In every corner of the Kaluga Region there are places that are spoken about in whispers, with apprehension. "Witch glades", "damn oaks", "damned swamps" … In general, such territories, where it is better not to look
Once I had to call in Meshchovsk to an acquaintance who lived (temporarily) in a secluded place. Only a field, but a forest in the distance, and off-road and on a slope - an abandoned cemetery. If I had known then what kind of place it was - for nothing even a minute remained there …
"Bad" villages
This backwater is nothing but the village of Medvedki, translated as "bush in the swamp." A lot of all sorts of nasty things happened there. In short, a "bad" place.
There seemed to be two oak trees near the village. Rumor has it that once upon a time sorcerers and witches gathered here from all sides for games and fun. The trees were so strong that not a single ax took them. There was even a saying “chi chi is so evil, ah, I haven’t been on Medved's oaks for a long time”.
One very respected and highly educated woman told me that her grandmother was just from Medvedok. Her character was not very good. And then one day she quarreled with a neighbor (it seems that she was just from the category of "evil spirits"). She squeaked to her in response: "With your children there will be only troubles!"
And for sure - all newborn children died in infancy. Until the grandmother left the damned places far, far away. There she gave birth to a son - the father of my interlocutor.
There was still a certain thing, but in another "bad" village - in Mikhailovka. She was very rich. And people, they say, went to her for help even from distant cities of Russia. She knew how to predict and heal. But her death was terrible: she died alone and scared - she was eaten by her own pigs … This death, according to the old people, was quite natural: prophets, healers, spoilers were invariably associated with an evil spirit and their death was always terrible.
Today, these villages are not too crowded. Mostly old people stayed and do not want to talk about the past …
But the Meshchovsky local historian Dmitry Zoryukov reassured about all this devilry: churches protect the people from evil. Including the St. George Monastery. And he added that they were built, it turns out, not anyhow, but according to the triangle pattern, which was supposed to remove all kinds of negativity, various anomalies. In general, people are good.
Night on the "unclean" edge So that you don't think that all the known evil spirits are concentrated in the Meshchovsky lands, we will tell an interesting story about the wonderful Mikhalev stone. This is already Lyudinovskaya land. The place of his stay, in the opinion of the old people, is the haven of witches and sorcerers who flocked to the Sabbath at the appointed hour.
And again, the grandmothers are not very talkative on this score, they all agreed: “The witches all died out. And the stone? There he is … something terrible tama …"
This is how a traveler tells about this miracle, who came to these places with the sole purpose of finding both the stone itself and the devil's place.
He met in one of the villages with his grandmother Praskovya (Voronikha), who was considered a real witch (“her eyebrows are black and fused, and her eyes are black, and her voice is rough”). There are a lot of local stories about her. Whoever does not fall in love with her, it costs nothing to jinx it. And yet - ghosts are often met near her house. That's not all - she has two stones in her garden, one on top of the other. The one on top is pointed. But she didn’t want to talk to the newcomers either: “I don’t know anything! They are talking about sorcerers!"
Let's return to Mikhalev stone. And also to the oak, where witches used to have fun. Someone cut down the oak, but the stone ("what's with the cup") has disappeared somewhere. And this is what an inquisitive seeker writes: “My guides stayed on the road. And we moved across the field to Mikhalev. This place seems strange. There is a forest in the middle of the field, but they don't go here for firewood …
Here are three boulders. And which one - with the "bowl"? And where, then, is the stump from the sawn oak tree?
I went into the forest to chop stakes for the tent and firewood for the fire. Well, I have endured fear! It seems that all because he violated the local taboo - after all, this is a forbidden place for everyone.
So when I entered the forest, I had the feeling that someone was watching me closely. And from all sides at once. Terribly oppressive feeling. I saw with my own eyes how the forest stirred, something like a shadow began to approach me, smaller figures flashed, the tops of the trees (and there was no wind!) Began to swing madly from side to side, and when I backed away from the forest, I saw many red lights glowing both on the ground and in the crowns of trees.
Exactly - a bad place. Or maybe because, according to the old people, they were brought here to bury the fallen cattle."
And what about the stone? But the stubborn tracker did not find him. But from another granny I learned about the edge of the forest, where I spent a terrible night: “The place of tam is bad. Sometimes we went - not to go a horse, nothing … Or go in vain. So they said that the sorcerers tama …"