The Song of Chapayev

The Song of Chapayev (1944) is a five-minute animated short you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Olga Khodataeva and Pyotr Nosov. The whole film is built around a single song about the famous Red commander of the Russian Civil War.

This Vasily Chapayev comes not from live-action drama but from popular memory — drawing and music together form an almost poster-like, sung portrait of the hero. It was made in 1944, in the middle of the war, when stories like this were meant to lift morale.

A small but curious page from early Soviet animation, worth a look for anyone drawn to rare wartime shorts. Stream The Song of Chapayev (1944) online on iFILM.