Many of the works pertaining to the Russian forest place particular emphasis on the secrecy of the forest and its ability to conceal things from the outside world. The boundary of the forest creates a distinct separation between the real world and one of magic and mystery, which makes it a prime backdrop for numerous fairy tales that take place within a world separate from our own. In “Vasilisa the Beautiful” for example, the forest that conceals the home of the witch Baba-Yaga is described as rising “like a wall,” and obscuring the view of stars and “the bright crescent moon” (7). Upon crossing this boundary into the magical forest world, Vasilisa’s encounter of the three horsemen as well as Baba-Yaga’s talking animals, birch-tree, and gate, highlight the mystery of the forest that the outside viewer is unable to observe. Another element of the forest’s secrecy is the danger associated with it by the outside viewer. While Vasilisa initially expresses fear of the forest because of the horseman and Baba-Yaga, who “gobble[s] people up in the wink of an eye,” she overcomes these fears throughout the course of the story (7,14). Her fear fades away once she has experienced what the forest has hidden from the outside viewer, implying that any danger and fear associated with the forest is a fear of the unknown.

The forest’s secrecy can also be observed in the works of Ilya Repin. His painting “Sumer Landscape” evokes a sense of both danger and adventure as the woman crosses a worn bridge into the overgrown forest. The observer cannot see through the thicket and the presence of a path through the woods is hardly visible, making it unclear as to what the woman will encounter once entering the woods. The painting also ties directly into the idea of the forest as a separate world given that the forest is physically removed from the foreground by a ravine and only connected by a small bridge. Repin’s painting “View of the Village of Vavarin” gives the forest this similar air of secrecy because of the stark contrast between the bright openness of the fields on the left side and the darkness of the dense woods on the right. The buildings on top of the hill behind the fields further this contrast, since it beckons the viewer to wonder what the trees conceal from view. Just like in a magical fairy-tale world, one cannot know what to expect in the depths of the Russian forest.