Pre-Statement
Statement of Yuri Utkin, regarding an incident in the Russian village of Algasovo in November 1952.
Case Number
9790203
Audio By
Author
Date of Statement
1979-03-02
Date of Event
1952-11
Date of Recording
1997-04-15
Locations
- Algasovo, Russia
Meta Info
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Release Date
2016-12-22
Statement
Yuri Utkin loved the circus when he was a boy, but lived in a poor village where the circus did not tour. Every year, his father would take him and his brother Ivan on a trip to Morshansk to see the government-run circus. Yuri loved watching the clowns, but felt uncomfortable watching the acrobats after witnessing a childhood friend, Piotr, fall and break his leg very badly.
In early November 1952, a strange new circus came to the village, calling itself другой Цирк (English: Another Circus/The Different Circus). Although Yuri’s father was initially suspicious, he agreed to take his two children to the circus after he realised much of the village would be attending. As they approached the gate, they met a woman in a leotard that spoke strangely and who was unaffected by the cold. A calliope organ could be heard playing and Ivan ran past the gate in excitement.
Yuri heard a tiger roar as he entered the circus, and he ran from his father to find it. After locating the tiger he stared at it intensely, noticing that its eyes were glassy and its movements stiff. The tiger roared without opening its mouth and Yuri fell back, only to be picked up by two huge men in overalls. In crude Russian that seemed to flow back and forth between them, they told him that the tiger, “Wasn’t finished” and returned him to his father.
Yuri’s father asked the ringmaster where they might find Ivan and was told that, while the staff would be instructed to keep an eye out for the boy, Ivan had likely wandered off in excitement and would return when the show started. The ringmaster assured the worried man that the circus had yet to lose a child, but as he spoke Yuri was reminded of the strange tiger and resolved to find Ivan himself. During his search he came across a smaller tent with a sign written in English, likely reading “Freakshow.” There, he saw many impossibly deformed people standing silently in cages. At the end of the tent, he found a large, rough sack tied with coarse rope. As the Calliope started to play to signal the start of the show, the bag began to writhe and Yuri fled to the main tent.
Inside the tent, he found a crowd of Algasovo residents, including his father, cheering wildly as two clowns brutally attacked each other. Looking up, he saw Ivan slowing walking the tightrope while crying, terrified. Yuri was sure he would fall with every step, yet was powerless to do anything but watch. Ivan successfully reached the end of the tightrope and disappeared from sight. A moment later, Yuri’s father appeared with Ivan at his side and they left the circus, shaken.
The circus had gone the next morning. For many years Yuri thought the events of that day were a terrible dream, but he spoke to Ivan about it as an adult. His brother could remember the day and going through the gate, but nothing else. Each November he would have nightmares of being tied up in a rough sack and would wake up screaming.
Final Comments
Gertrude remarks that the two brothers were lucky to have only suffered significant mental trauma after their experience, as Gregor Orsinov’s troupe had been particularly dangerous at that time and it was remarkable that the village did not suffer any casualties following their encounter. The troupe had become more tame after Nikolai Denikin left in the 70s and such a tame encounter would have been more likely at that time. She is interested in knowing what Ivan would have been like, but he passed away in 1984.
Supplemental
John is disappointed that there is not more information about why Gertrude started making these tapes, or why she stopped. He also believes that someone has found his supplemental tapes and resolves to find a better hiding place for them in the future.
Continuity
- Nikolai Denikin, The Different Circus, and the Calliope organ were first mentioned in MAG 24 - Strange Music.
- The two men whose words shift between one another are Breekon & Hope. They previously appeared in MAG 2 - Do Not Open and MAG 35 - Old Passages, and were mentioned in MAG 37 - Burnt Offering.
- The large clown beating the other clown in the circus wears the same white and purple polka-dots as the Clown Doll in MAG 24 - Strange Music.
- Related Entity:
- The Stranger
- The Flesh (possibly in the mutilated impossible bodies)
- Related Beings:
- Gregor Orsinov should still be the ringmaster at that time.
- The tiger and other creatures are likely similar to the mechanical birds and mechanical Turk used in The Unknowning (1787).
- Related Artefact:
- The Calliope is an artefact of The Stranger. Yuri does not use the word, “calliope” but rather “steam organ” which may be because he is unknowledgeable about this kind of instrument, having never heard one before. As The Calliope travels with the circus at the time, it is unlikely to be a coincidence.
- Related Episodes:
- MAG 104 - Sneak Preview Danny Stoker, brother of Timothy Stoker, is taken by the Circus of the Other.