He looks so stoic and handsome in his pictures, and I love seeing his extravagant outfits. Fedor is another person I wish we had color photographs of as I’m sure he looked stunning wearing his brightly colored extravagant clothes. I was already a fan of his prior to doing more research, but now I’m even more of a fan because of his protectiveness over his coworkers and having no hesitation to confront creepy audience members.

Some facts about him:

\-he was born near the town of Manturovo in the Kostroma region of Russia. ( though it’s also been claimed that he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.)

\-he had brown eyes and light brown hair.

\-it appears that his mother placed him in the care of a traveling entrepreneurial showman when he was quite young. 

\-it was through this connection with the showman that he was introduced to Adrian Jeftichew, another Russian performer born with hypertrichosis. Adrian had previously been married and had two children, although all three had passed away before he was introduced to Fedor. The showman felt that both Fedor and Adrian would be more successful if they were presented as being father and son.

\-after several months of presenting themselves as father and son, Adrian formally adopted Fedor.

\-Fedor’s surname at birth was Petrov, but it was changed to Jeftichew after he was adopted by Adrian.

\-he spoke 4 languages: Russian, English, French, and German.

\-when Fedor and Adrian first started being exhibited together, they sold pitch booklets that told a fictional backstory of their early lives, including a section stating that they were both "wild men" and "missing links" who were discovered living in the forest and who had a diet of berries, seeds, and raw meats.

\-he always dressed very well.

\-he was described as being very intelligent, gentle, and soft spoken.

\-he reportedly had incredibly good posture.

\-Fedor and Adrian made appearances throughout Russia in the 1870s, before being invited to go on tour abroad in 1883.

\-while on tour, Fedor performed for Czar Alexander III, as well as French, British, and Italian royalty.

\-hypertrichosis is a rare condition (that can be congenital, though occasionally it can also be acquired later in life through certain medication side effects or illness). Fedor had his hair growth from birth.

\-a common comorbitity of hypertrichosis is a lack of teeth and it's reported that Fedor only had 4.

\-it was described that Fedor always had a smile on his face.

\-he and Adrian first traveled to the United States in 1884, where Fedor began working for P.T. Barnum.

\-he was given a different “wild man” backstory while working for Barnum, which included a bit where Barnum instructed Fedor to run around the stage on all fours while barking.

\-he made as much as $500 a week during the 1880s.

\-He was an avid reader.

\-he loved eating chowder and once bought out an entire restaurant’s day supply while touring through Idaho in 1887, said chowder had to be delivered to him in a large beer keg.

\-he went on tour in Australia in 1889, and performed alongside Martin Harlow (aka Unzie.)

\-he was very well liked by his coworkers.

\-his performances often started with a lecture about his life.

\-a life sized wax figure of him was made during his lifetime and put on display at a dime museum he had once worked at.

\-he typically wore extravagant costumes during his performances, which were oftentimes described by the newspapers. He was noted for wearing a particular set of blue velvet trousers and coats.

\-he reportedly got into a fight with an audience member at a dime museum he was working at in 1897 in Bangor, Maine. It was said that Fedor had a crush on one of his coworkers, Madame Marguerite, who worked as a psychic/fortune teller. On one of the nights Fedor was working, he saw an audience member leering at Marguerite, and despite the man being told to leave, he didn’t leave and Fedor went over and kicked the man.

\-it’s reported that he started sending letters to the Russian Consulate, in order to check in on his mother in the late 1890s.

\-he accidentally missed a 4th of July sideshow performance in Kansas in 1903 that he was supposed to be a part of when the train he was on had to stop due to flooding that been going on in the area. 

\-he was traveling through Greece in 1904, when he came down with pneumonia. Unfortunately, he didn’t recover and he passed away soon after. He was 35 years old.

I wish he had been able to recover from his illness, 35 is so young, and I’m sure there were so many things he wanted to accomplish. I hope he was at least able to see his mother one last time before he passed away, I think it’s very sweet that he did what he could to keep in touch with her. I’m also glad that he had a good father figure in Adrian. Ultimately, I hope that he had a lot of happiness in his life.

Fedor Jeftichew (1868-1904) was a Russian sideshow performer who was born with hypertrichosis. He spoke 4 languages, and was reportedly very soft spoken and gentle (except for one time when he got in a fight with a creepy audience member). He was also an avid reader and loved eating chowder.