In our everyday reality, miracles sometimes happen, and some of them become known to the whole world. So, in the last century, an event that happened in Kuibyshev received a great response. The people gave him the name "Zoino standing." Now let's try to figure it out and answer the question that worries many: is this just a beautiful and at the same time terrible legend, which is still remembered, or is it a real fact that took place? The topic of our article: "Stone Zoya - truth or myth?"

How it all began?

By historical standards, this miraculous event happened not so long ago. It was in the middle of the last century in Kuibyshev, now this city is called Samara.

In 1956, on a January day in one of the houses, namely along Chkalovskaya Street, house number 84, an inexplicable phenomenon occurred. A crowd of onlookers gathered around the dwelling, wishing to see this sign. The news quickly spread among people: for some reason, the girl turned into a kind of statue. Like a statue, she froze in the middle of the room, but she was alive. Everyone was eager to see this at least from the corner of their eye, and a detachment of mounted police was on duty here for a week to suppress the unrest.

There are already many disagreements in this story from the very beginning. So, according to one version, a simple family lived in the house: a mother and her daughter Zoya. That evening, her believing parent went to church, and her daughter threw a party, at which she was waiting for her fiancé named Nikolai. When the mother returned home, she saw her daughter in a petrified state and lost consciousness. First, she was taken to the hospital, and after the woman came to her senses, she returned home and began to pray fervently.

According to another version, Claudia Bolonkina and her son Nikolai lived there. It was he who was Zoya's boyfriend and invited her to visit. She kept waiting for him that evening, but he never came. Then the story followed the same scenario.

Investigation of journalists

Despite the past decades, talk about this event does not subside. In the course of the journalistic investigation, it was concluded that there was no miracle. But what really happened at that time? The fact that a huge crowd gathered near the house in those January days, attracted here by rapidly spreading rumors, was not refuted by anyone. But was there a real miracle then?

The reason for this pandemonium, according to experts, was the so-called mass psychosis, fueled by certain social conditions that were then in the country. At that time, the government changed, the cult of Stalin was becoming a thing of the past, and the powerful of this world made indulgences in relation to the church and believers.

This incident was even discussed at a party conference held in the city at the end of January. A transcript has been preserved, in which there were statements by the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU. In it, he denied the reality of what happened.

One old woman said that a girl was petrified in that house, who was thus punished for blasphemy. Rumors began to spread quickly. In addition, the militia, assigned then to maintain order, attracted the attention of the people even more, causing a stir. When the law enforcement agencies left from there, a crowd of onlookers who sought to look at the "miracle" dispersed along with them. According to eyewitnesses, only an old woman lived in that house, and there can be no talk of any girl.

Based on the investigation, it turns out that it was an invention of the same Bolonkina, who let out false information. The documentary film "Stone Zoya" tried to shed light on the reliability of the facts.

Controversial newspaper article

After this event, a feuilleton called "Wild Case" was printed in one edition. He denounced the propaganda workers of the city committee, who had forgotten about their duties of educating the population and introducing scientific knowledge into the minds of people. And about miracles and religion in this newspaper it was written as about the relics of the past.

Witnesses and rumors

Three decades later, witnesses to this story began to appear, but they were not directly related to what happened. These were those who simply heard a lot about it from other people, but did not see anything with their own eyes. The legend, thus, began to acquire more and more rumors and speculation. According to some, it no longer had anything to do with real events.

Fictions include the information that pointed to emergency doctors who allegedly came to Zoya, tried to revive her with injections and save her from this condition. There is also a story about policemen who saw a frozen girl and instantly turned gray from this spectacle. They also talked about a certain holy elder, who then came to the city and communicated with the petrified maiden. There is no reliable data regarding this information, and, according to some, all of them are built solely on gossip. But is it really so? At the same time, it did not appear immediately, but several decades later, later the girl was given the name Karnaukhov.

Films based on the legend

In 2015, they filmed a documentary film shown on the TVC channel - “The Line of Defense. Stone Zoya. Also on the basis of these events in 2009, director Alexander Proshkin shot the film "Miracle". Only the action of this film takes place in Grechansk - a fictional city. In this picture, personalities were involved who were not actually present there then. So, Nikita Khrushchev, who at that time was the leader of the country, appeared here.

The film "Miracle", filmed according to the script of Yuri Arabov, who showed interest in the Orthodox theme, starred such famous actors as Polina Kutepova and Sergei Makovetsky. Many viewers who have watched this picture perceive it as a documentary, but in fact it is based only on a legend that has not yet been confirmed and has acquired a lot of fictional circumstances.

In addition, in 2011, NTV showed a historical detective called “The Dark Matter. Stone Zoya: truth or myth?

Perpetuating History

In 2010, at the behest, it was decided to establish a memorial sign in honor of the legendary Stone Zoe. It is located on the same famous street. The sculptural image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a kind of reminder of a bygone event, but the image of Zoya herself is not present here. However, her name is mentioned on the tablet that is on this monument. In the temple, located on the outskirts of Samara, people pray for a miracle in front of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Along the edges are miniatures depicting footage associated with that long-standing event.

This was mentioned in the movie "Line of Defense. Stone Zoya. In those days, people needed a miracle, because the old order collapsed, and something new had to come to replace it. Religion began to revive, it became a necessary confirmation of its strength. What happened shocked many people, and they began to quickly turn to the faith. At that time, even crosses were not enough for those who asked.

What does this legend say?

