The real story of Zoe standing in 56. "Petrified Zoya": the most terrible "religious" case in the USSR
60 years ago, one of the most amazing events in the history of the USSR took place. On the outskirts of the closed Kuibyshev, a young girl Zoya petrified with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in her hands.
Zoya's standing became an all-Union scandal: crowds of people from Zoya's house were dispersed by mounted police, party officials did everything to hide this mysterious incident.
“The whole city is buzzing like a beehive! You are sitting here, and there ... The girl froze with the icon in her hands, as if rooted to the spot! They say God punished her!” Dr. Anna gasped with excitement.
The fact that the fact of petrification of the girl was, there are eyewitness accounts of those days, documents of party meetings.
This extraordinary and mysterious event took place on December 31, 1956 at 84 Chkalov Street. An ordinary woman Claudia Bolonkina lived in it, whose son decided to invite his friends on New Year's Eve. Among the invitees was the girl Zoya, with whom Nikolai had begun dating shortly before.
All her friends are with gentlemen, but Zoya was still sitting alone, Kolya was late. When the dancing began, she declared: “If there is no my Nicholas, I will dance with Nicholas the Pleasant!” And she went to the corner where the icons hung. Friends were horrified: “Zoya, this is a sin,” but she said: “If there is a God, let him punish me!” She took the icon, pressed it to her chest. She entered the circle of dancers and suddenly froze, as if she had grown into the floor. It was impossible to move it, and the icon could not be taken from the hands - it seemed to be glued tightly. External signs the girl did not give life. But in the region of the heart, a barely perceptible knock was heard.
The ambulance doctor Anna tried to revive Zoya. Anna's sister, Nina Pavlovna Kalashnikova, is still alive, I managed to talk to her. She ran home excited. And although the police took a non-disclosure agreement from her, she told everything. And about how she tried to give the girl injections, but it turned out to be impossible. Zoya's body was so hard that the needles of the syringes did not enter it, they broke ... 
The law enforcement agencies of Samara immediately became aware of the incident. Since it was connected with religion, the case was given the status of an emergency, a police squad was sent to the house in order not to let onlookers inside. There was something to worry about. By the third day of Zoya's standing, all the streets near the house were crowded with thousands of people. The girl was nicknamed "Zoya stone."
Nevertheless, the clergy had to be invited to the house of the “stone Zoya”, because the policemen were afraid to approach her, holding the icon. But none of the priests managed to change anything until Hieromonk Seraphim (Poloz) came. They say that he was so bright in soul and kind that he even had the gift of divination. He was able to take the icon from Zoya's frozen hands, after which he predicted that her "standing" would end on Easter Day. And so it happened. They say that Poloz was then asked by the authorities to refuse involvement in Zoya's case, but he rejected the offer. Then they fabricated an article about sodomy and sent him to serve time. After his release to Samara, he did not return ... 
Zoya's body came to life, but her mind was no longer the same. In the first days, she kept shouting: “In sins, the earth perishes! Pray, believe!" From a scientific and medical point of view, it is difficult to imagine how a young girl's body could survive 128 days without food and water. The metropolitan scientists, who came to Samara at that time for the sake of such a supernatural case, could not determine the “diagnosis”, which at first was mistaken for some kind of tetanus.
After the incident with Zoya, as her contemporaries testify, people massively reached out to churches and temples. People bought up crosses, candles, icons. Those who have not been baptized have been baptized… But it is known that from fright, a change in consciousness and heart occurs in exceptional cases. As a rule, a “good” person becomes only for a while. To deeply feel the essence of everything spiritual and real, to open the heart to goodness and love, the work of the soul is required. And religious, like any external attributes, have nothing to do with it.
Therefore, we are talking about Zoya or about some other character with whom something out of the ordinary happened, the question begs the following: why should we, in order to gain faith, pay attention to ourselves, our actions, own life, dramas, tragedies or miracles and mysticism are required? Until the thunder breaks out, the peasant will not cross himself?
On New Year's Eve 1955/1956, Zoya gathered her friends at home. The girls had fun, danced, and Zoya was still waiting and waiting for her fiancé Kolya. The guy was late, and Zoya, grabbing the icon with Nicholas the Wonderworker from the corner, began to circle with her in a dance instead of her lover.
Her friends made a remark to her, asking her to return the image to its place, but Zoya behaved like a man possessed and declared: “If there is a God, He will punish me!” Then lightning flashed, the light went out for a second, and Zoya froze in place in an embrace with the icon ...
