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Enter the mysterious world of Russian myth and legenda world alive with spirits, of wolves that talk, of super-human heroes, magical spells, and strange encounters. Ranging from oral traditions of the first Slavs, who practiced earth-centered spirituality, to medieval stories centered in Orthodox Christian beliefs, this collection includes tales of wood nymphs and female spirits along with the story of Prince Vladimir, victor over ancient pagan gods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Simple, and straightforward
This book is a fairly good introduction to Russian folk belief and folktales. While it is not a large book, nor a very detailed one, it covers the basic topics succinctly, and clearly. The tales included are classic Russian stories, and provide a good starting point for folklore mavens looking for an introduction to the Russian culture in that area. It's a bit simplistic for anything more than an introductory work, however.

Informative and entertaining
Simonov's collection of Russian myths is extensive, covering several topics. The stories are written in an interesting, entertaining way, easy to read aloud if desired. Some Russian myths are very confusing, though, for those who are used to the coherence of Grimm's fairy tales. In my opinion, the best part of the book aren't the fairy tales themselves, but the informational paragraphs that precede them. Most stories have some explanatory introduction, teaching readers about such things as house spirits called the Domovoi, and the ways that the spirits of girls who died young have of tormenting the living. Overall, this book gives a wonderful look at Russian folktales and mythology. ... Read more

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The definitive Slavic Mythology.
With illustrations and a chapter on Baltic Mythology.

This book, taken from The Mythology of all Races, is the most complete study of Slavic mythology available. The pagan Slavs had a unique view of spirituality, and their own pantheon of fascinating gods. This book delves into the past of the Eastern Europeans to construct a surprisingly full account of their rituals, religion, gods, and beliefs from the scarce primary sources still in existence.

Features of this electronic edition:
Hyperlinks
Endnotes
Illustrations
DRM-free
... Read more

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"The present publication of Russian folk tales is a remarkable example of this interesting facet of Russian art. The illustrations are by AIexei Orleansky, a painter of the Palekh school. Working with a variety of materials, in 1999 he produced a series of original miniatures illustrating traditional stories. I am sure that his iridescent Fire-Bird colours will bring joy to many readers, young and old".(Abram Raskin, art scholar, Merited Art Worker of Russia) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Russian Fairy Tales: Palekh Painting
It's wonderful story book! My 8 year old neice was very happy to get it for her birthday.The pictures in the book are gorgeous. The stories are enchanting.Even grown-ups in my household enjoyed it.

Palekh Lives, + Helps Us Live
The main art in this book is larger than the Palekh boxes it's based on, and this is a plus. And the book is about 1/30th as expensive as many of said lacquer boxes. The fairy tales themselves are truly BAZAAR and hence stimulating. We bought this more for the art than the stories, but still 2 THUMBS UP! ... Read more

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    Both wild and familiar, alien and self, the Russian Cossacks came to represent in nineteenth-century literature their nation’s seemingly endless frontier, strongly influencing the self-image of the Russian people. The Cossack Hero in Russian Literature is the first book to study the development of the Cossack hero and to identify him as part of Russian cultural mythology.   Judith Kornblatt explores the power of the myth as a literary image,  providing new and challenging readings of  nineteenth- and twentieth-century works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, Khlebnikov, Babel, Tsvetaeva, Sholokhov, and a host of lesser-known writers, all of whom were attracted to the Cossack. By comparing the Cossack with the American cowboy, she reveals what is both unique and universal about the Russian self-image.
    Grappling with the phenomenon of myth-formation, Kornblatt places the Cossack hero in historical and sociopolitical context, chronicling the growth of the Cossack myth of unbounded wholeness and life, its gradually increasing influence on the Russian national consciousness during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and its eventual demise under the strictures of Stalinist socialist realism. Kornblatt’s eclectic methodology draws upon Barthes, White, Turner, and other Western theorists as well as such leading Russian critics and philosophers of language as Bakhtin, Lotman, and Uspensky. ... Read more

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Beginning with the earliest days of his meteoric rise to power at the turn of the nineteenth century and continuing into the post-soviet era, Napoleon Bonaparte has maintained a peculiar grip on Russian popular and literary imagination. Heralded as the Messiah, condemned as the Antichrist, and lauded as the spirit of the Revolution, Napoleon invaded Russia at a critical period in its historical development, when ideas about nation and identity were beginning to take form in literature and public debate. Using traditional methods and tools of literary analysis, this book examines the figure of Napoleon in the context of uniquely Russian paradigms and myths. It analyzes the motifs, images, and plots that underlie the ongoing process of the mythologization of Napoleon and demonstrates how the speaking terms in which Russians regaled this outsider, at various moments and in different contexts, expose strategies Russians used in common to fashion their own self-image and that of their nation. ... Read more

