Although in Oriental culture the crow is a symbol of wisdom (because it lives for 300 years and knows everything) and is imbued with positive characteristics, in the Kalmyk fairy tale about the crow and the eagle as it is retold in Pushkin’s novel The Captain’s Daughter, this bird is portrayed as a nasty being that lives on leftovers and corpses. According to Oleg, when the Kalmyks came to Russia in the 17th century, Kalmyk and Russian folkloric traditions co-influenced each other. In the case of the Kalmyk fairy tale about the two birds, the Russians understood the characteristics of the crow superficially. Under Russian influence, the Kalmyks later re-interpreted their fairy tale in a different way by ascribing negative characteristics to the crow. To understand the traditional Kalmyk idea of the crow, one has to look back in time. Before the Kalmyks came to Russia, they had lost big battles in their historical homeland. The young Kalmyk noblemen were adamant that they stayed and fought to the end. So that their people could survive, smart elders were trying to convince the people that it would be better to leave their homeland and survive. Therefore, it was better to live for “300 years on leftovers”, but to stay alive with a hope of later revival. When it was retold in Russia, the fairy tale about the crow developed layers informed by European understanding and worldviews. According to Oleg, European and Oriental worldviews are different from each other. The understanding of time and space is also different in the two respective traditions. European tradition is based on realism and values progress. In contrast, Oriental tradition is directed towards the inner self. Hence yoga and philosophy are highly developed in the Orient. Therefore, whilst Russian is a rich language, Kalmyk is better in terms of vocabulary describing inner feelings, emotions and shapes. Kalmyk folklore has been influenced by this mentality. Folklore is like a two-bladed sword. On the one hand, it praises the people who created it and on the other it gives away their secrets, including military ones. Chingis Khan, for example, exploited this in folklore. Before conquering people, he would send merchants to learn about the legends, stories and folklore of his adversaries in order to analyze them and learnt about their military techniques.