SOYUZMULTFILM Puppetfilm association 1964
1763 Polzunov's steam engine
1776 Kulibin's wooden one-arched bridge
1801 Artamonov's bicycle
1833 Cherepanov locomotive
1878 A.F. Mozhayskiy's flying machine
1881 Kibalchich's aeronautic device
This film is dedicated to the wonderful Russian craftsmen of the past, present and future.
LEFTY after the story by N.S. Leskov
The tale of how Tula craftsmen shoed an English steel flea
Scenario and Direction IVAN IVANOV-VANO
Director: Vladimir Danilevich Composer: Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Art directors: Marina Sokolova, Arkadiy Tyurin, Anatoliy Kuritsyn
Camera: Iosif Golomb Sound: Boris Filchikov
Animators: Yuriy Norshteyn, Galina Zolotovskaya,
Lev Zhdanov, Kirill Malyantovich, Mihail Botov
Background artists: T. Zuykova, G. Nevzorova, Aleksandr Gorbachyov,
Vladimir Sobolev, Vladimir Alisov, V. Rodzhero, A. Volkov
Puppets and decor: V. Cherkinskaya, Liliana Lyutinskaya,
Svetlana Znamenskaya, Oleg Masainov, N. Budylova,
Yu. Benkevich, M. Spasskaya, Vladimir Abakumov
Script editor: Natalya Abramova Montage: N. Mayorova
State Cinematographic Symphony Orchestra Conductor: G. Gamburg
Narrator: D. Zhuravlyov
Production director: Natan Bitman
[Paris City, 1815]
When the Emperor Aleksandr Pavlovich
ended the military campaign of 1812,
he got the idea of travelling about Europe,
to see what marvels could be seen in the various realms.
He journeyed through all lands, and
everywhere, by reason of his amiability, [Dresden City]
had heart-to-heart talks with all sorts of people... [Vienna City]
And everyone surprised him with something [Leipzig City]
and sought to incline him to their side, [Amsterdam City]
but he had with him a Don Cossack named Platov
who did not like this inclination;
And if Platov should notice
that the Sovereign was interested in something foreign, [London, 1816]
he would go up to him and say,
"That's all right, of course, but ours at home are just as good."
But then the English invited the Sovereign
to their arsenals,
armories, shops, soapworks and everywhere else
in order to demonstrate their superiority over us in all things
and boast of it.
[English Cabinet of Curiosities]
They arrived at a huge building
with an indescribable entrance,
corridors without end,
rooms one after another,
"A-ah-ah-ah..."
The Sovereign was very pleased with all this: "Ah - ah - ah!
Ah - ah - ah!"
But Platov strode along with downcast eyes
as though he beheld nothing
and merely twisted his whiskers into rings.
They came to the main hall.
The English immediately began to show them all sorts of marvels
and explain to what ends they were adapted
in military matters.
All this delighted the Sovereign greatly: "Ah - ah - ah!"
everything seemed to him very good: "Ah - ah - ah!"
but Platov preserved his apathy,
as if nothing of this meant anything to him.
The Sovereign said: "How is this possible?"
"Why is there such unfeelingness in you?"
"Is there really nothing here that astonishes you?"
And Platov replied:
"Only one thing here astonishes me:
that my dashing lads of the Don made war without all this
and drove twelve nations out of our country."
The Sovereign said: "That's all prejudice."
But the Englishmen, noticing the dissension between them,
took them straight to the statue of Apollo Belvedere.
"This pistol", the Englishmen said,
"is of unknown, inimitable workmanship -
one of our admirals snatched it from the belt of a pirate captain at Calabria."
"Ah, ah, ah!" gasped the Sovereign in amazement, "How can this be?
How is it even possible to work so delicately?
If I had just one such craftsman in Russia
I should be very happy and proud
and I would instantly make that man a noble."
The English protested: "It can't be taken apart!"
"Oh, we'll manage" replied Platov.
[Made by Ivan Moskvin, Tula]
The Sovereign said sadly to Platov: "Ah, ah, ah!
Why did you have to upset them; I'm so sorry for them now."
"Oho, have we blundered!"
Then they said to the Sovereign:
"Now we will present you with a true technical marvel".
The Sovereign asked: "What does this mean?"
"Can you, please", said the English master artisan, "see that speck?"
"What do I want a speck of dust for?" asked the Sovereign.
"But this," answered the English master "is not a speck,
but an infusorium."
"Is it alive?" the Sovereign then asked.
"Oh no," answered the English master, "it's not alive.
But it has been forged out of pure English steel
in the image of a flea, by ourselves,
and in the middle of it are works and a spring.
Be kind enough to turn the key
and it'll do a dance."
"Ah - ah - ah!" said the Sovereign curiously.
"Kindly look in the tinyscope."
"Ah - ah - ah!"
"Ah - ah!"
The Sovereign immediately ordered Platov
to give a million to the Englishmen in any money they liked.
Whether in silver five-kopek pieces, or in small banknotes.
The Englishmen asked for silver
as they were, they said, unfamiliar with banknotes.
The Englishmen whispered
and showed another cunning trick of theirs:
they had made a present of the flea,
but had brought no case for it,
because the case for it, said they, belonged to the Crown
and as they were held to strict account for Crown property,
they could not make a gift of it even to the Sovereign.
Platov got into a great rage over this.
"Why such rascality?
You have made a gift, and received a million for it,
and that's still not enough for you!
The case always goes with every article!"
But the Sovereign said: "Stop that, please;
Don't spoil my politics. They have their own custom."
and he asked the Englishmen,
"What is the value of this walnut, in which the flea is lodged?"
The Englishmen rated it at five thousand more.
The Sovereign ordered Platov to pay,
and said to the English: "You are the finest craftsmen in the world
and my people, in comparison with you,
can do nothing."
Then Platov, without a word, slipped the tinyscope into his pocket,
for, he thought, it should go with the other things
and, besides, there had been enough money taken from them as it was.
The remarkable flea of English blue steel
remained in Aleksandr Pavlovich's whalebone casket
until the Sovereign turned melancholy on account of military affairs
and died in Taganrog.
Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich did not at first
pay any attention to the flea
because of the disturbances at his accession to the throne* [*The Decembrist Uprising in 1825.]
Brave Russians and Russian soldiers.
Bravo, bravo! It's time to work, work!
We are Zanevsky-Nevsky soldiers.
The Tsar is kind enough to note.
He will say to us courageous, To us courageous lads,
That we are just the right sort of fine young men!
Who here is from the highest rank? Who will fit that standard?
Who will manage such excellence? Who will manage such stardom?
"What rubbish is this
and why did my brother take such care of it?
Immediately find out where it has come from and what it means!"
They hurried to look through records and registers
but did not find any mention of it.
They began asking one person after another, but nobody knew anything about it.
Fortunately the Don Cossack Platov was still alive;
he was even then lying sadly on his couch and smoking his pipe.
As soon as he heard that there was such an uproar in the palace
he rose up from his couch, threw away his pipe
and appeared before the Sovereign wearing all his medals.
"I was there," he said, "when it happened!
And this is what took place before my own eyes in England."
"Bravo, bravo!"
"This is," said Platov, "Your Majesty,
a delicate and interesting piece of work
but we mustn't let our admiration get the better of us;
we must submit it to Russian inspection.
Our masters in Tula are no worse than the English ones!"
"Bravo, bravo!
That was well said, my brave old man,"
said the Sovereign.
"Surpass them!"
Ho, here's our General Platov!
Look, across the fields he rode.
Aye, across the fields he rode.
Aye, to visit Tula he rode.
Chief Master of the City of Tula Ivan Moskvin
Gunsmith Lefty
"This casket," said Platov,
contains a masterfully-made English steel flea of fine work."
