Smolensk is one of the most ancient Russian cities. During its thousand-year history, the Smolensk land has accumulated many secrets and mysteries. Today we will tell about some of them.
Treasures of the Patriotic Wars
According to one of the legends, in November 1812, a wagon train loaded with valuables that Napoleon's soldiers plundered on the territory of Russia disappeared without a trace in these parts. There were gold bars, expensive weapons, icons and other church utensils. According to one version, the French were surrounded by Russian soldiers on the way, and they drowned the train in the lake, which is now located in the Vyazemsky district. Indeed, the content of gold and silver in the lake water significantly exceeds the norm. But, despite repeated searches, no treasures have yet been found there.
There are still rumors about a golden carriage that belonged either to Napoleon himself, or to Marshal Ney. They say that she drowned either in the Dnieper or in Lake Sapsho. Searches in these places were also unsuccessful.
In 1941, when the Germans approached Smolensk, the management of the Smolensk Bank decided to evacuate all valuables. However, out of eight trucks, only five made it to their destination. Where the other three went, and, most importantly, where the cargo went is unknown to this day.
Goblin from Korobovo
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In 1909, a 10-year-old resident of the village of Korobovo Yegor Yakovlev, together with his father, went into the forest at night … to steal firewood. The peasants decided to secretly take a few blocks from the bundles prepared for the landlord's estate.
When the father and son had already completed their thieves' business and were about to return home under cover of night, they suddenly heard steps and saw a strange creature approaching them - it was two meters tall, naked, overgrown with hair and with a terrible face. Yegor's father mistook the creature for an evil spirit and tried to cross it, but the monster did not disappear anywhere. When little Yegorka grabbed the ax hanging on his belt, the monster, instead of being frightened, took a step forward. Then the elder Yakovlev decided to settle the matter peacefully, took out a cigarette-roll with tobacco and turned to the stranger with these words: "If you are a kind person, then come up to us for a smoke, and if a logger, then leave as soon as possible." He did not take the hand-rolled cigarette, muttered something indistinctly under his breath and set off on his way.
Many years later. Yegor grew up, got married and suddenly found out that his young wife in girls also had a chance to run into a "woodman". Going into the forest to pick mushrooms, she saw in the bushes lying on a bed of dry grass a baby, for some reason very ugly and hairy. The girl decided that this was an ordinary human baby, took him in her arms and began to lull him to sleep. However, here the mother of the "child" apparently appeared from the bushes. She looked about the same as the creature that Yegor Yakovlev met in childhood. Lesovichka did not attack the girl, she simply took her cub from her and disappeared into the thicket. The peasant woman was so scared that she threw the basket of mushrooms and ran home as fast as she could.
Tower girl
One of the towers of the Smolensk fortress is called Veselukha. However, not the most funny story is connected with it. As the legend says, the construction of the tower proceeded “with a creak,” the foundation was constantly cracking. As usual in those days, the builders consulted a local sorceress. She gave an eerie advice - to make a bloody sacrifice, to immure the first person who walks past the construction site alive in the foundation. And so they did. The first to walk past was a young girl heading for water. They seized her and did to her as the old witch advised. It worked: the tower remained standing for centuries. And in honor of the lively and cheerful girl, the tower was christened Veselukha. It is believed that ghosts are found there.
Devilry in the House of the Commune
The House of the Commune on Konenkov Street became the first high-rise building built in Smolensk in the 30s. But now it is abandoned and dilapidated. And the ill fame surrounding him is probably to blame for this.
They say that once there was a cemetery on the site of a high-rise, and a witch supposedly lived next to it, to whom the local population often turned for help. Once a woman came to her with a child ill. The witch doctor took up the treatment, but it did not help and the baby died. And then the grief-stricken mother of the child cursed both the healer herself and the place where she lived. A year later, the woman had another child, but, according to rumors, it was not a human baby, but an imp. Mother was afraid to show it to people, but hid it right there in the cemetery.
After a new high-rise building was built here in Soviet times, for some reason it began to rapidly collapse, and among its tenants, murders and suicides took place every now and then. In 1970, a fire broke out, after which the building was never restored. The fact that the place is "not good" is evidenced by the fact that a cross bent on the dome of the nearby Cathedral Church of the Ascension Monastery, built in the times of Peter the Great.
Some are even afraid to walk past the former House of the Commune. They say that a monster lives there, which every few years, usually in foggy autumn weather, goes hunting and attacks people … Several times corpses were found in the vicinity of the house. Apparently, some large animal killed the people. Some say they saw it from afar and it looks like a great black lynx.
Of course, the terrible and fantastic legends should be treated with a fair amount of skepticism. Do not forget that this is just local folklore.
Irina Shlionskaya