Russian folktale for Russian bride

 

 

 

 

 

The picture of Russian beauty appears in different ways before our eyes: ancient portraits of nude women, majestic look of Russian queens, legends of Russian faithfulness and warm-heartedness. Russian women are considered the best ones for marriage and family. There is no man in the world who hasn’t heard anything about magic soul of Russian bride, their gentle beauty, shy naked fascination or appealing sexuality.
Russian woman, by the personality and strong character, kindness and tenderness, differs from women of other nationalities. What makes them so bright on the women’s sky?
If we try to penetrate in the inner world of a Russian bride, we might have a chance to see how her lofty ideals are attained. She lives, dreaming, all the time, about the future happiness with her beloved one. Most dreams are taken from favorite folktales of the childhood and the moral of Russian folktales lies in the theory that the happiness should be gained through suffering.
Russian folktale is the first brick of the education and it inculcates the behavior models of a man and a woman. You can find the particularities of the soul of a Russian woman exactly in national fairy tales. They show the ways of behaving in different situations, describe beauty standards of a Russian woman, indicate what man is good for marriage and many other things. Let’s see what can be learnt from harmless, by sight, folktales.
Little girls are read such folktales as Red Cap, Masha and Bear, Three Bears, as they teach girls obedience, which means to stay inside the house all the time, as it is the only safe place where the future life can be regulated. These ideas get into the kid’s lucid mind very easily and stick forever.
Growing up a little, young Russian girls absorb effusively the folktales that praise for practical qualities (Father Frost, Wee Little Havroshechka, Vasilisa The Splendid). A girl is tested in household skills – to clean the house, to sew a shirt, to make the dinner and, the most important thing, to hold her tongue. The reward to the beautiful and docile Russian girl is the dowry (a chest with diamonds). Children’s impressions are the strongest ones and live in our hearts insensibly all the time. Nowadays Russian women adapt the idea of hard working as quickly as their grandmothers, because the proverb: “where there is a will, there is a way” is still urgent. And now they roll up the sleeves and get down to work tirelessly in order to provide well-off future for their families.
Being old enough to understand the words “love” and “fiance”, the girls read more serious folktales Sivko-Burko, Koschey The Immortal, the Story of the Sleeping Beauty. These ones now touch upon the most interesting subject. It was considered shameful to remain an old maid, that’s why Russian girls show the great interest and have always been marriage minded. For instance, being kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, the fiancee helps to the brave to save her by different ways and as a result, he couldn’t do it without her. So, Russian young women are taught, in this way, to be ingenious and faithful. These ideas are developed better in the next series of folktales (The frog Princess, Vasilisa the Wise, Sea Tsar) - romantic stories with incredible adventures and puzzles to test the power of a man. However, it is the Russian woman who works all the night long to help her husband, sleeping like a dog, as he trusts, completely, his wife’s talents. And he is right - Russian woman got married, would never betray her husband and do all the possible and impossible for his sake. Helping the husband, the Russian beauty understands very clearly that her darling is far to be clever or handsome (Ivan the Fool) or rich, but she loves him at any rate. And her love is close to the maternal love – to pity her poor man or protect him against sorrows.
In that way, Russian girls, gradually maturing into beautiful decent women, learn to be creative, active, resourceful, docile and patient. Russian woman is devoted heart and soul to her husband and support him at any situation that makes her unique and ideal for marriage and family.