The Kostroma village of Shchelykovo means no less for Russian drama than the Pskov village of Mikhailovskoe for Russian poetry. Here, in the reserved side, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky worked on half of his fifty plays, including “The Dowry”, “The Last Sacrifice”, “The Pupil”, “The Savage”, “It Shines and Doesn’t Warm”... In the fabulous silence of these places, the an unexpected miracle - “The Snow Maiden”. The book by Kostroma historian, local historian of the last quarter of the 20th century Viktor Bochkov, endowed with the gift of a fascinating storyteller and deep researcher, is based on little-known archival sources, as well as questions from the descendants of the great playwright.