Near Tikhvin, in the area of the Veps (Veps) Upland (north of St. Petersburg), several dozen people have disappeared since 1993 - the corpses of 16 of them were found in the forest without traces of violence.
The Vepsian Upland is located between St. Petersburg and Murmansk - this is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Russia. Swamps stretched around for thousands of kilometers. It is here, at a strictly defined time of the year - from April to October - that people disappear.
According to the head of the Kapshinsky police department Anatoly Boytsov, the victims of an unknown misfortune are losing their minds. They are partially or completely naked, clothes were often found folded in mushroom baskets or lying on the pound. Some were filled with liquid road mud. One gets the impression that someone or something was forcing the unfortunate people to empty the collected trophies from the baskets, take off their linen and eat a disgusting "earthy porridge".
Here are just a few illustrative examples. In the fall of 1993, the body of a sawmill watchman was found. The corpse is naked, the clothes are thrown next to him, as if a man was taking them off in a hurry. Some buttons from the shirt were torn off and lay next to the laundry on the ground. The cause of death has not been established by experts.
In the fall of 2001, two local residents went to the swamps for cranberries. They parted, one was missing. Two days later, his body was found. The berries are scattered, the clothes are put in a basket.
In the same year, at the end of October, the corpse of a mushroom picker was found. He sat barefoot on a stump, threw the mushrooms from the basket onto the grass. Boots with socks embedded in them stood nearby.
Local residents blame the evil spirits for everything, which obscures the minds of lonely travelers and destroys them in the forest thicket. By the way, Boytsov himself adheres to a similar point of view. “I think that the clue should be sought by scientists, not criminologists. There is a certain devilry in all these matters."
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Trying a scientific approach
Sergei Nikitin, chief specialist of the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, claims that the reason for the unusual behavior of people who went to pick berries and mushrooms could be the penetration of certain toxic substances into their bodies, causing intense fever and clouding of consciousness. The victims tore off their clothes from the unbearable heat, they were unbearably thirsty, so those in trouble tried to suck on the wet mud …
According to the expert, the seasonal nature of deaths with mushroom pickers suggests that they are affected by animal or plant toxins. In fairness, it should be noted that they were not found in the corpses. But this circumstance does not refute the assumption made. Indeed - after all, the bodies of the dead were not found immediately, and the toxin that got into them could easily be inactivated. Nikitin considers phyto- or zootoxins (plant, mushroom, snake) to be the cause of death of people trapped in the forest.
Sergey Trifonovich, senior researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Pharmacology, Doctor of Biological Sciences, believes that the plant is to blame for everything - the marsh rosemary. It releases into the atmosphere intoxicating essential oils. When a person is on an area overgrown with wild rosemary for a long time, he begins to experience severe dizziness, and his legs become cottony and it becomes difficult to walk.
Vepsian swamps
Meanwhile, this poisonous representative of the flora grows in large numbers in Siberia, Transbaikalia and in a number of regions of central Russia, and from there there were no reports of naked corpses. It is difficult to sin on mushrooms as a source of intoxication. All the victims were mostly local residents and perfectly distinguished edible and poisonous mushrooms. In addition, it is almost impossible that one of them decided to taste their trophies raw in the forest or in a swamp.
According to Eduard Kolosovsky, Candidate of Medical Sciences, the cause of death is infrasound. Vepsian bogs are located in a geopathogenic zone that has not been studied by geophysicists and geologists. In connection with the increased activity of the Sun and the appearance of a large number of elementary particles (solar wind), acoustic oscillations occur, including infrasonic and low-frequency ones. In addition, thunder, storms and winds can be a source of infrasound.
When exposed to high-intensity infrasound, a feeling of unreasonable fear, dizziness, respiratory failure, spatial disorientation and weakness are noted. The body is injured from exposure to infrasound with an intensity of 180 dB (frequency 7 Hz) for 15 minutes. And with further exposure, lethal outcome (death) may occur.
In some publications, facts are cited when the crews of ships in the Bermuda Triangle during a storm were thrown overboard for no apparent reason. And they all undressed before that for some unknown reason! (The same happens in the Vepsian bogs). It has been proven that one of the reasons was the impact of high intensity infrasound during a strong storm.
Why do people undress and try to get into the water? There is a version that when exposed to infrasound, the tissues of the human body, especially bones, are heated, therefore people who have fallen under the influence of infrasound try to cool the overheated body.
Why has not the cause of the death of people in the Vepsian bogs been established? Apparently, the infrasonic vibrations pass in a selectively narrow band for a short time, and only a few are affected by them. The exact answer can be given by physicists equipped with precise instruments capable of detecting infrasonic radiation.
