Egyptian pyramids, castles of Scotland, the North Pole, impassable jungle, active volcanoes … You don't have to travel far to tickle your nerves. Especially for thrill-seekers, we examined five geographical objects on the map of our homeland. These places are strange, bad, by and large. That's what people say. Prejudice, of course, but there was such a case last year …
Mysterious places of Russia
Highway to nowhere
Eastern Siberia. Federal highway "Kolyma"
This is the very place about which they say: "You'd better come to us!" Kolyma. More precisely, the Kolyma tract: an ice road (over 2,000 km) connecting Magadan and Yakutsk. Two not the most pleasant places on Earth. It is here that cold records are beaten - the temperature periodically drops to -70 degrees Celsius. And geologists, anthropologists and parapsychologists are struggling in search of explanations for the tricks that local lakes, mountains, trees, animals, and the track itself sometimes present.
During the years of repression, a million Soviet prisoners passed along the Kolyma highway. Half stayed there. Local old-timers remember how the icy bodies were strewn along the road. Enemies of the people, criminals and bribe-takers served as a natural compactor of the soil cover of the tract. The dead, if buried (in the warm season), then right there - on the sidelines. Do not be surprised when you are offered to “please the bony” (ie to start looking for human remains in the ground). Here it is something like sports and fortune-telling at the same time: I found a hip bone - for money, an edge - for quiet family happiness, a skull - for promotion.
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In several places (in the area of Yakutsk and Khandyga) the highway is supported only by ferry (in summer) or ice (in winter) crossings and does not work in the off-season. Three to four cars a day - by local standards, such traffic is considered to be intense. In these conditions, any breakdown can be fatal both for the car and for its owner. In summer, burnt iron skeletons protrude from the snow: drivers set fire to their cars to keep warm in the 50-60-degree frost. Sometimes this does not help - and not far from the carcass, the owner is found.
However, local residents believe that the extreme climatic conditions and the atmosphere of the giant cemetery are not the worst of what is in Kolyma. Real adventures begin on the lakes. Over the past decade, more than a hundred people have disappeared at Krasny, Labynkyr and Vorota. The Yakuts say that a huge animal is hiding in bottomless places. In addition, Labynkyr has three islands disappearing under water with an incomprehensible pattern. Locals believe that the islands are actually parts of a monster that sinks to the bottom after every successful hunt.
How to get there
By car from Magadan to the northwest.
Russian werewolves in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg. TsNPO "Leninets"
“You'd better not wander here at night. Especially do not go down - there, as he runs, he jerks off his hoof … We had one such, playful. On a dispute, I wanted to sleep in the basement … I barely took my legs. Then I couldn't really tell anything. His whiskey has turned gray a lot since that night …”Valery Vasilyevich, the night watchman of the Scientific Research Institute of Radioelectronics, TsNPO Leninets, tells everyone the same thing: werewolves inhabited the cellars in the center of St. Petersburg that were not examined by diggers. These half-humans, half-horses rush around the underground night city, but in the morning they always return home - to the basements of the research institute.
Centaurs, of course, belong to mythology, which cannot be said about Soviet experiments in genetics. Back in the 1920s, a special laboratory was organized in Leningrad, the task of which, in modern terms, was to decipher the human genome. In the 30s, the laboratory was disbanded and the staff seemed to have gone to Siberia. This is the official and well-known version of the inglorious end of the first "protogeneticists" of the USSR. But according to other sources (Collection of documents "Top secret. Lubyanka to Stalin. 1922-1934" Moscow, 2001) not a single scientist was exiled. On the basis of the secret special laboratory, an even more secret special laboratory was created, which was directly subordinate to the NKVD.
There is little information about her activities: it was located just in the building of the Leninets Scientific and Production Association, was under the personal leadership of Beria, allegedly experiments were carried out here on crossing people, rats, dogs, horses, fish and other representatives of the animal world, apparently every year (up to 70s), a secret report on the successes of Soviet genetic thought lay on the table of state leaders. Until recently, it seemed that these "seemingly" are completely insufficient to believe in the stories of the watchman Uncle Valera. But at the beginning of 1999, documents were published, according to which about 200 prisoners were sent annually (during the 30-50s) to the special department of the Leningrad NKVD (and then the MGB and KGB) “to conduct a holistic analysis of the physiological and mental state and develop a methodology correction of revealed violations”. Sick or wounded animals from nearby collective and state farms were also brought here.
