Childhood and youth
Maxim was born on November 15, 1956 in the capital of the USSR to the circus couple Yuri Vladimirovich and Tatyana Nikolaevna Nikulin. The couple met when a student at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy was sent to a cultural institution on business. Nikulin invited the beauty to a performance, after which he found himself under the hooves of a horse, and then in a hospital bed. Tatyana decided to support the actor, visited and brought fruit. And after the victim was discharged, she realized that she had fallen in love. Soon a scene appeared in the life of the clown’s chosen one.
In an interview, Maxim Yuryevich admitted that as a child he did not know the benefits of bohemian life. Despite their all-Union fame, the Nikulins moved to a separate apartment when their son was in the 9th grade. The modest father was literally forced to write an application for housing when he came to work for his friends.
The family lived in a large communal apartment on Arbatsky Lane. Friends often visited the artists, including Bulat Okudzhava, Evgeny Yevtushenko and Bella Akhmadulina. Nikulin Jr. recalled how his parents bought wine before the feast, poured it into a pan and went to return the bottles. The funds received were spent on a simple snack - processed cheese.
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Maxim Nikulin and Yuri Nikulin on the set of the film “The Diamond Arm”
But most often Maxim’s parents disappeared on tour in the USSR and abroad. Nikulin Jr. was raised by his grandmother. In the summer, I managed to go to the south with my dad and mom as savages or as part of a circus troupe that went to sea on tour.
The boy attended a comprehensive school, often played pranks and sometimes broke windows. As a teenager, Maxim became interested in music and, together with his friends, created a group in which he played the guitar.
Nikulin made his film debut at an early age. The star’s son starred in the comedy “The Diamond Arm.” Maxim played the role of a boy serenely walking on the water.
“I realized that the work of an artist is hard and thankless,” Maxim Nikulin about his first film role - a boy with a net...
Posted by Channel One on Friday, November 15, 2013
Maxim Nikulin - son of Yuri Nikulin
Filming was not easy. Nikulin ruined a number of shots because he was afraid of getting a push from Andrei Mironov and fell into the water himself. Then the aspiring actor was deceived, saying that they decided to do without this moment. Maxim relaxed and received a kick from Mironov. It was this shot that was included in the tape, and Nikulin Jr. temporarily harbored a grudge against “Uncle Andrey.”
Maxim Yuryevich’s second and last work in feature films is the image of a schoolboy in Alexander Mitta’s comedy “Point, Point, Comma...”. The entire Nikulin family took part in the filming of the children's film. Father and mother played the parents of the main character Alyosha Zhiltsov.
As a teenager, Maxim suffered a serious illness, after which doctors were forced to remove the boy’s kidney. Then the mother, always busy on tour, got a job as a nanny in a medical institution and did not leave her child’s side for 4 months. Nikulin Jr. recovered, but could not be drafted into the army.
Journalism
While visiting the show “The Fate of a Man,” Nikulin admitted that after graduating from school, his relatives did not know where to send their son, since the graduate himself only wanted to play the guitar and “be left behind.” Then an acquaintance suggested applying to the journalism department of Moscow State University so that Maxim could receive a classical humanities education, and in the process decide on his choice of life path.
Unexpectedly, the son of Yuri Nikulin became interested in the profession, transferred to the evening department and got a job as a correspondent for the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. Maxim liked working seven days a week in a youth publication, but after the change of editor-in-chief, Nikulin Jr. was fired without explanation.
For some time, Maxim Yuryevich sat idle until he found an advertisement for the recruitment of employees for the editorial office of the Mayak radio station. At the new location, journalists were required to attend courses on speech development and literary classes, where speech errors made on air were sorted out. Service at the state radio station served as a real school of professionalism for Nikulin.
Posted by Our Parents on Monday, October 13, 2014
Maxim Nikulin in his youth and his father Yuri
After 10 years of activity on radio, Nikulin switched to television. Since 1986, Maxim Yuryevich was editing the news program “Time”, and then got a job as a presenter on the “Morning” program - the hardening received at Mayak came in handy.
But the love for pranks remained: Nikulin annoyed his superiors with his non-academic behavior on camera. The presenter was the first in the country to start telling Jewish jokes on air, which earned him the enmity of both Russians and Jews. Maxim Yuryevich was suspended for a while, and then the TV presenter did not want to return to work, being carried away by his family business.
Nikulin later acted as a TV presenter of the “My Circus” project, which aired on the “Culture” channel from 2000 to 2003. Then Maxim Yuryevich was invited to Channel One in a program about circus art “Forgang”.
Son of Yuri Nikulin - Maxim
In November 1956, the family of Yuri and Tatyana Nikulin was replenished with a boy named Maxim. At that time, the couple, circus performers, lived in one of the communal apartments on Arbatsky Lane.
Childhood of Maxim Nikulin
Parents often toured, so Maxim Nikulin was raised mainly by his grandmother. Sometimes the boy went with the circus troupe to the sea.
Maxim Nikulin with his father in childhood and youth
As a teenager, Yuri Nikulin’s son, who grew up in a creative environment, became interested in music. He even created his own band, in which he performed as a guitarist.
His film debut was the comedy “The Diamond Arm”.
There he played a boy walking on water. Maxim’s next film work was the comedy “Point, Point, Comma...”, in which his parents starred.
Yuri and Maxim Nikulin in the film “The Diamond Arm”
After graduating from school, Nikulin’s son decided to study as a journalist. He liked this profession so much that he even transferred to the evening department so that he could immediately work as a correspondent for a newspaper. But after 3 years the young man was fired.
Yuri Nikulin with his son Maxim
Further in his biography, he worked on Mayak radio, then he was the news editor of the Vremya program and the host of the Morning program.
Maxim Nikulin in the Circus
In 1993, after the tragic death of the director of the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Nikulin Sr. asked his son for help in resolving financial issues.
Maxim was so carried away by this work that he soon left television and headed the circus.
After the death of his father in 1997, the position of general director and artistic director of the troupe passed to Maxim Nikulin. After 3 years, he launched the television project “My Circus”, which was broadcast on the “Culture” channel.
Maxim Nikulin became director of his father's circus
In addition to working in his father’s circus, Maxim Yuryevich takes part in programs about celebrities and is a member of the jury of circus festivals both in Russia and in Monaco.
Personal life of Nikulin Jr.
Maxim Nikulin’s relationships with women were not easy. He married three times. In his second marriage, he had a daughter, Maria (1981), and in his third, sons Yuri (1986) and Maxim (1988).
Yuri Nikulin with grandchildren Yuri and Maxim
Today, the children of Nikulin Jr. have already started their own families. Everyone, except Maria, lives in Russia and often meets in the family circle.
Circus
In 1993, a tragedy occurred at the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard - commercial director Mikhail Sedov was killed, and Yuri Nikulin asked his son to help sort out financial issues. Maxim Yuryevich agreed to work in his free time for free to help a relative. But the case held Nikulin, and a year later, after resigning from television, the journalist officially took up his post.
Posted by Our Parents on Monday, October 13, 2014
Maxim Nikulin with his wife Maria
Father and son worked together for 4 years until the death of Nikulin Sr. In 1997, Maxim Yuryevich took over the post of general director and artistic director of the Moscow Nikulin Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. In an interview, the artistic director shared that after the death of Yuri Vladimirovich it was not easy - patrons and patrons of the arts immediately disappeared, and most importantly, the audience. But the institution restored its former glory largely thanks to the efforts of the heirs.
In 2014, Nikulin’s biography was replenished with a new irreparable loss: his mother Tatyana Nikolaevna died. With Nikulina’s departure, Maxim Yuryevich remained the eldest in the circus family.
Maxim, grandson - tour organizer
Yuri Nikulin’s youngest grandson, Maxim, is 31 years old, and he also devotes all his time to the circus, into which his grandfather put his whole soul. Maxim organizes the troupe’s tours; he is married and has a 2-year-old daughter, Anya.
Both Yuri and Maxim warmly remember their great grandfather, never tired of repeating: Yuri Vladimirovich was an amazingly modest and unpretentious person, kind and cheerful.
This is how he was remembered by his grandchildren, who continued the work of their grandfather. Even though none of them became artists, nevertheless, thanks to their work, the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard lives and develops.
