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 while standing, making endless applause to the professionalism of the master and the courage of a caring person.
Way to the arena
In September 2016, he won the prestigious prize of the World Festival “Idol-2016”, held among circus artists, but he once started as an ordinary driver of a truck carrying animals. A native of the Donetsk region (Khartsyzsk), Vitaliy Smolyanets, whose biography is presented in the article, was born in 1973. After college, even under Soviet rule, he was called up for the Northern Fleet, and was demobilized in 1993 already in the days of the CIS. He worked as a trucker 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 years to accumulate funds for the purchase of the first pets: the lioness Nicky and the lion Simon, acquired in Novosibirsk in 2002.
Unique attraction
A year later, Vitaliy Smolyanets (photo is in this material) received 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 attraction, in which six lionesses and two tigers took part. Simon had to be returned to the zoo, because work with heterosexual predators did not work out. Lionesses should have one leader - a trainer. Lions look spectacular in the arena, besides working with big cats is more difficult, but the young tamer did not look for easy ways.
His beauties began to do such unique tricks that in 2015 he will be awarded the Master Circus Award as the best trainer. In his room, the lionesses do backward hindrance, and the dynamics, complexity and accuracy of execution are such that Edgard Zapashny specially went to Nizhny Novgorod, where the trainer toured to meet a talented colleague.
Circus family
Circus and predators became 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 had already entered a cage with small cubs, but his father did not let him in on adults: predators were able to attack those whom they considered weaker. Today Igor lives in Yurg (Kemerovo region), where his mother-in-law Vitaly lives, and studies at school. The younger Mark is touring with his parents, learning the life of a circus backstage. The elder brother Vladimir assists an eminent relative in a room with wild cats.
Crash
The road divided the trainer's life before and after. 02/09/2015 at 3 a.m. he was driving his own car on the icy highway Tver - Moscow. After passing the 138th km in the area of the village. Redkino, he witnessed how an UAZ car, crashed into a dividing fence, deployed ahead. 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 Vitaliy Smolyanets, a trainer, had an accident that cost him both legs.
That night, the artist had to survive the most terrible minutes of his life. Stopping on the side of the road, he rushed to the reclining passenger to pull him off the roadway. With lateral vision I saw a wagon rushing towards them, the driver of which lost control on a slippery road. Shouting to the driver of the UAZ, who managed to roll under the bump, Vitaliy managed to push out the fainted passenger behind the fence, and he himself was hit by a cargo MAZ.
After the crash
One leg of Vitali was immediately torn off, and the second had an open fracture. In full consciousness, 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 an early end to the torment. But all subsequent events became a series of happy coincidences, as if in gratitude for the shown heroism and human participation.
Arriving traffic police officers managed to stop the bleeding by pulling their legs in a tourniquet. After 30 minutes, the ambulance delivered the wounded to the hospital of the village of Redkino, owned by the Ministry of Emergencies. Professional surgeons, cutting clothes directly on the operating table, skillfully performed the amputation of the second leg, saving the artist's life. A few hours later, the wife was already at the patient’s bedside, the next three months not leaving her husband. Vitaly Smolyanets, the accident for which ended so tragically, asked his brother Vladimir to replace him on tour. And he agreed, entering the arena in three days. None of the spectators passed the ticket, although the older brother managed to get on the main tricks only after a month.
Rehabilitation
Upon learning of the tragedy, Edgard Zapashny arrived in Redkino. Once his grandfather killed gangrene. He understood that it was difficult to leave a seriously ill colleague in a small village with minimal help, so he called I. Kobzon asking for help with moving to the Institute. Vishnevsky. Vitaly’s fate was attended not only by friends, but also previously unfamiliar people. The artist was transferred to Moscow, where after 5 weeks of resuscitation a long recovery process began.
Vitaliy Smolyanets was not released from the hospital until late April. Fighting for life was helped by the belief that even without legs he would be able to return to the profession. The Russian State Circus in the person of Vadim Gagloev not only retained the attraction, but also allocated two million for the purchase of prostheses, on which Paralympic champions set their records. The remaining amount (3 million rubles) was collected by friends who did not leave a comrade in trouble. After discharge, the trainer immediately went to Bryansk, where his pets were on tour. It was the most touching meeting that is only possible between humans and animals.
Saved
Who are the people for whom Vitaly Smolyanets, a world-famous trainer, sacrificed his life? The driver Ilya Manukhov constantly visited the savior during treatment. The revelation for him was the words when Vitaly admitted that he did not regret anything, and was unlikely to be able to do otherwise. Passenger Sergey Suslov lay in a coma for a month. He does not remember anything from the moment he fell asleep on the road in the passenger seat. Today, a young man lives a normal life, although his speech is slightly difficult, and the consequences of severe injuries make themselves felt. But the wife and two young children are a good reason to rejoice at every moment of a newly presented life.
Only the truck driver appeared on the threshold of the hospital only once to find out if the victim would initiate a criminal case regarding an accident. Vitaly believes that today nothing can be fixed, so there is no point in looking for the guilty. It is necessary to find ways to return to duty.