A certain girl named Zoya, who is also a pipe factory worker, was walking with her friends at home. They danced and had fun. Although this was not supposed to be done during the Christmas post. The mother of our heroine was also against this idea. The girl had a fiancé Nikolai, but for some reason he was delayed, and she continued to wait for him. Unable to stand it, in a fit of anger, Zoya grabbed the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and began to dance with her. The girl uttered the following words: "If there is no my Nicholas, then I will dance with St. Nicholas." Then the friends who were present at the party began to persuade her not to do this, because But in response to them, she only said: “If there is a God, let him punish me!”

After that, something inexplicable happened. A whirlwind arose in the room, lightning flashed, a terrible noise arose, and ... Zoya immediately froze like a statue. She was all icy and pressed the icon to her chest. Her legs seemed to have grown together with the floor, and the girl could not be moved. Despite the absence of external signs of life, her heart was beating. Since then, she has not eaten or drank, but Stone Zoya continued to live.

A film about this event was repeatedly made by directors, but these films did not give an exact explanation. They tell how the people on duty at the post heard the girl screaming at night: “Mom, pray! We perish in sins! The news of this spread throughout the city, and the phenomenon was called "Zoino standing." Priests were invited to read prayers. But the holy men could not take the icon from Zoe's hands. On the feast of Christmas, Father Seraphim came to the house and said these words: “We must wait for a sign on the Great Day.”

There is even a legend that Nicholas the Wonderworker himself came to Zoya. On the day of the Annunciation, a certain old man came, already for the third time trying to get into the house. The attendants only heard that the old man asked Zoya if she was tired of standing like that. Then he and the trace caught a cold, he quietly disappeared. Then there were rumors that the saint himself was then in that room.

So the girl stood for 128 days, until Easter itself. On the eve of the holiday, she again began to appeal to people to pray, for the whole world is perishing in sins. From that time on, Zoya began to revive and continued to ask everyone to pray for peace. After she woke up, she was asked questions and asked how she survived for so many days. After all, she could neither drink nor eat at the time when she was in a petrified state. To this she replied that the pigeons fed her. The night guards were horrified when Zoya screamed for everyone to pray, as the earth is burning and the whole world is dying in sins. As the legend says, on the third day of Easter, the girl died, forgiven by the Lord.

There is a version that after Zoya came to life, she was taken to the hospital, where she stayed until the end of her days. There is also an assumption that she later lived in a monastery. Over time, Stone Zoya still lives in the memory of the people. Samara is now associated by many with that ancient event and the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

eyewitness testimony

After this event, the same priest Seraphim was asked questions about his meeting with that phenomenon. He answered them evasively, but nevertheless it became clear that it was he who then was able to take the icon from the girl, who was the stone Zoya in Samara.

But there is also the testimony of a witness - pensioner Anna Fedotovna. She, like many then, wanted to see the miracle with her own eyes, but the police guarding the house did not let anyone through. Then the old woman decided to ask one boy if everything was really as they say. But he answered evasively, saying that they were not ordered to report anything. More eloquent than words were his gray hair, which he showed the woman.

There was also a witness who worked for the ambulance. Then she arrived at the house to help the girl. Trying to give her an injection, she realized that it was all useless, because the needles bent and broke on the hardened skin. This woman's name was Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova, and she was a relative of the priest Vitaly Kalashnikov, who told from her words about this story. She, like many eyewitnesses then, gave a non-disclosure agreement. Despite this, the woman told about the miracle to many people.

One day a believer came from Kuibyshev to the temple where Seraphim served. She saw him and immediately recognized him as a priest who was present at that event. In most cases, he answered questions about the "Zoya standing" evasively and did not give direct answers. From the story of Alexandra Ivanovna it follows that she met with Father Seraphim and asked about the whereabouts of the icon, which was then in the hands of the girl. He just looked at her sternly and said nothing. But there is information that the icon is in the Rakitnensky temple. Mother Ekaterina Luchina spoke about this, but then it was kept secret, because everyone was afraid of Seraphim's re-arrest.

Uncle Svetlana Chekulaeva was then a participant in the feast. He told his loved ones about what happened, and since then this story has become their family legend. According to his niece, he saw that the girl froze, stopped talking and stood, hugging the icon. Her uncle, as well as those who were with him then at that party, were sentenced to various terms. These facts were given in the documentary "Stone Zoya" (TVC).

Arrest of the main witness

At that time, a case was fabricated against Father Dimitri (Seraphim), and the authorities were ordered not to disclose the miracle to everyone who saw it. The priest was sentenced to several years in prison. After serving his term, he was sent to serve in a remote village. In the Intercession Monastery, after many years, Archimandrite Seraphim told that after he took the icon, he was arrested for several years, but the Lord brought him out after 40 days.

Thus, long-past events are now immortalized in Samara, in which Father Seraphim and that very stone Zoya figured. The photo of the monument in Samara clearly demonstrates this.

scientific version

From this point of view, such petrification is explained. It is with it that a state is observed when a person cannot move, talk and make any movements. There was confirmation of one scientist who did not refute what happened to the girl, but explained it with tetanus. However, with this disease, the symptoms cannot be expressed so strongly. The patient can be moved from place to place, in this case it was impossible to do so.

Conclusion

As with this story, as with every high-profile story, there are often many versions and disagreements. This is especially true of miracles, which are becoming known to the whole world. In this case, as a rule, a version is born that in every possible way confirms the happened phenomenon, and, in contrast to it, there is an explanation of skeptics who consider the incident from a scientific point of view, or even completely refute it.

On the one hand, many denials have been raised regarding the plausibility of the story. At the same time, there are witnesses who allegedly indicate that they were at that time in the house on Chkalovskaya and did not see anything. But, on the other hand, why did the authorities at that time need to organize a cordon and board up the windows? Why did they arrest Archimandrite Seraphim, as they did with other witnesses of the miracle? Yes, this can be explained by the fact that in this way they fought against religion and provocations, but perhaps this is the fact of a miraculous event that actually took place.

Be that as it may, the standing of the stone Zoya, whether it be compromised or a real miracle, at one time converted many people to faith, gave strength and hope at that difficult time. It was during that period that the people were in dire need of a miracle, and one way or another, it happened.

Fifty years ago, on New Year's Eve, the so-called Zoya Standing took place in Samara - a phenomenon that is still considered a great miracle. Thanks to this event, now the city knows exactly what not to do at the festive table.

Here is how it was. The city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), Chkalova street, January 1956, New Year's holidays. It was at this time and in this place that the so-called Zoya standing occurred - an event that is still considered by some to be a great miracle, others - an extensive bout of mass psychosis. A pipe factory worker, Zoya Karnaukhova, a beauty and an atheist, tried to commit blasphemy at the New Year's table, for which she immediately suffered a terrible punishment: the girl turned to stone and stood without signs of life for 128 days. The rumor about this put the whole city on the ears - from ordinary citizens to the leaders of the regional committee. Until now, many parents in Samara scare their children with Stone Zoya: “Do not indulge, you will turn to stone!” A chic plot for a brain-crushing Orthodox thriller. Correspondent "RR" went to the scene in the creative intelligence.

“If there is a God, then let him punish me”

The rector of the church of St. George, father Igor Solovyov, approaches one of the icons hanging on the wall not far from the royal gates. It seems to be an ordinary image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, but under it is a string of unusual images that look more like comics than illustrations of the life of a saint. Here is a noisy group of young people sitting at a table. Here the girl takes the image of St. Nicholas from the red corner. Here she is dancing with him in an embrace. In the next picture, Zoya is already white, with an icon in her hands, around her are people in civilian clothes, with mystical horror in their eyes. Further, an old man stands next to her, who takes the icon from stone hands, a crowd of people around the house. In the last picture, next to Zoya, Nicholas the Wonderworker himself, the girl’s face is again pink.

So far, this is the only icon in the world that captures those events, - the priest comments. - Written by her artist Tatyana Ruchka, she has already died. It was our idea to depict this plot on the icon. This does not mean at all that we have recognized Zoya Karnaukhova as a saint. No, she was a great sinner, but it was on her that a miracle was revealed, which strengthened many in the faith during the time of Khrushchev's persecution of the church. After all, it is said in Scripture that even if the righteous are silent, the stones will cry out. Here they cried out.

In detail, the folk version of "Zoya Standing" looks like this. On New Year's Eve, at the house of Bolonkina Claudia Petrovna at 84 Chkalova Street, at the invitation of her son, a company of young people gathered. Klavdia Petrovna herself, who worked as a seller in the stall "Beer - Water", was a pious person, did not approve of noisy fun, so she went to her friend. Having spent the old year, having met the new one and thoroughly loaded with alcohol, the youth decided to dance. Among others at the table was Zoya Karnaukhova. She did not share the general fun, and she had reasons for that. The day before, at the pipe factory, she met a young trainee named Nikolai, and he promised to come to the holiday. But time passed, but Nikolai was not there. Friends and girlfriends have been dancing for a long time, some of them began to tease Zoya: “Why don’t you dance? Forget about him, he won’t come, come to us!” - "Will not come?! - flashed Karnaukhova. “Well, since my Nikolai is not there, then I will dance with Nikolai the Wonderworker!”

Zoya put a chair to the red corner, stood on it and took the image from the shelf. Even far from the church and very tipsy guests felt uneasy: “Listen, it’s better to put it in its place. You don't have to joke about this!" But it was not possible to reason with the girl: “If there is a God, then let him punish me!” Zoya answered and walked around with the icon. After a few minutes of this terrible dance, a noise suddenly rang out in the house, the wind rose and lightning flashed. When the people around came to their senses, the blasphemer was already standing in the middle of the room, white as marble. Her legs were rooted to the floor, her hands gripped the icon so tightly that there was no way to pull it out. But the heart was beating.

Zoya's friends called an ambulance. Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova was part of the medical team that came to the call.

On the morning of that day, my mother came home and immediately woke us all up, ”her now living daughter Nina Mikhailovna, a parishioner of the church of Faith, Hope, Lyubov and their mother Sophia, located nearby, told the Russian Reporter. - “Here you are all sleeping,” he says, “and the whole city is already on your ears! On Chkalov Street, a girl turned to stone! Right with the icon in his hands, he stands - and not from a place, I saw it myself. And then the mother told how she tried to give her an injection, but only broke all the needles.

Today, Kalashnikova's memories are, in fact, the only living evidence that something extraordinary really happened in house number 84, Anton Zhogolev, head of the Blagovest news agency, believes. It was to him that the Archbishop of Samara and Syzran Sergius instructed to investigate the phenomenon of "Zoya's standing", which resulted in the book of the same name, which has already sold 25 thousand copies. - In the preface to this book, I wrote that we do not set ourselves the goal of convincing the reader that this miracle really happened. Personally, I believe that if there was no Stone Zoe, 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.

