Many professions are considered suitable only for men. The performance of professional duties requires excessive physical or mental strength. Women can't handle them. That's what the majority thinks. Animal trainer is one of those professions. Margarita Nazarova violated the socially accepted pattern about the possibilities of a beautiful woman.
Unusual start
Margarita never dreamed of becoming a tiger trainer. But fate decreed otherwise. The result was what happened. Persistence of nature, strength of character and the desire to overcome dangers predetermined the girl's life path.
The first time Rita got into a cage with the tigers was in the early fifties. There was preparation for dubbing the main character on the set of the film "Dangerous Paths". At that time, the girl performed as part of a ballet troupe with acrobatic numbers. Acquaintance with tigers under the guidance of a talented trainer Boris Eder gave birth to the idea to try himself in a new role. The attempt was successful andbecame a way of life. So, an invitation to duplicate the actress on the set with a tiger led to the emergence of the big name "Margarita Nazarova - Animal Trainer". The biography of the girl from birth led her to this risky step.
Childhood of little Forget-me-not
A girl was born and raised in a happy and friendly family. Mom taught. Dad worked as a forester. The combination of teaching education and life in the bosom of nature led to the formation of Margarita's character. The Nazarov family had three daughters. For long summer holidays they were sent to their father's lodge. Freedom and unity with nature made it possible for the imagination to fly.
Somehow the father brought a little bear cub left without a mother. This prompted Margo to make her first attempt at becoming a trainer. But nothing happened, the bear did not obey the girl.
The desire to find a hobby to her liking soon led the girl to a ballet school. Her blond hair, sky-colored eyes and slender figure gave the appearance of an unearthly creature. Parents called their daughter Forget-Me-Not. The classes went well. But everything ended abruptly.
Fate and war
The turning point began with the war. In 1941, a fifteen-year-old girl was taken prisoner. It all happened so casually and unexpectedly. The father was called to the war. The mother and daughters tried to escape from the advancing Nazis, moving to the rear. The eldest Margarita, in search of at least some kind of food, once went to the village. During this time, the mother and children were evacuated, and Rita ended up incaptured.
A young girl, along with such teenagers, is transported to Germany to work. In Hamburg, the chief draws attention to the beauty. Her outward resemblance to the famous actress Rita Hayworth helps to escape from exhausting slave labor for the benefit of the Wehrmacht. The boss sends a copy of the Hollywood actress to work in a rich house as a servant. The owner liked the girl. The years of captivity passed, albeit humiliatingly, but relatively calmly.
After some time, the smoothness of movements and gracefulness of the girl's figure leads the owner to the idea of giving the servant a dancer. Her work in a cabaret begins. Dancing continued until her release from captivity in 1945. Russian soldiers with machine guns at the ready burst into the cabaret before the start of the performance. Hearing Russian speech, Rita jumped out to the liberators. Fate takes another turn.
Life from scratch
In the summer of 1945, Margarita arrives in Riga, where her mother and sisters live. My father did not return from the war, he disappeared without a trace. Post-war life forces a young woman to hide the fact of her captivity. She is trying to find a steady income. Using her skills, Rita creates an acrobatic number with dance elements. With such a performance, she is hired to work at the Circus on Stage.
Working with a partner does not remain unchanged. Craving for animals makes itself felt. The acrobats on the stage are joined first by dogs, then by horses. Thinking of an unusual number, the circus actress masters the motorcycle. Her vertical motorcycle racing becomes a sensation. Adrenaline surges. The audience is thrilled.
Butmotorcyclist soon and this is not enough. She continues to search for a calling. The thought of bending the striped giants to your will leads to action. This is how the famous name "Margarita Nazarova - trainer" appears. Biography of the tamer from now on gives the impression of a rapid take-off.
Work plus family
The debut of work with tigers as an understudy actress was prepared for long and tedious months. Mentor Boris Eder taught the habits of dangerous predators, passed on his experience. After filming the film "Dangerous Paths", he offers to continue working together in a new attraction. An experienced tamer saw that the tigers and the student began to understand each other with a small gesture and a fleeting glance.
At this time there is a meeting and rapprochement with the assistant head coach. After some time, Konstantin Konstantinovsky becomes not only a partner in risky work, but also Margarita's husband. Their joint performances collected full houses. A tour of the cities of the Soviet Union and trips abroad brought worldwide fame. A son Alexei was born in a family of trainers.
Tamer Movie Actress
Circus performances were not the only hobby of the family. After working as an understudy for Lyudmila Kasatkina in the film "Tiger Tamer", the opportunity arose to act on her own. Film scripts, where the main character would be Margarita Nazarova (tamer), whose biography has become a model for many Soviet women, appear one after another. Especially after the words of N. S. Khrushchev,that about such heroines "movies need to be made." A policewoman, a livestock specialist or a factory worker who subjugated predators to her will, embodied the fairy tale about the transformation of Cinderella into a queen.
Everyone was infected by the story of the sea voyage of polar bears on a ship. During the tour, the cubs broke out of their cages. Their adventures among people distraught with fear caused laughter. It was decided to make a film on such a plot. The script was written by Viktor Konetsky in alliance with Alexei Kapler. In the final version, the bears were replaced by tigers. The main character was Margarita Nazarova, a tamer. The beloved movie "Striped Flight" has appeared.
A family of trainers has managed to instill devotion to tigers in their son Alexei. After the death of his father and the prohibition for his mother to work with predators (due to an injury received by the trainer), the son inherited the family business. A few years later, Alexei Konstantinovsky went on a tour of Europe and stayed abroad to live.
The secret of professional achievement
It takes a lot of patience and skill to subdue the indomitable striped beasts. Two types of training are commonly used: through pain or through treats. Margarita Nazarova, a trainer whose biography speaks of the importance of using knowledge of the nature of the beast, used mainly the second method. Proximity to predators, replacement of instincts by conditioned reflexes as a result of prolonged training, led to surprising results. The Ussuri tigers considered her theirs and submitted to this fragile woman.
Only this beautiful tiger tamer ventured into desperate experiments with wild animals. Her extravagant number in the pool with several animals delighted the audience. Watching the events taking place in the water, people forgot about the danger to which a person is exposed. The tigers played ball, chased, jumped and splashed like children. The tamer's favorite, the huge beast Punch, loved to submerge his patroness under water. Putting his paw on her head, he did not let go of the woman for a certain time. Then he allowed me to surface.
Nazarova Margarita Petrovna was not afraid to go out into the city with tigers. She could be seen in the company with her pets in a restaurant, in a car, just on the street. She owns the primacy of bringing a trained animal into natural conditions. Once in the wild, the tiger rushed into the thicket. The tamer is behind him. A few minutes later, they returned together and continued filming.
Last years of life
After the cessation of performances with the tigers, Nazarova closed herself from the whole world. Husband Konstantin Konstantinovsky died long ago, son abroad. The years of captivity were not in vain, and it seemed to her that surveillance was organized for her. Therefore, she reduced contacts to a minimum. Her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod became a hiding place from persecution.
She lived modestly, on a small pension. She managed to serve herself with difficulty - numerous injuries, physical and moral, affected. Ask for handoutsrefused outright. She died in poverty and obscurity on October 26, 2005. The trainer was buried at the Fedyakovskoye cemetery in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
