SAMBO, type of sport wrestling, permitting the application of painful holds; also a means of self-defense in a fight against a stronger or armed enemy. (Composed of an abbreviated form of the word SAM-B-O are SAM (SAMozashchita (Rus) - self-defense (Eng)) , B (Bez (Rus) - with out (Eng)) and O (Oruzhiya (Rus)- weapons (Eng)). - From "The Dictionary of the Russian Language.
SAMBO was developed in the 1920-30's in USSR as hands to hands combat system . Official recognition of new style was in 1938. At first it was named "free-style wrestling", then "free wrestling", and in 1946 was renamed "SAMBO". This system is selection of techniques from traditional (national) wrestling style of USSR area natives, Europe, Japanese wrestling and other combats.
Today, SAMBO is built from 3 parts: the sportive part - "Sambo wrestling" and Full contact "Sambo Combat", the self-defense part, special or combat part for Armed Forces.