“Yes, this miracle happened - shameful for us, the communists ...”

The incident on Chkalovskaya Street is a wild, shameful incident. It serves as a reproach to the propaganda workers of the city committee and district committees of the CPSU. Let the ugly grimace of the old way of life, which many of us saw in those days, become a lesson and a warning for them.

This is a quote from the city newspaper Volzhskaya Kommuna dated January 24, 1956. The feuilleton "Wild Case" was published by decision of the 13th Kuibyshev regional party conference, convened urgently in connection with religious unrest in the city. The first secretary of the CPSU OK (now - the governor), Comrade Efremov, gave the delegates a powerful scolding on this topic. Here is a quote from the transcript of his speech: “Yes, this miracle happened - shameful for us, the Communists, the leaders of 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 ... "

At the party conference, it was decided to sharply increase anti-religious propaganda in Kuibyshev and the region. In the first eight months of 1956, more than 2000 scientific-atheistic lectures were delivered, which is 2.5 times more than in the entire previous year. But their effectiveness was low. As evidenced by the “Reference on the implementation of the decisions of the bureau of the OK CPSU for 1956 for the department of propaganda and agitation”, there were reports from almost all districts that rumors about the “petrified girl” were still very strong among the people; religious sentiments sharply intensified; during fasting, people rarely take to the streets with an accordion; the attendance of cinemas decreased, and in the Passion Week, the screenings were completely disrupted due to the lack of spectators in the halls. Detachments of Komsomol agitators walked along the streets of the city, claiming that they were in the house on Chkalovskaya Street and did not see anything there. But, as follows from reports from the field, these actions only added fuel to the fire, so that even those who did not believe in a miracle began to doubt: maybe something really happened ...

“The pigeons fed me, pigeons…”

Immediately after Easter, the story about "Standing Zoya" became the property of the people's samizdat. Among the inhabitants of the region and even beyond its borders, the “life” compiled by an unknown author Zoino went from hand to hand. It began like this: “Let the whole earth worship You, Lord, let it sing the praise of Your Name, let it give thanks to You, who wants to turn many from the path of wickedness to the true faith.” And it ended with the words: “If anyone reads these miracles and does not believe, he will sin. Compiled and written by the hand of an eyewitness. The content of the “document” itself differs in places in different copies - apparently, when rewriting, people added something of themselves - but the main plot is approximately the same everywhere.

What follows is a brief summary. Zoya stayed in a half-dead guise for 128 days - until Easter itself. From time to time she uttered heartbreaking cries: “Pray, people, we are perishing in sins! Pray, pray, put on crosses, walk in crosses, the earth is dying, swaying like a cradle!..” From the first days, the house on Chkalov Street was taken under heavy guard, no one was allowed inside without special permission. Some “professor of medicine” was summoned from Moscow, whose name is not mentioned in his life. And on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, a certain “hieromonk Seraphim” was allowed into the house. Having served a prayer service for water, he removed the icon from Zoya's hands and returned it to its place. Perhaps we are talking about the then rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the city of Kuibyshev, Seraphim Poloz, who shortly after the events described was convicted under the article for sodomy - a fairly common reprisal against objectionable clergymen in those days.

But, despite all the measures taken by the authorities, the people did not disperse: people stood near the police cordon around the clock. The “life” contains the testimony of “one pious woman” about how she, seeing a young police officer behind the fence, called him and asked: “Milok, were you inside there?” "Yes," replied the officer. “Well, tell me what you saw there?” - “Mom, we can’t say anything, we signed a non-disclosure agreement. But there is nothing to divulge here, now you will see everything yourself,” saying this, the young policeman took off his headdress and the “pious woman” clutched her heart. The guy was completely gray.

“On the fifth day of “standing,” Bishop Jerome received a phone call from Alekseev, the Commissioner for Religious Affairs,” writes Andrei Savin, who in those years held the position of secretary of the local diocesan administration, in his memoirs. - He asked me to speak from the pulpit of the church, to call this case an absurd invention. This case was entrusted to the rector of the Pokrovsky Cathedral, Father Alexander Nadezhdin. But the diocese set one indispensable condition: Father Alexander must visit that house and make sure of everything with his own eyes. The commissioner did not expect such a turn. He replied that he would think about it and call back in two hours. But he called only two days later and said that our intervention was no longer required.

According to popular legend, Zoya's torment ends after the appearance of Nicholas the Wonderworker himself. Shortly before Easter, a handsome 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 comes again and is 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. And the policemen heard how he affectionately asked the girl: “Well, are you tired of standing?” How long he stayed there is unknown, but only when they missed looking for him, they could not find him. Later, when Zoya came to life, when asked what happened to the mysterious visitor, she pointed to the icon: "He went to the front corner." Shortly after this phenomenon, on the eve of Easter, life began to appear in the muscles of Zoya Karnaukhova, and she was able to move. According to another version, long before the holiday, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital along with the floorboards to which she had grown, and when the floor was cut, blood spattered from the tree. “How did you live? Who fed you? they asked Zoya when she came to. “Doves! - was the answer. “The pigeons fed me!”

The further fate of Zoya Karnaukhova is told in different ways. 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.

You can believe in these events, you can not believe, but one thing is obvious: this story has an actual spiritual meaning, - Anton Zhogolev says goodbye to me, but in combination with the glowing eyes of a neophyte, the phrase “You can not believe” in his mouth sounds somehow unconvincing. - And it concerns the New Year holidays. After all, in Russia now the New Year falls on the last week of Advent. Millions of people, even those who call themselves believers, are making a deal with their conscience these days to please others.

