In August 1979 I worked as an assistant driver of an electric locomotive in the Novosibirsk region. From time to time I got on a route that passed through the village of Baryshevo. In it, I observed the most interesting events, after which I believed in the existence of otherworldly forces.
Village Baryshevo
Our train traveled no more than 20 kilometers per hour along a high embankment dividing Baryshevo into two parts. Below is a deep ravine with a river running along it. To the right of the ravine right up to the embankment is the garden of a newly built two-family house of white brick. Apartments are most likely three or even four rooms. It can be seen that the house is large and stands alone: the nearest buildings are in the distance on a hill.
One warm August evening, the house was full of people. Some guy was playing guitar, some people were dancing, maybe they were having a housewarming party. A touching picture - all young, cheerful. Their new house is glowing, new curtains are visible on the windows, the glass is glistening, everything is freshly painted and sparkling.
We ourselves are evil
About four days later, driving along the same route, we saw a shocking picture: the same new house, but the windows were all knocked out along with the frames, one door lies in the middle of the yard, the second - warped - hangs on a hinge. There are some debris around the house, broken glass all around sparkles, everything is tattered. In general, the picture is complete ruin.
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The village is located near Novosibirsk. Therefore, having put the electric locomotive at the Inskaya depot, I talked to its employees who came here from Baryshevo, and asked what happened there. They said that at night the residents of this house jumped out into the street who was wearing what, and their furniture flew out of the house after them through the windows and doorways. New settlers are now afraid to return.
The house was empty for some time. And one day from the cabin of an electric locomotive I saw a lot of gypsies near him. It was chilly but sunny. All the windows were hung with colorful blankets, huge featherbeds and pillows glittered on the fence and grass around the house, countless sheets and underwear hung from the ropes.
Many children played in the clearing and around the house. When I returned from the depot workers, I learned that a gypsy camp had settled in an empty house for the winter. They were warned that it was "unclean." The gypsies answered with a laugh that they themselves were "evil spirits."
Night escape
A few days later, passing Baryshevo and not even reaching the "unclean" house, I saw two huge colored tents on a hill near the store. The driver and I thought that another gypsy camp had stopped in the village.
But, having approached the ravine, they saw a sad picture - colored scraps dangled on the windows of the ill-fated house, all around, as far as the eye could see, everything was abundantly strewn with feathers and scraps of pillows and featherbeds.
In the depot, the workers talked only about this. It was said that in the middle of the night the gypsies, like chickens, ran out of the doors with a terrible cry, jumped out of the windows. At the same time their featherbeds and pillows flew after them, and with such force, as if they were being fired from cannons. Sleepy, frightened and angry gypsies set up camp on a hill behind a ravine.
Abandoned forever
Then it turned out that there had once been a cemetery at the site of the new building. A priest came and blessed the house. I saw that it had been renovated. The tenants moved in again. And a few days later, passing Baryshevo, I saw the usual picture - broken windows, twisted doors and desolation. For many more years I saw this abandoned house, it was not demolished, but no one else tried to live in it.
I wondered: why is such a mysterious incident shrouded in a wall of silence? It was only in 1994 that the announcer mentioned this mysterious house in Novosibirsk News. What happened to him now, I don't know. Until 2000, the house was still standing, but its further fate is unknown to me: we moved to another city.
Gennady Petrovich SHPET, Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg region