About Alexander Afanasyev
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Russian: Александр Николаевич Афанасьев; 23 July [O.S. 11 July] 1826 – 5 October [O.S. 23 September] 1871) was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer, best known for publishing nearly 600 East Slavic and Russian fairy and folk tales, one of the largest collections of folklore in the world. This collection was not restricted to Great Russia, but included folk tales from what are now Ukraine and Belarus as well. The first edition of his collection was published in eight volumes from 1855 to 1867, earning him the reputation of being the Russian counterpart to the Brothers Grimm. == Life == Alexander Afanasyev was born in the town of Boguchar in the Voronezh Governorate of the Russian Empire (modern-day Voronezh Oblast of Russia) into a family of modest means. His mother, Varvara Mikhailovna Afanasyeva, came from common people. Alexander was her seventh child; she became very ill after giving birth and died by the end of the year. The children were raised by their father, Nikolai Ivanovich Afanasyev, who had the rank of titular councillor and served as a prosecutor's assistant on probable causes, and whom Alexander described as a man of high intellectual and moral qualities, 'deservedly known as the smartest person in the whole uyezd'. In three years, the family moved to Bobrov, Voronezh, where Alexander spent his childhood. He became addicted to reading early in his life, having access to the well-stocked library left by his grandfather (a member of the Russian Bible Society), as well as to various magazines. In 1837, he was sent to the Voronezh male gymnasium, and in 1844 he entered the Law Faculty of the University of Moscow, which he finished in 1848.
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