CLASSIFIED SUBWAY TUNNELS
There is no more popular topic in Voronezh today than the construction of the metro. So the Japanese are encouraging that the capital of the Black Earth Region will have its own high-speed "piece of iron". However, Voronezh has been dreaming of its own metro for several years.
They say that the first tunnel of the Voronezh metro was built in the 70s of the last century - during the heat of the Cold War. The only line ran from Lenin Square towards Somovo, where there was the most powerful bunker in the region - an underground shelter in case of a nuclear war. They built a metro in Voronezh so that the party apparatchiks had the opportunity to escape from radiation and take out valuable things and documents. Some drivers said that they personally carried food to the bunker - it was possible to enter the shelter even in trucks.
There was even one secret elevator in the building of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which no one had ever used, but an elevator operator was on duty around it around the clock - no less a KGB employee. There were only two buttons in the elevator: "up" and "down".
It was also possible to get on the metro train from some state institutions - on foot along the underground passages. In some cases, already existing catacombs were used to equip underground passages. It is for this reason that all entrances to the catacombs were blocked in the 70s - so that curious diggers would not accidentally stumble upon them.
But rumors about the metro under construction still leaked out to the people, and the KGB had no choice but to spread the legend that Voronezh would have its own subway, while soil research was being carried out. The rumor was started in the event of the accidental discovery of the construction workers-convicts sentenced to death.
Years passed, but Voronezh residents could not wait for their metro. Then they were told that Voronezh does not get the required number of people, they say, the population should be at least a million. And from that moment on, Voronezh began to diligently chase after a million. However, while the USSR existed, it was strictly forbidden to reflect the real number of Voronezh residents in the statistical data. Out of habit, the statistics continued to hide the million mark.
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P. S. Some are inclined to believe that the secret metro of Voronezh was not limited to one line. A rare Voronezh citizen did not study the map of the Voronezh metro and was not outraged that it was near his house that the designers did not foresee a station.
FULL PLACE: MEAT BAZAAR
There is a place in Voronezh that, in honor, cannot be accused of having such a terrible effect on residents. But nevertheless, it carries the strongest energy, dictating its own rules to people.
Sovetskaya Square is the only geographical feature in Voronezh that has an official name, but does not have a single graphic designation on the ground. Take a walk around the square and its surroundings - you will not find anywhere even a tiny sign with a hint where you are.
In fact, Sovetskaya Square is a ghost square that carries the strongest energy of blood and murder, and therefore resists any good transformations that people are trying to make in relation to it.
For more than three centuries, meat has been traded here. All this time, the square was called Meat.
The meat was not always imported - often animals were slaughtered right here, on the spot. Add to this the egregor of the crowd - the bazaar: the concentration of scandals, theft, fraud and elementary food search.
We will not go into details of what kind of explosive mixture this area received as a result. We're just going to analyze the course of history.
In 1899, the city duma decided to erect a monument to the poet I. Nikitin in Voronezh, and they wanted to determine the place for installation … Meat Square, transforming it into a square. Then they found another place for the monument, but the Meat Bazaar remained here.
In the 1920s, the Myasnaya Square was renamed Soviet. In 1924, the project to liquidate the bazaar and create a public square in its place was re-emerged. But these plans did not come true again. And the meat trade continued.
In the post-war years, a new university town was designed in the area of the square. It was assumed that the main building of the Voronezh State University will decorate the square, and other buildings will be located on the adjacent streets, the slope below the square will become part of the stadium. The university complex was supposed to be crowned with a 60-meter tower.
And again the plans were revised. VSU was erected on the site of the Annunciation Mitrofanov Monastery, and trade continued on Sovetskaya Square - until the beginning of the 60s, when a square finally appeared on it.
And what?
The square did not become a favorite place for walking, despite the fact that it was located in the very center of the city. Voronezh residents were not particularly attracted to this place.
In 1978, the construction of a new drama theater began on Sovetskaya Square, which became one of the legendary long-term construction projects in Voronezh. The first performance on the small stage took place in October 1996. But only in 2002 the construction was completed. The building on Sovetskaya Square lived in the status of a drama theater for only 10 years - in 2012, the old, reconstructed Voronezh Drama Theater was opened.
The monument to the Voronezh poet Alexei Koltsov faced the same sad fate. It was installed near Sovetskaya Square near the Pokrovsky Church in 1976. In 1997, it was moved away from the church at the request of the diocese - closer to Teatralnaya Street. But 20 years later it turned out that the poet's gloomy figure did not fit into the new project of the square, and the monument was dismantled.
