Vladimir Durov

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Revision as of 04:16, 26 November 2008 by Djando (Talk | contribs) (The Soviet Years)

Clown

By Dominique Jando


In the Soviet era, Vladimir Durov was a true iconic figure of the Russian circus. He was said to have revolutionized animal training; he had a street and a theater named after him (which are still extent); he was described as a clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.-satirist whose anarchistic stance against an autocratic Tsar and his government had helped bring about the Soviet revolution.

But in truth, if Vladimir was indeed a skillful and intelligent animal trainer, he used methods that were also becoming prevalent in Western Europe at the same time, notably with the Hagenbecks in Germany. And his talent as a clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.-satirist was quickly overshadowed by his remarkable gifts as an animal trainer: It is his brother, Anatoly, not Vladimir, whose anti-establishment virulence got him into trouble under the Tsarist regime.

Today, the Durovs form one of Russia’s most prestigious circus dynasties; from the brothers Vladimir and Anatoly Durov, the founders of the dynasty, to a host of Anatolys, Vladimirs, Yurys, Natalias and Terezas, all bearing the Durov name, they have given the Russian circus an impressive number of talented clowns, animal trainers, and entertainment entrepreneurs—and a few actors too.

The Durov Family

Vladimir Leonidevich Durov was born on June 25, 1863 to a wealthy aristocratic family in Moscow. He was the fourth child and elder son of Leonid Dmitrievich Durov (1832-1867), a hereditary Lord of the Province of Moscow, who was an officer in the Moscow Police—a job he did more by passion than by necessity. Vladimir’s brother, Anatoly Leonidevich (1864-1916), was born seventeen months later.

The Durov name was well known, since the family had already produced a celebrity: Nadezhda Durova, remembered in Russian history as the "Cavalry Girl," was Vladimir’s grandaunt. Dressed as a man, she had enrolled in a cavalry regiment to fight Napoleon’s armies in 1812. She is said to have received a medal from the hands of Field-Marshall Kutuzov, the victor of Napoleon. Celebrated by Pushkin, Nadezhda eventually became a successful writer.

Vladimir Durov had three elder sisters, Margarita (1854-?); Konkordya (1860-?) – a descendent of who was the famous Russian actor Lev Durov; and Liudmila (1862-?); and a younger sister, Valentina (1866-1940). Anatoly’s mother, Maria Dmitrievna Durova (1833-1866), probably suffered from complications caused by Valentina’s birth: she died soon after, in 1866. Vladimir was only three years old. Devastated, Vladimir’s father drank himself to death. He began suffering from hallucinations and died a year later, in 1867.

Vladimir and Anatoly were put in the care of their godfather, Nikolai Zakharovich Zakharov, a rich and brilliant lawyer and occasional playwright, whose work had been produced successfully at the Maly Theater in Moscow. (He was also an incorrigible gambler: He would eventually commit suicide over a gambling debt.) Zakharov sent Vladimir and Anatoly to a Military Academy—where, in all probability, brother Anatoly developed his enduring loathing for all forms of authority.

Circus Beginnings

But the Durov brothers had also developed a passion for circus acrobatics, which they much preferred to academic studies and military exercises. This eventually led to their being expelled from the Academy. Left to their own devices, Vladimir and Anatoly hired with the money their godfather gave them an Italian acrobat from the troupe of Carl Magnus Hinné, Angelo Briatore, to teach them the basics of acrobatics. Briatore did so the old circus way: with much whipping. When uncle Nikolai discovered that, he quickly got rid of Briatore.

Undeterred, Vladimir and Anatoly learned a trapeze act with Otto Kleist, a balagan(Russian) A fairground booth or theater. acrobat, and they finally made their performing debut in 1879, in the balagan(Russian) A fairground booth or theater. of V.A. Weinstok in Tver’ (a city north of Moscow). Later, they worked in the balagan(Russian) A fairground booth or theater. of Rinaldo, a magician, before finally joining the Robinson-Nicolet troupe—a significant status change since the troupe worked in full-fledged circuses. They left Robinson-Nicolet in 1881, after Anatoly had had an argument with his employers—the first of many arguments that would plague Anatoly’s career. Probably because of that, Vladimir and his brother parted ways.

After leaving Robinson-Nicolet, Vladimir found work as a groom and assistant animal trainer in Hugo Winkler’s menagerie, which had settled on Tsvetnoi Boulevard in Moscow. There he learned to work with animals, and he became an able trainer of small animals. In 1884, following in his brother’s footsteps who had become a successful clown and worked with farm animals—a frequent occurrence with nineteenth century clowns—Vladimir began performing as a clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team., and used, like his brother, his trained animals as partners.

Vladimir presented his new clown act in Petrovski Park and in the Zooligical Gardens in Moscow: His sibling’s competition greatly irritated Anatoly. From the outset, Anatoly had used a pig and other animals as comedy partners in the ring, and indeed, animals would become a Durov trademark. But for the rest of his life, Anatoly would consider Vladimir as a usurper and a competition, and the relationship between the brothers deteriorated.

Anatoly vs. Vladimir

The brothers’ subsequent success as clowns-satirists came from the fact that, unlike other clowns in Russia at the time, who were mostly Italian or French, or came from the unrefined balagans(Russian) Fairground booths or theaters., they could express themselves in an excellent and very articulate Russian. They had also an intensely Russian wit, which they could easily convey in a manner other clowns couldn’t handle so well.

