Beautiful fairy tales for children. Russian folk tales

In this section, we have collected interesting fairy tales from around the world that are suitable for reading before bed. These small instructive and kind stories will help children calm down after a stormy day and tune in to rest.
In bedtime stories, you will not find cruelty and frightening characters. Only light plots and pleasant characters.
At the bottom of every story there is prompt, for what age it is intended, as well as other tags. Be sure to pay attention to them when choosing a product! You do not have to spend time reading a fairy tale to find out if it suits your child or not. We have already read everything, sorted and compiled short descriptions of fairy tales.
Enjoy reading and good dreams :)

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An interesting fairy tale is that part of childhood that remains with us forever, even when childhood is gone. This is a magical world that is wide open in front of the baby, and acquaintance with it begins with a short and sweet bedtime story.

At what age should children read fairy tales

There is no strict age limit in reading fairy tales to a child. Reading for a child is, first of all, an opportunity for emotional intimacy with an adult. Even if not a word is clear yet, the familiar timbre of the voice, the measured rhythm soothe the baby and stimulate its development. That is why psychologists recommend reading fairy tales even to babies. The main condition: the process should bring pleasure to both the adult and the baby.

The benefits of reading fairy tales

A bedtime story read by a parent is a powerful stimulus for the development of a child, a wide range of opportunities for a child in the following areas:

• imagination;
• fantasy;
• creative thinking;
• speech skills;
• emotional development;
• the ability to find a way out of problem situations.

Unlike cartoons, the fairy tale does not present the child with ready-made images and the world invented by the artist, but invites him to think, think out and imagine what is not in the illustrations.

Simply put, we read to children at night and at the same time reveal their creative potential. The next step is the first children's tests of themselves as an author and artist, but that will come later. And now such familiar and at the same time amazing short bedtime stories come to the aid of parents.

Bedtime stories - what should they be?

It often happens that the baby every day asks for the hundredth time to read a familiar fairy tale to him, not wanting to listen to any others.

It is not worth arguing and trying to read something new - a bedtime story exists in order to cradle and give pleasant dreams. So it should be:

• short;
• calm;
• kind;
• without dynamic details in the plot, but with a happy ending.

The repeated repetition of the same situation (a familiar room, a favorite blanket and a soft toy, next to it is a mother reading a familiar fairy tale) turns for the baby into a kind of ritual that has a calming effect. It helps relieve the emotional stress that has accumulated over a long day.

Short stories on our website

The "Short Bedtime Stories" section presents famous works by Russian and foreign authors that have become favorites for children all over the world.

Magic little men created by Astrid Lindgren, kind tigers by Donald Bisset, inseparable Hedgehog and Bear cub by Sergey Kozlov - these and other characters are looking forward to meeting young readers.

Here you will also find folk tales and illustrated works by Vladimir Suteev. Kids will be delighted with simple instructive stories and colorful pictures created by a real Master.

Tips on the site

The free bedtime stories presented on our website are so diverse that sometimes it can be difficult to find the right one. To help parents, we have developed a convenient search engine that allows you to view the parameters of a fairy tale without opening it:

• age of readers;
• reading time;
• short description;
• popularity indicator;
• illustration.

Secrets of reading bedtime stories

In order to replace the evening fairy tale with a sweet dream, it should be a short fairy tale, which should be read online in a calm and familiar environment.

Read in a low voice, without haste. Remember, we read to children at night not to give them new knowledge - there is daytime for this. In the evening, it is important to create a relaxing atmosphere and a sense of peace. For this, it is important to choose the right bedtime story, which is why our site is always open for you, dear parents!

jumping fireball

Bazhov P.P.


A fairy tale about a magical girl - a fabulous Fire Girl, she appeared to the workers of the mine from the fire, began to dance, and then disappeared near the tree. And there was such a sign where it will disappear - there you have to look for gold. Firefly-jumping read Sat ...

Stone Flower

Bazhov P.P.


One day, a student of Danila appeared at the noble master carver. He was an orphan, thin and sickly, but the master immediately noticed in him talent and a faithful eye. Danila matured, learned the craft, but wanted to know the secret of beauty, so that in stone ...

Malachite Box

Bazhov P.P.


The girl Tanya inherited from her father a malachite box with women's jewelry. Mom put them on several times, but she could not walk in them: they are tight and crushed. The jewels were magical, they made another Mistress of the Copper Mountain out of Tanyusha. Malachite Box …

mountain master

Bazhov P.P.


A story about loyalty and love for a loved one. The girl Katerina was left alone, her fiancé Danila disappeared to no one knows where. Everyone told her that she should forget him, but Katerina did not listen to anyone and firmly believed that he ...

How a man divided geese

Tolstoy L.N.


A tale about a clever and savvy poor peasant who went to the master to ask for bread, and in gratitude roasted the master a goose. The master asked the peasant to divide the goose into all members of his family. How a man divided geese to read U ...

About the elephant

Zhitkov B.S.


How an elephant saved its owner from a tiger

Zhitkov B.S.


One Hindu went to the forest with his elephant for firewood. Everything was going well, but suddenly the elephant stopped listening to the owner and began to listen to the sounds. The owner became angry with him and began to hit him on the ears with a branch. …

Zhitkov B.S.


Once the sailors were resting on the shore. Among them was one hefty sailor, he was bearish in strength. The sailors decided to go to the local circus. At the end of the performance, a kangaroo was brought into the arena in boxing gloves. Kangaroo read On a sailing ...

What is everyone's favorite holiday? Of course, New Year! On this magical night, a miracle descends to earth, everything sparkles with lights, laughter is heard, and Santa Claus brings long-awaited gifts. A huge number of poems are dedicated to the New Year. AT …



In this section of the site you will find a selection of poems about the main wizard and friend of all children - Santa Claus. Many poems have been written about the kind grandfather, but we have selected the most suitable for children aged 5,6,7. Poems about…



Winter has come, and with it fluffy snow, blizzards, patterns on the windows, frosty air. The guys rejoice at the white flakes of snow, get skates and sleds from the far corners. Work is in full swing in the yard: they are building a snow fortress, an ice hill, sculpting ...



A selection of short and memorable poems about winter and the New Year, Santa Claus, snowflakes, a Christmas tree for the younger group of kindergarten. Read and learn short poems with children 3-4 years old for matinees and New Year's holidays. Here …

1 - About the little bus that was afraid of the dark

Donald Bisset


A fairy tale about how a mother-bus taught her little bus not to be afraid of the dark ... About a little bus who was afraid of the dark to read Once upon a time there was a little bus in the world. He was bright red and lived with his mom and dad in a garage. Every morning …

2 - Three kittens

Suteev V.G.

A small fairy tale for the little ones about three restless kittens and their funny adventures. Small children love short stories with pictures, that's why Suteev's fairy tales are so popular and loved! Three kittens read Three kittens - black, gray and ...

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Tales online

In this section of the site you can read children's fairy tales online for free and without registration. It is enough to select the author of the fairy tale you need in the right menu and you can immerse yourself in fascinating reading about the magical adventures of fairy-tale heroes. All fairy tales on our website are with colorful illustrations and brief content, so we recommend that you first read the summary of the fairy tale before reading it to children at night. Fairy tales for children on our website are presented in the form of an alphabetical list, so that it would be more convenient for you to find the necessary fairy tale and read it online. Reading fairy tales online is not only interesting, but also very useful - this activity perfectly develops a child's imagination.

Children's fairy tales

Remember your childhood. Each of us in childhood loved bedtime stories. At first, when we still could not read, our parents and grandparents did it to us, showing colorful illustrations in the book. When we learned to read on our own, we already began to read interesting fairy tales ourselves. On our site, fairy tales are selected for children of any age: from 2 years old to the age until children stop believing in fairy tales)) Each author's or folk tale carries a certain meaning that the author or people put into this fairy tale under the influence of the appropriate time .Fairy tales contain the basic principles of morality. It is from fairy tales that the child begins to understand what is good and what is bad. He learns to empathize with the characters, tries to imitate them, so correctly selected children's fairy tales will play an important role in the upbringing of children.

Our site presents fairy tales of the best authors of all times and peoples. The list of author's fairy tales is constantly expanding and supplemented by new arrivals. In the right menu you can see the list of authors whose fairy tales are published on the site. If you don't see the author you're looking for, use the site search.

Folk tales

The site for children collects and publishes folk tales with colorful illustrations and summaries. In the right menu you can see a list of folk tales that are presented on our website. This list is constantly updated with interesting folk tales.

The best fairy tales

The best fairy tales that are most in demand among our readers are placed in a separate block on the right. There are materials that have the highest rating - the maximum number of views and the highest ratings from readers.

Heroes of fairy tales

Each character in a children's fairy tale can be attributed to one of two types: good or bad. In almost any fairy tale, there is a struggle between good and evil, and, most often, good wins.

In addition, the heroes of fairy tales can be divided into the following categories:

Magical heroes (Gingerbread Man, Thumbelina, Little Mermaid, Kashchei the Immortal, Baba Yaga, Vodyanoy, Monster,Serpent-Gorynych, Dragon, Chippolino, Gulliver...)

magical animals(Puss in Boots, Chicken Ryaba, Fox, Bear, Cheshire Cat, Ugly Duckling, Golden Cockerel,Gray Wolf, Crane, Traveling Frog...)

social heroes(princess, prince, king, queen, master, boyar, peasant, peasant...)

