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Ruka was meant to deliver a critique of Stalin and for this reason, it was banned in the Czech Republic until the end of communism as it was thought to be a negative commentary on the regime (Joshko and Morgan 2008, 71). In this blog post, I will focus on the symbolic valence of the short and how Trnka’s stop motion animation style portrays the themes of oppression and resistance.

https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/political-oppression-and-resistance-in-ji-trnkas-ruka-the-hand-1965

https://rateyourmusic.com/film/ruka/#:~:text=The%20most%20significant%20film%20ever%20about%20a%20hand.&text=Westerners%20have%20had%20a%20ball,they%20took%20time%20...)

https://archive.org/details/JiriTrnkaPuppetAnimationMasterdocumentary1967YouTube360p

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On March 2, 2012, two days before Russia’s presidential election, animator Egor Zhgun published a two-minute animation retelling 12 years of Russia under Vladimir Putin, depicting Putin as Mr. Burns and other Russian public figures as different characters from The Simpsons. The video went on to attract more than 6.3 million views. On March 19, a day after Putin claimed his fourth presidential term, Zhgun released another animation depicting the last six years in Russia. The video is full of so many political and cultural references that Meduza decided to break it down, so you can watch it and understand everything.  At the outset of Zhgun’s video, we find Vladimir Putin sitting at his desk, beside two phones. To his left, there’s a money-tree growing from an oil barrel — symbolizing the Russian economy’s reliance on the hydrocarbons industry. 

To Putin’s right is a printer in the shape of Russia’s parliament, churning out laws. Throughout the whole video, it never stops. The State Duma and Federation Council are often called a “rabid printer,” meaning that Russia's Parliament isn't just a rubber-stamp legislature, but a particularly angry one. 

Next, a Pac-Man reference races across the bottom of the screen: it’s two “Pac-Men” — one dressed as a police officer and the other as a Russian Orthodox priest — pursuing the three women of Pussy Riot, depicted as ghosts. The trial against Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria Alyokhina started in July 2012. In August that year, they were sentenced to two years in prison. Two months later, Samutsevich went free on an individual appeal, while Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina remained behind bars until released by a general amnesty bill in December 2013.  A series of viles and scientific beakers containing yellow liquid then appear on Putin’s desk — referring to Russia’s state-sponsored doping program, which resulted in several Russian athletes losing their medals and Team Russia being barred from the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

https://meduza.io/en/shapito/2018/03/20/six-more-years-of-putin

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiXCM6J7tbY

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From Agitprop to Artistic Rebellion: A Brief History of Soviet Animation  

Okay, so maybe all the overt agitprop (a fun and definitely not scary portmanteau of “agitation” and “propaganda”) gives early Soviet animation away. And maybe Soyuzmultfilm’s slightly-off but unmissable parroting of “the Disney style” is a tell. And, hey, maybe the bleak, rebellious uptake of Czech puppetry as a means of rebelling against an oppressive occupation is also a clue. Suffice to say: Soviet animation is distinct and endlessly fascinating. Like all art, it’s political. And because it’s Soviet Art, it’s doubly so.  

This video on the history of Soviet animation is by Mountains of Media, a channel dedicated to exploring and analyzing media.

The Samoyed boy 1928

spring visitors 1948.

After the 30s/40s soviet animation took a lot of influence from Disney and western animation, especially copying the anthropomorphised animals.

By 1946 The animation industry would recover and as The Soviet Union now encompasses East Germany to the eastern edge of Asia, more diverse and talented artists are included in this. Such as Trnka and his art of puppetry and 3 decade career.

1960-1992 new golden age of soviet animation

Although censorship was far from eliminated Khrushchev’s thaw helped to birth a new subgenre of animation within the USSR, the animation of political dissidence, drawing from the well of inspiration of old soviet agitprop pieces these animations dared to do what could not be done under the less politically tolerant tenure of Stalin’s reign. One of the most notable to come in 1965 - THE HAND RUKA. His work and puppetry cultivated influences the present day and Trnka inspired and paved the way for a host of young talent in Prague that would embrace the puppetry and surrealism native to the golden city, the most talented and notable of these being Jan Švankmajer, Prague native whose massive body of work and influences continues into the present day with his most recent work meat love 1989. Punch and Judy 1966 another famous piece.

