The Malachite Box them are keepers of hidden underground riches. The Mistress, described as either a beautiful green-eyed woman in malachite gown or a lizard with the crown on her head, is the keeper of gemstones. Poloz is the master of every existing piece of gold. The miners believed that if a gold-bearing lode disappeared, it meant that the Great Snake moved it to a different place. Bazhov introduced numerous daughters of Poloz, including Golden Hair from the tale of the same name. The relationship between Poloz and the Mistress is unclear. Bazhov commented that he asked some story-tellers about it, but they
The Malachite Box was presented to the author for his 60th birthday on 28 January 1939. Several test copies were published in January. A special deluxe edition, decorated with malachite, was sent to the 1939 New York World's Fair. The mass market edition published in autumn of the same year. The book was an instant success. It has been republished many times. Overall, twenty three editions of the stories were released from 1941 to 1945. The second edition of the collection was released by the Moscow publishing house Sovetsky Pisatel in 1942. The book was awarded the Stalin prize. The third edition of