Ilya Gavrichenko had to say his lines dressed as the wrong Joseph (Picture: YouTube)

Fluffing up your lines is normally the biggest mistake a child makes during their school nativity.

But one 12-year-old went a step further and fluffed up his entire character.

Ilya Gavrichenko went home and told his parents that he had landed the role of Joseph Stalin.


They got him a uniform and moustache to make him look like the former Soviet Dictator and he looked the part.

However, on the day of the play at a school in St Petersburg, Russia, the mistake was realised, but it was too late.

They should have dressed him up as Joseph of Nazareth. With no replacement outfit ready, the boy said the show must go on and went out on stage in his military-style outfit.



MORE: ‘Abusive drunks in hospitals should be arrested’, says leading doctor

Easy mistake? Joseph of Nazareth (L) and Joseph Stalin (Picture: Getty)

‘We even got him a perfect moustache,’ his dad Fedor said. ‘We were all ready for him to be a success.’

Despite most other parents finding the incident hilarious, Fedor had sympathy for his son.

He added: ‘Each time he went out on stage, the mothers were in hysterics, crying and yowling from somewhere under their chairs.

‘My son was lost because of mixing up the part he was playing, and feeling guilty for having done so.’

MORE: Pensioner ‘used zimmer frame to hit rooommate and threatened to kille her’

MORE: Facebook apologises for grief caused by Year-in-Review posts