Frame from the film "Miracle"
"Zoino standing"
This incident allegedly took place in the city of Kuibyshev, on Chkalova Street, 84. They tried to move the girl, frozen with a stone, to wake up, to disturb, but Zoya did not react to anything. It was also impossible to remove the icon from her hands. Arriving doctors stated that the girl was alive, but they could not do anything. She did not eat or drink for many days, she looked at one point, and at night she shouted something and asked to pray for sins. On the Annunciation, a local elder, hieromonk Seraphim Tyapochkin, came to the house. He looked at Zoya, took the icon out of her hands and said that she would stand like that until Easter. The elder's prediction came true: the girl stood like a stone for 128 days, and on Easter she came to life again, went limp, and died three days later.
Rumors about the "stone Zoya" instantly scattered around the city, onlookers constantly went to house 84 along Chkalov Street. To reassure people, on January 24, 1956, a feuilleton-refutation was published in the Volzhskaya Kommuna newspaper of the city of Kuibyshev (Samara) under the heading "Wild Case".
It was said that there was no girl Zoya Karnaukhova, struck by God's wrath, and a certain Claudia Bolonkina and her son live in house 84 on Chkalova Street. On New Year's Eve, guests came to their son, among the girls was Zoya, who had met a guy named Nikolai the day before. He was supposed to come to the party, but he never came, and Zoya began to dance with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. At that moment, a nun was passing by the house, saw a blaspheming girl and shouted: “For such a sin, you will turn into a pillar of salt!” The girl did not turn to stone, but the mistress of the house began to tell a story for a red word, that, they say, everything happened just like the nun said, Zoya turned to stone, like a pillar of salt.
shameful miracle
"Zoino standing" is still classified as church tradition. Father Roman Derzhavin, rector of the Church of the Kazan Icon, also declared the veracity of the story. Mother of God in the village of Neronovka, Samara region. The priest said that his father told him about this incident, that Zoya Karnaukhova worked at a pipe factory, that she had a deeply religious mother who did not allow her daughter to break the Christmas fast with fun, that it was with the icon belonging to the mother that she circled in a dance and froze on Zoya's place. Believing townspeople supported and passed on this story, pilgrims went to the house on Chkalov.
The authorities in the fifties repeatedly tried to stop the spread of rumors. The first secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Efremov, commented for the newspaper: “Yes, such a miracle happened, shameful for us communists. Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people were dancing, and one stunner began to dance with the icon and ... became stiff. And it went, people began to gather ... They wanted to send priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon. But the bureau of the regional committee consulted and decided ... there is nothing to guard there. Stupidity came out: there were no dances ... there was an old woman living there.
In the city archives there is no mention of a girl named Zoya Karnaukhova, just as there is no information about the monk Seraphim. House number 84 on Chkalova Street belonged to a Soviet citizen Claudia Bolonkina.
Some history knowledgeable people they also explained it this way: that, they say, one churched woman lived in Kuibyshev, and at some point she was nicknamed “stone Zoya”, but in fact there was no transformation into a pillar of salt.
Story for films
The urban legend has formed the basis of several films and literary works: in 2000, a 20-minute film was released. documentary"Standing Zoe", and in 2009 - a full-length feature film from director Alexander Proshkin called "Miracle". After that, pilgrims began to come to Chkalov, 84 again. A monument to Nicholas the Wonderworker was erected on the lawn near the house. And in May 2014, the house of "stone Zoya" burned down. According to rumors, as a result of arson.
A year after the event, the television movie Zoya, based on the play by Alexander Ignashev, was released. And in the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, the story of Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov "Standing" was published.
Allegedly on the eve of the new, 56th year, in one of the houses of Samara, a certain girl Zoya began to waltz with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker - but suddenly she froze like a pillar of salt. Without water and food, without leaving the place, she stood until Easter. On the holiday she “resurrected”, but her mind left her forever. “Zoya's standing” is officially recognized by the Samara diocese. Until now, pilgrims from all over Russia flock to the holy place. But what happened to the real sinner?
sin city
Samara religious journalist Anton Zhogolev has been investigating the amazing incident on Chkalovskaya Street for many years. His brochures with "sermons" about the miracles of St. Nicholas are in every local church. But for some reason, the expert on the Kuibyshev miracle was not happy with the visit of the MK reporter: “I refuse to talk about this topic!” he snapped.
