Malachite Box

In 1931, a series of discussions took place in Moscow and Leningrad on the topic “The Importance of Folklore and Folklore Studies in the Reconstructive Period”, which resulted in the task of studying “modern working and collective farm proletarian folklore” ^[1] . In the mid-1930s, the Sverdlovsk Book Publishing House decided to release the collection “Pre-revolutionary Folklore in the Urals”. The collection of material was entrusted to the historian V. P. Biryukov , who was to hand over the collection in December 1935 ^[1] . However, V. P. Biryukov stated that “he cannot find working folklore anywhere” ^[1] . The editor of the collection, E. M. Blinova, “after four months of communication with P. P. Bazhov, in June 1935, sharply changed the direction of work and began to target V. P. Biryukov to collect working folklore” ^[1] . After E. M. Blinova, editor of the collection, P. P. Bazhov wrote for him the tales “Expensive Name”, “The Copper Mountain Mistress” and “About the Great Runner”, declaring them to be folklore recordings of V. A. Khmelinin's tales, which P. P. Bazhov heard in 1892-1895 ^[1] . Bazhov suggested that the compiler of the collection include “working folklore” in it - the stories that he had heard from the miner's storyteller Vasily Khmelinin. As an example, the writer showed the tale "Golden Name". But before the collection was published, Vladimir Lebedev, a Detgiz employee, reviewed the manuscript. Thanks to him, several tales were published in the journal Krasnaya Nov (1936, No. 11) ^[2] .

Due to the dramatic events in Bazhov’s life (in 1937 he was expelled from the party, restored in 1938 ^[3] ), the tales that were published in various publications came out either under the initials “P. B. ", or under the pseudonym" P. Bragin. " Almost everywhere there was a note “From the Tales of Khmelinin” ^[2] .

Bazhov later recalled that after the first tales were released, a devastating article was prepared in which he was charged with “ falsification of folklore”. The writer was saved by Demyan Poor , pointing to "the book of Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky ^[4] , which gives a rather extensive note about the mountains of Azov , which, they say, Bazhov could hear" ^[5] . Although the book contains only a brief mention of the mountain, the existence of legends associated with it, and their connection with the gold mine, which was at one time in the lower reaches of the mountain. Demyan Poor himself took the tales for folklore, but later it turned out that they were invented by Bazhov ^[6] .

In Bazhov’s lifetime editions, tales came out under different names: “mountain tales”, “stories”, “tales” ^[7] . Initially, Bazhov called the author of tales Khmelinin, but then removed his name from all the draft records ^[8] .

"Copper Mountain Mistress"

Going to watch the mowing, the factory guy Stepan met a woman in unusual clothes. Having looked closely, he guessed that in front of him was the Mistress of the Copper Mountain . She ordered to transfer to the clerk that he left the Krasnogorsk mine . Stepan complied with her request and paid for it: the clerk ripped him off, chained him up and sent him to the slaughter. Saved Stepan Malachitnitsa. She brought the guy into her possession and asked the question with an edge: “Well, what about marriage?” Stepan honestly admitted that he promised to marry the girl Nasten. The hostess appreciated this directness, gave his bride a malachite jewelry box and helped Stepan and his bride to get free .

The tale was first published in the literary journal Krasnaya Nov (1936, No. 11) ^[9] .

Malachite Box

After the death of Stepan, Nastasya, his widow, had a malachite box, which replaced their daughter Tanyushka toys. Once a wanderer came to their house and undertook to teach the girl needlework. And before leaving, she presented a small button, calling it a memo. Since then, Tanya has become a craftswoman. Then their house burned down, and the family had to sell the box. When the young master, who arrived at the factory, saw Tanya, he decided to marry her. The girl agreed, but on condition that he show her the royal malachite chambers.

The tale was first published in several issues of the Sverdlovsk newspaper “ On the shift! "(September - November 1938) and in the almanac" The Ural Contemporary "(Book 1, 1938). The original name is “Tatyana Present” ^[10] .

Stone Flower

Danila, who was called Nedokormysh in the village, was apprenticed to the master Prokopyich. Once he received an order from the clerk: to make for the master a turned bowl on the legs according to a special drawing. The bowl turned out to be even, smooth, but Danila was not happy: “Here is the flower itself, which is inferior, and if you look at it, your heart rejoices. Well, who will please the cup? ”Then he heard that the Malachite in possession has a stone flower, and lost peace.

The first publication was in the Literary Newspaper (May 1938) and in the almanac The Ural Contemporary (Book 1, 1938) ^[11] .

