The Stone Flower”: the power of beauty between truth and fantasy

The life of Russian writer Pavel Petrovich Bazhov (1879-1950) was marked by important historical events: the decline of the Russian Empire and the Great Revolution, which brought to the rise of the Soviet Union. Since his childhood he cultivated a great passion for old tales from the Ural Mountains where he grew up. Moreover, he was animated by a deep rebel spirit which guided him in the years of Socialist Revolution. He became the “voice” of his land shared between legends and real social conflicts. He suffered for being deprived of his freedom but found, through the strength of his poetical narrative creativity, a sense of life which goes beyond any possible restriction.