2 Most Famous Writers of Russian Fables And Fairy Tales

Russia has a long tradition of fairy tales and fables. Krylov is the most famous writer of fables, and he is considered the Russian La Fontaine. On the other hand, Afanasyev’s fairy tales are regarded as the Russian equivalent to the Brothers Grimm’s ones.

Ivan Krylov (Иван Крылов) started off translating and interpreting La Fontaine’s works, like The Dragonfly and the Ant and The Wolf and the Lamb. However, he soon began inventing plots of his own, and many of them were connected topics of Russian life. He represented human vices and virtues in animals, as in the fables The Wolf and the Kennels and The Hermit and the Bear. Thus, he achieved a lot of success in the first half of the 19th century.

Alexander Afanasyev (Александр Афанасьев) published his famous collection of Russian Fairy Tales (Народные Русские Сказки) in the second half of the 19th century. The collection was explicitly modeled after the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales. Some tales are indeed interpretations of their tales, like The Frog Princess, while others are original compositions with characters of Russian popular culture, likes tsars and Baba Yagas.

Reading Russian fables and fairy tales is a great way to get acquainted with local folklore, and to know more about the often overlooked Russian countryside.

This post was brought to you by Zoran, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz