cossack uniform.

A long nomadic life undermined Makhnov's already not very good health. The chronic disease of the joints, earned in childhood in the cold water of Zaronovka, aggravated. It became more and more difficult to walk. Otto Bilinder tried to help Fedor by sending a heavyweight horse from Germany. Unfortunately, the sent animal did not solve the problem, because with its nearly three-meter height, the giant's legs still dragged along the ground when he mounted it. And although Fedor became very attached to the horse, he preferred to take the troika as the main means of transportation on trips.

Traveling abroad brought a lot of new things to the economic life of Fyodor Makhnov. Almost the first in the district, he began to use agricultural machines, purchased by him in Germany and kindly sent by Bilinder. For a while, he even bred horses.

Unfortunately, Fyodor Makhnov did not live long. In 1912, chronic illnesses finally crippled the giant's health, and he died at the age of 34, having, however, managed to rejoice before that at the birth of three more of his children: daughter Masha (1911) and twin sons Rodion (Radimir) and Gabriel (Galyun) born just six months before his death. The exact reason for such an early departure of Makhnov's life was never determined. German doctors believed that Makhnov died from bone tuberculosis, which many giants suffered from. According to other sources, he caught a cold and got pneumonia. The version of poisoning by rivals on the wrestling mat is also not ruled out. According to the grandson, there is a version that Fedor, having moved to the farm, did not leave the performance in the circus. He often traveled to Germany with his family.

The Vitebsk giant was buried at the local cemetery near the village of Kostyuki. Russian Sport magazine published an obituary announcing his death.

The growth of Fyodor Makhnov, even after his death, continued to amaze everyone. The undertaker, thinking that there had been a mistake in the order for the coffin and the fence, did the job for the average person. When it turned out that he was mistaken, he had to urgently redo the coffin, and there was no time left to remake the fence, and he had to leave it.

On the surviving tombstone, one can still read the inscription: “Fedor Andreevich Makhnov, born on June 6, 1878, died. On August 28, 1912, in the 36th year, the Biggest Man in the World Rostom Was 3 arshins 9 vershoks.

The story about Fyodor Makhnov can be supplemented by the fact that his height on the tombstone is indicated incorrectly. He was taken from a contract with Bilinder, signed by the giant at the age of 16. Since that moment, Fedor has grown another 30 cm.

The giant's wife subsequently wanted to correct the mistakes on the tombstone and remake the fence, but the outbreak of the First World War and the revolutionary events that followed prevented her from doing this.

In 1934, the remains of Makhnov were exhumed for scientific purposes and sent to the Minsk Medical Institute for study. During the war, the giant's skeleton was lost, like many other things. Only a photograph and a description made by Professor D.M. have survived. Dove.

There is also such a version of how this happened: in 1935, the son Rodion studied at the Minsk Medical Institute, and at one of the lectures on giantism, the professor cited the example of Fyodor Makhnov. What was the amazement of everyone when Rodion got up and said that this was his father. It was then that he was asked to talk to the family about the sale of his father's skeleton. The mother agreed to sell for 5 thousand rubles. After the death of her husband, she married a second time, gave birth to three more children. Money was needed... Many people were present during the exhumation, including a widow and children. In 1936, Minsk professor D.M. Golub published an article on the skeleton of acromegalic in the collection of works of the Psychoneurological Institute of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Acromegaly is characterized by hyperplastic changes in the skeletal system, soft parts, and most internal organs. Simply put, all giants suffer from gigantism.

However, according to descendants no one opened the grave, much less sold anything! The remains disappeared after the Second World War, they were supposedly taken to Germany, because. even before the revolution, the German Academy of Natural Sciences wanted to get them.»

Today, the children of Fedor and Efrosinya Makhnov are no longer alive. All lived a difficult but worthy life. During the years of collectivization, the Makhnov family wanted to be dispossessed and deported, but the peasants interceded and were left in peace. Nikolai and Gavrila were officers, they went through repressions. Rehabilitated. Rodion became a doctor and during the years of the Great Patriotic War was shot by the Nazis for his connection with the partisans. Elder Mary All her life she worked as a livestock specialist, and the younger Masha worked as an accountant. All children were more likely to grow to their mother - 180 - 190 cm. Makhnov's descendants were scattered around the cities and villages of Belarus and Russia. On the site of the former estate, only a birch remained, perhaps planted by Fyodor Makhnov himself. And the names of the Giants' Farm, the Giants' Forest remind local residents about the tallest man in the world who once lived in these places.