Mother RussiaArthur Ransome's classic retelling of Russian tales. Ransome noted that "the stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other." Ransome had gone to Russia in 1913 to learn the language where he heard and read many of these tales. Ransome chose to retell (rather than directly translating) the stories because of the cultural barriers between the English speaking world and Russia.First published in 1916, this edition is derived from the original book with 37 black & white illustrations and 7 color illustrations by Dmitri Mitrokhin. As always, this edition is complete and unabridged.