We bring to the reader's attention a collection of fairy tales by the Russian pre-war writer Alexander Valentinovich Amfitheatrov (1862–1938). It began to be published in 1882◦. in the humorous magazines “Alarm Clock” and “Oskolki”, where he met A. Chekhov. In 1891–1899 he was an employee of A.S. Suvorin’s newspaper “New Time”, and left the editorial office. Before the revolution, Amphitheaters was persecuted more than once for his critical attitude towards the autocracy. From 1904 to 1916, Amphitheaters, excluding his trip to the theater of the Russian-Japanese War, lived in exile, since literary activity was prohibited in Russia. He published the magazine “Red Banner” in Paris (1906–1907), in Italy he became close friends with M. Gorky, who later became one of the main targets of his accusatory journalism in connection with the position taken by the “petrel of the revolution” after the October Revolution. Upon returning to Petrograd, he was again persecuted for the series of Etudes, which contained attacks on the Minister of Internal Affairs of the last tsarist government, was exiled to Irkutsk and returned to the capital after the February events of 1917. By that time, numerous novels, plays, essays, pamphlets brought Amfiteatrov wide fame, his called "Russian Zola". Amphiteatrov lived in Petrograd for four post-October years, from where on August 23, 1921 he fled with his family to Finland. Rejecting the illusions of those who promised the Bolsheviks a quick fall, Amfitheatrov argued that this regime, meaning “shameful petty slavery of the enslaved masses,” reigned for a long time and that, among many other things, it promised the prospect of degeneration of Russian culture. His few fairy tales depict before us the beliefs of Europe and the Caucasus, revealing mystical and realistic features in the life of various peoples.