The Patriarch's Ponds are a corner at the edge of the universe. Patriarch's Ponds

Secrets of the Patriarch's Ponds

Why Mikhail Berlioz And Ivan Bezdomny met Volanda exactly on Patriarchal? It is difficult to find a place in Moscow that would be associated with evil spirits more than Patriarchal settlement.

In the Middle Ages, this area was called the Goat Marshes. Everyone now thinks it's because goats were grazing there. However, goats have nothing to do with it. It's not about the goats, but about the machinations - those machinations that she perpetrated devilry the inhabitants of these places.
In very ancient times, when Moscow was not yet Moscow, priests of an ancient pagan cult drowned their victims in this place. On especially solemn occasions, the victim's head was cut off.

Is this why Berlioz died such an exotic death? From these very swamps flowed the Chertory stream, which flowed along the wall White City- current Boulevard Ring- and flowed into the Moscow River near the Chertolsky Gate.

Until the 17th century, there was a swamp on the site of the ponds, and goats were bred nearby, the wool of which was supplied to royal court. Today, all that remains of the Goat Swamp are the names of the lanes - Maly and Bolshoi Kozikhinsky. This beautiful place and chose Patriarch Hermogenes as his residence.

Patriarch Hermogenes

The Patriarchal Settlement became one of the richest in the city. It grew significantly, three churches were erected, and the number of residential buildings increased. And in 1683, Patriarch Joachim ordered to drain the swamps and dig three ponds in which fish could be raised for the patriarchal table. Such ponds can be found throughout Moscow. In the Patriarch's they bred the simplest varieties of fish, and, for example, in Presnensky - expensive varieties that were served on the table during the holidays.

For the first time, Patriarch Joachim, who took office on July 26, 1674, undertook to fight the evil spirits that lived there.

Patriarch Joachim

In 1655 he left military service and became a monk, but he still had military habits, and he decided to fight the devils and kikimors in a military way. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-three, in order to drain the Koznie swamps, the patriarch ordered three ponds to be dug, and the patriarch ordered that famous stream, which was not by chance named CHERTORYsky, to be filled up. The swamp was drained, but the stream continued to exist.
In 1832, they decided to liquidate the Chertorysky Stream again. For this purpose, two of the three Patriarch's ponds were filled up. However, this did not harm the stream at all, and it continues to flow to this day.
IN Pigit's house, built in 1904 in the same place, in the Patriarchal Sloboda, Anna Savelyevna lived in the fifth apartment Pigit, daughter of the homeowner Savely Ilyich - the son of the builder of this house - and, at the same time, a former Socialist-Revolutionary political prisoner.

And living with this daughter in apartment No. 5 of this very house was her former bunk neighbor Fani Roydman, whose real name was Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan - the same Kaplan who shot Lenin.

The question, however, is how she shot, because while she was in hard labor, she was practically blind and could not see anything from a distance of more than a yard.
And one more question, why Lenin was so lucky.
The poisoned bullet had no effect. The poison curare turned out to be harmless for Lenin. The second bullet was an explosive dum-dum type. The wound from this bullet healed on him like a dog. Anyone else would have died within five minutes from unstoppable bleeding. The third bullet was silver. Firstly, these are the bullets used to hunt vampires. Probably, those who attempted to attack had reason to consider Lenin a representative of the Evil Spirit.
For some reason this silver bullet didn’t hit. Instead of Lenin, it hit the chest of the wardrobe maid Popova from the Petropavlovsk hospital. She came to the rally at the Mikhelson plant on purpose to ask Lenin why goods were being taken away from the bag makers. I managed to ask when he was already leaving and walking to the car. And at that moment I received a bullet. But Lenin survived.

He turned his suspicions on Sverdlov, and a few months later he died as if from pneumonia.
But the most interesting thing happened in 1925-35 - in those years a gang of hypnotists actually operated in Moscow. The fact is that the described Bulgakov Korovyov's tricks and a cat swinging on a chandelier, which no one can hit, are just a small part of what average-capable pop hypnotists could do in those years.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov

It is not surprising that many of them, having learned this craft from each other, were not averse to mischief. And sometimes they committed even more serious crimes. The most common of these crimes were robberies and rapes of hypnotized citizens, and the most harmless were cases of banknote fraud. So, on the eighteenth of March thirty-four, the appearance of two strange citizens was recorded.

