Lev Atamanov

Lev Atamanov (Russian: Лев Атаманов), born Levon Konstantinovich Atamanyan (Russian: Левон Константинович Атаманян, Armenian: Լևոն Կոնստանտինի Ատամանյան; 21 February [O.S. 8 February] 1905 – 12 February 1981), was a classic Soviet animated film director of Armenian descent.

Atamanov was one of the foremost Soviet animation film directors and one of the founders of Soviet animation art. He is the director of the famous classics of Soviet animation, such as the prize-winning fairy tales The Yellow Stork (Zhyoltyy aist) (1950), Scarlet Flower (Alenkiy tsvetochek) (1952), The Golden Antelope (1954), the full-length animation The Snow Queen (Snezhnaya koroleva) (1957), and the modern satirical tale The Key (Klyuch) (1961). In his works Lev Atamanov subtly conveyed the national colouring of fairy tales and combined romantic elation in images of positive characters with warm and kind humor.