Taken from a friend's feed in Dairy.

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- Do you remember "Prostokvashino"? I have been tormented by this question since childhood. This is Uncle Fyodor, he can talk. This is the dog Sharik, he can talk too. This is the cat Matroskin, he too... And these are cows. They are stupid and cannot speak. How so?
- How do you imagine? You milk a cow, and she’s like: “Come on, Uncle Fyodor, knead my nipples more rhythmically!”
*
If we put aside the erotica with a bestiality slant, a completely reasonable question remains. Why do some animals talk in Prostokvashino and others don’t? The same cows, little jackdaws, or hare running from a photo gun behave like ordinary representatives of the fauna, demonstrating intelligence that is quite normal for the animal world.
But Matroskin or the same Sharik is an exception. And what an exception!.. And they may not even pretend to be ordinary pets.

Will not help! The whole country knows that Matroskin can also embroider, and on a machine too...
What if Matroskin is not a cat at all?

The phrase expressed by another cartoon character, the brownie Kuzya, suits him very well: “I’m not greedy, I’m homely.”
What if Matroskin is a brownie?
An ordinary brownie, temporarily without shelter. Moreover
a) This brownie is clearly of rural origin. For Matroskin is uncomfortable in the city. It’s hard for him in the clutches of the city, there’s nowhere to turn around, he needs space, an ordinary village house. "Cow, farm, winter supplies."
b) He lost his home quite recently. Either it was demolished, or it collapsed from old age. But definitely recently, because Matroskin has not lost his skills. Having settled in Prostokvashino, he very quickly restores the farm, taking over leadership - after all, a city boy does not understand anything about village life.
c) For all his practicality, he is characterized by a certain spirit of adventurism - and hereditary, since his grandmother, a kikimora, at one time, after the demolition of her home, moved not to a new village house or high-rise building, but on board the ship "Admiral Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern", taking on the appearance of an ordinary cats. So our hero followed her example and took on a cat’s form when he lost his corner and went in search of a new home and a new owner. And why not to the city, since it has already come so close?
d) He manages to charm Uncle Fyodor very quickly. Obviously there was some magical influence.

And it is quite obvious that this brownie will not take root in the city. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Matroskin, instead of using magic and winning over his mother, takes advantage of Uncle Fyodor’s quarrel with his parents and successfully instills in the new owner a desire to move to the village, and even organizes this move - it is unlikely that a city boy would have decided on this himself .

And Sharik is also a house spirit. Let us remember that he takes care of the housekeeping along with Matroskin - he sweeps the floors and washes the dishes. Yes, and the dough can be substituted. And if Matroskin is not a native of Prostokvashino, since he does not know what is happening in the village, then Sharik is either a local, or he wandered here some time ago. He doesn’t have a house either, and he can’t occupy a new one without the owner. So he took on the appearance of a dog, since it is easier to survive on the street in this skin.

That's how they found each other. And Uncle Fyodor leads the spirits where they need to go. And they hide it for this, averting the eyes of the police and the village council (they moved in without documents, they “rented” a cow without documents). Before leaving, Matroskin even bewitched mom and dad slightly that they would never find their son and would not contact the police. But it doesn’t work out that way with Pechkin. He is very strong energetically.

By the way, Pechkin is an obvious psychic. And not a simple village sorcerer, but a psychic in the service of the authorities, but retired. For he quite calmly conducts conversations with a cat and a dog, perfectly understanding their origin, but for him this is normal. This means he had access to documents about house spirits. But the authorities recently carried out a campaign to combat obscurantism, so extrasensory perception specialists found themselves out of work. Pechkin returned to his native village, getting a job at the post office (since he had not yet reached retirement). That is why, no matter how much he wants to give these obvious representatives of the otherworldly to the KGB laboratory (well, in what kind of “clinic” are they conducting experiments on animals, it is obvious that this is a mailbox), but he does not do this. First, still resenting the resignation. And secondly, for his dying village, two whole house spirits are a chance not to die completely.

However, there is one difference between the two house spirits - Matroskin and Sharik. Which can be understood by analyzing their conflicts in the second and third cartoon. Yes, they are based on the dissimilarity of characters, but what causes it?

Firstly, Sharik begins to be influenced by his animal appearance. Taking on the appearance of a dog (since it is easier to survive in this skin), Sharik gradually gets used to this role, so much so that he begins to rush to hunt. True, in order to understand the theory, I first had to subscribe to and read a special magazine. But since he is not a real dog, the killing instinct is unusual for him. So it turned out to be a kind of hunter-animal defender.

And secondly, if in the first cartoon a hierarchy had not yet been established in the house, then little by little Matroskin takes over. And it becomes difficult for two brownies in one house. It seems to me that this indicates that Matroskin practically did not stand idle and, having lost his owner, very quickly found a new one. But before meeting our heroes, Sharik had to be homeless for a significant time, so although his housekeeping skills were not lost, they ceased to be the meaning of his life. That's why his character became... so goofy.

And finally, the third unusually intelligent animal in this story is the beaver that pulled Sharik out of the river. Everything is simple here. Naturally, before us is an ordinary merman. He has nothing to share with the house spirits. They are all already an endangered species. So if they don’t stick to each other, they won’t survive.

This is how the yogurt mysticism turns out...

Our world is full of mysteries that seem unsolvable. The mystery of Roswell, the mystery of the Kennedy assassination, giant inscriptions in the Nazca desert, what really happened to the Dyatlov group, where the crew of the Mary Celeste went in the Bermuda Triangle and many other questions remain without a final answer and decoding. This often happens for the reason that people are afraid to strain their logic and analyze the facts, which are abundant in the public domain. Something subconscious inside us, some mental blocks, do not allow us to see the obvious, but forces us to see only what is generally accepted.

But it is human nature to strive to find out the truth, sometimes bitter - isn’t this what girls who read their boyfriends’ emails and text messages strive for?

And sometimes the truth is not just bitter, it is terrifying.

I thought about this recently when, together with my son, I watched a cartoon that rightfully occupies a place in the “Golden Collection of Soviet Animation”, which was watched by more than one generation of Soviet children. Surprisingly, none of them, including me, saw in him anything other than the generally accepted interpretation of events. Until this very moment.

