1 - About the little bus who was afraid of the dark
Donald Bisset
A fairy tale about how mother bus taught her little bus not to be afraid of the dark... About the little bus who was afraid of the dark read Once upon a time there was a little bus in the world. He was bright red and lived with his dad and mom in the garage. Every morning …
2 - Three kittens
Suteev V.G.
A short fairy tale for the little ones about three fidgety kittens and their funny adventures. Little kids love it short stories with pictures, that’s why Suteev’s fairy tales are so popular and loved! Three kittens read Three kittens - black, gray and...
3 - Hedgehog in the fog
Kozlov S.G.
A fairy tale about a Hedgehog, how he was walking at night and got lost in the fog. He fell into the river, but someone carried him to the shore. It was a magical night! Hedgehog in the fog read Thirty mosquitoes ran out into the clearing and began to play...
4 - About the mouse from the book
Gianni Rodari
A short story about a mouse who lived in a book and decided to jump out of it into Big world. Only he did not know how to speak the language of mice, but knew only a strange bookish language... Read about a mouse from a book...
5 - Apple
Suteev V.G.
A fairy tale about a hedgehog, a hare and a crow who could not divide the last apple among themselves. Everyone wanted to take it for themselves. But the fair bear judged their dispute, and each got a piece of the treat... Apple read It was late...
6 - Black Pool
Kozlov S.G.
A fairy tale about a cowardly Hare who was afraid of everyone in the forest. And he was so tired of his fear that he decided to drown himself in the Black Pool. But he taught the Hare to live and not be afraid! Black Whirlpool read Once upon a time there was a Hare...
7 - About the Hippopotamus, who was afraid of vaccinations
Suteev V.G.
A fairy tale about a cowardly hippopotamus who ran away from the clinic because he was afraid of vaccinations. And he fell ill with jaundice. Luckily, he was taken to the hospital and treated. And the hippopotamus became very ashamed of his behavior... About the Hippopotamus, who was afraid...
8 - Mom for Baby Mammoth
Nepomnyashchaya D.
A fairy tale about a baby mammoth that melted out of the ice and went to look for its mother. But all the mammoths have long since died out, and the wise Uncle Walrus advised him to sail to Africa, where elephants live, which are very similar to mammoths. Mom for...
is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, which in its simplest and game form tells children not only about the world around him, but also about manifestations of both the best and the ugliest. General statistics tell us that Russians folk tales children are only interested in school age, but it is these fairy tales that we carry in our hearts and let us pass them on to our children in a slightly modified form. After all, it is impossible to forget about Masha and the Bear, Ryaba the hen or the Gray Wolf; all these images help us learn and understand the reality around us. You can read Russian folk tales online and listen to audio tales for free on our website.
Title of the tale | Source | Rating |
---|---|---|
Vasilisa the Beautiful | Russian traditional | 380890 |
Morozko | Russian traditional | 251842 |
Porridge from an ax | Russian traditional | 285839 |
Teremok | Russian traditional | 426587 |
Fox and Crane | Russian traditional | 226029 |
Sivka-Burka | Russian traditional | 203808 |
Crane and Heron | Russian traditional | 32819 |
Cat, rooster and fox | Russian traditional | 138082 |
Chicken Ryaba | Russian traditional | 348011 |
Fox and cancer | Russian traditional | 93397 |
Fox-sister and wolf | Russian traditional | 88825 |
Masha and the Bear | Russian traditional | 289249 |
The Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise | Russian traditional | 94920 |
Snow Maiden | Russian traditional | 58034 |
Three piglets | Russian traditional | 1964617 |
Baba Yaga | Russian traditional | 135455 |
Magic pipe | Russian traditional | 138686 |
Magic ring | Russian traditional | 167004 |
