According to Polskie Radio correspondent Maciej Yastrzhembsky, who recently published the book Ruby Eyes of the Kremlin. Secrets of underground Moscow.
Newsweek Polska: Moscow is not only traffic jams and sky-high prices, but also the underworld. How does it attract historians and adventurers?
Maciej Jastrzębski: You can open Moscow layer by layer. Diggers ("diggers") who climb into the Moscow dungeons are considered, in a good way, crazy, who find traces of modern and ancient history. Penetrating into old sewers, underground tunnels and basements, they find places and objects that the world has long forgotten, for example, canned food from the Second World War or gas masks issued in the years when the Soviet Union was afraid of American chemical and nuclear attacks. Diggers come into contact with the events of centuries ago and rejoice like children, finding objects from the time of the Napoleonic campaign or the first princes who sat on the Moscow throne. It was in the dungeons of the Russian capital that representatives of the movements opposed to the tsar organized their meetings. Going down to the deepest levels of the underground corridors, you can get to places where you can smell the times when the Kremlin was just beginning to be built.
Such places have overgrown with many legends. One of them concerns Ivan III, who married the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaeologus. The heiress of the last ruler of Constantinople allegedly brought a dowry to Moscow - a whole cart of priceless books. This treasure was appreciated by her grandson, Ivan the Terrible, who hid the library in the dungeons of the Kremlin. Modern authorities and historians still cannot find it
- She's heard in Russia. This is such a Russian "golden train" (a train with the treasures of the Third Reich, which were searched for in the vicinity of the town of Walbrzych in Lower Silesia). The most famous seeker of the medieval library was Professor Ignatius Stelletsky, who devoted almost his entire life to trying to find the disappeared library. He began his research at the end of the existence of the tsarist empire, and then, having won the favor of the revolutionary authorities, received permission from Joseph Stalin and began to study the underground corridors around the Kremlin. However, this story did not end with a happy ending.
Let me remind you that Moscow is crossed by many rivers and streams, some of them are now covered with asphalt, others are hidden in stone or brick canals. Stelletsky, who, as he said, was on the verge of finding the library of Ivan the Terrible, inadvertently broke through one of the walls separating the dungeons from the river bed, and the water destroyed his many years of work.
How similar are the stories about Byzantine books to the truth?
- I turned to the sources, tracing the possible route along which the library of Sophia Palaeologus moved from Greece to the Vatican, and from there to Moscow. It looks quite possible, another question is whether the books could have survived. Who knows, suddenly they were eaten by rats, spoiled by water or consumed by fire? However, so far no one has found metal frames and precious stones, with which valuable books were adorned many centuries ago, so many archaeologists believe that the search for an invaluable library should be continued. I am one of those who believe that someday we will find her.
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In your book, you write about rumors that the library has been found long ago
- I think it's not true. Such messages appear from time to time. Most often, Russian officials are approached by people who claim that they know where the library is, but demand to take it under special protection and appoint a special commission for this. The authorities, however, have not yet taken such signals seriously. I myself received e-mails, the authors of which assured that they knew where the Grozny library was located.
It is curious that representatives of the authorities do not comment on such messages, but at the same time (what a coincidence) in one or another part of Moscow, repair and construction work begins, during which they discover old cellars and tunnels.
Based on this, I dare to say that the library was not found, but the Kremlin officials do not want to openly admit their desire to discover this legendary book collection.
“Russians are concerned not only with the Grozny library, but also with Metro-2, the secret tunnel of Stalin's times
- The world got acquainted with the history of the D-6 object through publications in the press, books and films. I believe that such a communication artery that connects the Kremlin with strategic military installations exists. It is hard to imagine that the Kremlin rulers and their retinue are going to get to shelters and command centers along the roads located on the surface in the event of bombing. I do not believe that with the paranoid attitude of the Russian authorities to the topic of armaments and threats from "Western enemies", they did not create such facilities. The old bunkers and command centers of the 1960s, which are now open to tourists, are also likely connected to the Kremlin by secret tunnels. What Metro-2 looks like, we do not know. Perhaps this is not a railroad at all, but a wide asphalt highway on which trucks can fit.
You have studied underground Moscow not only literally, but also figuratively, exploring the Russian penchant for belief in supernatural phenomena and conspiracy theories. What conclusions have you come to?
- There are many legends associated with the labyrinths under the surface of Moscow. For example, the capital is said to stand over a giant cavity filled with salt water. Some geologists argue that urban chaos can lead to the shell of this cavity cracking, and then the entire center will go underground. They also talk about sects whose members live underground, or that Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square is part of a mechanism that is used to control the minds of citizens.
They say that not only members of sects live underground, but also, for example, mutant animals
- Yes, Russians tell incredible stories about huge animals, insects and underground plants. I came across a description of an experiment that was conducted in a Moscow university. A group of volunteers went down into the dungeons for six months and tried to survive there without contact with the outside world. Almost identical messages appeared in the recordings of the participants that they felt someone's presence, and sometimes, moving through the tunnels, they saw someone's shadows and eyes. For many years there has been talk about whether these mysterious observers could be people who have lived for several centuries in the underground world of the Russian capital.
