Russian Fairy Tales: Beauty, Mystery, and Value
St Petersburg University Representative Office in Spain invites you to the lecture titled ‘Russian Fairy Tales: Beauty, Mystery, and Value’, which will explore the philosophical depth and profound meaning embedded in Russian folk tales. Our lecturer is Inna Erofeeva, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences and Associate Professor at the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Teaching Methodology at SPbU.
How do fairy tales help us better understand ourselves and the world around us?
Fairy tales are not just stories—they are an essential cultural and pedagogical tool that conveys moral values, life experience, and worldviews. They help us reflect on complex questions, develop imagination and creative thinking, and even provide psychological support, allowing us to safely confront fears and discover inner strength. Thus, fairy tales play a key role in shaping personality and preserving cultural heritage.
To truly grasp the depth of a fairy tale, it is not enough to simply follow its plot. Fairy tales contain hidden cultural information, encoded symbols, and traditions. They are an invaluable source for reconstructing the worldview of our ancestors. Fairy tales hold immense significance as one of the earliest forms of worldview and as a means of preserving and transmitting knowledge from generation to generation.
In the first part of the lecture, we will examine how Russian fairy tales embody cognitive and educational functions. The cognitive aspect will be illustrated through tales such as ‘Kolobok’ and ‘Ryaba the Hen’; while the educational dimension will be explored through characters like Baba Yaga, Ivan Tsarevich, and Marya Morevna. We will also discuss how the ideological and structural framework of a magical fairy tale is formed.
Special attention will be given to the fairy tales of Alexander Pushkin, poetic works based on folklore narratives he heard from his nanny, Arina Rodionovna.
In the second part, we will analyse paintings and musical compositions inspired by Russian fairy tales, which capture their imagery and ideas. These include works by Viktor Vasnetsov, Ivan Bilibin, and Elena Polenova, as well as Igor Stravinsky’s ballet ‘The Firebird’ and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera ‘The Snow Maiden’, among others.
The lecture will showcase the multifaceted beauty of Russian fairy tales, unveil the deeper layers of their meaning, and introduce you to the works of renowned Russian artists and composers who drew inspiration from folk tales.
Lecturer
Inna Erofeeva — Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Teaching Methodology at St Petersburg University. She teaches courses on art history, culture, national worldviews, tour guiding, and Russian as a foreign language testing. She is also the author of academic papers and textbooks on teaching Russian as a foreign language.
The event will be held online in Russian with simultaneous Spanish translation.