Grief | Russian traditional | 23266 |
Swan geese | Russian traditional | 92104 |
Daughter and stepdaughter | Russian traditional | 24763 |
Ivan Tsarevich and Gray wolf | Russian traditional | 73607 |
Treasure | Russian traditional | 50825 |
Kolobok | Russian traditional | 174880 |
Marya Morevna | Russian traditional | 52187 |
Wonderful miracle, wonderful miracle | Russian traditional | 45551 |
Two frosts | Russian traditional | 42181 |
Most expensive | Russian traditional | 36195 |
Wonderful shirt | Russian traditional | 43406 |
Frost and hare | Russian traditional | 42172 |
How the fox learned to fly | Russian traditional | 52125 |
Ivan the Fool | Russian traditional | 39278 |
Fox and jug | Russian traditional | 28543 |
bird tongue | Russian traditional | 24896 |
The soldier and the devil | Russian traditional | 23611 |
Crystal Mountain | Russian traditional | 28408 |
Tricky Science | Russian traditional | 31245 |
Smart guy | Russian traditional | 24036 |
Snow Maiden and Fox | Russian traditional | 66884 |
Word | Russian traditional | 23703 |
Fast messenger | Russian traditional | 23303 |
Seven Simeons | Russian traditional | 23382 |
About the old grandmother | Russian traditional | 25525 |
Go there - I don’t know where, bring something - I don’t know what | Russian traditional | 55965 |
By pike command | Russian traditional | 77613 |
Rooster and millstones | Russian traditional | 23059 |
Shepherd's Piper | Russian traditional | 43090 |
Petrified Kingdom | Russian traditional | 23689 |
ABOUT rejuvenating apples and living water | Russian traditional | 41588 |
Goat Dereza | Russian traditional | 38016 |
Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber | Russian traditional | 34570 |
Cockerel and bean seed | Russian traditional | 60472 |
Ivan – peasant son and miracle-yudo | Russian traditional | 33317 |
Three Bears | Russian traditional | 504707 |
Fox and black grouse | Russian traditional | 24843 |
Tar barrel | Russian traditional | 85245 |
Baba Yaga and berries | Russian traditional | 42200 |
Fight on Kalinov Bridge | Russian traditional | 24083 |
Finist - Clear Falcon | Russian traditional | 57005 |
Princess Nesmeyana | Russian traditional | 150808 |
Tops and roots | Russian traditional | 63247 |
Winter hut of animals | Russian traditional | 43863 |
flying ship | Russian traditional | 80400 |
Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka | Russian traditional | 41621 |
Golden comb cockerel | Russian traditional | 49465 |
Zayushkin's hut | Russian traditional | 141169 |
Types of Russian folk tales
Folk tales are basically divided into three categories. These are tales about animals, everyday life and fairy tales.
Russian folk tales about animals- these are some of the most ancient types of fairy tales that exist, their roots go back to the times Ancient Rus'. These fairy tales contain vivid and very memorable images; from childhood we all remember about Kolobok or Turnip, and thanks to such bright images the child learns to understand good and evil. Learns to distinguish character traits and lines of behavior: a fox is cunning, a bear is clumsy, a bunny is cowardly, and so on. Although the world of folk tales is fictional, it is so alive and vibrant that it fascinates and knows how to teach children only good deeds.
Russians everyday tales - these are fairy tales that are filled with the realism of our Everyday life. And they are so close to life that when delving into these fairy tales, be careful, because this line is so thin that your growing child will want to embody and experience some of the actions on himself or carry them out in real life.
Russian fairy tales- this is a world in which magic and the evil associated with it takes on very terrible outlines and vital shades. Fairy tales are the search and rescue of a girl, a city or the world entrusted to the shoulders of one hero. But it is the help of many minor characters teaches us, who read these fairy tales, about mutual assistance to each other. Read and listen to folk tales online with us.
