Czech painter, fresco creator, and graphic artist Štěpán Zavřel (1932-1999) escaped to Italy from communist Czechoslovakia in 1959 and established the International School of Illustration, just north of Venice, which still exists today. His illustrations appeared in over 30 books, not including the 15 he both wrote and illustrated. Salt is Better than Gold, based on a Slavic fairy tale, was the first of Zavrel's books to be published in English.

The Russian counterpart to the Brothers Grimm, folklorist Alexander Afanasyev (1826-1871) collected and published almost 600 folk and fairy tales. Prior to Afanasyev's, only a few attempts had ever been made to record or study the folk beliefs of peasant Russia. 

Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) was an illustrator and stage designer. He was active in the Mir iskusstva and Ballets Russes and a co-founder of the Association of Russian Painters. His work was continually influenced by the Russian folk traditions, as well as Japanese print techniques. He left Russia in 1917 after the Revolution, but returned in 1936 to a professorship at the Soviet Academy of Arts. He died amidst the Siege of Leningrad during World War II.