Once the cultural center of Irkutsk, upon the departure of the princes, the house for a long time was an ordinary residential building. Only in 1974 was restoration carried out, it was returned to its original appearance and in 1985 it was given the status of a museum.
The restoration was difficult; the best architects and designers were involved, capable of “making everything as it was”. Piece by piece they collected things that really belonged to the legendary princes and are simply the property of the 19th century, giving an epoch-making flavor. The offices were again pasted over with wallpaper, the coachman, the stable, the barn, the veranda of the winter garden, the collections of Ryleev, Fonvizin, Pushchin were returned.
Now the number of those wishing to visit the museum and join the history is growing by leaps and bounds - over the past summer alone, more than eleven thousand guests have visited it. The touching biography of Decembrist women who left their homes, children and titles of nobility for the opportunity to be with their husbands - state criminals, continues to excite the minds and hearts, and not only Russians, but also foreigners. There are all kinds of excursions, educational lectures, musical and literary salons, where works of that time are performed.
In addition, you can watch special videos, go through a school of good manners. The feeling of "touching eternity" appears immediately upon entering the museum - on the first floor there is Prince Sergei's office, a dining room, a billiard room; on the second - women's, children's (the Volkonskys had three children), apartments - musical instruments and some other things that the Volkonskys really used.
Some things are legendary. The guests are especially interested in the historic pyramidal piano, recently restored, a mirror that, according to legend, rejuvenates the one who looks at it for 10 years, a horror book popular in the 19th century. With the help of this book, the girls confessed their love to the young men - they read to the most terrible place and fainted - right in the arms of the man.
However, what the museum workers are still talking about will be more curious than the most horrible novel. Almost all of them were faced with the fact that science is unable to explain - a poltergeist.
Secret power - invisible power
It all started with the sudden sound of footsteps in the house, as if someone was walking up the stairs, employees were leaving - no one was there. They thought it seemed, or the workers were making noise, but the house was empty.
Promotional video:
- Most often, - says Oksana, the guide, - the stairs creak in the late afternoon. I get scared, I leave the room for a while. Once I felt a light pat on the shoulder. Sometimes we hear sighs, groans.
But the most amazing thing is what happens to the bust of Pushkin on the first floor. One has only to move it at least a couple of centimeters during repairs - the next morning scratches appear, and the bust is again in the same place. Moreover, the possibility of a person's leprosy is excluded - it is so heavy that even four of them can hardly move it. And the entrance to the museum is closed at night.
The phenomenon of a poltergeist is not denied by almost anyone - there are thousands of proofs for it. In the same Irkutsk, for example, there is an apartment, whose tenants - men, die in one way or another: one got into an accident, the second suffocated from the gas, the third was killed. They began to think what was the matter, it turned out that a woman once lived in this apartment, hating all men and strangling her husband. Coincidence? Who knows. The phenomenon of very old houses has been known for a long time - in them shadows, figures or images of a person who died here are seen. Researchers of anomalous phenomena believe that in this way they are trying to remind about themselves, to warn about something.
In addition to clear figures, sometimes vague, hazy images appear. They are able to affect all senses and be perceived in the form of the so-called general persistent sensation of someone else's presence: it seems that another person is nearby. Perhaps the Volkonsky princes are taking revenge for their exile or for the fact that they did not attach much importance to the house for a long time? The closer the birthday is, the more often the other world disturbs the permanent inhabitants of the museum. Father Valentin, an Irkutsk priest, commented on the strange events as follows:
- The Church does not recognize any magic - neither black nor white. However, it is a fact that in houses that are more than a century old, incomprehensible forces can manifest themselves in verbal or even visual form. One must not panic and live in peace, trying not to defile human memory in any way - not to build houses on bones, not to dismantle houses, not to sell old things. In this case, nothing bad will happen.
It happens that a poltergeist behaves aggressively - in 1986, a young family from Kemerovo moved to a 4-room apartment. At first, they noticed small oddities - knocking on windows, clattering dishes, opening taps, clicking of switches. Then he began to boil the kettle himself, and one night the hostess woke up because she was being strangled, she opened her eyes and saw an elderly face with long white teeth. After screaming, the vision disappeared, but the poltergeist pursued the family for another two whole years.
Under Soviet rule, this was usually silent, although there were incidents. In November 1982, it became unbearable to live in the apartment of the Kommunarka collective farm near Moscow - the chandeliers swayed without outside interference and the plafonds banged against the ceiling, mirrors banged, doors swung open by themselves, the refrigerator moved from place to place and bangs on the wall were heard. The rumor about miracles reached Moscow, but the press explained everything in the spirit of the times, stating that this was the work of the naughty "Carlsons". Only five years later they began to "openly" report unusual incidents, even a video was made of the flights of things, so there was no point in closing our eyes further.
And in the Volkonskys museum, as before, someone walks and sighs …