The Malachite Box nuggets. The story of the brothers is continued in "The Snake Trail" (alternative translation: "The Serpent's Trail"), published in 1939. In this "skaz", a young the factory worker Stepan meets the legendary Mistress of the Copper Mountain. He passes her tests and is rewarded by a malachite casket filled with jewellery for his betrothed, Nastyona. Stepan dies, leaving the Malachite Casket to his widow Nastyona. Their daughter Tanyushka likes to play with it. With black hair and green eyes, Tanyushka does not look like her mother at all, as if she was born to different parents. When she grows up,
The Malachite Box have fallen in love with the Ural's old storyteller P. Bazhov". Selected stories have been a part of school core curriculum since the Soviet Union, and are still used for education purposes nowadays. The Ministry of Education and Science of Russia included the tales in their 2013 list of "100 Recommended Books" for schoolchildren. Their effective pedagogical influence have been noted. "The Malachite Box" became a classic of Soviet children's literature, yet the stories continued to be popular among adults as well. Mark Lipovetsky believed the situation in the author's life added to the depth of the tales and made