Patriarch's Ponds during the time of Bulgakov. Then they rode on boats along their water surface, and in one of the first versions of the novel, Woland swam to the homeless man and Berlioz on a boat, but by the time the final edition of the novel appeared, the boat station had already been liquidated, and Bulgakov had to make adjustments to the novel. Subsequently boat station then appeared, then disappeared again.

One of them, fat and short, dressed in a vulgar three-piece intellectual suit, had on his head an old regime bowler hat with a fairly worn brim. He had a cane in his hand, which he constantly twirled with three fingers like Charlie Chaplin. The other, thin and long, was dressed in a long untucked shirt, belted with a Caucasian cavalry belt with numerous pendants, an unbuttoned gray jacket, on the lapel of which there was a GTO badge, and a gray cap pulled down on his forehead to the very eyebrow.

The first citizen, as it later turned out, bore the surname Binder. The second introduced himself with the surname Orleansky. The first person to get scammed was a salesman from a furniture store. Around four o'clock in the afternoon, the said citizens appeared at store No. 4 of the Moscow Mosmebel trust and, approaching the seller, asked to sell them two wardrobes. The seller of the fourth store, citizen Studenitser, explained to citizen Binder (not inclined then) and citizen Orleans that the required cabinets were sold to the population at a retail price of one hundred and seventy-nine rubles, but only by appointment. This entry was introduced on January 1 of that very thirty-fourth year to combat irresponsible citizens crowding in lines outside furniture stores.

Having heard the explanations of the seller, the one who bore the last name Binder began to be loudly indignant, publicly threatening Studenitser with an appeal to the Moscow Soviet. The other, who introduced himself to everyone by the last name Orleans, on the contrary, approached Studenitser and whispered something in his ear.
Studenitzer looked around and whispered something in response to Orleans' ear. After that, looking around furtively, all three went into the back room, where Binder and Orleansky each handed Studenitzer forty rubles in ten-ruble bills.
When citizen Studenitser, having received a bribe and written out a direction to the cashier for Binder and Orleans, leaving the back room, was detained by employees of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia. When asked what was in his pockets, Studenitser, in the presence of witnesses, honestly answered that in his pocket were eight chervonets, which he received for the service of painting and packing furniture. Sixteen rubles are due to him personally, forty he must give to the store manager, citizen Mezdrikov, and the remaining twenty-four were intended for loaders, dyers and packers. When, in the presence of witnesses, Studenitser was forced to empty his pockets, instead of chervonets, they contained eight labels of port wine No. 10, produced by the Rosglavvino trust. They decided to detain everyone just in case. Half an hour later, the former salesman Studenitser was taken to the police station in a police car. Mezdrikov, who until that moment was in charge of the fourth furniture store, was also taken away on it. At the same time, the detainees Binder and Orleansky, since there was no room for them in the car, were sent to the police station on foot, accompanied by one policeman. However, before the end of the working day, neither Binder, nor Orleans, nor the policeman accompanying them arrived at the station. The search for the missing people yielded no results. Only three days later, in Novosibirsk, the same policeman, completely devoid of the most basic reason, was removed from the Moscow-Vladivostok train. At the time of discovery, the policeman was in a state of stupor with his limbs tucked to his stomach and his head pressed to his chest with his chin. He didn't answer any questions external stimuli did not react, and, in addition, was untidy in physiological functions.
The medical team that arrived for examination, after a quick examination, stated a catatonic stupor.
Part of this story ended up in Izvestia. After this, episodes with chervonets appeared in Bulgakov’s novel, although he no longer lived in this house. But the story was loud.
The whole gang was caught on May 14, 1934, and they were caught in that very house, but not in apartment 50, but in apartment 13.
Another of the mysteries of the Patriarch's Pond is that neither dogs nor cats approach it, and swans and ducks, swimming on the pond during the day, for some reason prefer to fly to the zoo at night.

Few people know that a document is kept in the archives of the 9th police department. Its essence is as follows: ten-year-old Misha K. bet with his friends that he could swim across the pond. It was about nine o'clock in the evening. The boy undressed and swam. In the middle of the pond, he suddenly screamed wildly and went under the water like a stone. The frightened children ran away and told the adults about the incident only the next morning. The search measures taken did not yield any results: the body was never found...
Here, nearby, in house number 28 on Kachalova Street - now again Malaya Nikitskaya - there was a mansion Beria . In 1910, the architect Erichson built this house for the manufacturer Bakakin. This building is now the Tunisian Embassy. There is information that in fact Beria was not convicted and shot, but was killed in this mansion at the time of his arrest.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria

Then the patriarchate fell into decline, the settlement passed into the hands of other owners, and the ponds were abandoned and swamped as unnecessary. IN early XIX century, it was decided to eliminate the newly emerged swamps. The ponds were filled up, sparing only the largest one, which was put in order, cleaned, beautified and surrounded by a small beautiful square, which was initially called “Patriarch’s Pond Boulevard”. And the “Three Ponds”, which once hosted lively fishing, have not sunk into oblivion without a trace. They gave the name to Trekhprudny Lane, where Marina Tsvetaeva was born. About Us great love described her childhood spent in this alley in the novel “My Pushkin”.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva

Patriarch's Ponds are integral part literary life pre-revolutionary Moscow. Leo Tolstoy brought his daughters to the crowded and very popular skating rink among Muscovites.

Here he also placed the hero of his novel “Anna Karenina” Levin, who was desperately looking for Kitty here. Walking along the alley, his namesake A.N. Tolstoy listened to the nightingales. Well, the famous novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” turned the Patriarch’s Ponds into a very iconic place. There are still rumors that it was not without reason that Woland first appeared here, and Annushka accidentally spilled the oil.

They say that the evil spirit that lived in the swamps continued to plot intrigues against the residents of the Patriarchal Settlement even after Joachim unsuccessfully tried to drive it out of there.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked active development the area adjacent to the ponds. The largest houses and mansions were erected. After the revolution, in 1924, an attempt was made to rename the ponds to Pionerskie, but the name never took root. But monuments of Soviet architecture, such as the famous House with Lions (residence for the highest military leaders of the USSR) in Ermolaevsky Lane, will remind of the Soviet past of the Patriarch's Ponds for a long time.

"Bulgakovsky" house with “Bad apartment” today

In 1974, a monument to I. A. Krylov appeared on the boulevard. The famous fabulist is represented by sculptors A. A. Drevin and D. Yu. Mitlyansky, surrounded by twelve of his most famous characters: a monkey with glasses, a crow with a piece of stolen cheese, a barking Moska, etc.

monument to Ivan Andreevich Krylov

And in 1986, it was decided to restore the pavilion on the shore of the decorative pond, which was located on this site in 1938. Not only were they borrowed from the old pavilion appearance And architectural features, but also quite tangible reliefs, modules and unique stucco molding.

In 2003, a large-scale reconstruction of the Patriarch's Ponds and the surrounding park was carried out. The reservoir was once again cleaned, the banks were strengthened and the long-awaited fish were released into the pond. In addition to fish, the pond is home to ducks and swans, of which summer time Muscovites feed them with pleasure. The trees in the park were replaced, the paths were paved with paving stones and paving slabs, benches and new city lighting masts were installed. After this, the pond, pavilion and park became objects cultural heritage. Now they are protected by the state.

In 1999, they planned to erect a monument to Bulgakov on the Patriarch’s Pond, which would be a sculptural ensemble of the writer sitting on the shore and the characters of his novel. Yeshua Ha-Notsri should have walked along the water to Bulgakov, the Master and Margarita, Koroviev, Azazello, Behemoth and others would have been sitting around the pond on the shore. The cost of the project and numerous protests from local residents forced it to be abandoned.

Today the Patriarch's Ponds are a favorite place for walks. IN winter time You can go ice skating on the pond; in the summer, you can have a snack on the shore of the pond, taking delicious cakes from neighboring cafes.

The entire park complex occupies 2.2 hectares, of which 6323 m2 are allocated for paths and playgrounds, and green spaces- 7924 m2. The area of the pond itself today is 0.0099 km2, and its depth reaches 2.5 meters.

Patriarch's ponds in early spring: there is no snow anymore, but the ice has not yet melted.

Sergey Shumakov

Patriarch's Ponds are foggy.

