Description:

A social satire about a working class man who moves into a new, clean apartment, but cannot sleep without the clutter and bedbugs of his old home.

One of the earliest surviving sound animations made in the USSR, and the earliest stop motion puppet animation with sound. It is based on a poem published in the "Krokodil" political satire magazine, 1932, #7, p.3, written by V. Granov. The film premiered on November 23 of the same year.

A "working class" person moves into a new home. In this constructivist house with large windows and high ceilings, the tenant feels uncomfortable and therefore has all his old junk brought over: pot-bellied furniture, bourgeois paintings, and, among other things, a giant bedbug, whose frantic dance embodies the old way of life. A typically political work (as was common for the period), it ends with the statement: "You must know how to live in a new house." At the same time, it also sounds like a recognition of the fact that not everyone knows how to do that, and some may not learn.

One can see this animation against the background of The New Man ideology at the time: The New Man must stand up out of the victorious clash between the classes who will enter a new era in a new society which is also reflected in a new architecture and a modern awareness of cleanliness and hygiene.