Mikhail Tsekhanovsky facts for kids

Mikhail Mikhailovich Tsekhanovsky (Russian: Михаил Михайлович Цехановский; June 7, 1889 — June 22, 1965) was a talented Russian and Soviet artist. He was a pioneer in animation, a skilled book illustrator, and even a sculptor. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky is known as one of the most important people who helped start and lead the Soviet animation style in Leningrad. He was recognized as a Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR in 1964.

Early Life and Art Training

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky was born in Proskurov, which is now called Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. He came from a noble Russian family. His father, Mikhail Yurievich Tsekhanovsky, was a sugar manufacturer.

Mikhail grew up in Saint Petersburg and went to a very famous school there called the First Saint Petersburg Gymnasium. Only children from noble families could attend this school. He started painting when he was still young. After finishing school, he went to Paris from 1908 to 1910 to learn how to be a sculptor.

When he came back, Mikhail started studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts and also law at Saint Petersburg Imperial University. But he left both when World War I began and moved to Moscow. He then studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, finishing in 1918.

That same year, he joined the 16th Army. He used his artistic skills to create posters and designs that supported the army. He also painted cinemas and clubs, made sculptures, and designed sets for army theaters. From 1920 to 1922, he led an art studio for the Red Army. One of his students was Mikhail Volpin, who later wrote many screenplays for Mikhail's animated films.

Leningrad Period: From Books to Films

In 1923, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky left the army and returned to Saint Petersburg, which was soon renamed Leningrad. He continued his art career, designing posters for movies and teaching art.

In 1926, he joined a group of artists who illustrated children's books. Mikhail specialized in books about science for kids. His unique "industrial" art style, influenced by a movement called Constructivism, made him famous. Constructivism was an art style that used simple shapes and lines, often looking like machines or buildings.

The Animated Film Post

In 1927, he illustrated a popular poem called Post by Samuil Marshak. The book was about a letter traveling the world. Many people thought the book itself felt like a movie because it was "full of movement." Mikhail also made many flip books, which are like early animations. Because of this, it was only a matter of time before he started making animated films.

In 1928, a film studio called Sovkino asked him to make an animated film based on Post. Mikhail was new to animation, so he worked with Ivan Druzhinin and his wife, Vera Tsekhanovskaya, who were animators. They combined different animation styles, like traditional drawing and cutout animation, to bring Mikhail's ideas to life.

The silent version of Post came out in 1929. In 1930, music and a voiceover were added, and the film was even colored by hand. This made Post the first Soviet animated film with both color and sound! It became famous both in Russia and around the world. Even Frank Lloyd Wright, a famous architect, showed it to Walt Disney as an example of amazing animation.

New Ideas About Animation

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky believed that animation was a completely new art form, not just a small part of filmmaking. He wrote that animation was different from theater or regular movies. He saw it as a new type of fine art that combined space and time.

He also had ideas about linking animation with sound, and he is even credited with inventing "graphical sound" in 1929. This was a way to create sound directly from drawings on film. In 1931, he directed two experimental short films, Gopak and Pacific 231. These films tried to show music visually by synchronizing images with the sounds.

The Unfinished Tale of Balda

Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovskaya then started their biggest project: an animated opera called The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda. It was based on a fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin. This was planned to be the first full-length Soviet animated film.

In 1933, Mikhail invited the famous composer Dmitri Shostakovich to write the music and Alexander Vvedensky to write the song lyrics. Shostakovich was excited to create music for this fun and satirical opera. He said it was "a fairy tale full of ardor, ease and joy."

However, the project faced many problems. Mikhail was still learning about animation, and there were money and organization issues. The film studio tried to stop the project several times. In 1936, Shostakovich's music was criticized in the news, which made it even harder to continue. The project was officially stopped.

Even though it wasn't finished, Mikhail put together the completed parts into a full movie. Sadly, this film was destroyed in a fire during the 1941 Siege of Leningrad. Only a small part called Bazaar was saved by Vera Tsekhanovskaya. Shostakovich always thought the music he wrote for Balda was some of his best work. Later, in 2005, his music for the film was restored and shared with the public.

World War II and Moving to Moscow

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky was very upset when Balda was stopped. His next short film, The Tale of a Silly Little Mouse, came out in 1940. It was a children's film, and he worked with Samuil Marshak and Dmitri Shostakovich again.

The Great Patriotic War (World War II) started in 1941, and it had a terrible impact. Many of Mikhail's students and colleagues died during the Siege of Leningrad. Mikhail himself barely survived the siege. He lost a lot of weight and saw his studio, Lenfilm, destroyed by fire. In 1942, he and his wife were moved to Samarkand. He then joined Soyuzmultfilm, a major animation studio, where he worked until he passed away.

Moscow Period: New Techniques and Success

After the war, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky became known for supporting rotoscoping. This is an animation technique where animators trace over live-action film footage, making the animated characters move very realistically. He believed that using realistic characters in a fairy tale would make the fantasy elements even more special.

His films from this time won many awards at international film festivals. For example, Rainbow-Flower won Best Children's Film in 1949, and The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish won Best Animated Film in 1951. The Frog Princess also won an award in 1960.

With the film Fox, Beaver and the Rest (1960), Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovskaya started to return to their more experimental style. Two years later, they released The Wild Swans, based on H. C. Andersen's fairy tale. This was the first Soviet widescreen animated feature film, meaning it was made for wider movie screens. It had a unique art style influenced by Gothic art.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky's last film was Post (1964), a remake of his very first animated work. It was also a widescreen animated short. Critics saw it as a tribute to his early Constructivism art style, and it even included scenes and music from his 1929 original.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky passed away on June 22, 1965, and was buried in Moscow. His wife, Vera Tsekhanovskaya, kept his diaries, which he had written since the 1920s. In 2014, a documentary called In Pursuit of the Lost Post was made. It followed two film experts as they searched for parts of the original 1930 version of Post, which had been thought to be lost.

Filmography