Russian lubki, or popular prints, of the eighteenth century reveal clearly an archaic premodern humor. Since 1945 much seventeenth century and early eighteenth century urban popular literature, which before existed only in manuscript books, collections of stories, and plays, has been published and has revealed a native tradition of popular humor in Russian print.' The appearance in popular prints of various characters and activities from the popular festive culture, scenes from popular theatricals, parodies of sundry rites and proceedings, and so forth attest to the fact that this culture of popular humor was thriving in the early eighteenth century.

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While several authorities have held that the shamanism of indigenous Finno-Ugric and Turkic peoples influenced the Russians with whom they lived in close proximity, particularly via pagan Slavic volkhvy or sorcerers, little concrete evidence of that influence persisting in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries has been discovered. However, several early eighteenth century woodcuts (lubki) which refer to sorcery reveal concrete links to shamanic cosmology and practice in what are otherwise enigmatic textual references and visual symbols.

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