Underground catacombs of Moscow, metro-2, secrets of Moscow dungeons

Secrets of Moscow dungeons. Every day, millions of Muscovites are in a hurry and running somewhere, literally not looking at their feet and not thinking that an ordinary metropolitan hatch may turn out to be an entrance to another world. Just a couple of years ago, I myself would not have believed it until I met representatives of the digger movement and made several forays with them into the catacombs of the underworld.

During the English bourgeois revolution, the Diggers, or “true Levellers,” led by Gerald Winstanley, fought for the establishment of universal equality and the abolition of private ownership of land. They could not even imagine that one of the most interesting and unusual areas of “underground activity” of modern times would be named after them.

After all, today diggers are explorers of man-made dungeons, underground structures and communications. The leader and founder of the Moscow underground “diggers” is Vadim Mikhailov. His organization received the name “Digger-Spas” and, after many years of conflicts with the authorities, in 2000 it acquired the status of a structural unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

It was no coincidence that Vadim became a digger. This was preceded by one interesting story from his childhood:

— When I was 12 years old, my friends from the neighboring yard and I loved to climb into the old basement of an abandoned house located nearby. We explored it gradually and one day we discovered a staircase leading deep down.

Having gone down it, we found ourselves in a long dark corridor, along the walls of which there were high shelves.

On them were small vessels in which strange creatures were preserved in alcohol (as it turned out later, the basement housed part of the incompletely removed warehouse of the Institute of Oceanology).

We walked as if spellbound through this “cabinet of curiosities,” looking at the freaks in the jars, and then, amazed and at the same time inspired by what we saw, we swore to each other in the light of the newspaper torches that were burning out in our hands that we would create an expedition that would explore the underground slums of civilization.

Vadim Mikhailov and Yuri Luzhkov reveal the secrets of Moscow dungeons.

Vadim fulfilled his oath, gathering like-minded people around him and initiating underground research. At this point, the Mikhailovsky diggers have already managed to open 12 levels and 24 sublevels in the city dungeon. What lies behind these numbers?

However, the creation of significant labyrinths and tunnels is usually attributed to the 15th century, the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Vadim Mikhailov says that the ruler “dug all of Russia up and down.”

A whole network of underground passages was formed, connecting the appanage principalities, a kind of state within a state, hiding in its depths many mysterious stories and unknown facts. This is the same mysterious Kitezh-grad, in which those who lived in the underground tunnels probably died. Moreover, many treasures of our ancestors may be hidden in it.

However, the ancient underground passages under the Moscow River, which are mentioned in historical documents, have not yet been discovered. It is known, for example, that in the 17th century, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, master Azancheev repeatedly attempted to build a passage under the river.

The first ones ended in failure, but then the peasant master was suddenly granted nobility, an unprecedented honor at that time. Not a word was mentioned about the tunnel under the river at that time.

The most legendary secret of the Kremlin dungeons is the library of Ivan the Terrible, the fame of which resounded throughout Europe during the Tsar’s lifetime. Notable foreign guests specially came to Moscow to get acquainted with one or another volume from the unique collection.

However, already in 1601, 17 years after the death of the owner, the library disappeared. Most historians suggest that it is located precisely in the Kremlin dungeons. Of course, the diggers, led by Vadim, tried with all their might to find her. Moreover, these searches took place under the control of the authorities.

Mikhailov says:

— Moving through the dungeon in the Borovitsky Gate area, we saw a small door with a small hole in the wall and decided to stick a tele-eye through it. The monitor displayed chests that matched the description of the chests from the sovereign's library. Well, we think we’ve found everything!
But suddenly a water pipe burst, causing the entire area to flood. After that we didn't go down there. Perhaps it was a camera, somehow connected with the ancient library.

Excavations of the underground passage near the Nikolskaya Tower. 1894

The metro, drains and other underground communications are only a visible part of what has been built under the capital over the past 70 years. There are many secret places in the Moscow metro that were planned even before its birth, bunkers and other structures.

Mikhailov recalls that at one time Khrushchev openly declared the presence of an entire underground fleet, the thermonuclear underground ships of which travel at walking speed.

Estimated map of metro-2

The last level contains some experimental projects, which Mikhailov does not want to talk about for now due to lack of sufficient information. The most impressive are the mysterious dungeons of immense depth and huge man-made mines.

“Their bottom probably rests on karsts: fog hangs there, waterfalls more powerful than Niagara flow down there,” says Vadim.

Karst cave

All of them were built at different times, and the halls of some of them are now in use, although no passenger has ever set foot there. Mikhailovsky diggers were able to thoroughly study these “territories”, so there is certain information about them.

Its construction began, but was not completed, since, unfortunately, it was not possible to bring the distillation tunnels to the station due to the difficult hydrogeological situation. It was subsequently transformed into a well-protected bunker.

The station itself now houses a lifting repair shop, but traces of the former Pervomaiskaya remain. The tiles and stucco decorations characteristic of that time have survived on the walls, and in some areas of the ornament there are barely noticeable remains of gilding.

I saw with my own eyes the existence of Volokolamskaya, located between the Shchukinskaya and Tushinskaya metro stations.

Excavations of the underground passage near the Nikolskaya Tower.
1894 I was never lucky enough to go underground with Mikhailov’s detachment. However, Digger-Spas has a significant contingent of support, scattered in groups throughout Moscow. Having no relation to the official organization, such groups independently explore the depths, relying on the “findings” of the “Mikhailovites” and on personal information.

I managed to join one of them when I met the Moscow digger Dmitry Kazankin. These people showed me Volokolamskaya. The outing took place on a summer night in one of the courtyards located not far from Tushinskaya. After making sure that there was no one around, we went down underground through a hatch and found ourselves in a small room with pipes and screws. Having put on the necessary equipment, we moved forward according to the “guide.”

Sometimes I had to use manholes under the cables, which was extremely difficult for me, as a beginner. It was also depressing that it was unbearably hot underground. However, the desire to quickly see the unfinished object prevailed. In general, we reached our “destination” without any special incidents and, after passing several underground passages, we saw “Volokolamskaya”.

Initially, it was intended for residents of a residential area that was never built on the site of the Tushinsky airfield. Therefore, the station was not completed. There are no exits to the surface or external decoration. All I could see was a deserted platform and two rows of supports, illuminated by a few light bulbs. After wandering around the platform a bit and examining the surroundings, we hurried to get out.

The “excursion” to “Volokolamskaya” was my first foray into the Moscow underground. Subsequent travels were devoted to partial study of the metro-2 system.

It was then that Dmitry Kazankin first told me about the existence of a whole “chronicle” of digger tales, as well as about the secrets and mysteries that hide the dark walls of underground structures. His stories interested me extremely. Subsequently, I managed to learn a lot about the “mysteries” of the underground “capital”.

The tales were those of Moscow diggers

The objects of study of Vadim Mikhailov are the numerous underground catacombs of the capital. The first buildings appeared in the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

A huge number of bunkers and underground passages were created by the hands of our predecessors already in the 20th century. The “Mikhailovsky” detachment discovered 12 levels and 24 sublevels of underground buildings.

These are metro and metro-2, drainage facilities, backup and bunker systems, nuclear reactors, reference mines and much more.

On the tenth level there are Neolithic caves, then the Moscow Sea in giant caste cavities. At the last level are experimental projects that have not yet been fully studied. All this indicates that Moscow is torn up and down.

Diggers don't just explore the dungeon. The psychology of the depths makes itself felt. These people simultaneously create unusual legends, their own philosophy, their own world, in which different laws apply. I first learned about this while traveling through the metro-2 tunnels with Moscow digger Dmitry Kazankin. His stories had a significant influence on me, as a result of which I plunged headlong into studying and “recognizing” Digger’s tales, that very philosophy of the depths.

