The Emperor died in the prime of life on February 8, 1725, the Tsar, who had good health, was only 52 years old! The Tsar, who possessed good health, was only 52 years old!
Among the high-profile cases of an attempt on the foundations of the Russian state and the life of the emperor, the Secret Chancellery of Peter the Great (political investigation, forerunner of the Cheka, NKVD, KGB) was actively involved in mysticism and other devilry.
THE SECRET WORD
In 1719, in the Riga province, a farmer Anna Lange discovered strange letters on a beer vat that stood in the entrance. Written in either black paint or ink.
Strange letters written on a beer vat
The woman, out of harm's way, wiped them off with a wet rag. Having previously rewritten on paper. The recording showed her husband Andris, who had returned from a long trip. They began to wonder who could have left the inscription. The canopy is closed at night, and no one seems to have come in during the last days. And most importantly, is this word for good or for worse? They didn't decide. On that the spouses and calm down. But no, curious Anna sent her husband with the paper to the learned German neighbors. For a long time the men puzzled over beer, but the secret was never solved.
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Rumors of a mysterious word spread throughout the area. Say, it appeared for a reason, evil spirits are playing pranks, terrible events are ahead.
Soon the royal courier flew to the farm, arrested the spouses and took them to St. Petersburg by the highest order.
Tsar Peter himself became interested in the Lange case. The spouses did not understand Russian, so they had to call a special translator from the Chamber Collegium.
Interrogations began on March 14, 1720. The prime suspect was Anna, who was the first to discover the mysterious word that caused confusion in Livonia. The head of the Secret Chancellery, Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, believed that the woman had invented the code. The German woman was raised on a rack, flogged with a whip, but Anna stood her ground: “Who wrote them, in what force - I really don't know. I did not write them myself … On September 22, 1720, Anna Lange died in the casemate. Three weeks later, her husband Andris gave his soul to God …
The mystery of the appearance of the word and its meaning remained unsolved. Maybe the readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda will reveal it?
HEAVENLY SIGN
This story did not end so tragically.
On January 27, 1720, at the Spassky Novgorod-Seversky Monastery (now the Chernigov region of Ukraine), Hieromonk Porfiry ran into the bakery at dawn. "Brethren! The Lord has just granted me to see a vision in heaven! Come on, I'll show it to you. " The monks hurried to the courtyard. But the sky was already covered with clouds. Excited Porfiry began to describe in detail how for a quarter of an hour (four minutes - Ed.) He examined a comet in the west. As an icon painter, for clarity, he immediately drew everything in detail with chalk on the wall of his cell.
Drawing by Hieromonk Porfiry
The abbot of the monastery, Father Macarius, ordered to transfer the drawing in ink to paper. Many monks began to make copies for themselves. And … sell. With the inscription "This comet, it will be said, was visible over the Novgorod Monastery, the fate of this 1720, Januarius on the 27th day, at night, in the hour or at 6 o'clock, and, they will tell, the Novgorod archimandrite himself and the brethren saw it." The picture was a great commercial success. Among the people, heavenly signs have always been considered a harbinger of war, pestilence, crop failure, invasion of foreigners and other troubles. Residents gave their last pennies, trying to figure out what grief awaited this time.
Rumors of a comet reached the authorities.
In Ukraine, Peter's colleague Alexander Menshikov was visiting the hetman at that time. On April 3-4, 1720, the splendid prince personally supervised the interrogation of Porfiry and other monks. The simple-minded Porfiry told the prince in detail what he had seen that morning and even drew a picture for him. The rest insisted that they had not personally seen the comet.
Menshikov sent a report to the tsar about sedition, attaching a drawing. According to the Tsar's decree, Porfiry was taken to Petersburg, to the Secret Chancellery. Find out why he started the lie about the heavenly vision. Maybe someone taught me? They immediately deprived him of the monastic rank, turning him into Potap Matveyev so that he could be tortured. But during the interrogations, he stubbornly stood on that - he really saw everything as he depicted on the cell wall and in front of the brightest Menshikov on paper.
“I didn’t make any more drawings, I didn’t talk about the vision with anyone in my reasoning, and I didn’t discuss with my opinion in any way what I was affirming under the death penalty”.
Even on the rack he repeated: "I have always seen the comet on the western side …"
On March 14, 1721, the chief of the Secret Chancellery, Pyotr Tolstoy, decreed: “Hieromonk Porfiry, that Potap is now being cut off, because he falsely showed that he saw a vision in the sky, which he did in the drawing, from which in Little Russia many such from his trickery multiplied, and his false trickery should not be trusted at all, and for that - to exile him to the Solovetsky monastery and keep there until his death, by no means letting him out."
TO BE EMPTY TO PETERSBURG
The next mystical story began in the capital on the evening of December 8, 1722, when the soldier Danilov stood guard at the cathedral church in the name of the life-giving Trinity on the St. Petersburg side.
At first everything was calm. But as soon as the clock dulled midnight, someone began to run up the wooden stairs in the bell tower. The steps trembled under heavy steps, someone invisible threw various things from place to place … “The great knocking with cruel fear, a semblance of running,” then fell silent, then began again. This went on for about an hour … To the honor of the frightened sentry, he did not leave his post. When the psalm-reader Dmitry Matveyev appeared at dawn to preach the evangelism, the soldier hurried to tell him about the tricks of evil spirits.
