The founder Aleksandr Belov (Selidor) was originally a Karate master, and in the 1970s and 1980s he began researching and reviving ancient Slavic martial techniques mixing them with elements of English catch wrestling and other styles, codifying the practice in the book "Slavic-Hill Wrestling" and popularising it by founding, in 1986, the group of the Descendants of Svarog (Сварожичей-Триверов, "Svarozhychey-Tryverov"), which in 1989 took part in the creation of the Moscow Slavic Pagan Community. In 1995 he left the group and the following year he established the Russian Federation of Slavic-Hill Wrestling, officially registered by the state in 2015 as the Association of Slavic-Hill Wrestling Fighters (Ассоциация Бойцов Славяно-Горицкой Борьбы). The original federation of Belov splintered many times over the years giving rise to other distinct groups of military Rodnovery; Belov, however, continued to remain a central figure for the movement as a whole. Outside of Russia, the movement has communities in Belarus, Bulgaria and Ukraine, and as a sport it is practised in other countries too. Together with a narrow circle of believers, Belov also experiments with an "inner energy" style of fighting based on folk magic.