I believe that we should forget about stereotypes and try to understand what the author wanted to tell us about, guided solely by logic and common sense. And accept the truth that remained hidden from our consciousness for many years, get answers to a riddle that for some reason no one saw.

So, the unfading Soviet classic is “Three from Prostokvashino”.

What is this cartoon really about?

The story begins simply - a certain boy comes down the stairs and chews a sausage sandwich. Right on the stairs, the boy meets a cat “living in the attic,” “which is being renovated.” Let's remember these key words, they are very important for understanding the essence of what is happening, we will return to them later.

A conversation between a boy and a cat in itself is not something unusual for cartoons, although as a rule, animals talk to each other in them, and not to people. But there are plenty of exceptions - for example, Russians folk tales, in which talking frogs, hares and bears operate. But this cartoon is not a fairy tale at all, as we will soon see.

From the dialogue with the cat, a funny thing emerges - the boy’s name is “Uncle Fyodor”, which makes the viewer think about the question - why is a small-looking boy called so in an adult way - “uncle”? And if he is an uncle, then where is his nephew? What happened so brightly in the past that the prefix “uncle” was firmly attached to Fedor? I used to wonder about this question too, but was not ready to know the answer. But he is here - before your eyes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Uncle Fyodor lives with his mother and father, no mention of other relatives, especially his nephew. It seems that this topic is painful for this family and is simply passed over in silence.

Uncle Fyodor brings a new cat friend home from the “attic that is being renovated.” The parents do not approve of their son's behavior, and Uncle Fyodor immediately goes on the run. Such street boys in the Soviet Union were skillfully sought out by law enforcement agencies and immediately put on a register, sometimes psychiatric. It’s strange, but Uncle Fyodor’s parents are in no hurry to contact the police, which poses a new mystery for us: why don’t they do this?

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor and his new friend, the cat Matroskin, arrive in the village of Prostokvashino. Why did the boy choose this particular locality? Is this an accident or a deliberate step? We will soon get the answer to this question, but first we will figure out what this village is like.

"Prostokvashino" is a strange and, I would say, scary place. Nobody lives in the village - you can’t hear the roar of cows, the crowing of roosters and other sounds inherent in Soviet villages. All its inhabitants suddenly left the village, moving “across the river.” Let's take a look at this frame - this is where the residents of Prostokvashino moved to. Leaving the warm houses with half-kitchen stoves, vegetable gardens, and household chores, they packed up and left the village in a hurry, preferring to private houses the dubious pleasure of living in standard high-rise buildings on an island in the very middle of the river.

It can be seen that, apart from high-rise buildings, there are no shops, no roads, or a hint of developed infrastructure on the island. There is not even a bridge or ferry connecting their new home to the mainland. But the residents of Prostokvashino seem to have taken this step without hesitation. What could drive them away from their familiar land?

The answer is obvious - fear. Only fear could force people, leaving everything behind, to move into panel housing, hoping that the river could save them from what they were running from. Shocked and horrified by what forced them to abandon their homes, people left them habitable. The houses are in excellent condition and you can try to rent them out to summer residents from Moscow, but for some reason this thought does not occur to the residents of Prostokvasha.

Moreover, one house is equipped with a friendly sign “live whoever you want.” The people who made this inscription know very well what they are being saved from. And worst of all, they know that this “Thing” that frightened them so much may return. This inscription is a timid and naive attempt not to anger something that will definitely come back, to appease it, to try to make it so that it does not want to cross the river, which hardly seems to the former residents of Prostokvashino to be a reliable protection. Renting out housing to those who know nothing about the sinister secrets of Prostokvashino means putting their lives at risk. The Prostokvasha residents cannot agree to this. Maybe the rental housing market is not developed in this region? We will get the answer to this question later.

Such villages and towns are widely described in literature, especially in the works of Stephen King and Lovecraft. Why was Prostokvashino never put on a par with the creepy American towns where evil was committed? I believe that we are talking about Soviet censorship, because of which this story had to be told the way it is told.

In the village, Uncle Fyodor makes a new friend - the dog Sharik, now they are “Three from Prostokvashino”. Sharik also speaks Russian and Uncle Fyodor understands him perfectly. The viewer still does not receive an answer - is this a fairy tale or not? Is it normal for animals to talk to people?

At this point, the viewer learns that the village is not completely empty. One person still lives in it. This is an employee of the Russian Post, an organization that many of our fellow citizens still consider to be the focus of evil, in many ways I think subconsciously precisely because of watching this cartoon in childhood - postman Pechkin. Stephen King might be surprised, but the Soviet and subsequently Russian audience sees a deep hidden meaning in this. In a completely deserted village, in which some great evil has happened that frightened the inhabitants, the organs of Soviet power are completely absent. There is no village council, no district police officer. There is only Pechkin, who works at the Post Office in a village where there is simply no one to deliver mail. There are no magazine subscribers or letter recipients in the village, and there are no pensioners left who could come for their pensions.

A reasonable question arises: is Pechkin really a postman? Maybe this is a war criminal hiding from retribution or a fugitive criminal who has chosen this godforsaken corner as his place of residence, into which a police officer would never even think of poking his nose, not to mention the agents of Simon Wiesenthal. Or maybe Pechkin is a sexual pervert? Isn’t this what the author of the film is talking about when he dresses Pechkin in a characteristic raincoat? Or is it precisely the Evil that many associate with Russian Post that drove the residents out of the village? Further analysis will show that everything is much more complicated.

Pechkin greets Uncle Fedor. The whole “trinity” greets him - but the articulation of the lips at this moment shows that all three are saying different things, and certainly not “thank you.” What exactly they are saying, anyone interested can easily find out for themselves by reviewing this point several times.

But Pechkin doesn’t seem to see anyone except Uncle Fyodor, isn’t it strange? This is another small touch that brings us closer to understanding what is happening.

The first question from newcomers addressed to Pechkin is very typical:

Are you from the police by any chance?

The newly arrived company is excited solely by this; obviously, they have no interest at all from law enforcement agencies, although it would seem that there is nothing to fear from a cat or a dog. This is a very significant fact, complementing the reluctance of Uncle Fyodor’s parents to contact the police with a statement about the missing child.

Reassured by the fact that Pechkin belongs to the Post Office, Uncle Fyodor announces his desire to subscribe to the Murzilka magazine, obviously neglecting the prospect of receiving a new issue in a few years or never receiving it, which is even more likely. Uncle Fyodor does what any little boy his age would do, but is he sincere? Is he trying to confuse Pechkin?

