Tsekhanovsky drew posters, designed agitational trains, painted cinemas and clubs, carved sculptures and made scenery for the front theatre.
[6] In 1923 Tsekhanovsky demobilized and returned to Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd, renamed to Leningrad in a year) where he continued the art career.
[6][7] In 1927 he illustrated the Post poem by Samuil Marshak about a letter that followed his friend Boris Zhitkov in his adventures around the world.
Tsekhanovsky, unfamiliar with the media, collaborated with Ivan Druzhinin and his own wife Vera Tsekhanovskaya, both professionally trained beginning animators.
They had to improvise on their way and ended with a mix of traditional and cutout animation (called flat marionettes at the time) that brought Tsekhanovsky's unique vision to life.
[6] The silent version of Post was released in 1929, and in 1930 a musical score by Mikhail Deshevov was added along with a voiceover and some text by Daniil Kharms, while the positive was colorized by hand.
[8] For the first time Soviet press started talking about animation as a new form of art, which was in fact director's original intention.
The 1930 version of Post already featured a rhythmical picture synchronized with the pre-recorded sound, making it a separate, independent element of the film.
[6] In 1931 he directed two experimental "naturophotographic" live shorts Gopak and Pacific 231 made as attempts to illustrate a national dance and Arthur Honegger's orchestral work by synchronizing visual imagery with music.
Shostakovich loved the opportunity to compose an innovative satirical opera with abstract characters led by his music and not by someone else.
It wasn't released, but shelved instead "for better times" which never happened, as it was destroyed in fire caused by the 1941 bombings of Leningrad that hit Lenfilm.
[15] Once again he collaborated with Samuil Marshak and Dmitri Shostakovich whose score is performed independently at opera houses today.
[13][16] Unlike Shostakovich who enjoyed working with Tsekhanovsky, Marshak was annoyed by the changes made to his script (including the more kids-friendly ending) and requested to edit the film, which led to a conflict between Lenfilm and Mosfilm management.
He lost a lot of weight, he witnessed the fire that ruined Lenfilm and all its archives, the deaths of his colleagues including Ivan Druzhinin who was killed during the Winter War campaign.
[9] Between 1948 and 1960 he produced a number of fairy tale adaptations that made excessive use of this technology to the point that actors who posed for the characters could be easily spotted.
[2][20] With Fox, Beaver and the Rest (1960) Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovsky started to make a return to their experimental past.
Two satirical fables by Sergey Mikhalkov were presented by the author himself who was holding two pieces of paper with the drawn characters coming to life.
In two years the couple released The Wild Swans based on H. C. Andersen's fairy tale which became the first Soviet widescreen animated feature.