In the middle of the 19th century, the village of Mokeevka appeared in the forests of the Shilovsky district between lakes Kuzhikha and Chudino. It was not celebrated in anything special, unless the people lived in it, savvy and hardworking, because the village was prosperous. The villagers did not even think that in the coming century they would become the heroes of legends passed in a whisper from mouth to mouth.
Mokeevka disappeared after the October Revolution. Completely - along with the population, houses, livestock. And it would be okay to simply disappear. In those dashing times, not this happened. The oddity was that from time to time the village was seen.
Lake Kuzhikha / Photo: dom24a
Residents of neighboring Nadezhdino will go fishing - there is Mokeevka, women will go to the swamp for cranberries - there is Mokeevka. And a surplus-appropriation detachment appeared - there was no village. How the cow licked her tongue. In the place where it should be, an impassable thicket.
Somehow they sent a detachment of ChON (a special-purpose unit designed to fight the enemies of the Soviet regime) in a hundred sabers to deal with this ideologically harmful village. The Red Guards, in accordance with all the rules of military science, surrounded the location of the enemy. They sent intelligence. They wait half an hour, an hour - there are no sentinels. The commander with a dozen men went on a sortie and also disappeared.
Lake Chudino / Photo: Shadow_Stalker
When the main detachment approached, the Chonovites saw an absolutely incredible picture. There is a village where it is supposed to be. Linen is being dried in the courtyards, samovars are still warm in the huts. But there is not a single living being - no man, no cattle, no cat, no dog. Only the scouts with the commander roam the courtyards in complete disarray. The authorities have also made several attempts to clarify the situation. And all with the same success. Then they spat and announced that there was no Mokeevka in sight. And everything that is said about the ghost village is an ideological sabotage and undermining of the authority of Soviet power by the kulaks and podkulaks.
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Sergei Ivanovich Nikanov, one of the few who saw the legendary Mokeevka with his own eyes, said:
As far back as 200 years ago, the Shilovsky Territory attracted close attention of scientists as a possible location of the semi-mythical Artania - the city-state of the ancient Russians. Here is a quote from the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
The main oddity is that not a single source left a description of the ancient city, its streets, buildings, household utensils. In general, no specific data. The conclusion suggests itself: either strangers were not admitted to Artania (one of the translations is “a country locked up”), or all this is a myth and legend that have no factual confirmation. According to some modern ethnographers, Artania was carefully protected from prying eyes, while doing it so skillfully that the thought of attracting some esoteric forces suggests itself.
Artania on the map of Idrisi (in the extreme left circle). Black and Azov Seas from above / Idrisi - Charta Rogeriana Click on the picture to enlarge
What was kept in ancient Artania? There is a version that it was here that the most revered relics of the ancient Orthodox world were preserved: the first consecrated icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the legendary sword of Ares and even the Holy Grail.
Here is what the famous historian and ethnographer Vladimir Gribov told about his search for a ghost town:
Maybe somewhere here there was an entrance to the "secret city" forever hidden from the prying eye?
The old-timers of those places tell the story of the ataman Antonov, whose vanguard troops, during the suppression of the peasant rebellion, fiercely broke through from the Tambov region to the Pitelin region. With the battles, sweeping away the cordons of the Red Army, they still managed to break through. But the Reds nevertheless surrounded the Antonovites in the area of the Pitelin forests. The most desperate made their way to the ravines and sank into the water.
Used materials from the article "Interesting newspaper"