Now, on the site of Soviet Square, a chic public garden with ultra-fashionable "dry" fonts has been laid out. Let's hope that the energy of rejoicing children and all those who have a rest there will be able to defeat the gloomy shadow of the Meat Bazaar.
HEAVENLY SIGNS OVER THE AKAT MONASTERY
During the Great Patriotic War, the apparitions of the Mother of God and the saints were often observed throughout the country. Especially many eyewitness accounts of the miracles they saw relate to the places of heavy, bloody battles - in Stalingrad, near Moscow, near Kursk.
In Voronezh, there is a legend about a heavenly sign over the Aleksiev-Akatov nunnery, which is not officially voiced by the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, believers and even non-believers who lived in Voronezh in those years say that there was a sign.
During the period of the atheism of the 1920s-1930s, the Alekseevsky temple of the monastery, which in those years was for men, after the closure of Mitrofanievsky became the center of the religious life of Voronezh. But in 1926, the abbot and archimandrite were arrested and exiled to Solovki. In February 1930, another 75 monks of the monastery were arrested, many of whom were shot.
Shortly before this, the workers of the Comintern plant in a collective letter demanded from the city council to ban bell ringing in the city and to close the Akatov monastery. It was proposed to melt the bells for the needs of society. In the summer of 1931, the monastery was closed.
But shortly before the start of the war, in mid-June 1941, the residents of Voronezh suddenly saw a huge glowing cross in the sky above the domes of the monastery church. The sign was short-lived, but the news of the miraculous phenomenon immediately spread around Voronezh. Believers began to say that such a sign was not good, that there should be war. They were afraid to voice such things out loud - the very terrible arrests and deaths were associated with the monastery.
During the war, the Germans, as you know, destroyed almost the entire right bank of Voronezh. The gate bell tower of the Akatov Monastery was also destroyed - only two tiers remained of it.
After the liberation of Voronezh, it was decided to use the monastery courtyard and buildings for housing for people returning from evacuation. One of the bell towers was used as a warehouse, the other as a stable.
But the monastery, it seems, still remained the spiritual center of the city. Elderly residents of Voronezh say that on the eve of Stalin's death a sign arose again over the church - the same luminous cross as before the war.
The revival of the Alekseevsky temple began in the 80s of the last century, and the Akatov monastery was returned to the diocese in 1989.
STONE BRIDGE SIMPLIFIED FOR THE Groom TO CARRY ON THE BRIDE'S HANDS
Weddings, as you know, are shrouded in many traditions and rituals - from the moment of "redemption" of the bed for the young, and then the bride herself, to the alternation of festive dishes and the preservation of bottles with champagne cognac from the table of the newlyweds to celebrate the anniversaries of life together. But there are also traditions inherent in a certain area, and they are shrouded in such legends that it seems that it has always been so.
The most widespread tradition among Voronezh newlyweds is the transfer by the groom of the bride in his arms across the Stone Bridge. It is believed that only this ritual can make the family happy and the marriage sustainable.
Young people with their guests come to the Stone Bridge, the groom, under loud cries of support, carries his beloved in his arms, after which everyone drinks champagne and breaks bottles and glasses on the parapet of the bridge.
True, civilized young people began to use less often such a barbaric method, which turns the bridge into a field strewn with fragments by the end of the wedding days: many couples now limit themselves to carrying the bride and drinking champagne. I will not be surprised if a legend will soon be born in Voronezh that a bottle broken on a bridge promises the family an imminent break.
According to Voronezh residents, the tradition of carrying a bride across the Stone Bridge has a long history.
In the 19th century, at the corner of the crossroads near the bridge, there was the Alexandrinsky orphanage, where girls-orphans from the "noble families" lived and studied. It is said that on the day of graduation from the orphanage, young people who wanted to get married gathered on the bridge and waited for the girls. If a graduate chose a life partner for herself, then she brought him to an orphanage, where she received a blessing for marriage, and the city provided her with a dowry.
Another urban legend says that in pre-revolutionary times, Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street was considered a place for lovers to walk. When the young man had serious intentions, he invited the girl to turn and walk along the Stone Bridge. If the girl agreed, one could safely ask for her hand, if not, then it was not worth trying.
In fact, the tradition of carrying the bride across the Stone Bridge is not so old as its carriers are trying to imagine.
Thirty or forty years ago, another legend lived in Voronezh - the young in a wedding cortege must pass through six bridges, and through the seventh the groom carries the bride in his arms. Often, such a bridge turned out to be Chernavsky, or even the North one with a length of 1.8 km. And what do you think? Worn!
The tradition of crossing seven bridges has been living since the days of pagan Rus. Bridges are perceived as obstacles for young people to go through, and the number "seven" generally has a magical meaning. According to Slavic-Aryan beliefs, the "seven" symbolizes the continuation of the race, because according to the ancient calendar, seven months is the period of bearing a child in the mother's womb.
In the twentieth century, the choice of the VOGRES, Chernavsky or Severny bridge as a conductor of family happiness aroused admiration among others. Passing cars honked to greet the desperate groom. True, not all the brides turned out to be thumbs, and the grooms were heroes (it was often necessary to see how the bride and groom simply walk across the longest bridge of the reservoir by the hands). Over time, when planning a wedding, the young began to calculate the route so that the seventh bridge would be the short Kamenny one. And then a legend was born about the bridge that brings happiness to the young.
LEGENDS AND TRUTH ABOUT ROTOND
It will be about the Voronezh Rotunda - a unique monument, the author of which was the war itself. It was decided to leave the dilapidated entrance to the children's regional hospital, built in the 1930s, as it is, in memory of the defenders of Voronezh.
Now the entrance to the Rotunda is closed due to the emergency condition, but during the Soviet era, teenagers and young people were frequent guests here. And all because of the fact that one of the guys at night dreamed of soldiers with machine guns running to the Rotunda.
It became fashionable to spend the night in the Rotunda, and legends began to walk around Voronezh, as another curious person heard shooting here or saw whole pictures of past battles. We believed in these legends - after all, stories were not born from scratch, and the Rotunda is truly unique.
Fighting on the territory of the regional hospital continued for 203 days, and all buildings, except for the Rotunda, were destroyed to the ground.
The town of the regional hospital, then the Dynamo stadium, the park of culture and recreation, the territory of the present Berezovaya Roshcha, the Nazis captured on July 9, 1942. Most of the wooden buildings located in this area were burned, so it was determined that whoever took possession of the hospital was the master of the situation. The hospital town changed hands many times.
When the cadets of the training battalion of the 195th rifle division seized the hospital, they found that about four hundred women, the elderly and children were hiding in its basements from bombing and shelling. The cadets blocked two exits from the premises, which were occupied by the Germans, so that local residents could evacuate.
By the decision of the executive committee of the Voronezh City Council of Working People's Deputies of November 11, 1965, the Rotunda is preserved as a war monument.
Unfortunately, by and large, no one was involved in the Rotunda, and it gradually fell into disrepair. It was forbidden to go inside the monument, especially after most of the dome collapsed in 2008. Instead of a two-by-two-meter hole, a six-meter opening was formed.
On the eve of Voronezh's celebration of liberation from the Nazi invaders, State Duma Deputy Yevgeny Revenko turned to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation with a request to preserve the ruined monument, which is a symbol of the heroic defense of Voronezh during the Great Patriotic War.
On January 25, Minister V. Medinsky responded to the deputy's request.
“In response to Evgeny Revenko's appeal, I instructed the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Russian Military Historical Society to study the monument and preserve it. We should start, of course, with an examination and priority measures to save the monument,”the press service of the Russian Military Historical Society reported to Medinsky.
On October 2, 2018, the contractor started to mothball the Voronezh Rotunda. The rotunda was measured and examined from the outside. Quadrocopters were used to survey hard-to-reach areas of the structure.
1.5 million rubles will be allocated for the examination of the condition of the building. The money will be spent on instrumental and laboratory research, as well as on the preparation of design and estimate documentation. Experts will assess the condition of the basements of the Rotunda. This will help to understand whether it is possible to “adapt them to the museum space”. The work is planned to be completed by 2020.
FOR WISHES - TO WHITE BIM
Near the "Jester" puppet theater in Voronezh there is a touching monument to White Bim - the hero of the story "White Bim - Black Ear" by our fellow countryman Gabriel Troepolsky.
If you rub Bimu's nose and make a wish, it will definitely come true.
Many people laugh at this legend, but they rub their nose anyway - look how polished it is!
FIND THE MISSING
The monument that appeared recently at the central post office - in May 2015 - has already begun to grow into legends. I had to hear from some Voronezh residents that if a person is missing, you need to go to the monument and touch the letters that he holds in his right hand - then the missing person will make itself felt.
The monument was created by sculptor Alexey Ignatov. The prototype of the sculpture was Lance corporal Ivan Leontyev, a forwarding postman of the 333rd Rifle Regiment of the 6th Red Banner Rifle Division, who carried mail for the soldiers of the Voronezh Front under heavy fire.