Masyanya is a popular Russain cartoon, who is famous for his satire and is often compared to South Park and BoJack Horseman for it’s cynical and sarcastic takes on everyday life. The cartoon has been banned by Russian government, and its creator, Oleg Kuvaev, now says he’s in hiding.
The creator says, he finds himself in the midst of an “information storm,” which he is “not used to as an animator.”
The cartoon is named after its nominal character, a Russian woman in her 20s who lives in St. Petersburg. The animated show debuted as a web series in 2001, and later it initiated to be televised across Germany and Russia. The show aired its final episode on March 21 when Roskomnadzor, the federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling, and censoring Russian mass media, imposed a ban on the show.
While Roskomnadzor has blocked the original site where the episodes of Masyanya are uploaded by Kuvaev, the final episode, “Wakizashi,” is still available on YouTube, where it has been watched 2.8 million times.
The show’s final episode is set on Feb. 24, the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, with main character coming home to find her Ukrainian friend Lokhmaty, passed out drunk in her room so that he does not have to watch the news. Hryundel blames Putin’s tyrannical actions on the political apathy of people like Masyanya, who prefer not to discuss politics and allow men like Putin to “swell up.”



















