Settled houses and abandoned villages are a "tidbit" for lovers of easy money.
But stirring up someone else's past is not such a harmless occupation. Other people's things and houses carry information about the previous owners. About their not always happy and joyful life. People do not always voluntarily leave their habitable places, and gladly part with their old and beloved home.
Rodion and Marina are residents of one small Siberian town.
Both spouses consider themselves people "churched", they parade their photos in the church, write detailed posts about how they celebrate church holidays and violently enter into a skirmish with those who are trying to say at least a word against the church.
The married couple does not work anywhere, and is interrupted by odd jobs. The man pompously calls himself an "antique dealer", but in fact is an ordinary "black digger" who spends his free time in evicted buildings in search of antiques. Showy piety does not prevent a young man from searching old abandoned houses in search of antiques without a twinge of conscience. And then put them up for sale.
One of the houses on the old street of the city has long been liked by Rodion. He waited impatiently for the last tenant to leave the premises. "Antiquary" hoped to be the first to ransack the house. The "catch" promised to be rich, because even before the revolution this building belonged to a wealthy family. Who knows, maybe there is something valuable in the attic or in the basement.
The house was not very well known among the residents of the area. After its first owners perished in the fiery whirlwind of the revolution, many different people lived in it. But, not a single family lingered for long. The reasons why they left the house, people have grown old not to spread. But among the townspeople a legend has taken root, according to which, the daughter of the former owner of the house, was on a "short leg" with evil spirits. After her family was forcibly expelled from the ancestral nest, she vowed until her death and after her to take revenge on anyone who would encroach on their property. Under Soviet rule, a communal apartment was made from a private house for the builders of the "bright future." But even staunch atheists, after a very short time, begged the authorities to give them new housing. Even a more densely populated communal apartment. The situation has not changed in our time:the tenants in the house did not stay long. Someone was lucky, and they were given other housing, someone in the prime of his life left for permanent residence in the churchyard.
The "devout" Rodion did not believe in these "fairy tales". After waiting for the right moment, he and his wife went at night to the empty house.
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Armed with lanterns, Marina and Rodion began to systematically ransack the room. Residents did not take with them many interesting things from the point of view of the "collector". Rostislav needed everything: porcelain figurines from Soviet times, and a cast-iron iron found in a closet, an old samovar, and even a forgotten album with photographs! All this "good" can be washed, restored and sold a little! Marina rejoiced at her luck - they were the first in this house. Only this morning she saw how the last tenants loaded their things into the car and left for a new apartment. The adventurers were not embarrassed that with their appearance, the house seemed to come to life: the floorboards creaked everywhere, a strange draft swept through the rooms. They attributed all these phenomena to the dilapidation of the dwelling and the windows knocked out somewhere.
Suddenly, both spouses' powerful lights went out at once. You won't find much in complete darkness, you have to return home for new batteries. Scolding themselves for their lack of foresight, the couple moved to the exit. They were already at the exit from the room, when the floor under Rodion's feet went down sharply. With a cry, the man collapsed into the hole in the floor. He ended up in the underground. The fall was unexpected and very painful. Rostislav could not move. He realized that his leg and ribs were broken. Marina could do nothing to help her husband. I had to run for help from friends and call an ambulance. The unfortunate "antiquarian" was pulled out of the hole only when it was daybreak. The reason for his fall was a trap as old as the world: someone dismantled the floor and carefully put the flimsy boards in place without securing them.
Marina loudly outraged at the meanness of the "competitors" who, in her opinion, tracked them down with her husband, and built this trap. It did not occur to her, like the greedy spouse, that an hour before that, they calmly walked through all the rooms, including this one, and stepped on all the floorboards. There was no one else in the house except them.
Rodilon spent a long time in the hospital, and even after treatment he has to walk with an old cane. During his illness, the house was demolished. The building, in the opinion of the city authorities, had no historical value. But for some reason, a large plot of land, located in a good location, did not attract the attention of investors. Nobody wants to build a new vein here.
Happy childhood
Many destroyed and abandoned churches remained in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space. But not only temples were ravaged and abandoned. As a rule, in every village, there was also a churchyard at the church. But no one showed respect for the old cemeteries. They were ravaged and razed to the ground.
Maria has long gone out of childhood, but she remembers very well how one day her parents sent her to a pioneer camp located in one of the Russian regions. During the day, the children were under the supervision of counselors, and at night, the restless pioneers went in search of adventure in the neighborhood. They were especially attracted by the dilapidated skeleton of the church, which was located right on the campus. Why the builders of the "health resorts" chose such a strange neighborhood, Maria still cannot understand. Every night, the children got out into the building, lit a fire there, and frightened each other with pioneer stories about all kinds of evil spirits. They systematically studied the surroundings, and often found, right on the surface of the earth, remnants of the icon frames, tin crosses and twisted objects of church utensils. The children did not attach any importance to their findings. During one of these "forays" Masha discovered a granite slab not far from the old church fence. She called her friends. It turned out that this was not the only such find, some of the guys had already seen similar slabs. The pioneers decided to wait until morning to closely examine their findings. They returned to the fire and continued their gatherings. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the gap in the wall. The guys got scared. They decided that it was one of the counselors who found out about their adventures after the lights out, and now they will be punished, up to expulsion from the camp. The man hesitantly approached the fire. The teenagers exhaled calmly - this is not a counselor. The man asked permission to sit down. The pioneers did not mind, although the appearance of the guest embarrassed them a little: he was clearly not dressed in the fashion of those years. The man told the guys that in the place,where the buildings of their pioneer camp now stand, there used to be a churchyard. In the twenties, the temple was destroyed, but not completely destroyed, and the cemetery was visited for a long time by the relatives of the dead. But in the sixties, it was decided to build a summer health camp here. The graves were leveled to the ground, but the church remained standing. The children realized that the old slabs they found were the remains of gravestones. The strange man asked the guys not to touch the found stones and not disturb the souls of the deceased. The man sat with the teenagers around the fire for a while, then thanked them for their hospitality and left.but the church remained standing. The children realized that the old slabs they found were the remains of gravestones. The strange man asked the guys not to touch the found stones and not disturb the souls of the deceased. The man sat with the teenagers around the fire for a while, then thanked them for their hospitality and left.but the church remained standing. The children realized that the old slabs they found were the remains of gravestones. The strange man asked the guys not to touch the found stones and not disturb the souls of the deceased. The man sat with the teenagers around the fire for a while, then thanked them for their hospitality and left.
The next morning Masha asked the counselor to leave and went to the nearest village. The girl began to ask the local residents what kind of man had come to them "for a light" yesterday. The villagers looked at her in a strange way, and silently slammed the gate. The girl went around all the houses, and only in the last one did the gloomy old woman in a black scarf tell the inquisitive pioneer that this man had long been dead. This is the former abbot of the destroyed temple. Where he is buried, nobody knows. But most likely, he and his family found eternal refuge in the Siberian taiga, where after the revolution the priest was sent by the new government. But the father still cannot find peace, seeing how people trample the graves with their feet.
On the same day, Masha asked the head of the camp to contact her parents to take her home before the end of the shift. She could not be in this camp for a minute longer. The very thought that she was walking on the bones of dead people terrified the girl. For many years this story from a happy childhood haunted her.
As an adult, Maria specially came to those places. She was relieved to learn that the temple is gradually being restored, the territory of the cemetery is fenced, and no one is playing "candy wrappers" on broken gravestones anymore. The man in the vestments of a priest was no longer seen in these places.