Russian Folktales

Alexander Afanasyev spent years gathering the oral tales told across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and the result is one of the great treasuries of Slavic storytelling. Published between 1855 and 1863, his collection runs to nearly six hundred stories, among them favorites like The Frog Princess, Father Frost, and The Firebird. Here are the witches and tsars, the talking animals, the youngest sons who outwit their betters, and Baba Yaga in her hut on chicken legs. Afanasyev worked in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm, recording peasant voices before they faded, and his book became the foundation for how the world came to know Russian folklore. This edition, in Leonard Magnus’s English translation, is available as a free PDF and EPUB.