Russian Folk Tales

The tales in this book are collected by the remarkable writer and translator Alexander Alexandrovich Fyodorov-Davydov (1873-1936). In his childhood, his grandfather - the academician and dean of the historical and philological department of the philosophy faculty of Moscow University, Ivan Ivanovich Davydov - had a significant influence on the future writer. The boy's father was an educator, and from him, Alexander inherited a desire for enlightenment. In adulthood, Fyodorov-Davydov not only published in various magazines but also devoted much time to publishing activities. Before the revolution, he was the editor and publisher of several children's magazines, where works by Mamin-Sibiryak, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Chekhov, and other leading domestic writers were published; numerous materials were dedicated to the native nature. During the Soviet era, Fyodorov-Davydov became one of the founders of the popular Soviet children's magazine "Murzilka." Throughout his life, Alexander Alexandrovich wrote more than a hundred books for children, as well as notes, articles, and essays. Once he noted that "many Russian folk tales we do not know." And indeed, almost all the stories he collected and published will seem completely unfamiliar to modern readers. The illustrations for the tales in this edition were created by Alexander Petrovich Apsit (1880-1944).