Commissioned by Joe Stalin, this is a short about the evils of one-man rule (I don't give star ratings to shorts).
This is called a "satire" of Tsarist Russia (portraying the Tsar as only interested in taxes), but the irony here is that when this very over-the-top satire was being made Stalin was ordering his "organs" to confiscate as much grain from farmers in the Soviet Union as his thugs could get their hands on and if the farmers resisted they were shot in the head.
Regarding just the animation for this short, for 1933, this is a rather well-made animated short.
What is most interesting about it, however, is why Stalin thought his own newly-established "serfs" needed a reminder of the Russian Tsar's heavy-handedness 15 years after Lenin & Stalin had the Russian Tsar machine-gunned to death with his wife and children while they were in Soviet secret police captivity.
This is called a "satire" of Tsarist Russia (portraying the Tsar as only interested in taxes), but the irony here is that when this very over-the-top satire was being made Stalin was ordering his "organs" to confiscate as much grain from farmers in the Soviet Union as his thugs could get their hands on and if the farmers resisted they were shot in the head.
Regarding just the animation for this short, for 1933, this is a rather well-made animated short.
What is most interesting about it, however, is why Stalin thought his own newly-established "serfs" needed a reminder of the Russian Tsar's heavy-handedness 15 years after Lenin & Stalin had the Russian Tsar machine-gunned to death with his wife and children while they were in Soviet secret police captivity.
