Crow Gosha's owner Alexander Chugainov dies at 29
Alexander saved the crow, and the bird grew attached to him.
Today, residents of Perm Krai (the Kama region) said farewell to a 29-year-old blogger who became known for rescuing and taming a crow. Alexander Chugainov created and grew social media accounts for his bird — they are followed by millions of people.
The crow grew up affectionate, like many domestic pets.
The blog«s story began in May 2020, when Alexander was walking in a forest after a thunderstorm and found a small crow chick under a fallen tree. The chick was about two weeks old and likely would not have survived without human help. Alexander took it home, nursed it back to health and named it Gosha.
Alexander taught Gosha to perform various commands.
At first the man planned to get the bird back on its feet and release it, but the crow grew strongly attached to him. Alexander built an enclosure for Gosha, began walking with him every day and teaching him commands. He started filming their sessions and posting the videos on social media.
Gosha«s popularity came thanks to TikTok. Clips featuring the unusual pet quickly went viral, and in December of that same year the crow appeared on Channel One (Pervy Kanal). By 2021 his account had gained about a million followers.
Gosha learned to distinguish colors and objects, perform dozens of commands, fetch things, play tic-tac-toe and solve puzzles. The crow also helped Alexander with household chores — for example, chopping wood and bringing back wood chips.
Over time, Gosha became known far beyond Perm Krai. In 2023 the crow appeared in the fantasy film Ognivo («Flint»), and in 2024 his YouTube channel reached a million subscribers.
Today the «Voron TV» Instagram* account has a million followers, TikTok has 2.6 million, the VKontakte group has 62,000 members, and almost 5,000 people follow the Telegram channel. The last Instagram video was posted on July 25 — it shows crow Gosha hunting a grasshopper. On August 13 Alexander made his last post on Telegram, publishing a video in which he shows how he is improving his plot of land and talks about plans to build a cabin in the forest.
«After the 19th, Goshka and I will go to the forest — I think on August 20 or 21. And we»ll stay there for a week. I think he«ll really enjoy flying free there,» the young man said.
On August 21, a post appeared in the «Nekrolog — Lysva» («Obituary — Lysva») VKontakte community saying that Alexander had died on August 19, with a farewell ceremony to be held on the 22nd. The author of the post was Alexei Chugainov, and commenters on social media say he was his brother.
Speaking to 59.RU, Alexei declined to disclose the cause of his brother«s death. He also said the family does not yet know what will happen to crow Gosha.
«He was a great guy, he helped raise my bird too. He and his bird are a true treasure of our country,» and «Bright memory to Sasha, a wonderful person, rare and warm-hearted... Very sad, condolences to his family,» Alexander«s acquaintances wrote under the post about the farewell.
The 59.RU editorial team also offers its condolences to Alexander«s loved ones.
* Instagram is owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia.