Professions(blacksmith, forester, swineherd, soldier, chimney sweep, priest, bishop...)

People of different ages(grandmother, grandfather, granddaughter, Little Red Riding Hood, mother, father, brother, sister, groom, bride...)

Bogatyrs (Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich, Nikita Kozhemyaka, Ilya Muromets...)

Each fairy tale has its own atmosphere, characteristic of a certain people and the era to which the author of the fairy tale belonged.

Free fairy tales

All fairy tales that are contained on our website are collected from open sources on the Internet and published on our website for informational purposes only. Any story can be read for free.

print fairy tale

Any fairy tale you like can be printed using the button at the bottom of the material and read it at another time.

Add a fairy tale to the site

Write a letter to the site administration and an appropriate section will be created for you, you will receive detailed instructions on how to add a fairy tale to the site, the training will take quite a bit of time.

Website g o s t e i- everything for children!

We wish you a pleasant reading of children's bedtime stories!

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Folk children's fairy tales must be read from an early age. They have a powerful educational effect and captivate every child for a long time. You can read these works not only before going to bed, but also during the day, after classes at school, at a break in the class, in line. On the site you will see more than 500 fairy tales that you can read at a convenient time.

Benefits for children

Psychologists recommend reading bedtime stories. Each story is instructive, contains a moral that points out certain flaws in the character or behavior of the characters. Using such examples, it is convenient to explain to the child which actions are right and which are not.

While reading fairy tales, children:

• learn to analyze life situations, think logically, look for ways out;
• learn about eternal values, morality, good and evil;
• develop imagination, learn to think creatively;
• have a good time.

Each story is presented in a humorous way. Funny situations that happen to the characters not only teach, but also entertain the baby. Even short text can be interesting and colorful.

Variety of works

On the site you get free access to fairy tales without registration. This is very convenient, because you can go to the resource at any time and read the work online. It contains the works of such writers as the Brothers Grimm, Andersen, Perrault, Lindgren, Carroll, Bianchi, Tolstoy and other famous authors. Their children's works are easy to understand and captivating.

Folk art will be no less interesting and useful for your little daughter or son. Fairy tales of the peoples of the world introduce children to different cultures, allow them to plunge into the mentality of other countries. Even a short story will captivate the baby, allow you to learn a lot of new things, develop your imagination.

Instructive stories of L.N. Tolstoy, lyrics by A.S. Pushkin, zoological stories by V.V. Bianchi, fairy tales in verses by K.I. Chukovsky, S.Ya. Marshak is only a part of the works loved by many generations of children. It is not in vain that teachers advise you to start reading fairy tales written by the geniuses of classical Russian literature as early as possible (of course, suitable for age). They have a pronounced educational effect, they make you think and analyze, transfer the model of the characters' behavior to your own life. Fairy tales for children in verse are easily perceived by ear, remembered, and very useful for the development of memory.

One should not think that Russian children will not be interested in fairy tales of foreign origin. Even kids attending kindergarten are probably already familiar with many famous and beloved heroes. It is enough to name Thumbelina, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Snow White, Mowgli. Fairy tales online by such authors of foreign world literature as Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Astrid Lingerd, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm will not leave indifferent not only children, but also adults.

How often should you read fairy tales

Teachers and psychologists answer the same way: "The more often, the better." You can use any opportunity when mom or dad is with the child, and there is a free minute. In the car, at the dacha, in line at the children's clinic, at a public transport stop - anywhere you can find time to read. Of course, a suitable book for children is not always in your purse, but there is one very convenient and affordable way to always have a whole arsenal of fairy tale texts with you. It is enough just to have access to the Internet and the ability to open a page of our site through a tablet, phone or any other device.

- this is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, which in the simplest and most playful way tells children not only about the world around them, but also about the manifestations of both the best and the ugliest. General statistics tell us that Russian folk tales are of interest to children only up to school age, but it is these tales that we carry in our hearts and let us pass them on to our children in a slightly modified form. After all, it is impossible to forget about Masha and the Bear, the chicken Ryaba or the Gray Wolf, all these images help us learn and understand the reality around us. You can read Russian folk tales online and listen to audio tales for free on our website.

Types of Russian folk tales

Folk tales are basically divided into three categories. These are fairy tales about animals, household and fairy tales.

Russian folk tales about animals- these are one of the most ancient types of fairy tales that exist, their roots go back to the times of Ancient Russia. In these fairy tales, there are bright and very memorable images, we all remember Kolobok or Repka from childhood, and thanks to such vivid images, the child learns to understand good and evil. Learns to distinguish between character traits and lines of behavior: the fox is cunning, the bear is clumsy, the bunny is cowardly, and so on. Although the world of folk tales is fictional, it is so alive and bright that it fascinates and knows how to teach children only good deeds.

