Alexandr Bolnykh as the Creator of the Ural Fantasy of the 21st Century

Based on the collection of stories by Alexandr Bolnykh, “Secrets of the Old Urals,” the article examines an original example of the Ural fantasy genre, the distinctive features of which are three components. Firstly, the text by A. Bolnykh is a version of techno-fantasy (steampunk fantasy), in which magic and the achievements of technical progress are indissoluble. This connection is especially vivid in the example of the interaction of the machine civilization of the Arimasp and the Vogul (Mansi) magic. Secondly, the collection clearly shows connection with the image system of the “Ural mythology” of P. P. Bazhov (Poloz, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain), including the writer’s interest in the “magic of stone” and the “power of metal.” The alien machine civilization of the Arimasp is more oriented toward the “power of metal” of the Demidov mining empire, whose patron is Poloz as a representative of this civilization. Thirdly, the stories in the collection allow us to become acquainted with the specifics of the author’s mythology of A. Bolnykh, who develops the traditions of Bazhov’s tales (perception of the Ural emerald) and reinterprets them, introducing the author’s eluranthropic images of the Forest Cat and the Moon Cat, the Salamander from Rudnaya Gorka by A. Demidov.