This miracle undoubtedly took place, half of Samara walks in eyewitnesses, - they assured me in the press service of the Samara diocese. - In December 1956, Zoya Karnaukhova, a pipe factory worker, threw a party on the occasion of the arrival of her fiancé Nikolai. Seven girls and seven boys came to house number 84 on Chkalovskaya Street, they began to dance in pairs. Only Zoe does not have a cavalier. Then the girl took the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from the shelf and started dancing. "Do not sin!" - scared girlfriend. But in response, the girl laughed loudly: “Let Nikolka dance with me for now! And if there is a God, let him punish me!” Before Zoya had time to waltz two circles, she froze in the middle of the room, like a pillar of salt. She did not respond to the calls of friends, and even a few people could not budge her. People poured into the house, but soon the authorities posted guards and did not let anyone see the “standing”: religious miracles were not welcomed in Soviet times.
Doctors were called to examine the frozen girl. Not far from Chkalovskaya Street live the sisters of the ambulance nurse Anna Kalashnikova, who allegedly tried to give Zoya an injection.
Late in the evening, Anya ran home with the words: “You are sleeping here, and all of Samara is on its ears,” says 71-year-old Lidia Kalashnikova. - And she saw a frozen girl with an icon in her hands. She looked like a mannequin, but her heart was barely audible. The doctors thought that the patient had tetanus and tried to inject the medicine, but the needles of the syringes did not enter the body, as if it really had turned to stone. My sister Nina and I immediately rushed to that house: the whole Chkalovskaya street was crowded with people. People burst into the wooden gates of the yard, but the police dispersed the onlookers. Those who managed to see the miracle told the curious about it.
Who covered the stone tracks?
One of the local priests, Seraphim Tyapochkin, came to Zoya on the bright Easter holiday - only he managed to take the icon out of Karnaukhova's hands, - say employees of the diocese of Samara. - After that, the sinner finally moved her numb limbs, fell to her knees and raised her hands to the sky: “The earth is on fire - pray!”. And when they asked her: “Who fed and watered you all this time?” - answered: "Doves!".
I asked a reasonable question: if there was a real girl with a surname, so famous throughout Samara, then where did she go after the miraculous healing?
Who in Soviet times will be delighted with religious agitation? - continue the press service workers. - And so the scandal unfolded around the miracle. Therefore, further events are not known for certain. But Zoya Karnaukhova suddenly disappeared. Most likely they put her in a psychiatric hospital, after which she changed her last name and moved out of the city with her family. And the priest Seraphim Tyapochkin was defrocked and exiled to a camp. And nothing more was heard about his fate. The KGB has reliably covered up the traces, so you will not find any documents about Zoya ...
However, Samara local historian Valery Erofeev spent more than one day in the State and Party Archives of the Samara Region, where he found official evidence of a religious miracle.
On January 20, 1956, the 13th regional party conference was just taking place in Kuibyshev, and the first secretary of the regional committee, Mikhail Efremov, put the question squarely on it - Valery Erofeev shows the MK reporter a copy of his speech.
“In Kuibyshev, there are rumors about an alleged miracle that happened on Chkalovskaya Street. There are 20 notes on this subject. Yes, such a miracle happened, shameful for us, the communists ... Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people danced - and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone, stiffened ... And it went , people began to gather ... Immediately put up a police post. Where the police, there and the eyes. They put up mounted police, and the people, if so, are all there. They wanted to send priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon. But the bureau of the regional committee consulted and decided to remove all the posts, there was nothing to guard there. Stupidity came out: there were no dances there, an old woman lives there.
The local authorities decided to engage in "ideological enlightenment of the inhabitants of Kuibyshev." And on the instructions of the bureau, an instruction was given to the editorial office of the Volzhskaya Kommuna newspaper, where a feuilleton called “Wild Case” soon appeared.
As you can see, there is no question of any three months of “standing”. It is interesting that the name of Zoya Karnaukhova does not appear in any of the documents. For the first time it sounded in the press as much as four years after this mass psychosis, continues Valery Erofeev. - The article says that the house belongs to the old woman Claudia Bolonkina and her neighbors really confirm her existence. Whether there was such a historical person - Seraphim Tyapochkin, has not yet been proven by anyone either. The diocese refuses to provide any documents about him. Apparently they just don't exist.
“One nun said”
The iron gates to the infamous courtyard along Chkalovskaya Street have rusted. And in the 56th year, the gate was already demolished from the hinges by a distraught crowd. The address of building number 84 here refers to several wooden buildings at once. For example, the house where, according to legend, Zoya stood is considered the fifth apartment.