The Sovereign orders you, you cunning dogs,
to surpass the English master artisans!"
"What are we to do now, fellow Orthodox Christians?"
The gunsmiths responded:
"The English nation also is not stupid, but even tolerably cunning,
and their art has much sensible contrivance.
To beat them, we shall have to think long and hard.
Leave us the flea,
go home to your quiet Don and have a good rest, so the wounds
you received for your country may heal
and when you go back through Tula, stop here and send for us:
by that time, God willing, we shall have thought of something."
"All right, lads!"
In the smithy! In the smithy!
In the smithy are young blacksmiths, In the smithy are young blacksmiths,
They are forging - are forging! They are forging - are forging!
They are forging, and keep saying... They are forging and keep saying...
Come on, Dunya, let's go! Come on, Dunya, let's go!
Let's go, Dunya, to the wood, to the wood! Let's go, Dunya, to the wood, to the wood!
Gunsmith Lefty
The Cossacks got the roof off but were knocked off their feet themselves
for the gunsmiths, in their little closed room,
had been working continuously
in an atmosphere so thick and foul
that a man used to fresh air
couldn't stand a single whiff of it.
"We're just knocking in the last nail,
and when that is in place, we'll bring out our work."
"Hand it over!" commanded Platov.
"What's the meaning of this?" asked Platov.
"And where is your work?"
"Our work's there as well," the gunsmiths answered.
"What sort of work have you done?"
"Why explain it?
It's all there in front of your eyes. You have a good look at it."
"You scoundrels haven't done anything,
and you've probably spoilt the whole thing!
I'll have your heads for this!"
"Without cause do you thus abuse us."
"You're lying, you scoundrels,
but I'm not letting you go like that.
You can sit there like a poodle all the way to St. Petersburg."
How can you take him from us thus without a passport?
He will not be able to come back!
"Here's a passport for you!"
"Off you go, lads."
"Ah! He was such a good master."
"And what did my Tula craftsmen do
that's better than the English infusorium?"
asked the Sovereign.
"How dare you deceive the Sovereign?"
"Wanted to surpass the English masters!"
"What does this mean, my good man,
that we've looked it over this way and that
and could find nothing noteworthy?" asked the Sovereign.
"That way, Your Majesty, it is impossible to see anything,
because our work, for a tinyscope of that size,
is far too secret," answered Lefty.
"Please look."
"Take a look, if you please, why, the rogues
have shod the English flea with horse-shoes!"
"Is your name there, too?" asked the Sovereign.
"Not at all," said Lefty, "mine's the only one that isn't there."
"Why?" asked the Sovereign.
"Because," said Lefty,
"my work was smaller than those shoes:
I forged the tiny nails with which the shoes are fastened on.
That's something you can't see with any tinyscope."
"Where is your tinyscope with which you could
produce such a marvel?" asked the Sovereign.
"We are poor people,
and due to our poverty we have no tinyscope,
but our eyes are trained to the work."
"Please look."
The Sovereign ordered that the shod infusorium be immediately packed up
and sent back to England as a sort of gift
so that they might understand there that it didn't impress us.
And the Sovereign ordered that a special Courier should carry the flea,
and that Lefty should go with him.
[Don't drink too little, Don't drink too much, But drink in moderation.]
Along the river Along the way to Kazanka,
The gray drake swims.
"Ai, luli, luli, C'est tres joli."
The gray drake swims.
Along the banks and along the broad coast
The good fellow goes!
"Ai, luli, luli, C'est tres joli."
The good fellow goes!
He had curls, He had fair hair
The lad spoke:
"Ai, luli, luli, C'est tres joli."
The lad spoke.
"Good work," said the English artisans,
"subtly done, with vision."
The Englishmen began to clap Lefty on the shoulder, slap-slap,
and shook hands with him as an equal,
"Comrade," they said, "comrade - fine craftsman.
Let's have a drink!"
