ABSTRACT
Pavel Petrovich Bazhov (1879–1950), a provincial journalist from Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg before 1924 and after 1992), the author of numerous articles and semidocumentary or propaganda books like Za sovetskuiu pravdu (For the Soviet truth, 1926) and Piat’ stupenei kollektivizatsii (The five stages of collectivization, 1930), became a classic of Soviet children's literature in 1943 when his collection of fairy tales Malakhitovaia shkatulka (The malachite jewelry box) was awarded Stalin's Prize. 1 Although Bazhov was more experienced in party journalism than in fiction writing, in his tales he managed to present the prerevolutionary Urals as a mythological world with mountain spirits and dark forces controlling the hidden riches. This vision was unexpectedly accepted by the authorities and became enormously popular among both the general populace and the more sophisticated Soviet intelligentsia. The wide cultural resonance of Bazhov's writing is illustrated in Alexander Ptusko's film Kamennyi Tsvetok (The stone flower, 1946), which is based on several Bazhov's texts, and Sergei Prokofiev's eponymous ballet (1950) staged in the Bolshoi Theatre in 1959, along with many other theatrical, cinematic, visual, and musical interpretations as well as numerous new editions of his works. 2
