Read the book: «Moscow guide»

© Gavrilov L.G., 2007

© Publisher Osipenko A.I., 2007

Phenomena, anomalies, ancient history and wonders of Moscow

The Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child known as the Vladimir Icon, painted c. 1131 CE in Constantinople. Restoration following fire damage means that only the faces are original. (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).

Ancient settlement Kuntsevskoe

55° 43′ 11″ N

37° 26′ 26″ E

The Kuntsevo settlement is one of the oldest fortified settlements on the territory of Moscow. It is located on the western edge of the Kuntsevsky Park and occupies a high cape between two ravines. Earthen ramparts, ditches, terraces on the slopes have survived to this day. The early strata of the cultural layer (VI–V centuries BC–VII–VIII centuries AD) belong to the Dyakovo culture. During this period, there was a patriarchal settlement here. Excavations have uncovered the remains of residential and utility ground structures of a pillar structure, and a system of fortifications from the fence lines. Many finds characterize the economy and everyday life of pastoralists, hunters, early farmers and fishers. Found tools for casting non-ferrous metals, metal jewelry, products made of bone, clay, iron. In the XI–XIII centuries. Kuntsevo settlement was inhabited by Slavs-Vyatichi, engaged in arable farming and cattle breeding. Tools of labor, household and handicraft items, typical tribal ornaments were found.

In the XIII–XVI centuries. on the upper platform of the Kuntsevo settlement there was a wooden, then a stone church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, that on the Settlement. In the former's area of church cemetery, white stone carved gravestones, coins, metal crosses and icons were found here. The Moscow historian Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin, who visited the settlement in the 40s of the XX century, found a gravestone with the date: “Summer 7065, 1557 died…” Earlier slabs usually had only an ornament instead of a gravestone inscription. A settlement with a church on the territory of the Kuntsevo settlement was destroyed, probably during the Troubles in the early 17th century.

The place where the Kuntsevo settlement, since we considered it as a “pagan temple”, and several legends are associated with it. According to one of them, there was a church here, which without a trace went underground along with the cross – in one night. It depicts the Kuntsevo settlement in the painting by A.K. Savrasov “Autumn forest. Kuntsevo (Cursed Place)”, 1872. Until the twentieth century, the well-known “baba” (stone block), reminiscent of a human figure, remained a trace of pagan culture until the 20th century. Baba stood before in the middle of the peninsula in the hollow of an elm tree, then was transferred to the master's garden.

Dyakovskoe settlement

The administrative building, built in its place in the 1930s, stands on a strip foundation, so one can count on the excellent safety of the foundations and even the basements – in 1985, a completely whole crypt of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was already discovered. The territory of the upper Taynitsky garden is available for excavations, there may be another Dyakovskoe settlement, and the Fatyanovo burial ground, and the ancient entrance to the fortress, and the foundations of orders.

Moscow – one of the oldest European cities.

Moscow uniquely combines holy and damned disastrous and life-giving places. Famous traveler of the XIX century. Marquis Astolphe de Custine left fantastic memories of the Moscow Kremlin as a dwelling of ghosts:

“Wandering around the Kremlin, walking along Red Square, listening to the underground sounds emanating, as you dream, from the graves themselves, you believe in the supernatural.” Buried along the walls of the Moscow Kremlin are Stalin, Marshal of the Great Victory Zhukov, and many, many famous people of Russia, the Soviet Union and New Russia of the 21st century.

The history of the capital and Russia is closely intertwined with mysterious events and ominous omens, which continue to come true to this day.

Mysterious Moscow legends and legends, phenomena and unexplained phenomena

In the distant time of the 8th century BC, at the beginning of the Iron Age, when people still had no idea who Jesus Christ was and when the scattered settlements under the leadership of Romulus first united into the city of Rome, in the place where Great Moscow now stands, the first large settlements appeared.

Probably, before that you firmly believed that only after a couple of millennia, Yuri Dolgoruky rode on a dashing horse to this land and founded a city here? So this is approximately the same truth as the fact that Columbus – before the Vikings – was the first to discover America.

On a high hill on the bank of the river, which is now called the Moskva River, in those ancient times, ancient settlers founded the first such settlement. The people that inhabited it, our contemporaries call Dyakovtsy, after the name of the village that existed here until recently, until it was demolished for new buildings. It is very difficult to say now how they called themselves, although scientists believe that it was the Mery tribe, that is, the Meryans. Unlike Ancient Rome, this people simply did not have a written language, and we can learn about it only from legends and the results of archaeological excavations.

An Etruscan bucchero vase. Second half of the 6th century BCE. (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)

The Dyakovites worshiped pagan gods, were engaged in subsistence farming and hunting for fur-bearing animals, whose fur they exchanged from the Scythians for the things they needed, defended themselves from the Mordovians and the Goths, they led the most ordinary life for the people of those times.

Although not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. From word of mouth in legends and myths, few legends have come down to us, which indirectly or directly confirm the unusualness of these places.

Intrigued? But everything has its time, let's digress from historical data and set off ourselves in the footsteps of the ancient people. To do this, we need to take a week's supply of food, a tent, a gun to scare off bears and… leave it at home. It is better to just go out into the street, take a little metro and after a while find yourself in this place, just crossing the avenue through the underground passage.

Then you have to go what is called “vegetable gardens”. These gardens are not simple, it has cultivated the land on them since those days of the clergy. Well, what city, besides Moscow, can boast of relict vegetable gardens?

Going a little further to the bank of the Moskva River, we will see a rather large hill with steep slopes of clearly man-made nature. This place is called Devil's Town.

As I have already mentioned, the Dyakovites were pagans, and therefore among their customs there were such, by modern standards, savagery as human sacrifice. The bloody town was the very “place of execution” where these ceremonies took place. Much later, near to this dangerous place, a church was erected, which was also named rather strangely: the Temple of the Beheading of John the Baptist.

This temple is a symbol of a new state: the kingdom of Moscow. It turns out that this is not one, but “five in one” table-like temples, closely nestled against each other. The church was laid by “Ivan, the Terrible” in 1547 in memory of his wedding to the kingdom. The Dyakovsky temple served as an experimental model for the altar-temple – St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.

There is an opinion that Ivan the Terrible hid his famous library (liberey) just somewhere in these lands. And at the beginning of the twentieth century, some especially zealous enthusiasts looked for her here. But the relevant structures immediately thwarted their attempts. Why this happened, history is silent.

You can see the temple even today – for this we need to move about 300 meters away from the Devil's town, and it will appear in front of you in its proud solitude on the top of the cape. From the same Devil's town a beautiful panorama of Moscow opens up. The top of the town has now been excavated by archaeologists, and it fences part of it off.

The hill of the Devil's Town is surrounded by a deep ravine, now called the Voice. As the old-timers living here say, this is because birds always sing here in the summer, grasshoppers chirp and is very noisy because of the flowing stream. The stream is also very interesting, it never freezes and its temperature is always 4 degrees in any weather. Tradition tells that this stream is the footprints of the horse of Saint George the Victorious himself, who once rode here with the news of victories.

If we asked people who lived here several centuries earlier, they would have already mentioned another name for this ravine – Volosov. Because in fact, they name the ravine after the ancient deity Veles.

Snake Veles(or Volos) is an ancient, pagan god, patron of pets and wealth. The name of Veles, according to many researchers, comes from the word “hairy” – hairy. It is also possible that the word “sorcerer” just comes from the name of this god and from the custom of his priests to dress in fur “hairy” coats to imitate their deity.

The opponent of the Serpent Veles, according to ancient mythology, was the main ancient Slavic god Perun. Not only Slavic myths existed about Perun's struggle with the Serpent, or about representatives of two opposite worlds. And who knows if this ancient myth was later embodied in what Muscovites can see every day on the coat of arms of their city, where the aforementioned George the Victorious is also fighting a snake?

Volosov ravine, according to legend, and was the very abode of this not very kind pagan deity of the Dyakovites and then of the ancient Slavs. Legends also brought to us a funny fact that Veles sometimes, as they say, appeared in the flesh to residents and loved to eat eggs and drink milk. Probably, because he drank all the milk, residents had to drink something else, which made Veles appear even more often.

If you rummage in more modern archives – the 19th and early 20th centuries – you can find curious facts that our contemporaries, who did not yet know the historical essence of these places, sometimes met the so-called Bigfoot there.

Already in Soviet times, there was an amusing case when a police officer patrolling these places at night saw a huge hairy man in a ravine and was so frightened that for no apparent reason he fired the entire clip of his revolver at him. The hairy stranger did not even budge and went into the fog, or, as it is fashionable to say now, into the gloom that often happens in this ravine. It described this case in the article by A. Ryazantsev “Pioneers catching Leshego” in 1926!

An interesting case of the appearance in 1621 at the gates of the sovereign's palace of a small detachment of Tatar horsemen is also described in the “Sofia Vremennik”. They were surrounded by archers, guarding the gate, and taken prisoner. All the prisoners showed that they were the warriors of Khan Devlet-Girey, whose troops tried to capture Moscow in 1571, but were defeated and dispersed into small groups. A detachment of Cremeans, avoiding pursuit, descended into a deep ravine, shrouded in fog, in the hope of later going out into the steppe expanses. The Tatars plunged into it, it seemed, for several minutes, and emerged only 50 years later. One prisoner said that the fog was unusual, gleaming greenish, but in fear of the chase, no one paid attention to this. Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich ordered an inquiry and search, which showed that the Tatars most likely spoke the truth.

