Vyacheslav Ivanovich “Slava” Polunin PAR is a Russian performance artist and clown. He is the creator of the stage spectacles Asisyai-revue, Slava's Snowshow and Diabolo, as well as the founder of the Academy of Fools.

People's Artist of the Russian Federation, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation, all outstanding in the performing arts, whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts.