The Mystery of the Short Fingered Tightrope Walker
Most people wouldn’t recognize the name Sofia Vladmink, but those Truthahol readers familiar with the exciting 1950’s tightrope walking scene know her as the most balanced of all funambulists of the period. She was the Russian athlete who managed to overcome the loss of all her fingers at the first knuckle to conquer every high wire and the feats of performers half her age. Sofia’s rise to fame in 1951 at the International Funambulism Conference is well documented in every complete tightrope history, and her tragic affair with the American gymnast, Isaac Cohen, was covered thoroughly in the cheaper newspapers, but sufficient explanation has never been given to her missing fingers and thumbs. The official, Soviet, story, claims Sofia lost the tips of every finger on both hands to frostbite as a child growing up in Siberia. However, cases of polydigit-frostbite in the hands are uncommon—and almost unheard of with both hands. A more sinister explanation is likely.
Sofia’s parents both lived in Leningrad until 1934, and recently released Soviet files list both Vladmink parents as prisoners in The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies, more commonly known as the Gulag. Not surprisingly, adequate records of Sofia’s parents, Akim and Lana Vladmink, cease at this point, but it stands to reason they lived and died in the Gulag like thousands of others. While frostbite was a common occurrence in every Gulag prison, those in Siberia experienced up to three to four times the occurrence—and frostbite of the feet was six times more likely in the more rural camps. This may seem circumstantial, until we realize that not one photograph of Sofia Vladmink’s feet has ever been printed or reported to exist. For a tightrope walker, the toes play a key role in balance. The loss of even one toe can play havoc on a walker’s sense of balance; The American tightrope walker, Bobby Fenbrek, experienced a near-fatal fall while attempting to perform only weeks after losing his left pinkie to cancer. The loss of a toe, or toes, even to a young walker, would destroy her career. Recently, a Russian expatriate in New York contacted Truthahol concerning the recently discovered diaries of his father. This source, who requested he remain anonymous, has forwarded Truthahol sections of these diaries, written by a surgeon working for the Soviet party’s Athletic Section, charged with keeping the Funambulism Wing in fit condition. During December of 1947, he records a surgery in which a female athlete’s fingers were shortened, and the severed tips sewn onto her feet to replace missing toes. Certainly this patient was Sofia Vladmink; the surgery explains both her missing knuckles and the strange lack of photos showing her feet. It seems that the Soviet Party discovered a promising tightrope walker raised in the Gulag, but needed to restore her toes to make her an international sensation and bring boasting rights to the Communist machine. Sofia’s death in a malfunctioning elevator in 1954, after dominating tightrope walking for only three short years, was the sporting tragedy of the decade. The real culprit, however, is not the negligent elevator manufacture, but a society that values athletic performance over unnecessary and dangerous surgery.