Original subtitles

SOYUZMULTFILM Puppetfilm association

1763 Polzunov's steam engine

1776 Kulibina's wooden one-arched bridge

1801 Artamonov's bicycle

1833 Cherepanov's locomotive

1878 AF Mozhaisky's flying machine

1881 Kibalchich's aeronautic device

This film is dedicated to the wonderful Russian craftsmen of the past, present and future.

THE LEFT-HANDER after the story of N. S. Leskov

The tale of how Tula craftsmen put horse-shoes on the English steel flea.

Scenario and Direction IVAN IVANOV-VANO

Director Vladimir Danilevich Composer Alexander Alexandrov

Art directors: Marina Sokolova, Arcady Turin, Anatoly Kuritsyn

Camera Joseph Colomb Sound Boris Filchikov

Animators: Youry Norstein, Galina Zolotovskaya, Lev Zhdanov, Kirill Malyantovich, Michael Botov

Background artists: G. Zuikova, G. Nevzorova, Alexander Gorbachev, Vladimir Sobolev, Vladimir Alisov, V. Rodgero, A. Volkov

puppets and decor V. Cherkinskaya, Liliana Lutinskaya, Svetlana Znamenskaya, Oleg Massainov, N. Budylova, Yu. Benkevich, M. Spasskaya, Vladimir Abbakumov

script editor Natalia Abramova cutter N. Mayorova

State Cinematographic Symphony Orchestra Conductor G. Gamburg Narrator D. ZHURAVLYOV

Executive Producer Nathan Bitman

Paris castle 1815

When the Emperor Alexander Palych

ended the military war campaign in 1812,

he got the idea of travelling about Europe,

to see what the different countries had to show him.

He went to many countries,

was very friendly and had

heart-to-heart talks with all sorts of people

and everyone surprised him with something,

they all had something to impress and win him over with,

but he had with him a Don Cossack, Platov by name,

who did not like all these goings on;

And a little if Platov noticed,

that the sovereign is interested in something foreign,

he would go up to him and say,

"Ours at home are just as good."

So the English invited the tsar

to their warehouses,

arsenals and soapworks and everywhere else

to show that they were so much better at everything.

Thus they could boast about it.

They arrived at a huge building

with an indescribable entrance,

corridors without end,

rooms one after another,

- A-ah-ah-ah...

The tsar was very pleased with all this "Ah - ah - ah!

Ah - ah - ah!"

But Platov strode along with his eyes fixed on the floor

as though he wasn't looking at anything at all.

They came to the main hall.

The English immediately started showing them all kinds of marvels

and explaining what things they had adapted

for use in wartime.

The tsar was very pleased with all this: "Ah - ah - ah!",

everything seemed so good to him: "Ah - ah - ah!",

but Platov was still waiting,

nothing of this meant anything to him.

The sovereign said: "How can you be like that?"

"Why don't you say something?"

"Isn't there anything here that impresses you?"

And Platov replied:

"There's only one thing that impresses me:

my Cossack maidens and lads fought without any of this

and drove twelve nations out of our country."

The tsar 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 Englishman said, "is of unknown, incomparable make",

of unknown inimitable craftsmanship.

One of our admirals snatched it from the belt of a pirate captain at Calabria.

"Ah, ah, ah,"he gasped in amazement. "It is...

how can anyone possibly do such wonderful work!"

"If I had just one such craftsman in Russia,

I would be very happy and proud

and I would make that craftsman a lord on the spot."

The English told him: "It can't be disassembled!

"Nonsense," wimpled Platov the remark aside.

[Made by Ivan Moskvin, Tula]

But the tsar said sadly to Platov: "Ah, ah, ah!"

"Why did you have to upset them; I'm sorry for them now."

"Oh, we'll offer him something else"

And they say to the sovereign:

"Now we will present you a true technical marvel".

The Emperor asks: "What does this mean?"

"Can you, please", said the English workman," see that speck?"

"What do I want a speck of dust for?" asked the Emperor.

"But this," answers the English master "is not a speck,

but a flea. "

"Is it alive?" the sovereign then asked.

"Oh no," answered the English master, "it's not alive."

"It's made out of pure English steel."

"We forged it in the form of a flea

and inside there's clockwork with a spring.

Be kind enough to turn the key

and it'll do a dance."

"Ah - ah - ah!" the Tsar said curiously.

"Kindly look in the microscope."

- Ah - ah - ah!

- Ah - ah!

The tsar immediately ordered Platov

that a million be given to the Englishmen

in any money they liked.

The Englishmen asked for silver

as they had a poor opinion of banknotes.

The British whispered

and showed another cunning trick of theirs:

they gave the tsar the flea

but there wasn't any box to put it in

because the case was said to be state-owned.

They had a strict government policy about it

that could not be sacrificed even for the czar.

Platov got all worked up over this.

"What's all the swindling about?"

"You made the tsar a present and got a million for it and that's still not enough for you!

You always get a box with everything you buy."

But the tsar said: "Don't you go upsetting my politics. You leave matters alone;

it's not your business. They have their own customs,"

and he asked,

"How much does the nut cost, to put the flea in?"

The English asked another five thousand for it.

The Tsar ordered Platov to pay,

and said to the English: ""You are the first craftsmen in the world

and my people can do

nothing to beat you."

There was nothing Platov could say. He only slipped the microscope into his pocket,

for, he thought, it should go with the other things

and, besides, they had paid out enough money as it was.

The remarkable flea of English blue steel

remained in Alexander Pavlovich's whalebone casket

while the sovereign became melancholic from the military campaign

until he died in Taganrog.

Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich did not at first

pay any attention to the flea

because of the disturbances when he ascended 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 call us courageous He will call us, his chidren,

How we should be this How we should be 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?"

