In November 2007, the 4th Brosninskaya expedition "Cosmopoisk" (expedition No. 461-a) to the legendary lake in the Andreapolsky district in the west of the Tver region, where, allegedly, a large predatory animal has allegedly been living for centuries, ended.
Legends claimed: the monster devoured part of the Tatar-Mongol army, trying to cross to the other side. The "Devil's Mouth" dragged into the water and devoured the newcomers along with rafts and boats.
In August 1854, according to written evidence, a "miracle Yudo" was seen on Brosno, the exact description of which has not survived. During World War II, the water monster again defended the Russian Land - this time, according to rumor, he ate the downed Messerschmidt together with a German pilot. So this one or not, but then the monster Brosno was not remembered for a long time, his name emerged from oblivion only in 2001, when at the same time in the newspapers there were rumors about the resurrected lake reptile. In 2002, the Kosmopoisk expedition managed to “meet face to face” with this “monster” and found that the hydration bottom was actually to blame for the death of people. But disputes around the lake periodically flared up with renewed vigor, supporters of the existence of the "monster" argued that "all questions will be removed by a new expedition with underwater filming."And such an expedition has just taken place …
Air reconnaissance November 2, 2007 over Lake Brosno
Where did the story of the "Brosnin monster" begin? Initially, local journalists claimed that the inhabitants of the lakeside villages (followed by a list of names) personally saw the animal with a long neck in the water and on land, and the workers of the Rakhnovsky collective farm located near the lake described it as a "creature with protruding vertebrae." The descriptions were different, but the summary was generally one - "very similar to the Scottish Nessie." Sometimes the monster was seen in the nearby Boino lake (you can get into it from Brosno only by overcoming a shallow channel or crawling over land). The monster (monsters) is known only from the words of eyewitnesses, most of them talked about the lizard in words, but some, allegedly, were even lucky enough to take photographs of it (though never published anywhere) and even 2 video images (they were promised to be shown on TNT) …
Initially, Tver journalists (E. Novikov and others) were involved in collecting information about the Brosnin monster, but soon reporters from central and foreign media went to the west of the Tver region. The story, which at first really looked like the "Nessie story" (ie, replete with fairy tales without references to specific eyewitnesses), very quickly overgrown with specifics (and references to the names of specific residents from several villages). The number of facts began to grow alarmingly - together with the desire of the Cosmopoisk researchers to visit the amazing lake and see for themselves the reality of the horrors happening there.
For several years now, Kosmopoisk has been systematically checking such "lakes with monsters", in most places a negative verdict was passed, in 2 places - a positive one (ie, it turned out that some unknown large predator is really in the lakes). Lake Brosno was in the plans (thanks to ancient legends about how), but because of new messages from the lake, it was decided to speed up the research. The last straw that overflowed the bowl was the message that the unbelted monster, apparently feeling its impunity, crawled ashore and ate the girl! And in April 2002, it was announced about the collection of volunteers and the immediate equipment of an unscheduled expedition to these places.
From April 29 to May 15, 2002, the 116th expedition "Kosmopoisk" took place at Brosno, 23 people took part in the exploration of the lake. In order to check the recent rumors about a "monster living in the lake", several groups walked through all the surrounding villages with a total survey (there are not so many of them left, the number of residents has decreased many times over the past 20-30 years). Zoologists who specially came from St. Petersburg (V. Korolev, S. Pavlov) engaged in fishing and studying the fauna of the lake and the food chain in it. The searchers explored the coastal strip (for at least some traces), and several crews, replacing each other in the boat, probed the entire considerable surface of the lake, making up a picture of the bottom. And the results of the study almost immediately began to diverge from newspaper rumors.
The media reported that "the lake has a depth of 90 meters, where at the very bottom this monster is hiding." It turned out that this is not so. With the complete echolocation of the lake, the specialists of "Kosmopoisk" specified that the maximum depth of the lake does not exceed 43 meters (except for a place with a moving bottom, which will be discussed later, but this section of the bottom is absolutely lifeless).
The lake was reported to be “full of food for the monster,” however, after zoological research and their meticulous calculations, it turned out that there was not enough food to feed the population of large predators in the lake.
It was reported that "2 video images of the monster were made on the lake." After getting acquainted with the video recordings, it turned out that on one of them the lake was swimming … a wild boar. In the second image, one can guess the "head on a long neck", which belongs to … a duck.
It was reported that "dozens of eyewitnesses have seen the monster in recent years, in 2001 it even ate a little girl." An on-site poll showed that numerous eyewitnesses, whose names were listed in the reports … died many years ago, some villages in which the monster appeared, in fact, have been depopulated for decades (the reasons for the departure of residents are banal and are not related to the "activity of the monster") … None of the residents in the 4 remaining villages on the lake knew about the "eaten" girl! But everyone confidently referred to only two people (“They invented everything, if anyone says that he saw, it’s just them!”). Finding these two people (Nikolai Alexandrovich and his son Alexei) was not difficult, it was difficult to find these busy businessmen on the spot. Not devoid of business acumen, they first promised to show the monster's place of residence (“We saw it there ourselves!") For $ 25,000, but upon learning that they were dealing with a scientific expedition, they suddenly changed their minds and declared that" they had never seen anything or anyone!"
