Malachite the colour green (wadj) was associated with death and the power of resurrection as well as new life and fertility. Ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife contained an eternal paradise which resembled their lives but with no pain or suffering, and referred to this place as the ‘Field of Malachite’. Malachite was used as a mineral pigment in green paints from antiquity until about 1800. The pigment is moderately lightfast, very sensitive to acids, and varying in color. This natural form of green pigment has been replaced by its synthetic form, verditer, among other synthetic greens. Malachite is also used
The Malachite Box by critics and enthusiastically received by readers, including the general populace and the more sophisticated Soviet intelligentsia. Bazhov turned into one of the most famous writers in the Soviet Union. Strangers would greet him on the streets. The critics agreed that "never has the labour of miners, stone-cutters, teemers been celebrate in such a way, neither in verses, nor in prose", and that Bazhov managed to show the essence of the professional skill of the miners. Mikhail Batin complimented its uniqueness, and novelty in the contents and in the form. Favourable reviews on "The Malachite Box" appeared in "Uralsky Rabochy"