One of the interesting cases is given in the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” dated July 9, 1832, which tells about two peasants who disappeared in 1810, and appeared… in 1831. Returning at night from the village of Dyakova, the peasants of the Sadovniki village Arkhip Kuzmin and Ivan Bochkarev cut the road and go through the Volosov ravine. There was a thick fog at the bottom of the ravine. The friends, passing between two enormous boulders, suddenly fell somewhere and found themselves in a corridor, along which they went into a space filled with whitish light. Unexpectedly for themselves, they again found themselves in a ravine, but when they reached the outskirts of the village, they found themselves in a different time. There are still relatives of the disappeared in the village who have identified them, although 21 years have passed since the disappearance.

* * *

Now is the time to talk about the two boulders that still lie there, and the idly staggering Muscovites and guests of our city sometimes do not even notice them. The boulders are called Devy Stone and Goose. Virgo is none other than the Finno-Ugric female underground goddess, and the Goose is a sacred bird of Finno-Ugric mythology, swimming in the underground ocean and once creating everything, throwing a slap of silt from its beak into an abyss full of dead water.

The Virgin Stone is an enormous block with many strange protruding hemispheres. It was brought here from somewhere from the north by a glacier many thousands of years ago and weighs about 5 tons. The stone helps with infertility. So, dear women, if you believe in the mystical, I advise you to touch this relic of the ancient, pre-Slavic civilization. But do not forget about an easier way to deal with the worsening demographic situation: he is now walking in the flesh next to you and begging for money for beer sold right there, in numerous tents.

Our Moscow stands on the so-called Russian platform, a fairly solid geological formation. But each platform has its own faults, and one of the largest – just passes under the Volosov ravine. Also, approximately in this place, traces of very ancient volcanic activity, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs, were found, the results of which we can observe in our time on the reliefs unusual for our city.

But back to our Dyakovites. At the beginning of the 8th century AD, 300 years before the Slavs here and the official foundation of the city of Moscow, they suddenly simply disappear. It does not reflect these three centuries in the annals or in the legends. Even archaeologists cannot yet find any traces of human activity. Therefore, for us it will remain a mystery where these ancient pramskvichs disappeared.

So you and I visited this one of the most mysterious places in our Moscow, walked in the footsteps of ancient civilizations, almost fell through in time and were cured of diseases with ancient artifacts.

I think I forgot something, right? Probably to say what kind of place this is, and what fabulous metro you can get there. Now re-read carefully the beginning of this article again. The fairy tale is always there, right next to us! This place is called very simply: Kolomenskoye!

And you probably know how to get to it, since you have done this many times. You can go, as described in the article, through the Kashirskaya metro station. Or you can do it as usual, through the Kolomenskaya metro station. Only now, when you go there again, do not stop at the very entrance, walk past the magnificent Temple of the Ascension a little further – to the southern, not very visited by tourists, part of the park, and you yourself, with your own feet, step on this ancient land, from 3 thousand years ago began the settlement of our beloved city of Moscow, which is probably not in vain called the Third Rome.

The headquarters of UNIO “Kosmopoisk” is near this area, and the data presented in this digest guide has been collected by groups of people belonging to this All-Russian Public Research Organization. We have tried to historically and popularly present such an interesting topic about our beloved city – the city of Moscow.

The book is a gift to all researchers, historians, people interested and seeking. And, of course, this guide is not the ultimate truth, and the list of phenomena is far from complete. But our desire is sincere to tell about the city, its history, secrets, riddles, clues and scientific achievements.

Moscow and about Moscow. Cosmological Moscow

It is easier to navigate along the circular metro line, where the metro station “Kurskaya” will correspond to the zero degree, the beginning of Aries. Further clockwise:

– “Taganskaya” corresponds to Taurus and the planet Venus, the color is yellow-green

– “Paveletskaya” – Gemini, planet Mercury, color yellow

– “Dobryninskaya” – Cancer, planet Moon, white

– “October” – Leo, planet Sun, red, cherry

– “Park of Culture” – Virgo, Mercury, light blue

– “Kievskaya” – Libra, Venus, aqua

– Krasnopresnenskaya – Scorpio, Pluto, blue

– “Belorusskaya” – Sagittarius, Jupiter, blue

– “Novoslobodskaya” – Capricorn, Saturn, blue

– “Prospect Mira” – Aquarius, Uranus, purple

– “Komsomolskaya” – Pisces, Neptune, green-blue

There is also an ancient eastern calendar based on a 12-year cycle. This cycle is likely associated with the period of Jupiter's revolution around the Sun – 12 years. Perhaps the largest planet in the solar system just affects earthly life?! This seems to be the case – at least for Russia. We can observe roughly the same in other countries, but with a different origin.

Calculating further into the depths of the centuries this cycle, the astrologers of India, Ancient China and Zorathustra (where these terms were named differently) agreed to consider it the beginning of the year of the Snake. Almost all known Russian troubles began in the year of the Snake or in the first six years of the 12-year cycle… 1605 (the year of the Snake): the death of Tsar Boris, the murder of his son, the accession of False Dmitry I and further a set of events characteristic of troubled times, which are famous Russian physicist Alexander Chizhevsky enlisted in the category of psychomotor epidemic: popular uprisings, riots, unrest, coups, murders, fermentation of minds, weakening of the state principle, external interventions, defensive wars, the enthronement of impostors (after 1605 there were eight of them). 862 (second year of the cycle): riots in Novgorod, accession of Rurik; the date is semi-legendary, therefore the dating is unreliable, but nevertheless… 1689: the end of the actual reign of Sophia, the accession of Peter I, the salvation of Peter I from the rebellious archers (the year of the Snake). You can also name the Pugachev riot and many other historical events…

Cycles of Russian history

Let us turn to the history of our civilization, where one of the most striking examples is the comparison of the histories of Ancient Rome (“Rome No. 1”) and the Third Rome – Moscow. In Rome, the first, as you know, Gaius Julius Caesar became the first to wear the high rank of “emperor” constantly; in the history of our country, for the first time it awarded this title to Peter I the Great. Caesar in 46 BC e. introduced the Julian calendar, in which the year began on January 1. Peter I introduced a new calendar in Russia by decree of December 15, 1699, after which the New year was also celebrated on January 1 (instead of September 1). Caesar created a headquarters in his army, introduced the position of chief of engineers; it carried a similar transformation out under Peter, the General Staff and engineering troops appeared in the Russian army. Caesar outlined his views on the conduct of hostilities in the “Notes on the Gallic War” and “Notes on the Civil War”; Peter called his similar works “The Rules of Battle” and “The Establishment in Battle”… There are many similar coincidences, since the personalities of both “first emperors” – Caesar and Peter – coincide in the main: both of them were reformers, magnificent state, political and military leaders, administrators and diplomats. So the chain of coincidences is too long to be considered pure coincidence… great state leaders, political and military leaders, administrators and diplomats. So the chain of coincidences is too long to be considered pure coincidence… great leaders, political and military leaders, administrators and diplomats. So the chain of coincidences is too long to be considered pure coincidence…

The Saratov writer Yuri Nikitin, who published the book discovered a strange coincidence in Russian history “Tsar's Fun” about the peculiarities of Russian national hunting. It turns out that in a long line of all the Russian-Soviet top leaders of the country there were only two people who were ardent opponents of shooting at animals (everyone else, including Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev and others, was keen to hunt). These two people – Tsar Feodor Alekseevich Romanov (1661–1682) and Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (b. 1931) – were separated by three centuries of history, but this is the only thing that separates them. But it unites – a lot! Each ruled for 6 years; both were under strong female influence (Agafya's wives with her aunt Tatyana Mikhailovna, and three hundred years later – Raisa Maksimovna's “family party organizer” with Margaret Thatcher); both were convinced teetotalers; both fought with privileges (boyar, and then – party); both pardoned the troublemakers and returned from exile those offended by the previous government (“Pustozersk imprisoned”, and after 3 centuries – Soviet dissidents, including A. Sakharov); both ended their terms of rule in great troubles. Relying on this almost mirror-like property, Yu. Nikitin even suggested that the next such leader would appear in our country a little less than 300 years later, in the XXIII century (KP, 1998, May 22, p. 6). By the same logic, it turns out that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… both pardoned the troublemakers and personally returned from exile those offended by the previous government (“Pustozersk imprisoned”, and 3 centuries later – Soviet dissidents, including A. Sakharov); both ended their terms of rule in great troubles. Relying on this almost mirror-like property, Yu. Nikitin even suggested that the next such leader would appear in our country a little less than 300 years later, in the XXIII century (KP, 1998, May 22, p. 6). By the same logic, it turns out that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… both pardoned the troublemakers and returned from exile those offended by the previous government (“Pustozersk imprisoned”, and 3 centuries later – Soviet dissidents, including A. Sakharov); both ended their terms of rule in great troubles. Relying on this almost mirror-like property, Yu. Nikitin even suggested that the next such leader would appear in our country a little less than 300 years later, in the XXIII century (KP, 1998, May 22, p. 6). By the same logic, it turns out that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… Sakharov); both ended their terms of rule in great troubles. Relying on this almost mirror-like property, Yu. Nikitin even suggested that the next such leader would appear in our country a little less than 300 years later, in the XXIII century (KP, 1998, May 22, p. 6). By the same logic, it turns out that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… Sakharov); both ended their terms of rule in great troubles. Relying on this almost mirror-like property, Yu. Nikitin even suggested that the next such leader would appear in our country a little less than 300 years later, in the XXIII century (KP, 1998, May 22, p. 6). By the same logic, it turns out that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity… that the previous reluctant tsars in Russia had to tragically end their reign not only in the 17th and 20th centuries, but also in the XIV, XI… and so on into the depths of the centuries. However, too little is known about the leaders of that gray-haired antiquity…

Another strange magical recurrence associated with the day on August 26 has been talked about in Russia since the 19th century, more precisely, since the end of the Battle of Borodino (August 26, 1812). The magic of this date is amazing: on August 26, 1381, Tokhtamysh Khan took Moscow, and on August 26, 1395, Tamerlane, who was marching to Moscow, suddenly turned back. On August 26, 1612, the army of Hetman Chodkevich, which went to the aid of the Poles besieged in the Kremlin, was defeated by the militia of Minin and Pozharsky, because of which Moscow was completely liberated from the invaders. On August 26, 1831, the Russian troops of Field Marshal I. Paskevich took rebellious Warsaw. On August 26, 1855 Sevastopol fell. By August 26, 1991, the August events in Moscow ended, members of the State Emergency Committee ended up in prison cells, and Mikhail Gorbachev, instead of entering Moscow on a white horse.

