Creator of the Soviet Union's version of Winnie-the-Pooh, Fyodor Khitruk, dies in Moscow
MOSCOW - Fyodor Khitruk, the creator of the Soviet Union's animated version of A.A. Milne's classic Winnie-the-Pooh tales, has died in Moscow. He was 95.
The Russian Animated Film Association said in a statement on its website on Monday that Khitruk died Monday morning at his home in Moscow. The date of the funeral has yet to be set.
The three much-loved Soviet cartoons of Vinni-Pukh, as Winnie the Pooh is known in Russia, were made between 1969 and 1972 and continue to be aired frequently on television to this day.
Along with Yuri Norshtein, whose 1975 "Hedgehog in the Fog" remains a cult classic, Khitruk has been credited as a leading innovator in the history of Soviet animation.
