In August, in the vicinity of the village of Novodevichye in the Shigonsky district, a significant part of which went under water during the construction of the Volzhskaya hydroelectric power station, underwater work began to search for the treasure of Stepan Razin.
According to the members of the expedition "Great Rivers of Russia", the legends about the gold treasures of Ataman Razin have good reasons. Meanwhile, Samara researcher Alexander SKUPCHENKO claims: where the ataman made his caches, the river bed practically did not change. This means that you need to look for treasures along the banks of the Volga, in numerous karst caves.
Volga Nurse
The Razin treasures really existed, and moreover, they were untold, the local historian is sure. Where did the gold and stones come from? After all, historians know that the middle of the 17th century was a predatory time, when a huge number of thieves' gangs (in other years up to one and a half thousand) operated on the Volga, who hunted by robbing merchant ships that kept their way from the upper reaches of the river to the Caspian. Many historians associate even the name "Zhiguli" with the word "jigat" - to run away. Runaway peasants and various other "tati" hid in the mountains. This means that Razin was not alone here. And not every attack on a ship was successful - not only money and jewelry were transported along the Volga, but also salt, wood, bread, fish. There are enough dark spots in the biography of the ataman, argues the local historian. It is interesting and incomprehensible, for example, why in 1667 he did not go up the Don,How did the other chieftain Vasily Us do it a year before him? And why, having reached the Volga with battles, he did not go up the river, where there were many rich cities - Saratov, Simbirsk, but began to make his way through the Astrakhan garrisons in the sea? Where did he strive and who did he intend to rob? Alexander Skupchenko claims that Razin strove to Persia. But why exactly there? Because everything around has already been plundered? Maybe there was another reason?
Kidnapping Razin style
The answer to the question that haunted the Samara regional historian for many years, he found by chance. The phenomenon of the so-called angel from the library worked, when a mysterious case puts into the hands of a person who is purposefully looking for some information, the right book, and opens it to the right page. This phenomenon is inexplicable, but well known to almost every scientist. So, in one pre-revolutionary edition, Skupchenko discovered what seemed to him quite reasonable confirmation of the enormous wealth that Razin and his friends inherited without much difficulty and risk. The found fact, moreover, shed light not only on the not entirely clear behavior of the ataman, but also on his unseemly deeds. - Studying the “Catalog of earthquakes of the Russian Empire. Notes of the Imperial Geographical Society ", published in 1893 in St. Petersburg,I read about several earthquakes that happened in a row in 1667 in the city of Shemakha (150 km from Baku) for three months,”Skupchenko says about his archival research in the book" Unknown Treasures of Russia ".
Promotional video:
Here is a text from the catalog: “In 1667, there were constant earthquakes in Shemakha for three months, and not only many buildings were destroyed, but also some mountains fell; the roads were so damaged that the caravans had to find new routes; up to 80 thousand people died."
Maybe that's why the ataman was eager to go to Persia? After all, it is clear that the natural disaster forced the local population to abandon their homes, property, which became easy prey for gangs of marauders. In those very places, Razin, as is known, also took the Shemakhan princess, hoping, apparently, for a rich ransom. But either all the relatives of the unfortunate princess died during the earthquake, or they did not know which of the robbers stole their relative, but Razin had to drag the princess along with him to Russia. How he got rid of it later - see the words of the famous folk song.
So it turns out that that campaign in Persia, which historians later dubbed as a campaign "for zipuns", and after 1917 painted it in the tone of "class struggle", was an ordinary predatory campaign. Albeit skillfully organized.
Volga banks
Returning with booty from Persia, Razin defeated the Persian ships sent for him, and then successfully dealt with the archers near Astrakhan. And only in 1669 he succumbed to the persuasion of the tsar and took the oath of allegiance to the autocracy. Having stipulated, however, the condition that he would be released with the whole gang and the stolen goods. But, returning to the Don, Razin again took up the old and, having collected an even more numerous detachment, went up the Volga. Hordes of the ataman ravaged dozens of cities: Voronezh, Tula, Usman, Elets, Alatyr, Kurmysh, Penza, Saransk, Upper and Lower Lomov, Saratov, Tsaritsyn. Well, what famous pirate or robber in the entire history of mankind could compare with Razin in the number of plundered cities and towns ?! So the robbers have "earned" enough! Only at Simbirsk the rebels were repulsed by regular tsarist troops. And Razin fled to the Don. But the traces of the military treasury were lost. Where is the gold and silver plundered over several years left? The Samara researcher believes that Stepan Razin, a Cossack who once served in the sovereign’s service, understood well: you cannot do “big politics” without money. Then the "banks" were created - treasures intended to finance the upcoming "political" events. And most of the values of the military treasury ended up in grottoes and caves on Samarskaya Luka. And most of the values of the military treasury ended up in grottoes and caves on Samarskaya Luka. And most of the values of the military treasury ended up in grottoes and caves on Samarskaya Luka.
Over the past centuries, of course, old dresses have turned to dust, corrosion must have destroyed the once sharp steel blades and barrels of blunderbuss and pistols. But precious stones are unlikely to be damaged, as well as products made of non-ferrous metals. And although over the years it is most likely now not to determine which of the robbers belonged to these or those treasures (unless, of course, on a pile of half-rotted junk or on a barrel of gold ducats they do not find an inventory of things compiled by him), countless Razin treasures are still awaiting lucky ones. The chance to find several famous "treasurers" is high among those who search along the banks of the river. After all, the construction of the hydroelectric power station did not significantly affect the geology of the Zhiguli …