Bazhov Pavel Petrovich was born in 1879, on January 27. This Russian writer died famous storyteller, prose writer, processor of legends, traditions, and Ural tales in 1950, December 3.

Origin

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich, whose biography is presented in our article, was born in the Urals, near Yekaterinburg, in the family of Augusta Stefanovna and Pyotr Vasilyevich Bazhev (this surname was spelled that way back then). His father was a hereditary foreman at the Sysert plant.

The writer's surname comes from the word "bazhit", which means "to foretell", "to bewitch". Even Bazhov’s street boy nickname was Koldunkov. Later, when he began to publish, he also signed with this pseudonym.

Formation of the future writer's talent

Bazhev Petr Vasilyevich worked as a foreman at the Sysert plant, in the puddling and welding shop. The future writer's mother was a good lacemaker. This was a help for the family, especially when the husband was temporarily unemployed.

The future writer lived among the miners of the Urals. His childhood experiences turned out to be the most vivid and important for him.

Bazhov loved to listen to the stories of experienced people. Sysert old men - Korob Ivan Petrovich and Klyukva Alexey Efimovich were good storytellers. But the future writer, Khmelinin Vasily Alekseevich, a Polevsky miner, was superior to everyone whom the future writer knew.

Childhood and adolescence

The future writer spent this period of his life at the Polevsky plant and in the town of Sysert. His family moved often, as Pavel’s father worked first at one factory, then at another. This allowed young Bazhov to get to know well the life of the mountain district, which he subsequently reflected in his work.

The future writer had the opportunity to learn thanks to his abilities and chance. At first he attended a three-year men's zemstvo school, where a talented literature teacher worked who knew how to captivate children with literature. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov also loved to listen to him. The writer’s biography developed largely under the influence of this talented person.

Everyone assured the Bazhev family that it was necessary to continue the education of their gifted son, but poverty did not allow them to dream of a real school or gymnasium. As a result, the choice fell on the Yekaterinburg Theological School, since its tuition fees were the lowest and there was no need to buy a uniform. This institution was intended mainly for the children of nobles, and only the assistance of a family friend made it possible to place Pavel Petrovich in it.

At the age of 14, after graduating from college, Pavel Petrovich Bazhov entered the Perm Theological Seminary, where he studied various fields of knowledge for 6 years. Here he became acquainted with modern and classical literature.

Working as a teacher

In 1899 the training was completed. After that, Pavel Petrovich Bazhov worked as a teacher in elementary school in an area populated by Old Believers. He began his career in a remote village near Nevyansk, after which he continued his activities in Kamyshlov and Yekaterinburg. The future writer taught Russian. He traveled a lot around the Urals, was interested in local history, folklore, ethnography, and journalism.

Pavel Bazhov for 15 years during school holidays traveled on foot every year native land, talked with workers, looked closely at the life around him, recorded stories, conversations, collected folklore, learned about the work of stone cutters, lapidaries, foundries, steelworkers, gunsmiths and other craftsmen of the Urals. This later helped him in his career as a journalist, and then in his writing, which Pavel Bazhov began later (his photo is presented below).

When, after some time in Yekaterinburg religious school a vacancy opened up, Bazhov returned to his native walls of this institution as a teacher.

Family of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov

In 1907, the future writer began working at the diocesan school, where he taught Russian language lessons until 1914. Here he met his future wife, Valentina Ivanitskaya. She was a student at this educational institution at that time. In 1911, Valentina Ivanitskaya and Pavel Bazhov got married. They often went to the theater and read a lot. Seven children were born into the writer’s family.

During the outbreak of the First World War, two daughters were already growing up - the children of Bazhov Pavel Petrovich. Due to financial difficulties, the family was forced to move to Kamyshlov, where Valentina’s relatives lived. Pavel Bazhov began working at the Kamyshlovsky Theological School.

Creating tales

In 1918-1921, Bazhov took part in the Civil War in Siberia, the Urals, and Altai. In 1923-1929 he lived in Sverdlovsk, where he worked at the Peasant Newspaper. At this time, the writer created more than forty tales dedicated to factory Ural folklore. In 1930, work began at the book publishing house in Sverdlovsk. The writer was expelled from the party in 1937 (reinstated a year later). Having lost his job at the publishing house because of this incident, he decided to devote free time tales that, like Ural gems, “flickered” in his “Malachite Box”. In 1939 this most famous work author, which is a collection of fairy tales. For "The Malachite Box" the writer was awarded the USSR State Prize. Bazhov subsequently added new tales to this book.

Bazhov's writing path

This author's writing career began relatively late. His first book, “The Ural Were,” appeared in 1924. The most significant stories of Pavel Bazhov were published only in 1939. This is the above-mentioned collection of tales, as well as “The Green Filly” - an autobiographical story about his childhood years.

The “Malachite Box” later included new works: “Tales of the Germans” (year of writing - 1943), “Key-Stone”, created in 1942, “Tales of Gunsmiths”, as well as other creations of Bazhov. The author's later works can be called "tales" not only because of the formal features of the genre (the presence in the narrative of a fictional narrator who has individual characteristics speech), but also because they go back to the secret tales of the Urals - oral traditions of prospectors and miners, which are distinguished by a combination of fairy-tale and real-life elements.

Features of Bazhov's tales

The writer considered the creation of fairy tales to be the main work of his life. In addition, he edited almanacs and books, including those devoted to Ural local history.

Initially, the tales processed by Bazhov are folklore. He heard “Secret Tales” as a boy from Khmelinin. This man became the prototype of Slyshko’s grandfather, the narrator of the work " Malachite box". Bazhov later had to declare officially that this was just a technique, and he did not simply record other people's stories, but created his own based on them.

The term "skaz" later entered the folklore of the Soviet era to define the prose of workers. However, after some time it was established that this concept does not denote a new phenomenon in folklore: tales actually turned out to be memories, legends, traditions, fairy tales, that is, they already existed for a long time genres.

Naming his works with this term, Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, whose fairy tales were associated with folklore tradition, took into account not only the tradition of this genre, which implies the obligatory presence of a storyteller, but also the existence of ancient oral traditions of the Ural miners. From data folklore works he adopted the main feature of his creations - mixing in the narrative fairy tale images.

Fantastic heroes of fairy tales

Main topic Bazhov's tales are a simple man, his skill, talent and work. Communication with the secret foundations of our life, with nature, is carried out with the help of powerful representatives of the mountain magical world. Perhaps the most striking among characters of this kind is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, whom Stepan, the hero of “The Malachite Box,” met. She helps Danila - a character in a tale called "The Stone Flower" - to discover his talent. And after he refuses to make the Stone Flower himself, he becomes disappointed in it.

In addition to this character, the Great Snake, who is responsible for the gold, is interesting. His image was created by the writer on the basis of the ancient superstitions of the Khanty and Mansi, as well as Ural legends, signs of ore miners and miners.

Grandma Sinyushka, another heroine of Bazhov’s tales, is a character related to the famous Baba Yaga.

The connection between gold and fire is represented by the Jumping Fire Girl, who dances over a gold deposit.

So, we met such an original writer as Pavel Bazhov. The article presented only the main milestones of his biography and the most famous works. If you are interested in the personality and work of this author, you can continue to get acquainted with him by reading the memoirs of Pavel Petrovich’s daughter, Ariadna Pavlovna.

The matter began with nothing - with a gunpowder match. It's not so long ago that it was invented. Will you gain a hundred years with a little one? At first, when the powder flask began to be used, there was a lot of trickery about it. Which is completely in vain. Who, say, came up with the idea of making turned straws, who again began to lubricate matches with such a composition so that they would burn with different lights: crimson, green, and whatnot. There was also a lot of weirdness with the capping. To put it bluntly, the powder match was all the rage.

I’m not going to say it about people, I’m going to say it about myself. In those years when people began to join collective farms in droves, I was no longer young. Instead of light brown curls, he grew a bald spot all over his head. And my old woman did not look young. Previously, I used to call it a singing machine, but now it looks like a sharpening machine. It wears me down and wears me down: this is missing, this is missing.

Among people, men take care of everything, but with us, as soon as it drags along and evaporates in the bathhouse, it’s on the side. And he has no thoughts about anything!

