Ruslan and Ludmila

Ruslan and Ludmila (Russian: Руслан и Людмила; Ruslan i Lyudmila) is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1820. It is written as an epic fairy tale consisting of a dedication (посвящение), six "cantos" (), and an epilogue (). It tells the story of the abduction of Ludmila, the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, by an evil wizard and the attempt by the brave knight Ruslan to find and rescue her.

Pushkin began writing the poem in 1817, while attending the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo. He based it on Russian folktales he had heard as a child. Before it was published in 1820, Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia for political ideas he had expressed in other works such as his ode to "Freedom” (вольность). A slightly revised edition was published in 1828.

The poem was the basis of an opera of the same name composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842.

A feature film based on the poem was produced in the Soviet Union in 1972, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko and starring Valeri Kozinets and Natalya Petrova as the title characters. Other film versions include a 1915 silent produced by the Russian production company Khanzhonkov, directed by Ladislas Starevich, and a 1996 made-for-TV version based on Glinka's opera, directed by Hans Hulscher and produced by NHK.

Lines from the prologue of this poem are repetitively recited by the character Masha in the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov.

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