The anomalous zone in the vicinity of the city of Yuryev-Polsky, on the border of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, is little known and is not very popular with researchers. UFOs are seen in the zone no more often than in other places, there are no mysterious disappearances of people or jumps in time. But the forests there still enjoy a bad reputation.
Ghost soldier
Perhaps the most striking incident happened in 1992 with members of an amateur research group who came here after they read an article in the newspaper about the local anomalies. The group consisted of several young people. In the village, they met local guys, who told that sometimes a ghost of a man in a noose appears in the forest. This story is old, it happened soon after the war. As if some demobilized soldier on a drunken business killed his wife and several other people, and when he got sober, he went into the forest and hanged himself. The body was found and taken away, but since then in the evening twilight, most often on the full moon, the soldier is sometimes seen in the thickets, hanging from a tree. Two urban explorers”, who believed neither in God nor in devil, decided to walk through the forest on the full moon, in order to dispel the legend later. The rest were left to wait for them at the edge of the fire. By the way, the townspeople already more or less knew the local forest. It was sparse, walking along its outskirts in the evening did not seem such a difficult task. Moreover, the moon was shining.
One of these two, Maxim, later said that they almost immediately felt fear, but did not show it, tried to keep up their courage and walked as fast as the bush would allow. Maxim's friend was the first to notice a rope with a noose hanging from a tree. Both were frightened, but assumed that it was probably the villagers who played a trick on them, they hung the rope on purpose. However, the friends decided to end their hike and went to the edge, which was supposed to be several tens of meters away. But no matter how much they walked, the forest for some reason did not end.
Suddenly the tree with the rope was in front of them again. This was exactly it, the guys recognized him immediately. In some incomprehensible way, the friends again went to the place of suicide! They were seized by real fear, they backed away and asked the snatch. But after a while they again stumbled upon the same tree. Only this time there was a man in the noose! Young people saw him quite clearly!
Trouble in the village
Promotional video:
Now, in a real panic, the friends rushed to run in earnest. As if on purpose, the moon disappeared into clouds, a strong wind rose, trees swayed around. This only increased the fear of the fugitives. Stopping to catch their breath, they clearly heard the crunch of branches under someone's feet behind their backs. Not remembering how, the guys jumped out of the forest. And when they ran along the edge, they looked back and saw the dark silhouette of a man who was moving after them. It was difficult to see him in the dark, but Maxim and his friend did not doubt that this was the same dead man.
They ran to the fire. Apparently. the fear was passed on to the rest. Not becoming to find out what kind of stranger was pursuing the members of their group, the "researchers" ran in a crowd into the village. They broke into the house, alarming the owners. Together with the guys, a guard dog ran into the house, which had never happened before, and, trembling, hid under the bed. At this hour (it was half past midnight) the whole village woke up. Dogs howled in every yard. The horses whinnied loudly and fought in the stable; at last they broke free and swept away into the meadows. Some villagers, looking out the windows, saw the dark figure of a man, but for some reason no one came out and asked who he was. On the contrary, people were afraid to even turn on the light.
The next day, Maxim and his friend said that they had seen a gallows in the forest. They were convinced that this dead man followed them all the way to the village.
Surprisingly, their story was believed. Someone remembered that this had already happened: suddenly, on the quietest night, a storm began, the animals became alarmed, and a "black man" walked through the village, in whom the old-timers recognized the same soldier.
Mysterious hut
In addition to the soldier, another ghost "lives" in the forest. It can be seen during the day. This ghost is associated with the so-called witch glades. There are at least two of them in the forest. They are almost perfectly round, completely covered with toadstools. A traveler, entering such a clearing, sees something like an old stump; a minute later the "stump" suddenly comes to life, and it turns out that this is an old woman with a basket picking mushrooms. She comes across mainly to children, but sometimes to one of the adults walking in the forest alone. The ghostly old woman is able to "become attached", that is, to follow; children hear her voice: she persuades them to “taste the mushrooms”. Worst of all, if you meet a ghost at dusk. It can "confuse", and then the mushroom picker wanders through the forest all night.
It is believed that the witch lives in a certain hut, which stands somewhere in the forest and which travelers sometimes come across. On repeated searches, it does not appear in the same place. The house looks dilapidated and uninhabited. It is said that in the late 1970s, a man looked into it and saw corpses covered in cobwebs. After that, the police searched for the hut, but did not find it. And after some time she was seen at the other end of the forest. They say that people experience fear already when they approach the ominous hut, and if you enter it, you may not leave.
Sleeping on the go
In general, it is easier to get lost in these places than in any other. This happens not only with visitors, but also with local residents, who are perfectly oriented in the forest.
“One afternoon I was walking near the house where I live every summer,” says 52-year-old N., a gardener. - I know the area very well. However, this time I decided to walk straight through the forest to gardening, choosing a not quite familiar route. As soon as I crossed a small ravine, behind which the familiar edge began, I suddenly discovered that the place was not at all the same. There was not even a ravine, which I had just passed! I was very scared. I saw the house in front, I thought it was gardening, and when I approached, it turned out - no, a village that stands almost five kilometers from the ravine! How I was transported to such a distance - I don’t know. I had to ask for directions and walk back all five kilometers. When I later tried to understand what had happened, I remembered that my cell phone was beeping strongly at the moment when I crossed the ravine …”.
Of course, this is all very strange. However, it is hardly possible to talk about teleportation or anything like that, since no abnormal changes in time occur. It seems that people, for some unknown reason, simply fall into a state similar to a somnambulistic state, and then go on like lunatics. They "wake up" either by themselves, having already covered a decent distance, or when someone calls out to them. "Travelers" do not remember how they walked, and therefore the unexpected discovery of themselves in an unfamiliar place causes them great stress.
The version of a sudden fall into sleepwalking is also confirmed by the reports of local residents, who sometimes see people "with frozen faces" walking without making out the road. The villagers associate such episodes with the tricks of the forest witch.
They say that a certain passer-by, before finding himself in such a "twilight" state (or, perhaps, already being in it), met with the deceased. In the evening, a man walked past the cemetery, and then a man approached him, dressed somewhat unusual for the countryside: in a suit, white shirt and tie. First, the counter bummed a cigarette, and then asked to go to such and such a village, to such and such a house and tell the hostess that the gold ring had rolled into the slot behind the stove. The interlocutors parted, and after just a minute a passer-by found himself in that very village. He did not even think to go here, since it was not on his way, and how he got here - he could not understand. Deciding to check if he had a dream about a stranger, he looked into the indicated house. That woman really lived there. The lost ring was also found behind the stove. But the most amazing thing is that a personwith whom there was a conversation at the cemetery, died 10 months ago. When the visitor described the appearance of his interlocutor to the hostess, she immediately recognized her late husband, who was buried in a suit, shirt and tie.
It is now fashionable to explain the existence of anomalous zones by tectonic faults, the presence of volcanoes or ancient meteorite craters. But in the places that we talked about, there is nothing like this. As there are no answers to many questions related to the local oddities.
Igor Voloznev. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 25 2011