In these places before to the common man There would be no way to resist: the beast would eat it or the vile would overcome it. At first these places were inhabited by heroes. They, of course, looked like people, only very large and made of stone. It’s easier for this one, of course: the beast won’t bite him to death, the gadfly is completely at ease, he can’t be bothered by the heat and cold, and there’s no need for houses.

One of these stone heroes stood in for the eldest, named Denezhkin. You see, he answered with a glass with small money from all sorts of local stones and ore. That hero’s nickname was based on these ore and stone money.

The glass, of course, is heroic - taller than a man, much larger than a forty-bucket barrel. That glass is made from the finest golden topaz and is so finely and cleanly carved that it couldn’t be further from it. Ore and stone money are visible right through, and the power of this money is such that it shows the place.

By the way, we are not very rich here. All we have are mountains and spoons, spoons and mountains. You can't go around them, you can't go around them. Mountain, of course, grief is different. Nobody even takes the other one into account, but the other one is not only known in their own district, but even distant people know: she is well-known, famous.

There was one such mountain right next to our plant. At first, for a mile, or even more, there is such a pull that a strong horse walks lightly, and it is in the soap, and then you still have to overcome the vultures, like the most difficult scallop to climb. What can I say, a remarkable hill. Once you pass or pass, you will remember it for a long time and will tell others.

We have one logo across the pond that has been famous for a long time. Such a fun place. The spoon is wide. In the spring it gets a little wet here, but the grass grows curlier and there are more flowers. All around, of course, there are forests of all kinds. It's nice to have a look. And it’s handy to pester from the pond to that logo: the shore is not steep and not flat, but, so to speak, as if it had been settled on purpose, and the bottom is sand with hazel grouse. The bottom is completely strong, and it doesn’t hurt your leg. In a word, everything is as imagined. You could say that this place itself is inviting: it’s nice to sit here on the bank, smoke a pipe or two, light a fire, and let us take a look at our factory—wouldn’t our little creature seem better?

The local people have been accustomed to this spoon since time immemorial. Even under the Mosolovs, fashion started.

They - these Mosolov brothers, under whom our factory began its construction, came from the carpenter's rank. In modern terms, apparently there were contractors. Yes, you got very rich and let’s set up your own factory. That means they swam out into deep water. They became heavy with wealth, of course. All three brothers forgot to walk along the rafters with a spirit level and a plumb line. They say in one word:

Two boys grew up in our factory, in close proximity: Lanko Puzhanko and Leiko Shapochka.

I can’t say who came up with such nicknames for them and why. These guys lived amicably among themselves. They matched it. The same intelligence, the same strength, the same height and years. And there was no big difference in life. Lank's father was a miner, Lake's was grieving on the golden sands, and mothers, as you know, toiled around the house. The guys had nothing to be proud of in front of each other.

Katya - Danilova's fiancée - remained unmarried. Two or three years have passed since Danilo got lost, and she has completely left the bride’s time. In twenty years, in our opinion, in the factory way, it is considered too old. Guys rarely marry such people; widowers do it more often. Well, this Katya, apparently, was pretty, all the suitors are approaching her, but all she has to say is:

Danilo made a promise.

There have been many famous miners in our area. There were also such things that really learned people, the academicians called them professors and were seriously amazed at how subtly they knew the mountains, even though they were illiterate.

The matter, of course, is not simple - not picking a berry from a bush. It’s not for nothing that one of these was nicknamed the Heavy Knapsack. He carried a lot of stones on his back. And how much was similar, how much rock was reshaped and turned over - it’s impossible to count.

Our Field, they say, was installed by the treasury (with state funds. - Ed.) There were no factories in these places at that time. They fought. Well, the treasury is known. The soldiers were sent. The village of Mountain Shield was built on purpose so that the road would be safe. On Gumeshki, you see, at that time visible wealth lay on top - and they approached it. We got there, of course. They brought in people, they installed a plant, they brought in some Germans, but things didn’t work out. It didn't work and it didn't work. Either the Germans didn’t want to show it, or they didn’t know themselves - I can’t explain, but the Gumeshki turned out to be unattended to them. They took it from another mine, but it wasn’t worth the work at all. A completely useless little mine, skinny. You can’t build a good factory like this. That’s when our Polevaya ended up in Turchaninov’s hands.

Works are divided into pages

Ural tales of Bazhov

Tales of Bazhov absorbed plot motifs, unusual images, colors, the language of national legends and folk wisdom. Bazhov managed to give Pavel Petrovich unusual characters(Mistress of the Copper Mountain, Great Snake, Ognevushka-Jumping) bewitching poetry. Magic world, into which the old ones introduce us Ural tales Bazhova They immersed ordinary Russian people, and with their real, earthly power they defeated the conventions of fairy-tale magic. On our website you can see online list fairy tales by Bazhov, and absolutely enjoy reading them for free.

The name of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov is known to every adult. When we mention the name of this Russian writer, wonderful original tales about a malachite box, a stone flower, hardworking and kind Ural miners and skilled craftsmen arise in our minds. Bazhov’s works take you into the world of the Ural underground and mountain kingdom and introduce you to its magical inhabitants: the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Jumping Ognevushka, the Silver Hoof, the Great Snake and the Blue Snake.

P.P. Bazhov - master of Ural tales

Pavel in the Urals in 1879. His family traveled a lot, and much of what the boy heard and saw in his childhood in Sysert, Polevsky, Seversky, Verkh-Sysert formed the basis for his tales about the Urals and his life. Pavel Bazhov has always been attracted to folklore.

He had great respect for the history of his people, their original character and oral creativity. The writer constantly collected and updated folklore records and, based on them, created his own unique tales. The heroes of his works are ordinary workers.

Display of historical events in the tales of P. Bazhov

Serfdom existed in the Urals until late XIX century. Works by P.P. Bazhov describe the time when the people lived under the yoke of masters. Factory owners, in pursuit of income, did not think about price human life and the health of their charges, forced to work in dark and damp mines from morning to night.

Despite the hard times and hard labor, the people did not lose heart. Among the workers there were very creative, smart people who know how to work and deeply understand the world of beauty. Descriptions of their characters, life and spiritual aspirations are contained in Bazhov’s works. The list of them is quite long. The writing merits of Pavel Bazhov were appreciated during his lifetime. In 1943, he was awarded the Stalin Prize for his book of Ural fairy tales, “The Malachite Box.”

The message of the Ural tales

Tales are not early works Pavel Bazhov. Despite the fact that the journalist, publicist and revolutionary Bazhov was always interested in folklore, the idea of writing fairy tales did not immediately appear to him.

The first tales, “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain” and “Dear Name,” were published before the war, in 1936. Since then, Bazhov’s works began to appear in print regularly. The purpose and meaning of the tales was to raise the morale and self-awareness of the Russian people, to realize themselves as a strong and invincible nation, capable of feats and resistance to the enemy.

It is no coincidence that Bazhov’s works appeared before the start of the Great Patriotic War and continued to go out during it. In this regard, P.P. Bazhov was a visionary. He managed to foresee the onset of trouble and make his contribution to the fight against world evil.

Mystical images in the literary works of P.P. Bazhova

Many people know what works Bazhov wrote, but not everyone understands where the writer borrowed the magical images of his tales from. Of course, the folklorist only conveyed folk knowledge about otherworldly forces who helped good heroes and punished evil people. There is an opinion that the surname Bazhov comes from the word “bazhit”, which is a Ural dialect and literally means “to bewitch”, “to foretell”.

Most likely, the writer was a person well versed in mysticism, since he decided to recreate mythological images The Great Snake, the Jumping Firefly, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Silver Hoof and many others. All these magical heroes represent forces of nature. They have countless riches and reveal them only to people with pure and open hearts, opposing forces evil and those in need of help and support.

Bazhov's works for children

The meaning of some tales is very deep and does not lie on the surface. It must be said that not all of Bazhov’s works will be understandable to children. Tales addressed directly to the younger generation traditionally include “The Silver Hoof,” “The Jumping Fire Girl,” and “The Blue Snake.” Bazhov's works for children are written in a very concise and accessible language.

Here, much attention is not paid to the experiences of the heroes, but the emphasis is on the description of miracles and magical characters. Here the Jumping Firegirl plays mischief in a fiery sarafan; in another fairy tale, the Silver Hoof suddenly appears and knocks out precious stones for the orphan girl and the good hunter Kokovani. And, of course, who doesn’t want to meet the Blue Snake, who spins her wheel and shows where the gold is?

Bazhov's tales and their use in fairy tale therapy

Bazhov’s works are very convenient to use in fairy tale therapy, the main task of which is to develop in children positive values and motivations, strong moral foundations, and to develop their creative perception of the world and good intellectual abilities. Vivid images of fairy tales, simple, sincere, hardworking people from the people, fantastic characters will make a child’s world beautiful, kind, unusual and fascinating.

The most important thing in Bazhov's tales is morality. The child must learn and remember it, and the help of an adult in this is very necessary. After the fairy tale is told, you need to have a conversation with the children in the same friendly manner about the main characters, their behavior and fate. Kids will be happy to talk about those characters and their actions that they liked, and express their opinion about negative heroes and their behavior. Thus, the conversation will help consolidate the positive effect of fairy tale therapy, contributing to the strong rooting of the acquired knowledge and images in the child’s mind.

List of works by Bazhov:

"Diamond Match";
"The Amethyst Case";
“Bogatyreva’s mitten”;
"Vasina Mountain";
“Veselukhin spoon”;
"Blue Snake";
"Mining Master";
"Far Peeper";
"Two lizards";
"Demidov's kaftans";
“Dear little name”;
“Dear Earth Revolution”;
"Ermakov's swans";
"Zhabreev Walker";
"Iron tires";
“Zhivinka in action”;
"Living Light";
"Snake's Trail";
"Golden Hair";
"Golden Bloom of the Mountain";
"Golden Dykes"
"Ivanko-krylatko";
"Stone Flower";
"Key of the Earth"
"Indigenous secrecy";
"Cat ears";
"Circular lantern";
"Malachite Box";
"Markov stone";
"Copper Share";
“Mistress of the Copper Mountain”;
"In the same place";
"Inscription on the Stone";
"Wrong Heron";
"Jumping Firefly";
"Eagle Feather";
"Clerk's soles";
“About the Great Snake”;
“About divers”;
“About the main thief”;
"Rudyanoy Pass";
"Silver Hoof";
“Sinyushkin Well”;
"Sun Stone";
"Juicy Pebbles";
“A gift from the old mountains”;
"Cockroach soap";
"Tayutkino's mirror";
"Grass West";
"Heavy twist";
"At the old mine";
"Fragile twig";
"Crystal varnish";
"Cast Iron Grandmother";
"Silk Hill";
"Broad shoulder"

Bazhov’s works, a list of which parents should study in advance, will help develop in children a feeling of sympathy for good characters, such as the old man Kokovanya, Darenka, and a negative attitude, censure towards others (the clerk from the fairy tale “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain”). They will instill in the child a sense of kindness, justice and beauty and teach him to sympathize, help others and act decisively. Bazhov's works will develop creativity children and will help them develop the values and qualities necessary for a successful and happy life.

Biography

BAZHOV, PAVEL PETROVICH (1879−1950), Russian writer. Born on January 15 (27), 1879 at the Sysertsky plant near Yekaterinburg in a family of hereditary mining masters. The family often moved from factory to factory, which allowed the future writer to get to know well the life of the vast mountain district and was reflected in his work - in particular, in the essays The Ural Were (1924). Bazhov studied at the Yekaterinburg Theological School (1889−1893), then at the Perm Theological Seminary (1893−1899), where tuition was much cheaper than in secular educational institutions.