For a clear illustration, it is enough to refer, for example, to the following sequence of scenes from the drama of the Great Revolution:

The rotten political system of the state, considerably weakened by the “corrupting” activities of intellectuals, is finally approaching a spontaneous explosion of popular discontent. Because of a rather bloodless uprising, the hated monarch was deposed, his life was mercifully saved, power was transferred to the liberal forces. Inspired by lofty humanistic ideals, the revolutionary republic of the liberals is unable to restore order in a seething country, counterrevolutionary revolts are brewing in the provinces, and the threat of foreign intervention at the borders. In the end, power passes to the radicals, who unleash bloody terror against their own people. Along the way, wile deposed monarch is executed, at the same time they lost their lives and his wife and heir. The promoted machine of bloody violence eventually devours the organizers of the terror themselves. In the course of the action, a man of small stature, but of great charisma appears on the political scene, who brings order and establishes tyrannical power in the country. The revolution ends, the empire begins…

A very familiar picture, isn’t it? But is it a French revolution or a Russian one? Obviously, both. And there is no way to blame everything on a chain of random coincidences, because over the last couple of hundred years, more than enough examples and other impressive self-repetitions of history can be found.

Moscow – Arkaim

Another “living embodiment” of astrological principles in urban planning is, oddly enough, Moscow. The fact is that the existing radial-ring building structure was laid during the time of Jacob Bruce (an associate of Peter I), who, as you know, was an outstanding astrologer. Therefore, the layout of Moscow has not only practical, but also astrological significance, dividing the capital into 12 sectors, it associates each of which with a certain sign of the zodiac. So Moscow can be called both the successor of Arkaim and all the ancient Aryan clans. The high culture of the inhabitants of Arkaim is proved by numerous archaeological finds – works of art, weapons, ritual objects. They owned not only agricultural technologies, but also highly developed metallurgy and metalworking techniques. However, Arkaim, however, like other excavations of the “Country of Cities” – just the smallest part of the huge and mysterious culture of our ancestors, the ancient Aryans. She is still waiting for her researchers.

Modern Arkaim is visited by thousands of tourists and dozens of researchers a year. The density of research (primarily historical) is quite high. Excavations have been temporarily suspended here. In June 2000, Cosmopoisk researchers mapped several surrounding hills in the ancient city. In August 2004 in Arkaim, a regional collection “Ural-Cosmopoisk” (headed by M. Solomatin) was held…

Directions to Arkaim:

1) By train to Magnitogorsk in the Chelyabinsk region; by train through Kartaly to the Breda station; by bus or by car go west to the Amurskiy settlement, then to the confluence of the Utyaganka and B. Karaganka rivers, tributaries of the Ural river in the Bredinsky district.

2) From Magnitogorsk by bus or by car go south through Agapovka, Kizilskoe, then east through Obruchevka – before reaching Amurskoe. The sought-after place is located on the left bank of the B. Karaganka, not far (slightly to the north) from the Bredy – Amurskiy – Obruchevka road. There is a sign “Arkaim” on the road. A tourist camp and a hotel have been set up in the excavation area, there are shops, cafes, a video room and a museum.

You must go directly to the mothballed excavations of Arkaim with a local guide and with permission from archaeologists!The ancient city is protected, and the excavations themselves are mothballed, access for tourists is open to some parts of Arkaim and to buildings recreated and reconstructed according to ancient models. In summer, near the ancient city, there are usually tents of travelers who have come from all over the country, the atmosphere in the camp is quite complacent. A map of the area and advice can be obtained from Kosmopoisk.

On seven hills

Is it by chance or not that Moscow was erected on seven hills?

Indeed, in Russia the number seven has long been considered good, happy.

Mikhail Lomonosov noted that Moscow: “…It stands on many mountains and valleys, along which the lofty and humiliated sides and buildings represent many cities, which have united into one city… If we take three mountains as one hill, which split into three, then it together with the other main ones it will make seven hills, according to which Moscow is compared with seven-hill Rome and Constantinople.”

Today it is difficult to know where these hills are located. Time and people have changed Moscow beyond recognition. Hills and burial mounds were dug down, ponds, ravines and ditches were filled up, it cut forests and groves down. Only from the old descriptions can one find out where the hills were.

“…The first hill is the Kremlin and Kitai-gorod… The second contains the Myasnitskaya and Sretensky parts… The third hill is Tverskaya, stretching from Truba to Presnya; The fourth – three mountains (Trekhgorka); Fifth – Lousy slide; Sixth – Lefortovskaya; The seventh – unnamed – on the right bank of the Moskva River, where Neskuchnoye, of which Vorobyovy Gory is a continuation…”

The safe places in Moscow are those that are located on the hills. Low-lying areas have negative energy. Once there were swamps and swamps where harmful gases accumulated. Today in these places there is a large concentration of car exhaust, industrial gas emissions, and bad ecology.

Moscow treasures

Some of the scientists called the treasures a mirror of old events.

Money and products made of precious metals and stones can tell a lot about times gone by. They reflect historical events. Not only the jewels themselves, but also the reasons why they were buried, time, place – all this is the most valuable information.

Why, after all, according to ancient legends and rumors, the treasures found can bring trouble? There can be many versions.

For example, suppose somebody hid the treasure during a deadly epidemic. And although silver and gold have properties that kill bacteria and have lain in the ground for hundreds of years, some objects can still keep infectious diseases.

I can assume it that various things are carriers of wave energy not yet recognized by science at the moment.

Wars, troubles, bloody crimes, catastrophes, the unkind, dangerous events of the past are reflected in the products of those times. And it stores their evil spirit energy reflections in hidden treasures.

Sudden finds of rich treasures, unexpectedly quick enrichment – a powerful effect on the human psyche, on the model of his behavior, on his entire life program. Whether or not he wants it.

And any abrupt change, even if it is positive, can ultimately lead to sad consequences and even death.

The found treasures entail the envy of many others, often – violation of laws and punishment. And people who are not psychologically prepared for sudden wealth gain harmful and dangerous habits.

One ancient belief says that the treasures found must be divided among many people. And the more people receive jewelry, the better. Then the evil stored in them will not end up in one hand, but split and lose its strength.

Many treasure hunting conspiracies carry psychological protection to a person. According to many legends, they hid the treasures with a “vow”, with a witchcraft conspiracy.

I found one of the hiding places of the revolutionary period on Prechistenka. Two cartridges, cadets’ shoulder straps and a silver cigarette case were found under a large stone. In the cigarette case there was a note with a large bank account number and a password for the bearer when receiving money.

In November 1962, the newspaper Trud wrote: “In a trench for gas pipes at the construction of an experimental quarter near VDNKh, they found a casket in which 311 gold objects were lying…”.

In the summer of 1972, they found a treasure of precious platinum and gold items on Marksist Street. And it decorated one necklace with 131 diamonds.

There are many similar examples in Moscow.

According to experts, twenty-four treasures have been found on the territory of the Kremlin alone.

And how many have not been found yet? Or hidden by the finders?

One of the most impressive Moscow treasures was found in October 1939, when a trench was being laid near the Kremlin's Spassky Gate. The find consisted of 34,769 coins and several silver items.

The oldest Kremlin treasure, which was officially announced, is considered to be silver items hidden around the 12th century and found in 1844 when laying the foundation for the Armory.

Valuables are hidden in every second Moscow house that has survived after Napoleon's invasion. And in houses that have survived since 1917 – in every third one.

Not only the treasures themselves, but beliefs, rumors, legends, spells and curses are important echoes of ancient times, worthy of close study. They are a necessary link for understanding a particular era.

And let every person who has found the treasure always remember: one should not rush, make plans for a rich, carefree life. Together with the treasures, grief and curses, tragedies and misfortunes of past times can come to the finder.

But if you have already touched someone else's wealth, it is better to immediately think about how life's path can change and how to carry this heavy burden…

It is hardly possible to determine exactly which city on earth is the richest in treasures. But, if it carried such a study out, Moscow would be on the list of the richest.

The convenient geographical position facilitated this for trade, the age of the city, the wealth of the inhabitants. Wealth, as you know, not only must be saved up, collected, but also protected. Since ancient times, the most reliable way is to hide it in the ground or some secret places.

No wonder one ancient sage said: “It is calm in the country – riches are on display, dangerous changes in the country – riches are hidden deeper.”

Do not count how many troubles have befell Moscow in its entire history. How many events forced its inhabitants to hide treasures: invasions, wars, fires, epidemics, revolutions, drastic political and economic changes. Going on a long journey, Muscovites buried treasures – both from thieves and from the authorities. The thieves themselves and those who acquired it in an unrighteous way hid the good.

Probably, of all historical events, the most treasured time for Moscow was the invasion of Napoleon.

