Perm regularly hosts excursions to the so-called "mystical places" - they are organized by travel agencies, local historians and simply enthusiastic citizens. We welcome these undertakings in every possible way - at least because of the educational component. But there is a small problem - the list of "mystical" or "terrible" phenomena in Perm has not changed for many years, if not decades. You can easily Google it in many variations that are almost the same. It will include the "Tomb of the Dead Daughter" at the Yegoshikhinskoye Cemetery, the Tower of Death, a kikimora from the Agricultural Academy and a couple of other items that have long surprised no one.
To break out of this vicious circle, we decided to compile our own list of frightening phenomena with which Perm mythology has been enriched in recent decades - thanks to technological progress, bureaucratic mismanagement and anything else, except, in fact, mysticism.
Underground sounds
A couple of times a year on the Perm forums and in social networks the same topic is constantly floating, as a result of which messages like this appear:
“Yesterday I was at a picnic at HSE II, there was a tent, so when I lay down to rest over a tourist mat from below, I heard a sound as if it were large stones rolling, this sound seemed to come from below” (spelling and punctuation preserved).
Or this one:
“Tonight at about 03:10 in the Sadovy microdistrict, abnormal sound phenomena or the hum of the earth were heard. Lasted about 20 minutes.
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In fact, we all understand that almost 100% of the strange low sounds that Perm people periodically hear (and it doesn't matter if they come from the sky or from under the ground) are technogenic sounds, and more specifically - well, for example, sounds from engine tests at proving grounds. True, in addition to man-made noises, there are many all kinds of anomalous sounds in the world, and some of them have not yet been explained. On YouTube you can find many relevant videos from all over the world. Attempts to explain them are constantly being made and often lead researchers to some kind of hell. For example, there are versions that the low hum tells about the imminent change of the earth's poles, about global energy changes, and about the coming of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, of course. Permyakov, in theory, should be pretty worried:another time we will brush aside another noise, deciding that its source is located at the Perm Motors test sites, and so we will miss the change of poles or the beginning of the second coming.
Technogen
Since we are talking about testing grounds and man-made phenomena, the Perm abandoned factories simply must become another item on our list. In particular, many gloomy rumors are connected with the territory of the former bicycle factory "Velta" (as one of the Facebook users put it, in Soviet times, when such enterprises were engaged in the defense industry, "bicycles were also made there").
Photo: Ivan Kozlov / zvzda.ru
Velta, due to its scale and relative accessibility, has always been a popular destination among lovers of industrial tourism. They spawned a bunch of different disturbing stories - for example, how one young stalker, walking there in winter, brought home on the soles of his boots some substance that thawed at room temperature and poisoned all the inhabitants of the apartment to death.
Photo: Ivan Kozlov / zvzda.ru
But most of these legends are associated with the object under the code name 777. In Soviet times, this was the name of the plant producing rocket fuel and for conspiracy was designated on many maps as a fur farm. Its location alone - the territory of 777 is located deep in the forests in the north of the city, leading to it by a long and deserted concrete road that runs along the Northern Cemetery - literally obliged that a gloomy halo developed around the plant. And it took shape. On the 777 forums, they describe it as "a factory where guards sit with candles at night and all kinds of bullshit happens." We did not manage to find out the details about the garbage that could be protected with candles, but after the decorative rocket was removed from the gate 777, and defense production was curtailed, garbage of a completely different kind began to occur on it. In the middle of the 2000s, Pavel Kudryavtsev, director of NPP "Trivektr", bought this territory for production needs. In a few years the name "Trivektr" will go down in history and will be associated with a group of chemists who supplied the whole of Europe with methamphetamine precursors, and after 777 the glory of an object on which strange and dark things are happening will finally be fixed.
Cemeteries and zoo
Considering the pace of urban construction, it is rather strange that every month we do not read in the news about some next churchyard accidentally dug up by an excavator. There is no need to list here all the Perm cemeteries and burials that once existed and disappeared from the face of the earth, because there are a lot of them. A cemetery near Goznak, a cemetery on Bakharevka, Verkhne-Mullinskoye rural cemetery, a cholera cemetery near Baramzina street, and so on and so forth. A millionaire city with a three-hundred-year history, of course, stands on its bones, it would be strange to hope for something else. And let it be worth it. If only it does not pour out into such stories from the forums:
“Under the house at 39 Plekhanov Street there is a monastery cemetery. Once, while working as a bartender in a bar at this address, he witnessed strange mysterious incidents at night. Everything intensified when the basements (if you can call them that) were flooded during sewerage and water supply failures."
A very instructive story about how the poor state of housing and communal services can awaken forces from the underworld.
