[4] At the end of the 19th century, the Canadian illustrator and writer Palmer Cox created a cycle of poems about little people from Scottish folklore known as brownies.

Later the Russian author Anna Hvolson started writing stories based on his drawings about little forest men.

She called the main character, who wore a white tie, had a walking stick and a monocle, "Murzilka".

In 1937, the illustrator Aminadav Kanevsky created the new design of Murzilka – now a yellow furry character in a red beret with a scarf and a camera over his shoulder.

Murzilka started the creative careers of writers such as Samuil Marshak,[1] Sergey Mikhalkov, Elena Blaginina, Boris Zahoder, Agniya Barto, Nikolay Nosov, Marina Uspenskaya, and of artist and writer Georgy Kovenchuk.