The original "rusalka" was an name used by Pagan Slavic tribes, who linked them with fertility and did not consider rusalki evil. They came out of the water in the spring to transfer life-giving moisture to the fields and thus helped nurture the crops.
Things changed in the 19th century things shifted rusalka became an unquiet, dangerous being who is no longer alive and unclean spirits. They where young women's soul who had been drowned violently or committed suicide by drowning due to an unhappy marriage or had died near a river or a lake who must now live their remainder on earth as rusalka, haunting that waterway. They where also normally red haired, a connotation that might have come with the Orthodox faith sometime around late 15th century, they often aroused suspicion in traditional Russian societies as being bewitched.
.A rusalka's main purpose is to lure young men into the depths of said waterways where she would entangle their feet with her long red hair and submerge them, her body would instantly become very slippery and not allow the victim to cling on to her body in order to reach the surface. They where seduced by either her looks or her voice, a rusalka is generally considered to represent universal beauty, therefore is highly feared yet respected in Slavic culture.
During the Rusalka Week (in early June), they are believed to be their most dangerous, this is when they able to leave their water ways to climb trees, sit in the branches at nigh and sing songs, sit on docks with only submerged feet and comb their hair, or even join other rusalki in circle dances in the field. Swimming is strictly forbidden during this time. A common feature of the celebration of Rusalnaya was the ritual banishment or burial of the rusalki at the end of the week, which remained until the 1930's.
Apart from all this, the undead rusalka is not invariably malevolent, and will be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged.
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