Since Soviet times, these humble hand puppets have lead Russian children into primordial explorations of morals, codes of behavior, and neuroses. Filya the dog, Hrusha the piglet, Stepashka the baby rabbit, and Karkusha the crow (not pictured, fondly remembered) came to many of us on a nightly television program Good Night, Little Ones! They hopped around, talked and did stuff - then there was a cartoon! Though the actual adventures of our talking-animal friends have faded from memory, we know that each one was special, with its own traits, dreams, and personality disorders.

Since 1964, there had been many changes at Good Night, Little Ones! The fifteen-minute show had on and off the air, hired increasingly attractive human hosts and alternated the intro clip style from claymation to cartoon to crazier cartoon to computer animation, though usually keeping the psychedelic motif of the morphing moon crescent. Then there was that warm, authoritative tone of it all - when "all people must sleep at night" is sung by a pleasant man as a clay bed-shaped pendulum swings rhythmically, you just know it's true. With all the changes to the puppet cast - close to twenty different characters dropped by over the years - the piglet-doggy-rabbit-crow quartet is surely the most endearingly iconic.

Filya was quite two-dimensional - a blunt and highly disciplined puppy, like a fluffy little policeman. He operated on a rigid code of ethics and barked out sound text-book advice.

Stepashka, the obedient rabbit and Brezhnev's favorite, was the cleverest of them all and served as an example of a good little boy who never got in trouble and always knew to do the right thing. He was also charmingly effeminate, but we won't speculate on that.

The constant antagonist was, of course, the piglet Hrusha. This raspy-voiced little bastard never missed a chance to fuck things up for everybody. Malicious and misadventurous, the pink token bad boy would be reprimanded by Filya, reasoned with by Stepashka and return to his antics by the next episode.

Karkusha the crow was added to the show for some female representation. A wise little bird she was, however, unlike the other characters, she spoke only in her own crow language - "caw caw caw!" Well said, comrade. Way to cheer up the boys.

Our puppet friends stayed young and chipper, even if their child disciples grew up bitter and wistful. Thanks to CGI, Hrusha and Stepashka themselves eventually evolved into awkward adults Hrun and Stepan for a satirical show called Turn Off the Light! where they discuss political issues. Meanwhile, the baby animal puppets infiltrated pop culture and those winding Russian jokes Americans never get, like the one about Hrusha avenging Piglet's death at the meat store with an AK-47. And so, the creatures have forever lodged themselves in our collective memory. Show producers must have implanted some funky mind-control effect in the theme song too, because every time I hear it, my eyes get all sticky.

Hrusha fucks with Stepashka's OCD on Good Night, Little Ones!
Turn Off The Light! Hrun and Stepan talk Inflation
The first episode of Good Night, Little Ones!