The Russians were hiding the treasures when they had to leave the capital in a hurry. The French also hid it when they realized that they could not take out all the loot from Moscow.

The poet Nikolai Shatrov, a contemporary of those events, recalled in 1813:

 
Unhappy Moscow is burning
Moscow burns for twelve days;
It decays under a noisy flame
Innumerable wealth in her;
All temple decorations,
Their treasures are age old,
The splendor of the palaces
Wonderful collection rarities,
All jewels are sculpting
Skillful brushes and incisors…
 

After the capture of Smolensk by Napoleon's army in July 1812, the inhabitants quickly left Moscow. There were not enough horses. The townspeople were forced to bury part of their goods in the ground, walled up in walls, and hide in basements. They left works of art, books, jewelry, silverware, icons in frames of precious metals.

Even government agencies, churches and monasteries were unable to take out all their expensive property, archives, valuable utensils.

On September 2, Napoleon's troops entered Moscow. Witnesses of those sad events noted:

“In these days, what a terrible spectacle the capital presented itself, shortly before its ruin, shining with luxury and splendor.

In the burnt palaces of kings the desert wind rustled; the splendor of the temples of God was hidden under the blackness of the fire; inside there were traces of the wicked presence of the enemies of faith and Russia. The audacious scolders made stalls for their horses where the Lord's altars were raised!..″

Moscow has not seen such a fire for a long time. The half-empty city was ablaze from all over. Almost the entire center and adjacent streets burned out, Zamoskvorechye burned down. Before the invasion of Napoleonic troops, there were more than 9 thousand houses in Moscow. For several weeks of the enemy's stay, almost 6.5 thousand buildings were burned down.

Both the Russians and the French were on fire. There was nothing to put out the fires with. Contemporaries noted that Emperor Napoleon himself took part in putting out the fire in the Kremlin. The retinue and close people begged him to move to the Petrovsky Palace.

Leaving the Kremlin on fire, the conqueror prophetically pronounced:

– This portends us great disasters…

The hungry Napoleonic army plundered everything that the Muscovites did not manage to take out and save. Silver and gilded frames were torn off the icons, and the icons themselves were burned in bonfires. The gilded cross was removed from the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Kremlin.

Although the main unique documents Muscovites managed to take out and save, during the invasion of Napoleon, books by Mikhail Lomonosov, Nikolai Novikov's publications, a rare collection of Russian and foreign newspapers, the famous “Word about Igor's Campaign”, “Vladimir Monomakh's Dukhovnaya”, Novgorodskie and Dvina letters, “Life of the Grand Duke Vladimir”, “Laurentian Chronicle” and much more.

But these are only the considered spiritual losses of Moscow and Russia. And how many were unknown, unmarked, dead, not found monuments of our past!

A special role in the appearance of an innumerable number of Moscow treasures in 1812 belongs to Russian robbers and looters. They knew Moscow streets and houses, churches and warehouses better than the French soldiers. They knew better where, how to profit and where to hide the loot.

They were forced to hide for several reasons. Firstly, it was impossible to keep valuables with oneself or in the house due to the fact that the French constantly searched houses and people. Secondly, it was impossible then to drink the stolen goods, to take a walk. Thirdly, it was also impossible to take goods out of Moscow, since the outskirts of the city were guarded by Napoleonic troops, and partisan detachments were operating in the vicinity. Both those and others destroyed the marauders.

Sometimes it was possible only to exchange a gold ring in hungry Moscow – for a piece of biscuit, an icon in a silver setting – for a few grams of salt.

This is how thousands of treasures appeared in the Moscow land of 1812.

In one old entry, it was noted that only one gang of Lame Nikisha took out about 2 thousand kilograms of silver from noble houses. Lame Nikisha himself and several of his friends died in a drunken fight with the French.

In that year, many Muscovites died in fires, starvation, disease, or were shot by the French. So most of the treasures remained unclaimed.

The French, when fleeing from Moscow, had very few horses, so it became impossible to take out all the loot. Some had to be hidden in Moscow.

Some of the Napoleonic army hoped to return to Moscow someday after the war and find their treasure. They made maps, diagrams, wrote down the signs by which you can find treasures.

Few of them returned to France, even fewer lived to see peace. Maps, diagrams, descriptions of places where the treasures were hidden disappeared along with the owners, but sometimes they got to the heirs or ended up in the wrong hands.

And after the war, numerous Frenchmen – tutors, cooks, teachers, musicians – reached out to serve in Moscow, hiding in secret pockets maps of the location of treasures that they got by chance or from relatives – Napoleon's soldiers.

Of course, it cannot be stated unequivocally that all the French then came to Russia only in search of treasures.

In Moscow, as a rule, they were disappointed. The strict times of Nicholas I came, when the police and other services controlled every step of the foreigner both in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. So there were no particular opportunities to find treasures.

Collection of legends about the founding of Moscow

1997 marked the 850th anniversary of Moscow. It is clear that such anniversary figures are always somewhat arbitrary.

The generally recognized date of the foundation of our capital is taken from the Ipatiev Chronicle: under 1147, it describes the meeting of the Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky and the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, which took place in Moscow.

But already from the fact that in 1147 two princes chose this city as the place of their meeting, it follows that it was founded much earlier.

According to modern archaeological data, Moscow most likely arose about 1000 years ago. However, there is no exact data on the time and, moreover, the circumstances of its foundation. The lack of these data is successfully compensated for by many legends, popular and unpopular, more or less plausible, of the most varied content. The most famous of them I would like to consider.

Prince, boyar, wonderful vision and blood feud

There are eight legends about the founding of Moscow. First, we should dwell on four of them that have common features.

The most detailed and well-known of them is the legend about Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy and boyar Stepan Kuchka. It was recorded in the 17th century. on behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

At that time, four different people independently were engaged in the search for legends about the capital of the growing Russian state. Each of them heard oral stories, which apparently varied significantly. The result is four stories.

The story about Stepan Kuchka is the most believable of them.

Kremlin at the end of the 15th century. Watercolor A.M. Vasnetsov

According to legend, in 1158 (!) Prince Yuri Dolgoruky was traveling from Kiev to Vladimir. In the middle of the swamp, he saw “a huge, wonderful beast. The beast had three heads and a variegated coat of many colors… Appearing to people, the wonderful beast then melted, disappeared like morning fog”.

The Greek philosopher, when asked by Yuri about the meaning of the vision, said that in these places “a city of great triangles will arise, and a great kingdom will spread around it. And the variegation of animal skins means that people of all tribes and nations will come here”.

The prince drove on and saw the city of Moscow, which was in the possession of the boyar Kuchka. Yuri decided to stay in this city, but Kuchka “is not the post of the Grand Duke with due honor”. At first, he refused to let Yuri and his retinue into the city under the pretext of lack of space in the mansions, which were allegedly recently partially dismantled and were now being rebuilt, and then completely refused obey the prince, saying that all the fugitives from the Vladimir-Suzdal estates run to him, and he will soon become on a par with Yuri.

Then the prince, suspecting Kuchka of collusion with the Novgorodians, ordered “that boyar to be captured and betrayed by death.” After a short battle, the Suzdal squad burst into the city through the main gate, and Kuchka through the small gate together with the voivode Bukal (according to another version of this legend, set forth by A.F. Malinovsky, Bukal was a hermit and lived in a small hut not far from Moscow) and the remainder of the soldiers fled to the woods, where he was soon overtaken and killed by Yuri's soldiers.

The city of Moscow became part of the possessions of the Grand Duke.

Dolgoruky treated the children of Kuchka, who were taken prisoner, kindly, saying that they were not guilty of their father's crime. The boyar's daughter Ulita was married to Yuri's son, Andrei Bogolyubsky; sons Peter and Yakim became his servants.

For a long time they lived in peace and harmony, but once, after the death of Yuri Dolgoruky, Julitta unexpectedly met in the forest the voivode Bukal, already a deep elder, and learned from him the story of her father's death. Julitta told the brothers Bukala's story. Seized with a thirst for revenge, they decided to kill Prince Andrew.

The Kuchkovichi attacked the prince while hunting, but Andrey managed to gallop away from them. Having driven the horse, the prince went further on foot and went to the river bank. There he saw the carrier and asked to be transported to the other side, but he, having lured the prince for payment in advance, sailed away. Andrey, left alone and fearing a chase, hid for the night in a log-grave.

The Kuchkovichs, fearing his revenge, set off in search the next day, taking with them, on the advice of Julitta, the prince's beloved scavenger dog. The dog led them to the grave-frame, where the prince hid, stuck his head into the frame and, rejoicing at the owner, wagged his tail. Seeing this, the Kuchkovichi, opening the roof on the log house, pounced on the prince and killed him.

But soon Andrey's servant, Davyd, fled at night to the prince's brother – Daniil Yuryevich Kievsky (a fictional character) – and told him that Andrey had been killed. After that, Daniel came with an army near Moscow, and the Muscovites gave him Kuchkovichs. Ulita and her brothers were executed, and their bodies were placed in birch bark boxes and released into the lake.

According to legend, these boxes still float to the surface at night, “because neither land nor water wants to accept such villains.” As for Daniel, after that he decided not to return to Kiev and became a Moscow prince.

Of all the legends about the founding of Moscow, this one is perhaps the most plausible, since it is the only one that correlates with the known facts.

First, among the killers of Andrei Bogolyubsky, the chronicle really mentions some Yakim and Pyotr Kuchkovich.

Secondly, in the Vladimir region, a legend has survived to this day that the Kuchkovich brothers, who were killed for treachery by the Grand Duke Vsevolod the Big Nest, are floating in oak boxes in the Floating Lake near Vladimir.