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7. Masha and the Bear
8. Morozko
9. The Man and the Bear (Tops and Roots)
10. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones
11. At the behest of the pike
13. Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka
14. Sivka-Burka
15. Snow Maiden
16. Teremok
5. Legless and armless heroes
6. Legless and blind heroes
8. Birch and three falcons
9. Hunter Brothers
10. Well done Bulat
11. Bukhtan Bukhtanovich
14. The Witch and the Sun's Sister
15. Prophetic boy
16. Prophetic dream
17. There is a sun in the forehead, a month on the back of the head, stars on the sides
18. Mushroom War
19. Magic water
22. Magic berries
23. Magic horse
24. Clay guy
28. Two from the bag
29. Girl in the well
30. Wooden eagle
31. Elena the Wise
32. Emelya the Fool
33. The Firebird and Vasilisa the Princess
34. The Enchanted Princess
35. Animal milk
36. Golden Slipper
37. Golden Cockerel
38. Dawn, evening and midnight
39. Ivan - widow's son
40. Ivan - son of a cow
41. Ivan - peasant son and Miracle Yudo
42. Ivan - a peasant's son
43. Ivan the Bestalent and Elena the Wise
44. Ivan is a peasant son and a peasant himself with a mustache for seven miles
45. Ivan Tsarevich and the White Polyanin
47. Kikimora
51. Horse, tablecloth and horn
52. Korolevich and his uncle
55. Flying ship
57. Dashing one-eyed
58. Lutonyushka
59. Boy with Thumb
60. Marya Morevna
61. Marya-Krasa - long braid
62. Masha and the Bear
63. Medvedko, Usynya, Gorynya and Duginya heroes
64. Copper, silver and golden kingdoms
67. Wise maiden
68. The wise maiden and the seven thieves
69. Wise wife
70. Wise answers
71. Nesmeyana the Princess
72. Night dancing
73. Petrified Kingdom
74. Shepherd's pipe
75. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones
76. Feather of Finist the clear falcon
77. Legs up to the knees in gold, arms up to the elbows in silver
78. At the behest of the pike
79. Go there - I don’t know where, bring that - I don’t know what
80. Truth and Falsehood
81. Fake illness
82. About a stupid snake and a smart soldier
83. Bird's tongue
84. Robbers
85. Seven Simeons
86. Silver saucer and pouring apple
87. Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka
88. Sivka-Burka
89. The Tale of Vasilisa, the Golden Braid, and Ivan the Pea
90. The Tale of the Bonebreaker Bear and Ivan, the Merchant's Son
91. The Tale of Rejuvenating Apples and Living Water
92. The Tale of Ivan the Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf
93. Tales of the brave knight Ukrom-Tabunshchik
94. Tablecloth, ram and bag
95. Fast messenger
96. Snow Maiden
97. Snow Maiden and Fox
98. The soldier delivers the princess
99. Sun, Moon and Raven Voronovich
100. Suma, give me some wisdom!
101. Tereshechka
102. Three kingdoms - copper, silver and gold
103. Finist - clear falcon
105. Tricky science
106. Crystal Mountain
107. Princess solving riddles
110. Tsar Maiden
111. Tsar Bear
112. Chivy, chivy, chivychok...
113. Wonderful shirt
114. Wonderful little shoes
115. Wonderful box
8. Wolf, quail and jerk
10. Crow and cancer
11. Where was the goat?
12. Stupid wolf
13. Crane and heron
14. For a bast shoe - a chicken, for a chicken - a goose
16. Hares and frogs
17. Animals in the pit
18. Winter quarters of animals
19. Golden horse
20. Golden Cockerel
21. How the wolf became a bird
22. How the fox learned to fly
23. How the fox sewed a fur coat for the wolf
27. Cat - gray forehead, goat and ram
28. Cat and Fox
29. Cat, Rooster and Fox
30. Kochet and chicken
31. Crooked duck
32. Kuzma is soon rich
33. Chicken, mouse and black grouse
34. Lion, pike and man
35. Fox is a wanderer
36. Fox and blackbird
37. Fox and crane
38. Fox and goat
39. Fox and jug
40. Fox and bast shoe
41. Fox and cancer
44. Fox Confessor
45. Fox midwife
46. The fox-maiden and Kotofey Ivanovich
47. Fox-sister and wolf
48. Masha and the Bear
49. Bear - fake leg
50. Bear and fox
51. Bear and dog
52. The Man and the Bear (Tops and Roots)
53. Man, bear and fox
54. Mouse and Sparrow
55. Scared wolves
56. Scared bear and wolves
57. Wrong court of birds
58. No goat with nuts
59. About Vaska - Muska
60. About the toothy pike
61. Sheep, fox and wolf
62. Rooster and bob
63. Rooster and hen
64. Cockerel
65. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones
66. At the behest of the pike
67. Promised
68. About the toothy mouse and about the rich sparrow
69. About the old lady and the bull
71. Mitten
72. The Tale of Ersha Ershovich, Shchetinnikov’s son
73. The Tale of Ivan the Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf
74. Tar goby
75. The Old Man and the Wolf
If you close your eyes and travel back in time for a moment, you can imagine how ordinary Russian people lived. Large families they lived in wooden huts, heated the stoves with wood, and the light was provided by homemade dry slivers. Poor Russian people had neither television nor the Internet, so what could they do when they weren’t working in the fields? They relaxed, dreamed and listened to good fairy tales!
