Scary area. Ancient sorcerers, from whom there is only misfortune, there at every step, people from the upper floors rush to the roadway, markets collapse, traces of coffins appear on the ceilings, murder in discos, constant accidents in the tunnels and still full of troubles. And all from the fact that there used to be a cemetery and a place where the not very good goddess Mara was worshiped. All these horrors are confirmed by the psychic Gennady, the witch Zoya and other authorities.
The Maryina Roshcha area cannot boast of an abundance of architectural monuments or natural beauty. Its originality lies in something else: a unique history and that unusual reputation that accompanied these places for most of the twentieth century.
Until the second half of the 19th century, it really was a grove, or rather, a forest that occupied a vast space between the Kamer-Kollezhsky Val and the village of Ostankino. In those days it was considered a traditional place of folk festivities.
This custom was born thanks to the Lazarevsky cemetery located here. On its territory from time immemorial, there was a "poor house", or rather - a morgue for unidentified corpses. During the year, unidentified bodies of the dead were brought here from all over Moscow. All winter they lay in special cellars on the ice. They were buried in the summer, on the seventh week after Easter, on a holiday called Semik.
Gradually, a tradition arose: representatives of the lower classes came that day to the Lazarevskoye cemetery to commemorate their missing relatives and friends, rightly believing that they could rest here. Over the years, the mournful nature of this event was forgotten, and it turned into a noisy promenade that moved to the neighboring Maryina grove.
The 19th century Russian writer MN Zagoskin wrote about this in his essays on Moscow life: “What an amazing passion do our people have to have fun in cemeteries? Is this not a remnant of pagan customs? Perhaps, in the old days, the Russian people loved, just as they do now, to gather on certain days to feast on the coffins of their ancestors and passed on this custom to their descendants …"
Over the years, such festivities began to take place not only in Semik, but also on other weekends and holidays. It was a storm of fun with songs, round dances and gypsies. The atmosphere of dashing revelry was to a large extent fueled by numerous taverns located near Kamer-Kollezhsky Val and Butyrskaya Zastava. In addition to the lower classes, representatives of the secular society often came here in search of thrills. So, history has kept the date - May 19, 1828. On this day, Alexander Pushkin visited Maryina Roshcha.
In 1851, the paths of the Nikolaev railway were laid through Maryina Roshcha. And some time later - Vindavskaya (now - Riga). The beauty of these places has noticeably faded. In the 1880s, the remains of Maryina Roshcha were divided into plots and sold for construction.
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The area was not considered particularly prestigious. Land was cheap here. Therefore, the first inhabitants of Maryina Roshcha were small traders, workers of the surrounding factories and numerous artisans - tailors, shoemakers, engravers, foundry workers. The appearance of Maryina Roshcha was rapidly changing. In place of the forest open spaces, wooden one-story houses, fences, front gardens appeared, which alternated with handicraft workshops and small factories.
Not all local craftsmen preferred legal types of business. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, Maryina Roshcha gained fame as a place where you can easily buy forged documents or counterfeit banknotes, and sell stolen goods. In the labyrinths of narrow streets near the houses of respectable citizens, real thieves' dens have appeared.
It is this image of Maryina Roshcha that the Weiner brothers immortalized in their novel "The Era of Mercy". Even more than the novel, its television version is known - "The meeting place cannot be changed." Most of the key events of this work take place in Maryina Roshcha and its immediate vicinity. Gleb Zheglov's comrades-in-arms set up their unsuccessful ambush at Verka the milliner, who lives in the 7th passage of Maryina Roshcha. The bandits from the "Black Cat" hide the stolen goods in the backyard of the goods yard of the Riga railway station. And finally, the gang itself is arrested in the basement of a grocery store on Trifonovskaya Street.
However, the real life of Maryina Roshcha was not so dramatic. There was no particular rampant crime here. Local bandits preferred to go fishing in other districts of Moscow, and visiting "guest performers", for obvious reasons, bypassed these places. In the Maryina Roshcha of the 1930s-1950s, the life of an ordinary Moscow suburb was flowing. Pioneers and retirees walked in the Children's Park, arranged in 1934 on the site of the same Lazarevsky cemetery. Local youth gathered here in the evenings. Fashionable tangos and foxtrots sounded on the dance floor, which was popularly called "underwire".
On the Sheremetyevskaya street, lined with linden trees, there has been a cinema "October" since time immemorial. Later, in the early 60s, he "gave" his name to the famous cinema and concert complex on Novy Arbat, and he himself was renamed "Horn". True, it did not last long under the “pioneer” name. Due to the emergency state of structures, it was closed. But the buffet, converted into a beer bar, continued to work. Only in the late 60s did this beloved building completely collapse. Now the only reminder of him is a small "patch of wood" overgrown with trees at the corner of Sheremetyevskaya Street and 3rd Passage of Maryina Roshcha.
Next to the cinema there was a once popular institution - a wood-burning warehouse. Even in the post-war years, houses in Maryina Roshcha were heated mainly by stoves, and wood sheds were an integral part of every yard. However, these sheds were used not only for their intended purpose. With the onset of spring, many "Roshchinites" preferred to spend the night there. For many, this was the only opportunity to take a break from the horrors of communal life. Indeed, in those years, 5-7 people, representing different generations of the same family, could often live in one room.
Spring in Maryina Roshcha was a fantastic time. Apple trees, cherries and pears were blossoming in the courtyards. The outskirts of the capital instantly turned into a fragrant pink and white garden. The remains of these fruit trees could be found in the wastelands along Sheremetyevskaya Street until the end of the 90s. Until they were finally destroyed, for the sake of some gigantic, but never completed construction projects.
In the late 50s - early 60s, one-story houses began to be slowly demolished. First five-story buildings appeared in their place, and then more modern houses. Nevertheless, separate islands of one-story buildings existed until the 1980 Olympics, when they finally decided to give the area a civilized look. At about the same time, the Maryinsky baths were demolished, known for the fact that water for them was taken not from the Moscow water supply system, but from their own artesian well. The local water was famous for its softness, thanks to which the hair of local beauties has always been distinguished by extraordinary splendor.
There are few monuments of the past era in Maryina Roshcha. With some reservations, they include the building of the Maryinsky department store - a typical example of Soviet architecture of the 30s. And, of course, a small church at the very end of Sheremetyevskaya Street. The temple with the touching name "Unexpected Joy" was built at the expense of local residents back in 1904. He safely survived all shocks, wars and revolutions and today remains practically the only reminder of the former Maryina Roshcha - a legendary area that disappeared without a trace in the rapid flow of time.
Andrey Kleshnev