Mountain Master

After Danila the master went to the Mistress, his bride Katya went to live in a hut to the adoptive father of the groom. Gradually she learned craft from Prokopyich. After the death of the old master, the girl herself began to search for stones. Having met once the Mistress, Katya said she wants to return her Danila. Malachitnitsa arranged a meeting with them and put Danila before the choice: “If you go with her, you will forget everything about me, you will stay here - you and her must be forgotten.” Danila replied that he remembers Katya every minute, and returned to the people.

For the first time, the tale was published in the newspaper “To Change!” In 1939 ^[12] .

Fragile Twig

Danila and Katya had children - eight guys. The third was the hunchbacked Mitya. When the lord doubled the family’s quitrent, Mityunka was added to the master of “stone berry” training. Once he thought of creating a beautiful branch of inexpensive stone. While he was thinking about the material and the form, a woman’s or girl’s hand stuck in the window - with a ring on his finger and in the sleeve - and placed a serpentine tile on the machine, followed by a burdock with three berry branches: cherry cherry, ripe gooseberries.

The first edition was in the Ural Worker newspaper in 1940.

Iron Tires

The action, according to the narrator, takes place "after the fifth year ." The king on the eve of a great holiday called the Frenchman Faberge ( as in the original ), who was a supplier of gifts for the court, and ordered the empress to present such a gift so that it was not red. The craftsmen advised Faberge to set up a malachite product. Then the French attorney went to Gumoshki, where he was told that Yevlakhi Zhelezyaki had the best stones.

The tale was first published in the literary and artistic collection "Says the Urals" (1942) ^[12] .

Two Lizards

The narrator recalls how the industrialist Turchaninov set the Gumoshevsky plant . The hero - Andryukha Salty - did not get along with his superiors and was sent to hard labor. Perhaps the guy would have died from overwork, if not for the help of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, which, turning into a lizard, put him free.

The first publication was in the journal October (1939, No. 5-6) ^[12] .

Prikazchik's Soles

Prikazchik Severyan Kondratich, distinguished by extreme fury, moved around the village surrounded by "guardians", holding a whip in his hands. At first, he did not go down to the Copper Mountain - the Mistresses were afraid. But somehow he ventured into the slaughter and heard a woman's voice: “Look, Severyanko, as if you wouldn’t leave the soles of your children in mind”. Then he decided to "catch that little woman." However, the meeting with the Mistress ended in turning the clerk into an empty malachite block.

For the first time, the tale was published in the magazine Krasnaya Nov (1936, No. 11) ^[12] .

"Pebbles"

Vanka Sochen was in the office a "sniff-earphone." Once he decided to look for rare gems in Krasnogork - copper emeralds. The black cat with green eyes that jumped out of the face scared Sochnya so much that he later went to Grandma Kolesishka and the priest. After their advice, Vanka again went to the mine and met the Mistress of the Copper Mountain there. The Mistress allowed him to collect the stones, provided that he would immediately take them to the clerk. When Sochen got to the clerk and opened his wallet, there were no stones there.

The tale was first printed in the Sverdlovsk Literary Almanac (1937, No. 3).

The Grassy Trap

Yashka Zorko, who served as a dandy for the Turchaninovskys, began to look closely at Usta, daughter of the widow of Shavriha. This widow, according to rumors, knew where the pit with malachite, discovered by the late husband, was located. Tired of marrying Yashka did not want to go. Once she said that the path to wealth will open to those who will go to the birch near the Kliminsky mine on those nights when the grass is poured. A female voice will tell the way to the trapped grass, under which the road to malachite begins.

The tale was first published in the journal Industry of Socialism (1940, No. 1) ^[13] .

Tayutkino Mirror

Ore with a thin section went into the face , and the miners proceeded. They began to say that the Mistress broke the mirror, it was going to a collapse. When Ganya Zarya received an order to go to the mine, the daughter of Tyutka began to ask him, who, from an early age, went down to the mine with her father. Having learned about this, the miners made a noise at first, and then decided that it was for the best: the Mistress would not allow trouble to happen to the child. Indeed, Tyutka managed to find a mirror and ward off misfortune from people.

The tale was first published in the newspaper "Ural Worker" (March 1941) ^[13] .

Sinyushkin Well

The factory guy Ilya walked through the forest and came across a well. I wanted to drink water, but an old woman came out of the water window - Grandma Sinyushka. It looks old, and the voice and teeth are like a young one. She ordered him to come at night, when a full month, promising to show all riches. Yes, only Ilya’s wealth is useless - he wants to see Sinyushka turning “a red girl”.

The tale was first published in the Moscow Almanac in 1939 ^[13] .

