About the book: 1965 / This Collected Works and Letters of Saltykov-Shchedrin, in which the experience and materials of the previous edition are critically used, is carried out taking into account the latest achievements of Soviet Shchedrin studies . The collection is the most complete of all existing ones and includes all the currently known works of the writer, both completed and unfinished. “Fairy Tales” is one of the most striking creations and the most widely read of Saltykov’s books. With few exceptions, they were created over four years (1883–1886), at the final stage of the writer’s creative path. Publication of The Motley Letters began in November 1884. This cycle was Saltykov’s first work after the cessation of the journal “Domestic Notes” in the April issue, which doomed the writer to a long, unusual for him, six-month silence. http://ruslit.traumlibrary.net