A document was found about the tricks of one of the first … ghosts on the Kuzbass land.
The first silver vein was discovered in Russia in the 17th century in our country, next to today's Tisul. In the capital, Peter I was expecting the first ingots of Russian silver, demanding the continuation of work at the silver mine - in spite of frosts, raids of nomads and hardships of miners … People dug a labyrinth, scooping up water for days with buckets and trying to bring it out with pipes. And the mined ore was dragged to two smelting furnaces.
However, the mine operated for only three years and was empty. The protective walls of the prison built nearby survived it; later they were burned, leaving, by the last Russian sentinels. The border of the empire went to the east.
Why was the mine so short? Kemerovo historians, associate professors of the KemSU - Aleksey Ermolaev, head of the laboratory of the history of Southern Siberia at the Institute of Human Ecology of the SB RAS, and Viktor Dobzhansky, having completed the work within the framework of the grant "Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation - Kemerovo Region", found unique documents and prepared a book about Kashtak mine.
“In the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the St. Petersburg branch of the archive of the Academy of Sciences, we found more than 50 royal orders and correspondence on this mine,” says Alexei Nikolaevich. - And the final picture of its opening and the reasons for its closure has emerged. Including one unexpected reason became clear. We found a letter that reported … mysticism, encounters with ghosts …
Of course, the indignation of otherworldly forces was not the main thing for the king's decision to close the mine. But it could well become the "last straw" for tired, exhausted workers …
Breakthrough
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The chronicle of the struggle for Kashtak Silver, collected by Ermolaev and Dobzhansky, resembles reports from the front.
“In the Moscow state, noble metals were not smelted, but the demand was high,” explains Ermolaev. - The entire monetary system of pre-Petrine Rus was based on silver brought into the country by foreigners in the form of articles or coins. The main Russian coins - kopecks - were minted from "overseas" silver.
And when the news came to the capital in 1696 about the found silver ore (it was the local prince Myshan Kailachakov who gave a piece of ore to Tomsk), everything started spinning.
- Tomsk voivode Rzhevsky equipped a campaign to Kashtak. They mined eight poods of ore. Samples were sent to Moscow. From there - to Riga and abroad, for analysis. And the answer came that the silver content is small, but there is hope, - says the historian.
As a result, a large expedition to Kashtak was assembled. A contract was signed with the Greek master Alexander Levandian. Arriving in the autumn of 1697, the expedition immediately got into the war (800 Russians who had arrived to build a prison were opposed to two thousand Kirghiz, who demanded to leave "their" land). But they concluded a bad peace (which was more than once violated by the Kirghiz). And the garrison left, leaving on Kashtak, on a "patch" of land, a prison that had grown up, three cannons, ten servicemen and forty workers. And the "silver" adit "entered the operating system."
The keeper
After a month or two, the bread and candles ran out. People were crippled, picks broke. But the hole was dug by the winter of 1698, already twelve and a half meters deep.
- In the spring of 1698, the voivode reported to the capital: the silver vein began to be divided into several branches. One of the branches has a yellowish color, similar to gold. The next samples went for analysis, - explains the historian.
During the first winter, everyone survived at the mine, but the hope that the plow was not in vain grew and melted. And yet they were not going to give up. Maybe that's why she began to appear to the miners … devilry.
Historian-Alexey-Ermolaev:
“In the same May 1698, the Greek Levandian sent a letter to the governor from Kashtak,” says the historian Yermolaev. - Reporting that in all the trenches appeared "good signs" (about the content of silver. - Ed.), He wrote: "Yes, sir, please send me a priest about the priest, perhaps, if you please send us to the Kashtatsky prison … ghosts. " These ghosts, they say, interfere with the silver trade, working people are afraid of them.
Apparently, no priest was given from Tomsk. And otherworldly forces canceled the spring, showing the newcomers in mid-May … snow. It fell in a layer up to 70 centimeters! In the summer, the miners had to change "watch". But word of the ghosts in the adit had already spread throughout the county.
“And there were cases when those appointed to Kashtak refused to go there, hiring other people instead. So, in early July 1698, the serviceman Fedka Volkov hired Ivan Raetsky instead, who was apparently less impressionable and was not afraid of "fearful ghosts," the historian gives an example.
In the meantime, work in the workings was still going on for wear, for days. The pumps are already running. And in the winter from 1698 to 1699, the length of the mine reached 226 meters. But soon, due to the fact that the output of silver from the ore was "meager", everything stopped.
Ahead, in 1700, there will still be a siege of the fort by the Kirghiz, hunger and a heroic life in the blockade of the last soldiers (the Rudari will have time to leave) …
- And for the entire time of the mine's operation - with interruptions from September 1697 to January 1699, probably less than one kilogram of silver was smelted. The production costs far exceeded its cost. But this was the first silver medal in Russia, which was on the verge of dramatic changes of Peter the Great, - says Alexey Ermolaev.
… The mine is empty. There was no one to be afraid of the ghost. And yet, what was it?
- They believed at the mine: they were visited by something from the realm of the supernatural … People in prison and in the workings crept up at that time fearless, selfless. If they were frightened by a real creature - a rare animal, or, suppose, if there was a "Bigfoot", they would have caught him, - the historian believes.
Since then, the "keeper of silver" - a stooped, hazy figure sliding through the taiga and along the "silver" sleeping workings - has almost no guests. After all, all the entrances to the dungeon are filled up. And the main one - long ago at the bottom of the Concord pond dug nearby in the 20th century. And peace and harmony reign in the taiga …
Larisa Maksimenko