I keep seeing the idea pop up in threads, specifically no gi vs gi threads or folkstyle vs international wrestling threads, that wrestlers in Russia or ex Soviet countries cross-train freestyle or greco-roman wrestling with judo or sambo or traditional jacket styles..
It may be true there is some cross-pollination of techniques or concepts over time or that they are trained in the same facility, but from first hand accounts and from my eastern bloc friends, none of them have ever gone to a freestyle wrestling practice where some guys were wearing judogis or kurtkas and coaches mixed gi and gi-less techniques, the only thing i have ever heard of or witnessed is freestyle and greco guys training together, which is not done close to the 50/50 split at which some people do no gi and gi but only done a small percentage of the time and usually it is only freestyle guys working a little greco once in a while, not the other way around.
I am sure it is common place for judo and sambo guys to train together. Maybe the situation was different 60 years ago, but now Russian freestyle wrestlers are never putting on a gi.
If you showed up to a freestyle wrestling practice in Russia in a judo outfit (unless you are Vladimir Putin, who has done this very thing), you'd probably be yelled at to leave.
It is true that Judo and Sambo are viewed somewhat as forms of wrestling in Russia, as they are in many countries, but I think the idea of them being trained together in exotic Russia is a myth and used to propagate other erroneous myths like gi training being more 'technical' or better for nogi grappling than nogi training (given the same level of coaching/training partners) or that freestyle wrestling is 'better for MMA' than folkstyle wrestling because freestyle guys also crosstrain in judo/sambo.
I can direct you to gyms in Bulgaria and Japan, where wrestlers, judo guys and sambo guys train together and compete in all kinds of grappling, striking, MMA, combat sambo, sanda and etc.
SK Absolute in Japan, was a gym of wrestlers, who were also training sambo at night, together with judo guys.
You are generalizing things.
The way you state your argument, it sounds like someone have told you that EVERY wrestler in the eastern bloc is cross training in judo and sambo.
That is as wrong as is the statement, that NO ONE is doing that.
Let's just use Russia for example- it's a big country with plenty of small towns and just a handful of big cities. In order to get to a training facility, where your coach is good in all 3- wrestling, judo and sambo, you have to be looking at one of the state centers.
As pure statistics, that would be a very low percentage.
There are, though, sambo coaches, who are teaching judo. So, style wise, that would be a different style of judo by it self.
Age is another factor. What is the active age of a wrestler and of a judo and sambo guy.
And then, just need to look at some of the big names and realize that cross training does happen a lot.
Nurmagomedov started with wrestling. Then he became combat sambo world champ.
Fedor started with judo.
Karelin is known to have cross trained in sambo.
Bellator champ Minakov is Russia's freestyle wrestling junior champ, sambo world champ and was on the judo national team.
Bulgaria- Blagoi Ivanov and both Dimitrovs were originally judokas.
Ivaylo Ivanov is a judo guy who medals internationally in judo and sambo.
There is a guy I know, 9 times Bulgarian national freestyle champ, who also wrestled in US, during his college years. We were considering to go together to the sambo master worlds last week, but the whole team dropped out in the last moment.