The world of their shadows is mysterious and fragile,

and blue reflections of boats

visible against the dark green water.

(Evgeny Yevtushenko)

Patriarch's Ponds is a famous pond in the center of Moscow, which is often associated with mysticism. Although, it would probably be more correct to say “Patriarchal”, because of the several ponds located here earlier, only one remains.

Initially, in this place there was a swamp called Kozye, from which flowed the Chertory stream, the Bubna and Kabanka rivers (tributaries of the Presnya River). In the 17th century, the Patriarchal Settlement was founded here. In 83-84. In the 17th century, by decree of Patriarch Jokim, three ponds were dug here, in which fish were bred for the patriarchal table. It was these ponds that gave the name to Trekhprudny Lane (or “Three Ponds”).

When the patriarchate was abolished, the Patriarchal Settlement began to decline, and a swamp reappeared in this place. But in the first half of the 19th century, this place was renovated again, a square called “Patriarch’s Pond Boulevard” was laid out, and one of the three ponds was left.

Many people came here to visit and to the winter skating rink. famous poets and writers and others famous personalities: L.N. Tolstoy and A.N. Tolstoy, Pushkin, Krylov, Zhukovsky, Gogol, Blok, Mayakovsky, actress Lyudmila Gurchenko, aircraft designer Polikarpov, painters Vasily Surikov and Vasily Polenov and many others.

The area near the Patriarch's Ponds was a favorite place for developers - new residential buildings were actively built here and in tsarist time, and during the USSR. True when Soviet power For ideological reasons, Patriarch's Ponds and adjacent lanes were renamed Pionersky, and only in 1992 were their original names returned.

Monuments of the Patriarch's Ponds

There are not many monuments on the territory of the Patriarch’s Ponds, or rather, just one. And it was delivered to the great Russian fabulist I.A. Krylov. The monument consists of the figure of Krylov himself and twelve of his heroes.

A grandiose monument to Bulgakov and his heroes from the novel “The Master and Margarita” could appear here. A competition for the best sketch was held in 1999, but local residents actively opposed this idea, and the project had to be cancelled.

And about the fact that the Patriarch's Ponds are associated with the most famous novel Bulgakov is now reminiscent of one single pseudo-car sign installed by the residents of the area themselves, which reads: “It is forbidden to talk to strangers.”

The mysticism of the Patriarch's Ponds

One of mystical stories this place is associated with original name swamps (“Goat”), which were located here before Patriarch Hermogenes chose the area for his residence.

According to one version, quite ordinary and everyday, they were named so because large quantity goats that once grazed along the banks of the swamps. Another, mystical version, connected this place with supernatural forces living here and plotting evil machinations for the poor local residents: domestic animals disappeared without a trace - ducks, geese and others.

Much later, when ponds had already appeared, people began to drown here, whose bodies could not be found, although the ponds themselves were not deep at all.

In general, a shroud of mystery has surrounded this area since ancient times, so it is not at all surprising that Bulgakov chose it as the place where the plot of his novel begins:

" One day in the spring, at the hour of an unprecedentedly hot sunset, two citizens appeared in Moscow, on the Patriarch's Ponds<...>Finding themselves in the shade of slightly green linden trees, the writers first rushed to the colorfully painted booth with the inscription “Beer and water”. "

It is here that Woland and his retinue first appear and many dramatic events begin. Sitting on a bench with Berlioz and Bezdomny, they argue about the existence of God. This bench is located on an alley parallel to Malaya Bronnaya. By the way, the writer’s friends lived here, and many researchers of Bulgakov’s work are convinced that the bench is located exactly opposite their entrance.

According to the plot of the novel, here Berlioz falls under a tram, which was allegedly turning from the newly built Ermolaevskaya line to Bronnaya:

" ... and under the bars of the Patriarchal Alley a round dark object was thrown onto the cobblestone slope. Having rolled down this slope, he jumped on the cobblestones of Bronnaya. It was Berlioz's severed head. "

True, in reality, in the place where Berlioz’s death is described, trams did not run. Their paths were laid further, along Sadovaya Street, where Bulgakov’s “bad” Moscow apartment No. 50 was located in house No. 10.

And, of course, it is from here that the poet Bezdomny begins his pursuit of Woland and his retinue.

Patriarch's Ponds today

The Patriarch's Ponds today are a resting place for ordinary people and “pilgrimages” for lovers of mysticism and admirers of Bulgakov and his “Master and Margarita”. There is a children's playground and many benches for relaxing in the shade of trees. Mystical excursions “Around Bulgakov’s places in Moscow” are also offered here.

In 2003, after reconstruction, Patriarch's Ponds were classified as cultural heritage sites and are protected by the state.

It is difficult to find a place in Moscow that would be associated with evil spirits more than Patriarchal settlement. In the Middle Ages, this area was called the Goat Marshes. Everyone now thinks it's because goats were grazing there. However, goats have nothing to do with it. It's not about the goats, but about the intrigues - those intrigues that evil spirits perpetrated on the inhabitants of these places...

In very ancient times, when Moscow was not yet Moscow, priests of an ancient pagan cult drowned their victims in this place. On especially solemn occasions, the victim's head was cut off. Is this why Berlioz died such an exotic death? From these very swamps flowed the Chertory stream, which flowed along the wall of the White City - the current Boulevard Ring - and flowed into the Moscow River near the Chertolsky Gate.

Almost up late XVII For centuries these places were a wasteland. For the first time, Patriarch Joachim, who took office on July 26, 1674, undertook to fight the evil spirits that lived there. In 1655, he left military service and became a monk, but he still had military habits, and he decided to fight the devils and kikimors in a military way.

In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-three, in order to drain the Koznie swamps, the patriarch ordered three ponds to be dug, and the patriarch ordered that famous stream, which was not by chance named CHERTORYsky, to be filled up. The swamp was drained, but the stream continued to exist.

In 1832, they decided to liquidate the Chertorysky Stream again. For this purpose, two of the three Patriarch's ponds were filled up. However, this did not harm the stream at all, and it continues to flow to this day.

In the Pigit house, built in 1904 in the same place, in the Patriarchal Settlement, in the fifth apartment lived Anna Savelyevna Pigit, the daughter of the homeowner Savely Ilyich - the son of the builder of this house - and, at the same time, a former Socialist-Revolutionary political convict.

And her former bunk neighbor Fani Roydman lived with this daughter, whose real name was Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan - the same Kaplan who shot Lenin. The question, however, is how she shot, because while she was in hard labor, she was practically blind and could not see anything from a distance of more than a yard.

Still from the film “Lenin in 1918”

Anyone else would have died within five minutes from unstoppable bleeding. The third bullet was silver. Firstly. These are the bullets used to hunt vampires. Probably, those who attempted to attack had reason to consider Lenin a representative of the Evil Spirit.

I managed to ask when he was already leaving and walking to the car. And at that moment I received a bullet. But Lenin survived. He turned his suspicions on Sverdlov, and a few months later he died as if from pneumonia.

But the most interesting thing happened in 1925-35 - in those years a gang of hypnotists actually operated in Moscow. The fact is that the Koroviev tricks described by Bulgakov and the cat swinging on the chandelier, which no one can get into, are only a small part of what pop hypnotists of average ability could do in those years.

So, on the eighteenth of March thirty-four, the appearance of two strange citizens was recorded.
One of them, fat and short, dressed in a vulgar three-piece intellectual suit, had on his head an old regime bowler hat with a fairly worn brim. He had a cane in his hand, which he constantly twirled with three fingers like Charlie Chaplin.

The other, thin and long, was dressed in a long untucked shirt, belted with a Caucasian cavalry belt with numerous pendants, an unbuttoned gray jacket, on the lapel of which there was a GTO badge, and a gray cap pulled down on his forehead to the very eyebrow.

The seller of the fourth store, Citizen Studenitser, explained to Citizen Binder (not inclined at the time) and Citizen Orleansky that the required cabinets were sold to the public at a retail price of one hundred and seventy-nine rubles, but only by appointment. This entry was introduced on January 1 of that same thirty-four year to combat irresponsible citizens crowding in lines at furniture stores.

Having heard the explanations of the seller, the one who bore the surname Binder began to be loudly indignant, publicly threatening Studenitser with an appeal to the Moscow Soviet. The other, who introduced himself to everyone by his surname Orleansky, on the contrary, approached Studenitzer and whispered something in his ear.

