Read Soviet fairy tales online. Russian folk tales - the wisdom of a great people

The unique identity of the Russian people and their traditions have long been passed down from generation to generation. Through oral folklore people comprehended the knowledge and customs of their distant ancestors. Thanks to fairy tales, children early age began to connect with the roots of their own family. The wisdom of centuries, embedded in magical and instructive stories, helped the child grow up to be a worthy person.

Now kids don’t have to wait for adults to tell them amazing tales - they can read Russian on their own folk tales on our website. Having become acquainted with them, children will learn more about such concepts as intelligence, friendship, courage, resourcefulness, dexterity, and cunning. Not a single story will end without a wise conclusion that will help the child better understand the realities of the world around him. The heritage of our ancestors is of no small value for lovers of folk traditions in the 21st century.

Read Russian folk tales online

Russian folk tales occupy important place among oral folk art and open up to young readers an amazing and Magic world. Folk tales reflect the life and moral values Russian people, their kindness and sympathy for the weak. The main characters at first glance seem simple-minded, but they manage to overcome all obstacles and achieve their goal. Each story fascinates with unforgettable adventures, colorful descriptions of the lives of the main characters, fantastic creatures and magical phenomena.

We were all children once and all of us, without exception, loved fairy tales. After all, in the world of fairy tales there is a special and extraordinary style, filled with our dreams and fantasies. Without even fairy tales real world loses its colors, becomes ordinary and boring. But where did everyone come from? famous heroes? Perhaps, once upon a time a real Baba Yaga and a goblin walked the earth? Let's figure it out together!

According to V. Dahl’s definition, “a fairy tale is a fictional story, an unprecedented and even unrealistic story, a legend.” But the New Illustrated Encyclopedia gives the following definition of a fairy tale: “this is one of the main genres of folklore, epic, mainly prose work magical, adventurous or everyday character with a focus on fiction.” And of course, one cannot help but recall the words of our great poet: “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it!” Good fellows lesson!"

That is, whatever one may say, a fairy tale is fiction... But everything in it is unusual, magical and very attractive. There is a immersion into a mysterious, enchanted world, where animals speak human voice, where objects and trees move on their own, where good necessarily defeats evil.

Each of us remembers how the Fox was punished for tricking the Bunny out of the hut (“The Fox and the Hare”), how cruelly the stupid Wolf, who took the cunning Fox’s word for it, paid with his tail (“The Wolf and the Fox”), how quickly they got over it with a turnip (“Turnip”), when they decided to pull it together and also did not forget to call the Mouse, just as the strong forgot about the weak in the fairy tale “Teremok” and what this led to...

Smart, kind, correct, highly moral, embedded in fairy tales helps to bring up the best in our children human qualities. The fairy tale teaches life wisdom. And these values ​​are eternal; they make up what we call spiritual culture.

Among other things, the invaluable nature of fairy tales lies in the fact that they provide an opportunity to introduce children to the life and way of life of the Russian people.

What does Russian village mean? What did a tree, a forest mean to a Russian person? And household items: dishes, clothes, shoes (the famous bast shoes alone are worth it!), musical instruments(balalaika, gusli). This is our opportunity to tell and show children how people lived in Russia before, how the culture of a great people took shape, of which we, their parents, grandparents, by the will of fate, became a part.

Russian folk tales are also an invaluable assistant in developing a child’s language and speech skills. Words and expressions from fairy tales with their ancient and deep meaning are laid down in our consciousness and live in us, regardless of where we ourselves are.

Fairy tales provide an opportunity to expand your vocabulary on any topic (whether it be tales about animals, everyday life or magic). Traditional Russian repetitions, special melody, rare “forgotten” words, proverbs and sayings, which are so rich in Russian speech: all this makes it possible to make a fairy tale accessible, understandable for children’s consciousness, and helps to remember it easily and quickly. And all this develops children’s imagination, teaches them beautiful and coherent speech. (Who knows, maybe those fairy tales that they begin to invent after Russian folk tales will also one day enter the treasury of the language).

A fairy tale is special literary genre, a story unfolding in a timeless and spaceless dimension. Characters such a story - fictional characters who fall into difficult situations and emerging from them thanks to assistants, most often endowed with magical properties. At the same time, insidious villains plot various intrigues against them, but in the end good wins. The creation of fairy tales has an ancient history.

FROM THE HISTORY OF FAIRY TALES:

Fairy tales appeared in such ancient times that it is very difficult to accurately determine the time of their birth. We know just as little about their authors. Most likely, the fairy tales were composed by the same peasants and shepherds who often acted as the main characters of the story.

Has anyone ever wondered if there is something behind these legends? real events, were there fairy-tale heroes the most ordinary people, whose life and adventures could become the basis for fairy tales. Why not? For example, a goblin could be someone who lived in the forest for a long time, was unaccustomed to communicating with people, but got along well with the forest and its inhabitants. Well, Vasilisa is a beauty - everything is clear here. But Koschey the Immortal looks like an old man who married a young girl.

But the situation is more interesting. Our land is located at the crossroads of roads from Europe to Asia, from south to north and vice versa. That is why we lived in close connection with neighboring peoples. From the north, we were contacted by the Vikings, who were a step higher in development than us. They brought us metal and weapons, their legends and fairy tales - and we brought them clothes, shoes and food, everything that our land is rich in. From there the fairy tale about Baba Yaga, where she was the evil old woman Heel on two bone legs, who lives in a separate hut on the outskirts of the forest, guards the souls of the dead and is a border point in the transition from earthly life to the afterlife. She is not particularly kind and day after day creates a lot of trials and troubles for those who walk this road. That is why the heroes of our fairy tales, driven into a remote corner by their troubles, come to Baba Yaga.

Transmitted fairy tales from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, changing them along the way and adding new details.

Tales were told by adults and - contrary to our current view- not only for children, but for adults too.

Fairy tales taught us how to get out of difficult situations, overcome trials with honor, conquer fear - and every fairy tale ended with a happy ending.

Some scientists believe that the origins of fairy tales lie in primitive rituals. The rituals themselves were forgotten, but the stories were preserved as treasures of useful and instructive knowledge.

It is difficult to say when the first fairy tale appeared. This is probably not possible “either to say in a fairy tale or to describe with a pen.” But it is known that the first fairy tales were dedicated to natural phenomena and their main characters were the Sun, the Wind and the Moon.

A little later they took on a relatively human form. For example, the owner of water is Grandfather Vodyanoy, and Leshy is the owner of the forest and forest animals. It is these images that indicate that folk tales were created at a time when people humanized and animated all the elements and forces of nature.


Water

Another important aspect of beliefs primitive people, which is reflected in folk tales, is the veneration of birds and animals. Our ancestors believed that each clan and tribe comes from a specific animal, which was the patron of the clan (totem). That is why Voron Voronovich, Falcon or Eagle often act in Russian fairy tales.

Also, ancient rituals (for example, initiation of a boy into hunters and warriors) found their expression in folk tales. It is surprising that it was with the help of fairy tales that they came to us in an almost primordial form. Therefore, folk tales are very interesting for historians.

FAIRY TALES AND NATIONAL CHARACTER

Fairy tales reveal all the most important aspects of Russian life. Fairy tales are an inexhaustible source of information about national character. Their strength lies in the fact that they not only reveal it, but also create it. Fairy tales reveal many individual character traits of Russian people and their peculiarities. inner world and ideals.

Here is a typical dialogue (fairy tale “The Flying Ship”):

The old man asks the fool: “Where are you going?”

- “Yes, the king promised to give his daughter to the one who makes a flying ship.”

- “Can you make such a ship?”

- “No, I can’t!” - “So why are you going?” - “God knows!”

For this wonderful answer (because it is honest!) the old man helps the hero get the princess. This eternal wandering “I don’t know where”, in search of “I don’t know what” is inherent in all Russian fairy tales, and indeed in all Russian life in general.

Even in Russian fairy tales, as well as among the Russian people, faith in miracles is strong.

Of course, all fairy tales in the world are based on some extraordinary events. But nowhere does the miraculous dominate the plot as much as in Russians. It piles up, overwhelms the action and is always believed in, unconditionally and without a shadow of a doubt.


Artist: Anastasia Stolbova

Russian fairy tales also testify to the special faith of the Russian person in the meaning of the spoken word. Thus, there is a separate cycle from the category of fairy tales-legends, in which the entire plot is tied to various kinds of accidentally escaped curses. It is characteristic that only Russian versions of such tales are known. IN fairy tales the importance of the spoken word is also emphasized, the need to keep it: he promised to marry the one who finds the arrow - he must fulfill it; if you kept your word and went to your father’s grave, you will be rewarded; made a promise to marry the one who stole the wings - fulfill it. All fairy tales are filled with these simple truths.

The word opens doors, turns the hut, breaks the spell. The sung song brings back the memory of the husband, who forgot and did not recognize his wife, the little goat with his quatrain (except for him, apparently, he does not know how to say anything, otherwise he would have explained what happened) saves his sister Alyonushka and himself. The word is believed, without any doubt. “I’ll be of use to you,” says some bunny, and the hero lets him go, confident (as is the reader) that this will happen.

Often heroes are rewarded for their suffering. This theme is also especially loved by Russian fairy tales. Often sympathies are on the side of heroes (even more often - heroines) not because of their special qualities or the actions they committed, but because of the life circumstances - misfortune, orphanhood, poverty - in which they found themselves. In this case, salvation comes from the outside, from nowhere, not as a result of the active actions of the hero, but as the restoration of justice. Such fairy tales are designed to instill compassion, empathy for one’s neighbor, and a feeling of love for all those who suffer. How can one not recall the thought of F. M. Dostoevsky that suffering is necessary for a person, because it strengthens and purifies the soul.

The attitude of the Russian people to work reflected in fairy tales seems peculiar. Here is a seemingly incomprehensible fairy tale about Emelya the Fool from the point of view of ideals.

He lay on the stove all his life, did nothing, and did not hide the reason, he answered “I’m lazy!” to all requests for help. Once I went out into the water and caught a magic pike. The continuation is well known to everyone: the pike persuaded him to let her go back into the hole, and for this she undertook to fulfill all of Emelya’s wishes. And so "by pike command“, at my request,” a sleigh without a horse carries a fool to the city, the ax chops the wood itself, and they are put into the oven, the buckets march into the house without outside help. Moreover, Emelya also got the royal daughter, also not without the intervention of magic.

The ending, however, is still hopeful (in children's retellings for some reason it is often omitted): “The fool, seeing that all people are like people, and he alone was bad and stupid, wanted to become better and for this he said: “As a pike by command, and at my request, that I become such a fine fellow, that nothing like this should happen to me, and that I be extremely smart!” And as soon as he had time to speak, at that very moment he became so beautiful, and also smart, that everyone was surprised.”

This tale is often interpreted as a reflection eternal inclination Russian person to laziness, idleness.

She's talking, rather, about heaviness. peasant labor, which gave birth to a desire to relax, making me dream of a magical assistant.

Yes, if you are lucky and catch a miracle pike, you can happily do nothing, lie on a warm stove and think about the Tsar’s daughter. All this, of course, is also unrealistic for the man who dreams of it, like a stove driving through the streets, and the usual difficult daily work awaits him, but you can dream about pleasant things.

The fairy tale also reveals another difference between Russian culture - it does not have the sanctity of the concept of labor, that special reverent attitude, on the verge of “work for the sake of labor itself,” which is characteristic, for example, of Germany or modern America. It is known, for example, that one of the common problems among Americans is the inability to relax, distract themselves from business, and understand that nothing will happen if they go on vacation for a week. For a Russian person there is no such problem - he knows how to relax and have fun, but perceives work as inevitable.

The famous philosopher I. Ilyin considered such “laziness” of the Russian person to be part of his creative, contemplative nature. “We were taught, first of all, by our flat space,” wrote the Russian thinker, “by our nature, with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms and blizzards. Hence our insatiable gaze, our dreaminess, our contemplating “laziness” (A.S. Pushkin), behind which lies strength creative imagination. Russian contemplation was given beauty that captivated the heart, and this beauty was introduced into everything - from fabric and lace to housing and fortifications.” There may be no zeal and exaltation of work, but there is a feeling of beauty, merging with nature. This also bears fruit - rich folk art, expressed, among other things, in a fairy-tale heritage.

The attitude towards wealth is clear. Greed is perceived as big vice. Poverty is a virtue.

This does not mean that there is no dream of prosperity: difficulties peasant life made us dream of a self-assembled tablecloth, of a stove in which “there are goose meat, pig meat, and pies - apparently and invisibly! One word to say - whatever the soul wants, everything is there! the bride received was also nice to dream about on long winter evenings.

But wealth comes to the heroes easily, casually, when they don’t even think about it, as an additional prize for a good bride or a saved wife. Those who strive for it as an end in itself are always punished and remain “with nothing.”

Fairy tales are poetic stories about extraordinary events and adventures involving fictional characters. In modern Russian, the concept of the word “fairy tale” has acquired its meaning since the 17th century. Until that point, the word "fable" was supposedly used in this meaning.

One of the main features of a fairy tale is that it is always based on an invented story, with a happy ending, where good defeats evil. The stories contain a certain hint that enables the child to learn to recognize good and evil, to comprehend life clear examples.

Read children's stories online

Reading fairy tales is one of the main and important stages on your child's path to life. Various stories make it clear that the world around us is quite contradictory and unpredictable. By listening to stories about the adventures of the main characters, children learn to value love, honesty, friendship and kindness.

Reading fairy tales is useful not only for children. Having grown up, we forget that in the end good always triumphs over evil, that all adversity is nothing, and a beautiful princess is waiting for her prince on a white horse. Give a little Have a good mood and plunge into fairy world simple enough!

