[1][2][3] Kharlampiyev worked as a physical education trainer at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, and also was a student of boxing, fencing, acrobatics, and mountaineering.

At the beginning of 1920, he began to collect and systemize national games containing methods of combat, and in 1934 to describe and classify sports and fighting techniques.

In 1936, he graduated from the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (Department of Judo directed by Vasili Oshchepkov).

By creating the system of Sambo, Anatoly Kharlampiyev carefully studied judo and mastered it in practice (under the direction of Vasili Oshchepkov).

During his years as physical training instructor at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (TAS) and the International Society of red stadium builders (OSMKS), Kharlampiyev continued to study different kinds of martial arts.

Comprehension of the essence of the struggle (both science and art) assisted learning techniques and tactics of fights from outstanding fighters (Ivan Poddubny, Klimenty Buhl et al.).

For a number of years Kharlampiyev traveled to the Central Asian and Caucasus republics for the study of national kinds of combat.

The development of a new kind of wrestling was halted by World War II when Anatoly Kharlampiyev volunteered and was sent to the front in the Red Army on July 7, 1941.

During this conference it was decided that the new kind of combat wrestling, cultivated in the Soviet Union would be called Sambo (abbr.

The first All-Union tournament in Sambo in memory of Anatoly Kharlampiyev was held in Moscow's universal gym "Friendship" on 10–11 October 1980.