Studenitzer looked around and whispered something in response to Orleans' ear. After that, looking around furtively, all three went into the back room, where Binder and Orleansky each handed Studenitzer forty rubles in ten-ruble bills.

When citizen Studenitser, having received a bribe and written out a direction to the cashier for Binder and Orleans, leaving the back room, was detained by employees of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia. When asked what was in his pockets, Studenitser, in the presence of witnesses, honestly answered that in his pocket were eight chervonets, which he received for the service of painting and packing furniture.

Sixteen rubles are due to him personally, forty he must give to the store manager, citizen Mezdrikov, and the remaining twenty-four were intended for loaders, dyers and packers. When, in the presence of witnesses, Studenitser was forced to empty his pockets, instead of chervonets, they contained eight labels of port wine No. 10, produced by the Rosglavvino trust.

They decided to detain everyone just in case. Half an hour later, the former salesman Studenitser was taken to the police station in a police car. Mezdrikov, who until that moment was in charge of the fourth furniture store, was also taken away on it. At the same time, the detainees Binder and Orleansky, since there was no room for them in the car, were sent to the police station on foot, accompanied by one policeman.

However, before the end of the working day, neither Binder, nor Orleans, nor the policeman accompanying them arrived at the station. The search for the missing people yielded no results. Only three days later, in Novosibirsk, the same policeman, completely devoid of the most basic reason, was removed from the Moscow-Vladivostok train.

At the time of discovery, the policeman was in a state of stupor with his limbs tucked to his stomach and his head pressed to his chest with his chin. He did not answer questions, did not react to any external stimuli, and, in addition, was untidy in physiological functions.

The medical team that arrived for examination, after a quick examination, stated a catatonic stupor.
Part of this story ended up in Izvestia. After this, episodes with chervonets appeared in Bulgakov’s novel, although he no longer lived in this house. But the story was loud.

The whole gang was caught on May 14, 1934, and they were caught in that very house, but not in apartment 50, but in apartment 13.

Another of the mysteries of the Patriarch's Pond is that neither dogs nor cats approach it, and swans and ducks, swimming on the pond during the day, for some reason prefer to fly to the zoo at night.

Here, nearby, in house number 28 on Kachalova Street - now Malaya Nikitskaya again - there was Beria's mansion. In 1910, the architect Erichson built this house for the manufacturer Bakakin.

One of the Moscow phenomena is associated with this house...

"...The action occurs regularly, three to four times a month...
...Everything happens at night at a crossroads in the area of the Patriarch's Ponds.

The streets in this area are usually quiet at night, the only sounds being the noise of cars from the Garden Ring. Then, gradually, from the direction of the same Sadovoy, the sound of an approaching car begins to be heard; however, if you look around, there will be nothing and no one. The source producing the sound of a car engine running is gradually getting closer, but the object itself remains completely invisible.

Most likely, at such a moment a person will be seized with terrible fear, especially if he finds himself on the street alone. The “moving” sound can be followed like an ordinary car. Even if you stand on the edge of the road and this sound rushes nearby, you will most likely have a desire to move sharply to the side as if you were walking away from an ordinary car. Then the invisible woman stops near the doors of the mansion, this can be understood by the sound of the engine idling.

The door of the car opens, which we again understand by the sound, a man comes out of it, says something (the words are rather unintelligible), the door closes, the footsteps of a person walking are heard, and the car speeds up again and the sound, gradually moving away, disappears completely..."

This building is now the Tunisian Embassy. There is information that in fact Beria was not convicted and shot, but was killed in this mansion at the time of his arrest. However, this is a topic for another story...

It is difficult to find a place in Moscow that would be more associated with evil spirits than the Patriarchal Settlement. In the Middle Ages, this area was called the Goat Marshes. From these very swamps flowed the Chertory stream, which flowed along the wall of the White City - the current Boulevard Ring, and flowed into the Moscow River near the Chertolsky Gate.

Almost to the end XVII century these places were a wasteland. In 1683, in order to drain the Goat swamps, Patriarch Joachim ordered three ponds to be dug, and the patriarch ordered that famous stream, which was not by chance named Chertory, to be filled up. The swamp was drained, but the stream continued to exist.

