>>91438136>George Lucas said that Russian filmmakers had more freedom of expression than Hollywood. As long as you did not criticise the Russian government or socialismIn capitalism animated series have to SELL first and foremost. This heavily dictates not only the thematic (superheroes or something else marketable to kids mostly) and format (for syndication's sake you series MUST be episodic) but also the content (toyetic nature of many series) and ironically censorship from Standards and Practices.
Soviet state directly subsidised main film studios of all soviet republics and made sure to include a budget for animated divisions of these studios.
So cartoon creators didn't have to sell toys or sell at all as products and were relatively free to pick any subject, as long as you didn't criticised the regime, obv. If it has educational or entertainment value -- you can do it. Still, overwhelming majority were still of kiddy nature and/or adaptations of various fairy tales.
However, state budget also allowed for "adult cartoons", as in shorts with adult themes that children would simply not get due to subjects but still can hold some cultural value. These shorts usually were shown late at night on state tv.
Like for example a short satirising gender roles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkdhJWyzFR8Or a short about non-conformism and "dead artists":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirkEKr0vSshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26_fbpfsVRUA part in series of shorts about Little Fox, very touching stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl-HccrTybMConsult this list if you care to see more:
http://editthis.info/animatsiya/List_of_Russian_animation_subtitled_in_English 
