Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was born in Smolensk, in Western Russia, shortly after the end of the Russian civil war . He fought in the Red Army in the Winter War with Finland and the World War II with Germany. In the ring, Nikulin presented a phlegmatic temperament, slow and unsmiling. Because of his rich in mimicry and doleful expression, Nikulin was hailed as “a brainy clown” outside Russia.
Nikulin first took up clowning in 1944 when a political officer in his battalion, impressed by his repertoire of jokes, ordered him to organize entertainment for the division, which he did with resounding success. 
Encouraged, once the war ended, Nikulin tried – without success – to enter drama college. Later he answered a newspaper advertisement recruiting trainees for the clown studio at Moscow’s Tsvetnoy Boulevard Circus.
Nikulin was rejected by several acting schools and theatres, allegedly because of his lack in artistic talent. However, he did find initial success at the circus and qualified as a fully trained clown in 1950. After these years, he never left the circus, where he met his wife, Tatyana. Nikulin became, in 1982, the director of the Moscow Circus, a post he held until his death. But Nikulin family did not leave the circus after the death of Yuri Vladimirovich. Indeed, his son, Maxim, is nowadays the circus administrator.