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 (18 January 1939), "Izvestia" (4 April), "Pravda" and "Industria Sotsialisma" (July). However the critics disagreed on the question of authorship. Some considered "The Malachite Box" pure folklore, others thought of it was a literary work penned by Bazhov. The author himself tried to avoid the issue, joking that "questions such as these should be left to scholars". At present Bazhov's tales are generally accepted as his own literary work based on the Urals folklore. The editor of "Izvestia" called "The Malachite Box" "a valuable contribution to the Soviet fiction" and noted that "the vividness of expression and poetic richness turn