Alexey Tolstoy, story "Kharitonovskoe gold": "The corridor turned to the right and ended with a rusty door. The men knocked down the locks with blows of a crowbar. The door gave way, groaned like a sick person, and from there a grave spirit breathed from the dark dungeon. The lantern was trembling in the hand of the front man and yellow reflections crawled along the sooty walls … Here it is, here it is … We rushed back … And the door was locked …"
There are plenty of interesting dungeons in Yekaterinburg. For example, the oldest and most luxurious estate of Rastorguev-Kharitonov, which stands on Voznesenskaya Gorka.
The construction of the estate began in 1798, and was completed completely in 1824. The house has two underground floors and a network of underground passages diverging in different directions, the total area of the undergrounds is about a thousand square meters. Probably because of such a volume of work, the construction took so long. According to legend, the author of the project was a gifted architect who was in prison in Tobolsk. Rastorguev gave who needed a large bribe and took the architect, promised him release as a reward if he designs an unprecedented luxurious palace, but he did not keep his word. The architect was returned to the Tobolsk prison and then he allegedly cursed his creation.
Rastorguev made a solid fortune on the sale of wine. He was a major breeder and gold miner. But besides that he was also an Old Believer. Therefore, he set up a secret church in the house. Old Believers used to come to the secret chapel through underground tunnels. In the prayer room there were pictures of everyday life like a swan, they covered the icons. As soon as strangers came, the icons were securely closed, and all the Old Believers quickly reeled off into the underground passages and dispersed. And the owner warmly welcomed the uninvited guests.
The curse came true. In 1822, following complaints from workers, the authorities opened a case on the cruelty of the owners, as well as on the facts of theft of gold in the Ural-Siberian mines. The head of the house, Rastorguev, dies suddenly. The house is inherited by his wife and two daughters. At first, the second son-in-law Zotov ran the house. The case was briefly stopped. Moreover, there was the royal mercy of Alexander the First. In 1824 he spent several days in a luxurious mansion. The following year, 1825, Nicholas the First, an ardent opponent of the Old Believers, took the throne. The investigation was resumed.
In 1823, the estate passed to his first son-in-law Kharitonov. Kharitonov led a luxurious life. Balls and festivities for the local nobility were constantly held in the house. They were booing so much that even the horses were washed with champagne. The future emperor Alexander II stayed here in 1837.
The house itself and its basements were notorious. There were also stories about the city about its inhabitants above-ground and underground. Kharitonov was the richest man. He owned many factories, which were always full of dissatisfied people. The most rebellious were thrown into the basement. According to rumors, screams and groans came from under the ground. Then the “opposites” turned into skeletons. Everything is possible. Although, it is not clear how something could be heard, because the thickness of the walls in the basement is 1 meter 60 cm. In the same 1837 thunder struck. The Kharitonovs lost their wealth. Kharitonov and Zotov were exiled to Finland for their cruelty.
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After the revolution, there were persistent rumors about gold and gems buried in the basements of the house. In 1924, in front of the entrance, the ground collapsed and a tunnel opened. In the 30s, all underground secrets were walled up. Later, in the 50s, they decided to clean the pond. They pumped out the water, drove the bulldozer so that it raked up the silt. And suddenly, near the rotunda, the bulldozer fell through to the very cabin. They dragged him out for two days. A well-preserved larch frame in the form of a wide well was found in the hole. Naturally, it was filled with silt. There was an incident that excited the residents to the core and renewed rumors about the treasure. In 1963-1965, an old woman with a stick suddenly appeared in the courtyard of the palace. And so she looks like, will stand, does not go anywhere. When asked, “what does she want?” She replied that everything was hidden here by the former owners. To the question, "where?", She answered,that they say neither me nor you this treasure is intended, it is prepared for another generation, for other people. Then the old woman disappeared. One summer, a horse grazing here in the park fell through with its hind legs. The hole had a 10 by 8 void approximately. The masonry of the walls was lined with bricks, which were fastened with cement, and in those days when the house was being built, there was no cement and was fastened with lime mortar.
In Soviet times, it was the Palace of Pioneers, and now the Palace of Students' Creativity.
Research was carried out on Voznesenskaya Gorka. Vsevolod Mikhailovich Slukin, a connoisseur of Yekaterinburg secrets, consultant, chairman of the Society of Ural Regional Studies and the author of the book "Secrets of the Ural Dungeons" says: "Rastorguev, Kharitonov and Zolotov were Old Believers. This is such, we will say, tough faith. Old Believers were persecuted until the middle of the 19th century. Therefore, they arranged secret chapels, and then went out into the park along underground passages … One big secret is connected with this Old Believer doctrine and way of life”. The underground passages are lined with bricks, everything is incredibly reliable. Under the flooring, even without instruments, emptiness can be heard. Either a well or another floor down. Yekaterinburg archaeologists should determine.
VM Slukin: “The second secret is for sure some kind of wealth. After all, such richest people in the Urals could not put all their wealth somewhere, in the end, squander it. Probably something remained somewhere, of course, something passed on to relatives, the state, but probably something remained in the form of a treasure. In these very dungeons, with which this park is literally saturated, something may have survived. It was this legend about the Kharitonovs' gold that pushed Alexei Tolstoy, who came here to practice in 1905, since he was a student at a mining institute. She pushed him to write the mysterious story "Kharitonovskoe gold". There were dungeons and skeletons hanging on chains and buried gold and the whole entourage … ".
According to another legend, right under the house, the owners had a gold mine. VM Slukin: “They began to beat the pits there in the hope of finding indigenous gold, but they did not find anything there. But the legends live on. Why? Both Kharitonov and his relative Zotov were gold miners. Therefore, it is quite possible that they did some treasure. In the basements of these houses, they were executed and hanged, and so on. People were untethered to the point of impossibility. As if everything could be forgiven them."
There were no ghosts now, but earlier, when grannies were guarding here (in Soviet times, grannies were guarding everyone), they were scared, supposedly someone was walking on the roofs, whistling, talking …
This is a sign on the house. At the bottom it says * NOT METAL * for nonferrous metal collectors.
Legends and secrets create such a unique flavor to this place in the center of Yekaterinburg. The Kharitonovsky House is the pearl of the city, it needs restoration and is now in a rather poor condition.
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In July 1919, the Reds approached the walls of Yekaterinburg. This news caught the wealthy part of the city by surprise. On the night of July 13-14, treasures were actively buried. The Bolsheviks needed money, so they looked for treasures. So in the house of the merchant Agafurov in the 30s, they found two gold ingots, weighing a pood each. But surely not all have been found. Because they knew how to hide, they hid their own, people were conscientious. There is also Agafurovskie dachas - a famous place in Ekb, because there is a mental hospital in that area. It's like Kanadchikova's dacha in Vysotsky's song. There is a pond in the dachas. We must look there, for sure there is something there.
In Sysert, an old Ural city, underground passages entwine the entire factory part. Here, in the hope of returning soon, the Kolchakites buried the treasure. The treasures have never been found.