Honored Artist of Russia Vitaly Smolyanets is the only circus figure in the world who performs without both legs. Spectators of the famous show "Empire of Lionesses" meet the tamer standing, arranging endless applause for the professionalism of the master and the courage of a caring person.
The way to the arena
In September 2016, he became the owner of the prestigious award of the World Festival "Idol-2016", held among circus performers, and after all, he once started as an ordinary driver of a truck transporting animals. A native of the Donetsk region (Khartsyzsk), Vitaly Smolyanets, whose biography is presented in the article, was born in 1973. After college, even under Soviet rule, he was drafted into the Northern Fleet, and was demobilized in 1993 already during the times of the CIS. He worked as a truck driver until a friend Sergei Belyakov opened a private circus in Russia and invited Vitaly to work as a driver.
The young man was imbued with the atmosphere of the circus, and soon began to assist a friend in his room with predators. Sometimes it was necessary to completely replace him in the arena, and Vitaly began to dream of his own attraction. It took him six yearsin order to accumulate funds for the purchase of the first pets: Nika the lioness and Simon the lion, acquired in Novosibirsk in 2002.
Unique attraction
A year later, Vitaly Smolyanets (the photo is available in this material) received a baptism of fire. The number turned out, and after a while the young man became an artist of the Russian State Circus. In 2012, he created an original ride featuring six lionesses and two tigers. Simon had to be returned to the zoo, because the work with heterosexual predators did not work out. Lionesses should have one leader - a trainer. Lions look more spectacular in the arena, besides, working with big cats is more difficult, but the young tamer was not looking for easy ways.
His beauties began to do such unique tricks that in 2015 he will be awarded the circus award "Master" as the best animal trainer. In his performance, the lionesses make a backward pass on their hind legs, and the dynamics, complexity and precision of execution are such that Edgard Zapashny specially went to Nizhny Novgorod, where the trainer was touring, to get acquainted with a talented colleague.
Circus family
The circus and predators have become the meaning of the artist's life. Vitaly Smolyanets even created a family with a hereditary circus performer. Inessa is 10 years younger than her husband. She is also a trainer, but her animals are ponies and monkeys. The couple have been together for 13 years, touring with the circus, where the entire second part of the program is Vitaly's attraction.
The family has two sons. Senior Igor is a schoolboy. He has already entered a cage with small tiger cubs, but to adultshis father does not let him in: predators are able to attack those who are considered weaker. Today Igor lives in Yurga (Kemerovo region), where Vitaly's mother-in-law lives, goes to school. The younger Mark tours with his parents, learning the life of the circus behind the scenes. Elder brother Vladimir assists an eminent relative in a room with wild cats.
Accident
The road divided the life of the trainer into before and after. On February 9, 2015, at 3 a.m., he was driving his own car along the icy Tver-Moscow highway. Having passed the 138th km in the area of the village. Redkino, he witnessed how a UAZ car turned around in front, crashing into a separation barrier. The passenger broke through the windshield and flew into the middle of the highway, and the driver was in a state of shock. The next morning, the media will report in detail that Vitaly Smolyanets, a trainer, had an accident that cost him both legs.
This night the artist had to endure the most terrible moments of his life. Stopping on the side of the road, he rushed to the lying passenger to pull him off the roadway. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a truck rushing towards them, the driver of which lost control on a slippery road. Shouting to the UAZ driver, who managed to roll under the bump stop, Vitaly managed to push the unconscious passenger over the fence, and he himself was hit by a MAZ truck.
After the accident
One Vitaly's leg was torn off immediately, and the second had an open fracture. Fully conscious, the trainer called his wife, saying goodbye and asking for forgiveness for everything. He sincerely believed that he would die,bleeding on the track. The pain was unbearable, and he prayed for a speedy end to the torment. But all subsequent events became a series of happy accidents, as if in gratitude for the heroism and human participation.
Arriving traffic police officers managed to stop the bleeding by pulling the legs with a tourniquet. After 30 minutes, the ambulance delivered the wounded man to the hospital in the village of Redkino, which belonged to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Professional surgeons, cutting off clothes right on the operating table, skillfully performed an operation to amputate the second leg, saving the artist's life. A few hours later, the wife was already at the bedside of the patient, who did not leave her husband for the next three months. Vitaly Smolyanets, whose accident ended so tragically, asked his brother Vladimir to replace him on tour. And he agreed, entering the arena three days later. None of the spectators returned the ticket, although the older brother managed to enter the main tricks only a month later.
Rehab
After learning about the tragedy, Edgard Zapashny arrived in Redkino. Once his grandfather was killed by gangrene. He understood that in a small village with minimal help it was difficult to leave a seriously ill colleague, so he called I. Kobzon with a request to help with moving to the institute. Vishnevsky. Not only friends, but also previously unfamiliar people took part in the fate of Vitaly. The artist was transported to Moscow, where, after 5 weeks of resuscitation, a long process of recovery began.
Vitaly Smolyanets was discharged from the hospital only at the end of April. The belief that even without legs he would be able to return to the profession helped him fight for his life. Russian State Circus in the faceVadim Gagloeva not only kept the attraction, but also allocated two million for the purchase of prostheses, on which Paralympic champions set their records. The rest of the sum (3 million rubles) was collected by friends who did not leave a comrade in trouble. After being discharged, the trainer immediately went to Bryansk, where his pets were on tour. It was the most touching encounter possible between man and animals.
Saved
Who are the people for whom Vitaly Smolyanets sacrificed his life - a trainer with a worldwide reputation? The driver, Ilya Manukhov, visited the savior all the time during treatment. The revelation for him was the words when Vitaly admitted that he did not regret anything, and he could hardly have done otherwise. Passenger Sergei Suslov was in a coma for a month. He remembers nothing from the minute he fell asleep on the road in the passenger seat. Today, the young man lives a normal life, although his speech is slightly hampered, and the consequences of severe injuries are felt. But a wife and two small children are a good reason to enjoy every moment of the newly given life.
Only the driver of the truck showed up at the door of the hospital only once to find out if the victim would initiate a criminal investigation into the accident. Vitaly believes that nothing can be corrected today, so there is no point in looking for someone to blame. We must find ways to return to duty.
Return to duty
In August 2015, Vitaly Smolyanets put on artificial limbs, and in September he began to rehearse the number. Wife Inna made a decisiongo to the attraction to her husband, to always be there, even in the circus arena. The artist had no doubt that he would be able to enter a cage with animals that recognized him as a leader, even if he entered there in a wheelchair. But he was worried about the reaction of the audience: would they be able to ignore his crutches and would his appearance cause pity?
The premiere performance took place in December 2015 in Rostov. The artist used crutches instead of a stack and was so focused on what was happening in the cage that for a moment it seemed to him that the stands did not react in any way to his tricks. But when the number ended, he heard deafening applause from the audience, standing up to greet the artist and a truly strong person. For lions will never trust the weak.