Until 1917 he worked as a school teacher in Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov. Every year during summer holidays traveled around the Urals, collecting folklore. Bazhov wrote in his autobiography about how his life developed after the February and October revolutions: “From the beginning of the February Revolution, he went into the work of public organizations. From the beginning of open hostilities, he volunteered for the Red Army and took part in combat operations on the Ural Front. In September 1918 he was accepted into the ranks of the CPSU (b).” He worked as a journalist in the divisional newspaper "Okopnaya Pravda", in the Kamyshlov newspaper "Red Path", and from 1923 - in the Sverdlovsk "Peasant Newspaper". Work with letters from peasant readers finally determined Bazhov’s passion for folklore. According to his later admission, many of the expressions he found in letters from readers of the Peasant Newspaper were used in his famous Ural tales. His first book, The Ural Were, was published in Sverdlovsk, where Bazhov depicted in detail both factory owners and “lordly armrest” clerks, as well as simple artisans. Bazhov sought to develop his own literary style, was looking for original forms of embodiment of his writing talent. He succeeded in this in the mid-1930s, when he began publishing his first tales. In 1939, Bazhov combined them into the book Malachite Box (USSR State Prize, 1943), which he subsequently supplemented with new works. Malachite gave the name to the book because, according to Bazhov, “the joy of the earth is collected” in this stone. Creating fairy tales became the main work of Bazhov’s life. In addition, he edited books and almanacs, including those on Ural local history, headed the Sverdlovsk Writers' Organization, and was the editor-in-chief and director of the Ural Book Publishing House. In Russian literature, the tradition of the tale literary form goes back to Gogol and Leskov. However, calling his works tales, Bazhov took into account not only literary tradition genre, implying the presence of a narrator, but also the existence of ancient oral traditions of the Ural miners, which in folklore were called “secret tales”. From these folklore works, Bazhov adopted one of the main signs of his tales: a mixture of fairy-tale images (Poloz and his daughters Zmeevka, Ognevushka-Poskakushka, Mistress of the Copper Mountain, etc.) and heroes written in a realistic vein (Danila the Master, Stepan, Tanyushka and etc.). The main theme of Bazhov's tales is the common man and his work, talent and skill. Communication with nature, with the secret foundations of life, is carried out through powerful representatives of the magical mountain world. One of the most striking images of this kind is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, whom Master Stepan meets from the tale The Malachite Box. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain helps the hero of the tale Stone Flower Danila to reveal his talent - and becomes disappointed in the master after he gives up trying to make the Stone Flower himself. The prophecy expressed about the Mistress in the tale Prikazchikovy Soles is coming true: “It is sorrow for the bad to meet her, and little joy for the good.” Bazhov owns the expression “zhivinka in action”, which became the title of the tale of the same name, written in 1943. One of his heroes, grandfather Nefed, explains why his student Timofey mastered the skill of a charcoal burner: “And because,” he says, “because you looked down, - on that means what is done; and when you looked at it from above - what should be done better, then the little creature caught you. You see, it’s there in every business, it runs ahead of skill and pulls a person along with it.” Bazhov paid tribute to the rules " socialist realism", in the conditions in which his talent developed. Lenin became the hero of several of his works. The image of the leader of the revolution acquired folklore features in the tales written during the Patriotic War: The Sun Stone, Bogatyrev's Mitten and the Eagle Feather. Shortly before his death, speaking to fellow countrymen writers, Bazhov said: “We, the Urals, living in such a region, which is some kind of Russian concentrate, is a treasury of accumulated experience, great traditions, we need to take this into account, this will strengthen our positions in the show modern man" Bazhov died in Moscow on December 3, 1950.

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich, years of life 1879−1950. The Russian writer was born on January 15 (27), 1879 near Yekaterinburg at the Sysert plant in a family of mining workers. From 1889 to 1893, Bazhov studied at the Yekaterinburg Theological School, then from 1893 to 1899 at the Perm Theological Seminary, where, of course, tuition was much cheaper than in secular educational institutions.

Bazhov managed to work as a teacher in Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov until 1917. Every year during the summer holidays, Pavel Petrovich loved to collect folklore while traveling around the Urals. After the February and October Revolution described in his biography how his fate developed: “At the very beginning of the February Revolution, he worked in public organizations. When hostilities began, he joined the Red Army and fought on the Ural Front. In September 1918 he was admitted to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He also worked as a journalist in the newspaper Okopnaya Pravda, and from 1923 in the Sverdlovsk Peasant Newspaper.

