Dedicating most of her research works to the analysis of stable topics and changing elements of Russian fairy tale, E. considers, on the base of various versions of fairy tales, that external influences changed the details surrounding the main plot of certain stories. This analysis was based on the hypothesis of the strong impact of translated literature, which, finding a response of readers, quickly spread and penetrated into the deepest strata of society, which caused a multiple transformations in some circumstances and details of narratives in the process of their oral transmission. The cultural and historical analysis of the transformation of elements of the fairy tale leads the author to studying the issues of the influence of religious beliefs on the shaping of fairy tales’ plots. The presence of deep religious views and beliefs at the heart of fairy tales varies from very weak manifestations in the details of the narrative to their plot-forming meaning – from archaic concepts and reverence for the forces of nature, to the displacement of these ideas with the Christian worldview. A separate part of the collection of articles is devoted to magic spells as an integral part of the Russian people’s common day life and, accordingly, folklore. The author concentrates on the literary meaning of spells’ formulas, as well as on the external conditions of their transmission and distribution, based on the material of the seventeenth century – texts of spells are preserved in court records, medical manuscripts, and other written sources. The book also contains ethnographic notes by E., made by her in different years during field work in various regions of Russia.