Kremlin dungeons, striking the imagination not only with their size, but also with the many secrets they kept, became the legacy of the last princes of the Rurik dynasty: Ivan III, his son Vasily III and, finally, the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. They were arranged and royal treasuries, and powder depots, and gloomy dungeons, not inferior to those created in the castles of medieval Europe.
Secrets hidden in the dungeons
Over the past three centuries, attempts have repeatedly been made to penetrate the secrets of the dungeons that lie in the very center of the capital. Sometimes the reason was not only curiosity, but also purely mercantile interest. Tradition has it that the dungeons of the Moscow Kremlin hide in their secret rooms chests full of gold that belonged to the treasury or were the personal reserves of its rulers.
But not only "despicable metal" always attracted researchers of underground labyrinths, there is reason to believe that the greatest historical and spiritual value of antiquity, the library of Ivan the Terrible, has been hidden in them and has been waiting for its owners for many years. Containing several thousand valuable scrolls and folios, it once belonged to the emperors of Byzantium, and in the XI century to the Grand Kiev Prince Yaroslav the Wise. It is generally accepted that Ivan the Terrible shortly before his death ordered to hide this treasure in the depths of the dungeons.
Sexton-caver
The first attempt known today to open the veil of the unknown was made in 1718 by the sexton of the Presnensky Church of John the Baptist Konon Osipov. The impetus for this was the previously heard by him the story of the clerk of the Treasury order Vasily Makaryev, who, following the command of Tsarevna Sophia, went down first into the Kremlin's dungeons near the Tainitskaya tower and saw there vast premises filled with darkened chests from time to time. The clerk himself had already died by then.
In the Tainitskaya tower itself, Osipov managed to find the entrance to the gallery, littered with earth. It was possible to move along it only after preliminary excavating the passage. But as soon as he and the soldiers allocated to help him went deep several meters, the gallery vaulted donkey, threatening to collapse at any moment. Not wanting to risk either his life or the lives of the soldiers, the sexton abandoned his plan.
Subsequent attempts
He had to resume the expedition six years later, but not according to his will, but on the orders of Peter I. The Tsar, as you know, did not like to joke, and, having refused, the ill-fated sexton could part with his life without descending into the underground of the Kremlin. This time, it was not soldiers who were allocated to help him, but convicted criminals: they would die under the rubble, and okay. However, he still did not dare to try again in the Tainitskaya tower.
This time, Osipov began with the Arsenal Corner Tower and soon managed to discover the entrance to the dungeon there. But it was impossible to move along it because of spring water, with which it was completely flooded. I had to come back again with nothing. The sexton made the last attempt another ten years later. He tried to repeat the route that was once executed by the official clerk Makaryev, however, even here the dungeons of the Moscow Kremlin were impregnable.
Investigations of Prince Shcherbakov
Over the next hundred and sixty years, expeditions to the dungeons were not undertaken. In any case, there is no information about them. The story told above was continued only at the end of the 19th century, when Prince Nikolai Shcherbakov, a scientist who was then an official on special assignments, became interested in the secrets hidden under the walls of the Kremlin.
At the base of the Nabatnaya tower, he found a walled entrance to the gallery leading to the neighboring Konstantin-Eleninsky tower. Having disassembled the masonry, the prince found himself in a vaulted underground corridor and, moving along it, found a room in which dozens of cannonballs were stored . Subsequently, the prince discovered another passage to this secret arsenal, leading from the same Alarm Tower, but from the other side.
Discoveries made by the prince
The prince tried to investigate the Angular Arsenal Tower, in which the sepulcher Osipov failed before him, but just like that, he retreated without risking to entrust his life to dilapidated vaults, ready to collapse at any moment. Later, already under the Borovitskaya Tower, he managed to unearth a chapel, an underground passage leading to the Imperial Square of the Kremlin, as well as a number of premises that had a fortification purpose.
With the help of the imperfect photographic technique at that time, the prince captured all the dungeon he had studied under the Kremlin. Photos were then stored in his personal collection until the revolution.
Life dictated need
After the Bolsheviks came to power, the new owners, first of all, made sure that potential enemies could not use the Kremlin's dungeons to carry out terrorist acts. For this purpose, by their order, all photographs and plans made by Prince Shcherbakov were seized and, apparently, destroyed, and most of the underground passages and premises were walled up.
However, in 1933, near the Armory, the Red Army soldier unexpectedly fell underground under the guard. This was evidence that the dungeon under the Kremlin required a detailed study, otherwise it could be fraught with danger of collapse.
By the way, this case was not the first. As early as 1882, on the site between the Tsar Cannon and the wall of the Chudov Monastery, the ground unexpectedly failed, revealing an underground building unknown until then. In September 1933, it was decided to conduct research and necessary preventive measures. The leading archaeologist Ignatius Stelletsky was entrusted with leading them.
Research results
Several lines of underground communications were discovered and studied, one of which had direct access to the Alexander Garden. However, the main interest for scientists was the entrance to the dungeons of the Arsenal corner tower. As it turned out during the work, the spring that flooded it was enclosed in a wide and deep well, equipped with a spillway. It was his clogging that caused the overflow of the well and the subsequent flooding of the entire room.