The psalmist looked around the bell tower. The stepladder, which was usually climbed to the top bells for inspection, was torn off and thrown to the ground. The "loose" rope has been moved from one place to another. The rope, lowered for evangelism into the church from the lower end at the meal, is wrapped four times on the butt.
The psalmist immediately told the whole cathedral clergy about what had happened. "Kikimora!" - exclaimed priest Gerasim Titov. "Perhaps that really kikimora," - agreed Archpriest Simeonov.
"Pieterburgh, Pieterburgh empty!" - Deacon Fedosyev pronounced the verdict.
The rumor that the kikimora had turned up badly at the Trinity bell tower, that Piterburch would run empty, ran through the squares and outskirts of the capital. The chatter of the priests aroused "obscene talk" among the people.
Ivan Bilibin. Kikimora. 1934 year
Photo: ru.wikipedia.orgtrue_kpru
The authorities hastened to silence the talkers. The cathedral psalmist, the soldier on guard, the priest, the deacon, and the archpriest were interrogated separately. Everyone was talking about the kikimora. But the investigation was more interested in whether the words about the desolation of malicious intent against the sovereign and his favorite brainchild - Petersburg. The case took on a political connotation. And although all the interrogated unanimously denied intent on Peter the Great, the psalmist Matveyev was arrested. And Fedosyev had to be released before the final decision of the case under the surety of several churchmen. As the days of the “noble lord's feasts of the Nativity of Christ” were approaching, and at the Trinity Cathedral only one deacon was found. Send Fedosyev to the Peter and Paul Fortress, there would be no one to serve on the great holiday.
At the very time when the kikimora was naughty on the Trinity bell tower, on the Vyborg side, a stormy party was going on in the pub of the Swede Vilkin.
The drunken owner let his tongue go. He began to chatter, they say, he knows how long someone has left to live. Of course, they did not believe him. The Swede, getting excited, announced that the Imperial Majesty had no more than three years to live.
Hearing such "indecent" words about the sovereign, the guests sobered up at once quickly dispersed to their homes. And the singing Ruban hastened to … the Secret Chancellery. A detachment of soldiers was immediately dispatched to arrest the Swedish witch.
“About twenty years ago, in Riga, I learned such a science to recognize, through human signs, how long someone will live and how many children will someone have, and about other things to fortune telling,” Vilkin twisted during interrogation. "And I said, according to those human characteristics, that the sovereign will no longer have his life, like ten years."
To lighten his punishment, the cunning Swede threw lives on Emperor Peter Alekseevich an extra seven years. I had to conduct a confrontation with the guests: how much did the soothsayer give for his imperial majesty's living: ten years or only three years? The Swede got used to it.
The high-profile case was reported to Peter the Great, who returned from Moscow to the capital. As well as about the kikimora in the bell tower.
A whole commission, by decree of His Imperial Majesty, goes to the house of the Swede, searches through all the goods, seals cabinets, boxes, barns, cellars and pantries with herring and drinks. All papers are carefully examined to find something insidious and criminal "in an important state matter." Since most of the owner's correspondence was conducted in German, the Secret Chancellery ordered a special translator from the Synod to disassemble it.
For several months, the witch-Swede languished in the casemate. After the Nativity of the Trinity deacon Fedosyev, who spoke about the kikimor, he was excommunicated from the priesthood and also escorted to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Only in the fourth month - April 12, 1723 - the cases of these intruders were considered by the sovereign. The autocrat's verdict was harsh, but just!
“Foreigner Peter Vilkin for what, with other words, he spoke about his imperial majesty: he would not survive for more than three years, and for those obscene words, punish him: beat the batogs mercilessly and let him go with a note: bit mercilessly and released by the most merciful decree.
And the deacon of the Trinity Cathedral Fedosyev, for the obscene words: "empty St. Petersburg" to send for three years in hard labor, so that, in the future, it would be discouraging to speak such obscene words to others."
These stories, at first glance fantastic, were described in detail back in 1884 by the well-known Russian historian, publisher of the magazine "Russian Starina" Mikhail Semevsky in the documentary book "Word and Deed!" Based on declassified materials from the Secret Chancellery under Peter the Great. The case of the comet - №13, the Swede - №15, "Kikimora" - №16, mysterious letters - №48.
Whether the kikimora continued to fiddle around in the bell tower is not clear from the real case, Semevsky concludes his story. But the great emperor did die in the third year after that. February 8, 1725 Almost exactly as the witch-Swede predicted. The Tsar, who possessed good health, was only 52 years old! And it became empty in Petersburg after the death of the founder of the city.
FROM THE DOSSIER
Kikimora is a domestic unkind spirit. A mythological character who lives in a person's dwelling and other buildings. It brings harm and trouble to people and the economy. Usually invisible to humans. During the day he hides in secluded corners, and at night he arranges all sorts of pranks. Knocks, scatters various objects, breaks, sets things on fire. Can speak with a human voice. According to popular beliefs, kikimors are the souls of those who have died "by the wrong death" (unbaptized or murdered children, suicides, etc.). According to modern ufologists, it is a poltergeist phenomenon. In the people - "barashka".
The case of the mysterious word, because of which the Lange spouses perished in the dungeons, can also be hanged on the "little bit". And the "heavenly sign" that the monk got into Solovki can be attributed to the tricks of a UFO. At different times, they appear in guises corresponding to the historical era. The Swedish-witch today would be called a psychic.
According to the project "Fairytale Map of Russia", the city of Kirov (Vyatka), where Kikimorskaya Gora is located, was declared the birthplace of Kikimora in 2011.
Evgeny CHERNIKH