I spent many years to see her … - he writes in his autobiography. “I do not doubt for a moment that she is not a myth, and the Kremlin knows about it …”
Bike of the partisans
Pavel Bazhov, despite his stormy political and journalistic activities, is known to many exclusively as a storyteller who invented an unusual genre of stories. He lived in the Urals and wrote stories about mythical characters like the mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake and the Silver Hoof, who are familiar to everyone from school.
The future writer hails from the small Ural town of Sysert. He graduated from school, then - the theological seminary, and after several years he worked as a teacher (by the way, one of his students became his wife, but that's another story), worked as a journalist - he wrote articles on topical topics in newspapers. During the Civil War, he published articles about partisans, he himself participated in many secret movements.
As Bazhov recalled, often, hiding in ambushes, where they had to sit for several hours in a row, the fighters entertained themselves with tales and unusual stories. It was then that he first heard the story about Zlata Baba.
Allegedly, many years ago in Siberia, pagans worshiped a deity - a figure of a woman in human height, poured completely out of gold. Where it came from and what it symbolizes is unknown, only it has unprecedented power. The one who owns it can become the ruler of the world, subjugate people and fulfill all their desires. In addition, it brings its owner enormous wealth, grants invincibility and health. Previously, Zlata Baba patronized the Mansi people. But when Yermak, during the so-called development of Siberia, came to those places, the indigenous people thought that the woman could be stolen, and decided to hide her in the forests. Where exactly - no one knows, but since then everyone has dreamed of finding this very golden idol.
As Bazhov wrote in his notes, upon hearing this legend, he was "infected" with two ideas. First, he wanted, if not to find the woman herself, then at least to follow her trail. And secondly, for the first time he decided to try to record this and many other stories he had heard in the form of fairy tales, believing that they could become an exciting reading matter and preserve legends for posterity.
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Curse of the stash
They refused to publish the tale about Zlata Baba, which Pavel Bazhov brought to the Krasnaya Nov 'magazine, saying that for children this reading matter is too boring, and that fairy tales are not interesting for adults. Then he composed a new, as it seemed to him, "quite childish" fairy tale - "The Silver Hoof" about a magic goat that turns stones into gold by hitting them with its hoof. But … And they did not undertake to publish this fairy tale, "wrapping it up" with the wording "falsification of folklore"
Bazhov was angry. “Falsification? - he told the editor. "Then teach me real folklore!" “It's easy,” the editor replied and suggested going on a business trip to the Ural villages, talking to local residents, asking about local myths and legends. Pavel was delighted: the trip was well paid, and the topic itself was extremely interesting to him.
For several months he traveled to the villages, sent the recorded stories in literary processing to the editorial office, they were willingly published. Soon he was offered to write tales for the publication "Literary Almanac", and later his stories became interested in the Ural State Institute, where the course "Folklore in the Urals" was created at the Faculty of History on the basis of Bazhov's notes.
The incident is that, as Bazhov himself wrote in his unfinished autobiography, all the stories - about the owner of the Copper Mountain, and about the adventures of Danila the master, and about other characters he simply… invented. “I rested in the villages and helped the locals with the household chores,” Bazhov admitted. - And he composed all the tales himself. I did not retell other people's stories and did not write down myths, I invented everything, but now no one believes me …"
According to Bazhov, the only hero of the legends who was not invented by him is Zlata Baba. And she is real. “Communicating with miners, ethnographers and elders, every day I found more and more evidence that she really existed,” he writes. - More than once I heard a story that, having hidden it, a curse was imposed on the cache and if it is disturbed, wars will begin. I spent many years to see her, but I failed. And it seems to me that she was found long ago. And the Kremlin knows about it. I'm sure it is stored there. But we will live without wars only when they return her to her homeland and the one who has her will abandon her himself …"
In onion skins
Once Bazhov fell seriously ill. It all started with a common cold, ended with complications - he was almost deaf, he had a fever. It happened in one of the villages where the writer rented a bed in a hut. The hostess of the house, as she could, soldered the sick guest with herbal teas, but everything was useless. Desperate, she invited him to go to a neighboring village, where a healer grandmother lived, who knew how to speak of any disease, but Bazhov refused to help, referring to the fact that he was a believer, with a spiritual education, and could not communicate with healers. which are clearly "from the evil one." But every day it got worse and worse, and in the end he agreed.
The medicine woman put the patient on the stove, sprinkled him with onion peel and dry, collecting some herbs and told him to sleep, she herself sat down next to the icons and candles and began muttering something unintelligible to herself. A day later, the disease receded. Bazhov, surprised by such a quick result, got into a conversation with the healer and asked if she was capable of any other miracles. “I can see the future,” she admitted. - I see, for example, that you will become famous, and what you write will be read and retell to each other,”“I was surprised too,”the writer smiled. - You probably know that I am a writer, I write to the newspaper, that's why you say so … Now if you said something about me that no one can know, I would be surprised.
The sorceress was even a little offended: “Oh so? Okay! You will receive an award for your stories from the main person of the country! " - “A government award for fairy tales? It certainly won't happen! " - the writer burst out laughing. The grandmother continued: "And your descendant will be a great man himself, in the Kremlin, in Moscow …"
It all sounded incredible … But a few years later, in 1943, Bazhov received the Stalin Prize for his book of tales for children and adults "Malachite Box", and a year later he was awarded the Order of Lenin for fruitful creativity. His own daughter Ridochka (Bazhov had 7 children in total) married Timur Gaidar, the son of Arkady Gaidar, a famous writer. From this marriage, she had a son, named Yegor, who later became a politician.
Thus, Pavel Bazhov is the grandfather of the very same Yegor Gaidar, who during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin held high positions in the government and was one of the ideologists of economic reforms …
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Pavel Bazhov died on December 3, 1950. Shortly before his death, he took from his home archives his first and only unpublished manuscript - about Zlata Baba - and, despite the objections of his relatives, burned it. Why? - remained a secret for everyone.