Promotional video:
Nevertheless, their lands, less advanced in terms of business, continued to insist that "only Nikolai Alexandrovich and 2 other grandmothers say that they saw a monster, even TNT showed a report about this!" The businessmen were described as "very serious people weighing every word," so it was impossible to explain their descriptions of monsters with a joke. But in the conversation "for life" Nikolai Aleksandrovich said that "he bought the whole lake and will soon make a tourist center on it." Whether the main eyewitnesses can be considered people directly interested in the development of the local tourism business - decide for yourself. By an amazing coincidence, businessmen living in Brosno since birth remembered about the "monster" only in 2001 - as soon as they actually bought the lake! Let's not be too hard on them, let's call them (how to put it mildly) people,interested in the development of tourism and increased attention. The situation is the most banal, if we recall similar "amazing coincidences": for example, the first person in the 20th century to see the Loch Ness monster, as we know from history, was in 1933 the owner of a local hotel with his wife …
As for the 2 grandmothers, whose vivid stories were shown in the video interview, we managed to find them, and the storytellers with a laugh admitted that they only repeated other people's words for “a donated chocolate bar and 50 rubles” … It is regrettable to realize this, but we can conclude that The reason for the rumors about the monster in 2001 was just (alas!) the desire to make a paid attraction such as "New Russian Loh Ness".
But what was the reason for the emergence of ancient myths (when there was no such thing as "tourism" yet)? Since we did not find the monster, perhaps there would have been thoughts of distrust of ancient sources. But … soon the monster found us!
On the last day of echolocation, the crew of the Kosmopoisk boat (navigator - A. Popov, helmsman - K. Lapshin, echo sounder operator - V. Chernobrov) got into a mortally dangerous situation, thanks to which, perhaps, a phenomenon leading to the "appearance of a monster ". A minute before the incident, the echo sounder showed a depth of 35 meters (the depth in this place had already been measured the day before and did not bode well for surprises), it was clear on the screen that the bottom was not entirely solid, but rather resembled jelly or jelly. Suddenly, the depth began to grow: 37 meters, 39, 41,…, 50,…, 60, 62! A large body several meters thick appeared in the middle of the water column (a monster !?). To check whether a living creature or not, it was decided to blow up a small firecracker. There was a strong bang, on the echo sounder screen you can see how the image of the "monster" moved and began to rise!Following the "monster", the bottom began to rise too !!! Not 62 meters were left to the bottom, but 50,… 40,… 35 (the “bottom” did not stop at this mark), 30,… 20,… 10,… 5,… 4,… 3,… 2 meters… The helmsman shouted: "There are bubbles around the boat!" There was a complete feeling that some huge body tens of meters long was about to ram our boat from below, and we would find ourselves on the huge back of a giant lake predator! Or maybe not only on the back, but also in front of the mouth, which is already opening and vomiting air bubbles! The echo sounder showed that the giant body had stopped just 1.4 meters directly under the boat (this delay of several seconds may have kept the crew members alive)! We tried to hit the invisible back with an oar, but the 2-meter bar did not reach the "back", which was less than one and a half meters away! In almost completely clear water, the monster should be visible,but … no one saw him! The surface of the water foamed around, a sharp smell of rotten stuff. As if an invisible huge muzzle has already emerged to the surface and breathes stinking air on people!
The decision was made to swim away immediately! And on time! If someone in the boat smoked (all three, fortunately, are nonsmokers), then everything would have ended in a big explosion, and if there were no open fire, the boat simply fell into the depths of the lake, since buoyancy is lost in the foamy water.
As the analyzes have found out, the cause of the "gelatinous bottom" is hydrogen sulfide hydrates, constantly accumulating reserves of poisonous gas at the bottom, due to the high pressure of the water column in a bound state. For the "boiling" of the hydration cushion, a slight external influence is sufficient (cotton from an explosion, falling anchor, etc.). The consequences of such banal anchoring at the wrong time in the wrong place can be disastrous. If there were any eyewitness on the nearby hills, he could well regard such a disappearance in the abyss of waters as an "open mouth" (with or without the belching of fire), which swallowed its victims. Apparently, this or something like that could occur "the appearance of monsters" in the past centuries.
Already in May 2002, the research results and the main conclusions were announced (“there are two reasons for the appearance of the monster - a hydrated bottom and falsifications in order to extract benefits). But the Internet was still full of rumors and biographies of the life of the monster for a couple of months, the TNT TV channel, which promised to conduct its own expedition to Brosno on May 25, a TV show called "To Catch the Monster!" In the summer, the multi-part show was released on screens, the director skillfully whipped up fear with “strange rustles behind the tent”, the search participants soon began to fear their shadows, and the boring spectacle went off with a bang. And the monsters - him, of course, no one caught. The version of the hydration day seemed too banal to the organizers of the show.
