Feofan Lebedev

As the son of a priest, Feofan Lebedev attended clerical schools, which he did not complete. Instead, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Infantry Cadet School in 1894. Between 1910-12, he was Russia’s best military rifle shooter. At the Stockholm Olympics his best individual result was the 42nd place in the military rifle event. With the highest rank of a colonel, he served in the infantry in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, receiving honours for bravery in both conflicts. During the Civil War, he joined the North-Western Army of the White Movement to become commander of the 21st General Denikin Infantry Regiment.

Lebedev settled permanently in Estonia in 1920, working as a physical education teacher at a military school. After retirement, he trained the Estonian shooters for the 1924 Paris Olympics and initiated the construction of the first 100 metres shooting range in Estonia. He met the Estonian Rifle Association’s grandmaster standard in military pistol in 1938, and in full-calibre and small-calibre rifle shooting in 1939. In 1944 he emigrated to Finland and changed his name to Luik.