Working with letters from readers, I realized that it was important for him to study folklore. Bazhov later admitted that much of what he used in his Ural tales was drawn from letters from readers of the Peasant Newspaper. The first book, “The Ural People,” was published in Sverdlovsk, in which he quite clearly depicted factory owners and ordinary workers.

He managed to find his literary style only in the middle of 1930, when the world saw his first tales. In 1943, Bazhov received State Prize(for the fact that in 1939 he combined his tales into one book, The Malachite Box). In addition, he edited books, was the head of the Sverdlovsk writers' organization, and the director of the Ural book publishing house.

In his several works he gave the image of V.I. Lenin. The image of the leader was visible in such tales as “Eagle Feather”, “Sun Stone”, written during the Patriotic War. Shortly before his death, speaking to writers, he said: “For us, the Urals, living in such a region, this is a treasure trove of accumulated experience, huge traditions, we need to take this into account, this will increase our position in showing modern man.” On December 3, 1950, the writer passed away in Moscow.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, Russian Charles Pierrot, who, like a miner, collected gems of Ural folklore in order to later write a collection of tales of amazing magic, was born in the Urals on January twenty-seventh in 1879. His father, Pyotr Vasilyevich Bazhev (that’s how their surname was spelled then), worked in the town of Sysert, near Yekaterinburg, as a foreman in the puddling and welding shop at a mining (metallurgical) plant, and his mother was a famous needlewoman - she wove amazing lace, and, of course, I can say that her craft was a huge help for the whole family.

The family often moved from place to place, from one factory to another, and it was these childhood impressions of the future writer, being the most vivid, that became, in a way, the basis of his work. Unfortunately, the difficult financial situation of the family did not allow Pavel to study at the gymnasium, therefore it was decided that after three years of study at the zemstvo school, young Bazhov would go to continue his education at the theological school in the city of Yekaterinburg, since the tuition fee there was minimal. In addition, students of the religious school did not need to buy a uniform and pay rent, since the students’ housing was rented and paid for by the school itself.

When Pavel turned fourteen, he graduated from college and immediately became a student at the Perm Theological Seminary, where he studied for the next six years. In 1899, having graduated from the seminary, he decided not to continue his education, especially since his choice was small: he could either become a student at the Kyiv Theological Academy, or enter one of the three universities open to seminarians (Tomsk, Dorpat and Warsaw - all other universities did not accept students who graduated from theological seminaries).

Instead of studying, the young man chose to become a teacher, teaching Russian in the remote Ural village of Shaidurikha, mainly inhabited by Old Believers. At the same time, Bazhov traveled a lot around the Urals, collecting folklore, recording workers' tales. Then he worked at the Yekaterinburg Theological School, after which he taught at the diocesan women's school, where he met his future wife, who at that time was his student - Valentina Alexandrovna Ivannitskaya, with whom he married in 1911.

They had two daughters by the beginning, and then the Bazhovs moved to the city of Kamyshev, closer to his wife’s relatives, where Pavel Petrovich continued teaching activities. In total, seven children were born into their family.

Pavel Petrovich, deeply experiencing the social inequality reigning in society, accepted the October Revolution and participated in civil war. In 1923, he moved to Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk), and began collaborating with the proletarian editors of the Peasant Newspaper publication. He published his first book in 1924, then a collection was published, including more than forty stories devoted to the theme of factory (Ural) folklore. After the release of the Ural tale “The Maiden of Azovka” in 1936, Bazhov unexpectedly gained popularity as a writer.

In the terrible year of 1937, the writer was suddenly expelled from the party, but he managed to avoid the fate of many intelligent people of that time - he was never repressed. A year later he was reinstated in the Communist Party, and Pavel Petrovich devoted himself entirely to writing. The Ural writer published his famous collection “The Malachite Box” in 1939, which he supplemented with new tales in 1942. A year later he was awarded the State Prize for Ural tales.

It is with light hand Bazhov's folklore included tales that the writer processed so skillfully that they reflected to some extent not only ancient Ural legends, but also echoed the ideas of modernity, in other words, they suddenly turned out to be timeless. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov died in 1950, on the third of December. He was buried in Yekaterinburg.