In the 19th century, in the forests of the Shilovsky district, a village called Mokeevka grew up near Lake Chudino. It was the most ordinary village, except that the people lived in it were hardworking, and therefore they did not suffer. In those distant times, Mokeevites did not even realize that they would become heroes of legends.
After the October Revolution in 1917, the village disappeared. Everything disappeared: people, livestock, houses. And it would be fine just disappeared. In those terrible times, a lot happened, but the fact is that from time to time the village was seen. Men from a neighboring village will gather for fishing - there is Mokeevka, women will go to the forest to pick mushrooms - there is Mokeevka. And a surplus-appropriation detachment appeared - there was no village. In the place where Mokeevka should be - an impassable dense forest.
A detachment was also sent there to fight the enemies of the Soviet regime, to deal with this ideologically harmful village. But, having found nothing, they spat and announced that no Mokeevka existed. And any mention of a ghost village is a sabotage and undermining of the authority of Soviet power by the kulaks.
As early as the 18th century, the Shilovsky Territory interested scientists as a possible location of Artania, the mythological city of ancient Russians. The strangeness is that there are no descriptions of this city, there are no descriptions of its streets, buildings, inhabitants. The conclusion suggests itself: either strangers were not allowed into the city, or all these are legends.
Here is what Vladimir Gribov, a famous historian and ethnographer, told about his search for a ghost town. “I went with a group of other researchers to a field with many strange phenomena. Here we came across a huge stone that exactly coincided with the famous menhirs. Such stones are often described in ancient documents. The stone is turned into a strict tetrahedron, and its top is pointed, outwardly - a pyramid. Since pagan times, these stones have been erected, believing that they are able to accumulate the energy of the sun. When used correctly, this energy can create impenetrable protection from prying eyes. Behind the stone there were several ravines, in which boulders were scattered. Not a single path, not a single road."
“After walking several hundred meters, all members of the group felt a slight dizziness, later we realized that we were in a maze - the ravines were located in such a way that they twisted into a spiral. We decided to go to the center, but it didn't work - we passed two ravines and found that we were much further from the center. One more attempt - the same result.
Let's go back to Mokeevka
Promotional video:
Sergei Ivanovich Nikonov is one of the few who saw the mysterious village with his own eyes.
Yes, not only I saw this village. Many of us in Nadezhdino have been to Mokeevka. In the 30s, when collectivization began, the Soviet government again became interested in Mokeevka. They began to drag people from the surrounding villages for interrogations. I was still a kid then. With a friend, we saw the village three times when we went to the forest for berries. They entered the village, but they didn't - they were afraid. Then no one saw the village for twenty years, and they already forgot about it. But in 1966, tourists stumbled upon it again. We went to Lake Chudino - we saw a village, and on the way back we saw only a dense forest. I myself went in search of several times. I took my camera with me, and the village seemed to know that I wanted to photograph it and disappeared."
Source: "Meshcherskaya side" Author: Mikhail Kolker.
Photos of Mokeevka are provided by the famous Ryazan ethnographer and photographer Yevgeny Kashirin from his own archives