By the end of 19th century, the settlement was inhabited by such renowned representatives of Russian arts and literature as Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Bunin, and Feodor Chaliapin.

The settlement has minor industry: an ore mining equipment factory and a food processing plant.

[15] The refuge was a center for many Yiddish writers including Der Nister, who lived with Chagall, David Hofstein, Moshe Lifshits and Itzik Feffer.

[16] The Soviet writer and USSR State Prize Laureate Nikolay Dobronravov (husband of Aleksandra Pakhmutova) went to school in Malakhovka during the war.

An early (1959) poem by Andrey Voznesensky is "Last Train to Malakhovka", regarding his regular trips to the settlement.