The famous Leninka (now the Russian State Library) has its own special life at night. The Vechernyaya Moskvy correspondent went to study the mysterious side of the country's best book fund.
In the evening, there is no one in the library, except for the guards and groups of schoolchildren who have come on night tours. Leninka is a strictly controlled facility, so visitors are guided along a specific route.
But this is a chance to get into those premises where the entrance is ordered for the ordinary reader. It cannot be that a building with almost a century of history does not contain ghosts wandering along the corridors and heroes of books who have escaped from the shelves. Skeptical at first, we did find one ghost in the library! We were shown where it appears and how it happens.
“For some time now, we began to notice incomprehensibility,” says the chief librarian Victoria Nekrasova. - For example, in the evening from time to time on the 18th tier a light comes on. Accidentally do not turn it on - here you need to make an effort by pressing the switch. We think that it is Rubakin, a bibliologist, who is looking after the collection.
Its history is as follows: the writer, publicist, historian and bibliologist Nikolai Alexandrovich Rubakin left Russia for Switzerland after the October Revolution. Before his death in 1946 he bequeathed all his books to Leninka: a huge fund of 78 thousand books arrived in the USSR by ship from Lausanne. The collection was placed on the 18th tier of the book depository, which holds 32 million copies. Together with the books, they brought an urn with Rubakin's ashes. The urn stood next to the books for a whole year, and only then was it buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Sooner or later, all librarians come across Nikolai Alexandrovich's jokes.
- A reader ordered a book, but I cannot find it. We must understand the specifics of our work - not a single copy can be lost or moved to another place. Eight times they have searched everything, the reader is nervous, but there is no book and no. And only when she asked: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, give the book back," she suddenly appeared in her place, - says Victoria.
Fire officials say they hear footsteps behind them when making rounds at night. In a huge empty building. If you stop abruptly, the steps seem to "pass" by.
Promotional video:
Tatiana Zaripova, chief archivist of the RSL:
- The library is now very popular because of the interiors - we shoot feature films, music videos, documentaries. Even in computer games, the building "lit up": in the game "Metro 2033" our marble staircase is reflected. According to the plot of the game at the time of 2033, this place is a storage station where most of the books are stored, some of which are brought from the Great Library itself above the station. The building, of course, looks different in life than in the game. But if this attracts more readers to us, then we will only be glad of it.
BTW
Before the revolution, only men worked in the library of the Rumyantsev Museum (now the RSL) since its opening in 1862, since before the revolution, literacy was most often taught to boys.
The ghost asked for a chocolate bar
True stories and testimonies of ghosts happen in libraries in many countries.
So, in the library of Combermere Abbey, near Cheshire, England, a ghost is often seen. According to rumors, this is Lord Combermer himself, who died in 1891. A camera was installed in the library, all the employees left the premises and could not get into the frame in any way. When the photographer developed the film, he was horrified. Someone was sitting in the Lord's favorite chair. No one doubted that it was the soul of a lord. According to the staff of the Copley Library at the University of San Diego in the United States, a ghostly nun dressed in blue clothes can sometimes be seen in the building. They say she walks through walls and loves to be on the balcony of the library reading room. Nobody has any idea about her personality.
The Gray Lady visits the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana. She was first seen in the 1930s. Those who have encountered the ghostly figure report hearing strange sounds, smelling perfume, and feeling ghostly touches. Books in the library disappear, furniture moves. Nevertheless, the "Gray Lady" is highly respected in the institution and every year in October they organize celebrations in her honor.
And in the library of the University of Manila, an unsuspecting student sat down to read a newspaper and unrolled a chocolate bar. An unfamiliar young man approached the girl and asked what was in her hands. She replied: “Chocolate. Do you want? The guy said nothing and left. But not through the door, but right through the massive wooden table …
Maria Guseva, Anna Pozdnyakova