"If reason or life is dear to you, stay away from peat bogs!" - warned one of the characters in "The Dog of the Baskervilles" Arthur Conan Doyle. And although the sinister dog is just a literary fiction, there is a lot of truth in these words. For swamps have always been considered a disastrous place under the jurisdiction of otherworldly forces!
Strange hut
One autumn, a certain engineer came to hunt in the village of Volozhba in the Tikhvin district of the Leningrad region, where his acquaintance lived. Having gone to the forest in the morning, he did not notice how lost his way, although this was not the first time he came here to hunt. All day the engineer wandered through the forest and only towards evening came out to an abandoned hut on the edge of a swamp.
The delighted engineer went up to the porch and pushed open the door. It opened with a creak. In the middle of the room were empty cans, and an armful of half-rotted wood near the bed. It can be seen that hunters like him once spent the night here. Seeing that it was getting dark quickly outside the window, the engineer began to settle down for the night. Mist was creeping from the swamp.
Guest from the other world
At night, the man was awakened by shuffling steps in the upper room. He raised his head and peered into the darkness - there was clearly someone in the hut. Striking a lighter, the engineer saw an old woman a few meters from the couch and cried out in surprise. The strange guest turned around slowly and, spreading her arms, moved towards the couch. The engineer smelled decomposition. The dancing light of a lighter snatched a dead face out of the darkness with holes instead of eyes and mouth. Terrified, the man jumped off the couch, in one fell swoop tore off the hook that locked the door, jumped out and ran. He ran without understanding the road, jumping over bog bumps. Miraculously, the engineer survived and did not fall into the quagmire. Only at dawn did he get out onto solid ground and, looking around, saw familiar places.
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Book on black magic
Subsequently, the unlucky hunter was told that the hut near the swamp had long been notorious. Before the war, Korenikha's grandmother lived there, who was known as a witch. It was said that she kept some old book on black magic in the house. During the war, the Germans fired at the swamp, thinking that partisans had settled there, Korenikha was touched by a shell fragment, she fell into the swamp and drowned. Since the old woman was unable to transfer her witchcraft to anyone, her soul was doomed to eternal wanderings.
Later, the engineer turned to the famous Leningrad paranormal researcher Andron Fridman for advice. He discovered information that a rare handwritten edition on magic of the 13th century was hidden on the farm - something similar to the European Necronomicon! The book contained spells capable of returning the dead from the afterlife. Friedman announced his intention to go in search of the Satanic manuscript. Whether he succeeded in this dangerous undertaking or not, we do not know.
Lost mushroom pickers
Since 1993, several dozen mushroom pickers have disappeared in the area of the Vienna Upland in the Tikhvin bogs (north of St. Petersburg). 16 of them were later found dead in the forest.
Such disappearances usually occur from April to October. There are no traces of violent death on the bodies found. On the other hand, there are signs that the victims lost their minds before death: they were all completely undressed, their clothes were lying in baskets or lying on the ground, and the mouths of some were smeared with mud. It turns out that something made the unfortunate people take off their clothes and eat dirt?
Local old-timers blame the evil spirits for everything, which cloudes the mind of lonely travelers and does not allow them to get out of the swamp. But there are other versions as well.
Insidious rosemary
Sergei Nikitin, chief specialist of the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medicine, believes that the reason for the strange behavior of mushroom pickers could be the ingestion of unknown toxins that cause intense fever and clouding of consciousness. From the unbearable heat, people began to tear off their clothes, they were tormented by such a thirst that, unable to find water nearby, they tried to suck on the wet mud. The seasonal nature of the deaths, according to the scientist, indicates that we are talking about animal or plant poisoning. True, when examining the corpses, no toxins were found, but the bodies were not found immediately, the poison could decompose during this time. According to Nikitin, some plant, such as a mushroom, could become the source of the poison. Could ruin the unfortunate and the snake bite.
Sergei Trifonovich, a senior researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Pharmacology, Doctor of Biological Sciences, sins on marsh rosemary, which secretes essential oils that have intoxicating properties. But this plant is found in Siberia, and in Transbaikalia, and in other places, but such tragic cases do not occur there. As for the mushrooms, all the dead, as a rule, residents of nearby villages, perfectly distinguished poisonous mushrooms from edible ones. In addition, it is difficult to assume that they ate raw mushrooms right in the forest.
Tikhvin swamps monster
Some of the experts are inclined to believe that … snakes are to blame. However, in the north of the Leningrad region, only one poisonous snake lives - the forest viper, and its bite does not cause such an effect. The rest - snakes and coppers - are harmless.
This is where the fun begins! It turns out that in those places there is a belief about flying snakes. According to local historian Alla Titova, old-timers often met a strange creature in the swamps, which they called a flying kite.
Cryptozoologists from the Labyrinth Research Society were looking for this snake. After interviewing the residents of the Tikhvin district, they made an approximate appearance of the monster. So, one of the researchers of the "Labyrinth" member of the Russian Geographical Society, Ilya Agapov, says that, according to old-timers, these monsters have a growth on their heads that looks like a cock's comb. They can climb trees and are capable of soaring into the sky to a height of several tens of meters.
In the collection of L. S. Vasilyeva "Tikhvin Bylichki" even gives advice on how to behave when faced with such a snake: "If it rushes, tear off something from your clothes and throw it to her. While she is busy with the rag, you run further. When the flying reptile realizes the mistake and begins to chase you again, throw another thing. Sometimes, people from the forest came running naked, tore everything off themselves! " Maybe all the people who died followed this recommendation? Apparently, it didn't help.
Is it a mental disorder?
In 1942, the flying reptile allegedly managed to catch the soldiers of the army of General Vlasov, who had not yet become a traitor to the Motherland. They put him in a wooden barrel in order to show him later to some knowledgeable person. However, during the battles, the snake was simply forgotten. He probably died without food or water. A record of this event has been preserved in the archives.
After World War II, meetings with flying monsters almost stopped. This may be due to the fact that local forests began to be treated with herbicides. Then even the frogs disappeared in the forest. Only with the beginning of perestroika was the forest left alone. So the snakes appeared again.
Is this true or a fairy tale?
There is another reasonable explanation - the Vepsian forests and Tikhvin bogs are an anomalous zone, the energy of which in a certain way affects the human psyche. In this state, any monster can imagine! There are cases when, during a long stay in the anomalous zone, people fell ill and even died.
Yuri Suprunenko, Irina Shlionskaya. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 18 2010