In the evening the whole family gathered in one room, the children sat on the stove, and the women worked homework. At this time, the turn of Russian folk tales began. In every village or hamlet there lived a woman storyteller, she replaced the radio for people and told stories in a beautiful sing-song voice. ancient legends. The kids listened with their mouths open, and the girls quietly sang along and spun or embroidered while listening to a good fairy tale.
What did the respected storytellers tell the people about?
Good prophets kept in memory a large number of folk tales, legends and tales. All their lives they brought light to ordinary peasants, and in old age they passed on their knowledge to the next talented storytellers. Most of the legends were based on real life events, but over the years the fairy tales acquired fictitious details and acquired a special Russian flavor.
Note to readers!
The most famous storyteller in Rus' and Finland is a simple serf woman Praskovya Nikitichna, married to Vaska. She knew 32,000 poems and fairy tales, 1,152 songs, 1,750 proverbs, 336 riddles and a large number of prayers. Hundreds of books and poetry collections have been written based on her stories, but for all her talents, Praskovya Nikitichna was poor all her life and even worked as a barge hauler.
Another well-known storyteller throughout Russia is Pushkin’s nanny Arina Rodionovna. This is her with early childhood instilled in the poet a love of Russian fairy tales, and on the basis of her ancient stories, Alexander Sergeevich wrote his great works.
What do Russian fairy tales tell about?
Fairy tales made up ordinary people, are an encyclopedia folk wisdom. Through simple stories, workers and peasants presented their vision of the world and passed on information in encrypted form to subsequent generations.
Old Russian fairy tales are divided into three types:
Animal Tales. IN folk stories There are funny characters who are especially close to ordinary Russian people. The clumsy bear, little sister fox, runaway bunny, little mouse, and frog frog are endowed with pronounced human qualities. In the fairy tale "Masha and the Bear" Potapych is kind but stupid, in the story about the Seven Little Goats the wolf is cunning and gluttonous, and in the fairy tale "The Boasting Bunny" the little hare is cowardly and boastful. From the age of 2-3, it’s time for children to become familiar with good Russian fairy tales and, using the example of funny characters with distinct personalities, learn to distinguish between positive and negative heroes.
Magical mystical tales. There are many interesting mystical characters in Russian fairy tales that could outshine famous American heroes. Baba Yaga Bone Leg, Serpent Gorynych and Koschey the Immortal are distinguished by their realism and have been living in good folk tales for several centuries. They fought with mystical heroes who kept the people in fear epic heroes and brave noble princes. And the beautiful needlewomen Vasilisa the Beautiful, Marya, Varvara Krasa fought against evil spirits with intelligence, cunning and ingenuity.
Tales about the life of ordinary Russian people. Through the wise fairy tales the people talked about their existence and passed on the accumulated knowledge from generation to generation. A striking example- fairy tale “Kolobok”. Here an old man and an old woman bake an unusual loaf of bread, and call on the clear sun to forever warm our native land. The hot sun-bun goes on a journey and meets the winter hare, the spring wolf, the summer bear and the autumn fox. A tasty bun dies in the teeth of a voracious fox, but then is reborn again and starts a new one. life cycle eternal mother nature.
The page of our website contains the most beloved and popular best Russian fairy tales. Texts from beautiful pictures and illustrations in the style lacquer miniatures reading fairy tales is especially pleasant. They bring to children the priceless wealth of the Russian language, and the pictures and large print allow them to quickly memorize stories and new words, and instill a love of reading books. All fairy tales are recommended for bedtime reading. Parents will be able to read aloud to their child and convey to the child the meaning inherent in wise old fairy tales.