Russian household tales are fairy tales that are filled with the realism of our everyday life. And they are so close to life that when delving into these tales, be careful, because this line is so thin that your growing child will want to embody and experience some actions on himself or carry them out in real life.

Russian fairy tales- this is a world in which magic and the evil associated with it acquires very terrible outlines and burning shades. Fairy tales are the search and rescue of a girl, a city or the world placed on the shoulders of one hero. But it is the help of many minor characters that teaches us, who read these fairy tales, about mutual assistance to each other. Read and listen to folk tales online with us.

If you close your eyes and go back in time for a moment, you can imagine how ordinary Russian people lived. They lived in large families in wooden huts, stoked stoves with wood, and they were given light by home-made dry torches. The poor Russian people had neither television nor the Internet, and what were they to do when they did not work in the field? They rested, dreamed and listened to good fairy tales!

In the evening, the whole family gathered in one room, the children sat on the stove, and the women did their homework. At this time, the turn of Russian folk tales began. In every village or hamlet there lived a woman storyteller, she replaced the radio for people and beautifully sang old legends. The kids listened with their mouths open, and the girls quietly sang along and spun or embroidered to a good fairy tale.

What did the respected storytellers tell the people about?

Good prophets kept in their memory a large number of folk tales, legends and tales. All their lives they brought light to ordinary peasants, and in old age they passed on their knowledge to the next talented storytellers. Most of the legends were based on real life events, but over the years, fairy tales acquired fictitious details and acquired a special Russian flavor.

Note to readers!

The most famous storyteller in Russia and Finland is a simple serf peasant woman Praskovya Nikitichna, in the marriage of Vaska. She knew 32,000 poems and fairy tales, 1152 songs, 1750 proverbs, 336 riddles and a large number of prayers. Based on her stories, hundreds of books and poetry collections were written, but with all her talents, Praskovya Nikitichna lived in poverty all her life and even worked as a barge hauler.

Another well-known storyteller throughout Russia is Pushkin's nanny Arina Rodionovna. It was she who from early childhood instilled in the poet a love for Russian fairy tales, and on the basis of her old stories, Alexander Sergeevich wrote his great works.

What are Russian fairy tales about?

Fairy tales, invented by ordinary people, are an encyclopedia of folk wisdom. Through uncomplicated stories, workers and peasants presented their vision of the world and transmitted information in encrypted form to the next generations.

Old Russian fairy tales are divided into three types:

Animal Tales. In folk stories there are funny characters who are especially close to ordinary Russian people. The clubfoot bear, the sister fox, the runaway bunny, the lamb mouse, the frog-frog are endowed with pronounced human qualities. In the fairy tale "Masha and the Bear" Potapych is kind, but stupid, in the story about the Seven Kids the wolf is cunning and gluttonous, and in the fairy tale "Bunny-brag" the hare is cowardly and boastful. From 2-3 years old, it's time for children to join good Russian fairy tales and, using the example of funny characters with pronounced characters, learn to distinguish between positive and negative characters.

Magic mystical tales. There are many interesting mystical characters in Russian fairy tales that could outshine the famous American heroes. Baba Yaga Bone Leg, Serpent Gorynych and Koschei the Immortal are distinguished by their realism and have lived in good folk tales for several centuries. Epic heroes and brave noble princes fought with mystical heroes who kept the people in fear. And the beautiful needlewomen Vasilisa the Beautiful, Marya, Varvara Krasa fought evil spirits with their mind, cunning and ingenuity.

Tales about the life of ordinary Russian people. Through wise fairy tales, the people told about their existence and passed on the accumulated knowledge from generation to generation. A striking example is the fairy tale "Gingerbread Man". Here an old man and an old woman bake an unusual kalach, and call on the clear sun to warm our native Earth forever. The hot sun-bun goes on a journey and meets a hare-winter, a wolf-spring, a bear-summer and a fox-autumn. A tasty bun dies in the teeth of a gluttonous fox, but then it is reborn again and begins a new life cycle of eternal mother nature.

The page of our site contains the most beloved and popular best Russian fairy tales. Texts with beautiful pictures and illustrations in the style of lacquer miniatures are especially pleasant to read. They bring to children the invaluable wealth of the Russian language, and drawings and large print allow you to quickly memorize plots and new words, instill a love of reading books. All fairy tales are recommended for reading at night. Parents will be able to read aloud to their child and convey to the child the meaning of the wise old fairy tales.

The page with Russian folk tales is a collection of children's literature. Teachers can use the library for reading lessons in kindergarten and at school, and in the family circle it is easy to play performances with the participation of heroes from Russian folk tales.

Read Russian folk tales for free online with your children and absorb the wisdom of bygone generations!