Mikhail Moiseevich Kazas in his works often turned to the Oriental theme. In particular, he created a series of paintings dedicated to Molla Nasreddin, a comic folklore character of the Turkic-speaking East.

Mikhail Kazas often presented his ideas in a humorous, ironic form, simultaneously developing the decorative possibilities of his style — lines, colours, patterns.

Molla Nasreddin is a picture dedicated to the anecdote There Is Something Behind That, the main character of which is precisely Molla.

Once Molla decided to perform a prank on the people who gathered at the teahouse. He asked people why they were at the teahouse then instead of helping themselves to a funeral repast. Molla said that at dinner they serve excellent pilaf and he himself had just come from there. Having heard that, people immediately headed for the direction indicated by Nasreddin. Seeing that the whole crowd was running in one direction, Molla thought that there was something behind that rapid run and excitement, which meant that there was probably something interesting, worthy of attention. And he ran after everyone.

The artist liked that witty plot so much that he created four more illustrations, in which the action could be traced from beginning to end: Moll tells about the dinner; the whole crowd starts running in the indicated direction; Nasreddin falls to thinking; he runs after the crowd.

The picture of Kazas got a very in-depth remark from Rudolf Trofimovich Podufaly. He noted the details on the canvas, the devices that helped the artist materialise his ideas on canvas. In particular, the art critic points at the figure of the fallen man, which creates an impression of chaos and speed in the picture. He also notes that the artist used a combination of faded shades of red, yellow and blue, which brings to mind the colours of a faded oriental carpet.

As for artist Mikhail Moiseevich Kazas himself, he was born on 14 September 1889. His father Moisey Ilyich was a graduate of St. Petersburg University, a teacher. Kazas’ first teacher was Nikolay Yanyshev, a graduate of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. When Mikhail Kazas turned 16 years old, his drawings were shown to Franz Roubaud - the artist recommended the young man to take lessons in Europe. In 1908, after graduating from realschule, Mikhail Kazas entered the Bavarian Academy of Arts in Munich. Two years later, in Sevastopol was organized Kazas’ exhibition with amateur painters - Exhibition of the Four, the only exposition held in the artist’s life time.

In 1913, Mikhail Moiseevich visited St. Petersburg and a year later was called into the active army, where he served as an officer. Mikhail Kazas was killed in Sevastopol during the Red Terror in 1918.