Buratino
Buratino (Russian: Буратино) is the main character of Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's 1936 book "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino", which is based on the 1883 Italian novel "The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi. Buratino originated as a character in the commedia dell'arte. The name "Buratino" derives from the Italian "burattino", which means "wooden puppet" or "doll". The book was published in 1936, and the figure of Buratino quickly became hugely popular among children in the Soviet Union, and remains so in Russia to this day (Buratino is one of the most popular characters of Russian  children's literature). The story has been made into several films, including the animated 1959 film and the live-action 1975 film. Origin. According to Tolstoy, he had read "Pinocchio" as a child, but, having lost the book, he started re-imagining it many years later in an attempt to come up with a series of bedside stories for his own children. The resulting story turned out to be so original and became so loved by the writer's children, that he decided to put it to paper and publish it. Researchers, however, don't tend to find this explanation  plausible, since the first Russian translation of "Pinocchio" didn't appear until Tolstoy was in his mid-twenties. Miron Petrovsky, in his article on the subject, states that the book was based upon a 1924 translation made by (1879-1928) and edited by Tolstoy, who had already removed many of the elements absent in "The Golden Key". Plot. Like Pinocchio, Buratino is a long-nosed wooden puppet. According to the story, he is carved by "Papa Carlo" (the story's version of Geppetto) from a log, and suddenly comes to life. Upon creation, Buratino comes out long-nosed due to  Papa Carlo's sloppy woodworking. Papa Carlo tries to shorten it, but Buratino resists. Papa Carlo then sells his only good jacket in order to buy textbooks for Buratino and sends him to school. However, the boy becomes distracted by an advertisement for a local puppet theater show, and sells his textbooks to buy a ticket to the show. There he befriends other puppets, but the evil puppetmaster "Karabas Barabas" (the story's Mangiafuoco character) wants to destroy him because Buratino disrupted the show. Karabas Barabas releases Buratino after he learns that Papa Carlo's home contains a secret door  for which Karabas has been searching. A Golden Key that Karabas once possessed, but later lost, opens this secret door. Karabas releases Buratino and even gives him five gold coins, asking only that Buratino watch after his father's home and make sure they do not move. The story proceeds to tell of Buratino and his friends' hunt for the Golden Key, and their struggle against the evil Karabas, his loyal friend Duremar, as well as a couple of crooks: Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat (based on The Fox and the Cat), who are after Buratino's coins . After that, the events proceed similarly (although not identically) to Collodi's "Pinocchio" until the scene where the coins are stolen, after which the plots split apart completely. In popular culture. The name Buratino has been and continues to be used as branding for a variety of products and stores marketed to children in Russia and the post-Soviet states — most notable of these are the brand soft drink, which has a caramel taste, and "Golden Key" ("Zolotoy klyuchik") toffee. Buratino is also the nickname of the TOS-1 multiple launch rocket system, due to the big "nose" of the launcher . A location in the story, Поле чудес [в Стране́ Дурако́в], literally "The Field of Wonders [in the Land of Fools]" is used for the Russian adaptation of the Wheel of Fortune game show.