Grandpa Durov's Little Corner, Grandpa Durov's Wonderland, the Durov Animal Theatre... These names are well familiar not only to inhabitants of Moscow and other Russia's cities, but also to many guests from other countries. And, indeed, this is an unusual place, unique in the whole world. There, Man and Nature live in harmony. There, the true story and the fairy tale live together.
The Grandpa Durov's Little Corner theatre (or The Little Corner, for short) was opened on 8th January 1912 by Vladimir Durov, a famous circus performer, a satirical clown, an animal trainer, a writer, an animal psychology researcher and the first to receive the title of Russia's Meritorious Circus Artist.
Durov developed his own animal training method: he rejected the whip and the stick when working with animals. "Cruelty is humiliating, only kindness is beautiful", Durov claimed.
The Little Corner housed The Little One theatre, where beasts and birds performed, a large museum of natural history and an animal psychology laboratory used by the most famous researchers such as Academician Vladimir Bekhterev, Professor A. Leontovich, Professor Grigory Kozhevnikov, Professor Aleksandr Chizhevsky and others.
The appearance of the building of The Little Corner has remained virtually unchanged since it was constructed by the architect August Weber in 1894. The main, state staircase was decorated by Durov with figures of prehistoric animals, which he sculptured himself. The Little Corner greeted its visitors with a writing in Latin, Salve, seen in the lobby of the first floor.
Currently, the Grandpa Durov's Wonderland includes the Grand Stage and the Small Stage, the performance The Mouse Railways as well as a museum of the theatre.
The motto of The Little Corner has always been Teach by Entertaining. Hopefully, after having got introduced to the wonderful performers and after having visited the museum, you will treat animals the way Durov treated them: "like creatures that can feel and understand", with kindness and love.
The circus dynasty of the Durovs, which was founded by Durov, is well-known throughout the whole world. Durov was born on 25th June 1863 (Old Style) to a noble family in Moscow.
The Durov family is an ancient one, having been first mentioned in Russian genealogy books in the 16th century. The family includes duma dyaks (the lowest rank in the Boyar Duma) and colonels of strelstsy (a pre-Petrine elite military unit); Nadezhda Durova, the first Russia's female officer, was Durov's great grandmother, and his father Leonid Durov participated in the 1853–1856 Crimean War.
Having lost his parents early on, Vladimir and his younger brother Anatoly were brought up by their godfather N. Zakharov. He intended to prepare them for a military carrier; for this purpose, the brothers were sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, a military secondary school. However, the brothers became passionate about acrobatics and the circus; many times they ran away to public festivals to see clown performances. As a punishment, they were usually sent to their grandmother who lived at the Widows House, almshouses for widows of state officials, where they became friends with the famous writer Aleksandr Kuprin. The brothers ran away to the city of Tver, joined Rinaldo's travelling circus, went through the hard school of circus performing art, mastered all the circus professions: acrobat, juggler, clown, etc. It seemed to them that it was there, in the "whirpool" of the fair, amidst simple folk that dwelled the freedom of the spirit and the soul of the country where they had been born. "Kings of jesters, but not jesters of kings," the Durovs described themselves.
Vladimir Durov dreamed of constructing his own house for animals, to settle them there, creating the best conditions for everybody, to observe, to treat and to teach them and to publically show their skills. In Moscow's Staraya Bozhedomka Street (in 1927, it was renamed Durov Street), he bought a house with a garden and stables and on 8th January 1912 he opened The Little Corner.
In that house, he lived for the rest of his life, left for tours, did his research work and died on 3th August 1934 (he was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery).
Durov managed to create an institution that was unique in the whole world, because it housed The Little One theatre that featured trained animals, a large museum of natural history and a research laboratory where animal behaviour was observed, training methods were developed and lectures on animal psychology were read for visitors. After Durov's death, his wife Anna became the head of The Little Corner. She worked as a circus horse rider when she was young, and, after having become Durov's wife and assistant, she took upon herself all the household and administrative work at the Little Corner. Durov's youngest daughter, Meritorious Worker of Arts Anna Durova-Sadovskaya, was the head of The Little Corner for many years.
The Durov dynasty includes as many as five people who held the title of People's Artist: Vladimir's grandchildren Yury and Tereza, Anatoly's grandson Vladimir, Yury's daughter Natalya and Lev Durov, a cinema and theatre actor. The dynasty also includes the already mentioned Anna Durova-Sadovskaya, a Meritorious Worker of Arts, and two Meritorious Artists, Yury's son Yury and Anatoly's great granddaughter Tereza.
The Little Corner has received the status of the national treasure; it is one of Russia's leading educational centres that nurture spirituality and morality in the youngest generation.
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