Abstract: The article is devoted to the philosophical analysis of the archetypes of Russian culture. The author focuses on the archetypes of Hero and anti-Hero in their various guises. The texts of folk fairy tales is used as the primary source for analysis of the archetypes. The archetype of the Hero is regarded by the author out of the gender bind, as a symbol of spiritual growth and self-realization in a particular ethno-cultural tradition. Special attention is paid to the archetype of the Shadow, symbolically embodied in the images of fabulous anti-Heroes, as an essential element of integrity of national identity. The article is based on the methodology of analytical psychology, semantic and genetic analysis of myths and fairy tales of folk culture and methodological principles of philosophical comparative studies.Based on the study of the archetype of the Hero in the Russian tradition the author comes to the conclusion about the influence of archetypal stories of national culture on the processes of self-realization and spiritual development. The article shows considerable heuristic potential of the analysis of the plots of folk fairy tales to identify the archetypes of the national culture.