The page with Russian folk tales is a collection of children's literature. Teachers can use the library for reading lessons in kindergarten both at school and in the family circle it is easy to perform performances with the participation of heroes from Russian folk tales.
Read Russian folk tales for free online with your children and absorb the wisdom of bygone generations!
We were all children once and all of us, without exception, loved fairy tales. After all, in the world of fairy tales there is a special and extraordinary style, filled with our dreams and fantasies. Without even fairy tales real world loses its colors, becomes ordinary and boring. But where did everyone come from? famous heroes? Perhaps, once upon a time a real Baba Yaga and a goblin walked the earth? Let's figure it out together!
According to V. Dahl’s definition, “a fairy tale is a fictional story, an unprecedented and even unrealistic story, a legend.” But the New Illustrated Encyclopedia gives the following definition of a fairy tale: “this is one of the main genres of folklore, epic, mainly prose work magical, adventurous or everyday character with a focus on fiction.” And of course, one cannot help but recall the words of our great poet: “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it!” Good fellows lesson!"
That is, whatever one may say, a fairy tale is fiction... But everything in it is unusual, magical and very attractive. There is an immersion in a mysterious, enchanted world, where animals speak in a human voice, where objects and trees move on their own, where good necessarily defeats evil.
Each of us remembers how the Fox was punished for tricking the Bunny out of the hut (“The Fox and the Hare”), how cruelly the stupid Wolf, who took the cunning Fox’s word for it, paid with his tail (“The Wolf and the Fox”), how quickly they got over it with a turnip (“Turnip”), when they decided to pull it together and also did not forget to call the Mouse, just as the strong forgot about the weak in the fairy tale “Teremok” and what this led to...
Smart, kind, correct, highly moral, embedded in fairy tales helps to bring up the best in our children human qualities. The fairy tale teaches life wisdom. And these values are eternal; they make up what we call spiritual culture.
Among other things, the invaluable nature of fairy tales lies in the fact that they provide an opportunity to introduce children to the life and way of life of the Russian people.
What does Russian village mean? What did a tree, a forest mean to a Russian person? And household items: dishes, clothes, shoes (the famous bast shoes alone are worth it!), musical instruments(balalaika, gusli). This is our opportunity to tell and show children how people lived in Russia before, how the culture of a great people took shape, of which we, their parents, grandparents, by the will of fate, became a part.
Russian folk tales are also an invaluable assistant in developing a child’s language and speech skills. Words and expressions from fairy tales with their ancient and deep meaning are embedded in our minds and live in us, no matter where we are.
Fairy tales provide an opportunity to expand lexicon on any topic (be it fairy tales about animals, everyday life or magic). Traditional Russian repetitions, special melody, rare “forgotten” words, proverbs and sayings, which are so rich in Russian speech: all this makes it possible to make a fairy tale accessible, understandable for children’s consciousness, and helps to remember it easily and quickly. And all this develops children’s imagination, teaches them beautiful and coherent speech. (Who knows, maybe those fairy tales that they begin to invent after Russian folk tales will also one day enter the treasury of the language).
A fairy tale is special literary genre, a story unfolding in a timeless and spaceless dimension. Characters such a story - fictional characters, falling into difficult situations and emerging from them thanks to assistants, most often endowed with magical properties. At the same time, insidious villains plot various intrigues against them, but in the end good wins. The creation of fairy tales has an ancient history.
FROM THE HISTORY OF FAIRY TALES:
Fairy tales appeared in such ancient times that it is very difficult to accurately determine the time of their birth. We know just as little about their authors. Most likely, the fairy tales were composed by the same peasants and shepherds who often acted as the main characters of the story.
Has anyone wondered whether there are real events behind these legends, whether there were fairy-tale heroes the most ordinary people, whose life and adventures could become the basis for fairy tales. Why not? For example, a goblin could be someone who lived in the forest for a long time, was unaccustomed to communicating with people, but got along well with the forest and its inhabitants. Well, Vasilisa is a beauty - everything is clear here. But Koschey the Immortal looks like an old man who married a young girl.
