Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoi Boulevard was the only circus in Moscow between 1926 and 1971 and still remains the most popular one. The circus building was opened on 20 October 1880 as the Solomonsky Circus. Known by a variety of names during the Soviet period, the troupe was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939. Among the famous performers who worked there were the clowns Karandash, Oleg Popov, and Yury Nikulin, who managed the company for fifteen years and whose name it has borne since his death in 1997. In front of the building is a remarkable statue of Nikulin, whose son has been in charge of the circus ever since his death.
Famous quotes containing the words moscow, circus and/or boulevard:
“Napoleon is a torrent which as yet we are unable to stem. Moscow will be the sponge that will suck him dry.”
—Mikhail Kutuzov (1745–1813)
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey-cage.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)