For decades, the Soviet Union appropriated not only Western technological achievements, but also the best examples of world children's literature. About 90% of the so-called “Soviet classics” actually turned out to be banal borrowings that were subject to strict censorship and ideological processing.

Original stories by foreign authors were mercilessly trimmed, imbued with militarism and deprived of religious or humanistic overtones. Vivid images were used as bait to instill in young readers approval of the occupation of territories and the rejection of freedom of choice. A striking example of such manipulation was the story of a wooden boy who was turned into a Soviet idol.. Until 1974, the Soviet Union ignored international copyright agreements, considering Western intellectual property a legitimate " As Osvitoriya notes, in order to adapt world masterpieces to communist narratives, three main methods were used:.

Carlo Collodi, creating The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883, was inspired by the real tragic fate of a veteran of the Italian War of Independence - Pinocchio Sanchez. This man returned from the front without legs and arms, with a disfigured face. The brilliant surgeon Carlo Bestulgi made wooden prosthetics for him, and Sanchez, overcoming hellish pain, performed in the circus as a “living doll”, performing complex gymnastic tricks.

Collodi's tale has become a deep Christian and moral parable about how to become a real person through trials, work and overcoming selfishness.. At the end of the novel, Pinocchio doesn’t just have fun - he studies hard for a year, takes care of his sick father, gives all his savings to the treatment of the good Fairy, and only thanks to work and mercy turns into a real boy..

Alexei Tolstoy, having returned from emigration to the USSR, decided to create a Soviet copy of the Italian fairy tale called “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio” (1936). However, Tolstoy completely changed the meaning of the work, removing the moral development of the character. Pinocchio does not change throughout the book: he remains a braggart, an ignorant and a hooligan who protests against the basic rules of etiquette and education.

In the original tale by Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio is often called not by his name, but by the general word "

The main differences between the Soviet adaptation: The absurdity of the Soviet approach was emphasized by the very first film adaptation of the fairy tale. In the film finale, the dolls are taken away on a flying ship by Soviet polar explorers - the then symbol of expansion and conquest of new territories of the Arctic. This perfectly summed up the main Soviet message: there is no need to study or work on yourself, it is enough to capture new territory, overcome a conditional enemy, and happiness will come by itself.