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Russians named their favorite animal characters from books / Cultural news of Krasnoyarsk and the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Newslab.Ru

Photo of Ashley Davis Ashley Davis29/11/2025
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November 29 12:07

The Liters book service, VTB Bank and the LiveLib recommendation service conducted a study* to find out from users which literary animal characters are their favorite.

According to the survey results, the leader among fairy tale heroes was the fantastic Cheshire Cat (38%) from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The second and third lines are also occupied by fairy-tale cats – the scientist cat (24%) from “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Alexander Pushkin and Puss in Boots (23%) from “The Tales of My Mother Goose” by Charles Perrault.

The top 3 favorite animals from Russian literature once again included characters from the cat family:

  1. the charming cat Matroskin (47%), the hero of Eduard Uspensky’s story “Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat”;

  2. the witty and eloquent Behemoth Cat (43%) from Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita;

  3. a kitten named Woof (37%) from the book of the same name by Grigory Oster.

Rating of favorite animals from foreign literature:

  1. the graceful and wise panther Bagheera (44%) from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book;

  2. Harry Potter's postal owl Hedwig (30%) from JK Rowling's novels about a boy wizard;

  3. again the hero of The Jungle Book, the brave mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (27%).

“Judging by the results of the study, Russians’ favorite animals are cats from fairy tales and classical works. There is not a single dog in the top – not the dog Sharik, not White Bim Black Ear, not Mumu or Kashtanka. The image of a cat in world culture is multifaceted and diverse – he is both a good adviser, endowed with insinuating strength and wisdom, and a servant of evil. Can balance between real and afterlife, be a positive character or evil spirits. While dogs have a different role – to be a loyal friend and reliable ally. They are not distinguished by cunning and sophisticated intelligence, and are more dependent on people than cats,” comments Ekaterina Pisareva, chief editor of the Liters group of companies.

The study was carried out by Liters and VTB as part of a joint project of the companies – supporting the VIII season of the literary award “Electronic Letter – 2025”, where winners will be chosen in two categories: the main one – “Book of the Year” – and a new special nomination for readers – “Voice of the Classics”.

*The survey was conducted in November 2025 among 600+ Russians aged 18-65 in cities with a population of 100 thousand or more. Respondents were asked to answer questions via an online form, and the data were then analyzed. When calculating, all respondents were taken as 100%, and the remaining data were calculated based on this number. Users were offered both ready-made answer options and an “Other” column. They could choose not only one, but also several answer options.