Now find out from where it has come 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 sulking on his couch and smoking his pipe.

As soon as he heard that there was such trouble in the palace

he rose up from his couch, threw away his pipe

and appeared before the tsar wearing all his medals.

"I was there," he says, "when it happened!

And this is how I could see it with 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 should see we Russians can do better and see if our

craftsmen at Tula can't trump the English.

"Bravo, bravo!

"That was well said, my brave old man,

said the Emperor.

and I will trust you to prove it".

- So here is our Plakhov General!

Here and on the battlefields

he became a master.

Aye, yes, by the battlefields

he unfolded it.

The tsar became aware of craftsmanship

he hadn't been aware of!

Chief master City of Tula Ivan Moskvin

Left-hander Weapon

"This casket," said Platov, "contains

a masterfully made English steel flea of fine work.

The sovereign ordered you to do your best

to outclass the English masters!"

"Are we not of the true Orthodox faith?"

The gunsmiths responded:

The English aren't fools, either. They are quite clever, in fact,

and their art has a lot of sense to it."

"To beat them, we have to think."

"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."

"Alright, lads!"

In the smithy! In the smithy!

In the smithy young blacksmiths, In the smithy 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 grove, to the grove! Let's go, Dunya, to the grove, to the grove!

The Cossacks got the roof off but were knocked off their feet themselves

by the foul air that burst out, for the gunsmiths

had been working continuously in the little

closed room and the atmosphere had

become so thick that a man

used to fresh air couldn't stand a single whiff of it.

"We're just knocking in the last nail and

and when it's done we'll bring our work."

"Let me have it!" Platov cried.

"What's the meaning of this?" asked Platov. "Where's your work?!"

"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!"

"There's no need to insult us like that."

"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,"

You shouldn't take him away like that without a paper* *(Traveling-permit for people with a serf status)

because he wouldn't be able to get back!

"There's a paper for you!"

"Off you go, lads."

"Oh! He was such a good master."

"And what did my Tula craftsmen do

that's better than the English flea?"

asked the Emperor.

"How dare you deceive the Emperor?"

"Wanted to surpass the English masters!"

"What's the matter, young man,

we looked at the flea this way and that

and couldn't find anything worth talking about." the sovereign asked.

"That way, Your Majesty, you won't see anything,

because our work, for a thing of that size,"

is too fine." - answers Lefty.

"Please look."

Take a look, if you please, why, the rogues

have shod the English flea's feet!"

"Is your name there, too?" asked the tsar.

"Oh, no," said Lefty, "mine's the only one that isn't there."

"Why?" asked the Emperor.

"Because", said the left-hander,

"my work was smaller than those shoes:

I made the nails the shoes are put on with.

That's something you can't see in any microscope."

"Where is your microscope," asked the tsar,

"the one you used to produce such a marvel?"

"We are poor people and can't afford such things

but our eyes are trained to the work."

"Please look. "

The sovereign ordered that the shod flea be packed up

and sent back to England as a sort of gift

so that the people there would know that it didn't impress us.

The tsar ordered a special messenger to take the flea,

and ordered Lefty to go with him.

[Don't drink too little or too much but just average.]

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

Time to wail.

Ai, luli, luli, C'est tres joli.

Time to wail

"Good work," said the English masters,

- subtly done, with meaning."

The Englishmen patted Lefty on the shoulder and shook

hands with him as an equal,

"Kamerad," they said, "Kamerad, fine craftsman".

"Let's have a drink!"

"Kamerad, stay here with us. We'll give you a good education

and you'll become a wonderful craftsman."

The English would show him their factories

and their skill in making things.

Lefty wasn't so interested in the way

they made new muskets

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 weapons]

[Past their use. Written off]

"That", he said, "heats 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 all of you,

but now I want to get home".

[Hard sea]

"Where is our Russia?" - Lefty asked.

"If you're not a coward, 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?"

"This is my business," answers the Left-hander.

"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 the Left-hander.

"Cross yourself and turn away,"

"that is the devil rising out of the deep."

"No! This is a red sea water-eyed. "

"No, the Black Burin."

"No, a red-eyed water-eyed."

St. Petersburg.

From here on the fate of the Left-hander and the skipper's mate

began to vary greatly,

and the Englishman was taken to

the English Embassy on the English Quay and 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 document,

so they took him to a second

and a third and a fourth

and so they kept on until morning, dragging him round all the distant alleys

until he was all beaten black and blue.

The mariner meanwhile in the embassy was lying in a warm bath.

The apothecary there and then rolled a pill and put it in his mouth.

"Tell the tsar that the English don't clean their musket barrels with brick-dust;

The policeman took lefty

to the Obukhov Free Hospital

where people of unknown origin were taken in to die.

OBUHVINSKAYA FREE HOSPITAL

"Tell the tsar that the English don't clean their musket barrels with brick-dust;

we shouldn't clean them that way, either,

for if there should be a war, which God forbid, they won't be any use for shooting.

"Tell the tsar that the English don't clean their musket barrels with brick-dust;

"Tell the tsar that the English don't clean their musket barrels with brick-dust;

we shouldn't clean them that way, either,

"Tell the tsar that the English don't clean their musket barrels with brick-dust;

we shouldn't clean them that way, either,

for if there should be a war, which God forbid, they won't be any use for shooting.

Well, 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 days long past,"

Lefty's real name,

like those of many of the world's greatest geniuses,

has been lost for posterity;

But as a myth created by the fantasy of the people

he is remembered by us now

with great pride and love.

THE END - translated with help of George H. Hanna's story translation by Eus of Pepi' & Bornik's Russian subs

Subtitles: 2018, bornik @ KG