Lev Milchin was born into the family of the Soviet artist of
Jewish origin Isaak Iosifovich Milchin. He graduated from the Minsk art school, then finished a newly opened art faculty at VGIK led by
Ivan Ivanov-Vano. During the
Great Patriotic War, Milchin joined
Narodnoe Opolcheniye, then worked at
CIFS (
Almaty) in evacuation as an artist on several movies. After the war he joined
Soyuzmultfilm where he contributed to
stop-motion and
traditionally animated movies both as an art director and a director. Among his collaborators were Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, the Brumberg sisters and others. Milchin also worked at
Mosfilm as an art director. His filmography includes
Sampo (1959) by
Aleksandr Ptushko,
Michman Panin (1960) by
Mikhail Shveitser,
My Younger Brother (1962) by
Aleksandr Zarkhi,
Maria, Mirabela (1981) by
Ion Popescu-Gopo and other titles. He also taught art at VGIK, illustrated books and served as a member of
ASIFA. Milchin died on 28 June 1987, a few months after his friend and teacher Ivan Ivanov-Vano. He was buried in Moscow at the
Mitinskoe Cemetery (site 126). He was survived by his wife Tamara Vladimirovna Poletika (1922—2011), an animator. == Filmography ==