The "Malachite Casket" is a delightful series of interlinking stories written by Pavel Bazhov (1879-1950). These have served as the theme for cultural groups –Sergei Prokofiev was inspired by these for his ballet "The Flower of Stone"– and the themes for operas, symphonies and films have originated here. These stories are told to a young boy by a watchman, who lived on top of a mountain in the Ural Mountain region of Russia. The tales are darker and deeper than most Russian tales, exploring and expressing realistic social relations and internal struggles.
There is not a single person in Russia who has not heard of "The Malachite Box" by Pavel Bazhov, who learned the unwritten history of The Urals while working as a boy in the old mines. The life of the celebrated author of well-known Urals tales as well as his books are inseparable from the Urals.