And here we return to the question that worries us - why Uncle Fyodor, having gone on the run, headed specifically to Prostokvashino. Has he ever been here before? Of course the answer is yes. It was his activity at Prostokvashino during his last visit that may have been the reason why the village residents chose to leave their usual habitat. But did everyone manage to escape?

Despite the fact that no one lives in the village except Pechkin, Uncle Fyodor waits until nightfall. This is his true goal and the viewer, of course, is not disappointed.

Unerringly orienting himself in complete darkness, Uncle Fyodor goes into the thicket of the forest and there, guided only by noticeable landmarks and animal instincts, in a matter of minutes he digs up a hefty chest. Uncle Fyodor comes up with ridiculous explanations for this - he says to the cat and dog that this is a “treasure”; to Pechkin, who came across on the way back, he declares that there are mushrooms in the chest. Even a primary school student who has read Tom Sawyer and Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” knows that treasures are looked for in a completely different way than Uncle Fyodor did. Uncle Fyodor knew what he was doing and was guided by a clear and precise calculation.

What's really in the chest? Valuables taken from the residents of Prostokvashino at gunpoint during his last visit to the village? Or is there the corpse of his unlucky nephew, who went with Fyodor into the night forest and met his fate there? Is this why they began to call Fyodor “uncle”? Perhaps, but this is only one part of the answer.

How did Pechkin end up in the forest at night? He is chasing a little jackdaw. Judging by the conversation, the little chick is seriously ill, and Pechkin proposes to “take him to the clinic for experiments.” This phrase can cause nothing but a smile. There is no clinic nearby and there cannot be; it would be good if it was an abandoned morgue for those whose bodies were found and not buried in chests.

Uncle Fyodor is not surprised when he hears the word “clinic” and declares that he will “cure the little jackdaw and teach him to talk.” Uncle Fyodor has no doubts about the illness of the little jackdaw. And at this very moment we receive an unexpected answer to the question - is what is unfolding before our eyes a fairy tale or not? Of course not. Being in a fairy tale, the little jackdaw would already be able to talk, like Totoshka and the crow Kaggy-Karr in Fairyland. But the little jackdaw can't.

It doesn’t matter what Pechkin himself did in the forest at night. It is important that after the conversation with Uncle Fyodor he twirls his finger at his temple. Pechkin understands that the boy is mentally ill.

And we understand that, like the little jackdaw, neither the cat Matroskin nor the dog Sharik can speak. Their voices simply sound in Uncle Fyodor’s head; he communicates with them as with real friends. And this is where it gets really scary. Uncle Fyodor is seriously and possibly terminally ill. The period of remission of his mental illness ended at the very beginning of the film, when the cat living in the “attic” appeared. “There’s something wrong with the attic,” and a second personality appears—the cat Matroskin. Either that day Uncle Fyodor forgot to take pills or give an injection, but he went on a rampage. The “Attic” requires serious “repairs,” but Uncle Fyodor does not understand this at that moment and runs, runs away from the house. Uncle Fyodor wants to thereby protect mom and dad and save them from the fate of their nephew, and possibly their aunt and uncle, who also most likely did not have the chance to escape on the island in a panel high-rise building.

Uncle Fyodor wrote in a farewell note “I love you very much.” “But I also love animals very much,” he added then, making it clear that he was no longer alone. Uncle Fyodor doesn’t want to write directly, although he knows very well that his parents won’t go to the police.

And Uncle Fyodor’s parents openly discuss his inclinations and the puzzle gradually becomes complete. Dad says that Uncle Fyodor would like to have “a whole bag of friends at home.” This is Uncle Fyodor's true inclinations - to hide children in a bag or, say, in a chest. Speculation about the fate of the “nephew” is no longer just guesswork. Fyodor’s mother does not think that we should give up on her son’s mental illness. She fears for her life and bitterly says “then my parents will start disappearing.” And we understand that Fedora’s “aunt and uncle,” natives of “Prostokvashino,” did not make it to the new panel housing, but went missing, like their “nephew.”

Fyodor’s mother is hysterical, he convinces her husband that the boy must be found before he does anything wrong.

Dad agrees. Naturally, going to the police is not an option - in this case, you can be jailed for a long time, so Fyodor’s parents decide to publish a “note in the newspaper.” And its text tells us a lot. In the note we see a photograph and height - twenty meters. The age is not indicated, and here we understand that this is no coincidence. Uncle Fyodor simply looks like a little boy and, by subscribing to the Murzilka magazine, he is simply masking his true age. He is at least 18 and he may well be held responsible for his actions, unless, of course, a psychiatric examination declares him insane.

Please note that when publishing the note, dad did everything so that the boy would not be found - neither his first name nor his surname, nor his age, nor his weight. There is no contact phone number either. Here we see the answer to the question that has already been raised - could the Prostokvashin residents rent out their houses to summer residents? Of course, yes, the “Will Hire” section is shown in the newspaper for a reason. There are a lot of offers for rent, but there are no people willing to rent out housing.

Fyodor's short stature and dwarfism are a symptom of a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases. There are both genetic disorders (look at Uncle Fyodor’s chin in profile) and hormonal ones, of which the lack of growth hormone is the least of the problems. It's hard to blame him for the crimes he committed. Having realized all the pain of imprisoning an adult man in a hundred and twenty centimeter body, you begin to empathize with Uncle Fyodor, understanding the burden he carries on his shoulders.

The notice about the search does not go unnoticed and catches the eye of Pechkin, who naturally looks through the criminal sections and police reports in all newspapers, since he himself is obviously wanted. Having seen a photo in the newspaper, Pechkin understands that he needs to “surrender” the boy. Understanding full well that Uncle Fyodor’s chest contained not mushrooms, but valuables, and possibly terrible incriminating evidence, Pechkin sensibly reasons that Fyodor is too dangerous to be blackmailed. And it’s better to take a bike than to end up in a bag and then in a chest.

