The Polish word biady (often pronounced ‘bziady’ in the Kurpie region) is attested as a synonym to ‘wrestling’ (Polish: zapasy) since the 19th century (Gloger 1893: 715). Its use in an early-20th-century novel by Stefan Żeromski, in a context suggesting close-quarters combat, implies that it was familiar to an ordinary reader at the time:
Dnia 26 marca od samego rana zwaliły się na nas dywizje francuskie. Młode bestie, żołnierz z pieluch, toteż to szło w biady, sięgało ci do gardła jak we szkole. Dawaj bić! Bagnet szczęka w bagnet, oczy łypią w oczy. A staremu wiarusowi (…) nie tak znowu łatwo broń z garści wytrąci bele smyk, choćby, bestia, i młodymi zębami kłapał.
On the 26th of March, early in the morning, two French divisions assaulted us. Young beasts, soldiers freshly out of nappies, so they immediately went for biady, reaching for the throats like schoolers. Come on, fight! Bayonette meets bayonette, eye to eye. But an old campaigner (…) is not easily disarmed by a kid, even a beast of a man snapping his teeth.

• after Żeromski 1902: 196; transl. MT, emphasis added.

The earliest account documenting the word biady used to denote a particular wrestling style comes from a memoir written in 1919 by Aleksander Pieńkowski, then a Polish soldier in the Polish-Soviet War, born in Drozdowo in north-eastern Masovia. There, he recounts his time at the recruits’ camp, where he used to do biady regularly, even attaining some skill and local fame:
W czasie przerwy chodziłem w biady dla rozgrzewki i tak się przyzwyczaiłem, że co dzień się biadowałem. Porucznik przechodzał się po wałach, czasem się zatrzymywał i przyglądał, kto kogo obali, a plutonowy Dobranowski z naszej kompanii zaczął wybierać silniejszych żołnierzy i przyprowadzać do mnie. „Jak tego obalisz, to w południe dwa piwa ci zafunduję" – mówił. Nie byłem taki bardzo silny i nie wyglądałem na siłacza, ale w tym fachu się wyrobiłem. Chociaż nawet mój przeciwnik był silniejszy, ale gdy tylko stąpnął jedną nogą źle, to już leżał.
During breaks I would do biady to warm up, getting so used to it that I did it every day. The lieutenant would walk around the earthworks, pausing from time to time to see who takes down whom, while Corporal Dobranowski from our company started to pick the strongest soldiers and bring them to me. “If you take this one down, then I’ll buy you two beers in the afternoon!” – he would say. I wasn’t all that strong, and certainly didn’t look like a strongman, but I learned this craft quite well. Even if my opponent was stronger, one false step and he would end up on the ground.

• after Pieńkowski 2020; transl. MT, emphasis added.

The memoir entries narrating about his biady matches are very colourful and often rich in technical details and specific vocabulary, as in the following example from October 1919:
… No to chodź, się rozgrzejemy – odpowiadam. Złapaliśmy się na krzyż. Chciałem go do siebie przycisnąć, unieść do góry, a potem obalić, ale on się nie dał i tak kręciliśmy się dokoła. Chciał mnie obalić, ale też się nie dałem. Znowu jego chcę obalić, ale on dużo grubszy, nie mogę go dobrze objąć. Otoczyła nas cała kompania i się przygląda. Wreszcie jakoś odsunąłem go od siebie, potem prędko przyciągnąłem, uniosłem na brzuchu i powaliłem. Alem się strasznie zmęczył!.
… “Come on then, let’s warm up!” – I replied. We took the crosswise hold [Polish: na krzyż]. I wanted to squeeze him hard, lift up, and then take down, but he defended and so we circled round and round. Then he tried to take me down, but I resisted. I attempted to attack him again, but he was much larger, I couldn’t get a good hold. The whole company surrounded us to watch. Finally, I somehow managed to push him away and then immediately pulled back, lifted him up on my belly, and threw down. But, man, was that exhausting!

• after Pieńkowski 2020; transl. MT, emphasis added.

The ‘crosswise hold’ (na krzyż) is a characteristic feature of most biady variants known today. The technical descriptions left by Pieńkowski in the 1920s agree closely with the praxis described and demonstrated by actual biady practitioners interviewed in the years 2017–2023 (see Description below), which suggests that the style did not change much between the 1920s and the 1980s, when it abruptly disappeared.
Nowadays, biady is no longer practiced, but the available interviews and historical data indicate that it used to be widespread among the rural population of north-eastern Poland. Biady matches were reportedly regular occurrences, accompanying various daily tasks undertaken by men, usually young and unmarried, and boys, such as travelling to and from the farm fields, grazing cattle, reaping, threshing, or scything. It was also a common form of entertainment during larger social gatherings, such as weddings, Sunday masses, or fairs.
The practice appears to have been largely unstructured and devoid of internal hierarchies. Apart from the name of the activity (biady, bziady) and several technical terms referring to holds and hand positions, there was no practice-specific vocabulary, such as names of throws or other wrestling techniques. Teaching was similarly amorphous, with boys learning how to biady by imitating their peers and seniors, or sometimes by wrestling with their fathers or other male relatives. No official biady contests have been attested in the sources investigated so far, so formally there were no ‘champions’. However, skilled biady wrestlers did win some reputation within their communities, as confirmed by Pieńkowski and the interviewed practitioners. In case of the young boys, proficiency in biady could help them gain recognition by older colleagues and enter the ranks of young men (the so-called kawalerowie).
Biady was a strictly gendered activity, with boys and men as the only participants. It was also unusual for married men and elders to compete in biady. Girls and women are attested as interested members of the audience, sometimes actively motivating or provoking men to compete. From an evolutionist perspective, this involvement of women may perhaps be seen as a way to gauge the strength and resilience of their potential future husbands. Testing strength (Polish: krzepa) was explicitly stated by interviewees as the main purpose of biady, revealing its dual nature as both an individual and a community practice: Wrestlers tested themselves but also participated in sort of public theatre, winning recognition and allowing others to do the same. At the same time, as there were neither formal ‘championships’ nor any sort of material prizes, participation seems to have been more important than victory for the social function of biady.

‘Boys doing biady by the Narew River’, photograph by Adam Chętnik, 1928. Source: Chętnik 1971: fig. 17.