18 Facts About Mikhail Tsekhanovsky

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky was one of the founders and unchallenged leaders of the Leningrad school of Soviet animation.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky was born in Proskurov into a Russian noble family.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky started painting while still in gymnasium, and upon graduation left for Paris where he was trained as a sculptor in private workshops between 1908 and 1910.

On his return Mikhail Tsekhanovsky entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and the Saint Petersburg Imperial University Faculty of Law, but left both of them with the start of the World War I and moved to Moscow.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky then entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture which he finished in 1918.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky drew posters, designed agitational trains, painted cinemas and clubs, carved sculptures and made scenery for the front theatre.

In 1923 Mikhail Tsekhanovsky demobilized and returned to Saint Petersburg where he continued the art career.

The silent version of Post was released in 1929, and in 1930 a musical score by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky Deshevov was added along with a voiceover and some text by Daniil Kharms, while the positive was colorized by hand.

In 1933 Mikhail Tsekhanovsky invited Dmitri Shostakovich to create the score and Alexander Vvedensky to write lyrics.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky called it "a fairy tale full of ardor, ease and joy, and writing music for it is just as easy and joyful".

Nevertheless, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky compiled four finished parts and the rest of material into a full movie.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky released his next long-planned short only in 1940.

Unlike Shostakovich who enjoyed working with Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Marshak was annoyed by the changes made to his script and requested to edit the film, which led to a conflict between Lenfilm and Mosfilm management.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky prepared a whole generation of animators by 1941 when the Great Patriotic War started.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky lost a lot of weight, he witnessed the fire that ruined Lenfilm and all its archives, the deaths of his colleagues including Ivan Druzhinin who was killed during the Winter War campaign.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky stated that the use of realistic characters in a fairy tale would only emphasize on the fantasy element.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky died on 22 June 1965 and was buried in Moscow.

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky was survived by his wife Vera Tsekhanovskaya who preserved her husband's diaries kept since the 1920s.