The story
Founded by Nikolai Zykov.1
When Zykov was five years old, his parents took him to the Puppet Theatre of Sergey Obraztsov. After the show, Zykov created his own theatre in his house and presented puppet performances for his parents and his younger sister. At that time he did not make puppets by himself. Instead, he took details of toys and inter-connected them with wire.
Zykov began making puppets for his performances in 1977. In 1980, he made his first puppet vignette. In 1985, he created his first solo puppet performance and founded his own professional Nikolai Zykov Theatre.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nikolai Zykov Theatre, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3