Boris Dekhterev

This is a beautiful edition of Pushkin's fairy tales in verse published for elementary school age children in 1955. The ample illustrations are by B. Dekhterev and are luscious. The pictures look like ink drawings that are detailed and beautifully done in black and white.

Pushkin's skazki (fairy or folk tales) are a joy to read. For the foreign student, this edition is nice because it has stress marks above the words (unusual for Russian books), making reading the verses correctly easier. This is because the edition is designated for "non-Russian" schools -- that is most likely for Russian learners in the non-Russian Soviet republics. There are some short explanatory notes and definitions for some of the words at the bottom of the page, but for the most part, one would need a dictionary to parse the reading if one is not a beyond second year of language study. There is also a short essay introducing school-age children to Pushkin and his fairy tales written by the author Konstantin Paustovsky.

Though it is commonly accepted that Pushkin rewrote "Russian" fairytales he heard from his nanny, in fact, several of the tales have elements taken from 1001 arabian nights, Greek mythology and European fairytales, for example "The story of the Dead Princess (tsarevna) and the seven Knights (bogatyry)" is a Russianized version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". In any case, Pushkin's skazki are delightful.
Contents:
"Skazki Pushkina" by Konstantin Paustovskii
Skazka o tsare Saltane, o syne ego slavnom i moguchem bogatyre kniazt Gvidone Saltanoviche i o prekrasnoi tsarevne Lebedi
Skazka o rybake i rybke
Skazka o pope i o rabotnike ego Balda
Skazka o mertvoi tsarevne i o semi bogatyriakh
Skazka o zolotom petushke… (mere)