An overgrown old man, looking like a homeless man, peers into the windows of a low hut with a lopsided roof. It turns out, a pilgrim from Volgograd.
Kiss the threshold of the house where St. Nicholas performed a miracle! he muttered to me through his beard.
I'm shy around you, I say.
Kiss the threshold, sinner!
The pilgrim himself was ashamed to step into the house. And I had to bend down to get through the low door. Let the current owner of the house Yevgeny Kurdyukov.
We did not find the participants in those events - we moved here after perestroika, - the owner sighed, escorting the reporter to a cramped little room. It is impossible to imagine a party with dances for 15 people here. - They say she was standing here - Kurdyukov points to the dirty floor. The floorboards haven't been changed since. But I did not find traces of an ax on them. Anyway, my daughter Natasha and I never believed in it. I went through Afghanistan, and even there I realized that miracles do not happen. And people - those, of course, are gullible: the priests powder their brains. And patients come to us - they are applied to this place. We say: “What are you - dirty! Pick up the worms!” “What are you, - they say, - from a holy place - and worms ?!”
The door of the neighboring 3rd apartment is opened by Lyubov Kabaeva.
Yes, there was no “stone Zoe”! But actually, one girl was ... - she began her story inconsistently. - I was three years old then, and my mother, Victoria Zubovich, often talked about it. Like a joke. Yes, and I found the mistress of that house, Claudia Bolonkina. A woman who drinks, she herself sold beer from a barrel. And her son Vadim went down a slippery path - he stole into other people's pockets. On that ill-fated evening in January 1956, he was just gathering his friends to celebrate his release from prison. There was also a strange girl among them, whom everyone considered a holy fool: she strongly believed in God. So she started circling with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker - you see, from the influx of religious feelings. And the windows here are low, without curtains - you can see everything from the street ... And just one nun was passing through the courtyard - she looked into the room, saw the dance and was offended. He goes further down the street and scolds the girl: “For such a sin, you will turn into a pillar of salt!” People heard - ran to see what was happening. As in the movie: “Everyone ran - and I ran ...” And Klavdiya Bolonkina, don’t be a fool, immediately spit that a sinner with an icon had become stiff in the house, and began to let her into the room only for ten from her nose. Some come out: "There's nothing there." But others do not believe: “You’re lying, you’re just afraid to speak out loud! ..”
The story of the last neighbor - Vladimir Chigurov, an eyewitness of those events - was recorded by a local historian on a cassette shortly before his death. He confirms that the resourceful old woman Claudia Bolonkina began to spread rumors around the city. And yet, "mass psychosis" has reached incredible proportions. “On January 19, the crowd climbed through the gates, shouting: “Where is the stone girl?!”. When it got dark, the guests armed themselves with torches and threatened: “Let's burn down this devilish place!” I got scared and took a baton. The next day, the police were sent out, and I was invited to a conversation with two KGB officers. "Protect your home - if anything, shoot right into the crowd." I said, "I have a gun." For several days, the pandemonium continued - the police barely restrained the onlookers. Some were allowed into the house to dispel the rumors, but the eyewitnesses still did not believe the authorities: “The sinner is in a secret cellar!” I have never seen so many fools in one place at once.”
According to neighbors, the Bolonkin family moved to the city of Zhigulevsk, Samara Region, back in the 80s, but no trace of them could be found there.
In the mental hospital of Samara, a girl with that name was never examined. But people who are frozen, like Zoya, met in medical practice.
There is such a diagnosis - catatonic stupor, - says the head physician Mikhail Sheifer. - This is a mental disorder in which the patient cannot move. Freezes like a statue. At the same time, the body is so amenable to his conviction that it seems to become stiff - sometimes several orderlies cannot move such a patient from their place. And this is not paralysis at all, because in fact the human body functions at the same time in a normal rhythm ...
The MK reporter also called all the namesakes of the famous sinner in Samara. And the secret of the appearance of her name and surname was revealed to us.
Zoya Karnaukhova? - responded 60-year-old Alexander Pavlovich Karnaukhov. - Yes, it was my aunt, my father's sister. She used to live in Samara. I was a kid when it all happened, and didn't really believe in the legend. But Aunt Zoya, as a religious person, talked so much about the miracle that she was completely obsessed with it. And already she began to identify herself with that sinner. And the neighbors began to laugh at her - they called her “stone Zoya”. But everyone saw at the same time that not everything was in order with the aunt's head, although she was not registered in a psychiatric clinic. Since then, our surname has become "famous" undeservedly throughout the city. And my aunt, in her old age, moved to the village of Samarsk and died there from the heart. I didn't have any photos of her, and I don't need to write about it… - Aleksandr Karnaukhov refused to meet with the journalist.