There lived Kozyavin 1966 - Andrei Krzynovski’s 1966 work there lived quiz yavin served as a satirical criticism of the modern office bureaucracy in the USSR, a theme that would be just at home on madison avenue as it was in Moscow. The feature greatly experiments with animation style and sound, a fixture that would become staple with Krzynovski’s later animated works, reaching new heights in his surreal masterpiece, THE GLASS HARMONICA, 1968, the film serves as a testament to the destructive forces of capital and censorship upon the artist and draws heavy stylistic from the renaissance and surreal art including the otherworldly paintings of hieronymus bosch and francisco goya. The movie was heavily censored in its time and many did not get a chance to see it until nearly two decades after its creation, numerous changes were made throughout its creation but ultimately its themes and styles which were originally intended to be more critical of the soviet state than capital still proved too subversive even after the thaw.  The glass harmonica stands as a masterwork of soviet animation and was unfortunately robbed of its potential influence on soviet animation following the films completion due to its being shelled.

Outside of Czechoslovakia and in the Russian heart of the USSR, a wave of new styles and themes swept through the animation world through the 60s,70s and 80s.

Adaptation of Russian folktale the hedgehog and fog 1975, still stands today as one of the most recognisable pieces of soviet animation ever produced.

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Possible title - 

Compare how Soviet period animators and current Russian animators communicate anti-establishment tones in their work. 

Compare how Soviet period animators and Post-soviet Russian animators communicate anti-establishment tones in their work. 

How did animators in 60s Soviet Union communicate anti-establishment tones in their work compared to animators in Russia now ? 

How does the controlled nature of the Russian government effect animators work? Compare Soviet Union era to the current conflict with Ukraine. 

Topics to include?

60s animations, 2020s animations. Difference in the history and technology that allows you to spread our work. Whats different about the animations and why? What are these animations trying to achieve? 

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Small paragraph

Exploring Soviet Animation during the 60s, we view a lot of anti-establishment animations that hide this message in metaphors and symbolism to cloak their view hopefully just enough to bypass the censor. In comparison to 21st century anti-establishment animations we are currently seeing surfacing from Russia due to the ongoing war in Russia, these hide behind very little symbolism. However, society and its systems have long since changed. Social media and online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, allow you to post your work anywhere. Although Russia is attempting to stop these accesses, it is still easier for animator to spread their work and their message than it was during the time of the Soviet Union. 

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“I am from Russia” - Bela Unclecat

On 30 April 2022, I asked people in Russia to send me voice messages with their opinions on war in Ukraine. I received 287 messages in 4 days and made a short animated film using these voices.

I released the film on May, 25. The animation process itself took 12 days. Everything is done on paper using pencils, ink, markers and pen. I tried not to think too much about the media, so I used everything that I could find at home. At some point I ran out of white paper, so I used color paper, lined paper, craft paper etc.

Many real photos of the walls in Russia with painted peace sign and letters "НЕТ ВОЙНЕ" ("No war") are used in the film.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/144887911/I-am-from-Russia-short-animated-documentary

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We flew, we came here - Yura Boguslavsky and Asia Kieseleva

Teenage students from Armenia and Russia during workshop in Yerevan. It was produced in March 2022, soon after war in Ukraine started. Its based on interviews of children from Russia who had to move to Armenia with their families. 

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2022-08-16/ty-article-magazine/.premium/whaam-russian-animators-get-their-anti-war-paint-on/00000182-a139-dd0a-a39b-a9bd8b3e0000

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“There are no sanitary pads left in my country and I have blood on my legs, and I have blood on my hands.” This is the narration to a video, around 20 seconds long, made by a Russian animator who chooses to remain anonymous.

With this work linking menstrual blood to the blood of war victims, the creator hints at the shortage of tampons and other staples in Russian stores in the first weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. By mixing blood with blood, the video expresses the sense of collective guilt tormenting many Russians since February 24. 

