Ivan Lazarevich Filatov , circus director in Russia Born 1873 dead 1956 . Ivan Filatov ran balagans and traveling circuses and is founder of of Zootsirkov, the zoological park system of the U.S.S.R. Ivan Filatov and his wife Taisia Yakovlevna (grotesque rider) had 13 children, two of them continued the circus dynasty - Maria Ivanovna Filatova (married to Kornilov) and Valentin Filatov (1920-1979).