Irina Bugrimova

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Birth Date:
13.03.1910
Death date:
20.02.2001
Length of life:
90
Days since birth:
42076
Years since birth:
115
Days since death:
8859
Years since death:
24
Extra names:
Ирина Бугримова, Ири́на Никола́евна Бугри́мова
Cemetery:
Set cemetery

Irina Bugrimova (1910–2001) was the first female lion tamer in the Soviet Union. Called a "circus legend" by sources such as the BBC, Bugrimova was the first woman in Russia and the then-Soviet Union to work with lions, tigers, and ligers in a variety of performing acts, and trained more than 70 big cats during her career.

Origin and early career

Irina Nikolajewna Bugrimova was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 13, 1910. The daughter of a veterinarian and a ballet dancer, she excelled in athletics as a child, including as a champion speed skater. She eventually parlayed her talent into a career as a motorcyclist and gymnast at circuses, among other things.

Animal training

In 1929, Bugrimova transferred to the Moscow State Circus, and it was there she met the animal trainers Nikolaj Gladilstchikow and Boris Eder, who taught her the practice. She made her debut ten years later in 1939, and designed many of her own tricks, such as lions tightrope walking, acts involving motorcycles, and a giant swing which she would leap from with a cat. In one stunt, a lion would run in front of her motorcycle as if in fear, while another would jump onto the back of her seat to ride along. She flirted with danger by swinging on a giant swing with a lion. At the end of the routine the two jumped off the swing together and she fed the animal a piece of meant with her teeth. Her act ended with the lions laying down as she cavorted on a carpet of cats. Later she worked with the Circus Humberto in Czechoslovakia and the East German Circus.

Bugrimova performed in circuses well into her 60s, and was decorated several times by the Soviet state. Today there is also an avenue named in her honor in her hometown of Kharkiv, in front of the city's circus.

Perhaps the story that Irian Bugrimova most liked to tell concerned a 1950s incident that occurred outside the ring. One day one of her charges, Demon, caused and unexpected stir. Intending to take a nap before her performance, Bugrimova in her mid-40s at the time, first walked to a window to check on her lions, kept caged in a clearing outside.

 

Source: wikipedia.org

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