Jump Fire

Eight-year-old Fedyunka was constantly with workers from the artel. One day, prospectors were sitting by the fire, suddenly a girl emerged from the heart and went to dance. Everyone realized that it was the Fireman-Poskushka sign that gold could be found in this place. The signal, however, turned out to be false. More than once after that, Poskushka led people by the nose, but once on a winter day she appeared in front of Fedyanka — and suddenly it became warm, like in summer, the birds began to sing. Ognevushka handed the guy a shovel and said that she would lead him out of the forest and warm him in the snow.

It was first published in the Sverdlovsk newspaper “Shoots of the Commune” (1940) ^[13] .

A separate edition of the collection "Malachite Box" was first published in 1939 ^[14] .

Visiting mining villages, Bazhov was interested in local, colloquial forms of Russian names, as well as their emotional coloring. In the notebook, he noted: "Kirilo - Kiryukha - Kirsha - Kiryushka." Among his heroes are Mitsha (“Golden Light”), Danilushko (“Stone Flower”), Darenka (“Silver Hoof”), Tayutka (“Tayutkino Mirror”) ^[15] .

Nicknames in the villages were commonplace, and in tales Bazhov usually explained why they got to this or that character. So, the locals called Ustinya Shavrin singers Ustey-Solovishnoy . Alena from the tale "Ermakov Swans" was nicknamed Alyonushka - Childish joy because she loved to mess with children. Eulampy Medvedev for the strength of character got the nickname Zhelezko . Grandfather Slyshko received his nickname for the often repeated: “Hear-ko” ^[15] .

The nicknames of the clerks and warders also came from popular names and spoke for themselves: Northerners Slayer, Stuffy Goat, Parotya, One and a half Hari, Yashko Zorko Oblezli, Yerasko Hurry ^[15] .

Grandfather Slyshko, on behalf of whom the narration is being conducted, is Vasily Khmelinin. Bazhov listened to his stories in the 1890s. At that time, the eighth dozen was a watchman of the factory warehouse, however, according to Bazhov, he did not lose interest in life, nor clarity of mind, nor independence of judgment ^[16] .

The old man ( Khmelinin ) still cheerfully held on, smartly shuffled his legs in the hemmed boots, not without enthusiasm he threw up a gray-beard with his wedge, but still it was felt that he had lived on in recent years. Time dried it up, slouched it, reduced its already short stature, but still could not put out the merry sparkles in his eyes.

- Pavel Bazhov ^[17]

The prototype of the old master, who periodically visited the mines, was mine-owner Alexei Turchaninov ^[18] .

Bazhov met with the mountainman Danila Zverev in the lapidary workshop of Sverdlovsk. The real Danila Zverev and the fairy-tale Danila-master have much in common: for example, Danila Zverev was poor in health from childhood, was short and thin, because in the village he was called Lyogonky (the fairy-tale Danila-master had another nickname - Nedokormysh) ^[18] .

The prototype of the old man Prokopyich, who went to Danil-Nedokormysh’s disciples in the “Stone Flower”, became the mentor of Danila Zverev - Samoil Prokofich ^[18] .

The writer Alexei Ivanov tried to prove that the characters of Bazhov's tales have local (“ Vogul ”) sources ^[19] . Ivanov suggested that the origin of the image of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain is connected with the " spirit of the locality " and that in Russian fairy tales the character closest to her in type is Pushkin's Dead Tsarevna ^[19] . However, A. Ivanov is not a philologist or ethnographer, and is known as the creator of "regional mythology" for the "promotion" of his native land. For example, in 2004, the writer unsuccessfully tried to promote the brand Perm - the birthplace of Baba Yaga , proving that this fabulous character arose as a result of a meeting of Russians with Ugric peoples in the 15th century) ^[20] . Philologist and specialist in “working folklore” N. A. Schwabauer noted that the mythical characters of Bazhov's tales have parallels in the miners' folklore of Germany and Altai ^[21] .

Mistress of the Copper Mountain

The mistress of the Copper Mountain (Malachitnitsa) first appears in the eponymous tale in the image of a woman with a gray-black scythe, whose ribbons “ring like copper sheet” and in a dress made of “silk malachite”. In addition, she acts in the tales “Prikazchik's soles”, “Sochi stones”, “Malachite box”, “Stone flower” and others. People see her as an incredible beauty. “The girl of beauty is extraordinary, and her eyebrows are like charcoal,” the clerk Severyan describes the Mistress. Danila the master immediately recognized her "in beauty and in dress." Andryukha Salty, when he saw Malachitnitsa, was dumbfounded: “What a beauty!” ^[22] .

Throughout the book, the Mistress carefully monitors the life of the miners and intervenes quite actively in it: it either turns the clerk Severyan into the "waste breed", or helps the people who seek. In fact, she is the patroness of creative work and the keeper of the secrets of craftsmanship. But with all her authority, the Malachitnitsa remains a woman who is able to love and grieve. Having become attached to Stepan, she bitterly partes with him when she realizes that he cannot remain in her possessions.

