Animated Soviet Propaganda

A political film-poster made in the first months after the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Sound track is from the popular march “Our Armor Is Strong and Our Tanks Are Fast.” Vocals by the Alexandrov Ensemble.

Fascist invaders portrayed as vultures. Original sound was not found.

Four animated shorts from World War II. “A Mighty Handshake” is the only animated propaganda film in this series which shows a capitalist country in a positive light – in this case British and Soviet soldiers cooperate in the war against the Nazis.

Animated WWII propaganda newsreel.

This animated "political poster" grants "no mercy for Hitler's bloodthirsty sharks," which are depicted prowling international waters to sneakily "bite" Allied ships from beneath.

Animated WWI propaganda newsreel.

Animated propaganda newsreel about the WWII alliance of the Soviet Union and Great Britain.

One of a handful of animated short “political posters” that survived World War II, this one ridicules Hitler and his cronies. The master of ceremonies is a caricature of the USSR’s most famous clown, Karandash, whose name means pencil in Russian.

An animated history of the city of Moscow, including the Nazi invasion, made to honor of the city’s 800th anniversary.

Based on “Blond Aryan Beast,” a story by L. Lagin. A Child is found in the wilderness of West Germany, living with wolves. He is captured and trained by ex-Nazis.

An anti-war film about the ability of individuals to prevent war.

Boy scouts and girl scouts, known as Pioneer Pens, defy German forces occupying their village by flying a Soviet flag over Nazi headquarters. Captured as partisans, they are rescued by the Red army.

A Nazi soldier tries to force a young Soviet boy scout to play a German song on his violin. Instead he defiantly plays the [then] Soviet national anthem, “The International,” and is shot by the Nazi.

Based on caricatures by Boris Yefimov, who is interviewed in Part 4 of the series. This film was made in reaction to “revanchism” – fear that Germany would reunite and seek revenge on Europe and the USSR for World War II. A disguised Nazi slips into the US zone of divided Germany. The Americans nurse him back to health as he plots how to reunite the Fatherland. His plans are ruined when he runs headlong into the Berlin Wall, erected by the USSR between East and West Berlin in 1961.

World War II left Soviet children without fathers and grandfathers. Vasilok searches everywhere for his grandfather, and finally discovers he was a war hero, so famous a ship was named for him.

Made to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Germans. The film won second prize at the XXII Leipzig Festival of Films for Children. In a German concentration camp Russian prisoners fashion a Don Quixote doll from a bit of metal. It becomes their symbol of hope. The lyrical film is bracketed with references to the Spanish Civil War, which led to decades of authoritarian rule by Generalissimo Franco, and the 1973 coup d’etat in Chile which toppled the socialist, pro-Soviet regime of Salvadore Allende. (“Clear skies” was the codeword which launched Franco’s 1936 coup, supported by the fascist governments of Italy and Germany and opposed by the USSR and France).