In the middle of the 19th century, the village of Mokeevka appeared in the forests of the Shilovsky district between Lake Kuzhikha and Lake Chudino. It was not marked by anything special, except that the people in it were savvy and hardworking, so the village was prosperous. The inhabitants did not think they did not guess that in the coming century they would become the heroes of legends passed down in a whisper from mouth to mouth
After the October Revolution, Mokeevka disappeared. Quite … Together with the population, houses, cattle. And it would be fine just disappeared. In those dashing times, this did not happen. The oddity was that from time to time the village was seen. Residents of neighboring Nadezhdino will gather for fishing - there is Mokeevka, women will go to the swamp for cranberries - there is Mokeevka. And a surplus-appropriation detachment appeared - there was no village. How the cow licked her tongue. In the place where it should be, an impassable thicket.
Once they sent a detachment of ChON (a special purpose unit designed to fight the enemies of the Soviet regime) in a hundred sabers to deal with this ideologically harmful village. The detachment, according to all the rules of military science, surrounded the location of the enemy. They sent intelligence. They wait half an hour, an hour - there are no sentinels. The commander with a dozen men went on a sortie. And he also disappeared … In general, when the main detachment pulled up, the Chonovites saw an absolutely incredible picture. There is a village where it should be. Linen is being dried in the courtyards, samovars are still warm in the huts. But there is not a single living being - no man, no cattle, no chicken, no dog. Only the scouts with the commander roam the courtyards in complete disarray. The authorities made several more attempts to clarify the situation. And all with the same success. Then they spat and announced: there was no Mokeevka in sight. And all the talk about the ghost village is an ideological sabotage and undermining of the authority of the Soviet regime by the kulaks and podkulachniki.
The country is
locked We will definitely return to the mysterious story of the village of Mokeevka. But first, let us recall that the Shilovskiy Territory attracted close attention of scientists 200 years ago as a possible location of the semi-mythical Artania - the city-state of the ancient Russians. Here is a quote from the Great Encyclopedic Dictionary: “Artania, Arsania, Arta, along with Kuyavia and Slavia, is one of the three centers of Ancient Rus that existed in the 9th century and was mentioned by Arab and Persian geographers (al-Balkhi, al-Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal and etc.). Some researchers identify Armenia with the territory of the Antes, others with Tmutarakan, and still others with the city of Ryazan. According to one of the versions, hence its name - Arta - Arzya - Eruzian - Ryazan."
The main oddity is that not a single source has left us a description of the ancient city, its streets, buildings, household items. In general, no specific data. The conclusion suggests itself: either strangers were not admitted to Artania (one of the translations is “a country locked up”), or all these are myths and legends that have no actual confirmation. According to some modern ethnographers, Artania was carefully protected from prying eyes, and they did it so skillfully that the idea of attracting some esoteric forces suggests itself.
In the intricacies of the "labyrinth"
What was kept in ancient Artania? There is a version that it was here that the most revered relics of the ancient Orthodox world were located: the first consecrated icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker, the legendary sword of Ares and even the Grail. In fairness, it must be said that not everyone agrees that the mysterious city was located on Ryazan land. And here, in the Ryazan region, other places of the possible location of the "closed country" are also cited.
For example, the Pitelinsky district. This is what the famous Ryazan amateur local historian Vladimir Gribov told about his search for Artania. The inhabitants of one of the villages near the sources of the Pet River pointed out to him a field with which many mysterious phenomena have long been associated. At first, Vladimir Vasilyevich did not notice anything unusual at this place. The field is like a field. Went it up and down - no finds. I was about to leave and suddenly, quite by accident, I stumbled upon a hefty stone on the very outskirts of this place. In appearance, it exactly coincided with the famous menhirs, repeatedly described in historical documents. Turned into a strict tetrahedron, the top is pointed. Since pagan times, such stones have been erected, believing that the energy of the sun is accumulated in them. And if you have certain knowledge,this energy can be used, among other things, to create impenetrable protection from prying eyes. Further - more … Behind the stone there was a whole chain of small ravines, in which, at first glance, chaotically, boulders were scattered. Not a single trail, not a single road nearby.
Already a hundred steps away, Vladimir Gribov felt a slight dizziness, and a moment later he realized that he was in a huge "labyrinth" - stones and gullies were arranged in such a way that they twisted into a spiral! He decided to walk to its center, but it was not there - he walked two ravines and found that he was again standing a few steps from the menhir. One more attempt - the same result. Perhaps somewhere here was the entrance to the "secret city" forever hidden from prying eyes? There is one more fact that confirms the version of Vladimir Gribov. Old-timers tell the story of the ataman Antonov, whose vanguard units, during the suppression of the peasant rebellion, fiercely broke through from the Tambov region to the Pitelin region. With battles, sweeping away the cordons of the Red Army, they still managed to break through. However, the Red Army nevertheless surrounded the Antonovites in the area of the Pitelin forests. The most desperate made their way to the ravines and sank into the water …
Nettle did not help
But let's return to modern Shilovo. Sergei Ivanovich Nikanov is one of the few who saw the legendary Mokeevka with his own eyes. “I wasn't the only one who saw her,” he says. - We have in Nadezhdino, many in Mokeevka have been, and more than once. In the early 30s, when collectivization was in full swing, the authorities again became interested in Mokeevka. They began to drag men and women from neighboring villages for interrogation. We were still quite boys … We saw the village three times with a friend, when we went fishing to Lake Chudino. True, they did not enter the huts - they were afraid. And when they told us at home, our parents beat us with nettles so much that then they bypassed this place on the tenth road”. The parental nettle did not help. The mysterious Mokeevka sunk into the soul of Sergei Nikanov.
You never dreamed of
“For twenty years there was not a word about the village,” recalls Sergei Ivanovich. - Already they began to forget about this story. But in the mid-60s, tourists stumbled upon it again. We went to Chudino - there was a village, and on the way back, when they wanted to collect water from a well, we saw an impassable thicket. I myself went in search of several times. And I saw Mokeevka three more times. But if I take my camera with me, I’ll lose myself in the woods. I am already in Shilovo and I stopped talking about it. They laugh at me - they think that my grandfather was lying in his old age. And I still have old photographs from the 1920s. On them is the very same Mokeevka. Then ethnographers managed to photograph the village and its inhabitants for the only time. Of course, this needs to be seriously dealt with, but my age is not the same, and my health does not allow running through forests and swamps. " Unfortunately,the format of the newspaper publication does not give an opportunity to tell about many more mysterious places of the Ryazan region. There are anomalous zones in Shatsk, in Staraya Ryazan, on the Zhokin settlement in the Zakharovsky district. In the near future we will definitely return to this exciting topic. Well, I advise skeptics to recall the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet: "There is much in the world, friend of Horatio, that your wise men never dreamed of."