Slavic countries are the countries mostly located in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, whose majority populations identify with Slavic culture and traditions and who speak the Slavic languages such as Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. Slavic people (Slavs) can be divided into three subgroups based upon their geographic and linguistic distribution: West Slavs (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia), East Slavs (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine), and South Slavs (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia). Countries with substantial Slavic populations but aren't majority Slavic, include Germany and Denmark.

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being who appears as an old woman who resides in a rotating hut built upon tall chicken legs that can turn about or relocate on command.

Depending on the story, Baba Yaga would either help, imprison, or eat those she encounters or those who sought her out. Her depictions vary greatly across tales, and runs the gamut of child-eating monster, to maternal-like helper, to trickster, to empowering agent of change. She is often seen draped over her stove or reclining in the hut across the entire expanse, with her large nose touching the ceiling. Some narratives particularly emphasise the repulsiveness of her nose. When she leaves her house, she rides in a mortar propelled by a pestle with one hand while, in the other, she holds a broom she uses to wipe away any trace of her tracks. She usually leaves her hut in the morning, returning in the evening.

Baba Yaga is among the most famous figures from Slavic folktales and has found a following in the present day among those who see her as embodying female empowerment and independence. She frequently ends up as the villain of the stories she appears in, but she is also understood to be a character who encourages transformation.

As noted by Lithuanian scholar Marija Gimbutas, the character of Baba Yaga shows considerable ambiguity - sometimes described as a witch with cannibalistic tendencies with a preference for children and other times she is a wise prophetess who offers guidance.

Andreas Johns, author and scholar, identifies Baba Yaga as "one of the most memorable and distinctive figures in eastern European folklore", and observes that she is "enigmatic" and often exhibits "striking ambiguity". Johns summarizes Baba Yaga as "a many-faceted figure." Johns, in his comprehensive book on the subject, notes that Baba may have originally been a Slavic goddess and Earth Mother. Johns cites the scholar Mikhail Chulkov who notes significant similarities between Baba Yaga and an early goddess of death known as Iagaia baba. Other scholars believe she was initially the personification of nature, which can be cruel or kind in turns, or as a storm cloud or storm.

Variations of the name Baba Yaga are found in the languages of the Eastern Slavic peoples. In Old Russian, baba may mean "midwife", "sorceress", or "fortune teller". In modern Russian, the word бабушка or babushka (meaning "grandmother") derives from it, as does the word babcia (also "grandmother") in Polish. In Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian, baba means "grandmother; old woman" though variations of interpretations are challenged and there is no universal agreement on the meaning of Yaga.

As one of the most famous witches, Baba Yaga makes an appearance in many folktales in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The first clear reference to Baba Yaga occurs in 1755 with Mikhail V. Lomonosov's Rossiiskaia grammatika ('Russian grammar'). Lomonosov's grammar mentions Baba Yaga twice among other figures largely from Slavic tradition. The second of the two mentions occurs within a list of Slavic gods and beings. Though she is first mentioned in this book of Russian grammar in 1755, she is thought to have existed in the oral tradition of Slavic folktales much earlier.

As she lives outside the norms of society and always by her own rules, she has come to embody the concept of feminine power and emancipation in the modern age. Books, films, and television shows reference her today in this role, and although she retains her menacing character, she is increasingly seen as a source of wisdom and power rather than a personification of evil.

Baba Yaga is probably best known from the story Vasilissa the Beautiful in which she inadvertently frees the heroine from the tyranny of her stepmother and stepsisters but also figures in other famous tales such as The Frog Princess and Baba Yaga and the Kind-Hearted Girl in which she is cast in a similar role.

In Afanasyev's collection of tales, Baba Yaga also appears in "The Magic Swan Geese", "Baba Yaga and Zamoryshek", "By Command of the Prince Daniel", "Vasilisa the Fair", "Marya Moryevna", "Realms of Copper, Silver, and Gold", "The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise", and "Legless Knight and Blind Knight" (English titles from Magnus's translation). In some of these tales, a Baba Yaga dies, only to rise again in another form.

It is worth noting that no single interpretation of her origin is universally agreed upon and the same is true of her name.