And speaking of Moscow, we can't pass by the Moscow underground world. A hidden city, as massive underground as it is above it. Beautiful, quirky, mysterious underground of Moscow hides many secrets and is shrouded in many legends, up to 8 levels under the city. However, underground Moscow is also full of dangers in the form of collapses, aggressive people and other elements. The bowels of Moscow for nine centuries of its existence were many times dug to a great depth. Of the well-known Moscow dungeons, except for the semi-legendary Metro-2 and the library of Ivan the terrible, you can name the stone-bound Neglinka river and the basement system of an apartment building on Solyanka. In any case, there are many dangers that can harm or endanger your life. You can go down here at your own risk.
The most legendary secret of the Kremlin's dungeons is the library of Ivan the terrible, whose fame thundered throughout Europe during the Tsar's lifetime. Notable foreign guests specially came to Moscow to get acquainted with this or that folio from a unique collection. The Foundation of the library was apparently a collection brought by the Tsar's grandmother Sophia Palaiologos. She was descended from the Byzantine Imperial Palaiologos dynasty, and was a niece of the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. That is, the library was collected in Byzantium a few years before the fall of the Empire. However, in 1601, 17 years after the owner's death, the library disappeared. Most historians assume that it is located in the dungeons of the Kremlin.
When a crack appeared on the building of the Mausoleum
in the early 1960s, they decided to check the bowels next to it to find
the cause. What was the surprise of the researchers when, at a depth of
16 meters, they stumbled upon an arch of a secret passage lined with
oak. It led from the Mausoleum to the Kremlin and Kitai-gorod. To
prevent the information from becoming available to the public, the
passage was quickly concreted. But rumors about the dungeons under the
Mausoleum still swept the city ... Underground Moscow is of great
interest, and at the same time gives rise to many rumors and legends. No
one knows for sure about dungeons and secret passages, but they are
constantly talked about. They assure that underground Moscow is a whole
city, and diggers have 12 levels in it. And researchers argue that the
bowels of the capital resemble a termite mound or a head of Dutch
cheese: by the beginning of the 19th century, the center of Moscow had
already been dug up in all directions, and the 20th century added new
passages to the paved passages, along which the metro passed, and
communications stretched.
Why does Moscow need dungeons? Although
the secret passages known to us date back to the 15th-17th centuries,
the underground space of the city was used in ancient times. In some
dungeons they arranged hiding places and kept valuables, church relics,
and weapons. Others became necropolises. Third, they kept prisoners.
Often arranged and underground cellars. Moscow often burned, and such
caches made it possible to save valuables and food supplies from the
fire. And Moscow alchemists and counterfeiters set up their laboratories
and workshops underground. But the underground passages were of
particular importance in wartime! In the towers of Kitay-gorod, for
example, there were dungeons-rumors and passages for secret sorties. And
the underground galleries of the Novodevichy and Simonov monasteries led
to ponds for hidden water intake in case of a siege. Some caches were
sheathed with boards or massive logs, the walls of others were lined
with white stone or red brick. One could go down to some passages only
through cellars, while others could be reached by stairs in the walls of
chambers and towers. Some of the dungeons were filled with water and
suffocating gas, and some were almost entirely filled with sand and
silt. Exploration of the underground passages of Moscow. Caches near
Moscow have long attracted attention, but only a few attempts to explore
them are known. And yes, something got in the way all the time. For
example, in the 17th century, on the orders of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich,
master Azancheev several times unsuccessfully tried to build an
underground passage under the Moscow River. But soon the nobility was
granted to the master-man, and after that they did not even mention
about the tunnel under the river. During the time of Peter I, sexton
Konon Osipov asked to be allowed to explore "two chambers full of
chests." It was assumed that the famous Liberia, the library of Ivan the
Terrible, could be hidden there. The king allowed the study, but the
sexton "did not find any luggage," and soon died.
