Fairy Tales of the Peoples of Asia

Nison Alexandrovich Khodza (1906–1978) was born in Tomsk into a family of a factory worker. In 1916, he entered the Tomsk Real School. Shortly thereafter, the young man fell ill with tuberculosis and moved to Crimea to recover. There he graduated from the Sevastopol Industrial and Economic Technical School, after which he continued his studies at the Odessa Institute of National Economy. In 1927, Nison Alexandrovich went for an internship at Gosizdat in the Leningrad region. During his internship, the young specialist proved himself positively and obtained a position in the staff. Khodza wrote essays and articles aimed mainly at children. Over time, his publications attracted the attention of the famous writer and translator Samuel Yakovlevich Marshak. Noting the ease of style and vividness of the narrative of the budding author, he suggested that he write a children's book, resulting in the publication of “Easter” in 1930. In the following years, Khodza continued to work as a responsible literary employee, chief editor, and author of books. When the Great Patriotic War began, the writer was the head of the children's broadcasting department on the radio. During the difficult wartime years, he wrote and edited reports from the front, prepared materials about the heroic feats of Soviet citizens, recorded the memories of Leningrad residents about the long days of the blockade, and participated in defense works: digging anti-tank ditches, clearing debris, extinguishing incendiary bombs. Thirty years after the blockade was lifted, Nison Alexandrovich published a collection titled “The Road of Life,” in which he managed to capture in short stories eyewitness accounts of how the city was defended. In the post-war years, Khodza, at the request of the editorial office, engaged in collecting materials about the life and studies of foreign students in Leningrad educational institutions. In the course of his interactions with them, Nison Alexandrovich discovered that his interlocutors knew many fascinating folk tales, and he intended to introduce Soviet readers to the folklore of China, Korea, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, and other Asian countries. For several years, Khodza collected, literarily processed, and published fairy tales, which subsequently became extremely popular among children. The captivating and instructive stories, filled with wisdom and unique beauty, written in a bright, vivid language, still resonate with both young and adult readers today. In this edition, the texts of the fairy tales are presented with illustrations by the Soviet book graphic artist and poster artist, Honored Artist of the RSFSR Nikolai Mikhailovich Kochergin (1897–1974).