Russian: Красная Шапочка [Krasnaya Shapochka] Little Red Riding Hood

Russian: Красная Шапочка [Krasnaya Shapochka] Little Red Riding Hood

This fairy tale, originally recorded (and modified) in French by Charles Perrault in 1697, was first translated into Russian in 1768. French was the court language in Russia and required knowledge for the children of the noble families, so the first acquaintance with the text of this fairy tale was in the original French language. There were multiple translations into Russian completed in the 19th century when the educational system started to privilege native Russian over French. Among these existed two versions completed by famous Russian writers Vasilii Zhukovsky (1826) and Ivan Turgenev (1866). In both of the translations or rather retellings, the tragic original didactic message of the Little Red Riding Hood's death was changed to a significantly more positive version of her (and her grandmother's) recovery. This was analogous to the narrative changes made in the Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales translated into Russian as early as 1826.

About the Russian language: Russian [русский язык, tr. rússky yazýk] is the official language of the Russian Federation. It is one of the official languages of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is spoken by approximately 265 million people worldwide in more than 10 countries.

Charles Perrault
Marina Balina

mp3

Russian

Marina Balina

Saint Petersburg, Russia