Editing Ivan Krylov (section)

===As literature===
By the time of Krylov's death, 77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia, and his unique brand of wisdom and [[humor]] has remained popular ever since. His fables were often rooted in historic events and are easily recognizable by their style of language and engaging story. Though he began as a translator and imitator of existing fables, Krylov soon showed himself an imaginative, prolific writer, who found abundant original material in his native land and in the burning issues of the day.<ref name="EB1911"/> Occasionally this was to lead into trouble with the [[Censorship|Government censors]], who blocked publication of some of his work. In the case of "The Grandee" (1835), it was only allowed to be published after it became known that Krylov had amused the Emperor by reading it to him,<ref>Ralston, p.13</ref> while others did not see the light until long after his death, such as "The Speckled Sheep", published in 1867,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://krylov.lit-info.ru/krylov/basni/pestrye-ovcy.htm|title=Басни. Пестрые Овцы|website=krylov.lit-info.ru}}</ref> and "The Feast" in 1869.<ref>Ralston, p.248</ref>

Beside the fables of La Fontaine, and one or two others, the germ of some of Krylov's other fables can be found in [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop]], but always with his own witty touch and reinterpretation. In Russia his language is considered of high quality: his words and phrases are direct, simple and idiomatic, with color and cadence varying with the theme,<ref name="EB1911"/> many of them becoming actual idioms. His animal fables blend naturalistic characterization of the animal with an allegorical portrayal of basic human types; they span individual foibles as well as difficult interpersonal relations.

Many of Krylov's fables, especially those that satirize contemporary political situations, take their start from a well-known fable but then diverge. Krylov's "The Peasant and the Snake" makes La Fontaine's [[The Farmer and the Viper|The Countryman and the Snake]] (VI.13) the reference point as it relates how the reptile seeks a place in the peasant's family, presenting itself as completely different in behaviour from the normal run of snakes. To Krylov's approbation, with the ending of La Fontaine's fable in mind, the peasant kills it as untrustworthy. [[Belling the cat|The Council of the Mice]] uses another fable of La Fontaine (II.2) only for scene-setting. Its real target is [[cronyism]] and Krylov dispenses with the deliberations of the mice altogether. The connection between Krylov's "The Two Boys"<ref>Harrison, [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924026691612#page/n255/mode/2up/search/boys p.220]</ref> and La Fontaine's [[The Monkey and the Cat]] is even thinner. Though both fables concern being made the dupe of another, Krylov tells of how one boy, rather than picking chestnuts from the fire, supports another on his shoulders as he picks the nuts and receives only the rinds in return.

Fables of older date are equally laid under contribution by Krylov. [[The Hawk and the Nightingale]] is transposed into a satire on censorship in "The Cat and the Nightingale"<ref>Ralston, [https://archive.org/stream/krilofhisfables00kryluoft#page/166/mode/2up/search/nightingale pp.167–8]</ref> The nightingale is captured by a cat so that it can hear its famous song, but the bird is too terrified to sing. In one of the mediaeval versions of the original story, the bird sings to save its nestlings but is too anxious to perform well. Again, in his "The Hops and the Oak",<ref>Harrison [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924026691612#page/n145/mode/2up/search/oak p.111]</ref> Krylov merely embroiders on one of the variants of [[The Elm and the Vine]] in which an offer of support by the tree is initially turned down. In the Russian story, a hop vine praises its stake and disparages the oak until the stake is destroyed, whereupon it winds itself about the oak and flatters it.

Establishing the original model of some fables is problematical, however, and there is disagreement over the source for Krylov's "The swine under the oak".<ref>Harrison, [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924026691612#page/n213/mode/2up/search/swine pp.178-9]</ref> There, a pig eating acorns under an oak also grubs down to the roots, not realising or caring that this will destroy the source of its food. A final verse likens the action to those who fail to honour learning although benefitting from it. In his ''Bibliographical and Historical Notes to the fables of Krilof'' (1868), the Russian commentator V.F.Kenevich sees the fable as referring to Aesop's "[[The Travellers and the Plane Tree]]". Although that has no animal protagonists, the theme of overlooking the tree's usefulness is the same. On the other hand, the French critic Jean Fleury points out that [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]]’s fable of "The Oak Tree and the Swine",<ref>''Fables and Epigrams of Lessing translated from the German'', London 1825, [https://books.google.com/books?id=i98GAAAAQAAJ&q=oak&pg=PA29 Fable 33]</ref> a satirical reworking of Aesop's "[[The Walnut Tree]]", is the more likely inspiration, coalescing as it does an uncaring pig and the theme of a useful tree that is maltreated.<ref>''Krylov et ses Fables'', Paris 1869, [https://archive.org/stream/krylovetsesfabl00fleugoog#page/n138/mode/2up pp.127-8]</ref>