The Tragic And Ridiculous Story of the Berberovs, a Soviet Family Who Raised Pet Lions at Home
The Berberov family’s story is a peculiar and tragic chapter in the history of Soviet Baku (modern-day Azerbaijan), where an architect’s passion for wild animals led to an unimaginable living arrangement — sharing their home with pet lions. The decision to raise lions in a small, 100-square-metre apartment would have extraordinary consequences for Lev Berberov, his wife Nina, their children Eva and Roman, and ultimately the Soviet public, who would come to learn of the bizarre and fateful events that unfolded in the 1970s.
Lev Lvovich Berberov, an architect by profession, had always nurtured a deep love for wild animals. This passion led the Berberov family to keep a variety of creatures in their modest apartment, including cats, dogs, parrots, hedgehogs, raccoons, snakes, a wolf, and even a puma. But it was the summer of 1970 that truly set their story on a course of notoriety.
Nina and Eva Berberov, while visiting a local zoo, stumbled upon a sickly lion cub, “a pitiful gray rolled-up ball” in one of the enclosures. The sight of the ailing animal moved them, and with the zoo director’s permission, the family brought the cub home. They named him King, and thus began an extraordinary effort to nurse the lion back to health.
Photographer and family friend Vladimir Alekseyev recalled, “They coddled King with hot-water bottles and fed him all kinds of concoctions from a feeding bottle. Initially, the lion cub’s forepaws did not function at all. So they took turns massaging them for days. Gradually, the lion started walking, but this physical defect stayed with him for life.” Despite his physical challenges, King thrived under their care and even became something of a local sensation.
The Berberovs modified their apartment to accommodate the growing lion, fencing the balcony with mesh to create a safe space for King to enjoy fresh air. In addition to his balcony strolls, King was regularly taken for walks in the local park.
“Sometimes, when he got bored alone, he would come into our bedroom with my husband, climb onto the bed, push me or Leva off it, lie on his back with his stomach up and fall asleep with a sound sleep,”
Nina Berberova later said in an interview. “In the morning, I woke up with everyone, had breakfast, and played with the children. They dragged him by the moustache, rode like a horse: they could do anything with him, he was not offended by anything and never snapped.”
It wasn’t long before King’s story caught the attention of the press, both domestically and internationally. Articles were written about the lion and his unusual living situation, and television programmes covered the spectacle of a lion living in an urban Soviet apartment. King’s fame even led to a short-lived career in cinema, with the lion appearing in films such as Lion Left House, A Boy, a Girl, and a Lion, and The Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia. These successes prompted Lev Berberov to leave his job as an architect and attempt a new role as King’s agent and producer.
However, living with a lion came at a cost, particularly for the Berberovs’ neighbours, who were not at ease sharing their building with a wild animal. “I would return home from work but couldn’t get any peace and quiet,” neighbour Alexander Krivenko complained in the early 1970s. “The lion roared so loudly that the dishes rattled… Sometimes the lion would throw himself against the wall with a roar and plaster would come off our wall from the impact. But the worst thing was the smell and the fur. The stench was so bad that I felt like throwing up all the time.”
Despite such complaints, the family continued to live with King until tragedy struck in 1973. During the filming of The Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia, the Berberovs and King were staying in a school building in Leningrad (modern Saint Petersburg). One morning, a local man, Valentin Markov, approached the gymnasium where the lion was being housed and began jumping to attract the animal’s attention. King mistook this behaviour as an invitation to play, broke through the window, and pounced on the man. A police officer who responded to the scene shot King multiple times, killing the lion on the spot.
The loss of King was a devastating blow to the family, but Lev Berberov, undeterred by the tragedy, insisted on acquiring another lion. In defiance of his wife’s misgivings, the family adopted a second lion cub, King II, from the Kazan Zoo. Though healthier and stronger than his predecessor, King II lacked the affectionate and docile temperament of King I. Nina Berberova observed the difference, noting, “Our new family member was different from King I. We saved the life of King I therefore he was kind to us. But King II is more demanding and independent.”
This growing tension took on new dimensions in 1978 when Lev Berberov died of a heart attack. Without her husband’s presence, Nina found it increasingly difficult to manage King II, particularly as she struggled with financial hardships. “King II considered Lev Lvovich as a leader, but after his death, I was left alone with two children, a lion, a cougar, and other animals. King was looking for his leader and when he found his belongings, he sniffed them and laid down on guard,” she remembered.
The situation would soon turn catastrophic. On 24 November 1980, Nina returned home from work to find King II acting strangely, agitated by an unusual smell from outside. As soon as Nina entered the room, King II attacked. Roman, Nina’s 14-year-old son, attempted to flee, but the lion caught him, killing him instantly by tearing off his scalp and breaking his neck. The police were called and responded swiftly, shooting and killing King II. Nina was found unconscious at the scene and was only informed of her son’s death after waking up in the hospital.
The loss of Roman plunged Nina into a deep depression. “Doctors miraculously saved me. I lost my son, whom I loved madly. After the incident, I was thinking about suicide,” she later recounted. In the months that followed, her daughter Eva and a family friend, actor Kyazim Abdullaev, helped Nina recover. The two eventually married, and Nina gave birth to two more children. Reflecting on the tragic events, Nina expressed a complex sense of guilt and sorrow.
“We no longer keep wild animals in our house, only dogs, cats, and parrots. I do not hate King II. He was an animal, not a human, and he did not understand what you were doing. I just can’t forgive myself for not being able to protect my son, Roman.”
The Berberovs’ story, tragic and absurd in equal measure, stands as a cautionary tale of the dangers of bringing wild animals into domestic spaces. What began as a family’s compassionate attempt to care for an ailing lion evolved into a story of notoriety, loss, and unimaginable sorrow. Despite the brief fame that came with their unusual pets, the legacy of the Berberovs’ lions is forever marked by the violent deaths of both the animals and their beloved son, Roman.