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor’s illness is progressing. Consider the letter he writes to his parents on behalf of all the characters in his triple personality. He begins the touching letter himself, but quite quickly his hand is taken over by a second personality - a cat, then a dog. Having started the letter with a positive note, Fyodor suddenly subconsciously writes the truth - “but my health... is not very good.” From that moment on, the bestial nature of his brain no longer lets go of Fyodor, all he manages to write is “your son” and yet the ending is blurred - “Uncle Sharik”.

They understand perfectly well what the aggravation of their son threatens them with. One by one they lose consciousness from horror, and then the mother asks hopefully: “Maybe we’ve gone crazy?” Dad does not support her, answering dryly that “one by one they go crazy.” And at this moment both know perfectly well who they are talking about. Now you know too.

And Fedor is already in bed with a thermometer under his arm.

Visually, it seems that he has something simple - like meningitis, complicated by bird flu received from a sick little chick, but of course the question is more serious. A little more and the life of civilians in the central zone Soviet Union would have been under threat, and they would have had to be transported en masse to Russky Island if the little human that remained in Uncle Fyodor’s brain had completely given way to the bestial. But the threat has passed - the parents still decide to take Uncle Fyodor home, although they initially did not intend to do this - what other explanations can be given for the fact that they did not indicate their home phone number in the note?

Pechkin receives his bicycle, and the two animal personalities of Uncle Fyodor’s consciousness remain in the village and do not ride with him, which is why the viewer remains in the timid hope that the disease has receded under the onslaught of powerful medications. The question is for how long?

The cartoon, which rightfully took its place in the “Golden Fund of Animation,” unfortunately has not yet revealed all its secrets. But this certainly requires special psychiatric education and deep medical knowledge. And who knows what changes the Soviet censor made to the script, and what the filmmakers were simply forbidden to tell about. We may never know about this.

And the personality of the postman Pechkin with his analysis dark side still awaiting its researcher.

10:08 am : “Three from Prostokvashino” - a creepy underside of the Soviet classics

Our world is full of mysteries that seem unsolvable. The mystery of Roswell, the mystery of the Kennedy assassination, giant inscriptions in the Nazca desert, what really happened to the Dyatlov group, where the crew of the Mary Celeste went in the Bermuda Triangle and many other questions remain without a final answer and decoding. This often happens for the reason that people are afraid to strain their logic and analyze the facts, which are abundant in the public domain. Something subconscious inside us, some mental blocks, do not allow us to see the obvious, but forces us to see only what is generally accepted.

But it is human nature to strive to find out the truth, sometimes bitter - isn’t this what girls who read their boyfriends’ emails and text messages strive for?

And sometimes the truth is not just bitter, it is terrifying.

I thought about this recently when, together with my son, I watched a cartoon that rightfully occupies a place in the “Golden Collection of Soviet Animation”, which was watched by more than one generation of Soviet children. Surprisingly, none of them, including me, saw in him anything other than the generally accepted interpretation of events. Until this very moment.

I believe that we should forget about stereotypes and try to understand what the author wanted to tell us about, guided solely by logic and common sense. And accept the truth that remained hidden from our consciousness for many years, get answers to a riddle that for some reason no one saw.

So, the unfading Soviet classic is “Three from Prostokvashino”.

What is this cartoon really about?

The story begins simply - a certain boy comes down the stairs and chews a sausage sandwich. Right on the stairs, the boy meets a cat “living in the attic,” “which is being renovated.” Let's remember these key words, they are very important for understanding the essence of what is happening, we will return to them later.

A conversation between a boy and a cat in itself is not something unusual for cartoons, although as a rule, animals talk to each other in them, and not to people. But there are plenty of exceptions - for example, Russian folk tales, in which talking frogs, hares and bears operate. But this cartoon is not a fairy tale at all, as we will soon see.

From the dialogue with the cat, a funny thing emerges - the boy’s name is “Uncle Fyodor”, which makes the viewer think about the question - why is a small-looking boy called so in an adult way - “uncle”? And if he is an uncle, then where is his nephew? What happened so brightly in the past that the prefix “uncle” was firmly attached to Fedor? I used to wonder about this question too, but was not ready to know the answer. But he is here - before your eyes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Uncle Fyodor lives with his mother and father, no mention of other relatives, especially his nephew. It seems that this topic is painful for this family and is simply passed over in silence.

Uncle Fyodor brings a new cat friend home from the “attic that is being renovated.” The parents do not approve of their son's behavior, and Uncle Fyodor immediately goes on the run. Such street boys in the Soviet Union were skillfully sought out by law enforcement agencies and immediately put on a register, sometimes psychiatric. It’s strange, but Uncle Fyodor’s parents are in no hurry to contact the police, which poses a new mystery for us: why don’t they do this?

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor and his new friend, the cat Matroskin, arrive in the village of Prostokvashino. Why did the boy choose this particular locality? Is this an accident or a deliberate step? We will soon get the answer to this question, but first we will figure out what this village is like.

"Prostokvashino" is a strange and, I would say, scary place. Nobody lives in the village - you can’t hear the roar of cows, the crowing of roosters and other sounds inherent in Soviet villages. All its inhabitants suddenly left the village, moving “across the river.” Let's take a look at this frame - this is where the residents of Prostokvashino moved to. Leaving the warm houses with half-kitchen stoves, vegetable gardens, and household chores, they packed up and left the village in a hurry, preferring to private houses the dubious pleasure of living in standard high-rise buildings on an island in the very middle of the river.

It can be seen that, apart from high-rise buildings, there are no shops, no roads, or a hint of developed infrastructure on the island. There is not even a bridge or ferry connecting their new home to the mainland. But the residents of Prostokvashino seem to have taken this step without hesitation. What could drive them away from their familiar land?

The answer is obvious - fear. Only fear could force people, leaving everything behind, to move into panel housing, hoping that the river could save them from what they were running from. Shocked and horrified by what forced them to abandon their homes, people left them habitable. The houses are in excellent condition and you can try to rent them out to summer residents from Moscow, but for some reason this thought does not occur to the residents of Prostokvasha.

Moreover, one house is equipped with a friendly sign “live whoever you want.” The people who made this inscription know very well what they are being saved from. And worst of all, they know that this “Thing” that frightened them so much may return. This inscription is a timid and naive attempt not to anger something that will definitely come back, to appease it, to try to make it so that it does not want to cross the river, which hardly seems to the former residents of Prostokvashino to be a reliable protection. Renting out housing to those who know nothing about the sinister secrets of Prostokvashino means putting their lives at risk. The Prostokvasha residents cannot agree to this. Maybe the rental housing market is not developed in this region? We will get the answer to this question later.

