The Malachite Box

Maxim Gorky initiated the publication of such books as The History of Factories and Plants (Russian: История фабрик и заводов, romanized: Istorija fabrik i zavodov).

[5] Mark Lipovetsky believed the tense situation in the author's life could partially explain the depth and the sombre tone of his early tales,[6] which made them so popular among the adult readers.

He suggested that the tales carried the sign of deep terror and trauma, which Bazhov endured between January 1937 and 1938, and noted that The Malachite Box "is filled with unprecedented for Soviet (and especially children's) literature horror".

[6] At that time Bazhov was fired from Sverdlovsk Publishing House, where he had worked since 1931,[7] and expelled from the Communist Party for "glorification of people's enemies" in his recent book.

His new stories were told by a different type of the miner: the patriotic participant of the Russian Civil War who fought for the Red Army and later helped to build the new socialist society.

[12] Furthermore, Pavel Bazhov indicated that his stories can be divided into two groups based on tone: "child-toned" (e.g. "The Fire-Fairy", "Silver Hoof"), and "adult-toned" ("The Stone Flower", "Marko's Hill").

[15][16] Denis Zherdev divided the stories into "gold" and "malachite" series, which begin with "Beloved Name" and "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" respectively.

[20] Bazhov, who was an employee of the same publishing house since 1931,[7] suggested that she include some stories that he had heard at the Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant from the miners' storyteller Vasily Hmelinin (Russian: Василий Хмелинин), nicknamed "Grandpa Slyshko" by children (slysh-ka literally means "Listen here!").

He was very impressed by it,[19] and published four stories ("Beloved Name", "The Great Snake", "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", and "The Manager's Boot-Soles") in the 11th issue of the Krasnaya Nov literary magazine (1936).

Firstly, although the plots of the folk tales remain unchanged, the book conveys certain ideological concepts common for that time period, while folklore normally has no philosophy.

"The Watchhouse on Dumna Mountain" (Russian: У караулки на Думной горе, romanized: U karaulki na Dumnoj gore)[55] was Bazhov's essay which served as an introduction to the first edition of The Malachite Box.

[71] Pavel Bazhov theorized that most of the existing mythical creatures were created by the populace to explain various unexplained natural phenomena,[72] as they are related to some aspects of miners' life.

Although speaking about the blue snake was a bad omen among the local miners, to see one was a good sign, and it meant that a person would find a gold nugget.

Bazhov mentions real locations such as Sysert, the Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant, the Gumyoshevsky mine, the villages Kosoy Brod and Krasnogorka, the Ryabinovka river.

[86] Many scholars highlighted the potently ideological nature of The Malachite Box, especially regarding the stories created at the end of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) and in the post-war years.

[3] The book conveys certain ideological concepts common for that time period, such as emphasis on the hard life of the working class before the Russian Revolution.

[89] Bazhov defines important values, such as love, family, masculinity, respect for the elders and workers, skill, sceptical attitude toward religion and clergy, diligence, camaraderie, harmony in the house and friendly relationship with neighbours, hospitality, modesty, honesty.

[11] Mariya Litovskaya compared Pavel Bazhov to Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Platonov, and Dmitri Kedrin in such a way that the characters represent two concepts: the person who puts spiritual above the material, who looks for the truth, but loses a fight with nature in the end; and the new Soviet idea of protagonist as a professional who is ready for change and is capable of remaking the world.

[99] Favourable reviews on The Malachite Box appeared in Uralsky Rabochy (18 January 1939), Izvestia (4 April), Pravda and Industria Sotsialisma (July).

[99] David Zaslavsky in Pravda called the book "remarkable", the imagery "sharp", and commented that the skazy are "excellent short stories that uncover the Urals history".

"[99] Marina Balina wrote that Bazhov had "managed to present the prerevolutionary Urals as a mythological world with mountain spirits and dark forces controlling the hidden riches".

[99] Elena Givental wrote that the author "created the most poetic and identifiable set of Urals stories", which "has left a strong imprint in the minds of the Russian people".

During Soviet times, every edition of The Malachite Box had a foreword written by a famous writer or scholar, commenting on the creativity of the Ural miners, cruel landlords, social oppression and the "great workers unbroken by the centuries of slavery".

[5] The scholars changed their focus to other issues, such as beauty and ugliness, life and death,[117] order and chaos, eroticism, the relationship of people with nature and the Mountain, the mysterious in general,[118] the place of the person in the world.

[120] On 10 May 1939 the art committee under the Council of People's Commissars decided to organize a parade of all children's theatres, and Bazhov was asked to write a play based on The Malachite Box.

[14][122] The Moscow Puppet Theater staged a 1947 play Tales from the Urals (Russian: Сказы старого Урала, romanized: Skazy starogo Urala) by Klavdiya Filippova, based on "Sinyushka's Well" and "Golden Hair".

[127] Vladimir Goryachikh composed the ballet The Living Stone (Russian: Живой камень, romanized: Zhivoj kamen) based on "Sinyushka's Well", which premiered in Nizhny Tagil in 1965.

[7][138] In 1979 Margarita Kesareva created a series of piano pieces Ural Book (Уральская тетрадь), which included the movement "The Bear Stone" (Russian: Медведь-камень, romanized: Medved-kamen) inspired by "Yermak's Swans".

[140] A docufiction feature film Tales of the Ural Mountains (Russian: Сказы уральских гор, romanized: Skazy uralskikh gor), released by Sverdlovsk Film Studio in 1968, combined information about Bazhov's works with acted scenes from "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", "The Stone Flower", "The Master Craftsman", "The Fire-Fairy", "The Twisted Roll", "That Spark of Life".

The series included the following films: Sinyushka's Well (1973), The Mistress of the Copper Mountain (1975), The Malachite Casket (1976), The Stone Flower (1977),[151] Podaryonka (based on "Silver Hoof", 1978[152]), Golden Hair (1979), and The Grass Hideaway (1982).