Reddit reviews Russian Fairy Tales (Illustrated)

Slavic Wheel of the Year

I think this is mainly polish. My Ukranian friend gave me these correspondences:

Jare Gody = Velykden (sort of like Easter, but with a folk twist)

Dziady = Holy Trinity Day or we aslo do Maslenitsa (I think these are different dates)

Kupala Night – same across the border – love this one, my fav!

Plony or Dożynki = Obzhynki (not so popular J) I don’t know much about it

Szczodre Gody = Sviata Vecheria (the night before Christmas when devil comes to visit a witch in the village :)

http://mnomquah.blogspot.com/2017/02/slavic-way-rodnovery-and-slavic-wheel.html



I know you said not russian, but these herbs were used throughout eastern europe.

A Russian Herbal (book)

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Herbal-Traditional-Remedies-Healing/dp/0892815493


Baba Yaga

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga

This also says Russian, but these fairy tales are generally Finno-Ugric

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Illustrated-Alexander-Afanasyev/dp/1908478683


A book on Slavic Witchcraft that just came out in August. I haven’t read it yet.

https://www.amazon.com/Slavic-Witchcraft-Conjuring-Spells-Folklore/dp/1620558424

Edit: a link, formatting

Edit: abebooks.com is a great resource for cheap used books. I use it over amazon when possible. The best way to search is to copy the ISBN from amazon and use that as the search term. I

I used to read a collection of Russian fairly tales by a famous Russian illustrator when I was a kid, hiding from the grownups while visiting a great-aunt. Most (or all?) of them included Baba Yaga, the evil witch who had metal teeth for eating naughty children, "like others eat chickens." My favorite part was the illustrations, because they are gorgeous. Baba Yaga scared the crap out of me, but I was comforted by the stories because there were always spells or some other magic to combat her evil, wielded by a brave protagonist. I guess we all know why that resonated...

I am pretty sure it was this one, if my memory holds, and I see the first story in this book is the one mentioned in the OP. If you look inside the book online you can see some of the illustrations:

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Illustrated-Alexander-Afanasyev/dp/1908478683

Something along these lines - Russian Fairy Tales, with rich illustrations?

If this isn't the one, check Raduga Publishers' and Mir Publishers' Russian folk tales catalogues. These folktales were translated in English and numerous other Indian languages, catering to the Indian audience as part of the Indo-Soviet cultural exchange back in the day.

If you can get your hands on a copy of Russian Fairy Tales it is, essentially, the Brothers Grimm style collection of russian folklore.

Edit: the Wikipedia entry for the book can also do in a pinch.