On the genre interpretation of the fairy tale Kissel by Saltykov-Shchedrin

Introduction. The article explores the almost unstudied fairy tale Kissel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. There are no surveys on the story except for the writer’s comments on collected works. The key concept of the tale (kissel) is identified by the Soviet literature as a Russian man, while the problem is limited to denouncing “peoples’ lack of participation”.