The Nationality of Cheburashka Sparked Controversy in the State Duma 0 6

TV presenter Sergey Brilev stated that Cheburashka has Cuban origins. Earlier, State Duma deputy Andrey Makarov expressed the opinion that Cheburashka is Jewish.

In his Telegram channel, TV presenter Sergey Brilev commented on the nationality of the popular character Cheburashka. His comment was made in connection with the discussion surrounding the origin of the animated hero, which even reached "discussion in the State Duma."

Brilev reminded that during the time when the tale was written by Eduard Uspensky, the oranges that Cheburashka arrived with were imported to the USSR from Israel, Morocco, and Cuba.

"Uspensky clearly states that before this, Cheburashka lived in tropical forests. There are none in Israel or Morocco," noted Brilev. According to the journalist, although it is not very clear who Cheburashka is by blood, "he is certainly from Cuba!"

Earlier, the head of the State Duma's budget and tax committee, Andrey Makarov, announced at a State Duma meeting that Cheburashka is Jewish. In Makarov's opinion, oranges were supplied to the Soviet Union exclusively from Israel in the 1960s.

Cheburashka is a character created by writer Eduard Uspensky in 1966 as one of the main characters in the book "Crocodile Gena and His Friends" and its sequels. After the release of the animated film by Roman Kachanov "Crocodile Gena," based on this book in 1969, the character became widely known.

In the original version of the book, he was depicted as a clumsy creature with large (according to other sources, elongated) ears and brown fur, walking on his hind legs. In 1968, puppet theater artist Margarita Skripova-Yasinskaya created a puppet with large ears for performances. The well-known good-natured image of Cheburashka with large ears and big eyes first appeared in the animated film "Crocodile Gena" in 1969 and was created with the direct participation of the film's production designer Leonid Shvartsman.