R. R. Gelgardt pointed out the relationship between the Mistress of the Copper Mountain and the Queen of the Mountains from the novels of the German romantics “Runenberg” by L. Tieck (1804) and “ Falun Mines ” by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819) ^[24] . The residents of the homeland of P. P. Bazhov who were interviewed during the 1981 folklore expedition knew the Mistress, but from the tales of Bazhov they said: “Read from Bazhov, he has a good written word” ^[25] .

Grandma Sinyushka

Grandmother Sinyushka appears in the tale “Sinyushkin well” in various guises: either she is a skinny old woman in a blue dress and a blue scarf, then “a beautiful girl, like a queen is outfitted, and she’s half a good pine tall”, then a simple and attractive girl - “eyes are a star , eyebrows in an arch, lips - raspberries. "

Jumping Firepower

The heroine of the tale of the same name is a mischievous girl with funny eyes, "prospectors look at her - they will not look at her." She dances, as a rule, over a gold deposit. A folklore expedition conducted in the homeland of P.P. Bazhov in 1981, recorded a message about it by a 77-year-old local resident: “I heard about Poskakushka on the mound. What a girl or who can’t say. She jumps and shows gold. This was said about her. When you were single, you’re coming from somewhere, the old people are sitting on the mound, you’ll sit, listen. They judge: some about bread, some about war, some about gold - it's interesting. And they recalled the Jump. It was like that ” ^[26] . A younger local narrator (born in 1930) stated that Poskakushka is Bazhov’s invention from the name of the Poskakuha river ^[26] .

The lizards, snakes, cats, and also the Silver Hoof Deer, which appear in different tales, belong to zoomorphic images of Bazhov's tales. All of them (with the exception of the cat) can be found in the works of the Perm animal style ^[19] .

Professor Mark Lipovetsky notes the practical untranslability of Bazhov's tales, associated with two reasons - linguistic and cultural ^[27] . In this regard, he emphasized in 2014 that since the publication of the Malachite Box, only two of its translations into English have been published - in 1944 and 1974 ^[27] .

Bazhov's tales and activities had a significant impact on the Ural folklore, for decades determining the direction of its development - the collection of “working folklore”. This was facilitated by Bazhov himself, who often visited teachers and students of the Ural State University ( Ural State University ), instructing them to collect working folklore, initiated folklore expeditions to cities and urban-type settlements to collect "working folklore", gave methodological advice on writing it and called settlements where it must be collected ^[1] . At the same time, a significant part of the folklore of the Urals population was discarded, primarily peasant folklore. An example of a drop is the following example. Folklore collector I. Ya. Styazhkin was told by the folklorist of the University Kukshanov that "any elements of religious content, rude vernacular are completely unacceptable" ^[1] . As a result, from the collection of folklore materials by I. Ya. Styazhkin (1219 pages), handed over to USU specialists in 1949-1957, only a few proverbs and sayings, historical songs, the tale "Tsar Peter and the Sailor" and the song "Comrade Fighter, become singing " ^[1] .

• " Stone Flower " (1946) - film by Alexander Ptushko .
• In 1950, composer Kirill Molchanov wrote the opera Stone Flower, which was staged at the Moscow Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko ^[11] .
• In 1953, the Stone Flower fountain was erected at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements , designed by architect Konstantin Topuridze ^[10] .
• In 1954, at the Bolshoi Theater , the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev ’s ballet " Stone Flower " ^{[11] took place} .
• In 1967, in the north of Moscow, one of the streets was called Malakhitovaya . Nearby is Bazhov Street ^[11] .
• In 1970, on the eve of the opening of the EXPO-70 World Exhibition , the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a postage stamp in the center of which is an image of Danila-master (artist Nikolai Shvetsov) ^[10] .
• " Copper Mountain Mistress " (1975) - a puppet cartoon.
• " Stone Flower " (1977) - a puppet cartoon.
• "Mountain Master" (1978, Soyuzmultfilm ) - based on the tale "Stone Flower".
• opera tale " Malachite Box" by D. A. Batin (production 2012. Perm Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after P. Tchaikovsky)

• Bazhov P.P. Works in three volumes. - M .: True, 1976. - T. 1. - 352 p.
• Batin M.A. Pavel Bazhov. - M .: Sovremennik, 1976.
• Skorino L.P. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov. - M .: True, 1976 .-- S. 115.

Recommended

• Pavel Bazhov. Memoirs of a writer. - M .: Soviet writer, 1961.
• Permyak E.A. Long-life master. - M .: Children's literature, 1974.