Perhaps the genes of the unique actor Yuri Nikulin will appear in one of his great-grandchildren? How do you think?
Personal life
Nikulin’s personal life was not easy. The first time Maxim married a school friend in his youth, but a year later the lovers divorced.
The second time he registered a relationship in the early 80s, the couple immediately had a daughter, Masha. But in 1984 the marriage broke up. This time the breakup turned out to be painful; the journalist was grieving the separation from his wife, who disappeared after taking the child. Nikulin saw his daughter 20 years later, when the grown-up Masha came from Germany to Moscow to undergo kidney surgery - heredity took its toll.
The third time Maxim was in no hurry. Having met Maria in a common company, the correspondent for a long time did not decide on a serious relationship. The newlyweds began living together in the Nikulins’ apartment on Bronnaya and got married only when their first child, Yuri, was born.
Posted by Our Parents on Monday, October 13, 2014
Maxim Nikulin with his sons Yuri and Maxim
After the birth of her second son, Maxim, Maria Stanislavovna created a linguistic school, which she directed for a long time. Then Nikulin’s wife switched to the tourism business, simultaneously serving as economic director at a design institute.
The younger offspring graduated from the production department of the Moscow Art Theater School and now work at the Circus on Tsvetnoy: the eldest took up marketing, and the youngest is responsible for foreign tours.
Son Sergei chose a companion named Anastasia, and in 2009 the couple gave their parents a grandson, Stanislav. In 2015, Sophia was born, and 2 years later, Maxim and his wife Tatyana pleased the Nikulins by giving birth to a girl, Anna.
The eldest daughter of Maxim Yuryevich lives in the German city of Munich with her husband Dominic, who is involved in the insurance business. The couple is raising two more great-granddaughters of the famous clown - Victoria and Valentina. Maria works as a neurosurgeon. Nikulin’s children are friends with each other, and the sons often visit their sister.
Family
Today Maxim Nikulin is happily married, although he was married three times. The first time was at the age of 18, but exactly a year later he was already divorced. Then there was a second marriage, in which a daughter, Maria, was born (born in 1981), and this did not save the family from divorce. Then there was a marriage with Maria Nikulina, who bore him two sons - Yura and Maxim. In 2009, his grandson Stanislav Yuryevich Nikulin was born.
On October 26, 2014, Tatyana Nikolaevna Nikulina died at the age of 85.
There is probably not a single person who lived in the former USSR who would not know the surname Nikulin, since it still carries a charge of the joy of laughter and kindness. These are warm memories, impressions and a real “hello” from childhood.
Maxim Nikulin now
Without forgetting about traditions, Maxim Yuryevich does not stand still and often updates his numbers and looks for new approaches. The artistic director invested a lot of effort and money in a joint show with Italian artists, but plans had to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that the events were cancelled, Nikulin continued to allocate money for the maintenance of people and animals, including foreign ones. Following the behests of his father, the director could not refuse the actors who asked to stay in Russia until the situation in Italy improved.
Maxim Yuryevich made every effort to ensure that the circus recovered. In April 2021, on the occasion of World Circus Day, a new grand show was held in the building on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
After the premiere, the director almost immediately went to Monaco, where he lives with his wife. It is worth noting that the ability to create connections seems to have been inherited, since the couple received citizenship of the principality without difficulty thanks to their friendship with Princess Stephanie.
Choice
Maxim Nikulin mentioned in one of his interviews that when he was still in elementary school, he was admitted to the hospital and his life was in danger. Doctors were not sure that the boy would survive, since his kidney was cut out. At this time, the father was on tour, amusing people to tears, and in his free moments he ran out to the phone and called home to find out what was wrong with his son.
Today Maxim is not offended by the fact that journalists often ask him about his famous father more than about himself. He is convinced that as long as a person is remembered, he is alive. Maxim was born in the “circus sawdust”, but did not immediately connect his life with the circus. Nikulin Maxim Yuryevich did not become either a circus performer or an actor, because he understood that people would associate him with his father. And he had no desire for publicity, and he chose the profession of journalist on the advice of a friend.