Finally, thirdly, in the chronicle there is a mention of the fact that Moscow was formerly called Kuchkov: “Before Kuchkov, rekshe [that is] to Moscow.” In the XIV–XV centuries. Chronicles several times call one of the Moscow tracts (in the area of the Sretensky Gates, Chistye Prudy and Lubyanskaya Square) Kuchkov Field.

As for the weak points of the legend, one of them is immediately evident: Prince Yuri Dolgoruky died in 1157, a year before the time of its action. In addition, according to the same chronicle in which the Kuchkovich brothers are mentioned, the reason for their murder of Andrei Bogolyubsky was not revenge for the death of Stepan Kuchka, but Andrei's decision to execute Peter, his servant Yakim Kuchkov's brother, for some offense. In response, Yakim organized the conspiracy mentioned in the legend.

I think the real events could have been the war between Dolgoruky and Kuchka, the victory of Yuri and, possibly, the murder of Prince Andrey by the Kuchkovichs. The rest is literary fiction.

Simultaneously with the legend about Yuri Dolgoruk, another was recorded, according to which Moscow was founded by the son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel, who took the lands of the aforementioned boyar Kuchka and was killed for this by the sons of the latter. This version almost completely copies the previous one; perhaps it arose as a result of its retelling.

The miraculous vision is mentioned in another legend recorded at the same time. It also talks about Daniel, only not about Alexandrovich, but about Ivanovich, who, unlike Alexandrovich, is most likely a fictional character. He, obeying the vision, founded a city on the indicated place, which received the name Moscow.

It is interesting that the scene of the murder of the prince, absolutely analogous to the scene of the murder of Andrei Bogolyubsky, is also found in another story, which has nothing to do with the legend of Kuchka and Yuri Dolgoruk. The name of the prince is not named, but it is said that the murderers were sent to him by an unfaithful wife. Soon after the murder, the prince's brother captured and executed the traitor and her mercenaries, and then, at the scene of their crime, he founded a city – “near the red villages along the Moscow River” – and named it Moscow.

Moscow bells

In ancient Egypt, even 5–6 thousand years ago, bells were ringing on holidays dedicated to the god Osiris. They are mentioned in Chinese, Indian, Japanese and other ancient chronicles.

Long before our era, bells were both signal instruments and messengers-carriers of information. They were used in religious ceremonies, in military affairs, had an aesthetic purpose, and even treated the sick with their help.

In Europe, bells began to be cast around the 5th – 6th centuries. And from the middle of the 9th century, their ringing was fixed in the rites and rituals of the Christian church.

Bells were used in Europe both on holidays and on sorrowful days. They announced military victories, invasions of enemies, fires, floods, epidemics, and the arrival of noble people. The bells sounded a signal of hope for salvation for those lost and in distress.

In ancient legends, it was said that the best defense against bloodthirsty vampires was an aspen stake and a bell ringing. That is why in ancient times the masters who cast bells also made aspen stakes.

The first mentions of bells in Russian chronicles are about a thousand years old.

For the bells, they began to build special belfries and bell towers at Russian monasteries, churches and temples. They were often mentioned in chronicles, state documents, legends and beliefs dedicated to them were created.

The early 19th century historian Alexei Malinovsky gave a similar example in his Review of Moscow:

“…In 1339, the princes of Tver, the sons of the unfortunate Alexander Mikhailovich, killed in the Horde, not daring to resist the will of Ivan Danilovich Kalita, were forced, at his request, to remove a large bell from the cathedral in Tver and send it to Moscow.

…1346 [years] three large and three small bells were fused in Moscow by master Boris.

…1450 [the year] a bell was brought to Moscow from Gorodets, which is near Nizhny Novgorod. 1503 [years] Pyotr Fryazin cast a large bell in Moscow, it contains 350 pounds of copper…”

Alexey Fedorovich Malinovsky and the most famous not only in Russia, but, perhaps, all over the world “Tsar Bell” described in detail:

“…Near the Ivanovo bell towers in the pit there is now a bell, the largest in the world, poured in 1731 at the behest of Empress Anna Ioanovna from the former bell, which was called under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the New, with an addition to eight thousand pounds of copper another two thousand pounds and was named after common people the Tsar-bell.

It depicts the faces of Moscow miracle workers, the empress in the crown and porphyry. No one heard his sounds, because the lit was in the very pit where he has been silently standing for about a hundred years; it may be that it was damaged during casting and left there; and most likely, during the great fire in 1737, the large bells falling from Ivan the Great knocked out the edge of the Tsar Bell…”

Before that, now standing on the foundation in the Kremlin, the two-hundred-five-ton Tsar Bell, there was another “Tsar” in Moscow.

It was cast in the 16th century and weighed about sixteen tons. They hit him only three times with long breaks and only in rare cases. For example, when the death of a tsar or patriarch was announced.

Somewhere in the middle of the 17th century, it was poured with the addition of copper and called “Festive”.

After the war with Poland, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, together with the captured Poles and Lithuanians, sent the “prisoners” bells to Siberia.

Bells have long been given names in Russia. In different centuries, one could meet royal, prisoners, gilded bells, honey bells, miraculous bells, a bear bell, a swan, a sheepshead, a falcon and many others.

The bell ringers themselves called the bells among themselves in their own way, defining the nature of their sound: Praiseworthy, Howler, Gloomy, Anxious, Plakuny, Molodtsov, Slavish…

The official names of the most significant bells – when to bring the good news in them and when to summon to prayer for Matins, Liturgy and Vespers – in the old days were approved by the patriarchs. And later, according to the charter of 1722 – the Holy Synod.

For the casting of the bells, the craftsmen selected the most sonorous metal, the most “long-lasting” metal. These were mainly copper and tin.

But most of the masters had little knowledge of the secrets of additions. It could be gold, silver, iron, nickel… Some gram for a pood – and completely new, unique shades of sound appeared.

Various herbs, infusions, elixirs were added to the bell metal. They recited spells and prayers over him. The masters knew which bell to cast on a full moon, and which at dawn, in summer or winter, in cold or heat.

Film: “Andrei Rublev”, directed by Tarkovsky.

The Golden Horde was the European appanage of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368 CE). Begun in earnest by Batu Khan in 1227 CE, the territory that would eventually become the Golden Horde came to encompass parts of Central Asia, much of Russia, and other parts of Eastern Europe. Later converting to Islam, the Golden Horde would meld aspects of cultures from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East while ruling Russia for over two centuries. At its height, Mongol raids from the Golden Horde extended from the Caucasus to Hungary to Constantinople, inspiring fear across the known the world of the fearsome Mongol horsemen, or, as they knew them, the Tartars.

They Came from the East

IT WAS TO FALL TO JOCHI's SON, BATU KHAN, TO CONSOLIDATE CONQUESTS AROUND THE URAL MOUNTAINS BEYOND ESTABLISH THE GOLDEN HORDE.

Under the leadership of Genghis Khan (r. 1206–1227 CE), the Mongol Empire began the greatest military machine of the medieval world. Expanding from Korea to the Caspian Sea under Genghis’ reign, his sons and grandsons would bring the Mongol Empire to its heights, creating the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen.

According to Mongol tradition, Genghis divided his empire into appanages for each of his four sons. Genghis’ first son, Jochi received the lands furthest from Mongolia, those around the Ural Mountains and beyond. It was to fall to Jochi's son, Batu Khan (r. 1227–1255 CE), to consolidate these future conquests and establish what would become known as the Golden Horde.

Ogedei Khan (r. 1229–1241 CE), Genghis’ son and Batu's uncle, ordered a massive Mongol campaign east across the Ural Mountains to conquer Europe. In 1236 CE, the Mongol horde descended into the Volga River valley. Nothing to stand against Mongol warfare as the Volga Bulgars fell in 1237 CE, followed by the major Russian cities of Vladimir-Suzdal, Kiev, and Halych between 1238 and 124 °CE. Only the city of Novgorod, far to the north, escaped the Mongol onslaught.

The Mongols Sack Suzdal by Unknown Artist (Public Domain)

With Russia vanquished, the Mongol horde marched west. A three-prong attack led by Batu and the famous Mongol general Subotai devastated the Polish and Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Legnica in 1241 CE before the main army crushed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi (aka the Battle of the Sajo River) later that year. Europe lay bare before the seemingly invincible Mongol horde, but the death of Ogedei back in Mongolia made the Mongols retreat and allowed Europe to breathe a sigh of relief. These first raids lead the Europeans to dub the Mongols Tartars, both from the name of a Mongol clan, the Tatars, and the fact that they seemingly came from the depths of hell, or Tartarus.

The Mongols would never venture as far as the Adriatic again, but the Golden Horde would remain a significant presence in Europe for the next two centuries. By playing the role of kingmaker following the death of Guyuk Khan in 1248 CE, Batu established the permanence of his family's rule over the Golden Horde portion of the Mongol Empire. Batu set up a capital at Sarai near the Volga and introduced a pattern of tribute from the Russian princes that would become a hallmark of the Golden Horde. In fact, one of the potential origins of the name “Golden Horde” is that the color derived from that of Batu's splendid golden tent. However, the color gold was associated with Genghis’ family (called the “golden” family) and it was associated with the center in the Mongol's color system for cardinal directions, so those could also be potential origins.

Looking to the South

Batu's brother Berke (r. 1257–1266 CE) continued the precedent of Batu's robust leadership. He led campaigns into Poland, Lithuania, and Prussia, reinforcing the European fear of the Mongols. But perhaps the most important event of Berke's reign was his conversion to Islam.

