Diggerism and amateur caving is a thankless hobby and, to put it mildly, not for the faint of heart. What makes people go down underground time after time, into rather uncomfortable conditions, towards the unknown, where various dangers lurk? Maybe the fact that in our daily life there is just a lack of secrets, dangers, extreme?
"Climbing somewhere underground, in the pitch darkness … Damp, cold, little air … He comes home covered in mud, squeezes through some cracks … I am afraid that one day I will remain a widow …", complained a friend who was "lucky" to go out marry a digger.
The word "digger" is translated from English as "digger". This is what the explorers of urban dungeons call themselves. The organization of Moscow diggers is officially registered as a structural unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations "Digger-spas". It is led by Vadim Mikhailov. Mikhailov "fell ill" with digestion as a child, when together with his friends he climbed into the basement of an abandoned house, where they found a staircase leading down, and at the end of it - a room where on the shelves were cans with alcohol-based sea creatures. It turned out that there was once a warehouse of the Institute of Oceanology.
To date, the diggers under Mikhailov's leadership have already explored 24 levels of the capital's dungeons. Among them are the ancient fortress undergrounds of the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod, the underground passages of Borovitsky Hill, Chertolya, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Novodevichy, Simonov, Donskoy, Chudov and other monasteries, ancient cellars of Solyanka and Zamoskvorechye …
In order to become a regular in dungeons, desire alone is not enough. According to statistics, the number of people more or less prone to claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces) reaches seven to ten percent. Unfortunately, sometimes claustrophobia is detected when it's too late. A person is not afraid, for example, to ride in an elevator, but when he gets into a tight space with stale air for a long time, he feels bad …
But even if you don't have any claustrophobia, that doesn't mean you're good for diggers or cave explorers. Without a guide or considerable personal experience, such a journey can end in disaster, and societies of diggers and amateur cavers are reluctant to accept newcomers into their ranks. We can say that this is something like a closed interest clubs. They have their own "rules of etiquette", their own special vocabulary, which is not always clear to the uninitiated. And, of course, your own folklore …
The latter is replete with nightmarish details about terrible deaths in the dungeons, about immured skeletons, about encounters with monstrous creatures … Not without stories about ghosts. Although their details vary, the essence boils down to one thing: a man single-handedly climbed into an accidentally found hole, and disappeared there … and now is everyone who gets to these places - and for different purposes, both humane and not. In some cases, the ghost tries to lure underground travelers into a trap, in others, on the contrary, to warn of impending danger …
Similar stories about ghosts and creepy monsters are always told by older and more experienced comrades to beginners on the eve of their first descent underground. This is a kind of test: scared or not. Cowards are not allowed to enter the underground labyrinths …
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Such voyages are actually not so safe. There is always, even a tiny, chance to be buried alive in a deaf underground "pipe", say, as a result of a collapse … But "children of the dungeons" fanatically love their hobby. If you first descended underground, having received completely new, incomparable sensations - and at the same time did not acquire a phobia, then you will want to go down there again and again … Do not think that all diggers certainly bear the imprint of their occupations … As it shows practice, the thrill may be lacking for any of us.
“The body needs adrenaline … Since childhood, I loved to be afraid … And at work I was so fed up with all these white shirts and suits! In general, it seems to me that I am a kind of masochist, - half-jokingly explained his dangerous hobby of a young bank clerk, who at work looked like a standard of a refined dandy … a brutal beginning, perhaps its true essence …
The extreme hobby, though, tends to reward underground seekers. How many interesting things you can find there, underground! Curious stones and crystals, the remains of ancient people and animals, various artifacts … Sometimes you come across quite expensive items, but such finds, as a rule, are not advertised: the treasures officially belong to the state. "Underground inhabitants" know how to keep silent about the secrets revealed to them …
Ekaterina Igorevna Tereshkina