"Underground Moscow" by Stelletsky. In Soviet
times, Ignatius Stelletsky, an enthusiastic archaeologist who
devoted his whole life to searching for the book treasures of Ivan
the Terrible, tried to explore the Kremlin’s dungeons. He addressed
various organizations with the question of the use of ancient
underground structures and referred to the experience of Paris, Rome
and London. Everywhere and everywhere the dungeons are brought by
time and people into a state of, if not complete, then very great
destruction. The Kremlin did not escape the common fate, and
therefore one cannot deceive oneself with the thought that it is
enough to open one passage and it is already easy to pass along it
under the entire Kremlin, if not under the whole of Moscow. In fact,
a journey through underground Moscow is a jump with obstacles, and
very significant ones, the elimination of which will require great
effort, time and money. But all this is nothing in comparison with
the possible ideal result: underground Moscow, cleaned, restored and
illuminated by arc lamps, would be an underground museum of
scientific and any interest... "No matter what happens." And soon
Stelletsky’s research was banned altogether: the increased interest
in the dungeons was interpreted as a conspiracy against the Soviet
regime. And the final chord of this story was the 1949 law "On
Subsoil", which declared the country's subsoil to be the exclusive
property of the state. Then Stelletsky's discoveries were
classified. And there were many discoveries. For example, the
archaeologist warned that the building of the Lenin Library could
collapse if the “historical voids” under it were not explored.
Cracks and faults were not long in coming! Similar deformations
appeared in the buildings of the Bolshoi and Maly theaters, the
Metropol. And the Historical Museum, according to Stelletsky, was
also threatened by quicksand. Perhaps that is why the monument to
Georgy Zhukov is sunk so deeply into the ground like a pedestal: it
serves as an additional support for the building, like forest
plantations that strengthen the slopes of a ravine. Stelletsky's
research was remembered during the years of Khrushchev's "thaw" and
even a commission was created to search for the library. But with
the coming to power of Brezhnev, the Kremlin was closed to
scientists, and diaries with a documentary history of Grozny's
library were stolen from Stelletsky's widow.
Where were
underground passages found in Moscow? The authorities of the capital
admit that there is no map of the underground passages of Moscow.
There are diagrams drawn based on the results of digger research,
according to Stelletsky's memoirs, and based on archival materials.
But even their authenticity cannot be vouched for. Perhaps this is
done so that data on caches does not become available to the enemy
side in wartime. Therefore, when listing known hiding places and
underground passages, one has to say the word “possibly”. It is
possible that underground passages connect the Tainitskaya,
Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers of the Kremlin. Perhaps the passage
from the Senate Tower leads to Kitai-Gorod, to the Staro Nikolskaya
Pharmacy. Perhaps there is a hiding place under the chambers of
Averky Kirillov. Perhaps you can go down to Myasnitskaya and
Lubyanka in a secret passage. Perhaps, from the Lubyanka, you can
quietly go to the House on the Embankment. Perhaps there are
underground galleries under the Sukharev Tower, under Bruce's house
on Prospekt Mira, under the building of the English Club on
Tverskaya and in the courtyard of Yusupov's house. Perhaps in
Tsaritsyno there is a many-kilometer chain of dungeons. Perhaps the
Church of the Resurrection of the Word in Barashy is connected by an
underground passage with the Apraksinsky Palace. Perhaps it will be
possible to go underground from the Kremlin directly to Pashkov's
house. Or maybe it's all fiction. So, for example, a certain A.
Ivanov published an article in 1989 about the dungeons of the
Cathedral of Christ the Savior and assured that it was this
underground passage that leads to Liberia. But in fact, he led into
the river and turned out to be a drainage system.