One of them is...rats:

“The first time we met rats was completely unexpected - in the tunnels located under the zoo. There were about 5 of them, and we saved ourselves by throwing crowbars in their direction and quickly retreating.
During the 19 years of our descents underground, I have never seen such large animals! Then they seemed simply huge to me, although later, remembering the details, I determined that the rodents reached no more than 65 cm in length (not counting the length of the tail) and 25-30 cm at the withers (this is the size of an average fox terrier).
At first we even thought that this was a nutria, but then we looked closely and realized that it was, after all, a rat.

Having emerged from the ground, we rang all the bells: we called riot police, television, and called the mayor's office.

However, the tunnels were closed only 4 days after the incident, and the animals, of course, will not wait that long for journalists. This later gave the television crews who came down with us a reason to accuse us of lying, although I affirm: there are rats!

They moved through tunnels that stretched towards the zoo, the White House and further towards the American embassy. However, a few days later anonymous informants called our headquarters and, identifying themselves as former military men, told us this.

It turns out that they are supposedly well aware of the former bunkers of the defense complex located within Moscow. Next to these abandoned buildings there are radioactive settling tanks of city reactors, where all sorts of devilry happens.

And if you believe the informants, they once went down inside out of curiosity and saw whole flocks of these giant rats. Their descriptions coincided in detail with what we saw with our own eyes.

Rat caught in Moscow

French writer Ele Berthe, author of the novel “Parisian Catacombs”, back in the 19th century. wrote: "Generations of the dead accumulate in these gloomy warehouses, today their number is estimated at twelve or fifteen million, human creatures have come here to move their remains." The next “story” by Vadim brought back memories of the lines from this work.

According to Vadim, a female silhouette began to appear from the thickness of the concrete vault, and then it disappeared again, as if drawn into the wall by an extraordinary force. This story has an even more incredible continuation. Faced with a similar situation, the “diggers” hastened to get out.

Corpse found by Moscow diggers

On the way, one of them hit his head hard and tore off the skin on the crown of his head. He was taken to the emergency department of SKLIF (let me remind you, it was located just above the site of these studies).

Before the doctor on duty arrived, the victim was placed on a couch in one of the rooms. Not far away there was a gurney with a corpse covered with a sheet. When the orderlies lifted the sheet, the unfortunate man experienced a double shock:

in front of him lay the corpse of the very woman whose ghost the diggers had seen underground.

From a conversation with the orderlies, it turned out that she died exactly half an hour ago from injuries, just at the time when the detachment was below. Later, the investigation established that the woman committed suicide by throwing herself under the wheels of a car. Mikhailov says:

“I then talked with people involved in paranormal phenomena, they are also called “ghost hunters.” They stated:

“Your case proves that a ghost, as we describe it, sees the surrounding reality, feels itself in this reality, and even realizes the full horror of its situation.”

According to them, it was a typical case of reincarnation.

From the lips of the main Moscow digger, you can also hear about the tomb of the White Nun, which he allegedly found together with his detachment.

Near Ryazan, about a hundred years ago, the Nikolo-Vyshsky Monastery was located. Under Soviet rule, a pioneer camp was located on its territory. There is a beautiful and ominous legend that the abbess of the monastery cursed it during the time of Kalinin, after which, together with several nuns, she voluntarily immured herself in the abbess’s house. They say that it was from then on that strange phenomena began to occur on the territory of the monastery-camp.

Before storms, a bell is allegedly heard ringing from underground and muffled women's singing can be heard. And then she appears - the White Nun, a tall transparent ghost who moves along the path from the former church to the tomb where the abbess was walled up.

He goes on to say that when the passage was walled up and all that remained was to get to the burial place itself, breaking through the stonework, strange things began to happen again: the lanterns began to go out, and the bricks seemed to start falling out of the wall themselves.

Photos of extraterrestrial creatures from the Moscow subway "Khokhrik"

Novice diggers especially like to tell these stories to each other. Well, I will not comment on them, but will only note that all explorers of the depths are romantics who live in their own world and create a new story.

One should not blindly believe in the absolute verisimilitude of this story, but one can seriously think about why and for what purpose the underground “castles” were built.

Secrets of Moscow dungeons

Every day, millions of Muscovites are in a hurry and running somewhere, literally not looking at their feet and not thinking that an ordinary metropolitan hatch may turn out to be an entrance to another world. Just a couple of years ago, I myself would not have believed it until I met representatives of the digger movement and made several forays with them into the catacombs of the underworld.

Moscow diggers

The leader and founder of the Moscow underground “diggers” is Vadim Mikhailov. His organization received the name “Digger-Spas” and, after many years of conflicts with the authorities, in 2000 it acquired the status of a structural unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It was no coincidence that Vadim became a digger. This was preceded by one interesting story from his childhood: “When I was 12 years old, my friends from the neighboring yard and I loved to climb into the old basement of an abandoned house nearby. We explored it gradually and one day we discovered a staircase leading deep down. Having gone down it, we found ourselves in a long dark corridor, along the walls of which there were high shelves. On them were small vessels in which strange creatures were preserved in alcohol (as it turned out later, the basement housed part of the incompletely removed warehouse of the Institute of Oceanology). We walked as if spellbound through this “cabinet of curiosities,” looking at the freaks in the jars, and then, amazed and at the same time inspired by what we saw, we swore to each other in the light of the newspaper torches that were burning out in our hands that we would create an expedition that would explore the underground slums of civilization.

Moscow dungeons

The history of the gigantic network of Moscow dungeons, dating back to hoary antiquity, is not only one of the darkest, but also one of the most carefully guarded secrets of Russia. The construction of underground catacombs of the city began almost from its very foundation. However, the creation of significant labyrinths and tunnels is usually attributed to the 15th century, the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Vadim Mikhailov says that the ruler “dug all of Russia up and down.” A whole network of underground passages was formed, connecting the appanage principalities, a kind of state within a state, hiding in its depths many mysterious stories and unknown facts. This is the same mysterious Kitezh-grad, in which those who lived in the underground tunnels probably died. Moreover, many treasures of our ancestors may be hidden in it.

Mikhailov's team explores the networks of ancient fortress dungeons of the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod, the underground passages of Borovitsky Hill (under Pashkov's house), Chertolye, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the monasteries of Moscow - Novodevichy, Simonov, Donskoy, Chudov and others, extensive complexes of ancient utility cellars of Solyanka and Zamoskvorechye. However, the ancient underground passages under the Moscow River, which are mentioned in historical documents, have not yet been discovered. It is known, for example, that in the 17th century, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, master Azancheev repeatedly attempted to build a passage under the river. The first ones ended in failure, but then the peasant master was suddenly granted nobility, an unprecedented honor at that time. Not a word was mentioned about the tunnel under the river at that time.

Dungeons of the Moscow Kremlin

Library of Ivan the Terrible

The most legendary secret of the Kremlin dungeons is the library of Ivan the Terrible, the fame of which resounded throughout Europe during the Tsar’s lifetime. Notable foreign guests specially came to Moscow to get acquainted with one or another volume from the unique collection. However, already in 1601, 17 years after the death of the owner, the library disappeared. Most historians suggest that it is located precisely in the Kremlin dungeons. Of course, the diggers, led by Vadim, tried with all their might to find her. Moreover, these searches took place under the control of the authorities. Mikhailov says: “Moving through the dungeon in the area of the Borovitsky Gate, we saw a small door with a small hole in the wall and decided to stick a tele-eye through it. The monitor displayed chests that matched the description of the chests from the sovereign's library. Well, we think we’ve found everything! But suddenly a water pipe burst, causing the entire area to flood. After that we didn't go down there. Perhaps it was a camera, somehow connected with the ancient library.