In 1832, they decided to liquidate the Chertory stream again. For this purpose, two of the three Patriarch's ponds were filled up. However, this did not harm the stream at all, and it continues to flow to this day.

In 1925-35, events took place in Moscow interesting events- a gang of hypnotists acted. The fact is that the Koroviev tricks described by Bulgakov and the cat swinging on the chandelier, which no one can get into, are only a small part of what pop hypnotists of average ability could do in those years.

So, on March 18, 1934, the appearance of two strange citizens was recorded. One of them, fat and short, dressed in a vulgar three-piece intellectual suit, had on his head an old regime bowler hat with a fairly worn brim. He had a cane in his hand, which he constantly twirled with three fingers.

The seller of store No. 4, citizen Studenitser, explained to citizen Binder (he was not inclined at that time) and citizen Orleansky that the required cabinets were sold to the population at a retail price of one hundred and seventy-nine rubles, but only by appointment. This entry was introduced on January 1 of that same thirty-four year to combat irresponsible citizens crowding in lines at furniture stores.

When citizen Studenitser, having received a bribe and written out a direction to the cashier for Binder and Orléansky, leaving the back room, was detained by workers' and peasants' police officers. When asked what was in his pockets, Studenitser, in the presence of witnesses, honestly answered that in his pocket were eight chervonets, which he received for the service of painting and packing furniture.

They decided to detain everyone just in case. Half an hour later, the former salesman Studenitser was taken to the police station in a police car. Mezdrikov, who until that moment had been in charge of furniture store No. 4, was also taken away on it. At the same time, the detained Binder and Orléansky, since there was no room in the car for them, were sent to the police station on foot, accompanied by one policeman.

Part of this story was published in the Izvestia newspaper. After this, episodes with chervonets appeared in Bulgakov’s novel, although he no longer lived in this house. But the story was loud.

The whole gang was caught on May 14, 1934, and they were caught in that very house, but not in apartment 50, but in apartment No. 13.

Here, nearby, in house number 28 on Malaya Nikitskaya Street there was Beria’s mansion. In 1910, the architect Erichson built this house for the manufacturer Bakakin. One of the Moscow phenomena is associated with this house. Everything happens at night at an intersection in the Patriarch's Ponds area.

The streets in this area are usually quiet at night, the only sounds being the noise of cars from the Garden Ring. Then, gradually, from the direction of the same Sadovoy, the sound of an approaching car begins to be heard. However, if you look around, there will be nothing and no one. The source producing the sound of a car engine running is gradually getting closer, but the object itself remains completely invisible.

The car door opens, which we again understand by the sound, a man comes out of it, says something (the words are rather unintelligible), the door closes, the footsteps of a person walking are heard, and the car speeds up again and the sound, gradually moving away, disappears completely.

Based on an article by Sergei Shumakov

Almost until the end of the 17th century, these places were a wasteland. For the first time, Patriarch Joachim, who took office on July 26, 1674, undertook to fight the evil spirits that lived there. In 1655, he left military service and became a monk, but he still had military habits, and he decided to fight the devils and kikimors in a military way. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-three, in order to drain the Koznie swamps, the patriarch ordered three ponds to be dug, and the patriarch ordered that famous stream, which was not by chance named CHERTORYsky, to be filled up. The swamp was drained, but the stream continued to exist.
In 1832, they decided to liquidate the Chertorysky Stream again. For this purpose, two of the three Patriarch's ponds were filled up. However, this did not harm the stream at all, and it continues to flow to this day.

IN Pigit's house, built in 1904 in the same place, in the Patriarchal Sloboda, Anna Savelyevna lived in the fifth apartment Pigit, daughter of the homeowner Savely Ilyich - the son of the builder of this house - and, at the same time, a former Socialist-Revolutionary political prisoner. And living with this daughter in apartment No. 5 of this very house was her former bunk neighbor Fani Roydman, whose real name was Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan - the same Kaplan who shot Lenin.
The question, however, is how she shot, because while she was in hard labor, she was practically blind and could not see anything from a distance of more than a yard.

