This film is part of the Merry-Go-Round series.

Description:

Includes: "About a Freaky Frog" (by Barinova, adapting Tsyferov's story of a conversation between a cow and a frog), "The Silent Hamster" (by Nosyrev, adapting Eduard Shim's story of a resourceful and underestimated hamster) and "A Merry Little Old Man" (by Petrov, adapting Daniil Kharms' poem).

The Russian texts can be found here: About a Freaky Frog (originally, part of a whole series of little stories about the frog), A Merry Little Old Man (in the cartoon, the 2nd and 3rd couplets switch order). "The Silent Hamster" screenplay was written for the cartoon, but here's a later version of it in more literary form: The Silent Hamster.

In a 2013 interview, Leonid Nosyrev revealed that the ending of "The Silent Hamster" had been shortened at the insistence of the censors. Originally, the hamster's monologue continued: "No one's seen it, no one knows of it, no one will pry. It's better to do things quietly." While he's speaking, his huge pile of grain sinks into a hole. The mole who'd followed the hamster to his burrow comes out of the hole and says "tss!". So the hamster is left with nothing.