Natalya Durova: biography, creativity and personal life

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Natalia Durova is best known as a Soviet circus performer and animal trainer. But in her long busy life, she found a place for the circus, literature, and social activities. This article provides a brief biography of Natalya Yurievna Durova.

Famous family

A conversation about the biography of Natalia Durova should begin with getting to know her family. Natalya was born on April 13, 1934 in Moscow, in a family of circus celebrities Durovs. The founder of the Durov Animal Theatre, Vladimir Leonidovich Durov, was the great-grandfather of the future artist. He died three years after the birth of his only great-granddaughter at that time. The famous artist with his pet monkey is pictured below.

Like Vladimir Leonidovich, all of Natalya's relatives were artists: great-grandmother, grandfather, father and uncle were circus performers who devoted their whole lives to the family circus, and grandmother and mother were pop artists. By the way, Natalia's mother had an even more famous great-great-grandfather - the great Russian composer Alexander Borodin.

Circus creativity

Natalia's debutDurova in the circus arena took place at the age of five - in 1939 she took a small part in the number of her father, Yuri Vladimirovich Durov. From the age of eight she was a constant participant in her father's attractions, performing with a lynx, an elephant and a cheetah, and from the age of nine she was listed in Yuri Vladimirovich's work book as an intern - this is how her long-term circus career began. Photo by Natalia Durova is presented below.

Most of Natalia's childhood performances took place during the war period - her father formed a front-line brigade of artists, and the aspiring circus performer participated in performances for soldiers that were held at the forefront and in hospitals.

At the age of 17, without interrupting her circus activities, Natalya Yuryevna began distance learning as a veterinary diagnostician at the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, and then, from 1951 to 1956. studied full-time at the Gorky Literary Institute. Despite the full-time form, Natalya combined her studies with work as a trainer in the Main Directorate of Circuses. In 1956, with two higher educations, Natalya Durova again began to perform on the family arena at the Durov Theater, which at that time was called "Durov's Corner".

In 1961, at the invitation of the USSR Ministry of Culture, she moved to the Soyuzgostsirk, where she specialized in creating unique numbers. So, in 1971, she even received an award from the Ministry of Culture of the GDR, for creating the world's first attraction, for a long timeremaining the only one - "Sea Lions and Walrus".

After the death of her father in 1971 and uncle in 1972, Natalya Durova returned to the family arena, and in 1978 became its director and artistic director, remaining in this position until the end of her life.

In her work, Natalya Yurievna followed the precepts of her great-grandfather in everything - she tried to study the psychology of animals, finding training methods based on trust, not fear. In her career, she has performed with a huge number of animals and birds, including monkeys, elephants, hippos, giraffes, cheetahs, lynxes, tigers, walruses, sea lions, pelicans and parrots, as well as animals that no one has performed before: the heron, coat and kinkajou.

Literary works

In addition to active circus activities, Natalia Durova was engaged in literature. She began writing in 1953, her debut was the tragic story about the circus elephant "The Death of Old Yambo". Since then, Natalya Yuryevna has written more than thirty works about animals, the circus, and her experience as a trainer - all of them are created in the genre of children's literature. She has been the author of all the scripts for the performances of the Durov Theater since 1978. For achievements in the field of children's literature, Natalya Durova was awarded the Arkady Gaidar Badge of Honor.

Community activities

The work of Natalya Yurievna has always been closely connected with moral education - as incircus, and in literature. Therefore, at an older age, she could not stay away from social activities. So, for example, it was Durova who was the author of the idea and the main inspirer of the creation of the "Temple of Childhood" - a center for moral education on the basis of "Durov's Corner". Until the end of her life, she was a member of the World to the Children of the World association, the Smoktunovsky Charitable Actors Foundation and the Board of Trustees of the Charity, Reconciliation and Accord Foundation. Also, Natalia Durova was an academician of the International Association of International Spiritual Unity and a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Private life

Devoting all her youth to creativity, Natalya Durova remembered personal relationships only by the age of thirty. At 32, she became the second wife of actor Mikhail Bolduman, who at that time was already 68 years old. In 1967, the couple had a son, who was named after his father, Mikhail. The family life of Natalia and Mikhail was happy, but, unfortunately, did not last long - after 17 years, death separated the spouses. Mikhail Bolduman died of old age in 1983 - he was 85 years old. After his death, Natalya Yuryevna no longer connected her life with anyone.

The artist died on November 27, 2007 at the age of 73. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. The son of Natalia Durova survived his mother by only three years, having died from a perforated ulcer at the age of 43.

Awards

First in a huge listHonors Natalya Yuryevna were the military awards that she received as a child - this is the badge "Guards" in 1945 and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" in 1946. In 1971, she was awarded the Vladimir Durov medal from the Ministry of Culture of the GDR, and in 1972 she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1982, Natalya Durova became the People's Artist of the RSFSR, and also received the Lenin Komsomol Prize and badges of honor "For active work with the pioneers" and "Preparation of the 12th festival of youth and students." In 1983, Natalya Yurievna was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1986 she received the Order "For works of mercy", in 1987 - the State Prize of the USSR, and in 1989 she became the owner of the title of People's Artist of the USSR and the honorary medal of the Soviet Peace Fund. Natalya Durova is the owner of two orders "For Merit to the Fatherland" of the second and third degrees, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Zhukov medal and other awards of varying degrees of importance.