"Comrade, stay here with us. We'll give you a good education
and you'll become a wonderful craftsman."
The English went to show Lefty their factories
and their skill in making things.
Lefty wasn't so interested in the way they made new muskets
"We can make them as well as that."
as he was in the condition of the old ones.
[Past their use. Written off]
Whenever he came across an old musket he'd stick his finger in the muzzle,
run it round the walls of the barrel and say:
"Oh, the English do not clean their guns with bricks."
[Pounded Bricks for Cleaning Guns]
[Past their use. Written off]
"That", he said, "beats ours by a long shot."
"Comrade, comrade!
Stay with us.
"You'll get used to it," they said,
"accept our faith and we'll find you a wife."
"If you want, we'll arrange a rendezvous for you."
"Why", said Lefty, "trouble the girls for nothing?
A rendezvous is for gentlemen and doesn't become us.
This can never be.
We are committed to our Motherland and
our Russian faith is the true faith."
"Comrade, comrade! Stay with us."
"I thank you humbly for your hospitality,
I've been very pleased with everything
but now I want to get home."
[Duroterranean Sea]* *North Sea
"Where is our Russia?" Lefty asked.
"Good boy, Russ! Let's have a drink," said the skipper's mate.
And then he asked:
"What's the secret you're taking back to Russia from our country?"
"That's my business," answered Lefty.
"If it's that way," said the mate, "then let's make a bet, English fashion."
"How?" asked Lefty. "We bet never to drink alone
but always together and the same drink;
and whoever outdrinks the other wins the bet."
Lefty thought to himself, "the sky's cloudy, my belly's rowdy,
I'm bored to death, there's a long way left,
the bet'll make me cheer up a bit."
"All right, it's a go."
[Riga Dunamunde]
"What's the secret you're taking back to Russia from our country?"
asked the skipper's mate.
"That's my business," answered Lefty.
"Cross yourself and turn away,
there's a black devil rising out of the deep."
"No! He's a red and watery-eyed sea-puss."
"No, a black storm-devil."
"No, red and watery-eyed."
[St. Petersburg]
From then on, Lefty and the skipper's mate
suffered greatly different fates.
The Englishman was taken to the English Embassy on the English Quay,
but Lefty was asked, "who are you and where have you come from?
Have you got a passport or any other document?"
"Take him to the hospital!" ordered the policeman.
They took him to one hospital but they wouldn't accept him without a passport,
so they took him to a second, where they wouldn't accept him either,
then a third and a fourth
and so they kept on until morning, dragging him round all the distant alleys
until he was beaten all black and blue.
The skipper's mate, meanwhile, was lying in a warm bath in the Embassy.
The apothecary there and then rolled a pill and put it in his mouth.
"Tell the Sovereign that the English don't clean their guns with brick-dust!"
The policeman took Lefty
to the Obuhov People's Hospital
where all people of unknown origin were allowed in to die.
OBUHOV PEOPLE'S HOSPITAL
"Tell the Sovereign that the English don't clean their guns with brick-dust;
we shouldn't clean them that way, either,
for if there should be a war, God forbid, they will not be fit to fire."
"Tell the Sovereign that the English don't clean their guns with brick-dust!"
"Tell the Sovereign that the English don't clean their guns with brick-dust;
we shouldn't clean them that way, either."
"The English don't clean their guns with brick-dust;
we shouldn't clean them that way, either,
for if there should be a war, God forbid, they will not be fit to fire."
"And who are you?!
Keep your nose out of what doesn't concern you -
there are generals in Russia for that!"
All this is now "a matter of bygone days,"
Lefty's real name,
like the names of many of the greatest geniuses,
is forever lost to posterity;
but as a myth personified by popular fantasy,
he is remembered by us now
with great pride and love.
[Tula city] THE END
Subs by Eus, Pepi (2018) & Niffiwan (2021), based on Rus. subs by Bornik,
and on the translations by Isabel F. Hapgood (1890) & George H. Hanna (1958)