Some church representatives are convinced that God works miracles on Easter. But if the parishioners find out that for half a century they have been deliberately fooled by ridiculous stories, will their faith be strengthened from this?
According to the biblical parable, sometimes it is better not to look back, so as not to turn into a pillar of salt ...
Eyewitnesses
“The policemen were strictly forbidden to tell what they saw there. But one young guy answered our question: “Well, is everything worth it?” - he simply took off his cap, and under it there were several strands that turned gray with horror! According to him, when he was in the room, Zoya suddenly screamed from somewhere in her womb: “Pray! Doomsday is coming!” Another policeman grabbed an ax and tried to cut the floorboards to which the girl was rooted, but blood splashed into his face right from the floor!”
Samara-Moscow
This is such an Orthodox thriller: according to legend, on December 31, 1955, a company of young people gathered in house No. 84 on Chkalov Street in the city of Kuibyshev (now Samara). Everything is as it should be: they drank, danced, had fun. One of the invited girls, Zoya Karnaukhova, a pipe factory worker, was waiting for her new acquaintance Nikolai that evening. They met a guy recently, but he managed to like the girl. But Nikolai did not go and did not go, and Zoya was upset. "Why aren't you dancing? Give it up, your Kolya will not come! - decided to support Zoya's girlfriends, to which she got angry, jumped up and, having removed the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from the shelf, began to dance with her. Like, since my Kolya didn’t come, I’ll dance at least with this.
nikola-ygodnik.narod.ruThe rest of the guests allegedly felt uneasy at that moment, and they demanded that the image be returned to its place. “If there is a God, then let him punish me!” Zoya answered and walked around with the icon, continuing the dance of the desperate woman. A few minutes later, suddenly there was a noise in the house, the wind rose and lightning flashed. When those around them came to their senses, the blasphemer was already standing in the middle of the room, white as snow, clutching the icon to her chest. Her legs were rooted to the floor, her eyes did not blink, her breathing was also not audible. But the heart was beating.
Nikola-ygodnik.narod.ru 
Zoya's friends first tried to remove the icon from the girl's hands, but it did not work out. Frightened, they called an ambulance. In the medical team that came to the call was Anna Kalashnikova, whose relative - and, by coincidence, also the priest Vitaly Kalashnikov - now tells the details of the Samara mystery, which he indirectly witnessed:
Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova - my mother's aunt - in 1956 worked in Kuibyshev as an ambulance doctor. On that day in the morning, she came to our house and said: “You are sleeping here, and the city has long been on its feet!” And she told about the petrified girl. And she also admitted (although she gave a subscription) that she was now in that house on a call. I saw frozen Zoya. I saw the icon of St. Nicholas in her hands. She tried to give the unfortunate injection, but the needles bent, broke, and therefore the injection failed. Everyone was shocked by her story. Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova worked as an ambulance doctor for many more years. She died in 1996.
The head of the Blagovest news agency, Anton Zhogolev, says that Kalashnikova's memories are considered, in fact, the only living evidence that something strange actually happened in house number 84. All those "evidence" that became known later are more reminiscent of folklore. For example, the story of a certain grandmother who tried to find out from a young policeman whether a stone girl was really standing in a mysterious house. He allegedly refused to answer directly, but then he simply silently took off his headdress and showed his granny an absolutely gray head. For one night of duty, they say, so turned gray.
It was me that Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran ordered to investigate the phenomenon of Zoya's standing, which resulted in the book of the same name, which has already sold 25,000 copies. In the preface to this book, I wrote that we do not aim to convince the reader that this miracle really happened. Personally, I believe that if there was no stone Zoya, then this in itself is an even greater miracle. Because in 1956, a rumor about a petrified girl alarmed the whole city - many turned to the church, and now this is, as they say, a medical fact.
Indeed, the rumor about the petrified girl quickly spread throughout Kuibyshev. Near the house on Chkalova Street, people began to be on duty. The hostess of the house - the owner of the beer stall Claudia Bolonkina - boarded up the windows of the building with boards, and the police set up a round-the-clock cordon next to the house. Bolonkina's neighbors said that she was a wealthy woman and rented out part of her house. It was in this part of it that a mysterious event took place.