On July 27-August 1, 2003, the Smolensk-Cosmopoisk group worked on the lake. The shores of the lake were checked again, as well as the year before, and several old remnants of megalithic structures were found, in particular, a “arrow” made of large (about a meter in diameter) stones. We examined the place where the arrow points, not far from the coast at a depth of several meters under water there is a “hole” on the bottom with a diameter of about 3 meters. Where the hole leads, how far it stretches - so far it has not been possible to find out …
In 2004, in newspaper and magazine publications, the version about the hydration day, at first perceived as “this cannot be”, in a short time transformed into doubts such as “there is something in this”, and already appeared “so everyone already knows this! “What exactly was the discovery, if so !?
In September 2007, the 3rd Brosninskaya reconnaissance trip (No. 453-t) took place on Brosno, the young group "Ostashkov-Kosmopoisk" (headed by N. Kozlov) explored a new approach to the lake and the conditions of communication in its vicinity. Of course, the impressions of the lake would not be complete without a meeting with the “main eyewitness”, N. Belousov, who continued to declare to the press that he saw a “monster”. Neighbors of Belousov said that he often hunted among tourists and fishermen, deceiving those who are “the owner of the lake”, and that now “everyone is obliged to pay him for fishing on the lake”. Many of the newcomers preferred to “settle the issue on the spot” by paying “not all part of the prescribed tariff” … Unfortunately, the meeting with Belousov did not take place - he was hospitalized the day before due to a head injury …
It turned out that over the past 5 years, the "owner of the lake" has not come to terms with the loss of the "monster", which brought a good income. Although the lake was bought or privatized only in dreams, and the monster was only imaginary, the virtual lake and the monster brought real income.
Probably, it was necessary to prepare the departure of a new large group of researchers, already with new devices capable of convincing skeptics. And soon such a case presented itself:
Descent of scuba divers into Lake Brosno November 1, 2007
October 29-November 3, 2007, the 4th Brosninsk expedition (No. 462-a) took place on the lake, this time "Cosmopoisk", field researchers and scuba divers prepared a number of new research using an underwater monitor and new experimental devices. The entire course of the expedition was filmed with a video camera (the results can be seen in the documentary film). Once again, as in 2002-2003, logic and devices showed that rumors and legends about the "Brosno monster" were actually caused by the consequences of periodic gas emissions from a hydration day.
In addition to the pursuit of the "hydrated monster", there was another, no less interesting topic for research on Brosno. The day before, a very strange entry was found that intrigued the researchers. So, as the ancient chroniclers wrote down, in the summer of 1624 a very strange event took place on Brosno: “In the summer of 7132 from the creation of the world, an incredible miracle happened: the same summer in Holm County on a lake on Brosno, forty miles from Toropets, and from that lake Brosna emerged from the water a sandy mountain, from the bottom of the water up to a fathom, and stood like that for two ten days. And many people ascended it and see if such a great wonder. And many fishermen pestered at that mountain with ships and fish nets dried on it. And twelve days later, she sank again, as before, to the bottom of that lake, and above it the depths of the water became 7 sazhens,as well as the previous depth in that place was … “[“Belsky chronicler OCR”v.34 according to the“Complete collection of Russian chronicles”, v.34, M., 1978, p.238-271;
But how to check on the spot the degree of reality of an anomalous event, 383 years later? For this, it was necessary to interview local old people and local historians, as well as to study the Brosnin toponymy. The place where the mountain appeared (crawled out of the water) suggested the name of the village - Vypolzovo. It turned out that the ancient name kept the memory of a strange anomalous event for a long time. For a long time … Until the legends of another event were superimposed on the old legend. They remembered about the monster, and in the memory of the people there was an association with a monster crawling ashore (and what else can creep ashore !?). By the way, the hydrated bottom and the geologically troubled bottom of the lake are just opposite the village of Vypolzovo. Maybe this is the key to the mountain that grew out of the water? So many gases accumulated under the muddy bottom that they raised the bottom. Like an inflatable bag jackable to lift even a car. Somewhere off to the side of Tver an earthquake occurred, gas evolution accelerated, and the mountain began to creep out of the water …
By the way, the study of the archives and conversations with local historians revealed the secret of another legend. It seems that now "Kosmopoisk" has found out exactly where the famous meeting of the "Brosnin monster" with the Tatar-Mongol army took place. In fact, the warriors met with … However, this is the topic of the next investigation, we need to double-check our guesses …
Does all this mean that the secret of the "Brosno monster" has been revealed? Most likely, yes. Due to the fact that the danger, the existence of which was previously denied in principle, has been identified, now it is possible to give recommendations to those who go fishing or rest on Brosno. When in a boat over deep places, never drop anchors or any other heavy objects into the water! If you follow this simple rule, you should not be afraid of the terrible reaction of the hydration bottom (and the attack of the "Brosno monster"). Now, only rumors are unverified that plants and mushrooms should simply be found on the banks of Brosno, as if accumulating hydrogen sulfide. So, perhaps, in the coming years, Kosmopoisk will conduct new research on Brosno.