Photo: Ivan Kozlov / zvzda.ru
Of course, this topic in many respects overlaps with the more familiar "mystical" excursions around Perm - for example, for most of them a compulsory item on the program is the bishop's complex with Cathedral Square, the Gallery and the Zoo. But the fact is that for the clergy and venerable townspeople resting on the site of the current zoo, there is no particular reason to become ghosts and appear in the world of the living - after all, at one time they were all buried according to the standard Orthodox rite, and forty days after that their souls have left us forever. Another thing is the animals that have lived in the zoo in our time - in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is easy to believe that at night the restless ghosts of Johnny the elephant and dozens of smaller animals roam behind a high impenetrable fence,who never lived to see the construction of a new zoo with more tolerant living conditions.
Photo: Ivan Kozlov / zvzda.ru
Pyramids
Permian architecture is full of problems that literally scream about themselves. Therefore, against their background, you may well have not noticed one feature, not the brightest, but very characteristic of Perm. There are a lot of new-made turrets and pyramids on modern buildings in our city. At some point, this was even reflected in literature (not God only knows what kind of literature, but still). Here is an excerpt from the novel "Black Dog Blues" by science fiction writer Dimtriy Skiryuk:
- Remember where you saw so many towers on houses. Nowhere else is there so much, except perhaps in St. Petersburg or somewhere in the Baltic States. Here, remember, remember.
I looked up again. The sun was shining almost in the eyes - it was not in vain that Mikhalych crossed the street to take a picture: it was difficult to see anything from here. In addition, I suddenly felt bad: my head was spinning, yesterday's feeling of unreliability all around rolled over, the turret on the roof spread out into a pink stain and swirled like cotton candy on a stick.
It would be too easy to explain this by the mediocrity of the Perm architects, so let's look for the answers in the New Age and esotericism. In these frames of reference, the pyramidal structure is a natural accumulator of energy. There are many experiments of undoubted scientific value, according to which food does not spoil in pyramids, girls become younger and prettier, and in cars (if you place a pyramid above the fuel tank) fuel consumption is seriously reduced. The question is, why are some of the Permian pyramids directed upward and some are inverted? Agitated users of large Perm forums put forward their versions:
"I came to the conclusion that if an ordinary pyramid is a receiver of cosmic energy, then an inverted one is a translator."
Photo: Grigory Skvortsov | ad-hoc.ru
Well, very possible. One way or another, there are more ordinary pyramids in Perm - apparently, Perm people are more inclined to accumulate energy than to broadcast it somewhere. Suffice it to recall the residential complex "Dominanta" on Gazeta Zvezda 46. On the roof of this house are, perhaps, the most noticeable and largest Permian pyramids. Even residents are not allowed on this roof, since it is not equipped with railings at the edges. And if in the case of other pyramids we have only empty guesses, then regarding the “Dominant” (nicknamed “Devil's Finger” by the people) there is also a specific legend that the structures on the roof were purposefully erected as energy pyramids. By the way, it was in this house that Oleg Chirkunov lived when he was the governor of the region, but this, of course, is just a coincidence.
Red men
The last "horror" story on our list refers exactly to the era of the governor Chirkunov. If before that we listed legends and rumors, the authorship of which can be considered anonymous or popular, but here one single person is responsible for all the gloomy mythology - Alexander Prokhanov. Here is a typical excerpt from his novel, Man of the Star:
“Reporting incidents related to the placement of red men in the city. The number of suicides has increased sixfold. The number of unmotivated crimes is eight times. The number of massive street fights has quadrupled. The number of mental disorders is twelve times. The number of people leaving the city for good is three and a half times. The fears, Stepan Anatolyevich, which are spreading in the city, have led to rumors, the reliability of which is difficult to verify. So, in the reports of road accidents it is mentioned that two red men stole a land cruiser from a paid parking lot, drove at high speed through the city at night until they crashed into a supermarket window, damaging a store and a car. club "Lame duck", where they opened fire from traumatic weapons, wounding two visitors. A group of red men raided a supermarket checkout and stole the day's receipts. And finally, two red men attacked the music teacher, who was returning home along the evening street, and brutally raped her."
Photo: Timur Abasov / zvzda.ru
Of course, the attitude to the "Red Men" and other art objects from the time of the "Cultural Revolution" in the city has always been ambiguous. But it was Prokhanov who, impressed by the trip to Perm, demonized this topic in his novel and gave it such a degree of fantastic madness that even the most devoted lovers of contemporary art had blood frozen in their veins. It would seem that this plot has already outlived its own - the overwhelming majority of art objects were removed from the streets, Alexander Prokhanov no longer appears in our country, and his novel, which tells about the struggle of the dark forces of modern art with the light warriors of the Russian tradition and was written based on momentary impressions, was forgotten … But we would not relax in Prokhanov's place: many art objects that appeared in Perm at different times have not disappeared - they were dismantled and are now in the warehouse of the PERMM Museum. And, perhaps,just waiting for revenge.