In January 1936, in the Black Sea off the Crimean coast, a living creature with a horse's head fell into the net of fishermen. Frightened to death, people immediately tore the tackle and set him free, while they themselves returned to the shore
Later, the famous Soviet writer Vsevolod Ivanov met with an unknown sea titan (Correspondence with AM Gorky: From diaries and notebooks. M., 1969. S. 290-294). He was lucky to see the mysterious giant in Koktebel (now the village of Planerskoe near Feodosia). Standing on the rocky massif of Karadag (an ancient extinct volcano), Ivanov noticed a huge lump of sea grass in the middle of Serdolikovaya Bay … However, we will quote his story.
“Dolphins were moving in a flock to the left along the bay. The mullet must have been moving there. I turned my eyes to the right and, just in the middle of the bay, 50 meters from the shore, I noticed a large, 10-12 meters in circumference, a stone overgrown with brown algae.
While smoking my pipe, I began to observe the ball of seaweed. The current seemed to be intensifying. The algae began to lose their rounded shape. The ball lengthened. Breaks appeared in the middle. And then …
Then I trembled all over, got to my feet and sat up, as if afraid that I could scare "it" if I stood on my feet.
I looked at my watch. It was 12.15 pm. There was perfect silence. Behind me, in the Gyaur-Bach valley, birds chirped. My pipe was smoking intensely. The "ball" unfolded.
Turned around. Stretched out.
I still counted and did not count "it" as algae, until "it" moved upstream.
This creature swam in undulating movements to the place where the dolphins were, that is, on the left side of the bay.
Everything was still quiet. Naturally, it immediately occurred to me: isn't it a hallucination?
I took out my watch: it was 12.18.
The distance, the shine of the sun on the water, interfered with the reality of what I saw, but the water was transparent, and therefore I saw the bodies of dolphins, which were twice as far from me as the monster. It was large, very large, 25-30 meters, and as thick as a desk top if turned sideways. It was under water for half a meter and, it seems to me, was flat. The bottom of it was apparently white, as far as the depth of the water made it possible, and the top was dark brown, which allowed me to mistake it for algae.
I was one of the many millions of people who were destined to see this monster. Our upbringing, which did not accustom us to the appearance of miracles, immediately began to hinder me. I started with the thought: is this a hallucination?
He groped for the hot pipe, took a drag, looked at the rocks and took out his watch again. All this prevented me from observing, but in the end I thought: “Well, to hell with her, if it's a hallucination! I will watch.
The monster, wriggling in the same way as swimming snakes, slowly swam towards the dolphins. They immediately disappeared.
This happened on May 14, 1952.
My first thought, when I came to my senses a little, was: I must immediately go down closer to the shore. But from above, from the cliff, I know better, and if I went down, then perhaps some rock would have hidden the monster from me, or it could hide. I stayed where I was. I saw the general outline, but did not notice the particulars.
For example, I did not see the eyes of the monster, and how could I see them underwater?
Having chased away the dolphins and, perhaps, not even thinking of chasing them, the monster curled up into a ball, and the current carried it back to the right. It again began to resemble a brown stone overgrown with algae.
Carried to the middle of the bay, just to that place or approximately to the place where I saw it for the first time, the monster turned around again and, turning towards the dolphins, suddenly raised its head above the water. The head, the size of the span of the arms, was like a snake one. For some reason I did not see my eyes, from which we can conclude that they were small. After holding its head above the water for two minutes - large drops of water were flowing from it - the monster turned sharply, lowered its head into the water and quickly swam behind the rocks that close the Carnelian Bay.
I looked at my watch. It was three minutes to one. I watched the monster for over forty minutes.
On the right, the rocks are very steep, and it was impossible to get into the neighboring bay.
I hurried home."
What he saw prompted V. Ivanov to search for information about an unknown creature. Here's what he found out.
“Maria Semyonovna Voloshina (wife of the famous Russian poet and artist M. A. Voloshin. - Ed. Note), who is the keeper of all Koktebel traditions and customs, said that in 1921 a note was published in the local Feodosia newspaper, which said, that a "huge reptile" appeared in the region of Mount Karadag and a company of Red Army men was sent to capture … The size of the "reptile" was not reported. Further information about the fate of the "reptile" was not published. M. Voloshin sent a clipping about the "reptile" to M. Bulgakov, and it formed the basis for the story "Fatal Eggs". In addition, Voloshin said that they also saw a "bastard" in the village, but recently, but knows the details … the wife of art critic Gabrichevsky, who lives in Koktebel without a break."
Vsevolod Ivanov found Gabrichevskaya, and she told the writer about this unusual case.
“In the early spring of this year … a neighbor … a collective farmer who came here from Ukraine came running, cursing these places. Recently there was a storm … On the shore, after the storm, they find a fin. The collective farmer went to collect firewood … in the direction of Cape Chameleon. Before reaching the tip of the cape, she saw on the stones some kind of large tree with roots cut off by the storm. Very happy about the find, she ran to the stones at a run, and when she almost ran up to them, the log swayed, what she considered to be a stone rose. She saw a huge reptile with a shaggy mane. The reptile fell into the water with a noise and swam in the direction of Karadag. The collective farmer no longer remembered how she got home."
It is interesting that this story, told by N. Gabrichevskaya, has an interesting continuation. Here is what Maya Bykova *, an enthusiast-cryptozoologist, a researcher of the mysterious creatures of our country, writes.
“In 1986 I received a letter from Leningrad … It was from a Crimean ethnographer, a man of encyclopedic knowledge, Natalia Lesina …
Lesina suggests that Gabrichevskaya's story is secondary and inaccurate. The collective farmer V. Zozulya went for brushwood not in the direction of Cape Yung, but to Karadag, to Cape Malchin. And there she ran into an animal. Her first words, spoken in the purest Ukrainian language, can be translated as follows: "How many years I have lived, but I have not seen this!" This story really happened in 1952, in September.
So, Varvara Kuzminichna Zozulya, who in 1986 was already 80, walked in the place where the descent to the rock. This rock is right next to the path, a few meters from the sea. There is a quiet heated place. There "it" slept.
Varvara Kuzminichna, mistaking the "reptile" for a heap of brushwood, almost stepped on it. The animal woke up and raised its head. "Oh my God! Such a small head, goggled at me. The head is small, the neck is thin, and then the back is like a pillar, thick. The head rose high, high. It got up over me, hit its tail when it got up …”The
woman retreated, swinging the rope. “And when I started waving at it, it began to unwind like a ball. I don’t know how many meters there are. Then it went to the sea."
"It", according to the informant, had lower and upper limbs, "arms, legs." And the voice: “Pi squeaked (made a sound like a squeak).
All this was written down by N. Lesina from the words of Zozulia's granddaughter - Lyuba Pecherkina …”