The fact that Berke was a Muslim put him at odds with Hulegu Khan (r. 1256–1265), the leader of the Ilkhanate, which had conquered Iran and Iraq and had become one of the four main powers in the Mongol Empire. Hulegu had sacked the great Muslim city of Baghdad in 1258 CE and had killed the last Abbasid caliph by rolling him in a carpet and trampling him to death. The Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate also bordered each other in the Caucasus, which became a flashpoint. In 1262 CE, war broke out between the two nominal parts of the Mongol Empire. Berke formed an alliance with Baybars (r. 1260–1277 CE), the Mamluk Sultan in Egypt. An Ilkhanate invasion of the Golden Horde ended in defeat when the Golden Horde general Nogai led a surprise attack at the Battle of Terek in 1262 CE. At the same time as this Berke-Hulegu War, there was a civil war back in Mongolia over who would become Great Khan.

Painting of the Siege of Baghdad by Saint Louis Art Museum (Public Domain)

The Mongol Empire, although it would nominally remain united, was in reality shattered. In the coming decades, the Chaghataids would claim the rest of Transoxiana from the Golden Horde and Berke would die during a march against the Ilkhanate. Later in the 13th century CE, the Golden Horde would become involved in the conflict between Kublai Khan(r. 1260–1294 CE) and the Ogedeid leader Kaidu, supporting the latter. Internecine conflict with the Ilkhanate would continue as well.

Meanwhile, the Golden Horde became involved in the Balkans when a former Seljuk sultan was held captive by the Byzantine Empire. Nogai, with the help of the Golden Horde vassal Bulgaria, invaded the Byzantine Empire in 1271 CE and forced the emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1281 CE) to marry one of his daughters to Nogai. The khan Mengu-Timur (r. 1266–128 °CE) opened the Golden Horde to trade, giving the Genoese and Venice trading colonies at Azov and Caffa, and ordering the Russians to allow German traders into their lands.

After Mengu-Timur's death, Nogai was the de facto ruler of the Golden Horde. He raided Europe from Lithuania to Bulgaria and forced Serbia to accept vassalage. While Nogai was a powerful warrior leader, his death in 1299 CE did not overly halt the campaigns of the Golden Horde.

The Triumph of Islam

The Golden Horde experienced many changes in the 14th century CE. For one, Islam came to stay. While Berke had been the first Mongol prince to convert to Islam, other rulers of the Golden Horde, including Toqta, continued to follow Tengrism (Mongol pagan beliefs) or Buddhism. That changed when Uzbeg (r. 1313–1341 CE) proclaimed Islam as the official religion of the Golden Horde. In this vein, Uzbeg continued to strengthen relations with the Mamluks of Egypt, even marrying a Mongol princess to the Egyptian sultan.

Instead of active military campaigns, Uzbeg and his successors kept the Russian princes subservient and divided by playing them against each other. Tver was the leading city backed by the Mongols, but when the city's population slaughtered their Mongol residents in 1327 CE, Uzbeg switched his support to the city of Moscow.

THE GOLDEN HORDE CAPITAL OF SARAI GREW AS MUSLIM CULTURE's DEMAND FOR MOSQUES BATHHOUSES DICTATED EXPANDED URBAN LIFE.

Under Uzbeg, the Golden Horde remained active. Toqta (r. 1291–1312 CE) married an illegitimate Byzantine princess, strengthening the Golden Horde-Byzantine alliance that had existed since the time of Nogai. Yet under Uzbeg, the Mongols, in alliance with their Bulgarian vassal, raided the Byzantine Empire for two decades. They also propped up an independent Wallachia against Hungary. Meanwhile, Uzbeg opened up the Crimea to trading posts by the Genoese and Venetians. The 1340s CE featured the last Mongol campaigns into Poland.

Uzbeg remained active against the Ilkhanate, invading on several occasions. When the Ilkhanate collapsed in 1335 CE, some Ilkhan nobles turned to Uzbeg to assume the throne, but he declined. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde capital of Sarai grew as Muslim culture's demand for mosques and bathhouses dictated expanded urban life. At perhaps the height of the Golden Horde's power, Janibeg (r. 1342–1357 CE) accepted the vassalage of the Polish king Casimir III the Great (r. 1333–137 °CE), the Chaghataid Khanate, and the Jalayirids of Iraq, as well as conquering the former Ilkhanate city of Tabriz.

The 14th-century CE Decline

Yet the success of Uzbeg and Janibeg quickly unraveled. The Black Death had taken a serious economic toll on the Golden Horde. From 1359 to 1382 CE, the Golden Horde was wracked by civil war. During this time the Mongol grip on Eastern Europe also began to slacken. In fact, the Mongols faced their first serious defeats in Europe during this time. Lithuania defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362 CE, following up the battle by conquering Kiev. The Russian principalities scored their first victory over the Mongols in 138 °CE at the Battle of Kulikovo, which is considered a turning point in Russian history.

Battle of Kulikovo by MaxSem (Public Domain)

Revival Under Tokhtamysh

The decline of the Golden Horde was briefly arrested by Tokhtamysh, a protegee of Tamerlane (r. 1380–1395 CE). Tokhtamysh besieged Moscow in 1382 CE and, ignoring a promise to not attack the city, slaughtered the inhabitants when the city opened its gates. The next year Tokhtamysh avenged the loss at the Battle of Blue Waters by defeating the Lithuanians at the Battle of Poltava. Both the Russians and Lithuanians were back under the Mongol yoke and forced to pay tribute.

But Tokhtamysh's successes made him overreach himself. He next decided to turn on his mentor Tamerlane. Tamerlane's vengeful campaign sacked Sarai, burned the Golden Horde's land, destroyed its army, and forced Tokhtamysh to flee. Tokhtamysh fled to Lithuania and later tried and failed to retake the Golden Horde. Meanwhile, Tamerlane had so devastated the trade routes in the Golden Horde that the state would never recover economically.

Russia Resurgent

After Tamerlane's destruction and the civil wars that followed, the Golden Horde was increasingly limited to the lower banks of the Volga River. The Golden Horde broke up into several separate khanates: the Khanate of Khazan, the Khanate of Astrakhan, the Khanate of the Crimea, the Khanate of Sibir, the Nogai Horde, and the Kazakh Khanate. The last major khan of the Golden Horde, Ahmed (r. 1465–1481 CE), led a campaign against Lithuania and Moldavia that ended in defeat.

Perhaps more importantly for history, Ahmed also led the Mongols during the Battle of the Ugra River in 1480 CE. Ivan III of Moscow soundly defeated the forces of the Golden Horde and the battle has ever since been recognized as the end of the Mongol domination of Russia.

Battle of the Ugra River by Shakko (Public Domain)

A Long Afterglow

When the Golden Horde ended is an answerless question. Even a decade after the Battle of the Ugra River, a Golden Horde raid struck Poland. The broken-off khanates of Russia continued to survive for decades more, and in the case of the Crimean Khanate, even centuries. Most of the Golden Horde's successors were victims of Ivan the Terrible (r. 1547–1584 CE). Khazan fell in 1552 CE, Astrakhan in 1556 CE, and Sibir in 1582 CE. Perhaps the true successor of the Golden Horde was the Crimean Khanate, which sacked Sarai in 1502 CE. Yet the Crimea was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire from 1475 CE onwards. The Crimean Khanate survived until it was annexed by Russia in 1783 CE.

Regardless of when the Golden Horde officially ended, its centuries-long existence left an undeniable mark on Russia and on the history of Eastern Europe. At the crossroads of Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the Golden Horde influenced events from Poland and the Byzantine Empire to Egypt and Central Asia. As the Tartars, the Mongols of the Golden Horde played a key role in the story of the Mongol Empire and in that empire's legacy in Europe and popular imagination.

Crossroads

Among the Slavs, like many other peoples, the crossroads were not only a place and site on earth, but also a deep symbol.

Crossroads were associated with human life, fate, past and future. They were believed to be places pleasing to God. Crossroads have long been of not only geographical, administrative, military, economic, but also religious and cult significance.

These places were called in Russia in the old days “sacres” both because of the crossing of roads, and because crosses were erected here – signs of salvation and warning to all travelers.

It is no coincidence that Russian fairy tales often speak of stones, pillars, and crosses at crossroads, showing travelers three vital paths on which their future depends. Travelers stopped at the crossroads not only to rest, but also to think again where and why they were going, to remember the past, to think about the future, to pray, to turn to God. The sacrum often became the beginning of the construction of a city or village and did not arise by chance. They, like a magnet, attracted people, historical and insignificant events.

They came to the sacrum in the old days to tell fortunes. Candles were lit. In which direction the flame was leaning, from there they expected the envisioned happiness or misfortune.

The grass that sprouted here had magical powers. Sleep-grass, Goryun-grass, Path-grass… Infusions from them cured people, or vice versa – destroyed.

Perhaps there is a certain pattern that for Moscow the cross is not only a symbol of faith: after all, it is located in the center of the intersection of the cross-shaped transcontinental fault.

Hardly anyone knows how many sacrum there have been since the founding of Moscow. Almost all of them are lost in the depths of history. Wars, fires, construction, reconstruction… New political, economic, social tasks and needs… But it is known for certain that Muscovites erected chapels at the intersection of streets and roads, and in them they installed chapels carved out of stone or carved from wood or simply painted on the boards are images of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

In terrible times for the country and the city – wars, epidemics, droughts, fires – the procession stopped here in order to overshadow all four sides with an altar cross.

Large and small, historically significant and minor events unfolded on the Moscow Sacra. They became places of popular gatherings and trade centers.