Such villages and towns are widely described in literature, especially in the works of Stephen King and Lovecraft. Why was Prostokvashino never put on a par with the creepy American towns where evil was committed? I believe that we are talking about Soviet censorship, because of which this story had to be told the way it is told.

In the village, Uncle Fyodor makes a new friend - the dog Sharik, now they are “Three from Prostokvashino”. Sharik also speaks Russian and Uncle Fyodor understands him perfectly. The viewer still does not receive an answer - is this a fairy tale or not? Is it normal for animals to talk to people?

At this point, the viewer learns that the village is not completely empty. One person still lives in it. This is an employee of the Russian Post, an organization that many of our fellow citizens still consider to be the focus of evil, in many ways I think subconsciously precisely because of watching this cartoon in childhood - postman Pechkin. Stephen King might be surprised, but the Soviet and subsequently Russian audience sees a deep hidden meaning in this. In a completely deserted village, in which some great evil has happened that frightened the inhabitants, the organs of Soviet power are completely absent. There is no village council, no district police officer. There is only Pechkin, who works at the Post Office in a village where there is simply no one to deliver mail. There are no magazine subscribers or letter recipients in the village, and there are no pensioners left who could come for their pensions.

A reasonable question arises: is Pechkin really a postman? Maybe this is a war criminal hiding from retribution or a fugitive criminal who has chosen this godforsaken corner as his place of residence, into which a police officer would never even think of poking his nose, not to mention the agents of Simon Wiesenthal. Or maybe Pechkin is a sexual pervert? Isn’t this what the author of the film is talking about when he dresses Pechkin in a characteristic raincoat? Or is it precisely the Evil that many associate with Russian Post that drove the residents out of the village? Further analysis will show that everything is much more complicated.

Pechkin greets Uncle Fedor. The whole “trinity” greets him - but the articulation of the lips at this moment shows that all three are saying different things, and certainly not “thank you.” What exactly they are saying, anyone interested can easily find out for themselves by reviewing this point several times.

But Pechkin doesn’t seem to see anyone except Uncle Fyodor, isn’t it strange? This is another small touch that brings us closer to understanding what is happening.

The first question from newcomers addressed to Pechkin is very typical:

Are you from the police by any chance?

The newly arrived company is excited solely by this; obviously, they have no interest at all from law enforcement agencies, although it would seem that there is nothing to fear from a cat or a dog. This is a very significant fact, complementing the reluctance of Uncle Fyodor’s parents to contact the police with a statement about the missing child.

Reassured by the fact that Pechkin belongs to the Post Office, Uncle Fyodor announces his desire to subscribe to the Murzilka magazine, obviously neglecting the prospect of receiving a new issue in a few years or never receiving it, which is even more likely. Uncle Fyodor does what any little boy his age would do, but is he sincere? Is he trying to confuse Pechkin?

And here we return to the question that worries us - why Uncle Fyodor, having gone on the run, headed specifically to Prostokvashino. Has he ever been here before? Of course the answer is yes. It was his activity at Prostokvashino during his last visit that may have been the reason why the village residents chose to leave their usual habitat. But did everyone manage to escape?

Despite the fact that no one lives in the village except Pechkin, Uncle Fyodor waits until nightfall. This is his true goal and the viewer, of course, is not disappointed.

Unerringly orienting himself in complete darkness, Uncle Fyodor goes into the thicket of the forest and there, guided only by noticeable landmarks and animal instincts, in a matter of minutes he digs up a hefty chest. Uncle Fyodor comes up with ridiculous explanations for this - he says to the cat and dog that this is a “treasure”; to Pechkin, who came across on the way back, he declares that there are mushrooms in the chest. Even a primary school student who has read Tom Sawyer and Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” knows that treasures are looked for in a completely different way than Uncle Fyodor did. Uncle Fyodor knew what he was doing and was guided by a clear and precise calculation.

What's really in the chest? Valuables taken from the residents of Prostokvashino at gunpoint during his last visit to the village? Or is there the corpse of his unlucky nephew, who went with Fyodor into the night forest and met his fate there? Is this why they began to call Fyodor “uncle”? Perhaps, but this is only one part of the answer.

How did Pechkin end up in the forest at night? He is chasing a little jackdaw. Judging by the conversation, the little chick is seriously ill, and Pechkin proposes to “take him to the clinic for experiments.” This phrase can cause nothing but a smile. There is no clinic nearby and there cannot be; it would be good if it was an abandoned morgue for those whose bodies were found and not buried in chests.

Uncle Fyodor is not surprised when he hears the word “clinic” and declares that he will “cure the little jackdaw and teach him to talk.” Uncle Fyodor has no doubts about the illness of the little jackdaw. And at this very moment we receive an unexpected answer to the question - is what is unfolding before our eyes a fairy tale or not? Of course not. Being in a fairy tale, the little jackdaw would already be able to talk, like Totoshka and the crow Kaggy-Karr in the Magic Land. But the little jackdaw can't.

It doesn’t matter what Pechkin himself did in the forest at night. It is important that after the conversation with Uncle Fyodor he twirls his finger at his temple. Pechkin understands that the boy is mentally ill.

And we understand that, like the little jackdaw, neither the cat Matroskin nor the dog Sharik can speak. Their voices simply sound in Uncle Fyodor’s head; he communicates with them as with real friends. And this is where it gets really scary. Uncle Fyodor is seriously and possibly terminally ill. The period of remission of his mental illness ended at the very beginning of the film, when the cat living in the “attic” appeared. “There’s something wrong with the attic,” and a second personality appears—the cat Matroskin. Either that day Uncle Fyodor forgot to take pills or give an injection, but he went on a rampage. The “Attic” requires serious “repairs,” but Uncle Fyodor does not understand this at that moment and runs, runs away from the house. Uncle Fyodor wants to thereby protect mom and dad and save them from the fate of their nephew, and possibly their aunt and uncle, who also most likely did not have the chance to escape on the island in a panel high-rise building.

Uncle Fyodor wrote in a farewell note “I love you very much.” “But I also love animals very much,” he added then, making it clear that he was no longer alone. Uncle Fyodor doesn’t want to write directly, although he knows very well that his parents won’t go to the police.