But the situation is more interesting. Our land is located at the crossroads of roads from Europe to Asia, from south to north and vice versa. That is why we lived in close connection with neighboring peoples. From the north, we were contacted by the Vikings, who were a step higher in development than us. They brought us metal and weapons, their legends and fairy tales - and we brought them clothes, shoes and food, everything that our land is rich in. From there the fairy tale about Baba Yaga, where she was the evil old woman Heel on two bone legs, who lives in a separate hut on the outskirts of the forest, guards the souls of the dead and is a border point in the transition from earthly life to the afterlife. She is not particularly kind and day after day creates a lot of trials and troubles for those who walk this road. That is why the heroes of our fairy tales, driven into a remote corner by their troubles, come to Baba Yaga.
They passed on fairy tales from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, changing them along the way and adding new details.
Tales were told by adults and - contrary to our current understanding - not only by children, but also by adults.
Fairy tales taught us how to get out of difficult situations, overcome trials with honor, conquer fear - and every fairy tale ended with a happy ending.
Some scientists believe that the origins of fairy tales lie in primitive rituals. The rituals themselves were forgotten, but the stories were preserved as treasures of useful and instructive knowledge.
It is difficult to say when the first fairy tale appeared. This is probably not possible “either to say in a fairy tale or to describe with a pen.” But it is known that the first fairy tales were dedicated to natural phenomena and their main characters were the Sun, the Wind and the Moon.
A little later they took on a relatively human form. For example, the owner of water is Grandfather Vodyanoy, and Leshy is the owner of the forest and forest animals. It is these images that indicate that folk tales were created at a time when people humanized and animated all the elements and forces of nature.
Water
One more important aspect beliefs primitive people, which is reflected in folk tales, is the veneration of birds and animals. Our ancestors believed that each clan and tribe comes from a specific animal, which was the patron of the clan (totem). That is why Voron Voronovich, Falcon or Eagle often act in Russian fairy tales.
Also, ancient rituals (for example, initiation of a boy into hunters and warriors) found their expression in folk tales. It is surprising that it was with the help of fairy tales that they came to us in an almost primordial form. Therefore, folk tales are very interesting for historians.
FAIRY TALES AND NATIONAL CHARACTER
Fairy tales reveal all the most important aspects of Russian life. Fairy tales are an inexhaustible source of information about national character. Their strength lies in the fact that they not only reveal it, but also create it. Fairy tales reveal many individual character traits of Russian people and their peculiarities. inner world and ideals.
Here is a typical dialogue (fairy tale “The Flying Ship”):
The old man asks the fool: “Where are you going?”
- “Yes, the king promised to give his daughter to the one who makes a flying ship.”
- “Can you make such a ship?”
- “No, I can’t!” - “So why are you going?” - “God knows!”
For this wonderful answer (because it is honest!) the old man helps the hero get the princess. This eternal wandering “I don’t know where”, in search of “I don’t know what” is inherent in all Russian fairy tales, and indeed in all Russian life in general.
Even in Russian fairy tales, as well as among the Russian people, faith in miracles is strong.
Of course, all fairy tales in the world are based on some extraordinary events. But nowhere does the miraculous dominate the plot as much as in Russians. It piles up, overwhelms the action and is always believed in, unconditionally and without a shadow of a doubt.
Artist: Anastasia Stolbova
Russian fairy tales also testify to the special faith of the Russian person in the meaning of the spoken word. Thus, there is a separate cycle from the category of fairy tales-legends, in which the entire plot is tied to various kinds of accidentally escaped curses. It is characteristic that only Russian versions of such tales are known. IN fairy tales the importance of the spoken word is also emphasized, the need to keep it: he promised to marry the one who finds the arrow - he must fulfill it; if you kept your word and went to your father’s grave, you will be rewarded; made a promise to marry the one who stole the wings - fulfill it. All fairy tales are filled with these simple truths.
