The Lost Letter (Russian: Пропа́вшая гра́мота, Propavshaya gramota), or A Disappeared Diploma, is a 1945 Soviet animated film directed by the Brumberg sisters and Lamis Bredis. It is the first Soviet cel-animated feature film. It was produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow and is based on the story with the same name by Nikolai Gogol.
Young hobos are taken to a new camp to become good Soviet citizens. This camp works without any guards, and it works well. But crooks kill one of the young people when they try to damage the newly built railroad to the camp.
The film is based on The Governor, a play by Leonid Andreyev. V.I. Kachalov plays the governor of a small Russian province who tries to treat the people under his authority with kindness and equanimity. But when a local factory goes on strike, the governor buckles under to pressure from the Tzar and orders the wholesale slaughter of the strikers. He pays for this betrayal of his trust with his life -- at the hands of a courageous Bolshevik spy.