The objects of research of the Mikhailovites are not only medieval underground passages. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, underground construction did not end. The Emperor could not have imagined what a grandiose scale his undertaking would reach in the 20th century. The metro, drains and other underground communications are only a visible part of what has been built under the capital over the past 70 years. There are many secret places in the Moscow metro that were planned even before its birth, bunkers and other structures. Mikhailov recalls that at one time Khrushchev openly declared the presence of an entire underground fleet, the thermonuclear underground ships of which travel at walking speed.

Moscow diggers are engaged in researching the metro, metro-2, drainage facilities, backup systems, Ministry of Defense systems, bunker systems and many other structures. According to Vadim (returning to the question about open levels), on the tenth level there are Neolithic caves, then there is the Moscow Sea, located in giant caste cavities. The last level contains some experimental projects, which Mikhailov does not want to talk about for now due to lack of sufficient information. The most impressive are the mysterious dungeons of immense depth and huge man-made mines. “Their bottom probably rests on karsts: fog hangs there, waterfalls more powerful than Niagara flow down there,” says Vadim.

Ghost stations of the Moscow metro

Of particular interest are the so-called “ghost stations”. The arches of the most beautiful metro in the world conceal four closed stations: “Sovetskaya” on the Zamoskvoretskaya line, “Pervomaiskaya” on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line, “Kaluzhskaya” in the depot building on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line and “Volokolamskaya” on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line. All of them were built at different times, and the halls of some of them are now in use, although no passenger has ever set foot there. Mikhailovsky diggers were able to thoroughly study these “territories”, so there is certain information about them.

“Sovetskaya” was designed for the second stage of the metro on the stretch between “Teatralnaya” and “Mayakovskaya”. It was supposed to be located in the area of Sovetskaya (now Tverskaya) Square. Its construction began, but was not completed, since, unfortunately, it was not possible to bring the distillation tunnels to the station due to the difficult hydrogeological situation. It was subsequently transformed into a well-protected bunker.

Ghost station "Sovetskaya"

Unlike Sovetskaya, Pervomaiskaya was a real operating station and was originally located behind Izmailovsky Park, in the building of the Izmailovo electric depot. According to the observations of Mikhailov’s latest “forays”, its lobby is still well preserved, but the sign with the inscription “Metropolitan named after. L.M. Kaganovich Station "Pervomaiskaya" was recently removed. The station itself now houses a lifting repair shop, but traces of the former Pervomaiskaya remain. The tiles and stucco decorations characteristic of that time have survived on the walls, and in some areas of the ornament there are barely noticeable remains of gilding.

I saw with my own eyes the existence of Volokolamskaya, located between the Shchukinskaya and Tushinskaya metro stations. I was never lucky enough to go underground with Mikhailov’s detachment. However, Digger-Spas has a significant contingent of support, scattered in groups throughout Moscow. Having no relation to the official organization, such groups independently explore the depths, relying on the “findings” of the “Mikhailovites” and on personal information. I managed to join one of them when I met the Moscow digger Dmitry Kazankin. These people showed me Volokolamskaya.

The outing took place on a summer night in one of the courtyards located not far from Tushinskaya. After making sure that there was no one around, we went down underground through a hatch and found ourselves in a small room with pipes and screws. Having put on the necessary equipment, we moved forward according to the “guide.” Sometimes I had to use manholes under the cables, which was extremely difficult for me, as a beginner. It was also depressing that it was unbearably hot underground. However, the desire to quickly see the unfinished object prevailed. In general, we reached our “destination” without any special incidents and, after passing several underground passages, we saw “Volokolamskaya”. Initially, it was intended for residents of a residential area that was never built on the site of the Tushinsky airfield. Therefore, the station was not completed. There are no exits to the surface or external decoration. All I could see was a deserted platform and two rows of supports, illuminated by a few light bulbs. After wandering around the platform a bit and examining the surroundings, we hurried to get out.

The “excursion” to “Volokolamskaya” was my first foray into the Moscow underground. Subsequent travels were devoted to partial study of the metro-2 system. It was then that Dmitry Kazankin first told me about the existence of a whole “chronicle” of digger tales, as well as about the secrets and mysteries that hide the dark walls of underground structures. His stories interested me extremely. Subsequently, I managed to learn a lot about the “mysteries” of the underground “capital”.

The tales were those of Moscow diggers

The objects of study of Vadim Mikhailov are the numerous underground catacombs of the capital. The first buildings appeared in the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. A huge number of bunkers and underground passages were created by the hands of our predecessors already in the 20th century. The “Mikhailovsky” detachment discovered 12 levels and 24 sublevels of underground buildings. These are metro and metro-2, drainage facilities, backup and bunker systems, nuclear reactors, reference mines and much more. On the tenth level there are Neolithic caves, then the Moscow Sea in giant caste cavities. At the last level are experimental projects that have not yet been fully studied. All this indicates that Moscow is torn up and down.

Underground sea near Moscow

"Underground Dwellers"

Vadim Mikhailov calls ordinary capital residents “people of the superficial world” and only smiles mysteriously when his stories are called legends. He himself claims that more than once, together with his like-minded people, he encountered amazing phenomena underground. One of them is...rats: - The first time we met rats was completely unexpected - in the tunnels located under the zoo. There were about 5 of them, and we saved ourselves by throwing crowbars in their direction and quickly retreating. During the 19 years of our descents underground, I have never seen such large animals! Then they seemed simply huge to me, although later, remembering the details, I determined that the rodents reached no more than 65 cm in length (not counting the length of the tail) and 25-30 cm at the withers (this is the size of an average fox terrier). At first we even thought that this was a nutria, but then we looked closely and realized that it was, after all, a rat.

Having emerged from the ground, we rang all the bells: we called riot police, television, and called the mayor's office. However, the tunnels were closed only 4 days after the incident, and the animals, of course, will not wait that long for journalists. This later gave the television crews who came down with us a reason to accuse us of lying, although I affirm: there are rats! They moved through tunnels that stretched towards the zoo, the White House and further towards the American embassy. However, a few days later anonymous informants called our headquarters and, identifying themselves as former military men, told us this. It turns out that they are supposedly well aware of the former bunkers of the defense complex located within Moscow. Next to these abandoned buildings there are radioactive settling tanks of city reactors, where all sorts of devilry happens. And if you believe the informants, they once went down inside out of curiosity and saw whole flocks of these giant rats. Their descriptions coincided in detail with what we saw with our own eyes.

Vadim says that in the underground passages there are not only giant rats, moving through the tunnels in hordes for no apparent reason, but also mutated insects that have reached incredible sizes. He claims that they found a half-meter scolopendra, a huge earwig and other “monsters.” However, the stories of Mikhailovsky “diggers” about strange underground phenomena are not limited to stories about mutant animals. French writer Ele Berthe, author of the novel “Parisian Catacombs”, back in the 19th century. wrote: "Generations of the dead accumulate in these gloomy warehouses, today their number is estimated at twelve or fifteen million, human creatures have come here to move their remains." The next “story” by Vadim brought back memories of the lines from this work.

Dungeon Ghosts

Several years ago, a detachment of diggers examined underground structures under SKLIF. Having barely descended to the central building, the “diggers” suddenly discovered ovens for burning the remains, near which a bouquet of fresh carnations allegedly lay. After this, one of the participants in the “expedition” had to be sent upstairs, as she experienced severe shock. The next discovery was a pile of bones of some large animal, and the culmination was the appearance of a ghost in a small chamber to which the tunnel led. According to Vadim, a female silhouette began to appear from the thickness of the concrete vault, and then it disappeared again, as if drawn into the wall by an extraordinary force. This story has an even more incredible continuation.

