The book “Green Grasshopper” is an autobiographical novel by Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, published as a separate book in 1940, a year after the publication of the collection “The Malachite Box”.

The work was first published together with the tale “Golden Hair” in the children’s almanac “Golden Grains”, which was edited by the Soviet writer Claudia Rozhdestvenskaya.

Rozhdestvenskaya found it unfortunate to have two works by the same author in such a collection, so she suggested that Bazhov printed the story under a pseudonym. Pavel Petrovich agreed and chose to be called “Yegorsha Koldunkov”.

“The Koldunkovs” (derived from the word “koldun” — “a sorcerer, wizard”) was a Sysert nickname of the Bazhovs. At factories, entire families were given ironic street nicknames. In one interview, Pavel Petrovich talked about the origin of his surname, in which the clue to the meaning of his pseudonym was hidden:

Thus, “bazhit” means to “practice divination”, therefore Bazhov has the same meaning as Koldunkov.

“Yegorsha” is a common local diminutive form of the name Yegor, the name of the main character of the story. Other characters are Petsha and Kolsha — friends of Yegorsha.

In the story, the boys, who are “zayedinschiks” (the best friends), go fishing and meet a wounded political criminal in the forest, feed him and help him move to a safe place. However, according to the writer, the key point of the story is not limited to its plot: