Russia "stood Out" At The World Grave-Digging Championship
5- 12.09.2026, 13:59
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The competition took place in Hungary.
The Russian team took sixth place at the 9th MTFE Sírásó Verseny International Grave Diggers' Competition, held in Nyergesújfalu, Hungary, according to "Funeral Trust".
The competition is organized by the Hungarian Association of Cemetery Operators and Managers. In 2026, 19 teams participated, competing for the grand prize of 200,000 Hungarian forints (about 55,000 rubles). The Russian team consisted of a grave digger from Priozersk in the Leningrad Region, blogger Konstantin Strugov, and an employee of the Novosibirsk crematorium, Artem Gorbikov.
“The task consists of several stages. First, within 2 hours, we had to dig a grave measuring 200 × 80 centimeters and 160 centimeters deep—that’s about 2.5 cubic meters of soil. In the second stage, we had 15 minutes to put the soil back and form a neat grave mound. Speed, precision, and aesthetics are evaluated,” writes “Funeral Trust.”
In the first stage of the competition, the Russian team failed to dig 7 centimeters deep. Last year, Russia finished in last place at the championship.
Earlier reports indicated a seventh-place finish, but a member of the Russian team explained that a mistake occurred due to a misunderstanding of the Hungarian language. “The event was conducted in Hungarian, and the certificate was also in Hungarian. We didn’t understand a thing. The members of the Russian team saw the handwritten number 7 on the certificate and assumed it indicated our placing. But it later turned out that it was the signature of the competition’s general sponsor, and the placing wasn’t specified on the certificate,” he said.
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