Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (1852-1912) was compared by his contemporaries to the greatest French writer Emile Zola. The novel “Wild Happiness” tells about a gold mine that the main character Gordey Bragin found. Gold turns out to be a test for many that few pass. The writer himself considered it necessary to talk about the problems of Ural life at that time, which included the “gold fever” caused by the rapid development of capitalism and the discovery of new gold deposits. According to the writer, he tried to talk about how, in the distant Ural hole, “wild wealth destroyed more than one good family, strong by ancient foundations.” “Mountain Nest” is one of the writer’s best novels, telling about the stubborn and merciless struggle between the owners of Ural factories for ore mines. As the author himself wrote, “under the name of the “mountain nest” in the Urals, the institute of state-owned mining engineers enjoyed great fame in its time; but I give this term a broader meaning, namely, I subsume under it that all-powerful group that ruled and is in charge of all affairs in the Urals.”