'Cancel subculture' reaches Russia: Legacy of Cheburaska creator beneath hazard after daughter's accusations of violence & abuse

"A home tyrant." this is how Tatyana Uspenskaya describes her late father Eduard, optimum frequent as the creator of Cheburashka. She wants his identify removed from a babies's literature prize, and the row has Russians enthralled.

It raises questions on how a society may still treat a cultural huge, as soon as their legacy has been tarnished with the aid of accusations of private transgressions. The story has parallels with Western battles over the music of Michael Jackson, the comedy of Louis CK, and the movies of Woody Allen.

In an open letter, Uspenskaya, accuses her father of committing domestic violence throughout his grownup lifestyles. Uspensky, who died in 2018, became a admired Russian little ones's author, and turned into these days honored through having the 'big Fairytale' prize for babies's literature named after him. Uspenskaya wrote to the creators of the award, the Russian State children's Library, asking them to eradicate her father's identify from the prize. so far, they've refused.

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for those who grew up in the u.s. and later almost all Russians, the work of Eduard Uspensky is synonymous with childhood. The prolific writer and poet created the characters Cheburashka and Gena the Crocodile, both of whom had been on Soviet and Russian screens for five a long time. He also headquartered the lengthy-operating television program good night, little ones, a mattress-time display for children, which has been perpetually broadcast on television seeing that 1964. There are barely any Russians alive who haven't been exposed to his work, as both toddlers or parents.

Uspensky's reputation meant that he enjoyed almost established admiration, and the latest accusations come as an outstanding shock to many.

"I suppose that someone who has a state prize named after them should be, first off, kind and moral," Uspenskaya wrote. "My father changed into a really merciless person who committed home violence all through his existence; this was his gadget of relationships within the family."

in response to the writer's daughter, Uspensky dedicated "physical, psychological, emotional violence" against her, her mom (his then wife), his grandchildren, and his babies from a different spouse.

"I trust that the identify of a person who has practiced violence in his family for decades, including towards toddlers, may still no longer be awarded a prize in this kind of humanistic container as little ones's literature," she wrote.

In a comply with-up interview with sobesednik.ru, the website which initially posted the letter, Uspenskaya referred to as her father a "home tyrant" and requested, "So, it turns out that any person who has reached a excessive social status can do anything?"

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The accusations don't seem to be the first to taint Uspenky's persona. In 2018, his third spouse, Eleonora Filina, accused him of cheating and "tyranny." Uspensky has additionally come under criticism for his connection to Viktor Stolbun, the notorious leader of a Seventies commune.

the connection between Uspenskaya and her father become under no circumstances repaired, and after his loss of life in 2018 she did not attend his funeral, calling him an "evil man."

regardless of numerous allegations, not all and sundry believes them. The late writer obtained aid from fellow toddlers's leisure figure Yuri Entin, co-screenwriter of the widespread film "The Bremen city Musicians." in keeping with Entin, the words of Uspenskaya volume to "slander."

speaking to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Entin explained that he knew Uspensky "for decades." in keeping with Entin, "there become no tyranny, he simply had a family through which souls didn't agree."

The response on social media has been divided, with some Twitter clients suggesting that Uspensky's own lifestyles is beside the point. "The prize is literary, not Father of the year," one person wrote.

other clients confirmed aid for Tatyana Uspenskaya. "possibly individuals will begin to suppose that not only public affairs are essential, but additionally habits in regularly occurring, and in the domestic," a further user wrote.

despite the accusations, the Russian State toddlers's Library is refusing to lower back down. chatting with the Federal information company, the library's director Maria Vedenyapina explained that the choice to honor Uspensky is totally because of his work.

"When it involves the literary prize, we don't trust own qualities," she explained. according to Vedenyapina, the library is barely bearing in mind the contribution that he made to Russian little ones's literature.

"over the past 50 years he has been the leading storyteller, the heroes of those tales are nevertheless with us."

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