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Publisher: London, EllisPublication date: 1872Subjects: Folk songs, RussianRussia -- FolkloreNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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The twenty-two essays in Cultural Mythologies of Russian Modernism, six of which appear in Russian, display the enormous advances that have taken place among Slavists in the study of the fascinating, but tragically circumscribed period in Russian literature that extends from the turn of the century to the Stalinist holocaust. This collection offers a definitive statement of how features of the Pushkin era were transformed during the Modernist age into a cultural mythology that encompassed personal and literary behavior, and such far-reaching issues as national identity and cultural destiny. ... Read more

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This volume records one of the first attempts to tackle the dual imperative of Gulag history and mythology, map and territory, through contemporary art. Seven internationally recognized contemporary artists--Vitaly Komar and Alexander Meiamid, Leonid Sokov, Grisha Bruskin, Eugene Yelchin, Irena Nakhova, and Vadim Zakharov--who grew up in the former Soviet Union have been given a "territory" in the Boston University Art Gallery in which to confront the haunted space of the "zone" in history and in the individual psyche. They represent two generations of ex-Soviet non-conformist art: Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamind, Leonid Sokov, and Grisha Bruskin were born during Stalin's time and reflect with a mixture of nostalgia and irony on their totalitarian childhoods, while Irena Nakhova, Eugene Yelchin, and Vadim Zakharove, born during Khrushchev's thaw, have a more alienated attitude vis-à-vis the totalitarian mythology. Their territories of terror are border zones that reflect their cross-cultural experience. What they capture in their installations is the legacy of terror that shaped structures of mentality, spatial imagination, utopian aspirations, and claustrophobic anxieties that mirror the tragic paradoxes of twentieth century history. ... Read more

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Reading Russian revolutionary culture through its stories, author Susan Morrissey examines how the quest for consciousness evolved into a master-plot of student radicalism. Based on interdisciplinary sources and extensive research in Russian archives, this study throws new light on the dynamics of political and cultural change in late Imperial Russia and poses provocative questions about the pre-revolutionary antecedents of the founding myths of the Soviet Union. This work will appeal to historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as specialists in Slavic culture and literature. ... Read more

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Women Writers in Russian Literature presents a critical overview of Russian women writers from earliest times to the present, including emigre authors. Each of the 14 essays is by a scholar in a particular field; together, they cover all of Russian literature--from old Russia through the 18th and 19th centuries and up to the present--and include all genres: prose, poetry, drama, and autobiography. This collection examines images of women, and reintroduces Russian women writers whose recognition is long overdue. It also focuses on issues of reception and canon formation, and the relationship between gender and genre. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1872.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This Book Is In Sanskrit. ... Read more

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Baba Yaga is a well-known witch from the folklore tradition of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. A fascinating and colorful character, she resembles witches of other traditions but is in many ways unique. Living in the forest in a hut that stands and moves on chicken legs, she travels in a mortar with a pestle and sweeps away her tracks with a broom. In some tales she tries to harm the protagonist, while in others she is helpful. This book investigates the image and ambiguity of Baba Yaga in detail and considers the meanings she has for East Slavic culture. Providing a broad survey of folktales and other sources, it is the most thorough study of Baba Yaga yet published and will be of interest to students of anthropology, comparative literature, folklore, and Slavic and East European studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Probably the best English text on this subject
Andreas Johns' book on Baba Yaga is thorough and very useful if you're looking for information about the folk-tale figure Baba Yaga. It is not, as the other reviewer says, "highly readable." It's pretty dry and academic. But if you want to know about Baba Yaga, I haven't found anything else with nearly as much depth as this (in English at least -- if you speak Russian, you will likely be able to find other works of similar usefulness). Baba Yaga is a really interesting figure, and this book does a good job laying out all the different ways she appears in different folk tales.

In All Her Splendor
As Andreas Johns concludes in his masterfully researched book, BABA YAGA: THE AMBITIOUS MOTHER AND WITCH OF RUSSIAN FOLKLORE: "Baba Yaga defies any single or simple definition or interpretation, and no final definitive word can ever be said about her."Yet, what Johns manages to accomplish, in this fascinating and highly readable book, is to compile everything ever said or written about this fabulous Slavic folktale character.As one who has adored and feared Baba Yaga since childhood, I have been on a quest throughout my life to know more about her -- well, here is the treasure for which I've been searching! Scholars, as well as lovers, of folklore, oral traditions, and the psychology of ancient story will relish the careful research, the vast exploration, and the deep respect Johns brings to his wonderful study of Baba Yaga. ... Read more

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Russian popular culture and folklore were a central theme in Dostoevsky's work, and folklore imagery permeates his fiction. Dostoevsky and the Russian People is the most comprehensive study of the people and folklore in his art to date. Linda Ivanits investigates the integration of Dostoevsky's religious ideas and his use of folklore in his major fiction. She surveys the shifts in Dostoevsky's thinking about the Russian people throughout his life and offers comprehensive studies of the people and folklore in Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Devils, and The Brothers Karamazov. This important study will illuminate this unexplored aspect of his work, and will be of great interest to scholars and students of Russian and of comparative literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1872.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more