Russian folklore

Has been filling my thoughts recently. Masses of links of interest here. Or more particularly, how the Soviet regimes employed the tropes of Russian folktales to their own end, both in terms of the creation of new myths (a great deal of Socialist Realist writing has a strong folkloric underpinning), the creation of fakelore, and, most importantly the re-appropriation of folk stories, songs, art, etc by the Soviet propagandists for their own ends. However, as with most things at the moment, it is raising more questions than it answers, and I am now reading Levi-Strauss's take on the role of myth in societies, as well as the Formalist approach employed by Propp and Meletinksii. Fascinating.