Anatoly Durov used a very direct, right-in-your-face, sometimes frankly insulting kind of humor, without fear of the consequences. By all accounts, Vladimir was the wittiest of the two brothers, and his humor was more subtle—but it was not as mordant as Anatoly’s, who was much more caustic and right to the point: It is Anatoly, not Vladimir, who would be responsible for the Durov’s Soviet reputation as slayers of the old regime.

Vladimir and Anatoly’s clown characters were very similar. Although Vladimir obviously copied his brother at the beginning, it is difficult to know who copied the other afterwards. Both characters evolved over the years from a classic clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team., not very different, physically, from other clowns of their time, to what would eventually be the Durov image: A traditional whiteface clown costume, with sequin ornaments, a white collerette and a small shoulder cape, and practically no makeup.

Both brothers always entered the ring very ceremoniously, walking around and acknowledging their audience. Then, they would start with a monologue, after which they played up the attitudes of their animals. In the case of Vladimir, this second part would take an increasing importance, up to a point a point when Vladimir’s act would be essentially centered on his animal training.

When, around 1884, their godfather saw the brothers perform, he suggested they resume their education. Anatoly didn’t pay attention, but Vladimir did: he went back to school, graduated from a Teachers’ College, and followed the classes of neurophysiologist I. M. Sechenov (‘the father of Russian physiology,’ who, with I. P. Pavlov, studied animal reflexes) as a free auditor. In 1887, he returned to the ring and made his debut as a full-fledged clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.-trainer (with a trained wolf and a dog that could—or more accurately, pretended to—add and subtract) at the Circus Salamonsky, on Tsvetnoi Boulevard in Moscow—Russia’s most prestigious circus after St. Petersburg’s Circus Ciniselli.

Vladimir, wittier and more creative, became in time the more successful of the two brothers. In fact, it is his talent as an animal trainer that was the most significant factor in his success—which led Anatoly to increase the use of animals in his act principally in an attempt to match his brother’s appeal. Like his brother, Anatoly also lectured on animal psychology, but unlike him, he was not taken seriously in scientific circles, where Vladimir had many friends.

In 1913, Vladimir and Anatoly performed at the same time in St. Petersburg, Vladimir at A. Marshan’s Cirque Moderne, where he had staged Pushkin’s fables with his animals, and Anatoly at Circus Ciniselli. Vladimir got the best reviews; one of them stated: "The biggest success was Vladimir’s, whose animal training was much better, and jokes were funnier." This didn’t please Anatoly too much, and his response showed more spite than wit: since Vladimir was announced as "the Elder Durov," Anatoly asked to be advertised as "the Older Elder Durov."

The Soviet Years

By 1907, Vladimir Durov was presenting an attraction(Russian) A circus act that can occupy up to the entire second half of a circus performance.—an act that could occupy the entire second half of a show. A miniature railway, replete with a train station and all sorts of railway-related props, occupied the ring: Monkeys played the engineer and the dispatcher; geese, the Red Caps; a duck, the Station Master; a goat, the train conductor; and the passengers were guinea pigs. They were prompted into their motions by an ingenious system of rewards hidden behind doors, in passenger cars, etc. Vladimir (and Anatoly as well) would later present a similar scene with rats.

Vladimir’s menagerie grew in importance, and in 1910, he bought a large house on Staraya Bozhedonka (today Durov Street), in Moscow, to stable his animals. In 1919, it would become a center for the study of animal psychology and training, known as Durov Corner. By then, the Soviets had seized power, and Vladimir had embraced the new regime: Clown-satirist he was only when he criticized what went against the Soviet ideals.

Anatoly Durov died of typhus on January 7, 1916, in Mariupol (Ukraine), during an engagement in the circus of V. Z. Maksimiuk. Unless Vladimir, he would never know the Soviet regime—which was a good thing since he might have criticized it as much as he did the Tsarist regime, and the Durov name would have certainly lost a good part of its luster…

The Soviets seized power the following year, in 1917. By then, animal training had long become Vladimir’s true calling, and the new regime publicized loudly his training experiments as Soviet culture achievements, which captivated the public’s attention. It is mostly in the domain of animal training that the Durov’s tradition would carry on—even though the traditional Durov clown attire would be passed from a generation to the next, and remain part of the Durovs’s quasi-mandatory image for years to come.

Vladimir Durov had married Aleksandra Ignatevna Karnaukhova, with whom he had a daughter, Zinaida, who became a writer (Zinaida Richter). A second marriage to Aleksandra’s sister, Natalia (1870-1924), produced two children, Vladimir (1888-1912) and Natalia (1889-1918), who both died in their twenties. Natalia, however, continued the Durov dynasty with her son, Yury Vladimirovich Orlov, who became Yury Durov when he was adopted by his grandfather.

A third marriage to Anna Ignatevna Karnaukhova (1878-1950), the sister of his two previous wives (obviously, what started in the Karnaukhova family stayed in the Karnaukhova family) produced another daughter, Anna. In 1933, one year before the death of her father, Anna Durova created the Moscow Animal Theater at Durov Corner, on what had become Durov Street.

Vladimir Durov died on August 8, 1934 in Moscow. He would be eventually better remembered than his brother Anatoly—partly because he had a longer life, which continued well into the Soviet regime, partly because he spent most of his career in Moscow, unlike his brother who lived in Voronezh, farther from the public eye.

Vladimir Durov was, like his brother, a well-educated man, and he had developed a genuine interest in physiology and animal behavior. Among the many weird things that the Soviet officials did during their seven decades in power, Russian scientists kept Vladimir’s brain in the Brain Institute in Moscow—probably for some future and undisclosed studies on the behavior of clowns and animal trainers…