Ghosts walk along the Yaroslavl Highway, rest in the Khibinsky Park and molest girls on Malaya Nikitskaya, and a black cat walks through the walls of houses in the center of the capital.
According to popular beliefs, it is believed that on December 24, on Witch's Day, you need to burn an icon lamp in the house all night - in order to disperse evil spirits. On the eve of Witch's Day, the Vecherka correspondent went with the psychic Mina to look for places where dark energy was concentrated in the city.
Ghost limousine
Mina clenches and unclenches her fist several times - her right hand is “working”. This is a kind of eye that helps to see in the other world. Mina takes a breath and holds her hand over the bluish-gray wall of the building on Malaya Nikitskaya, 28.
“It's cold,” she says through clenched teeth.
In fact, Mina's name is Wilhelmina, and that is how she asked to be recorded in the passport office 10 years ago, when she began working as a psychic. Refuses to be photographed and, it seems, sincerely believes that a curse can be imposed on a person from a photograph. And Mina came to Malaya Nikitskaya to visit the ghost of Lavrenty Beria - he is found here.
- Yes, Lavrenty Pavlovich was seen here more than once, - the psychic continues. - He arrives directly in the limousine. Where from? Who knows, he himself does not admit it.
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Beria usually visits just such damp December thaws.
He drives up to the house, the door slam is heard and, if the night is especially quiet, even a whisper - this is the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs with his guard talking.
“Sometimes they harass lonely passers-by, especially if they are lonely girls,” says Mina and warns, fixing a burning gaze at me: “If they suddenly offer to ride in a limousine, refuse right away. By the way, he was shot just on December 23 - on that day he is obligatory here.
I also pass my hand over the wall of the building. I don't feel cold - a wall is like a wall.
Fluffy tail, four legs
Mina brings me to Tverskaya to meet a black cat. This is not a simple street cat, but a ghostly one. True, you can see it only if you prepare. Mina stops at house No. 19. In the courtyard of this building, residents most often observe a huge black cat, which, without hesitation, goes through the walls and jumps out of the drain pipes.
- We have known this cat for a long time, - says Mina. - He jumped out of the wall right at me on Monday morning in August 2012 and was hungry and scared. He said that the ghost of the dog of Count Felix Yusupov began to visit its territory. The bulldog strove to step on the tail. Now on Mondays I go to the courtyard of this house, bring the fish "memories" from the markets to the cat - I will look at different fish products, remember them and transmit them through the power of thought to the ghost.
In addition to melt water from the roof through the pipes of the building, this time no one went down. But Mina and I are not giving up.
The writer's office in the House-Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky. The keepers say that quiet footsteps are sometimes heard here. Not otherwise, a ghost … Photo of the early 2000s / Alexander Grashchenkov / RIA Novosti.
White lady
On Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, 43, at the residence of the French ambassador, Mina slows down. This house was once owned by the owner of the Yaroslavl Big Manufactory Nikolai Vasilyevich Igumnov. I built it for myself and my beloved. However, the beauty's heart, as you know, is prone to treason, and Nikolai Vasilyevich was distinguished by a violent disposition. The jealous man, they say, immured the girl in the walls of the same house in 1895.
“Sometimes she looks out of the windows,” Mina points to the second floor. - So thin, disheveled.
She doesn't want to talk.
Mina read the Tarot cards for the girl, tried to free her from the suffering she had experienced and release her from captivity. But - nothing happened. The spirit of the girl does not answer the questions of the psychic.
“This means that until they find her in the house, she will not calm down,” Mina explains.
True, there is another option that the psychic for some reason does not take into account - maybe there was no girl at all.
Take care of your heads
At the sculpture "Pilgrims Walking to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra" in the Khibiny park, Mina freezes. From here, she believes, Prince Ivan Khovansky and his son Andrei set off on their way to the monastery.
“The stewards seized them in Pushkin, where they spent the night on the way, and on September 17, 1682, they were brought to Vozdvizhenskoye as prisoners,” Mina says. - And on the same day they executed - beheaded. They won't calm down since then.
Everyone walks, walks, they are looking for Princess Sophia. They think they will find it and so will be saved from their fate. All would be fine, they go to themselves, and okay - only people are scared.
Their humor is strange.
According to Mina's words, the joke is "very funny." The unfortunate ones get up at the Yaroslavl highway and begin to greet the passing drivers. They bow and take off their heads.
In general, not a good place.
DIRECT SPEECH
Philip Smirnov, Moscow expert:
- I am not inclined to mysticism and I believe that I live in an urban space where there are no ghosts. On the other hand, I understand that some tour guides use stories like decoys to attract tourists. But they have little to do with reality. Of course, if I happen to talk about ghosts, then I always say: "There is a belief or legend that …" For me, this is important.
Olga Makhovskaya, PhD in Psychology, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
- We live in Russia, not in an old English castle. The ghosts here are cold, uncomfortable, too large open spaces. They are blown away by the wind or covered with snow. Joke. But seriously, perfectly healthy mentally people can see ghosts, of course. It's just that they are overworked, and the brain plays with the consciousness such a strange joke. However, strong alcoholic intoxication can also lead to such visions. This is a well-known fact.
Agrippina Elistratova