Many houses in Penza were built on the site of cemeteries. An interesting pattern. In the city, on the territory of anomalous zones, earlier (mainly before the revolution) there were cemeteries. And when in the Soviet years the graveyards were destroyed and plowed up, residential houses and institutions were built in their place. Dozens of years later, this backfired on their inhabitants.
There are a lot of bad places in Penza. One of the most famous is the building of the music school. In the past, a Tatar cemetery was located here. When a foundation pit was dug for the construction of the school, the remains of the dead were loaded into dump trucks and taken out of town.
“So the deceased are taking revenge for sacrilege,” Sergei Platonov, a resident of Western Polyana, is sure. - I worked as a watchman in a music school. I've seen and heard enough of everyone! Wits students even invented nicknames for evil spirits. One ghost was christened the Flutist - for whistling, the other - Kryshnik, he thundered with something on the top of the building.
And on the opposite side of the street, opposite the school (also on the territory of the cemetery), a taxi station was built. According to some reports, there were graves of soldiers brought to Penza after the Battle of Borodino and who died of wounds in local hospitals. The first burials of Soviet times were also located in that place.
“The blasphemy was terrible,” continues Sergey Anatolyevich. - Some of the gravestones went to the foundation. Now here every now and then accidents happen. Often fatal."
Devilry is also taking place in the old Jewish cemetery, many of which were destroyed by vandals.
“In April, as soon as the paths between the graves were dry, my friends and I decided to take a walk here,” says Penza student Maxim Ivliev. - As soon as I went deep inside, someone hit me on the shoulder. Turned around - nobody. I took another step and they knocked me down. He returned to the gate, and there my friend was pale as chalk. We hurried away from there."
Another house with devilry stands on the street. Moscow, on the site of the former Peter and Paul Church, in the basement of which in the 20s of the last century, the Chekists shot people. Now there is a monument "Repentance".
Another enchanted place is the former Teacher's House. Before the revolution it was a Polish church. Inside the Catholic church, they say, there was a crypt where priests were buried.
In the first post-war years, NKVD workers decided to explore the surviving dungeons. They say that a group of ten people armed with revolvers went into the basement. Absolutely all turned gray returned … The very next day the Chekists drove cars with mortar to the building and walled up the passage.
Several residential areas of the city are literally on the bones. The northern part of Bugrovka and streets south of the Buratino store are located in the former cemetery of the ancient settlement of Gorodok. Marshal Krylov Street bisects the territory of the old garrison cemetery. Until now, during excavation work, skulls and bones, partially decayed boots and belts are dug up here.
Not everything is clean in the area of Baidukova Street and the eastern part of the territory of the former VEM plant. There was a graveyard of the Novocherkassk settlement. On the site of the precast concrete plant, there was a transfer point cemetery, where the soldiers who died in the train were buried. On the territory of the bicycle factory workshops until 1916, the deceased prisoners of the prison castle were buried. Some former employees of the enterprise claim that they have repeatedly met shadows in their shrouds, begging to remove their shackles.
There was a cholera cemetery right next to the CHPP-1, and to the west of the regional hospital there was a zemstvo hospital graveyard. There is now a garden where convalescents stroll!
On the outskirts of the city towards Saratov, a whole line of cottages has been built. Residents of these houses do not know that there used to be a cemetery here.
“We were the first to buy a land plot for construction, and thus took sin on our souls,” sighs pensioner Natalya Alenkina. - The devilry began when the walls were being erected: scaffolding creaked, groans were heard at night, and well-fixed boards fell on the worker. When they settled in the house, they immediately felt an inexplicable fear. And then we learned about the churchyard. I had to sell the cottage."
Today, there are eight cemeteries within the city limits, half of which are in operation - Arbekovskoye, Akhunskoye, Vostochnoye (Chemodanovskoye) and Novozapadnoye. The rest of the old Tatar cemetery, the Jewish, Mitrofanevskoe and Myronositskoe cemeteries are closed. Most likely, after the so-called time of decay, these territories are recognized as ecologically clean. In the distant future, the cemetery land will be dug up and given away for construction. So the residents of Penza will again step on the same rake.
"Arguments and Facts - Penza", No. 24, June 10, 2008