Russian fairy tales in the USA: Alexander Alexeieff’s graphic interpretation and Roman Jacobson’s scientific comprehension
We analyze the graphic commentaries of Alexander Alexeieff, the illustrator and the first wave emigrant, made for The Russian Fairy tales published in the USA in 1946. We believe A. Alexeieff to have been the second to illustrate The Russian Fairy tales in the USA as Ivan Bilibin, the eminent Russian painter and book illustrator had preceded him. A. Alekseev brought his vision of artistic images to the illustration of The Russian Fairy tales, combining ancient Slavonic motives with Christian symbolism. We assume the publication also to be unique as Roman Jakobson, the well-known philologist an ancient Slavonic and Russian folklore explorer wrote the foreword to the book being cited in Russian for the first time. Having briefly considered R. Jakobson’s life and creative work, we presume it to be quite logical Jacobson to have been baptized according to the Russian Orthodox tradition, as well as to have backed up the theory of Eurasianism. From this point of view, the analyzed edition of The Russian Fairy tales is holistic in content, harmoniously combining the traditional values of the cultural heritage of the Russian world and the work of outstanding figures that developed and propagated its values and enduring significance through their works.