I seem to understand your point. It is necessary that some serious director film a very scary and pious thriller about Zoya in order to show it on New Year's Eve. Instead of "Irony of Fate".

And what? A good idea. Correct.

“People are interesting. Every third Mother of God saw "

Little has changed on Chkalov Street in half a century. In the center of Samara today, not even the 20th, but the 19th century reigns: water in a column, stove heating, amenities on the street, almost all buildings are in disrepair. The events of 1956 are only reminiscent of the house number 84 itself, as well as the absence of a bus stop nearby. “As they liquidated during the Zoya Troubles, they were never restored,” recalls Lyubov Borisovna Kabaeva, a resident of a neighboring house.

Now at least they began to come less often, but about two years ago everything seemed to break loose. The pilgrims came ten times a day. And everyone asks the same thing, and I answer the same thing - the language has dried up.

And what do you answer?

And what will you answer here? All this is nonsense! I myself was still a girl in those years, and the deceased mother remembered everything well and told me. In this house once lived either a monk or a priest. And when persecution began in the 1930s, he could not stand it and renounced the faith. It is not known where he went, but he only sold the house and left. But according to old memory, religious people often came here, asked where he was, where he had gone. And on the very day when Zoya allegedly turned to stone, young people really walked in the Bolonkins' house. And as if it were a sin that same evening, some regular nun arrived. She looked out the window and saw a girl dancing with an icon. And she went through the streets to lament: “Oh, you stunner! Ah, blasphemer! Ah, your heart of stone! May God punish you. Yes, you will be petrified. Yes, you are already petrified!” Someone heard, picked up, then someone else, another, and off we go. The next day, people came to the Bolonkins - where, they say, is a stone woman, let's show. When people finally got her, she called the police. They put up a cordon. Well, how do our people usually think? If they don't let you in, it means they're hiding something. That's all "Zoino standing."

Well, how do the pilgrims believe you?

Of course not. They say: “And where did the name Zoya come up from then? Yes, even with the surname?

And really, where?

I don't know myself. I forgot to ask my mother, and now you can’t ask anymore: she died.

House number 84 itself stands deep in the yard. In appearance, he is no less than a hundred years old - he has grown into the ground to the very windows. Now a young couple with children lives here: she is a seller in the market, he is a sales representative.

Moscow, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Kyiv, Munich… - Natalya Kurdyukova lists the cities from which pilgrims came to visit them. - Odessa, Minsk, Riga, Helsinki, Vladivostok ... The former tenant of this house was a drug addict and did not let anyone in, and we are people of good will - please, do not feel sorry.

A hut is like a hut. A cramped room, a stove, a vestibule, a kitchen. The owner lives somewhere in the region, and rents out the house only so that someone pays the rent and looks after the property.

People are interesting, - continues Nikolai Trandin, Natalia's husband. - Every third Mother of God saw. Many joke: "It's good that at least 50 years later Nikolai appeared in this house." And the one that Zoya was waiting for that night, they say, became a complete criminal. He spent his whole life in prisons.

Have you noticed anything unusual here?

Two years we live - absolutely nothing. Not to say that we are strongly believers, but this whole story is still slowly affecting us. When we settled here, we were still in a civil marriage, and now we got married and even got married. The son was recently born - also named Nicholas, in honor of the saint. Well, we are thinking about this topic more and more often, - Nikolai bent down and patted the floor with his palm.

In the very center of the room, the width of human feet, the floorboards are fresher and narrower, the rest are ramshackle and twice as thick.

For some reason, the cat likes to sit here very much, - Natalya smiles. - They tried to drive away, it still comes back.

The next day, passing by Zoya's House, the photographer and I saw Nikolai for some reason mow and throw grass into the fire. Take a closer look, and this is hemp ...

The former tenant, a drug addict, planted, - Nikolai spread his hands guiltily. - You can't do anything now.

Gosnarkokontrol gets enough, or what?

No, it’s just that the neighbors are constantly teasing: “They bred opium here for the people!”

Unfortunately, I have not preserved photos of the house 84 on the street. Chkalov in Samara before the fire. I decided to capture at least what was left, because very little time will pass and the house will be razed to the ground during the construction of new skyscrapers.

