Alexander Afanasyev (1826–1871)

Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev was a Russian folklorist who recorded and published over 600 Russian folktales and fairytales. His first collection was published in eight volumes from 1855–67, earning him the reputation of a Russian counterpart to the Brothers Grimm.

Born in 1826 in Boguchar, in Voronezh Governate, he grew up in Bobrov. He was educated at the Voronezh gymnasium and from 1844-48 he studied law at the University of Moscow.

Afanasyev worked for thirteen years at the Moscow's Main Archive Directorate under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. In 1862 he was fired from his position, eventually finding work as a secretary at the Moscow City Duma and at the Moscow Congress of Justices of the Peace.

He died in poverty in 1871, at the age of forty-five.

(source: Wikipedia)