Yablonovskiy’s parents and grandparents moved to America in 1997. They moved to a neighborhood in South Brooklyn called Sheepshead Bay (also sometimes referred to as “Little Odessa”). His ancestors were Ukrainian Jews that fled due to persecution. During the war time his granddad was relocated to Central Asia and then helped the war effort. Yablonovskiy’s parents wanted to share Russian culture and ideals with him. So he grew up watching a cartoon called “Nu Pogodi,” which was essentially a USSR version of Tom and Jerry with propaganda (according to Yablonovsskiy). “Nu Pogodi!” portrayed life in the Soviet Union as very rich and full of culture, which was meant to promote communist ideas.
I also live in Sheepshead Bay (the area near here is still referred to “Little Odessa”). I also watched “Nu Pogodi!” a lot as a child, but I didn’t notice as much propaganda as Yablonovskiy claims. His point about the cartoon portraying Soviet life as very rich to promote communism is correct, but that’s about it. I don’t think there is really anything more to it than that. It’s mostly just slapstick comedy. Fun fact: the the show only had about 10~20 episodes as it was canceled at some point (many people speculate that it was due to portraying Volk and Zaiyats cross-dressing on multiple occasions, which alluded to homosexuality which was a big no-no). Also his point about Soviet “Vinni Pukh” being a rip-off of American “Winnie the Pooh” is completely invalid as the Soviet one came out earlier (1969) than the American one (1977). Overall, Yablonovskiy’s argument was really a stretch, but the things he talked about hit very close to my heart and were very nostalgic.