Fencing as a sport emerged at the beginning of the 18th century, when Peter the Great ordered to include methods of bayonet fighting in the programme of military educational institutions and made fencing an obligatory skill for the court nobility. Pretty soon fencing became a compulsory subject in the curriculum of most education institutions.
In 1918 the first Soviet fencing courses for officers and enlisted men of the Red Army and the Soviet Military Gymnastics Fencing School were opened in Saint Petersburg.
On August 15-21, 1928 the first USSR Championship was held as part of the 1st All-Union Spartakiade. It was attended by 110 athletes from 13 republics, cities and regions.
According to the results of the World Championship in Philadelphia, USA, the USSR national team was recognised as the strongest team in the world. Foil fencers Valentina Rastvorova and Emma Efimova took gold and silver medals of the tournament. Together with Galina Gorokhovaya, Alexandra Zabelina and Valentina Prudskovaya, they topped standings in the team competitions as well. Yakov Rylskiy and David Tyshler won individual saber gold and silver respectively.
Russia is proud of its outstanding fencers:
Grigory Kirienko (1965) — Merited Master of Sport (1989), 1993, 1995 world champion (individual saber), 1996 Olympic champion, 1994 world champion (team saber).
Pavel Kolobkov (1969) — Merited Master of Sport (1992), 2000 Olympic champion, 1993-1994, 2002, 2005 world champion, 1996, 2000 European champion, 2004 Olympic bronze medallist (individual epee), 2003 world champion,  1996 Olympic silver medallist (team epee).
Ilgar Mamedov (1965) — Merited Master of Sport (1988), 1996 Olympic  champion (team foil).
Viktor Modzolevsky (1943—2011) — 1967 world champion, 1968 Olympic silver medallist, 1972 Olympic bronze medallist (team epee).
Dmitry Shevchenko (1967) — 1995 world champion, 1994 European champion (individual foil).
Karina Aznavuryan (1974) — 1996 Olympic bronze medallist (team epee).
Alexander Beketov (1970) — 1996 Olympic champion (individual epee), silver medallist (team epee).
Yulia Garaeva (1968) — 1996 Olympic bronze medallist (team epee)..
Valery Zakharevich(1967) — 1996 Olympic bronze medallist (team epee).
Maria Mazina (1964) — 1996 Olympic bronze medallist (team epee).
Vladislav Pavlovich (1971) — 1996 Olympic champion (team foil).
Stanislav Pozdnyakov (1973) — USSR Merited Master of Sport (1992), 1996 Olympic champion  (team and individual saber).
Sergey Sharikov (1974) — 1996 Olympic champion, silver medallist (individual saber).
Oksana Ermakova (1973) — 2000 Olympic champion (team epee).
Tatyana Logunova (1980) — 2000 Olympic champion (team epee).
Alexey Frosin (1978) — 2000 Olympic champion (team saber), 1997 European champion (individual saber).
Alexey Dyachenko (1978) — 2000 Olympic champion, 2001-2002 world champion (team saber).
Renal Ganeev (1985) — 2004 Olympic bronze medallist (team foil).
Yury Molchan (1983) 2004 Olympic bronze medallist (team foil).
Ruslan Nasibullin (1981) — 2004 Olympic bronze medallist (team foil).
Vyacheslav Pozdnyakov (1978) — 2004 Olympic bronze medallist (team foil).
Alexey Yakimenko (1983) — 2004 Olympic bronze medallist, 2003 world champion (team saber).
Evgenia Lamonova (1983) - 2008 Olympic champion (team foil), 2011 world champion, 2007 European champion (team foil).
Aida Shanaeva (1986) - 2008 Olympic champion (team foil), world and European champion.
Svetlana Boyko (1972) – 2008 Olympic champion (team foil), world and European champion, multiple medallist of world and European championships.
Viktoria Nikishina (1984) – 2008 Olympic champion (team foil), 2002 world champion.

The Republican Specialised Children and Youth Fencing Sports School of the Olympic Reserve is the centre of fencing development in the Repuibliс of Tatarstan. Three Olympic champions, winners and medallists of world and European championships, participants of the Olympics as part of the USSR and Russian national teams, pride of Tatarstan, were carefully trained and coached in this school. The peak of their career was the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, where the women’s USSR fencing team, including three trainees of Kazan coach Vladimir Zhitlov – Nailya Gilyazova, Olga Knyazeva and Valentina Nikonova – topped the Olympic podium. Besides, these three fencers won international competitions multiple times. Olga Voschakina, another Tatarstan fencer, placed fourth at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games as part of the USSR and CIS teams.

Igor Radugin, a representative from Tatarstan at the 2004 Athens Olympics, took part only in the team competitions where Team Russia finished fourth.

Kamilla Gafurzyanova, a famous foil fencer from Kazan, Master of Sport International Level, 2011 Summer Universiade champion and 2012 World Cup silver medallist, earned a place on the Russian national fencing team and will travel to London for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Large-scale competitions of national and international scale are held in the Republic of Tatarstan. In 1976 Kazan hosted the USSR Championship. Later, in 2005, the capital of Tatarstan played host to the Russian national championship. Every year the Kazan fencing school organises national tournaments, such as the Spring Dripping Water Tournament, New Year Tournament, Golden Autumn Youth Tournament and Nailya Gilyazova Fencing Tournament. The European Youth Championships were held in Kazan in 2011 and Russian athletes became medallists in all types of weapons.