“It’s a video about the feeling of belonging to what’s happening that I and everybody around me had,” the anonymous creator told Haaretz. “While it’s true that I live in a certain bubble, all these people still felt guilt. They didn’t know what to do with it, but they also didn’t take the route of 'we’re not Putin, Putin isn’t Russia, we have nothing to do with it and can’t change anything.'

Against the backdrop of censorship laws passed in Russia at the start of the war, artists are afraid to express themselves. Early last month Alexei Gorinov, a neighborhood council member in Moscow, was sentenced to seven years in prison for giving a speech against the war at a council meeting. He called the war a war, not a special military operation, and called Russia “a fascist state.” He reminded his listeners that Ukrainian children are being killed.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2022-08-16/ty-article-magazine/.premium/whaam-russian-animators-get-their-anti-war-paint-on/00000182-a139-dd0a-a39b-a9bd8b3e0000

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matchstick stopmotion

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https://www.moment.at/story/animators-against-war-kunst-gegen-putin

Animators against War 

Dariia Lebedeva  - “I’m scared, like everyone here right now. But the work, our project, that helps at least a little. We don’t sit around and do nothing.  We protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In our manifesto we call for peaceful methods to resolve conflicts. What our country is doing right now cannot be justified in any way. We work with creators from all over Russia, including sound designers and musicians. We want the fighting to stop immediately. Our collective is ethnically diverse, we are not just Slavic Russians. For example, I belong to the indigenous Chuckchi minority. We ask the artists to send us 5-second animations, which we then edit into videos. Three videos are already there, the fourth, fifth and sixth are on the way. This shows how many people are already participating and the number is growing.”  “ Society is completely divided in Russia. Many young people know what is really happening, but older generations are particularly susceptible to propaganda. The younger generation is trying to open the eyes of the older ones.” 

“ You should know that Russia is also against this war. Follow our independent media. Share our videos, there will be more to come. And supports the people of Ukraine.” 

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Russia - Modern History

Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. For much of the post-communist era Russians had to endure a generally weak economy, high inflation, and a complex of social ills that served to lower life expectancy significantly.

Vladimir Putin is the current president and has been president twice. From 2000-2008 and from 2012-present. 

24th February 2022 Russia invades Ukraine - President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” with the aim of “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of Ukraine. He sent 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine, expecting to sweep int the capital city Kyiv in a matter of days and depose the government. Russian forces quickly captured big stretches of territory but failed to encircle Kyiv. Yet in the coming months they were forced into a series of humiliating retreats, first in the north and now in the south. To date, they have lost more than half the territory seized at the start of the invasion.

His declared aim was to protect people subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by Ukraine's government - claims which have no basis in evidence.  It was framed as an attempt at preventing Nato from gaining a foothold in Ukraine. Repeated Russian claims of Nazis and genocide in eastern Ukraine were completely unfounded but they have formed part of a narrative repeated by Russia since its proxy forces seized parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east of the country in 2014, triggering a war with Ukrainian forces. "It's crazy, sometimes not even they can explain what they are referring to," complained Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

As for joining Nato, even before the invasion Ukraine reportedly agreed a provisional deal with Russia to stay out of the Western defensive alliance. Russia does not want its neighbour to join Nato, as it fears this would encroach too closely on its territory. 

A month into the invasion and it was clear Russia's campaign was not going to plan. Vladimir Putin dramatically scaled back his ambitions, declaring the first phase largely complete.  The military pulled back from around Kyiv and Chernihiv and regrouped in the north-east. The reason for the withdrawal was a failure to appreciate the agility of Ukrainian forces or to secure supply lines.

In September, Vladimir Putin announced a "partial mobilisation" of some 300,000 troops with the aim of bolstering a 1,000km (620-mile) front line in the east. Russians fled the call-up in droves as the war came closer to home.On the backfoot, he declared that the two eastern regions and two others in the south - Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - were being annexed, even though none was fully under Russian control. They would be part of Russia forever, he said. Weeks later, Russia retreated from Kherson city, the only regional capital seized in its 2022 war.