They also say that the metro is a space-time tunnel
- A time portal, an entrance to another dimension, a gate to hell - there are many such versions. There is a popular legend about the spirit of a black machinist who loved his job so much that he did not leave the subway even after his death. He became black due to the fact that he burned out in the wreck of his train. Now his spirit wanders on the rails, and misfortune awaits everyone he meets. I tried to figure out how this story was born. It turned out that for some time a black immigrant from Ethiopia was working in the Moscow metro.
Are rats the size of a dog?
“They may just be feral dogs, although the Moscow authorities assure that they are no longer on the metro. Since there are no dogs, are they really rats? Diggers say that they saw mutated snakes, lizards, huge spiders and even photographed them. How do they explain these mutations? Not experiments with chemical weapons or secret experiments, but lack of light and pollution of groundwater. As proof of this theory, the example of colorless fish that live there is cited. As Russian journalists write, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov once allegedly went down into the dungeons and saw such creatures there that he never dared to explore underground Moscow again.
Do the Russians really believe in all these paranormal phenomena? How is this possible in the 21st century?
- According to many studies, up to the 16th century, part of the inhabitants of Moscow, despite the spread of Orthodoxy, favored pagan beliefs. The legend about the founding of Moscow tells that those who decided to build a city around the Kremlin killed the last priest of the pagan god Yarila, who managed to utter a curse before his death. Apparently, Orthodoxy, to a greater extent than Catholicism, inclines people to mysticism. In the West, we try to stay away from superstitions because they open the soul to evil.
In my book, I described the story of the alchemist Jacob Bruce, who lived in the 17th century. He was interested in the stars and created an astrological calendar, which is still used in Russia. The scientist's lifestyle and manner of dress contributed to the emergence of many legends associated with his biography. Now Muscovites consider him a magician who revealed the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, learned to teleport and be in two places at the same time. Passing down from generation to generation, these stories begin to sound more and more incredible.
The Soviet censorship played its role, which persuaded people to explain reality with the help of metaphysics. Even the KGB is said to have studied UFOs
- In the Soviet Union, the authorities were constantly hiding something. People wanted to know what, and so they created legends. In the previous era, the kings were hiding something from the people. As a result, one person saw something, another heard something, they met in the tavern, conducted conversations over wine, and as a result conspiracy theories were born, which gradually turned into fairy tales.
Your friend Boris plunged into secrets, who discovered in the Kremlin archives documents describing the closure of diamond mines on the Popigai River
- The press wrote about this deposit several years ago, and Vladimir Putin even officially spoke about it. Theoretically, the reserves of diamonds from the Popigai deposit could be enough for the state for several thousand years. The problem is that these are minerals of technical rather than gem quality, so it was unprofitable to conduct large-scale development of this deposit, it was cheaper to produce artificial diamonds. Meanwhile, someone was mining there in the 1930s. Why weren't we told that prisoners of war and political prisoners worked at these mines? One gets the impression that they are trying to erase the memory of these people. This information has not yet been released to the public. Through the story with diamonds, Boris seeks to tell about the fate of the prisoners who were taken to the mine, including from the Polish Eastern Kreses. Such placeswhere the slave labor of prisoners of war and political prisoners was used, there were a lot on the territory of the former USSR.
There is anger in your attitude towards the Russians
- In a city with a population of 12 million, 30 thousand people go to the demonstrations. This is a drop that can sharpen a rock, but breaks on the first contact with it. Why don't the rest come out? Are they satisfied with the current socio-political situation? The Russians walk their dogs, stand in lines and discuss how bad everything is, but they do nothing. On my part, this is not so much anger as surprise and irritation. Some aspects of everyday life in Moscow annoy me. This is not a very convenient city for an ordinary person. It annoys me, for example, that the store might run out of carts because someone took them out on the street and didn't think that others would also want to shop. I am annoyed by traffic jams, which cannot be defeated, because all drivers drive at the same time, not paying attention to other road users,and then they stand in the center of the intersection and cannot move either to the left or to the right.
“Perhaps everything is bad, corruption is rampant, but I don’t understand this, it’s dirty politics, which the common man shouldn’t get into,” they say
- According to polls, 45% of Russians believe what Alexei Navalny showed in his film, in which he accuses Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption. However, more than 70% of those 45% say everything is fine. Sociologist Sergei Kovalev, with whom I recently spoke, said that caution and distrust had developed in Russians. They do not protest or criticize government officials for the sake of peace and their own safety. If Putin says “it will be so,” then so be it. My friends, Russian journalists, are offended when I explain how Russians differ from Poles. Poles rarely believe in what the newspapers write, while Russians thoughtlessly trust the press. It seems to me that this is exactly the case.
Do you like Russians?
- I love the Russia of ordinary people. The regime and power there are completely unacceptable. In Poland, of course, there are also different periods that not everyone likes, but if we were faced with such a total duping as in Russia, we would have found the strength to mobilize and raise a rebellion against him. When I asked Kovalev how modern Russia differs from the USSR, he replied: now it has become worse, because before people were deceived by not such clever and insidious methods as now.
Marta Tomaszkiewicz