And one more question, why Lenin was so lucky.
The poisoned bullet had no effect. The poison curare turned out to be harmless for Lenin. The second bullet was an explosive dum-dum type. The wound from this bullet healed on him like a dog. Anyone else would have died within five minutes from unstoppable bleeding. The third bullet was silver. Firstly, these are the bullets used to hunt vampires. Probably, those who attempted to attack had reason to consider Lenin a representative of the Evil Spirit.

For some reason this silver bullet didn’t hit. Instead of Lenin, it hit the chest of the wardrobe maid Popova from the Petropavlovsk hospital. She came to the rally at the Mikhelson plant on purpose to ask Lenin why goods were being taken away from the bag makers. I managed to ask when he was already leaving and walking to the car. And at that moment I received a bullet. But Lenin survived. He turned his suspicions on Sverdlov, and a few months later he died as if from pneumonia.

But the most interesting thing happened in 1925-35 - in those years a gang of hypnotists actually operated in Moscow. The fact is that the described Bulgakov Korovyov's tricks and a cat swinging on a chandelier, which no one can hit, are just a small part of what average-capable pop hypnotists could do in those years. It is not surprising that many of them, having learned this craft from each other, were not averse to mischief. And sometimes they committed even more serious crimes. The most common of these crimes were robberies and rapes of hypnotized citizens, and the most harmless were cases of banknote fraud. So, on the eighteenth of March thirty-four, the appearance of two strange citizens was recorded.

Patriarch's Ponds during the time of Bulgakov. Then they rode on boats along their water surface, and in one of the first versions of the novel, Woland swam to the homeless man and Berlioz on a boat, but by the time the final edition of the novel appeared, the boat station had already been liquidated, and Bulgakov had to make adjustments to the novel. Subsequently, the boat station appeared and then disappeared again.

Having heard the explanations of the seller, the one who bore the last name Binder began to be loudly indignant, publicly threatening Studenitser with an appeal to the Moscow Soviet. The other, who introduced himself to everyone by the last name Orleans, on the contrary, approached Studenitser and whispered something in his ear.
Studenitzer looked around and whispered something in response to Orleans' ear. After that, looking around furtively, all three went into the back room, where Binder and Orleansky each handed Studenitzer forty rubles in ten-ruble bills.
When citizen Studenitser, having received a bribe and written out a direction to the cashier for Binder and Orleans, leaving the back room, was detained by employees of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia. When asked what was in his pockets, Studenitser, in the presence of witnesses, honestly answered that in his pocket were eight chervonets, which he received for the service of painting and packing furniture. Sixteen rubles are due to him personally, forty he must give to the store manager, citizen Mezdrikov, and the remaining twenty-four were intended for loaders, dyers and packers. When, in the presence of witnesses, Studenitser was forced to empty his pockets, instead of chervonets, they contained eight labels of port wine No. 10, produced by the Rosglavvino trust. They decided to detain everyone just in case. Half an hour later, the former salesman Studenitser was taken to the police station in a police car. Mezdrikov, who until that moment was in charge of the fourth furniture store, was also taken away on it. At the same time, the detainees Binder and Orleansky, since there was no room for them in the car, were sent to the police station on foot, accompanied by one policeman. However, before the end of the working day, neither Binder, nor Orleans, nor the policeman accompanying them arrived at the station. The search for the missing people yielded no results. Only three days later, in Novosibirsk, the same policeman, completely devoid of the most basic reason, was removed from the Moscow-Vladivostok train. At the time of discovery, the policeman was in a state of stupor with his limbs tucked to his stomach and his head pressed to his chest with his chin. He did not answer questions, did not react to any external stimuli, and, in addition, was untidy in physiological functions.
The medical team that arrived for examination, after a quick examination, stated a catatonic stupor.

Part of this story ended up in Izvestia. After this, episodes with chervonets appeared in Bulgakov’s novel, although he no longer lived in this house. But the story was loud.
The whole gang was caught on May 14, 1934, and they were caught in that very house, but not in apartment 50, but in apartment 13.

Here, nearby, in house number 28 on Kachalova Street - now again Malaya Nikitskaya - there was a mansion Beria. In 1910, the architect Erichson built this house for the manufacturer Bakakin. This building is now the Tunisian Embassy. There is information that in fact Beria was not convicted and shot, but was killed in this mansion at the time of his arrest. However, this is already a topic another story.

Sergey Shumakov