And Uncle Fyodor’s parents openly discuss his inclinations and the puzzle gradually becomes complete. Dad says that Uncle Fyodor would like to have “a whole bag of friends at home.” This is Uncle Fyodor's true inclinations - to hide children in a bag or, say, in a chest. Speculation about the fate of the “nephew” is no longer just guesswork. Fyodor’s mother does not think that we should give up on her son’s mental illness. She fears for her life and bitterly says “then my parents will start disappearing.” And we understand that Fedora’s “aunt and uncle,” natives of “Prostokvashino,” did not make it to the new panel housing, but went missing, like their “nephew.”

Fyodor’s mother is hysterical, he convinces her husband that the boy must be found before he does anything wrong.

Dad agrees. Naturally, going to the police is not an option - in this case, you can be jailed for a long time, so Fyodor’s parents decide to publish a “note in the newspaper.” And its text tells us a lot. In the note we see a photograph and height - twenty meters. The age is not indicated, and here we understand that this is no coincidence. Uncle Fyodor simply looks like a little boy and, by subscribing to the Murzilka magazine, he is simply masking his true age. He is at least 18 and he may well be held responsible for his actions, unless, of course, a psychiatric examination declares him insane.

Please note that when publishing the note, dad did everything so that the boy would not be found - neither his first name nor his surname, nor his age, nor his weight. There is no contact phone number either. Here we see the answer to the question that has already been raised - could the Prostokvashin residents rent out their houses to summer residents? Of course, yes, the “Will Hire” section is shown in the newspaper for a reason. There are a lot of offers for rent, but there are no people willing to rent out housing.

Fyodor's short stature and dwarfism are a symptom of a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases. There are both genetic disorders (look at Uncle Fyodor’s chin in profile) and hormonal ones, of which the lack of growth hormone is the least of the problems. It's hard to blame him for the crimes he committed. Having realized all the pain of imprisoning an adult man in a hundred and twenty centimeter body, you begin to empathize with Uncle Fyodor, understanding the burden he carries on his shoulders.

The notice about the search does not go unnoticed and catches the eye of Pechkin, who naturally looks through the criminal sections and police reports in all newspapers, since he himself is obviously wanted. Having seen a photo in the newspaper, Pechkin understands that he needs to “surrender” the boy. Understanding full well that Uncle Fyodor’s chest contained not mushrooms, but valuables, and possibly terrible incriminating evidence, Pechkin sensibly reasons that Fyodor is too dangerous to be blackmailed. And it’s better to take a bike than to end up in a bag and then in a chest.

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor’s illness is progressing. Consider the letter he writes to his parents on behalf of all the characters in his triple personality. He begins the touching letter himself, but quite quickly his hand is taken over by a second personality - a cat, then a dog. Having started the letter with a positive note, Fyodor suddenly subconsciously writes the truth - “but my health... is not very good.” From that moment on, the bestial nature of his brain no longer lets go of Fyodor, all he manages to write is “your son” and yet the ending is blurred - “Uncle Sharik”.

They understand perfectly well what the aggravation of their son threatens them with. One by one they lose consciousness from horror, and then the mother asks hopefully: “Maybe we’ve gone crazy?” Dad does not support her, answering dryly that “one by one they go crazy.” And at this moment both know perfectly well who they are talking about. Now you know too.

And Fedor is already in bed with a thermometer under his arm.

Visually, it seems that he has something simple - like meningitis, complicated by bird flu received from a sick little chick, but of course the question is more serious. A little more and the lives of civilians in the central zone of the Soviet Union would have been in jeopardy, and they would have had to be transported en masse to Russky Island if the little human that remained in Uncle Fyodor’s brain had completely given way to the bestial. But the threat has passed - the parents still decide to take Uncle Fyodor home, although they initially did not intend to do this - what other explanations can be given for the fact that they did not indicate their home phone number in the note?

Pechkin receives his bicycle, and the two animal personalities of Uncle Fyodor’s consciousness remain in the village and do not ride with him, which is why the viewer remains in the timid hope that the disease has receded under the onslaught of powerful medications. The question is for how long?

The cartoon, which rightfully took its place in the “Golden Fund of Animation,” unfortunately has not yet revealed all its secrets. But this certainly requires special psychiatric education and deep medical knowledge. And who knows what changes the Soviet censor made to the script, and what the filmmakers were simply forbidden to tell about. We may never know about this.

And the personality of the postman Pechkin with an analysis of his dark side is still waiting for its researcher.

The terrible secret “Three from Prostokvashino”

“Three from Prostokvashino” is an eerie underbelly of Soviet classics.

This, not at all a children's fairy tale, has a hidden, frightening meaning. What is this cartoon really about?

The story begins simply - a certain boy comes down the stairs and chews a sausage sandwich.

Right on the stairs, the boy meets a cat “living in the attic,” “which is being renovated.” Let's remember these key words, they are very important for understanding the essence of what is happening, we will return to them later.

A conversation between a boy and a cat in itself is not something unusual for cartoons, although as a rule, animals talk to each other in them, and not to people. But there are plenty of exceptions - for example, Russian folk tales, in which talking frogs, hares and bears operate. But this cartoon is not a fairy tale at all, as we will soon see.

From the dialogue with the cat, a funny thing emerges - the boy’s name is “Uncle Fyodor”, which makes the viewer think about the question - why is a small-looking boy called so adultly - “uncle”? And if he is an uncle, then where is his nephew? What happened so brightly in the past that the prefix “uncle” was firmly attached to Fedor? I used to wonder about this question too, but was not ready to know the answer. But he is here - before my eyes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Uncle Fyodor lives with his mother and father, no mention of other relatives, especially his nephew. It seems that this topic is painful for this family and is simply passed over in silence.

Uncle Fyodor brings a new friend, a cat, home from the “attic that is being renovated.” The parents do not approve of their son's behavior, and Uncle Fyodor immediately goes on the run. Such street boys in the Soviet Union were skillfully sought out by law enforcement agencies and immediately put on a register, sometimes psychiatric. It’s strange, but Uncle Fyodor’s parents are in no hurry to contact the police, which poses a new mystery for us: why don’t they do this?