Sixty years ago, on New Year's Eve, "Zoya's Standing" took place in Samara.
The city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), Chkalova street, January 1956, New Year's holidays. A pipe factory worker, Zoya Karnaukhova, a beauty and an atheist, tried to commit blasphemy at the New Year's table, for which she immediately suffered a terrible punishment: the girl turned to stone and stood without signs of life for 128 days. The rumor about this put the whole city on the ears - from ordinary citizens to the leaders of the regional committee.
In detail, the folk version of "Zoya Standing" looks like this. On New Year's Eve, at the house of Bolonkina Claudia Petrovna at 84 Chkalova Street, at the invitation of her son, a company of young people gathered. Klavdia Petrovna herself, who worked as a salesman in the stall "Beer - Water", was a pious person, she did not approve of noisy fun during the Christmas fast, so she went to her friend. Having spent the old year, having met the new one and thoroughly loaded with alcohol, the youth decided to dance. Among others at the table was Zoya Karnaukhova. She did not share the general fun, and she had reasons for that. The day before, at the pipe factory, she met a young trainee named Nikolai, and he promised to come to the holiday. But time passed, but Nikolai was not there. Friends and girlfriends have been dancing for a long time, some of them began to tease Zoya: “Why don’t you dance? Forget about him, he won’t come, come to us!” - "Will not come?! - flashed Karnaukhova. “Well, since my Nikolai is not there, then I will dance with Nikolai the Wonderworker!”
Zoya put a chair to the red corner, stood on it and took the image from the shelf. Even far from the church and very tipsy guests felt uneasy: “Listen, it’s better to put it in its place. You don't have to joke about this!" But it was not possible to reason with the girl: “If there is a God, then let him punish me!” Zoya answered and walked around with the icon. After a few minutes of this terrible dance, a noise suddenly rang out in the house, the wind rose and lightning flashed. When the people around came to their senses, the blasphemer was already standing in the middle of the room, white as marble. Her legs were rooted to the floor, her hands gripped the icon so tightly that there was no way to pull it out. But the heart was beating.
Zoya stayed in a half-dead guise for 128 days - until Easter itself. From time to time she uttered heartbreaking cries: “Pray, people, we are perishing in sins! Pray, pray, put on crosses, walk in crosses, the earth is dying, swaying like a cradle!..” From the first days, the house on Chkalov Street was taken under heavy guard, no one was allowed inside without special permission. Some “professor of medicine” was summoned from Moscow, whose name is not mentioned in his life. And on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, a certain “hieromonk Seraphim” was allowed into the house. Having served a prayer service for water, he removed the icon from Zoya's hands and returned it to its place. Perhaps we are talking about the then rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the city of Kuibyshev, Seraphim Poloz.
Zoya's torment ended after the appearance of Nicholas the Wonderworker himself. Shortly before Easter, a handsome 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 comes again and is 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. And the policemen heard how he affectionately asked the girl: “Well, are you tired of standing?” How long he stayed there is unknown, but only when they missed looking for him, they could not find him. Later, when Zoya came to life, when asked what happened to the mysterious visitor, she pointed to the icon: "He went to the front corner." Shortly after this phenomenon, on the eve of Easter, life began to appear in the muscles of Zoya Karnaukhova, and she was able to move. According to another version, long before the holiday, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital along with the floorboards to which she had grown, and when the floor was cut, blood spattered from the tree. “How did you live? Who fed you? they asked Zoya when she came to. “Doves! - was the answer. “The pigeons fed me!”
The further fate of Zoya Karnaukhova is told in different ways. 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.

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This story happened in a simple Soviet family in the city of Kuibyshev, now Samara, in the late 50s. Mother and daughter were going to celebrate the New Year. Daughter Zoya invited seven of her friends and young people to a dance party. There was a Christmas fast, and the believing mother asked Zoya not to have parties, but her daughter insisted on her own. In the evening my mother went to church to pray.

The guests have gathered, but Zoya's groom named Nikolai has not yet arrived. They did not wait for him, the dancing began. Girls and young people joined in pairs, and Zoya was left alone. Out of annoyance, she took the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and said: “I will take this Nicholas and go to dance with him,” not listening to her friends, who advised her not to do such blasphemy. “If there is a God, He will punish me,” she snapped.

Dances began, two laps passed, and suddenly an unimaginable noise arose in the room, a whirlwind, a dazzling light flashed.

The amusement turned to terror. Everyone ran out of the room in fear. Only Zoya remained standing with the icon of the saint, pressing it to her chest, petrified, cold as marble. No efforts of the arriving doctors could bring her to her senses. The needles broke and bent during the injection, as if meeting a stone obstacle. They wanted to take the girl to the hospital for observation, but they could not move her: her legs were, as it were, chained to the floor. But her heart was beating - Zoya lived. From that time on, she could neither drink nor eat.

When her mother returned and saw what had happened, she lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, from where she returned a few days later: faith in the mercy of God, fervent prayers for mercy on her daughter restored her strength. She came to her senses and tearfully prayed for forgiveness and help.

The first days the house was surrounded by many people: believers, doctors, clerics, just curious people came and came from afar. But soon, by order of the authorities, the premises were closed to visitors. Two policemen were on duty in it in shifts of 8 hours. Some of the attendants, still very young (28-32 years old), turned gray with horror when Zoya screamed terribly at midnight. At night, her mother prayed beside her.

"Mother! Pray! Zoya screamed. - Pray! We perish in sins! Pray! The patriarch was informed about everything that had happened and asked him to pray for Zoya's pardon. The patriarch replied: "Whoever punished, He will have mercy."

Of the visitors to Zoya, the following persons were allowed:

1. A well-known professor of medicine who came from Moscow. He confirmed that Zoe's heartbeat did not stop, despite the external fossil.

2. At the request of the mother, priests were invited to take the icon of St. Nicholas from Zoya's petrified hands. But they couldn't do it either.

3. On the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Hieromonk Seraphim (probably from the Glinsk Hermitage) arrived, served a prayer service for the blessing of water, and blessed the entire room. After that, he managed to take the icon from the hands of Zoya and, having rendered due honors to the image of the saint, returned it to its original place. He said: “Now we have to wait for a sign on the Great Day (that is, on Easter)! If it does not follow, the end of the world is not far off.”

4. Metropolitan Nikolai of Krutitsy and Kolomna also visited Zoya, who also served a prayer service and said that a new sign should be expected on the Great Day (that is, Easter), repeating the words of the pious hieromonk.

5. Before the feast of the Annunciation (that year it was on Saturday of the third week of Great Lent), a handsome old man came and asked to be allowed to see Zoya. But the policemen on duty refused him.

He came the next day, but again, from other duty officers, he received a refusal.

The third time, on the very day of the Annunciation, the attendants let him through. The guards heard him affectionately say to Zoya: “Well, are you tired of standing?”

Some time passed, and when the police officers on duty wanted to release the old man, he was not there. Everyone is convinced that it was St. Nicholas himself.

So Zoya stood for 4 months (128 days), until Easter itself, which was April 23 that year (May 6, according to the new style).

On the night of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, Zoya began to cry out especially loudly: “Pray!”

The night guards became terrified, and they began to ask her: “Why are you screaming so terribly?” And the answer followed: “It's scary, the earth is burning! Pray! The whole world is perishing in sins, pray!”

Since that time, she suddenly came to life, softness, vitality appeared in the muscles. She was put to bed, but she continued to cry out and ask everyone to pray for a world perishing in sins, for a land burning in iniquities.

How did you live? they asked her. - Who fed you?

Pigeons, pigeons fed me, - was the answer, which clearly proclaims mercy and forgiveness from the Lord. The Lord forgave her sins through the intercession of the holy saint of God, the merciful Nicholas the Wonderworker, and for the sake of her great suffering and standing for 128 days.

Everything that happened so impressed those living in the city of Kuibyshev and its environs that many people, seeing miracles, hearing cries and requests to pray for people who were perishing in sins, turned to faith. They hurried to the church with repentance. The unbaptized were baptized. Those who did not wear the cross began to wear it. The conversion was so great that the churches lacked crosses for those who asked.

With fear and tears, the people prayed for the forgiveness of sins, repeating Zoya's words: “It's terrible. The earth is on fire, we perish in sins. Pray! People are dying in iniquity."

On the third day of Pascha, Zoya departed to the Lord, having gone through a difficult path - 128 days of standing before the Lord in atonement for her sin. The Holy Spirit kept the life of the soul, resurrecting it from mortal sins, so that on the future eternal day of the Resurrection of all the living and the dead, it would be resurrected in the body for eternal life. After all, the very name Zoya means "life."

AFTERWORD

The Soviet press could not remain silent about this incident: responding to letters to the editor, a certain scientist confirmed that, indeed, the event with Zoya was not a fiction, but it was a case of tetanus, not yet known to science.

But firstly, with tetanus there is no such stone rigidity and doctors can always give an injection to the patient; secondly, with tetanus, you can transfer the patient from place to place and he lies, but Zoya stood, and stood for as long as even a healthy person could not stand, and besides, they could not move her; and, thirdly, tetanus in itself does not turn a person to God and does not give revelations from above, and under Zoya, not only thousands of people turned to faith in God, but also showed their faith by deeds: they were baptized and began to live like a Christian. It is clear that tetanus was not the cause, but the action of God Himself, Who by miracles confirms the faith in order to save people from sins and from the punishment for sins.

This extraordinary and mysterious event allegedly took place on December 31, 1956 at 84 Chkalova 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 lingered. 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.

The girl showed no outward signs of 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. Who was not baptized, baptized ...

But what really happened?

Despite the fact that decades have already passed since the events described, there are still stories about the miracle of the “petrified maiden Zoe”, in which reality is fancifully mixed with fables. But on the basis of the materials collected as a result of the journalistic investigation conducted by the author, it can now be argued that in fact there was simply no so-called “miracle of stone Zoe” in Kuibyshev in January 1956. But then what happened here? What are the real facts in the story of "petrified Zoe"?

First fact. No one has ever disputed that in the period from January 14 to 20, 1956, in the city of Kuibyshev, near house No. 84 on Chkalovskaya Street, there was indeed an unprecedented crowd of people (according to estimates, from several thousand to several tens of thousands of people). All of them were attracted here by oral reports (rumors) that in the indicated house there was supposedly a certain petrified girl who committed blasphemy while dancing with an icon in her hands. At the same time, the name Zoya was not called by anyone during these events, but it appeared in relation to this story decades later. The surname Karnukhova of the main character did not appear at all until the 90s.

As for the reasons for this pandemonium, then, according to experts, a rare, but actually and repeatedly described in the literature, socio-psychological phenomenon called “mass psychosis” occurred here. This is the name of the phenomenon when, under favorable social conditions, a careless phrase or even a single word thrown into the crowd can provoke mass unrest, riots and even hallucinations. In this case, however, the political situation in the country, which developed under the conditions of the “Khrushchev thaw” and the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult, became fertile ground for such a psychosis, when people felt real indulgence from the state in relation to believers.

Second fact. The Samara Regional State Archive of Socio-Political History (the former archive of the Regional Committee of the CPSU) contains an uncorrected transcript of the 13th Kuibyshev Regional Party Conference, which took place on January 20, 1956. Here you can read how the then First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Timofeevich Efremov, spoke about the "miracle":

“In the city of Kuibyshev, rumors are widespread about an alleged miracle that happened on Chkalovskaya Street. About twenty notes came in about this. Yes, such a 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 it went, people began to gather because the leaders of the police agencies acted stupidly. Apparently, someone else had a hand here. A police post was immediately set up, and where the police are, there are eyes. Our militia turned out to be not enough, since the people kept arriving, they put up mounted police, and the people, if so, they all went there. Some have even thought of making a proposal to send priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon. The bureau of the regional committee consulted and instructed to remove all outfits and posts, remove the guards, there is nothing to guard there. As soon as the outfits and posts were removed, the people began to disperse, and now, as they reported to me, there is almost no one. Militia bodies acted incorrectly, and began to attract attention. But in essence, this is real stupidity, there were no dances, no parties in this house, there was an old woman living there. Unfortunately, our police agencies did not work here and did not find out who spread these rumors. The bureau of the regional committee recommended that this issue be considered at the bureau of the city committee, and the perpetrators be severely punished, and Comrade Strakhov [editor of the newspaper of the regional committee of the CPSU "Volzhskaya Kommuna" - V.E.] give explanatory material to the newspaper "Volzhskaya Kommuna" in the form of a feuilleton "

Such an article under the heading "Wild Case" was indeed published in the "Volga Commune" dated January 24, 1956.