A patriarchal decree in 1655 commanded: “…On the Moscow Sacra… to click the privet on trading days, so that the tyrants and robbers, murderers and all sorts of thieves bring repentance to God, and their guilt to the Tsar…”

The most famous Moscow Sacres, which were reported by city rumors and historical documents from ancient times, were obviously Varvarsky, Ilyinsky and Nikolsky, which were located in Kitay-gorod.

Chapels from various monasteries and churches were built there. On these sacraments, royal decrees were announced, corporal punishment and executions were performed.

There were sacrum not only in Kitai-Gorod. The Polyansky sacrum was located beyond the Moskva River. Not far from the Kuznetsky Most – Petrovsky, Yegoryevsky and others.

Not far from the Spassky Gate was the Pearl, or Gold sacrum. Until 1729, branded and non-branded gold and silver, pearls and precious stones were traded there. Sometimes customers were shod with fake gold items.

Monasteries

Moiseevsky, female… It was located at Okhotny Ryad. Became known since the 16th century. An almshouse was set up under him. Destroyed in 1789.

Voskresensky-Vysotsky, male, Greek… He was located on Tverskaya Street, opposite the Savvinsky courtyard. Known since the 16th century. By the name of this monastery, the Neglinnye gates of Kitai-gorod are called the Resurrection. The monastery was abolished and broken in 1812. The place is built up with owner's houses.

Nikolsky, female… He was located on Nikitskaya Street, where the parish church of the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Temple, known under the name of Nikola in Khlynov. In 1629 the monastery burned down, destroyed and one parish church was left.

Holy Cross on the Island, on Vozdvizhenka, named after the monastery. Since ancient times, the local tract was called an island because there was once a forest, separated from everywhere in the form of an island by fallows of fields. In the 15th century, on the site of this monastery there was the house of Prince Khovrin. The forests, orchards and vegetable gardens that belonged to this house stretched from Stary Vagankov to the Moscow River, to the Arbat and even to the current Povarskaya Street. Khovrin was the favorite of Vasily the Dark. In 1450, on the site of his house and the former wooden church, he built a new, stone one, and soon afterwards he founded a monastery, in which he himself accepted monasticism. During the invasion of Khan Mehmet, the prince showed himself from the best side (there is a description of his feat). In 1814 the monastery was abolished, and the cathedral church was turned into a parish church.

Varsonofievsky, female, between Lubyanka and Rozhdestvenka streets in a lane named after the monastery. Under the name of Voznesensky on the Moat, this monastery was mentioned for the first time in the 16th century. The founding of the monastery is attributed to Barsanophia, who, according to legend, was the mother of Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow. In ancient times, near this monastery there was a squalid house, that is, a cemetery for the burial of wanderers, the poor and those who died a violent death. This was the reason that False Dmitry, having seized the Russian throne, ordered to transfer the body of Boris Godunov here. Godunov's wife and son Fyodor were also buried here. Under Shuisky, their bodies were transported to the Trinity Lavra. The monastery was abolished in 1764.

Pokrovsky, male… He was located near the Ivanovsky monastery. Destroyed at the beginning of the 17th century. It is known for the fact that in 1479, when the Zlatoust monastery was founded, the old church was moved here, which was located on the site of the monastery.

Georgievsky, female, on Dmitrovka, near Okhotny Ryad… Here was the house of Yuri Zakharievich, the grandfather of Tsarina Anastasia. In this house she was brought up and from it was taken as a wife by Ivan IV Vasilyevich. In memory of this, Anastasia, being already a queen, around 1550 established a female monastery for her support. But here and earlier there was a parish church built by Yuri (Georgy) Zakharievich Koshkin-Zakharov. After 1812 the monastery was abolished. In its place are three parish churches. The interior of the Church of the Great Martyr George is distinguished by the correct size and matching parts. Contemporaries and associates of Peter the Great are buried in it: Zotov, his first teacher, Romodanovsky and Golovin, the famous vice-chancellor, who died in 1755 in Siberia. Near the monastery there was also the church of Anastasia the Uzoroshitelnitsa, founded by Anastasia Romanovna in memory of her former life around this place.

Rare Chapels of Moscow

There are over thirty chapels in Moscow. Almost all of them are built from different monasteries and parish churches.

Birlyukovskaya desert chapel… There are two of them. The first on the Sofiyskaya embankment near the Stone Bridge, the second on the German market. The first of them, in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, formerly belonged to the Donskoy Monastery and was built on the site donated to the monastery by Peter the Great. After the abolition of the monastery, at the request of Metropolitan Platon, the chapel passed into the possession of the Birlyukovskaya Hermitage. There is a particularly revered icon of the Savior and many pieces of holy relics here. The second chapel was built at the beginning of the 19th century. Birlyukova Pustyn is located 40 miles from Moscow, in the Bogorodsky district. Founded in 1777 by Metropolitan Platon.

David's desert… Two chapels. The first on Moskvoretskaya Street, the second on Kaluzhskaya Square. The Davidovskaya Voznesenskaya Hermitage is located 23 versts from Serpukhov. Founded in 1515 by the Monk David. In the first chapel there is a miraculous icon of the All-Merciful Savior.

Danilovsky monastery… On Bolshaya Danilovskaya Street. Built in 1784 by the monastery's archimandrite Gennady.

Golutvinsky monastery… Chapel of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Located on 1st Meshchanskaya.

Pokrovsky monastery… On Taganskaya Square. Built in the 19th century; but after the ruin in 1812, it was rebuilt in 1819 with the monastic funds. There is a shop at the chapel. Another chapel of the same monastery is located on Semenovskaya Street. It has existed since 1779.

Spaso-Andronievsky monastery… It is located not far from the monastery in the direction of the Nizhny Novgorod road. Tradition says that it was placed in the place where the Monk Sergius, after a long conversation with Andronik, the organizer of the Androniev monastery, bade him farewell. This legend is confirmed by history, as it is known that St. Sergius by the will of St. Alexia went to Nizhny Novgorod to pacify Prince Boris, who seized the Nizhny Novgorod principality.

Sergius of Radonezh (Gethsemane skete)… At the Ilyinsky Gate. It was arranged by order of Metropolitan Filaret and consecrated in 1863. There are particles of holy relics here.

St. Feraphon on Kaluga Square… Belongs to the Luzhnitsky Monastery, located near Mozhaisk. In this chapel, at the request of local residents, a prayer service with a procession from three parish churches is held annually on September 28 on the occasion of the deliverance of Moscow from cholera that was in 1830.

Nikolo-Perervinsky monastery… It is located on Serpukhovskaya Square.

St. John the Warrior… In Yakimansky Lane. There are no services in it.

Christ the Savior and the Mother of God… Two chapels at the Spassky Gate. One of them contains an exact copy of the miraculous image of the Savior, which is above the gates.

St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky… On Moiseevskaya Square. Arranged in 1883.

Central Administrative District

Anglican Church

55° 45′ 29.24″ N

37° 36′ 18.31″ E

Address: Voznesensky per., 8. St. Andrew's Anglican Church.

You can get inside only for a service or a concert. You can just go to a concert.

Novy Arbat street

The list of places with possible floaters and voids is numbered 13. According to the digger Vadim Mikhailov, one of the leaders of the Moscow diggers, and Viktor Osipov, director of Geoecology.

Guests from the day after tomorrow

Historical archives of all countries are full of messages about mysterious aliens who “ride on their carts” gullible earthlings not only “in heaven”, but also in Time. Were the ancients really partial to science fiction? Or did they want to give us, their descendants, more secrets and mysteries? Indeed, there is something to be surprised…

Chinese chroniclers of the beginning of the 1st millennium reported: “…Lu Gong, nicknamed Wenjing, together with a servant and a maid, were looking for healing means between the ridges. Suddenly they noticed three people in the gorge. Addressing Lu, they said: “We are immortal celestials from the chambers of Great Purity and Great Harmony… If you follow with us, the secret of immortality will be revealed to you.” Following this, Lu, along with the celestials, disappeared for two days. They taught him a secret spell. Then, releasing Lu, they said: “You, venerable, spent two days with us, but two centuries have passed in the human world.” Lu Gong returned, but saw an empty dwelling. None of the sons and grandchildren remained… “(Purple Jasper. Chinese narrative prose of the 1st-4th centuries. 1989.)

By Alex 'Florstein' Fedorov, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46992058

Other chronicles report about Huangdi, who in the XXVI century BC. e. descended from the sky with his assistants in the area of the Yellow River. After becoming emperor, Huang Ti taught people to dig wells, to be treated with acupuncture, to make boats and musical instruments… But most of all, earthlings were surprised not by new knowledge, but by an amazing tripod, on which their teachers flew “no one knows where”. This apparatus could “rest and walk”, “become light and heavy”, “fly in the clouds like a dragon”, and besides, it “had no barriers in the past and in the future”!

In the saga “The Voyage of Bran, son of Febal,” the protagonist, having stayed in the “big house” for one day, and returning home on the ship, noticed that during this time several generations of people had changed and he was remembered only thanks to ancient oral legends.

By Igor3188 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49298042

Автор: Ludvig14 – собственная работа, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26817936

Basement of the Church of St. Nicholas in Bersenev

Address: Bersenevskaya embankment, 20.

According to legend, an underground passage goes from the basement of the Church of St. Nicholas in Bersenev towards the Kremlin.

“Bermuda” area near Moskovya

All addresses are with the diggers and V. Klimov.

A previously unknown underground river was discovered five meters under the capital's soil.

