[2] The clown act was enormously popular, but often banned or censored due to its satirical political content.
Yakov Peters in his memoirs mentions an episode when some Chekists saw them mocking the Soviets and tried to arrest them on the scene.
The public at first thought that this was part of the sketch, until clowns ran as real shots were fired.
[5] In Andrew and Gordievsky's history of the KGB in 1990,[6] Bim Bom is identified as an individual (not a pair), who had been shot at by Cheka operatives during a performance in Moscow in 1918.
Bim Bom is mentioned in the 2007 documentary, "Russian Revolution In Colour", but the reference in the film is inaccurate.