It is difficult to find such a person who has not heard about the famous library of Ivan the Terrible.
However, all information about her exists only at the level of rumors and legends. Is the notorious book collection a pure myth, or, as in any myth, is there some truth in it?
The curse of Sophia Palaeologus
Legend has it that once Ivan the Terrible accidentally discovered a cache in the dungeon, walled up on the orders of his father, Prince Vasily of Moscow. It contained scrolls in foreign languages and Russian translations made by Maxim the Greek, once brought to Russia by the wife of Ivan III, Princess Sophia Paleologue.
Ivan the Terrible loved to spend long hours in the library. He did not reveal the location of the treasury to any of the household, except for his eldest son and heir - Tsarevich Ivan. But once, in a fit of anger, the king killed his son with a staff … He did not want to tell anyone the secret again.
On March 18, 1584, Ivan the Terrible died suddenly. However, this date was also called to him by the Karelian Magi. After death, his body was very swollen. But he was not ill with anything! And then rumors spread among the people that a curse was imposed on the royal treasury: whoever touches it will die prematurely, a terrible death! And it was as if the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible, Sophia Paleologue, who was reputed to be a witch, imposed this punishment. It was she who in 1472 brought priceless books from Byzantium as a dowry to her husband, Prince Ivan III. But, apparently, it was not for nothing that Princess Sophia ordered the Italian artist and architect Aristotle Fiorovanti to build an underground cache for his treasures and walled it up.
Or maybe Sophia just wanted to save her descendants from the power of a terrible curse? They say that among the valuables brought from Byzantium were ancient Egyptian papyri … Weren't they taken from the pharaoh's tombs?
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One way or another, the belief about the curse seemed to come true. Boris Godunov, trying to find the hidden library, ended his life under mysterious circumstances. His successor, False Dmitry, who was also looking for the Kremlin treasure, was killed, and his corpse was burned, and the ashes were scattered, mixed with gunpowder and fired from a cannon.
Mysterious finds
In 1880 the architect Nikitin, while repairing the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, came across the remains of an underground passage leading to the Kremlin. But this was only the first "swallow" … In 1912, the owner of one of the shops located near St. Basil's Cathedral decided to deepen his basement. Since the trader did not have an official permission for excavation, the land was dug at night. And then one day the workers came across a metal door. Of course they hacked it. And they saw in front of them a room where old books, mostly in foreign languages, were folded … The workers took several books with them, walled up the entrance, and they did not tell the owner about their find, offended that he had deceived them in the calculation.
And in 1914, in an American newspaper, information suddenly appeared that a certain professor of theology had acquired a copy of a very ancient Gospel from a Moscow worker. The note mentioned that the book was found during excavation near the Kremlin, but the details were not specified.
The famous Ukrainian archaeologist Ignatius Stelletsky devoted more than forty years of his life to the search for the legendary "Libereya of Grozny". He first explored the Kremlin dungeons at the beginning of the 20th century. After the revolution, he managed to get permission from the State Political Administration under the NKVD to continue underground work - on condition that he did not disclose the results of his research and would provide daily reports to security officials.
The search began from the corner Arsenal Tower of the Kremlin. Stelletsky broke through the walled up wall, walked ten meters and found himself in the corridor. The steps from there led upward and rested against a secret passage with an Italian ceiling. The commission, headed by prominent architects Vinogradov and Shchusev, concluded that the discovery made by Stelletsky required further development. But under the guise of a struggle against the "enemies of the peoples", which intensified after the assassination of Kirov, the work was stopped. What was actually the reason for stopping research, one can only guess. The section of the passage cleared by Stelletsky was restored, the well in the corner Arsenal tower was concreted …
Secrets of the Sofiyskaya Embankment and the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin
They say that in 1939, old buildings were demolished on the Sofiyskaya Embankment and they came across a brick vault. It turned out that it was a gallery that went to the Moscow River. The daredevils tried to walk along it, but soon a brick wall blocked their way. They called the NKVD officers, and they sealed and fenced off the entrance to the gallery.
About 15 years ago, during construction on the same Sofiyskaya embankment, opposite the Kremlin, a hole formed in the ground, and a stone gallery with rows of ancient wrought-iron doors opened under it. The construction management was afraid that archaeological excavations would begin and the project would be frozen. As a result, everything was hastily poured with concrete …
One of the versions says that the priceless collection of books is hidden in the dungeons of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. The fact is that Ivan the Terrible took part of the book collection with him, going to Kazan. The way there lay through Nizhny Novgorod. And from there, the tsarist army allegedly set out on a campaign already light, that is, without books … In addition, the tsar had a special predilection for Nizhny Novgorod, he came there several times and at the same time visited the local Kremlin. True, searches in the local dungeons have not yet been crowned with success.
Irina Shlionskaya