How Putin’s message has changed. For years, the Russian president has denied Ukraine its own statehood, writing in a lengthy 2021 essay that “Russians and Ukrainians were one people” dating back to the late 9th century. 

Is NATO to blame - Nato member states have increasingly sent Ukraine air defense systems to protect its cities as well as missile systems, artillery and drones that have helped turn the tide against Russia’s invasion.  But it is not to blame for the war and it was, after all, Russia's invasion that persuaded Sweden and Finland to apply to join the military alliance. Blaming Nato's expansion eastwards is a Russian narrative that has gained some ground in Europe. Before the war, President Putin demanded Nato turn the clock back to 1997 and remove its forces and military infrastructure from Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics.In his eyes the West promised back in 1990 that Nato would expand "not an inch to the east", but did so anyway.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56720589

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Political oppression and resistance in Jiří Trnka’s Ruka/The Hand (1965)

In 1965, the Czech draughtsman, book illustrator, puppet and toy designer, painter, animated film-maker and sculptor Jiří Trnka released his last short animation film Ruka/The Hand (1965). The silent 18 minute animation delivers a powerful and chilling dynamic; allegorically and metaphorically representing the influence of the communist political regime on the freedom of people through the framing of Trnka as the main character (a harlequin) and the accompanying image of the hand, which overpowers harlequin’s agency). Whilst remaining a communist state, Czechoslovakia experienced a short period or freedom under Alexander Dubček leadership during which the opposition against political repression was communicated through the arts.  Trnka used animation to both record his reality and condemn it. Nonetheless, Ruka was meant to deliver a critique of Stalin and for this reason, it was banned in the Czech Republic until the end of communism.  symbolic valence of the short and how Trnka’s stop motion animation style portrays the themes of oppression and resistance. 

https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/political-oppression-and-resistance-in-ji-trnkas-ruka-the-hand-1965

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Putin's propaganda machine creates a CARTOON about two friends falling out to spin his war to children - as German diplomats slam Russia for levelling Nazism claims at Ukraine

The 3 minute video shows children wearing t-shirts representing countries -  Ukraine, Germany, Russia and the US before going on to explain the War in Donbas. friends'.  It starts with inseparable 'friends' Ukraine and Russia playing together in a sandbox and sat next to each other at school before Ukraine leaves to 'hang out by himself', representing its independence from the Soviet Union. The pro-Kremlin propaganda says: 'Ukraine began to oppress the Russian population so these two oblasts wanted to separate and become a part of Russia - but Ukraine disagreed and began to go to war with those territories'.

It says the reason Putin went to war was because 'Russia tried to stop the killing of people and resolve the issue peacefully'.  

Meanwhile, the cartoon added 'The West doesn't listen because Ukraine is telling everyone that Russia wants to kill people. Our country always stands for peace and open conversation around any conflict'.

One shocked viewer couldn't believe they were showing the 'historically inaccurate' cartoon to children and slammed the 'Russian narrative'. Putin questioned Ukraine's right to exist on Monday and accused its government of being a 'neo-Nazi' regime supported by the West.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10582813/Putins-propaganda-machine-creates-CARTOON-two-friends-falling-spin-war-children.html#v-8693878617358188218

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Cartoon criticizing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Masyanya is a popular russian-language cartoon created by Oleg Kuvayev, a Russian-Israeli artist, designer and animator. The short shows Chine invading Russia to save it from fascism.

As the war in Ukraine continues, Russia has banned hundreds of news outlets including Google News, BBC, Twitter, and Meta- Facebook and Instagram  .

Masyanya, a popular Russian cartoon that traffics in satire and is comparable to South Park and BoJack Horseman for its sarcastic and irreverent takes on life, has been banned by President Vladimir Putin’s government, and its creator, Oleg Kuvaev, now says he’s in hiding. Roskomnadzor has blocked the original site where the episodes of Masyanuya are uploaded by Kuvaev. 

https://www.rferl.org/a/roskomnadzor-bans-cartoon-ukraine-war/31776410.html