Five Directions of the World

History

Gusein Magomaev, an artist who graduated from Dzhemal Dagestan Art School, moved to Moscow for his career after seeing a book about Chinese martial arts as a youth. He became heavily involved in Karate. In early 1982, crackdowns on martial arts for political reasons led Magomaev and his wife Olga to relocate to Dagestan in 1984. That year, they established an arts studio based on ideas around Chinese Wushu, which became the basis for Five Directions of the World.

During the 1990s, as the USSR fell apart and social unrest affected Dagestani youth, the couple decided to build a school teaching martial skills, academics, and arts. The school was formally established in 1996. Its name refers to a cosmic fifth direction accessed by joining the four cardinal directions. Al Jazeera produced a documentary on the school, titled "Dagestan’s Peaceful Warriors," aired in 2015.

Structure

The school enrolls around three to four hundred students who live on campus full time until school breaks. They attend regular classes in subjects such as Mathematics, Russian and English languages, history, and arts, combined with martial arts training in Sanda and Taekwondo multiple times a week. Admission starts from grade 5 after passing academic and medical entry examinations.

Only boys qualify for the live-in option; local girls can attend academic and Taekwondo programs and return home daily. Boys may also attend the Sanda program only. Applicants come from Dagestan and other Russian areas.

Achievements

The school has produced more Russian and European Sanda champions than any other school. Its alumni include Olympic gold medalist and the first non-Chinese "King of Kung Fu," Muslim Salikhov. Alumni have also succeeded in taekwondo and mixed martial arts. In 2015, the school was included in the "100 best schools of Russia" competition hosted by the All-Russian Educational Forum.