Igor Shumeiko:

– If you tell someone that there are white spots on the map of the Moscow region, then you can immediately foresee a chorus of refutations: “The Moscow region is a perfectly studied region, there are no“ white spots ”here for a long time!” But, nevertheless, – I will undertake to win an argument from any of the experts. The trick is that “Podmoskoviy” is two! And if the area around Moscow is indeed the most densely populated, studied in Russia, then the area near Moscow, in the literal sense of the word “under-Moskovye” – is “the lost world”, “Himalayas inside out.”

Illegal river

And the most lost, the most “Bermuda” area of this sub-Moscovye, a source of surprises, always unpleasant and sometimes disastrous, is the arc: Samotechnaya Square – Tsvetnoy Boulevard – Trubnaya Square – Neglinnaya. The area of the most significant man-made change in Moscow geo- and hydrography. Back in 1820, the Neglinka River was “enclosed in a pipe”. This calms many people – when the word “pipe” is used, they imagine something like a reliable gas pipeline from Gazprom, but I hasten to reassure you. Physically, it was like this: piles were driven along the coast, blocked with a stone vault, and… However, one of the best essays of the famous Gilyarovsky is dedicated to this. Let's continue it with the words:

“…They laid a wooden floor, arranged street water drains through drainage wells and made an underground cesspool under the streets. In addition to the “legal” runoff for rainwater, most wealthy homeowners put secret underground sewage runoffs in Neglinka, instead of taking them out in barrels, as was the case everywhere in Moscow. The police knew this, the householders knew it, and everyone must have thought: it's not us, it's not going to end with us!.. Water gushed at the doors of shops and in the lower floors… because the never cleaned cloaca could not hold rainwater…

My articles on the underground cesspool made a splash. The Duma decided to begin the reconstruction of Neglinka… the engineer Levachev was entrusted with the task.”

But Gilyarovsky had to return to the topic once again: “Over the decades after Levachev's perestroika, again, dirt and sewage formed a plug in the bend of the canal under Kitayskiy proezd, near the Small Canal…”

Let us note two characteristic moments in the developing history of the Neglinka region – a river that has passed, so to speak, “into an illegal position.”

1. The authorities periodically “open up, clean out” the underground river.

2. Sources of clogging, silting – “unaccounted for” sewage effluents continue to operate.

By the way, the above alignment in some incomprehensible, just mystical way was displayed on the surface of the “cloaca”. Indeed, the Central Bank of Russia is located on Neglinnaya Street, the essence of whose efforts is very, very similar to what is happening literally five meters below it. The same struggle with “unaccounted for” financial flows, periodic “opening” of some banks, and the same remaining sources of sewage – sorry – “black cash”.

Empire of government “Moscow kollector”

But let us return from the virtual to the real sub-Muscovy, which is unique in one more circumstance. We are talking about “Empire Moskollektor”.

Historians and urban planning theorists have yet to analyze all the architectural, economic, and possibly military-political factors that have caused the rapid development of a complex engineering system in Moscow – underground collectors for engineering communications. 650 km of collectors are available in Moscow. In other cities, this engineering solution has not received such distribution: the closest “pursuers” are St. Petersburg and Togliatti (50 and 80 km, respectively).

A collector is, in fact, a pipe of round or rectangular cross-section, which contains: pipelines for cold and hot water supply, heat supply, power cables, communication cables, and until recently – and gas pipelines. Surprisingly, even before 1989, there was no organization in Moscow for the operation of underground collectors. There was a kind of “elective”: enterprises for the construction and repair of bridges – some of their specialists were responsible for the collectors. The underground structures and the utilities laid in them were in a state of… like the “winter of 1991–1992”.

Because of the groundwater, some collectors were simply impassable. The lighting hardly worked, and neither did the drainage. Obstruction of household and technical waste, corrosion. The entrances were not equipped with locking devices, hence the theft of cables, arson, spontaneous abodes of homeless people.

The great merit of the then member of the Moscow government, Alexander Matrosov: the “Moskollector” he created managed to put things in order in the “labyrinth”. Just before the onset of the period of the so-called “terrorist manifestations”.

The chief engineer of the State Unitary Enterprise “Moskollektor” Gennady Mosin described the farm under his jurisdiction:

“26 thousand units of ventilation and pumping equipment, 12 thousand ground structures, more than 3 thousand methane sensors, 150 kilometers of security and fire alarm systems. The former brick ground ventilation kiosks were broken with one blow, now they are reinforced concrete, with locks and alarms. The operational and dispatching service of Moskollektora was incorporated into the Unified System of Operational Dispatch Management in Emergencies of the City of Moscow. Since 1995, there is a deputy for security and a special department. These are all people who came, let's say, from the relevant authorities. The schemes of interaction with the Ministry of Emergency Situations have been debugged.”

More about security systems Gennady Nikolaevich did not begin – for reasons of the same security.

“Our service is very specific,” he emphasizes. – We do not need to engage in self-promotion. When we are not seen, not heard, there is no mention in city reports – this is the main indicator of our good work. As our general director Alexander Morozov says: “We must exclude a place for heroic deeds.” After the explosion on the Entuziastov highway, we created a gas protection service. An analysis of the gas-air environment is carried out before entering the collector. But the most correct, systemic solution is the removal of gas pipelines from the ground, which is already close to full implementation.”

– Another fashionable topic related to your farm – diggers, – I again turn to Gennady Mosin…

– I had to cross with their leader – Vadim Mikhailov, – says the chief engineer of Moskollektor. “One might say, they do not help us, but they hardly interfere. Their energy would be directed to a peaceful channel.”

Tributary of the Neglinka – Neuchtenka

It can be admitted quite objectively: the situation near Moscow is improving. Gone – pah-pah! – in the past “geysers” and boiling water lakes. The “geology” of Moscow is being actively studied, and, most importantly, it is being improved even more actively. Remember the succession of sinkholes that dragged people and machines in? (Again, I will draw your attention to the earthly underground mysticism: as you know, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street, connecting the Upper with the Lower House of the Federal Assembly, that is, the Federation Council with the State Duma, collapsed.)

The last surprises, as one might expect, are brought by the shores of the “illegal”, “underground” Neglinka… For example, an interesting and beautiful object was planned at the corner of Sadovo-Samotechnaya and Tsvetnoy boulevards: the Elina Cultural and Social Women's Center. The author of the idea is our legendary actress Elina Bystritskaya.

Of course, Elina Avraamovna will see her dream come true, but… a little later. Why? There is a strict procedure: builders receive from the city a detailed description of the site for future development. The builders of “Elina” were unlucky at once: quicksand and groundwater. But what they discovered at a depth of 4 meters can be compared to a bomb – a duty image, but only with real bombs they spend half a day, and here the builders had to deal with their “find” – six months!

And historians argue to this day: whether it is a tributary of the Neglinka, taken into a brick pipe, or a specially laid channel to the fountain that worked in the 19th century on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. This one was not listed on any scheme where much less significant collectors were registered. It is also interesting: the source (or source?) Of the water that flooded the entire construction site has not been found. For many nights – so as not to interfere with the noise of traffic – prospectors wandered along Sadovo-Samotechnaya with an echo sounder, tracing the channel. We got to Prospect Mira, then the trail was lost. And the builders had to use the most radical and expensive method: to intercept (the river? The channel?) Higher and to bypass the “dream of Elina Bystritskaya”…

In general, this was the largest discovery in the history of Moscow hydrography, and if it turns out to be a river, it will be necessary to give it some name. Trial option: tributary Neglinka – Neuchtenka.

Premises of the Exhibition Archaeological Complex

They will be located in the underground space of the atrium from the side of Ilyinka, resting in the opposite direction on Khrustalny Lane. The exposition area itself is lowered almost 4 meters below the courtyard mark. Together with the utility rooms, the total area of the complex will be 778 square meters.

The system of showcases for the exposition of the finds of the Center for Archaeological Research of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Monuments of the City of Moscow includes a hermetically glazed archaeological excavation under the floor of the exhibition area. Inside the showcases, a constant climatic regime and illumination are provided for better preservation and demonstration of exhibits.

It is planned to open another, third, local museum of archeology in Mitino, on the territory of a nature conservation park. This was announced at a press conference by the head of the Moscow Center for Archaeological Research Alexander Veksler. He believes that the past 10 years have become an important milestone in the study of the history of the capital. With a sharp increase in the scale of construction of various objects in the city, the volume of archaeological research has also increased. The negative attitude towards archaeologists, allegedly “interfering” and hindering construction, was replaced by their full support from the capital's administration. This is evidenced by the decision made by the City Government on the need to coordinate with archaeologists all design estimates for the construction of facilities in the city, all orders for earthworks. Furthermore.

By the decision of the Moscow Government, not only individual objects, but an entire cultural layer, as, for example, within the Kamer-Kollezhsky Val, were declared a monument of archeology. Projects have been developed for preserving the foundations of ancient Moscow churches – St. Nicholas on Ilyinka and the Assumption on Pokrovka. In addition, 217 historical objects outside the historical part of the city – villages, monasteries – also received the status of protected by the state, in particular, the territory of the Spassky meadow and the floodplain of the river in Mitino. This means a ban on construction work without prior archaeological research.

Currently, work is underway, or directly during construction, at 424 sites in the city, not counting those where archaeological supervision is carried out.

The most significant among them is the Old Gostiny Dvor. Alexander Veksler noted the fantastic results of the ongoing archaeological work, which yielded a huge number of valuable finds in uncovered ancient structures. The cultural layer from 5 to 12 meters was completely intact thanks to the coordinated actions of historians and builders. Over 1000 buildings have survived, including those erected since the founding of Gostiny Dvor in the 15th century. Unique items were found in them, in particular the largest treasure of Russian silver kopecks in Moscow. Moscow Mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov, having familiarized himself with the finds, noted the need for their museumification.