Faced with a similar situation, the “diggers” hastened to get out. On the way, one of them hit his head hard and tore off the skin on the crown of his head. He was taken to the emergency department of SKLIF (let me remind you, it was located just above the site of these studies). Before the doctor on duty arrived, the victim was placed on a couch in one of the rooms. Not far away there was a gurney with a corpse covered with a sheet. When the orderlies lifted the sheet, the unfortunate man experienced a double shock: in front of him lay the corpse of the very woman whose ghost the diggers had seen underground. From a conversation with the orderlies, it turned out that she died exactly half an hour ago from injuries, just at the time when the detachment was below. Later, the investigation established that the woman committed suicide by throwing herself under the wheels of a car. Mikhailov says: “I later talked with people involved in paranormal phenomena, they are also called “ghost hunters.” They stated: “Your case proves that a ghost, as we describe it, sees the surrounding reality, feels itself in this reality, and even realizes the full horror of its situation.” According to them, it was a typical case of reincarnation.

From the lips of the main Moscow digger, you can also hear about the tomb of the White Nun, which he allegedly found together with his detachment. Near Ryazan, about a hundred years ago, the Nikolo-Vyshsky Monastery was located. Under Soviet rule, a pioneer camp was located on its territory. There is a beautiful and ominous legend that the abbess of the monastery cursed it during the time of Kalinin, after which, together with several nuns, she voluntarily immured herself in the abbess’s house. They say that it was from then on that strange phenomena began to occur on the territory of the monastery-camp. Before storms, a bell is allegedly heard ringing from underground and muffled women's singing can be heard. And then she appears - the White Nun, a tall transparent ghost who moves along the path from the former church to the tomb where the abbess was walled up.

Vadim says that this phenomenon is observed quite rarely and only at night; he also claims to have personally seen the ghost three times. Taking the story of the Nun as a working hypothesis, the “Mikhailovites” allegedly managed to excavate an underground passage leading from the monastery to the abbess’s house. And Mikhailov stated that he was passing just under the alley along which the ghost was moving. He goes on to say that when the passage was walled up and all that remained was to get to the burial place itself, breaking through the stonework, strange things began to happen again: the lanterns began to go out, and the bricks seemed to start falling out of the wall themselves.

And it is not such “passions” that Moscow diggers, in particular Vadim Mikhailov, can tell the uninitiated. There is the concept of a unique “time tunnel”, legends about strange unearthly creatures, “hohriks” hiding in the dungeon, about unusual objects found in the catacombs. Novice diggers especially like to tell these stories to each other. Well, I will not comment on them, but will only note that all explorers of the depths are romantics who live in their own world and create a new story. One should not blindly believe in the absolute verisimilitude of this story, but one can seriously think about why and for what purpose the underground “castles” were built.

Does the secret always come to light?

At different times, a countless number of underground passages, caves, tunnels, mines and bunkers were built under the Moscow land. We learned about their existence thanks to their emergence at the end of the 20th century. movements of the capital's diggers under the leadership of Vadim Mikhailov. These people not only study the underground of Moscow, but also create their own culture, consisting mainly of many “epics” carefully passed on by word of mouth by the researchers of the “Underground Planet”. Perhaps one of the main goals of the “diggers” is to find out the reasons for the creation of these structures, and also to try to discover the secrets that lie under the gloomy underground vaults.

In order to try to answer the question of why the capital's underground catacombs were built, it is necessary first of all to note that they were not built at the will of the people. The capital's residents had no idea what was under their feet, in the literal sense of the word. Already the first deep passages were created solely in the interests of the state.

So, in the 15th century. they united appanage principalities and formed a kind of state within a state, in which, perhaps, people lived, the king’s chosen ones. Moscow diggers have more than once come across Kitezh-grad, the “walls” of which hide many, many secrets. Now we can only guess what is inside this “country”. The clues are those things that “diggers” discover during forays. Usually these are utensils, parts of materials from which clothing and other similar things could presumably be made. Of course, it is difficult to judge from them the internal structure of Kitezh-grad. Vadim Mikhailov believes that those who lived in these tunnels rested there and, perhaps, many treasures were hidden.

Exploration of underground caches

The mysterious story of Ivan the Terrible’s library has become a legend. Why did someone need to hide it in the underground “lobby” of the Kremlin? In general, the reason for such a narrow localization of the priceless treasure is clear. For well-known political reasons, conducting thorough and extensive searches in the immediate residence of the Russian autocrats has always been fraught with great difficulties. An interesting fact is that, even if research into underground caches was sanctioned by the authorities, it was never possible to complete them for various reasons. So, at the beginning of the 18th century. Konon Osipov began studying and classifying the Kremlin dungeons, but he died suddenly before he could implement his plans. At the end of the 19th century, Prince N.S. began excavations. Shcherbatov, but the First World War suddenly broke out with well-known subsequent events. In Soviet times, I.Ya. tried to explore the Kremlin dungeons. Stelletsky, but his work was soon interrupted by the murder of SM. Kirov and the significantly changed political situation in the country.

The state “policy” of constructing significant underground structures was continued in the 20th century. In the era of the undivided dominance of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, it was most useful to simply forget not only about the exploration, but also about the existence of underground networks, at least to save life, since in an atmosphere of continuous identification and punishment of enemies of the people, the increased interest in dungeons was not interpreted ambiguously - as a conspiracy against Soviet power. Moreover, according to the decree of 1947, any unauthorized visit to underground objects of both natural and artificial origin was prohibited, and in 1949 the Law “On Subsoil” was adopted. The country's mineral resources were declared the exclusive property of the state. These legislative acts have become a kind of indicator of the “level of totalitarianism” of the government. In the era of liberalization, they are abolished, and in periods of “repression” they are revived again in one form or another.

Stalin's bunkers

However, despite its inviolability, the world of underground structures grew during that period, even if we do not take into account the grandiose Moscow metro, which was built under the ideological leadership of Stalin. The cunning and cautious dictator, being overly suspicious, had a weakness for all kinds of shelters, and military affairs contributed to the construction of numerous underground bunkers and secret shelters, united by an interweaving of very long tunnels. The system, with the help of Ogonyok magazine, was later called Metro-2. They say that in Stalin’s two main bunkers, under the unfinished “USSR Stadium” in Izmailovo and the “near dacha” in Kuntsevo, museum order is still maintained. True, they don’t take people on excursions there, but the underground tunnels leading to the Kremlin are evidenced by the middle rail track at the Izmailovsky Park metro station and the Victory Park station, located in close proximity to the Generalissimo’s Kuntsevo dacha.

With great difficulty, I managed to get to some of the metro-2 tunnels during several forays into the capital's dungeon. They are not much different from ordinary tunnels of the Moscow metro. It is only worth noting that along the sides along their entire length there are two asphalt paths, and between the rails there is a special wooden deck on which a car can drive. For many decades, the communist regime built secret underground facilities in Moscow and the Moscow region.

The diggers were able to discover significant secret lines stretching to Chekhov and distant bunkers of the Ministry of Defense, as well as dozens of underground floors of huge complexes. All of these are strategic civil defense facilities, duplication infrastructure in case of unforeseen and crisis situations, the most important nodes for managing the country and the armed forces. Most underground facilities are classified to this day and cannot be penetrated. Here, even the enterprising “Mikhailovites” are virtually powerless. Thus, it becomes obvious that almost all of the capital’s catacombs, including the underground cave-dungeons of the Tsarist era, were built for state purposes. But it is still not clear how to perceive the numerous stories of the Mikhailovsky and non-Mikhailovsky “diggers” about the mysterious phenomena occurring underground? Are these all really stories, or is there still some truth in them?

