鲍里斯·斯捷潘采夫，Boris Stepantsev was one of the best directors of Russian animation of the Soviet era. Everyone in Russia cannot but remember and enjoy his eternal animated cartoon masterpieces about Carlson, Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom and the Nutcracker.Boris Pavlovich Stepantsev was born on 7 December 1929 in Moscow. After graduating the Animators’ Courses at the Soyuzmultfilm Studio in 1946 he took part in filming of Vesely ogorod (Fun Garden) (1947), Slon i muravei (The Elephant and the Ant) (1948), Seraya sheika (The Grey Neck) (1948), Lev i zayats (The Lion and the Hare) (1949), Polkan & Shavka (1949), Tsarevna Lyagushka (Princess Frog) (1953), Neobyknovenny match (The Unusual Match) (1955). As a production designer he worked on Na lesnoi estrade (At a Forest Variety Stage) and Opasnaya shalost' (The Dangerous Prank) (1954). From 1954 he worked as an animated cartoon film director. Till 1961 he worked jointly with the director Yevgeny Raikovsky.Modern wonder tale, with classical plotlines’ heroes finding themselves in the present days, and vice versa, played an important role in the creativity of Boris Stepantsev. A tint of eccentricity is inherent in his animation stories Petya i krasnaya shapochka (Petya and the Little Red Riding Hood) (1958) (awarded with the First Prize at the Ancey International Film Festival, France, and Prize at the All-Union Film Festival in Kiev) and Vovka v Tridevyatom tsarstve (Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom) (1965). In the same vein he created the animation Murzilka na sputnike (Murzilka on a Satellite), the first widescreen Soviet animated cartoon (1960; Prize of the XII Karlovy Vary International Film Festival).In animations by Boris Stepantsev there was always room for jokes, unexpected tricks, and absurd situations. Thus, in Petya and the Little Red Riding Hood the boy gets into argument with a loudspeaker and the Grandma trips up the Wolf. Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom is jam-packed with sparkling apt gags, in many ways thanks t