Description of the attraction
Ivanovo State Circus named after V. A. Volzhansky is located on Lenin Avenue, 42, on the banks of the Uvod River. The foundation stone of the circus building took place in the 1930s simultaneously with the drama theater.
The authors of the project of the first circus of the Soviet state were graduates of the IVPI - architect S. A. Minofiev and engineer B. V. Lopatin. The circus was designed for 3 thousand seats, it was supposed to be the original design of a hemispherical dome, consisting of thirty-two wooden semi-arches. The dome was 25 m high and 50 m in diameter.
The building was being built at an accelerated pace. In the center of the future arena, a wooden tower was installed, on its upper deck was a metal cylinder filled with sand. Here, the upper semi-arched ends were fastened. The assembly of the dome was completed in the winter of 1932. Later, he was poured first with a plank, then with tin. When the central point was removed, the top of the dome sank by only 25 millimeters. This indicates the accuracy of the engineering calculation performed by B. V. Lopatin.
The first Soviet circus in Ivanovo was opened on September 28, 1933. The arena and auditorium could easily be transformed into a stage with an auditorium. All kinds of social and political events were periodically held in the circus building.
Many celebrities performed on the arena of this circus - comedians I. O. Viltazak and I. S. Radunsky (duet "Bim-Bom"), Zapashny dynasty, trainers Durov, N. P. Gladilshchikov, B. A. Eder, N. A. Nikitin. The famous illusionist Emil Kio also performed here.
The clowns Karandash, Oleg Popov, Akram Yusupov, Vasily Lazarenko brought many funny moments to the Ivanovo people.
For many years, the Ivanovo circus was the base for staging new performances; numbers were rehearsed here that conquered spectators all over the world with their uniqueness. During the war, there was an equestrian acrobatic studio headed by A. Aleksandrov-Serge. Walter Zapashny, Victor and Valentin Eder, artists Volzhansky, V. Teplov and many others created their unique numbers here.
In the spring of 1975, the last performance took place in an old wooden circus building. The city council decided to demolish the building. During the 1930-1970s, the circus worked without a single major overhaul.
The description of the unique design of this circus was included in the multivolume edition "General History of Architecture", as well as in all textbooks on architecture and construction for building universities. The model of the building of the old Ivanovo circus is now kept in the Moscow Museum of Architecture, in 1981 it was shown at the international exhibition "Moscow-Paris".
And even by 1975 the technical condition of the circus was satisfactory. Nevertheless, the unique building was blown up in 1977. This decision of the first secretary of the regional committee on the part of specialists-architects and local lore experts caused a huge protest. But their voice was not decisive, and the city lost its unique architectural monument.
In 1978, SMU-9 began the construction of a new circus building, which was built according to a standard design. Only small changes were made to it by local architects and a binding was made to the area. The decoration materials for the circus building were made at local factories. The dome was covered by the Ivanovo Machine-Tool Association (today the Heavy Machine-Tool Building Plant), which in those years was headed by Vladimir Kabaidze. The facing panels were made by the Ivanovomebel association, the arena carpet - by the Artificial Sole Combine. The new circus building was opened on February 11, 1983. The auditorium of the new circus could accommodate 1,700 visitors.
The first director of the new circus - A. Burenko, Hon. cultural worker of the RSFSR, the second - A. Yudin. Today the Ivanovo circus bears the name of the founder of the Volzhansky dynasty of tightrope walkers.
Today, the Ivanovo circus always offers its viewers interesting and fascinating circus programs, among which are aerial ballet on a rope by Gevorg Khachatryan and his daughter Eliza, Diana Vedyashkina with trained rabbit dachshunds, "Brave Firefighters" (an acrobatic troupe led by A. Komissarov), stunt tricks by Mario Sibalos, buffaloes of Sergo and Larisa Samkharadze, circus horse riding by Y. Merdenov, trained ferrets, "little people" show and others.
