About the book: 2008 / "Encyclopedia of Russian superstitions" introduces the reader to a complex set of beliefs that existed among the Russian peasantry in the 19th–20th centuries. Its main “heroes” are brownies, mermen, mermaids, goblins, ghouls, werewolves, devils and other evil spirits. Their images turned out to be amazingly tenacious in the popular consciousness, representing the current layer of traditional culture. Folklore and ethnographic sources, archival materials and literary publications widely cited by the author are of undeniable interest. They are presented practically unchanged, preserving the dialectic and stylistic features characteristic of the narrator. The book is accompanied by the author’s article “On the Unknown,” a dictionary of outdated and dialect words and a list of references. The publication is illustrated with tone headers and endings specially made for it by the artist V.V. Esaulenko. The encyclopedia is addressed to the widest range of readers.