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor and his new friend, the cat Matroskin, arrive in the village of Prostokvashino. Why did the boy choose this particular locality? Is this an accident or a deliberate step? We will soon get the answer to this question, but first we will figure out what this village is like.

"Prostokvashino" is a strange and, I would say, scary place. No one lives in the village - you can’t hear the roar of cows, the crowing of roosters and other sounds inherent in Soviet villages. All its inhabitants suddenly left the village, moving “across the river.” Let's take a look at this frame - this is where the residents of Prostokvashino moved to. Leaving the warm houses with half-kitchen stoves, vegetable gardens, and household chores, they packed up and left the village in a hurry, preferring to private houses the dubious pleasure of living in standard high-rise buildings on an island in the very middle of the river.

It can be seen that, apart from high-rise buildings, there are no shops, no roads, or a hint of developed infrastructure on the island. There is not even a bridge or ferry connecting their new home to the mainland. But the residents of Prostokvashino seem to have taken this step without hesitation. What could drive them away from their familiar land?

The answer is obvious - fear. Only fear could force people, leaving everything behind, to move into panel housing, hoping that the river could save them from what they were running from. Shocked and horrified by what forced them to abandon their homes, people left them habitable. The houses are in excellent condition and you can try to rent them out to summer residents from Moscow, but for some reason this thought does not occur to the residents of Prostokvasha.

Moreover, one house is equipped with a friendly sign “live whoever you want.” The people who made this inscription know very well what they are being saved from. And worst of all, they know that this “Thing” that frightened them so much may return. This inscription is a timid and naive attempt not to anger something that will definitely come back, to appease it, to try to make it so that it does not want to cross the river, which hardly seems to the former residents of Prostokvashino to be a reliable protection. Renting out housing to those who know nothing about the sinister secrets of Prostokvashino means putting their lives at risk. The Prostokvasha residents cannot agree to this. Maybe the rental housing market is not developed in this region? We will get the answer to this question later.

Such villages and towns are widely described in literature, especially in the works of Stephen King and Lovecraft. Why was Prostokvashino never put on a par with the creepy American towns where evil was committed? I believe that we are talking about Soviet censorship, because of which this story had to be told the way it is told.

In the village, Uncle Fyodor makes a new friend - the dog Sharik, now they are “Three from Prostokvashino”. Sharik also speaks Russian and Uncle Fyodor understands him perfectly. The viewer still does not receive an answer - is this a fairy tale or not? Is it normal for animals to talk to people?

At this point, the viewer learns that the village is not completely empty. One person still lives in it. This is an employee of the Russian Post, an organization that many of our fellow citizens still consider to be the focus of evil, in many ways I think subconsciously precisely because of watching this cartoon in childhood - postman Pechkin. Stephen King might be surprised, but the Soviet and subsequently Russian audience sees a deep hidden meaning in this. In a completely deserted village, in which some great evil has happened that frightened the inhabitants, the organs of Soviet power are completely absent. There is no village council, no district police officer. There is only Pechkin, who works at the Post Office in a village where there is simply no one to deliver mail. There are no magazine subscribers or letter recipients in the village, and there are no pensioners left who could come for their pensions.

A reasonable question arises: is Pechkin really a postman? Maybe this is a war criminal hiding from retribution or a fugitive criminal who has chosen this godforsaken corner as his place of residence, into which a police officer would never even think of poking his nose, not to mention the agents of Simon Wiesenthal. Or maybe Pechkin is a sexual pervert? Isn’t this what the author of the film is talking about when he dresses Pechkin in a characteristic raincoat? Or is it precisely the Evil that many associate with Russian Post that drove the residents out of the village? Further analysis will show that everything is much more complicated.

Pechkin greets Uncle Fedor. The whole “trinity” greets him - but the articulation of the lips at this moment shows that all three are saying different things, and certainly not “thank you.” What exactly they are saying, anyone interested can easily find out for themselves by reviewing this point several times.

But Pechkin doesn’t seem to see anyone except Uncle Fyodor, isn’t it strange? This is another small touch that brings us closer to understanding what is happening.

The first question from newcomers addressed to Pechkin is very typical:

Are you from the police by any chance?

The newly arrived company is excited solely by this; obviously, they have no interest at all from law enforcement agencies, although it would seem that there is nothing to be afraid of for a cat or a dog. This is a very significant fact, complementing the reluctance of Uncle Fyodor’s parents to contact the police with a statement about the missing child.

Reassured by the fact that Pechkin belongs to the Post Office, Uncle Fyodor announces his desire to subscribe to the Murzilka magazine, obviously neglecting the prospect of receiving a new issue in a few years or never receiving it, which is even more likely. Uncle Fyodor does what any little boy his age would do, but is he sincere? Is he trying to confuse Pechkin?

And here we return to the question that worries us - why Uncle Fyodor, having gone on the run, headed specifically to Prostokvashino. Has he ever been here before? Of course the answer is yes. It was his activity at Prostokvashino during his last visit that may have been the reason why the village residents chose to leave their usual habitat. But did everyone manage to escape?

Despite the fact that no one lives in the village except Pechkin, Uncle Fyodor waits until nightfall. This is his true goal and the viewer, of course, is not disappointed.

Unerringly orienting himself in complete darkness, Uncle Fyodor goes into the thicket of the forest and there, guided only by noticeable landmarks and animal instincts, in a matter of minutes he digs up a hefty chest. Uncle Fyodor comes up with ridiculous explanations for this - he says to the cat and dog that this is a “treasure”; to Pechkin, who came across on the way back, he declares that there are mushrooms in the chest. Even a primary school student who has read Tom Sawyer and Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” knows that treasures are looked for in a completely different way than Uncle Fyodor did. Uncle Fyodor knew what he was doing and was guided by a clear and precise calculation.

What's really in the chest? Valuables taken from the residents of Prostokvashino at gunpoint during his last visit to the village? Or is there the corpse of his unlucky nephew, who went with Fyodor into the night forest and met his fate there? Is this why they began to call Fyodor “uncle”? Perhaps, but this is only one part of the answer.

How did Pechkin end up in the forest at night? He is chasing a little jackdaw. Judging by the conversation, the little chick is seriously ill, and Pechkin proposes to “take him to the clinic for experiments.” This phrase can cause nothing but a smile. There is no clinic nearby and there cannot be; it would be good if it was an abandoned morgue for those whose bodies were found and not buried in chests.

