Genre originality and connection with folk prose in “The Tsar Nikita and his forty daughters” tale by Alexander Pushkin

The article considers the first experience of Alexander Pushkin in the field of poetic fairy tale, practically unfamiliar to the general scientific community, which is known as “The Tsar Nikita and his forty daughters”. The research reveals the connections of this tale with folk prose, concludes about the specifics of the genre nature of the work. Note that this was the first experience of the poet in the genre of poetic tales, except “Bova” (the part of the poem), written in 1814. If we turn to the question of the genesis of this tale, we can distinguish two sources of this text. This is, firstly, people's prose; and, secondly, the spread of it in the early 19th century in lists of erotic verses and poems, acquaintance with whom reflected in early Puskin's creativeness, including his first experience in poetic fairy tales.