Russite 
True, skeptics doubt it. There is a version that Bolonkina was simply tired of the huge number of people in front of her windows and told the police, asking to save her from onlookers. Or maybe an enterprising woman decided to make money on people's rumors and, catching up on mysteries, boarded up the windows of the house on purpose. After all, eyewitnesses said that Bolonkina allegedly secretly led excursions to the house - for 10 rubles per person, which was a decent amount in those years. Onlookers, numb with horror, looked at a female figure with an icon in her hands, standing in the twilight. They say that for the role of Zoya Bolonkina invited her friend and shared her earnings with her. Heart-rending cries from the house at night: “Pray, people, we are perishing in sins! Pray, pray, put on crosses, walk in crosses, the earth is dying, swaying like a cradle!..” - this is supposedly also the work of Bolonkina and her accomplices. And the police had to be sent to the place of "pilgrimage" by the city authorities so that there would be no riots and self-mutilation. The picture of what was happening in those years could be explained by the case of Zoya's standing, which was kept under the heading "Secret" all these years in the regional police department. But in 1999, the administration building burned badly, and the archive of documents was almost completely destroyed.
ic.pics.livejournal.com
How did the official authorities react to the miracle, given that there was a dawn of atheism in the Soviet Union at that time? There was a legend that Nikita Khrushchev personally came to Kuibyshev, but there is no documentary evidence of this. The party reacted gloatingly to the news of the miracle: the CPSU decided that all these rumors were a provocation, specially prepared for the regional party congress, which was to happen soon. By decision of just this party conference, the city newspaper Volzhskaya Kommuna (which exists, by the way, to this day) published a feuilleton by editor Strakhov "Wild Case", ridiculing the hype around what allegedly happened.
vkonline.ru
At the conference itself, the first secretary of the OK CPSU, Mikhail Efremov, gave the delegates a powerful scolding on this topic:
Yes, this miracle happened - shameful for us, the communists, the leaders of the party organs. Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people were dancing, and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone. After that, they began to say: petrified, stiffened - and off they went. People began to gather, because the leaders of the militia acted clumsily. Apparently, someone else had a hand in this. A police post was immediately set up, and where the police are, there are eyes. There were few militia, as the people kept arriving, they put up a mounted militia. And the people, if so, - all there. Some even thought of making a proposal to send priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon ...
The party decided to sharply increase anti-religious propaganda in Kuibyshev and the region. During the first eight months of 1956, more than 2,000 scientific-atheistic lectures were delivered, which is 2.5 times more than in the entire previous year. But their effectiveness was low. Documents have been preserved showing that Holy Week the city seemed to have died out, everyone was sitting at home. And on the eve of Easter, not a single resident of Kuibyshev came to the Pobeda club to watch a movie.
azbyka.ru
So how did this story end? According to one version, a certain “hieromonk Seraphim” appeared to Zoya, who at that time had stood with the icon in her hands for 128 days, on Pascha, who consecrated the room and served a prayer service, and then removed the icon from the girl’s hands. Zoya, exhausted, sank into a chair and for a long time could not come to her senses. However, even here everything is ambiguous. At that time, two priests named Seraphim were widely known. The first is Serafim Tyapochkin, archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Rakitnoye, Belgorod Region.
pravpochta.com
The second was the then rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the city of Kuibyshev, Serafim Poloz, who shortly after the events described was convicted of sodomy - a fairly common article in those days, with the help of which they dealt with objectionable clergy.
blagovest.cofe.ru
Believers are also satisfied with another version of the happy outcome of this story. According to folk legend, Zoya came to life after the appearance of Nicholas the Wonderworker himself. Shortly before Easter, an old man came up to the house and asked the policemen on duty to let him into the house. They told him: "Go away, grandfather." The next day, the elder came again and was again refused. On the third day, on the feast of the Annunciation, by "God's providence" the guards let the old man go to Zoya. The police allegedly heard him affectionately ask the girl: “Well, are you tired of standing?” How long he stayed there is unknown, but when they missed him, they could not find him. Zoya then came to life and pointed to the icon: "He went to the front corner."