Dungeon energy

The science of bioenergy, which is developing in Russia, makes us think about this; judging by the terminology, the leader of the capital’s diggers, Vadim Mikhailov, resorts to when explaining the reasons for everything, according to his stories, that happens underground. He believes that a huge amount of negative energy is concentrated in the depths of the earth, which is formed from negative human emotions: - Moral misunderstanding between people and social strata, anger, hatred - all this accumulates precisely underground. After all, the underworld is caves of darkness, the same hell in the flesh into which we descend. We bring light there, at least the light of our torches, and we must know how to protect ourselves from the “demons of evil.”

Vadim claims that anomalous phenomena most often occur in those places where there used to be graveyards, as well as destroyed temples and churches: - Today, many houses stand on the site of demolished cemeteries. Man blasphemously trampled on the Holy Places, laying sewers in their place. Thus, he opened the infernal gates through which dark forces and necroenergy rise. In such places the karma of the city is changed. Fractures and cracks have formed inside, from which gases escape; unknown biological objects appear. It’s good that they die in the upper layers! Imagine if they suddenly mutate and appear on the surface in the form of spores?! In addition, microbiologists have recently proven that there are fungi underground, the spores of which can live in human lungs! It’s scary to even imagine that, spreading through the space of accessible systems, they will end up in the metro or water supply system. Thousands of people will be infected!

Mikhailov can tell a lot about strange mystical phenomena and energy parasites that, according to him, arise from clots of negative energy.

To believe or not to believe in the tales of Moscow diggers is everyone’s personal choice. In conclusion, it is only worth noting that the capital’s dungeon is a special world that combines mysticism and reality, secret and obvious, open and unknown. The deeper you dive into this world, the more it attracts, frightens, and draws you in. The underground structures of the capital are the greatest mystery of our time, an unsolved but close secret of bygone eras.

Natalya MALAKHOVA NovayaGazeta.Ru

Does the secret always come to light?

These people not only study the underground of Moscow, but also create their own culture, consisting mainly of many “epics” carefully passed on by word of mouth by the researchers of the “Underground Planet”. Perhaps one of the main goals of the “diggers” is to find out the reasons for the creation of these structures, and also to try to discover the secrets that lie under the gloomy underground vaults.

Already the first deep passages were created solely in the interests of the state. So, in the 15th century. they united appanage principalities and formed a kind of state within a state, in which, perhaps, people lived, the king’s chosen ones.

Moscow diggers have more than once come across Kitezh-grad, the “walls” of which hide many, many secrets. Now we can only guess what is inside this “country”.

The clues are those things that “diggers” discover during forays. Usually these are utensils, parts of materials from which clothing and other similar things could presumably be made. Of course, it is difficult to judge from them the internal structure of Kitezh-grad. Vadim Mikhailov believes that those who lived in these tunnels rested there and, perhaps, many treasures were hidden.

An interesting fact is that, even if research into underground caches was sanctioned by the authorities, it was never possible to complete them for various reasons.

So, at the beginning of the 18th century. Konon Osipov began studying and classifying the Kremlin dungeons, but he died suddenly before he could implement his plans. At the end of the 19th century, Prince N.S. began excavations. Shcherbatov, but the First World War suddenly broke out with well-known subsequent events.

In Soviet times, I.Ya. tried to explore the Kremlin dungeons. Stelletsky, but his work was soon interrupted by the murder of SM. Kirov and the significantly changed political situation in the country.

Moreover, according to the decree of 1947, any unauthorized visit to underground objects of both natural and artificial origin was prohibited, and in 1949 the Law “On Subsoil” was adopted.

The country's mineral resources were declared the exclusive property of the state. These legislative acts have become a kind of indicator of the “level of totalitarianism” of the government. In the era of liberalization, they are abolished, and in periods of “repression” they are revived again in one form or another.

The cunning and cautious dictator, being overly suspicious, had a weakness for all kinds of shelters, and military affairs contributed to the construction of numerous underground bunkers and secret shelters, united by an interweaving of very long tunnels.

Map of Metro 2 created by US military intelligence

The system, with the help of Ogonyok magazine, was later called Metro-2. They say that in Stalin’s two main bunkers, under the unfinished “USSR Stadium” in Izmailovo and the “near dacha” in Kuntsevo, museum order is still maintained.

True, they don’t take people on excursions there, but the underground tunnels leading to the Kremlin are evidenced by the middle rail track at the Izmailovsky Park metro station and the Victory Park station, located in close proximity to the Generalissimo’s Kuntsevo dacha.

For many decades, the communist regime built secret underground facilities in Moscow and the Moscow region. The diggers were able to discover significant secret lines stretching to Chekhov and distant bunkers of the Ministry of Defense, as well as dozens of underground floors of huge complexes.

All of these are strategic civil defense facilities, duplication infrastructure in case of unforeseen and crisis situations, the most important nodes for managing the country and the armed forces. Most underground facilities are classified to this day and cannot be penetrated. Here, even the enterprising “Mikhailovites” are virtually powerless.

Thus, it becomes obvious that almost all of the capital’s catacombs, including the underground cave-dungeons of the Tsarist era, were built for state purposes.

But it is still not clear how to perceive the numerous stories of the Mikhailovsky and non-Mikhailovsky “diggers” about the mysterious phenomena occurring underground? Are these all really stories, or is there still some truth in them?

- Moral misunderstanding between people and social strata, anger, hatred - all this accumulates precisely underground.

After all, the underworld is caves of darkness, the same hell in the flesh into which we descend. We bring light there, at least the light of our torches, and we must know how to protect ourselves from the “demons of evil.”

Vadim claims that anomalous phenomena most often occur in places where there used to be graveyards, as well as destroyed temples and churches:

“Today, many houses stand on the site of demolished cemeteries. Man blasphemously trampled on the Holy Places, laying sewers in their place. Thus, he opened the infernal gates through which dark forces and necroenergy rise.

In such places the karma of the city is changed. Fractures and cracks have formed inside, from which gases escape; unknown biological objects appear. It’s good that they die in the upper layers!

Imagine if they suddenly mutate and appear on the surface in the form of spores?! In addition, microbiologists have recently proven that there are fungi underground, the spores of which can live in human lungs!

It’s scary to even imagine that, spreading through the space of accessible systems, they will end up in the metro or water supply system. Thousands of people will be infected!

Mikhailov can tell a lot about strange mystical phenomena and energy parasites that, according to him, arise from clots of negative energy.

The deeper you dive into this world, the more it attracts, frightens, and draws you in. The underground structures of the capital are the greatest mystery of our time, an unsolved but close secret of bygone eras.

The dark history of Moscow. Digger Daniil Davydov on excursions to the catacombs of the capital

M. BACHENINA: City Day - how do you especially celebrate it? Maybe there is some cherry on your excursion route?

D. DAVYDOV: I’m afraid that the rain might add a cherry to my holiday excursion cake today.

M.B.: What are your plans? What is the difference?

D.D.: I’m working. I work all weekend. Muscovites go on excursions and want to learn about their city.

M.B.: How much does a tour underground cost?

D.D.: From two and a half to three and a half thousand rubles, depending on the route.

M.B.: Are there discounts for large families, pensioners, and students?

I.P.: WWII participants?

D.D.: WWII participants come for free. But they usually look into the hatch and say that they won’t climb.

I.P.: Was it like that?

D.D.: No. Sometimes older people come, but not WWII participants. Younger. And they often come on walking excursions. In general, on a holiday it is especially important to talk about the history of Moscow, because underground Moscow is as much a part of history as what we see on the surface.

Read the full version of the Matinee program with Daniil Davydov below and listen to the audio recording.

M. BACHENINA: We told you what free excursions there will be in honor of Moscow City Day. Will the excursions be free not only on the ground, but also underground, we will now ask our guest.

I. PANOV: Digger is our guest.

M.B.: Yes. Moscow expert, Daniil Davydov. Daniel, welcome, hello.

D. DAVYDOV: Good morning.

M.B.: This is the voice. You probably can’t go underground with another voice. So resonant that you can hear it.

D.D.: Of course. Firstly, the water there is noisy. Moreover, now it is raining, rain streams are filling the underground sewers, so it is imperative to speak loudly there, and for the voice to be trumpet-like and reverberate.

I.P.: An avalanche may happen accidentally.

D.D.: Utility services there maintain everything in proper form, nothing goes wrong there.

M.B.: What is your relationship with utility services? Do they love you or hate you?

D.D.: The fact is that utility services have to put up with the fact that there are diggers.

I.P.: Let’s rewind, are diggers people who climb underground?

D.D.: This is what they write on the Internet now. The word “digger” itself comes from the English verb “to dig.” This makes a digger similar to an archaeologist.

I.P.: And it seems to me that this has something in common with a prospector. Or with those who work in the mines.

D.D.: The fact is that digging goes back to the end of the 19th century. It's a pity that you don't have a broadcast, I would like to show the first digger. This is the first digger who spent more than 40 years searching for the library of Ivan the Terrible. Ignatius Yakovlevich Steletsky. In 1947, he hoped that the authorities would allow a large-scale search for the library of Ivan the Terrible. He wrote about it, he wrote a book about this library. He already conducted searches in 1933, but they did not give the desired results.

He wrote in his diaries that by the 800th anniversary of Moscow, the mysterious treasure of Ivan the Terrible would definitely be found. 69 years passed until they found

Denis Davydov

M.B.: I already think that this is a myth. You believe?

D.D.: How to say, there are different versions as to where the tomes and Greek manuscripts were hidden, whether they were taken out of Moscow by 1565 - this is the first year of the establishment of the oprichnina. There is evidence that Pastor Johann Wittermann went down into the underground flints to translate Greek books. I'm a tour guide. And when you ask about something, I cannot give a short answer; I must immediately give a detailed answer.

M.B.: And if you meet a utility worker around a bend somewhere in a dungeon, do you separate peacefully?

D.D.: Of course, we disagree peacefully, because very often we report problem areas, sometimes we come to the rescue when you need some advice. Just recently there was such a case: police officers asked for help because fragments of a human body were found in the Moscow River. They say: “Can you check the collectors? We are afraid that it was sent through the collectors.” “What about public utilities?” - we ask. They say: “But the utility services only provided us with communication plans, but they themselves refuse to get involved.” Apparently, they don’t want to do this because the collector capacity there is small, the pipes are half a meter long. This is necessary using robots.

M.B.: How tall are you?

D.D.: I am 185 centimeters.

M.B.: How do you crawl into a half-meter pipe?

D.D.: And there the hatch opens into the extension of the collector. Therefore, you need to shine a flashlight left and right and see if there is anything there.

M.B.: Found it, helped?

D.D.: We didn’t find it, unfortunately. We checked all communications and worked out this version.

We always keep our finger on the pulse of the city

Denis Davydov

I.P.: I am interested in the most popular routes. Where are you going? Surely, according to Neglinka, along this underground channel.

D.D.: No. I haven’t worked on Neglinka for many years. The point is not that I am disdainful, but the point is that I said that we have our finger on the pulse of the city. But Neglinka passes in close proximity to the Kremlin. And if, say, 10 years ago it was possible to walk there completely unhindered, now part of the Neglinka collector system has been blocked. And so, to avoid somehow embarrassing law enforcement, I filmed a route there a long time ago.

I.P.: Are they on duty underground?

D.D.: Sometimes they are on duty. Yesterday Today.

M.B.: From the terrorist threat?

D.D.: Of course.

I.P.: Question about underground storm drains. This can also be very dangerous. Traveling underground, suddenly unexpected rain. And that's it, screw it.

D.D.: Of course. It is the task of the tour guide, guide, and organizer to foresee whether the group will run into any difficulties. And troubles. Today, for example, I’m not sure whether I’ll have an underground tour at 3 p.m. Now we are going on land excursions in the rain, we will probably get wet with the group. I will talk about the history of the Kremlin, about Ignatius Yakovlevich Steletsky. But then at 15 o’clock I don’t know, because while I was driving to you, I listened to the RSN radio station, and they said that today they would not clear the clouds.

I.P.: They haven’t dispersed yet.

M.B.: Doesn’t special clothing help?

D.D.: The point is this: all rainwater from the asphalted area is drained into underground collectors.

Minor precipitation causes a sharp increase in flow velocity and the influx of rainwater into collectors

Denis Davydov

I.P.: And if there are still some bars there, then that’s it?

D.D.: Yes. Therefore, rainy weather in summer can be very dangerous. And cancellations happen often. And winter is the safest time.

It’s warm underground, 12 degrees, you can go down to barbecue in winter

Denis Davydov

Outside it’s minus 25, and underground it’s minus 12.

M.B.: The main thing is that gas pipes do not pass nearby.

D.D.: No, there are no gas pipes. Otherwise it would even be convenient; you could dig a hole with a nail. And you can boil some tea and fry kebabs.

I.P.: We were children, I watched American TV series as a child. In particular, The X-Files. Let us remember that they were always looking for something underground, in these garbage dumps, drains, drains. The underground part of the city was not very attractively shown there. Rats, stench, criminals hide there. How are we doing there?

D.D.: Rats are peaceful, there are no smells, criminals do not hide.

I.P.: So, storm sewers and sewers are two different things?

D.D.: These are completely different systems, not connected with each other in any way.

I.P.: Have you been to the sewer?

D.D.: Of course, I had to.

So to speak, I found myself in the sewer. I've been underground since I was 14

Denis Davydov

I.P.: And how did you get there?

D.D.: I met with diggers on the street. In the nineties. But I knew about diggers from TV programs. Because not everyone had the Internet yet. I didn't have one, for example. And now a detachment of diggers is coming towards me. I, of course, became attached to the most important thing. It was Vadim Mikhailov, he was very popular at one time. Now he is remembered less and less in the media. And now I see my idol on the street, and with him a squad of diggers. He asked me to take it with me. And soon they called me back. And that's how I ended up with the diggers. By the way, Vadim Mikhailov in the nineties attracted public attention to what was happening underground. This yielded results. The metro was closed and the legislation was changed.

I.P.: They closed not the metro, but some passages?

D.D.: Possibility, yes, to get to the transport tunnels. And about 12 years ago it was possible to relatively calmly go down and get out on the way to the metro.

I.P.: Yes, I heard several stories about how people spent the night in the subway, that there was some kind of incredible infrastructure there.

D.D.: Imagine a railway that was buried underground. Of course, there are dead ends, exit cameras, service and connecting lines, and what not. There is ventilation, communications, even bathrooms.

M.B.: Do you know how to get there?

D.D.: Now there is no such possibility. From December 26, 2015, the fine for unauthorized entry into the metro, protected underground and underwater objects was increased from 500 rubles to 2000.

I.P.: I would love to climb there, but safety is more important.

M.B.: City Day - how do you especially celebrate it? Maybe there is some cherry on your excursion route?

D.D.: I’m afraid that the rain might add a cherry to my holiday excursion cake today.

M.B.: What are your plans? What is the difference?

D.D.: I’m working. I work all weekend. Muscovites go on excursions and want to learn about their city.

M.B.: How much does a tour underground cost?

D.D.: From two and a half to three and a half thousand rubles, depending on the route.

M.B.: Are there discounts for large families, pensioners, and students?

I.P.: WWII participants?

D.D.: WWII participants come for free. But they usually look into the hatch and say that they won’t climb.

I.P.: Was it like that?

I.P.: What is your education in general?

D.D.: I am a children's writer. He studied at the literary institute.

M.B.: Do you have any slang?

D.D.: Of course. As in any profession, there is always a set of words that will not be immediately clear. Firstly, when we go down somewhere, we don’t say “go down”, we say “get thrown in”. That is, when we go into the collector, we are “thrown in.” Then there is another term, if you get into a collector in the rain - “collector wave”. This does not mean that there is a wave that sweeps away everything in its path, but it is a fairly rapid rise in level, an increase in the speed of the flow. When unofficial diggers go down somewhere underground and suddenly meet a police squad or something else, they say “they’re on fire.” This is the "fuse". It's not just us. There are some funny poems. Previously, diggers really liked to break something in order to get into the subway, you can’t always get through, you need to break something, a door, a grate.

So they came up with this saying: Don’t have 100 keys, but have a divorcer

Denis Davydov

M.B.: But do you have portals?

D.D.: Our portals are not the same as in fanatical novels. We have water outlet portals. This is the area where the underground sewer opens into an open channel. And through such portals we go underground.

When you say on an excursion that we will now go underground through a portal, many do not understand whether you are telling the truth

Denis Davydov

I.P.: Well, the portal is the way out.

D.D.: Of course. Here is the metro station portal. We are leaving for the Technopark station. And that’s how we left the tunnel, you and I left the tunnel portal.

M.B.: Is it scary underground?

D.D.: It can be scary, again due to some external circumstances, when water starts flowing.

I.P.: I watched several videos about collector wave. In general, all these industrial, urban things really impress me.

D.D.: I’m still more interested in underground Moscow from a historical point of view. I often even say that I can probably be called a historian of underground Moscow. And it turns out that research into underground history is a very important part. I have many colleagues.

I.P.: Maybe you should collaborate with scientists and customize material for them?

D.D.: We cooperate. There are also my publications, articles, I have a website.

I.P.: Do you have an official job, another one?

D.D.: No.

I.P.: Do you have a cash register?

D.D.: I brought a cash register with me, I have a special, small one.

M.B.: How do you get underground? Go down the hatch, subway? Where?

D.D.: Always different. I mainly work on small rivers; there are a lot of them within the city, about 160. These are systems similar in functionality to the Neglinka. In dry weather, a natural river flows, buried underground, and in rainy weather, stormwater is diverted there. The rivers played a very important role in the history of the city. If you remember, it was thanks to the flow of the Neglinka that Yuri Dolgoruky chose the place to build the city. And in the chronicle it is written that Prince Yuri Vladimirovich laid the city a whisker below the Neglinnaya River, above the hand of the Yauza. A very precise location is given. Therefore, Neglinka played a protective function. Of course, it was reflected in history.

I.P.: But the Neglinka was a very gloomy, black river, they almost threw corpses there...

D.D.: No. You judge it by Gilyarovsky. He is a journalist, a reporter. Today a journalist climbs into the sewer with me, let’s say I tell him about Foma, and then he tells him about Yerema in a TV segment.

M.B.: Yesterday we launched the Moscow Central Circle. That is, are you getting some new underground objects for research?

D.D.: No. It is only on Leninsky Prospect underground.

M.B.: Are you going to learn something new for yourself?

D.D.: What's new there? How many were built at the beginning of the 20th century. This was the border of Moscow for a long time. Small ring of the regional railway. Some collectors built in 1907-1908 have been preserved underneath it.

M, B.: Isn’t it dangerous? Trains are heavy.

D.D.: And before that, freight traffic was carried out there. A freight train is much heavier than an electric train. Muscovites have nothing to fear.

I.P.: Let's tell you about the upcoming excursions?

D.D.: Now at 11 am I will have a walking program “Secrets of Underground Moscow”. Above the ground. I will talk about history, water supply, drainage, about what they were supposed to look for under the Moscow River. The existence of an underground passage below the river level has not been archaeologically proven, but there are a lot of legends about it. They ask me about something, or I tell it myself, give an example of a legend and talk about what can be and what cannot be. And then by 15:00 I will go to my underground office.

I come to work at the collector, it’s like I have an office there

Denis Davydov

I come, that's it, I'm in the house.

M.B.: Do you have any stash there?

D.D.: No. Thank God, life hasn’t gotten me down yet.

M.B.: I don’t mean money. Is there any necessary tool?

D.D.: I have all my stash in the trunk of my car. If you open the trunk of a car, I have hooks there to open hatches, boots, shoe covers, helmets, suits...

M.B.: Is it possible to get into a subway tunnel unnoticed? Or is this not possible now?

D.D.: If you set a task, you can probably do anything. So, to get into the subway tunnels, it is almost impossible. If you paid attention, now on City Day, and on all holidays, tunnel workers are on duty at the tail and head cars specifically to ensure that no one throws anything from the platform into the tunnel or jumps off. From the outside, from the street, all paths have long been blocked, everything is on alarms, on video cameras. But even in the metro itself, control over unauthorized entry has now been strengthened.

I.P.: Could it really be possible to introduce some kind of licensing?

D.D.: I'm for it.

I.P.: After all, even if this is an ordinary storm sewer, the penetration of scoundrels there is not very desirable.

D.D.: Of course. The fact is that not all communications and structures are closed. There are historically important structures, and there are specially protected ones that carry a strategic load. As for licensing, we are now working with the underground research center, registering it as a public organization, and then this will give us the opportunity not just as an individual to contact some unitary enterprises if we need to carry out work on their territory. We, as an organization, will contact you. Let's say there is some kind of collector that is used for storm drainage; it is of historical importance. And now, after conducting an examination, we can identify this historical importance. And then, perhaps, this section of the collector will one day be recognized as an excursion route.

I.P.: Do you conduct interviews before taking people on a tour?

D.D.: Definitely. I save all my passport data.

Moscow falls into the crater of a volcano

Moscow continues to go underground. The terrible forecast of Moscow diggers: the capital rests on hundreds of graves accumulated over 900 years of active life of Muscovites. They decompose and release gas - methane, which helps the city sink lower and lower. According to rumors, the 7 hills on which Moscow is based are the crater of a giant prehistoric volcano that died out about 3 million years ago.

At a depth of about 10 km, under Moskovaya there may be a salt sea - a glacier that has melted and preserved in the crater of a volcano. All of Moscow can gradually move into it.

Previously, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis for Muscovites were nothing more than messages from the chronicle of world events somewhere in the southern latitudes of our planet. And now it turns out that the Devonian Sea splashed on the site of Moscow millions of years ago.

It stretched from the present city of Smolensk to the Ural Mountains, and its water area occupied seven hundred thousand square kilometers - almost like the Black and Caspian Seas combined! Then the Devonian Sea sank into the depths of the earth.

Now everything seems to be natural: how can you worry about natural disasters when every day there is a danger of running into an armed criminal or getting into an accident. Now the average Muscovite has to be on guard and look not only around, but also at his feet, so as not to end up in the dungeons of an inhospitable metropolis.

Latest signs

Last year in Moscow the ground collapsed on Trubnaya Street, and now the asphalt may disappear from under your feet next door - on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

In fact, the picture with a KamAZ sticking out of a two-meter hole - which could be seen last year, when the truck was the first to fall into the opening formed in the ground during a landslide on the Garden Ring - does not inspire any confidence in the freeways of the city center.

Therefore, this time, many car owners, having heard about what happened in the news, preferred to use the subway.

Many were afraid of the social consequences of the collapse - the traffic jams that arose on the road - but there are also those who preferred not to risk it and get to work by metro, fortunately it was no longer possible to fall further.

The capital's chief digger and dungeon explorer, director of the Digger-Spas underground research center, Vadim Mikhailov, warns citizens about the danger of failure.

“After the collapse of the road surface on Trubnaya Street, cracks appeared that ran along the foundation pit towards Trubnaya Square, and this indicates that in the future the soil may collapse in all areas adjacent to the collapse site.