So it is likely that, having entered into the confidence of Valery Vasilyevich, you will be able to spend an unforgettable night in St. Petersburg and, if you're lucky, acquire impressive gray temples.
How to get there
St. Petersburg, Moskovsky pr., 212.
Russia we sunk
Nizhny Novgorod Region. Lake Svetloyar. Kitezh
Neither Russian historical thought, nor Orthodox theology answered the question “where did the Russian land come from” so plainly. But it is precisely known "where the Russian land has gone". Under the water. She drowned back in the 13th century. To find it, it is recommended to dive into Lake Svetloyar, the goal is the "Underwater Kingdom of Kitezh".
In 1237, when the Tatar evil spirits were burning holy Russia, a certain traitor showed the invaders the way to Kitezh. The city was located in a remote swampy area, so refugees flocked there in the hope that the invaders would pass by. The Mongols found the city, laid siege to it, and for several days stormed the Kitezh walls. It was here that the mystical and unknown happened. When it became clear that the city would be taken, all of its inhabitants closed in numerous churches and prayed for salvation.
The chronicle says that the miracle happened. In front of the astonished enemy soldiers, Kitezh disappeared - its churches, towers, and chambers disappeared under the water. Where Kitezh had just stood, Lake Svetloyar appeared. Since then, bell chimes, church chants, chirping birds, barking dogs and similar special effects have been heard from under the water.
To this day, the legend of Kitezh is associated with the belief in the existence of a spiritual and mystical center on the Russian earth, opposing the Antichrist and all evil.
One of the first documents describing a journey to an enchanted place was a letter from a certain soldier, dated 1702. Relatives considered him dead, but, as follows from the message, all this time he lived in Bolshoy Kitezh. In a letter, the soldier talks about the religious practices of the holy inhabitants of the city: "Every night their prayers rose into the sky like pillars of fire, and in this light one could freely read and write."
The first archaeological expedition to the lake was organized in 1968. It was then that the geologist V. Nikishin established that Svetloyar was formed at the site of the collapse of the earth's crust. Scuba divers and hydrologists found that the bottom of the reservoir consists of three levels located at different depths: 9.23 and 31 m. Analysis of the rocks raised from the bottom made it possible to determine that the deepest part of the sinkhole arose 1,500 years ago, the second - 700 years ago. the third - 400. Thus, scientists have confirmed that in the XIII century there was a serious natural disaster. In addition, they found the remains of civilization at the bottom - shards and bones.
Despite all your sins, you have a very good chance to “hear and see”. They say that everyone who spends two or three months near the lake receives their portion of holiness. Some see a column of monks walking on the water at night, others - Central Russian beauties in kokoshniks dancing in the middle of the lake during the day. Members of the community "Kitezh" (more than twenty people permanently residing here) can tell dozens of similar cases-visions. Where there is Castaneda with his mescaline.
How to get there
From Nizhny Novgorod on the way to the village of Vladimirsky Voskresensky district.
All-Union underground
Leningrad region. Sablinskie caves
For a long time, the Sablinskaya Caves remained one of the most secret objects in the country. In the late 70s, the CPSU Central Committee discussed the state of affairs in Sablino almost every month. And although there was no sentry at each cave entrance and exit, Sablino was considered a semi-closed territory. Foreigners were not allowed there, and the locals knew that the appearance in the area threatened with trouble. They did not talk about Sablino on the radio, did not write newspapers, and television did not tell.
At that time, escaped prisoners and other irresponsible elements were hiding in the catacombs. Every year, law enforcement agencies reported about a dozen disappearances in these places. Naturally, the blame was placed on the cave bandits. But almost all operations to neutralize them, capture or eliminate them ended in nothing. Sablinskie caves are tangled labyrinths with lakes and vast halls stretching for tens of kilometers. The length of the Beregovaya catacomb alone is currently over 7 km (ceiling height - 160–180 cm, in the halls - over 5 m). So finding someone there is an almost impossible task.
However, the children of the dungeon themselves believed that the real reason for the disappearance of people was the influence of some otherworldly force. There was a legend that the planet thus protects itself - it forms attractive underground corridors and caves, and then simply swallows representatives of the hated human race. The cavemen considered themselves to be the suffering part of this very race. And therefore they assumed that the planet treats them favorably - in the caves they felt safe.
