Doctor Aybolit

[1] In the adaptation the plot was drastically reworked to simplify the perception by little children and this, in addition to accusations in plagiarism, was a subject of "holy wars" in Russian literary circles in 1990s when faithful translations of Doctor Dolittle stories appeared in Russian.

[2] A living prototype of the character was Chukovsky's acquaintance, the Vilnian Jewish physician Zemach Shabad (1864–1935), whom he met in 1912.

Aybolit's antagonist, the evil pirate Barmaley [ru], became an archetypal villain in Russian culture.

(Thanks to you, Aybolit), "Ne hodite, deti, v Afriku gulyat" (Children, don't go to Africa for a stroll).

In 1967 Richard N. Coe published a loose English adaptation in verse entitled Doctor Concocter.