Slouching · Towards · Bethlehem

From Frank J. Miller's Folklore for Stalin: Russian Folklore and Pseudofolklore of the Stalin Era, about the manufactured folklore/fakelore during Stalin's regime. Miller gives us:

"Magical objects play a prominent part in Kovalev's Soviet tales. A peasant lost in a dense forest meets a magician who gives him three flowers that turn him into a bird, a lizard, and a nightingale. The heroes who help free the sister, Rusa, from Koshchei the Deathless are aided by a self-striking cudgel, an invisible hat, and a talisman. During the Revolution and the Civil War, Lenin and Stalin fight with a self-cutting sabre and a destroyer-ball (shar-razrushitel') which weighs a thousands puds.[sic] The Red soldiers ride flying carpets. Chkalov [1] possesses a talisman that enables him to conquer the Tsar of the North. Three comrades--Vodkhvat (Watergrabber), Svetloput (Roadlighter), and Radioslukh (Radiohearer)--help Captain Schmidt, named Iskatel' (Searcher), find a ring that will detect the riches in the depths of the earth when worn by the Leader of the country."

and

"Once there lived in their land a tsar who loved capitalists and landowners. He had an army of Cossacks, as well as an army of priests who would inform on the poor people. During this time, three falcons were born. One day lightning struck and destroyed the tsar's empire. People elected a new leader, the Wise Leader, who enlightened them and created a new law--the constitution. He has taught his falcons to fly steel birds and has given them the task of conquering the Tsar of the North. The Tsar of the North sits in an icy palace, protected by his twelve minister-whirlwinds (with Moroz-Krasnyi Nos [Father Frost]) at their head) and twelve dark storm clouds. As the aviators approached the North, the tsar declared war on them and sent the whirlwinds and storm clouds after them. The falcons overcame these obstacles and also Moroz-Krasnyi Nos. When the tsar himself attacked, the aviator "Chkal" (Chkalov) took a talisman he had been given and threw it at him, rendering him helpless. The capitalist countries are envious, for they have no such brave falcons."

[1] Valery Chkalov, Russian test pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union.