What happened next with Zoya Karnaukhova - no one knows. Everything is told about her further fate. Some believe that she died three days later, others are sure that she disappeared in a psychiatric hospital, and still others firmly believe that Zoya lived in a monastery for a long time and was secretly buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
And it seems that they even forgot about that mysterious Zoya a little (with the exception of tourists from all over the world who regularly came to gawk at the famous house), as on May 12, 2014, the building suddenly burned down. The locals, according to tradition, are divided into two camps: some see this as a fatal sign and expect other misfortunes, while others are sure that the house in the historic center of the city burned down for a reason and, most likely, this was the work of some local construction company, which has already designed a new building in the area.
- Doctors explain the phenomenon of Zoya's standing simply: the girl, apparently, had mental disorders, and during the dance she had another seizure. Catatonic schizophrenia is characterized by motor disorders - in particular, with this form of the disease, a catatonic stupor can develop, that is, a person can literally freeze in place. But more often it happens in the supine position.
- A similar case is described in George Gurdjieff's book Encounters with Remarkable People. Gurdjieff told a story there, how he saw, during a trip in some country, a rite of sorcerers-black magicians: one person was placed in a circle, previously outlined, and ritual, magical actions were performed on him: after that, the person could not get out of it on his own. Only two or three physically strong men could carry this man out of the circle, but in this case, he would vomit and convulsions began. This continued until the person was dragged back. Gurdjieff described that it seemed that some kind of gigantic force, like a magnet, held a person.
- In world art there are also many parallels with the story of Zoe: from Homer's Medusa Gorgon, who turned a person into stone with one glance, to Charles Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty".
- In 2009, director Alexander Proshkin made the film "Miracle" based on the legend of Zoya. main role- reporter Nikolai - played by actor Konstantin Khabensky.
- In Samara, they say that the same Nikolai, whom Zoya did not wait for that evening, ended badly: he became a criminal and spent his whole life in prisons.
Samara, Chkalova street. The woman in the background caught up with the gate of house number 84. In January 1956, this street was cordoned off by mounted police.
In this article, we will show authentic photographs of the house in which the "Standing of Zoya" allegedly took place and tell the real facts for those who want to understand the legend of the "stone girl" - Zoya Karnaukhova.
Each blog has articles that are most popular with readers. For one of my acquaintances, on a site with more than a thousand articles on a variety of near-cultural topics, for some reason, citizens mostly read about what types of beards and mustaches exist. In my blog largest number views were collected by an article about "Standing Zoe". And everything would be fine, but only readers, probably sincerely considering themselves Orthodox, naturally do not restrain themselves in the comments under the article. And they behave like "commentators-seagulls": flew in - shat - disappeared. Not all, of course, but the trend is well traced.
To be honest, I didn’t want to touch on the topic related to the most famous urban legend of Samara again, but they got it. Yes, I understand, for the above category of readers, everything will be useless, nevertheless.
Let me start with the legend itself. Over the years, it has acquired all sorts of details and interpretations, but it is easy to find the canonical plot in the feuilleton "Wild Case", published in the newspaper "Volga Commune" on January 24, 1956. We note along the way that this feuilleton mentions only one real name of a participant in the events - the hostess of the house, Claudia Petrovna Bolonkina. The canonical history is also presented on Wikipedia, however, already with details and additional names:
Claudia Bolonkina and her son lived in house number 84 on Chkalov Street. On New Year's Eve, the son invited friends to visit. Among those invited was Zoya Karnaukhova, who the day before met a young intern named Nikolai, who promised to come to them for the holiday. All the friends were with the guys, Zoya was sitting alone, Nikolai was late. When the dancing began, she declared: “If there is no my Nicholas, I will dance with Nicholas the Pleasant!” And she went to the corner where the icons stood. Friends were horrified: “Zoya, this is a sin,” but she said: “If there is a God, let him punish me!” She took the icon, pressed it to her chest. She entered the circle of dancers and suddenly froze, as if she had grown into the floor ...
There you can also find variations of the description of events, for example, this one:
According to the stories of one woman, dancing with the icon really took place, and a passing nun threw: “For such a sin, you will turn into a pillar of salt!”, And Claudia began to spread a rumor that this had happened ...
Has it happened? To understand this now, you need to be based on irrefutable facts and logic. And of the irrefutable facts, we have, first of all, the house itself, house books, a criminal case, a list of the personnel of the plant named after. Maslennikov (former pipe factory). Let's start dancing from the stove, that is, from home.
"Standing Zoe". Fact #1 "House".
One way or another, in all versions of the legend about Zoya, a house appears on Chkalovskaya Street No. 84. Take any source, it is written everywhere - “the house on Chkalovskaya Street No. 84”, “in Bolonkina’s house”. I specifically emphasize these phrases so that you understand: each time we are talking about one, specific house.
The apartment is the house of Claudia Bolonkina. According to the legend, "Zoya's Standing" took place here. But here's the problem: at the indicated address on Chkalov Street there are several residential buildings under the same number. This is a homestead, consisting of apartment houses, surrounded by a common fence. And the former apartment of Claudia Bolonkina is located approximately in the middle of the "estate".
General form to the "house" on Chkalova street, 84 It is simply impossible to see "Zoya's house" from the street. Well, no way! Even if you walk up to the fence and jump up, you still won't be able to see anything. This is how the complex of houses on Chkalova Street looks now, as it looked in 1956.
Consequently, no old woman or a collection of old praying women could/could not consider the ungodly dances with the icon in winter. All they could see from Chkalovskaya Street was the facade of a two-story house and a fence.
Gate to the courtyard of the "estate" on Chkalova street, 84 The first who in Samara began to thoroughly investigate the history of the "Standing of Zoya" was local historian Valery Erofeev. At that time, it was still possible to find eyewitnesses to the events on Chkalovskaya. From their words, he wrote down - in January 1956, two old women really wandered along Chkalovskaya Street. The residents of the houses redirected the ladies to different addresses. Until, finally, one of the neighbors, jokingly, pointed to Bolonkina's house.
A white bag hangs in the courtyard of the estate. Someone is waiting for Santa. Claudia Bolonka's old women explained that they were looking for a green house in which a stone girl was standing. Allegedly, on this account, God's grace descended on some blessed Agrafena and she prophesied. Bolonkina, of course, had not heard of any "stone girl". The old women left, and the next day the well-known events began.
Fix. None of the "eyewitnesses" could see the "miracle" from the street, since Bolonkina's house-apartment was located in the depths of a courtyard fenced with a fence.
"Standing Zoe" or size matters
For some reason, none of the believers in the "miracle" pays attention to a completely obvious fact: Bolonkina's house has a very modest size. These are three tiny rooms in which you can, of course, get drunk in an individual way, but it is absolutely impossible to arrange a party with dancing.
View of the house of Claudia Bolonkina from the back of the courtyard. The room where the dances allegedly took place with fatal consequences for one of the participants, about 12 in size square meters. Add furniture to it - a table, chairs, a kind of bedside table with a kind of gramophone, under which the walkers supposedly danced, or an accordion player with an instrument, sitting, say, on the bed - and it becomes completely clear that one pair can still somehow waltz in such a tiny space , but a few people - no way. Unless, of course, they are dancing lambada ...
All that remains of one of the rooms of Claudia Bolonkina's house In 2007, the State TV and Radio Company "Samara" aired the documentary film "Stone Zoya" as part of the television cycle "Collected Works". The 15-minute program was filmed for several months, journalist Galina Shcherba worked on it. At this time, the former house of Bolonkina had long since surrendered, there were no eyewitnesses left, and the residents of neighboring houses were so tired of endless questions that at the mere mention of the name "Zoya" they were ready to slam the door in front of those interested and lock the gate ...
Living conditions in these houses still remain at the level of the Stone Age. They can be understood - the living conditions in these houses still remain at the level of the Stone Age: no sewerage, no running water, no major repairs. They should have solved their problems with the help of journalists, and, as luck would have it, everyone only asks about the stone girl ... Nevertheless, the film crew then managed to get into the house. The tenant even graciously folded back the carpet and showed the floorboards. But the fact that it was impossible to turn around in the little room was obvious. Judge for yourself - we made a cut from the shots of the house and the room, which were then included in the program.
Prior to this, Samara local historian Valery Erofeeva also noted the modest size of Bolonkina’s dwelling, and according to neighbors, Claudia never had a drinking bout and generally lived quietly.
The windows of the former house of Bolonkina are boarded up. As the residents said, prayers are held here from time to time. Well, we will acquaint you with the rest of the irrefutable facts later. Although the main, in our opinion, "fact" is the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to the house of Claudia Bolonkina. The house where the "miracle" happened, Russian Orthodox Church NOT NEEDED. Relatively recently, it burned, and now it is quietly living its life in anticipation of demolition. Although it could become a center of mass pilgrimage. But it will not, because there are no people who want to buy land for the corresponding purposes. Why? Perhaps you have an answer to this question.
P.S. By the way, what do they want to do in former home Claudia Bolonkina?
