god how i adore this! i simply love russia! are you russian? i'm ukrainian, living in germany, and i adore POTO! and now you brought both my lovely universes together: poto in russia! god bless you!

Very nice! This is a unque setting for the POTO story that I've not seen before (and I do love retellings in different times and places). Your prose is lovely, and the pace is neither too slow nor too fast.

I wasn't exactly sure why Akim became upset at the end of Chapter 3... did Katya try to remove his mask? It wasn't clear. Other than that, I love this story so far. Please keep it up!