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7. Masha and the Bear

8. Morozko

9. The Man and the Bear (Tops and Roots)

10. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones

11. At the behest of the pike

13. Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka

14. Sivka-Burka

15. Snow Maiden

16. Teremok

5. Legless and armless heroes

6. Legless and blind heroes

8. Birch and three falcons

9. Hunter Brothers

10. Well done Bulat

11. Bukhtan Bukhtanovich

14. The Witch and the Sun's Sister

15. Prophetic boy

16. Prophetic dream

17. There is a sun in the forehead, a month on the back of the head, stars on the sides

18. Mushroom War

19. Magic water

22. Magic berries

23. Magic horse

24. Clay guy

28. Two from the bag

29. Girl in the well

30. Wooden eagle

31. Elena the Wise

32. Emelya the Fool

33. The Firebird and Vasilisa the Princess

34. The Enchanted Princess

35. Animal milk

36. Golden Slipper

37. Golden Cockerel

38. Dawn, evening and midnight

39. Ivan - widow's son

40. Ivan - son of a cow

41. Ivan - peasant son and Miracle Yudo

42. Ivan - a peasant's son

43. Ivan the Bestalent and Elena the Wise

44. Ivan is a peasant son and a peasant himself with a mustache for seven miles

45. Ivan Tsarevich and the White Polyanin

47. Kikimora

51. Horse, tablecloth and horn

52. Korolevich and his uncle

55. Flying ship

57. Dashing one-eyed

58. Lutonyushka

59. Boy with Thumb

60. Marya Morevna

61. Marya-Krasa - long braid

62. Masha and the Bear

63. Medvedko, Usynya, Gorynya and Duginya heroes

64. Copper, silver and golden kingdoms

67. Wise maiden

68. The wise maiden and the seven thieves

69. Wise wife

70. Wise answers

71. Nesmeyana the Princess

72. Night dancing

73. Petrified Kingdom

74. Shepherd's pipe

75. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones

76. Feather of Finist the clear falcon

77. Knee-deep in gold, elbow-deep in silver

78. At the behest of the pike

79. Go there - I don’t know where, bring that - I don’t know what

80. Truth and Falsehood

81. Fake illness

82. About a stupid snake and a smart soldier

83. Bird's tongue

84. Robbers

85. Seven Simeons

86. Silver saucer and pouring apple

87. Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka

88. Sivka-Burka

89. The Tale of Vasilisa, the Golden Braid, and Ivan the Pea

90. The Tale of the Bonebreaker Bear and Ivan, the Merchant's Son

91. Tale of rejuvenating apples and living water

92. The Tale of Ivan the Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

93. Tales of the brave knight Ukrom-Tabunshchik

94. Tablecloth, ram and bag

95. Fast messenger

96. Snow Maiden

97. Snow Maiden and Fox

98. The soldier delivers the princess

99. Sun, Moon and Raven Voronovich

100. Suma, give me some wisdom!

101. Tereshechka

102. Three kingdoms - copper, silver and gold

103. Finist - clear falcon

105. Tricky science

106. Crystal Mountain

107. Princess solving riddles

110. Tsar Maiden

111. Tsar Bear

112. Chivy, chivy, chivychok...

113. Wonderful shirt

114. Wonderful little shoes

115. Wonderful box

8. Wolf, quail and jerk

10. Crow and cancer

11. Where was the goat?

12. Stupid wolf

13. Crane and heron

14. For a bast shoe - a chicken, for a chicken - a goose

16. Hares and frogs

17. Animals in the pit

18. Winter quarters of animals

19. Golden horse

20. Golden Cockerel

21. How the wolf became a bird

22. How the fox learned to fly

23. How the fox sewed a fur coat for the wolf

27. Cat - gray forehead, goat and ram

28. Cat and Fox

29. Cat, Rooster and Fox

30. Kochet and chicken

31. Crooked duck

32. Kuzma is soon rich

33. Chicken, mouse and black grouse

34. Lion, pike and man

35. Fox is a wanderer

36. Fox and blackbird

37. Fox and crane

38. Fox and goat

39. Fox and jug

40. Fox and bast shoe

41. Fox and cancer

44. Fox Confessor

45. Fox midwife

46. ​​The fox-maiden and Kotofey Ivanovich

47. Fox-sister and wolf

48. Masha and the Bear

49. Bear - fake leg

50. Bear and fox

51. Bear and dog

52. The Man and the Bear (Tops and Roots)

53. Man, bear and fox

54. Mouse and Sparrow

55. Scared wolves

56. Scared bear and wolves

57. Wrong court of birds

58. No goat with nuts

59. About Vaska - Muska

60. About the toothy pike

61. Sheep, fox and wolf

62. Rooster and bob

63. Rooster and hen

64. Cockerel

65. Cockerel - Golden comb and millstones

66. At the behest of the pike

67. Promised

68. About the toothy mouse and about the rich sparrow

69. About the old lady and the bull

71. Mitten

72. The Tale of Ersha Ershovich, Shchetinnikov’s son

73. The Tale of Ivan the Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

74. Tar goby

75. The Old Man and the Wolf