At that time, the work was not completed, they were completed only in 1975. Having pumped out water and clearing the path to the base of the well, scientists discovered two military helmets, fragmented chain mail and several stone cannonballs. All these finds were dated to the XIV century.
Random finds
But not only scholars who studied the dungeons of the Kremlin shared various discoveries. There were completely unexpected finds. For example, in 1930, during excavation work on Red Square, workers discovered an underground passage at a depth of five meters, in the depths of which several skeletons dressed in armor were revealed to them. The reason that made these warriors end their lives in the darkness of the dungeons will remain forever a mystery.
There is also a known case when an insignificant crack that appeared in 1960 on the wall of the mausoleum prompted a study of the soil on which it was erected. As a result, at a depth of fifteen meters, an underground passage was discovered so spacious that an adult could move along it at full height.
Death hidden in the dungeons
Almost a hundred years earlier (in 1840), during the excavation of the foundation pit for the foundation of the Cathedral of the Annunciation Monastery, a very sinister find awaited the builders: the earth wall suddenly collapsed, and an underground passage opened before them, filled with a pile of human remains. We will never know about the tragedy that took place here, which cost the lives of these people.
But there are dungeons whose terrible destiny has become the property of history. It has been documented that under the corner of the Beklemishevskaya tower, facing the Vasilievsky Descent, there were dungeons in the bowels of the earth in which, for centuries, those who had suffered the wrath of the sovereign were martyred. Here, by order of Ivan III, for the impudent speeches, the boyar I.N. Berseniu-Beklemishev, and here, after much torture, Prince A.F., accused of treason, died Khovansky.
Legends and traditions of the underworld
The dungeons of the Kremlin, photos of which are presented in this article, store many places associated with blood and torment. Is it any wonder that the most incredible legends about people from the other world, wandering in underground corridors and sometimes terrifying random witnesses, are associated with them.
Most often, they mention the spirit of Ivan the Terrible, deprived of eternal rest for his atrocities and doomed to endless wanderings. A record of a meeting with him was preserved, made in May 1896 personally by Nicholas II, who was in the Moscow Kremlin on the occasion of the coronation. He and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna in those days had the blood-stained ghost of a tyrant king, which subsequently gave rise to many to see this as an omen of the future collapse of a three-hundred-year dynasty.
Imposter spirit
But not only the spirit of the formidable king violates the Kremlin’s nightlife. After an impostor, who went down in history under the name of False Dmitry I, was torn to pieces by an angry mob in May 1606, his ghost began to appear between the battlements of ancient walls from time to time. It is curious that the last time his appearance was noticed on an August night of 1991, just before the start of well-known events.
Sentinel turning gray during the night
The mysticism and the dungeons of the Kremlin have long merged. Evidence of this was the story, which became widely known forty years ago. One night a young guard, who was at a post in an old building near the Patriarchal Chambers, raised the alarm, where the apartment of the infamous People's Commissar of Internal Affairs N.I. Yezhova.
The team arrived a couple of minutes later and found their colleague sitting on the pavement near the entrance in a state of deep shock. His hair was completely gray, and his face had changed so much that it was hard to guess the familiar features.
Native of another world
Only a few days later in the ward of the military hospital, the guard was able to give his first testimony. As it became known from his words, around midnight, he distinctly heard the sound of steps descending the stairs. After that, a key in the lock of a locked and sealed outer door tinkled below. Without doubting that there was an unauthorized entry into the object protected by him, the guard pressed the alarm button, and he, unfastening his holster while running, rushed after the intruder.
Jumping out into the street, he saw a few steps away from himself a receding short figure in a long-field overcoat. An unknown man stopped at his shout and turned around. In the moonlight, in front of him stood the bloody Commissar of the NKVD, well known from old photographs.
Such a striking resemblance to Yezhov, the young and strong nerves of the sentry, perhaps, could withstand. But when he began, slowly dissolving in the air, to fall underground, a guy had a nervous shock. Three months later, he was commissioned.
Excursions to the world of the unknown
The secrets of the Moscow Kremlin, the dungeon and all the streets adjacent to it attract not only scientists, but also those who value our history. And there are many such people in the country. In addition, there are just lovers of thrills and excess adrenaline in the blood. Their imagination is whipped up by stories about what is hidden in the dungeon of the Kremlin, about those otherworldly forces that guard these treasures. They are not afraid of either fatigue or financial expenses.
These days, they have the opportunity to personally visit the dungeons of the Kremlin. The tour can be ordered at any of the travel agencies specializing in this direction. Pre-staffed groups are led by professional diggers and spelethologists - specialists in the study of underground utilities and artificial caves.
Enthusiasm and horror experienced in the dungeons
On agency-owned websites you can find records of those who have already visited the dungeons of the Moscow Kremlin. Reviews are usually the most enthusiastic. Despite the fact that each agency organizes excursions in its own way and submits material differently, in general, excursionists have an unforgettable impression, which then remains in their memory for a long time.
The only thing that many people pay attention to is the physical activity causing fatigue associated with walking through the underground labyrinths. But the pleasure received from contact with the mysterious world is worth it.