Kite
There are experts who think that the death of people in the forest is associated with snake bites. However, in the Leningrad region, as you know, there is only one representative of creeping reptiles - the common viper. And its toxin does not lead to the previously described effects. Other reptiles that inhabit our forests, fields and swamps are not poisonous.
And here the most incredible begins! It turns out that in the Vepsian bogs people have long encountered flying snakes. For example, here is what P. Sergeev told. In the summer of 1949, as a student, he worked in the survey party of the Leningrad GIPROTORF in the bog massifs at the junction of the Volkhov and Tikhvin districts of the Leningrad region.
Tikhvin flying kite. Eyewitness drawing
“For the first time I heard the story about the“flying reptile”from the old man Savely Ivanovich Ivanov from the village of Zagvodye, where we were based at one time. The meeting with the "reptile" took place in a swamp thirty years ago (that is, around 1920).
Outwardly, the creature was something like a capercaillie, the body turned into a snake's tail. It rose from the grass and rushed at the person. Frightened, Ivanov rushed to the forest, threw off his sweatshirt. When he went to look for the loss the next day, he found a sweatshirt "all in green" - its snake "burned out". We listened, hiding a smile: grandfather writes well!
However, later, spending the night in the villages of Imolovo, Zagorie, Poddubie and others, I was surprised to listen to similar stories of old people about a certain “flying snake”, “flying reptile”, whom they had to meet in the swamps themselves, hear stories about him from their loved ones.
“Well, the swamps should also have their own romance, their own legends,” I thought, especially since they are so large (they reach 60-70 km in length and 30-40 km in width - Podtsubno-Kusyatsky Mokh, Zelenetsky Mokh and others).
But here is the information of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Olenev, who graduated from three courses of the Leningrad Forestry Academy, who has worked all his life in the forest as a forester, the head of the Valsky logging unit, a trustworthy person. In 1959, Olenev reported that he also saw this creature and even killed him.
This happened in the 1930s. Once, when Olenev was walking through the forest with a dog, at the edge of a swamp she suddenly barked viciously "at the beast." Olenev saw a "black grouse" fly out of the grass and follow the dog, which rushed to its owner in fear. Olenev grabbed an ax and, defending himself, put it towards the "bird". The creature, cut by the blow, fell at the feet of the man and soon fell silent. A greenish liquid oozed from its beak.
The head of the “bird” resembled the head of a black grouse; instead of the brow ridges, a red ridge rose. The body turned into a snake tail about 30-40 cm long. Instead of wings, the "snake" had horny outgrowths that resembled frog paws with membranes, but much larger in size. With their help, after takeoff, the "kite" and planned in the right direction.
Vladimir Alexandrovich has long been dead. His acquaintances say that he lamented that he had not taken with him this dead bird-like creature, undoubtedly of interest to science.
Currently, amateur cryptozoologists from the Labyrinth Research Society are looking for flying critters. After conducting a total survey of the residents of the Tikhvin region, they made a verbal portrait of the reptile. Ilya Agapov, a member of the Russian Geographical Society and an activist of Labyrinth, said that male snakes have a growth on their heads that resembles a rooster's comb. These unusual creatures can easily climb trees and can soar high into the sky.
By the way, there is evidence of the observation of flying snakes in local folklore. So, in the collection of L. S. Vasilyeva “Tikhvin bylichki about snakes. Commentary Experience / Tikhvin Folklore Archive. Research and Materials, St. Petersburg, 2000 "says:" If she rushes, take off something from your clothes and throw it at her. While she is busy with the rag - you run further. When the flying reptile realizes the mistake and starts chasing you again, throw another thing. Sometimes, people from the forest came running naked, tore everything off themselves!"
It is very possible that the victims adhered to this recommendation! But it's a pity, it didn't work …
In fairness, it should be said that not only folklore tells about flying snakes, there is also one documentary evidence. One of them was caught in 1942 by the Red Army soldiers of the army of General Vlasov (he had not yet been declared a traitor to the Motherland). The soldiers pushed the reptile into a wooden barrel, deciding to transfer the miracle to the researchers. But during the period of fierce battles, he was safely forgotten. Most likely, he died, being left without food and drink.
According to local residents, after the Second World War, the mysterious creatures almost disappeared. Perhaps due to the fact that the forests began to be treated with herbicides in order to corrode low-value tree species. With the beginning of perestroika, chemicals were no longer used, and snakes appeared again.
What kind of Serpent Gorynych lives in the Vepsian swamps?
Alexander Potapov, from the book "Petersburg environs: Mysterious and mysterious"