The word opens doors, turns the hut, breaks the spell. The sung song brings back the memory of the husband, who forgot and did not recognize his wife, the little goat with his quatrain (except for him, apparently, he does not know how to say anything, otherwise he would have explained what happened) saves his sister Alyonushka and himself. The word is believed, without any doubt. “I’ll be of use to you,” says some bunny, and the hero lets him go, confident (as is the reader) that this will be the case.
Often heroes are rewarded for their suffering. This theme is also especially loved by Russian fairy tales. Often sympathies are on the side of heroes (even more often - heroines) not because of their special qualities or the actions they perform, but because of the life circumstances - misfortune, orphanhood, poverty - in which they find themselves. In this case, salvation comes from the outside, from nowhere, not as a result of the active actions of the hero, but as the restoration of justice. Such fairy tales are designed to instill compassion, sympathy for one’s neighbor, and a feeling of love for all those who suffer. How can one not recall the thought of F. M. Dostoevsky that suffering is necessary for a person, because it strengthens and purifies the soul.
The attitude of the Russian people to work reflected in fairy tales seems peculiar. Here is a seemingly incomprehensible fairy tale about Emelya the Fool from the point of view of ideals.
He lay on the stove all his life, did nothing, and did not hide the reason, he answered “I’m lazy!” to all requests for help. Once I went out into the water and caught a magic pike. The continuation is well known to everyone: the pike persuaded him to let her go back into the hole, and for this she undertook to fulfill all of Emelya’s wishes. And so, “at the behest of the pike, at my request,” the sleigh without a horse carries the fool to the city, the ax itself chops the wood, and they are put into the oven, the buckets march into the house without outside help. Moreover, Emelya also got the royal daughter, also not without the intervention of magic.
The ending, however, is still hopeful (in children's retellings for some reason it is often omitted): “The fool, seeing that all people are like people, and he alone was bad and stupid, wanted to become better and for this he said: “As a pike by command, and at my request, that I become such a fine fellow, that nothing like this should happen to me, and that I be extremely smart!” And as soon as he had time to speak, at that very moment he became so beautiful, and also smart, that everyone was surprised.”
This fairy tale is often interpreted as a reflection of the eternal tendency of Russian people to laziness and idleness.
She speaks, rather, about the severity of peasant labor, which gave rise to the desire to relax, which made one dream of a magical helper.
Yes, if you are lucky and catch a miracle pike, you can happily do nothing, lie on a warm stove and think about the Tsar’s daughter. All this, of course, is also unrealistic for the man who dreams of it, like a stove driving through the streets, and the usual difficult daily work awaits him, but you can dream about pleasant things.
The fairy tale also reveals another difference between Russian culture - it does not have the sanctity of the concept of labor, that special reverent attitude, on the verge of “work for the sake of labor itself,” which is characteristic, for example, of Germany or modern America. It is known, for example, that one of the common problems among Americans is the inability to relax, distract themselves from business, and understand that nothing will happen if they go on vacation for a week. For a Russian person there is no such problem - he knows how to relax and have fun, but perceives work as inevitable.
The famous philosopher I. Ilyin considered such “laziness” of the Russian person to be part of his creative, contemplative nature. “First of all, our flat space taught us contemplation,” wrote the Russian thinker, “our nature, with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms and blizzards. Hence our insatiable gaze, our daydreaming, our contemplating “laziness” (A.S. Pushkin), behind which lies the power of creative imagination. Russian contemplation was given beauty that captivated the heart, and this beauty was introduced into everything - from fabric and lace to residential and fortified buildings.” There may be no zeal and exaltation of work, but there is a feeling of beauty, merging with nature. This also bears fruit - rich folk art, expressed, among other things, in a fairy-tale heritage.
The attitude towards wealth is clear. Greed is perceived as big vice. Poverty is a virtue.
This does not mean that there is no dream of prosperity: the difficulties of peasant life made us dream of a self-assembled tablecloth, of a stove in which “goose meat, pig meat, and pies - apparently and invisibly! One word to say - whatever the soul wants, everything is there! the bride received was also nice to dream about on long winter evenings.
But wealth comes to the heroes easily, casually, when they don’t even think about it, like additional prize to a good bride or saved wife. Those who strive for it as an end in itself are always punished and remain “with nothing.”