There was some truth in this. Scientists claim that the branched cave system arose as a result of quartz sand mining that took place in the area from the late 17th to the early 20th century. In 1922 the last worker left here, and the caves took on a life of their own. For two to three decades, active groundwater has changed the structure of the sandy soil. Many speleologists who have visited Sablino speak of the phenomenon of underground "quicksand" or "sandy swamps" as the main danger lurking here. They suggest that a mixture of water and sand could have caused the disappearance of people: curious travelers were simply sucked in. And the "victims" who settled here remained alive due to the fact that they initially chose inaccessible, but already studied places. After all, they came here at the invitation of this or that community,whose members used only proven moves.
Alexey Gurevich, member of the "Pilgrims" group:
- Few people remember those times now. Although it was something completely amazing. Several dozen people lived in the dungeon, read philosophical treatises, pondered the prospects of a new revolution …
Sometimes someone disappeared without a trace. At first, everything was blamed on the police or special services, but it soon became clear that this was not the case. When one of the leaders of the group disappeared, rumors spread about some kind of force that supposedly destroys all living things in its path. What it was - I don't know. Some talked about the creatures living underground, others about the coming cataclysms and "planetary self-defense." As if the Earth is reacting to human activity …
This was the main factor that almost all "dungeons" left there …
In the 80s, about 200 people lived in the underground labyrinths of Sablin. They called themselves dissidents or "political" and formed groups that communicated with each other underground. Here are just some of the names of the teams: "Byaki", "Grande", "Edelweiss", "Atases", "Sadists", "Shafts", "Pilgrims", "Bats", "Kamikaze".
Currently, nothing is known about the operating underground groups. But people continue to disappear here almost as often as before … By the way, a guided walk through the catacombs (in their safe part) will cost you only 550 rubles.
How to get there
By train - from the Moscow railway station in St. Petersburg to the Sablino station located in the village of Ulyanovka (40 km from St. Petersburg). Then take a bus or minibus to the Sablinskiye Caves.
Fak Risen
Moscow. Moscow State University.
There are not only bad apartments in the capital, but also whole bad buildings. One of them is the well-known building of Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Gory.
In the mid-90s, mentally unbalanced activists of the marginal party "Northern Sunrise" declared the building of Moscow State University the center of the "heptagonal Moscow kingdom". After another sacrament arranged by the "northerners" right in the lobby of the building, a police patrol escorted several people in an ecstatic state to the department, and from there straight to the psychiatric hospital.
The choice of the main skyscraper in Moscow as the place of the Sabbath was not accidental. Before the start of construction, the village of Vorobyevo was located here, enjoying a reputation as an all-Moscow center for sorcerers and magicians. Local stories about flying heads, ears and various evil spirits were popular with folk storytellers as early as the late 19th century. Even in the diaries of the aircraft designer Krylov, there is a mention of "the kingdom of evil spirits near Moscow, located in Vorobyovo." After the war, in just a few years, the area was changed: 407 university facilities were created on 320 hectares. Not a trace remained of the village.
In the 40s and 50s, during construction, the current territory of the Moscow State University was turned into a concentration camp. The construction of the university was carried out by prisoners. According to unofficial data, about two thousand people died right on the construction site. Some of them were buried here. They say that the prisoners themselves walled up informers right into the walls. The death of several thousand could not but provoke the emergence of various horror stories among subsequent generations of students. Stories about walking, flying, jumping dead appeared in the early 60s.
Fyodor Akhtyrsky, Candidate of Historical Sciences: “It sounds crazy, but I myself have heard and seen something very strange on the 15th and 23rd floors. Some noises, conversations, translucent figures …”In the late 90s, a group of researchers of the most paranormal (under the leadership of Sarkis Ter-Ohanyan) managed to register powerful resonant sound emissions at the MSU high-rise. What this means, Sarkis did not explain. But he said the following: “We have identified several 'dark' zones on the upper floors of the building. For the sake of interest, they checked other Moscow skyscrapers - everything is in order there. Maybe they just forgot to turn on the light?
Until now, some basements and upper floors of the Moscow State University are closed for visits. In Soviet times, the rooms located in the spire belonged to the KGB and were used for outdoor monitoring of the movements of high-ranking officials. What is happening there now is unknown. From the very beginning, rumors have circulated in Moscow that the Moscow State University building goes underground as many floors as it rises above it. They appeared in 1949, when the yearbook "Soviet Architecture" published the building plan. Unlike other skyscrapers, Moscow State University was only depicted above ground level. Something will happen when Mr. Ter-Ohanyan goes down to the cellars …
How to get there
Moscow. Take the metro to the "University" station, then walk.