Donbass has recently been increasingly mentioned in connection with the difficult political situation in Ukraine. But this mountainous region is famous for many legends, most of which are associated with the local mines and catacombs.
Miner's ghost
So, a very popular legend about a spirit named Shubin, who helps miners, saving them from accidents. Most likely, Shubin is still not a name, but a surname. According to legend, this man lived at the end of the 19th century and was a gas burner by profession. That is, in modern terms, he was degassing mines. Since there was practically no ventilation in the mines at that time, the burner put on a long sheepskin coat soaked in water, entered the mine with a torch and threw it farther away, and in the meantime fell to the ground, covered with a sheepskin coat.
If there was no gas or it was not enough, then the sheepskin coat saved the burner. But sometimes there was a violent explosion. Moreover, the owners of the mine development were entirely foreigners, and they did not care much about the safety of local workers.
One of the versions says that Shubin was one of those who were not fortunate enough to die in a mine from a methane explosion … Another is more interesting. Like, Shubin did not get along with the German owner. His character was conflicting, quarrelsome, and the German constantly oppressed the miners. And then one day Shubin appeared to the owner drunk and started a conversation with him: "By what right do you drink our miner's blood?" He, of course, replied: "I am the owner, I do what I want!" - “Oh, master? - answered Shubin. "Well, then I'll show you who the real boss is." The Scorcher left, and after that no one else saw him alive.
They said that he either died a natural death, or got drunk into the mine and deliberately blew it up and himself at the same time. And since then they began to see him from time to time here and there … The spirit of Shubin appears in front of the miners in order to bring them out from under the rubble or warn of some danger. However, according to another version, he, on the contrary, scares the miners and may even fill up or flood the mine. Shubin dwells as if in distant or abandoned mine workings. Those who believe in this spirit call it respectfully - "master" …
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Diamonds instead of the subway
Another "underground" legend of Donbass is associated with diamonds. Once, back in the Soviet era, there were plans to build a subway in Donetsk, but nothing came of it. There were rumors that the construction was frozen due to the discovery of a deposit of large diamonds during the laying of the first metro lines. It seems that there were even eyewitnesses who claimed that the stones were the size of a quail's egg.
However, knowledgeable people say that diamonds are indeed “found” in Donbass. They were first found long before the revolution. But for some unknown reason, they did not develop the field. The tsarist government let everything down, and no private investors were found.
Mutants near Mariupol
In the Donbass city of Mariupol there are underground caves, which the locals call "adit" or "nursery". According to rumors, during the Soviet era, the KGB equipped secret laboratories in the local underground, where they allegedly studied the effects of radiation on people and animals.
Local old-timers willingly share the legends about the catacombs with journalists and researchers. One of them, named Roman, recalls the stories of his grandfather that in the 50s and 60s of the last century, a secret object was located in artificial caves stretching for many kilometers. Although the area was fenced in with barbed wire, some rumors were leaking out. The most popular myth was about mutants who were "taken out" in secret KGB laboratories.
The mutants allegedly visited the nearby villages - Chermalyk and Granitnoe from time to time.
“Hooligans got into the habit of throwing stones on the roof to one woman - they beat slate,” says Vladimir, a resident of the village of Chermalyk. - She complained to her son. Gathered, it means that the older guys are sitting at home, waiting to teach the hooligans a lesson, and it's already night in the yard. They hear how the gate creaked, then a knock on the roof, well, they rushed after the unknown, and he in the reeds - and began to run away across the field in the direction of the adit. In general, they drove the bastard into the clearing, they shine with a flashlight - there is a shadow, but there is no man!
The same Vladimir claims that he saw giant snakes near the adit with his own eyes. He recalls:
- One evening my father and I were driving a car, and then father, swearing, sharply hit the brakes. We thought that some clever guy put a thick hose across the road, with a diameter of somewhere like a fire hose, the car already jumped when it was run over. We stopped to remove this "hose". We get out of the car, look, and he winds like a loach along the road, hisses - and in the direction of "Nursery". We jumped into the car - and on the gas …
It was as if strange rodents, similar to rats, were observed near the object. Still, these were not rats, but giant insects, which from time to time crawled into local gardens, frightening the owners with their size.
And here is what Igor Krinichny from Granitnoye said:
- Several years ago, on an argument with my comrades, I climbed into the right cave. The condition was to be photographed against the far wall. I made my way into the depths with a lighter, there was no visibility, respectively. I barely saw where to put my foot. After 200 meters, there was a rustle. I stopped to look closely, raised the lighter higher, and it shocked me like an electric shock - two huge eyes looked at me, like those of an insect. I tore as much urine as possible, and this creature hissed - and behind me, you could hear how she moved the stones with her body.
However, according to another version, there were no laboratories near Mariupol, but there was a uranium mine. Although one does not interfere with the other. If there is uranium, then it is clear where the radiation and mutants came from! According to one former party official, mining equipment was being tested there. After the collapse of the USSR, there was no longer any question of secrecy, the catacombs were abandoned, and local bandits set up a shooting range there.
Finds of stalkers
Today from the catacombs there is only a small section at the very entrance, 400 meters long. The rest of the tunnels are concreted. Mariupol stalkers often visit there. According to these "hunters", they have often come across curious finds in caves - for example, the remains of unknown equipment. And one day they stumbled upon a wedding dress cut from the 1970s and 1980s. How it got into this eerie place is a mystery. Has anyone decided to play a wedding here? By the way, in the same place, in the catacombs, someone's summer shoe without a pair was discovered - apparently from the same time as the dress.
Of course, not without mysticism. Stalker Zakhar Berkut assures that he and his comrades managed to photograph a ghost in one of the caves.
“We left the camera here for a long exposure, and in the picture at the end of the tunnel, we can clearly see the silhouette of a man, although we know that there was no one there,” he recalls. The most interesting thing is that later the sensational picture mysteriously disappeared from the photo archive.
Local schoolchildren have a tradition of organizing celebrations near the catacombs on their graduation day. It was there that the next "ghostly" episode happened.
- At the graduation party, my brother came here with his classmates, walked in the meadow and in the undergrowth, - says Vladimir from Chermalyk. -Someone offered to take a collective photo, and everyone stood in a crowd. Imagine our surprise when a pale face of a stranger was found in one of the pictures behind the group.
Maybe these are the ghosts of the prisoners who built the catacombs? Or the same mutants? Who knows, suddenly radiation is capable of turning people into phantoms? One way or another, unlike young people, older residents, just in case, bypass the former secret object …
Dina KUNTSEVA