When unusual luminous objects began to appear in the sky over the city of Barnaul this autumn, many old-timers remembered the events of thirty years ago, which caused a lot of noise and gave rise to many speculations, gossip and legends
Swamp evil
Then, in the mid-seventies of the XX century, a campaign began to distribute the land surrounding the regional center for gardening partnerships. Gardening “Vostok” was organized not far from the regional center Povalikha, which was thirty kilometers from the city. Happy with the land allotment, the townspeople began to actively equip the plots, erect cherished houses and bathhouses on them. However, soon from communication with local residents, gardeners learned many interesting facts about the place where they settled.
Gardening "Vostok" is spread over several hundred hectares of land along the quiet and muddy river Talaya. Beyond the river, a large area was occupied by swampy places, in which hunters sometimes hunted ducks, and beyond the swamps the forest was dark. It was about these swampy places that the locals spoke. They argued that all kinds of evil spirits are found in these swamps, glowing balls fly out of the swamps, from which one can go blind, and over the swamp itself there are now and then "plates" circling, appearing from somewhere behind the forest.
At first, gardeners did not believe in these stories. The entire first summer cottage season did not give them anything unusual. Decreasing to winter apartments, summer residents only remembered with a smile about the incredible stories, having humorously christened their gardening "anomalous zone".
A strange fog in the center of the swamp
The following year turned out to be extremely rainy. The shallow rivulet seethed and overflowed. Above the swamp that had come close to the forest, almost every day, a
thick milky fog hung in which a myriad of mosquitoes swarmed. In an early June morning, the owner of one of the extreme areas of gardening, Maria Pavlovna Sablina, went out into the garden and, looking towards the swamp, was stunned: behind the river in front of the forest a bright purple fog swirled in the center of the swamp. It seemed as if the colored lights invisible to the eye were illuminating a misty suspension from somewhere below.
The woman called her neighbors and soon a decent crowd of summer residents, led by the chairman, gathered on the outskirts of the gardening partnership, who watched the strange natural phenomenon until the sun rose high enough. As if hiding from its rays, the fog suddenly faded and dissipated.
A similar picture was observed by gardeners throughout the next week, and each time the unusual color of the fog became more and more saturated. The number of spirals that lifted colored streams to the grayish sky also increased.
Multi-colored balls scared of the shot
One evening, when the summer residents, having washed in the baths, sat down for evening tea, strange gurgling sounds suddenly began to be heard from the side of the swamp. It was not possible to disassemble in the darkness that was happening in the area of the mysterious swamp, and none of the gardeners dared to go to the swamp. In addition, summer residents were alarmed by the behavior of domestic animals
- the cats hid in the houses, the dogs began to desperately bark and whine. One of the dogs - a purebred terrier belonging to Sablina's neighbor
- ran out of the fence and barked towards the seething swamp. Very soon her barking was drowned in the strange sounds of the swamp.
Sablina's neighbor, Sergei Dmitrievich Tarasov, shouted the terrier several times, then returned to the house, took a hunting rifle and was already heading for the swamp, when he suddenly stopped rooted to the spot: across the river from the swamps, like soap bubbles, one after another, fireballs soared into the sky … They were of different shapes and colors: large - bright red, purple the size of a soccer ball, very small - yellow.
Overcoming the numbness, the man once again shouted loudly at the dog and fired into the air. Following the sound of gunfire, the balls began to move erratically, darting in the air. In a matter of moments, some of them disappeared into the sky, while others dived back into the swamp.
Time disappeared
The next morning, despite the persuasion of neighbors not to do this, Tarasov, taking his gun with him, went in search of the missing dog. Sablina's husband, Ivan, volunteered to accompany Sergei Dmitrievich.
The men left at the beginning of the ninth, and returned only in the evening. Tarasov held the collar of his terrier in his hand. By their appearance, one could immediately understand that they were frightened by something. Finally, when Tarasov and Sablin came to their senses, they were able to talk about very strange and frightening things that they encountered in the swamp. In particular, the summer residents, who were burnt out of curiosity, learned that Tarasov managed to find his dog, or rather what was left of it. And only the skin of a dog with a collar remained of Sergei Dmitrievich's faithful friend. Tarasov did not see any traces of blood or damage on the skin. It was as if someone had sucked out the insides and pulled out the terrier's bones through natural holes.
The men also said that it cost them a lot of courage to wander through the swamp - so strong was the fear that gripped them. In addition, Tarasov and Sablin, finding themselves in the purple fog, felt a severe headache, which continued throughout their search. The men also noted one curious detail: they did not see a single insect in a large area of the swamp, although before there were a myriad of mosquitoes, and did not hear the usual birds singing at this time of day.
But the most mysterious thing was that Tarasov and Sablin believed that their search for the terrier lasted no more than one and a half or two hours, when in fact they were absent from gardening all day. To top it off, it turned out that the men's wristwatches stopped at around ten forty two minutes …
Panic
Over the next ten days, while the rains continued, a real phantasmagoria took place over the swamp. Mysterious luminous objects with a gurgling sound flew out of the swamps, circled over the swamp, carried away into the sky. Several times, large and bright disks appeared above the forest, which either hung motionlessly, or began to rush rapidly across the sky.
During these mysterious events, some summer residents began to feel severe discomfort and headaches. Electrical appliances in houses were malfunctioning, and the clock was showing inaccurate time. Children and animals in the gardening were restless and unpredictable. There were even several cases where four-legged pets bit their owners for no reason. The gardeners were already beginning to seize with panic, people began to be afraid to spend the night in their plots.
A pleasant surprise
But now hot July has come. The rains stopped, and with them the luminous objects above the drying swamp stopped appearing. And soon, to the delight of the members of the partnership, the construction of a highway to the Novosibirsk highway began next to gardening. Dump trucks began backfilling the swamp, a wide clearing was cut through the forest, and supports were erected for the bridge across the Talaya River. The preparatory work was stopped with the first cold in October, so that next year the builders could lay a roadbed that would forever hide the secret of the mysterious swamp.
The excitement was over, and a very pleasant surprise awaited the gardeners. In that season, summer residents harvested such a crop from their plots as they have never seen later. Huge pumpkins and incredible zucchini, sugar watermelons and honey-cracked melons, selected tomatoes and crispy cucumbers, people took out from their plots in dozens of bags and boxes. The fruit shrubs planted that season took root very well and very soon began to give a bountiful harvest. And summer residents of neighboring horticultural associations, even decades later, were amazed at the fact that the gardeners of "Vostok" did not suffer from the raids of rodents and insect pests. They seemed to bypass the areas that were once adjacent to the mysterious swamp.