Animation by Roman Davydov. Ratibor's childhood('74), Vassilissa Mikulishna('76) and the swans of Nepryavda('80) form more or less a trilogy about the struggle for freedom of the russian nation against the Chazars and later the Mongolian tribes that overpowered and enslaved them.
Ratibor shows the start, Vassilissa the times when Russia had to pay tributes to the golden horde, the swans finally is made in remembrance of the battle of Kulikovo, 8 september 1380, Where Dimitri Donskoi, grandduke of Moscow, lead an army of combined russian forces for the first time in russian history to victory over a mongolian-tatar army under Mamai. It took another 100 years before the yoke of the mongolians was actually shaken of, but the importance of the battle has been decribed as this:
"Russians went to the Kulikovo field as citizens of various principalities and returned as a united Russian nation" It also was the start of the primateship of Moscow over the other grand ducheies and princedoms. It became the center of the country instead of Kiev. Normally Russian animation are very peaceloving. This is one of the exceptions