As for the search for and punishment of the perpetrators of this "wild case", they were found at the same party conference in the person of the secretaries for ideology of the regional and city committees of the CPSU. Here is what is written about it in the uncorrected transcript:

“Today Comrade. Efremov told about a miracle. This is a disgrace to the regional party conference. The culprit number 1 is comrade. Derevnin [third secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU for ideology - V.E.], the culprit No. 2 comrade. Chernykh [the third secretary of the Kuibyshev city committee of the CPSU for ideology - V.E.], they did not comply with the decision of the Central Committee of the party on anti-religious work. Indeed, even in the report of the Regional Party Committee, not a word is said about what work the Regional Committee of the Party has done to implement this remarkable decision of the Central Committee of the Party. I think that Comrade Derevnin should have freed himself from many unnecessary burdens and dealt only with ideological work, ideological work only suffers. I do not reject his candidacy, but I want the third secretary to be truly engaged in ideological work, to be resolute and courageous in all matters, so that we, the workers of the ideological front, do not suffer from this.

As a result, it all ended with Comrade Derevnin at the party conference being only slightly reprimanded for omissions in anti-religious work - and left in his former position, while in his reply he swore an oath to make up for lost time.

From other sources:

The data given in the newspapers "Moskovsky Komsomolets" and "Komsomolskaya Pravda" indicate that, probably, the story of Zoya is a fiction of a certain Claudia Bolonkina. The first secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU in 1952-1959, Mikhail Efremov, tells the following about the event:

Some old woman walked and said: youth was dancing in this house - and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone, became stiff ... And off it went, people began to gather ... Immediately they set 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.

House number 84 belonged to Claudia Bolonkina, and the names of Zoya Karnaukhova and the monk Seraphim were not found in the archives. According to eyewitnesses, 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.

The name Zoya Karnaukhova was given by a woman who believed in the legend so fanatically that she identified herself with the petrified girl. Gradually, acquaintances began to call her "stone Zoya", and the name became part of the legend...

Nearly three decades have passed since then, and Gorbachev's perestroika began in the country. It was then that a lot of “secondary” witnesses appeared around the “miracle of the petrified Zoe”, that is, people who themselves were not present during the events of 1956, but heard a lot about them that actually never happened, and still nothing is confirmed. It is their fantasies that are now mainly printed by the “yellow press”, although these speculations have nothing to do with real events.

But why the crowd described above appeared at house number 84 on Chkalovskaya Street, no one could say for sure in 1956, just as he cannot say now. Therefore, the most plausible in this case is the above version of mass psychosis, which provoked a crowd of people to mass unrest, riots, and even hallucinations.

Unconditional fictions in this story include, for example, stories constantly found in the media about emergency doctors who allegedly tried to revive Zoya on the spot or give her injections, as well as about policemen who allegedly visited the legendary room and from what they saw instantly greyed. In the same row are the legends about a certain holy elder, who in those days seemed to come to Kuibyshev from a distant monastery and somehow communicated with the “petrified maiden”. In fact, there is no real evidence of the existence of all the people listed above, but there is only common gossip.

At the same time, it is very sad that interest in the events in Kuibyshev many years ago, both before and now, was and is being shown by anyone, but not official science. It is possible that if scientists had investigated the phenomenon of rumors about Zoya, then now there would not be so many fictions and outright falsifications around him.

It is impossible not to mention that in 2009 the film "Miracle" was shot by director Alexander Proshkin.

where the author used the plot of this Kuibyshev urban legend. The film takes place in the fictional city of Grechansk, and some mythical figures appear in it, among which we must include the then leader of our country, Nikita Khrushchev. The character named by this name also never existed in reality, since the real Khrushchev did not come to Kuibyshev during the events described above, and, accordingly, could not see the “stone girl”, and even more so could not behave boorishly in relations with subordinates, which is also shown in the creation of Proshkin.

But, however, despite all the absurdities listed above, at the very end of this fantastic film, credits float across the screen, from which it follows that the film was shot based on real events that occurred in 1956 in the city of Kuibyshev. It looks about the same as if the authors of the famous fairy tale "Kashchei the Immortal" wrote in the credits for it that the film was based on the events that took place in Russia in 1237. If this happened then, then the director of "Kashchei the Immortal" Alexander Rowe would simply be ridiculed

But today's viewers take Proshkin's film with all seriousness, and many even consider it almost a documentary source on Soviet history. It is sad that in this way our master of cinematography had a hand in promoting outright obscurantism.

And in 2010, local authorities reported that another memorial sign should appear in the city - this time not to a historical figure, but to the heroine of one of the urban legends - “stone Zoe”.

Whether he appeared or not, I don’t know who the locals will tell!

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