In his book entitled “Many-sided Variety Art. Backstage of Kremlin concerts” Ioakim Sharoev will recollect: “The circus is cruel. And this cruelty is determined by the working conditions themselves. Through natural selection a special caste is being formed here, and the “outsider” can’t join this family. “A circus family” – is a special phenomenon, a closed one, living by its own rules. I have personally witnessed a scene during the filming at the Old Moscow Circus (now the Circus of Nikulin), which got stuck in my memory forever. The director of the number was standing on the arena holding a huge whip (which scares the hell even out of horses) in one hand and a rope in another, which attached a young woman to a trapeze. She couldn’t get her stunt right. So her director lowered the artist with a rope a little and struck her with a whip. And then again. She was silent. The pain from these lashes I think was horrible. But the artist did not scream, she did not cried, but was silent, awaiting to be lashed again. The director demanded to repeat the stunt. The stunt was performed right. Then he brought her down to the arena and continued to rehearse with the others. The woman silently left the arena – obviously she went to the actors’ restroom to cry. A lot of people were present during this scene – but nobody stepped in, no one said a word.”