Uncle Fyodor is not surprised when he hears the word “clinic” and declares that he will “cure the little jackdaw and teach him to talk.” Uncle Fyodor has no doubts about the illness of the little jackdaw. And at this very moment we receive an unexpected answer to the question - is what is unfolding before our eyes a fairy tale or not? Of course not. Being in a fairy tale, the little jackdaw would already be able to talk, like Totoshka and the crow Kaggy-Karr in the Magic Land. But the little jackdaw can't.

It doesn’t matter what Pechkin himself did in the forest at night. It is important that after the conversation with Uncle Fyodor he twirls his finger at his temple. Pechkin understands that the boy is mentally ill.

And we understand that, like the little jackdaw, neither the cat Matroskin nor the dog Sharik can speak. Their voices simply sound in Uncle Fyodor’s head; he communicates with them as with real friends. And this is where it gets really scary. Uncle Fyodor is seriously and possibly terminally ill. The period of remission of his mental illness ended at the very beginning of the film, when the cat living in the “attic” appeared. “There’s something wrong with the attic,” and a second personality appears—the cat Matroskin. Either that day Uncle Fyodor forgot to take pills or give an injection, but he went on a rampage. The “Attic” requires serious “repairs,” but Uncle Fyodor does not understand this at that moment and runs, runs away from the house. Uncle Fyodor wants to thereby protect mom and dad and save them from the fate of their nephew, and possibly their aunt and uncle, who also most likely did not have the chance to escape on the island in a panel high-rise building.

Uncle Fyodor wrote in a farewell note “I love you very much.” “But I also love animals very much,” he added then, making it clear that he was no longer alone. Uncle Fyodor doesn’t want to write directly, although he knows very well that his parents won’t go to the police.

And Uncle Fyodor’s parents openly discuss his inclinations and the puzzle gradually becomes complete. Dad says that Uncle Fyodor would like to have “a whole bag of friends at home.” This is Uncle Fyodor’s true inclinations - to hide children in a bag or, say, in a chest. Speculation about the fate of the “nephew” is no longer just guesswork. Fyodor’s mother does not think that we should give up on her son’s mental illness. She fears for her life and bitterly says “then my parents will start disappearing.” And we understand that Fedora’s “aunt and uncle,” natives of Prostokvashino, did not make it to the new panel housing, but went missing, like his “nephew.”

Fyodor’s mother is hysterical, he convinces her husband that the boy must be found before he does anything wrong.

Dad agrees. Naturally, going to the police is not an option - in this case, you can be jailed for a long time, so Fyodor’s parents decide to publish a “note in the newspaper.” And its text tells us a lot. In the note we see a photograph and height - twenty meters. The age is not indicated, and here we understand that this is no coincidence. Uncle Fyodor simply looks like a little boy and, by subscribing to the Murzilka magazine, he is simply masking his true age. He is at least 18 and he may well be held responsible for his actions, unless, of course, a psychiatric examination declares him insane.

Please note that when publishing the note, dad did everything so that the boy would not be found - neither his first name nor his last name, nor his age, nor his weight. There is no contact phone number either. Here we see the answer to the question that has already been raised - could the Prostokvashin residents rent out their houses to summer residents? Of course, yes, the “Will Hire” section is shown in the newspaper for a reason. There are a lot of offers for rent, but there are no people willing to rent out housing.

Fyodor’s short stature and dwarfism are a symptom of a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases. There are both genetic disorders (look at Uncle Fyodor’s chin in profile) and hormonal ones, of which the lack of growth hormone is the least of the problems. It's hard to blame him for the crimes he committed. Having realized all the pain of imprisoning an adult man in a hundred and twenty centimeter body, you begin to empathize with Uncle Fyodor, understanding the burden he carries on his shoulders.

The notice about the search does not go unnoticed and catches the eye of Pechkin, who naturally looks through the criminal sections and police reports in all newspapers, since he himself is obviously wanted. Having seen a photo in the newspaper, Pechkin understands that he needs to “surrender” the boy. Understanding full well that Uncle Fyodor’s chest contained not mushrooms, but valuables, and possibly terrible incriminating evidence, Pechkin sensibly reasons that Fyodor is too dangerous to be blackmailed. And it’s better to take a bike than to end up in a bag and then in a chest.

Meanwhile, Uncle Fyodor’s illness is progressing. Consider the letter he writes to his parents on behalf of all the characters in his triple personality. He begins the touching letter himself, but quite quickly his hand is taken over by a second personality - a cat, then a dog. Having started the letter with a positive note, Fyodor suddenly subconsciously writes the truth - “but my health... is not very good.” From that moment on, the bestial nature of his brain no longer lets go of Fyodor, all he manages to write is “your son” and yet the ending is blurred - “Uncle Sharik”.

Fedor's parents are shocked.

They understand perfectly well what the aggravation of their son threatens them with. One by one they lose consciousness from horror, and then the mother asks hopefully: “Maybe we’ve gone crazy?” Dad does not support her, answering dryly that “one by one they go crazy.” And at this moment both know perfectly well who they are talking about. Now you know too.

And Fedor is already in bed with a thermometer under his arm.

Visually, it seems that he has something simple - like meningitis, complicated by bird flu received from a sick little chick, but of course the question is more serious. A little more and the lives of civilians in the central zone of the Soviet Union would have been in jeopardy, and they would have had to be transported en masse to Russky Island if the little human that remained in Uncle Fyodor’s brain had completely given way to the bestial. But the threat has passed - the parents still decide to take Uncle Fyodor home, although they initially did not intend to do this - what other explanations can be given for the fact that they did not indicate their home phone number in the note?

Pechkin receives his bicycle, and the two animal personalities of Uncle Fyodor’s consciousness remain in the village and do not ride with him, which is why the viewer remains in the timid hope that the disease has receded under the onslaught of powerful medications. The question is for how long?

The cartoon, which rightfully took its place in the “Golden Fund of Animation,” unfortunately has not yet revealed all its secrets. But this certainly requires special psychiatric education and deep medical knowledge. And who knows what changes the Soviet censor made to the script, and what the filmmakers were simply forbidden to tell about. We may never know about this.

And the personality of the postman Pechkin with an analysis of his dark side is still waiting for its researcher.