Thus, cracks have already formed along the metro construction site in the area of Trubnaya Square, lighting masts have tilted, serious damage has been noticed on old houses in the area of Rozhdestvensky and Kolokolnikov lanes,” the digger reported the results of the research.

The Moscow Government considers the main reason for the failure of the soil on Trubnaya Street to be possible errors when digging a pit. According to experts, the failure on Trubnaya Street exactly repeats the failure on Leningradsky Prospekt in September last year. Then, according to the press center of the Moscow traffic police, the reason was the repair work that was carried out in the underground passage under the roadway.

Also last year, on Minskaya Street, on the roadway in the area between Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Romain Rolland Square, a sinkhole occurred with an area of 20 by 6 meters and a depth of half a meter.

On November 10, 2006, a soil collapse occurred in Dukhovsky Lane. The cause was a broken water pipe.

On September 25, 2007, the road surface on Academician Korolev Street failed. One car went underground.

And on a traditionally “dark” day—September 11, 2006—a soil collapse occurred in the area of Dezhnev Passage in the Yuzhnoye Medvedkovo region. The area of the failure was 4 meters.

Alternative view

The Moscow Kremlin is a place shrouded in secrets, myths and legends. Its walls and halls have seen a lot, but much more terrible stories are hidden in the dungeons of the most famous landmark of Russia. Attempts to explore them were made under the tsars, princes, and Bolsheviks. But did this lead to success?

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The first attempts to solve the mystery

The first attempt to reveal the secret of the Moscow dungeons was made by sexton Konon Osipov. This happened in 1817. The sexton speleologist remembered the story of the now deceased clerk Vasily Makariev. This eyewitness to the Kremlin dungeons visited them on the orders of Princess Sophia. It was at that time that he saw large spacious rooms in the dungeons, which were filled with bags and chests, darkened with time. These places were located not far from the Taynitskaya Tower. It was from this place that the exploration of the Kremlin dungeons began. This happened thanks to the fact that the sexton managed to find a gallery in the Tainitskaya tower, the entrance to which was blocked with earth. Soldiers were assigned for the excavation and were able to go only a few meters deeper. After this, the gallery arch sank and all attempts to get under the Taynitskaya tower were stopped due to the risk of collapse.

Subsequently, Prince Shcherbakov was engaged in research, who, together with soldiers, carried out work under the Arsenalnaya and Borovitskaya towers. Thanks to him, the underground chapel and the passage leading to the Imperial Square were discovered.

Exploration activities were continued by the Bolsheviks, thanks to whom they managed to open an underground passage to the Alexander Garden and several communication lines.

Death in the Dungeons

One of the most shocking discoveries was made during reconstruction work on Red Square in 1930. Not far from the Kremlin, workers discovered an underground passage at a depth of five meters, the walls of which were paved with brick. In one of the branches of this move, a strange and terrible discovery was discovered - several warriors, whose bodies were dressed in plate and armor. The reason why they were buried here or went without permission to seek death in the Kremlin dungeons remained unknown.

Other mysteries and myths

The most interesting myths and legends are associated with the Kremlin dungeon. For example, Nicholas II and his wife, on the eve of the coronation, saw in one of the halls the ghost of Ivan the Terrible, sprinkled with the blood of the victims he killed.

Ghosts living in the dungeons of the Moscow Kremlin appear here before sad or historically significant events. Several people saw the spirit of the impostor False Dmitry on Kremlin Square in 1991 before the start of the putsch.

The most incredible story

One of the most incredible stories of the Kremlin dungeons is the one that happened in the mid-80s of the last century. A young guard who was on duty at night at the Patriarchal Chambers sounded the alarm. The patrol appeared on the spot a few minutes later. They found a young guard in a semi-conscious state, but the worst thing was that the guy had completely turned gray. As it turned out later, he saw the ghost of the famous bloody People's Commissar of the Party, Yezhov. The mysterious night visitor went down the stairs and slowly began to move away from his former apartment, holding a long overcoat thrown over his shoulders. At some point, he turned around as if he saw a sentry, and then began to slowly dissolve into the air, as if falling underground. The sentry spoke about this 3 days after he began to come to his senses a little. A few months later he was discharged from service. His further fate is unknown.

Diggers: Moscow stands on bones

Meanwhile, these are far from the first geological problems in the capital since the beginning of the year. Scientists warn that half of Moscow could potentially go underground. According to experts, more than 50% of the city’s territory already rests on geotectonic faults, which at any moment can manifest themselves through soil failures and collapses of buildings located in these areas.

As Vadim Mikhailov, head of the Digger-Spas underground research center, said, diggers believe that it was the instability of the earth’s crust that caused the disaster at the Transvaal water park.

In his opinion, all the collapses of buildings and roads in the metropolis were preceded by a series of mini-earthquakes, which, if they did not cause the disaster, then at least accelerated it.

Recently, specialists from Moscow Mining University have developed a theory that can shed light on many disasters associated with the unstable seismology of the capital.

Few people know this, but the land of Moscow and the Moscow region has very complex and mobile tectonics. The surface of the earth is a mosaic of blocks of different shapes, which are constantly moving, pressing on each other, creating mountains and ravines.

Experts believe that such tectonics complicates construction planning, since the constructed foundations may collapse.

How to protect yourself from falling into the abyss?

Geologists have compiled a geodynamic zoning map for Moscow and the Moscow region, with its help you can protect yourself from buying a house or building in a dangerous area.

However, instead of trying to prevent new man-made disasters, the capital is increasingly being built up with cyclopean residential complexes. And they, in turn, are digging deeper into the bowels of the earth with underground parking lots, creating an ever-increasing load on the decrepit Moscow bowels and often becoming a threat to those around them.

Another problem for Moscow is water. In terms of its structure, the “Moscow hill” is a sponge. The fact is that during the technogenic 20th century, with the construction of the civil metro, special metro, bunkers and mines with tunnels for various purposes, Moscow became too “leaky.” The number of karsts—rocks with voids in which not only water but also dangerous methane gas accumulates—has greatly increased.

Meanwhile, throughout its 900-year history, Moscow has acquired another problem. The fact is that for so many centuries there is almost no place left in the capital where there has never been a burial place for people. Their remains, together with the rest of the organic matter, rot and emit methane, and water and even chemical residues from production, which until recently were so fond of slowly draining Moscow enterprises, settle there.

All these stories and assumptions told by geologists, who paint bleak pictures of the capital's future, allow us not to be surprised by today's incidents. But even despite the fact that the accident on Trubnaya Street is not a geological problem, but just a mistake by the builders, this does not make it any easier for Muscovites. Indeed, in the near future, such catastrophes may recur due to the whim of nature, and not due to the fault of man.

Speaking about the reasons for what happened on Trubnaya Street, Mikhailov said that during the construction work, the heterogeneity of the soil was not taken into account, and the walls of the pit in the ground were not strengthened. There are underground cavities that fill with water due to leaks from communications or groundwater. In addition, according to his version, a huge number of other dangerous construction projects were concentrated in this area.

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The strangest finds

Traces of Napoleonic soldiers were found in the Kremlin dungeons. Apparently, they threw away their weapons in a hurry, and even left behind an entire bottle of wine made in the 19th century. Perhaps Bonaparte did not have time to drink it.

And already in 1985, workers, having accidentally dug into the dungeons in the area of the Chudov Monastery, found there a coffin in which lay a human-sized doll, dressed in ceremonial clothes. This find was associated with the funeral of Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov. The prince died from a bomb thrown at his carriage by a revolutionary. And supposedly the explosion was such that there was nothing to bury. That's why they created a model of the body.

There is also a legend that the Soviet prophet Lev Fedotov, while still a schoolboy, found a book in the dungeons with predictions about the history of Russia. That is why he began to be called a prophet. But it's still a legend.