About the book: 1967 / In the old days, information or evidence about certain events, facts and conditions, recorded from the words of eyewitnesses, was called “fairy tales”. In the old Russian writing, a lot of interesting information has been preserved, original “fairy tales” that paint a fascinating history of individual words of the Russian language, naturally closely connected with the history of the corresponding objects and phenomena, the material and spiritual culture of the people, their daily work and way of life. This book consists from essays on the history of words of the Russian lexical composition itself or, more broadly, common Slavic ones. The historical meaning and use of these words is examined in comparison with their modern meaning and use.