Underground bunkers in Moscow. There is no doubt that the 20th century added several mysterious dungeons to Moscow. These are government bunkers that were created in case of a nuclear strike. In Moscow, three such bunkers are known for sure: on Taganka, in Izmailovo (two car tunnels go from it to the Kremlin and to the area of \u200b\u200bthe Sokolniki metro station, and you can get into the bunker itself from the Partizanskaya station) and to Kuntsevo (it also goes there automobile tunnel from the public reception of the Ministry of Defense on Myasnitskaya). Under our feet - under the asphalt, under the thickness of the earth - there is a whole giant dead city, created for survival. In its multi-storey buildings - air-conditioned, expensive carpets on the floors, electronic clocks that measure time with seconds accuracy, untouched sheets of paper on the tables, special compartments with beds lined with clean linen. "The bomb shelter is in conservation mode," the military says. It is unlikely that anyone other than them would dare to call these underground mansions bomb shelters. Bomb shelters for mere mortals are completely different ... Elite houses built in Stalin's time, state institutions, factories, some shops are connected by a system of so-called potterns - long underground corridors at a five-meter depth, leading to the actual bomb shelters ... Poterns are connected by small channels with water supply, sewer wells , which in case of blockages, destruction will serve as emergency exits. Theoretically, it is possible to get into the postern of an administrative building from an ordinary hatch... The first posterns were dug even before the war and actively continued until 1953, the year of Stalin's death. They built, as it was then supposed, reliably: not a single transition has yet collapsed. The scheme of their location is secret, only the Ministry of Emergency Situations has complete maps. There are especially many underground corridors inside the hills on which Moscow stands: near Taganka, Kitay-Gorod, under Sparrow Hills. An all-encompassing, branched system of potterns is the first, upper level of the underground defensive structures of our city. Their second level began to be made after 1953. The buildings of the Central Committee, the KGB, the Ministry of Defense grew deeper and deeper into the ground - sometimes up to five floors. No money was spared... These comfortable buildings, like in a real city, are connected by "streets" and "lanes". So, from Lubyanka there is a direct underground passage to the Kremlin, and the tunnel leading to it from the Central Committee building on Staraya Square is so wide that you can drive through it by car ... At the end of Khrushchev's rule, the danger of nuclear war seemed much more real than now. Then there were projects of the third level of underground structures. They began to implement them in the early 70s. ... the so-called underground monorail. His first route was from the Central Committee to the Kremlin. Now it is more than 600-800 meters and passes mainly under the Kremlin and in close proximity to it ... And modern shelters, going underground for 8-10 floors, could easily qualify for five stars in terms of comfort, with rooms of the “presidential” level ".
Riddles and secrets of Metro-2. But if it is known
exactly about underground bunkers, then it is still impossible to say
with certainty whether there is a special. metro or "Metro-2". Some say
it exists, and there are even witnesses who have seen these mysterious
government lines. Others claim that this is just a tale. Yes, and the
name "Metro-2" appeared with the light hand of the magazine "Spark".
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the first information about
these metro tunnels appeared in 1992 in one of the AiF issues, where
they talked about a certain cleaning lady in the KGB, who was taken to
special facilities by special metro lines. The editors responded by
stating that this metro system was described in the US Department of
Defense's 1991 annual edition of the Soviet Armed Forces and even
published a simplified diagram. It showed that, for example, from the
Kremlin it was possible to get to the Domodedovo airport and the Bor
forest boarding house with a bunker for the government and the General
Staff. Of course, the secret "Metro-2" exists, we diggers have not only
seen it hundreds of times, but also explored many sections of it. We got
on it to Ramenok. However, today a part of Metro-2, in the area of
Arbatskaya Square, has received an additional status of secrecy, now
there is no way to penetrate there. And today "Metro-2" is being built,
but at a snail's pace - as always, there is no money. However, the
secret metro is only part of underground Moscow. In total, there are 12
levels of communications in it (these are pipes, collectors, mines,
etc.). The maximum habitable depth is 840 meters, where there are
military bunkers. They would have dug deeper, but granite rocks go
further. Underground rivers do not have muslin banks, and secret
passages are dangerous and difficult to pass. But underground Moscow has
a special romance. Of course, the dungeons of the capital are not fully
explored. But what is explored is not open to everyone. Scientists admit
that even the secret passages of the Kremlin have not yet been studied.
And now, when the Kremlin towers are being restored, underground Moscow
can reveal one of its secrets, which will either excite the public, or
hide under the heading "Top Secret" for a long time. But they say that
once in the metropolitan underground labyrinths, it is easy to get lost
among the many galleries, passages, wells, halls, walled doors and
flooded passages. Or perhaps, somewhere nearby, the famous library of
Ivan the Terrible is hidden, and someday it will be given into the hands
of a successful dungeon explorer.