Samara urban legend, miracle, mass psychosis - as soon as they did not call the incident in the city of Samara, when the girl who “offended” the icon turned to stone. The controversy is still going on.

They say that Nikita Khrushchev declared "Zoya's standing" a provocation by the Western secret services on the eve of the opening of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, at which the cult of Stalin was debunked. Recently, the film "Miracle" was shown on the central channels. The plot is amazing. About how a young blasphemer, as a punishment, froze with an icon in her hands for several months. Doctors could not do anything, even move the girl from her place. And only on Christmas Eve the priests managed to take the icon out of her hands… I was surprised by the postscript at the end of the film. It was filmed based on real events that took place in Samara (Kuibyshev) in 1956.

Is this possible?

– In modern Orthodox history such a miracle has been officially registered,” Father Peter, Rector of Tuapse District, explained to us. – The Church recognized Zoe's standing - that's what it's called.
Moreover, a few years ago in Samara in the house at Chkalov, 84, in apartment 5, with the blessing of the Archbishop of Samara and Syzran, a water-blessed moleben was served to St. Nicholas. And two years ago, a sculpture of Nicholas the Wonderworker was installed.

Let me be punished!

Let us briefly recall this miracle. A pipe factory worker, a certain Zoya, decided to meet with friends New Year. Her believing mother was against the fun in the Advent, but Zoya did not listen. Everyone gathered, but Zoya's fiancé Nikolai stayed somewhere. Music played, youth danced; only Zoe didn't have a mate. Offended by the groom, she removed the icon of St. Nicholas from the goddess and said: “If there is no my Nicholas, I will dance with St. Nicholas.” To her friend’s exhortations not to do this, she boldly replied: “If there is a God, let Him punish me!” With these words, she walked in a circle. On the third circle, a great noise suddenly filled the room, a whirlwind rose, a blinding light flashed like lightning, and everyone ran out in fear. Only Zoya froze with the icon of the saint pressed to her chest - petrified, cold, like marble.

She could not be moved, her legs seemed to grow together with the floor. In the absence of external signs of life, Zoya was alive: her heart was beating. From that time on, she could neither drink nor eat. The doctors tried their best, but could not bring her to her senses.
The news of the miracle quickly spread throughout the city, many people came to see Zoya's Standing. But after some time, the city authorities came to their senses: the approaches to the house were blocked, and a squad of policemen on duty began to guard it. And visitors and curious people were told that there was no miracle here and never happened.

On the feast of the Nativity of Christ, a local priest, Father Seraphim, came, served a prayer service for the blessing of water, and blessed the whole room. After that, he took the icon from Zoya's hands and said: "Now we have to wait for a sign on the Great Day." On the night of the Bright Resurrection of Christ on April 23 (May 6, according to a new style), Zoya cried out loudly: “Pray! Scary, the earth is on fire! The whole world is perishing in sins! Pray! Since that time, she began to come to life, softness, vitality appeared in the muscles.

- How did you live 128 days? they asked her. - Who fed you?

“The pigeons fed me,” answered Zoya.

Everything that happened so impressed the inhabitants of Kuibyshev and its environs that many people turned to faith.

through the eyes of others

Of the numerous "evidence" collected by both journalists and priests, there are practically none from those who would personally see this miracle. With a detailed study of the event, you suddenly find out that everyone is talking from the words of each other. Basically, the testimonies are as follows: “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 had grown, but blood splashed into his face right from the floor! Note that the narrator himself did not see anything - he conveys the words of others. There is no evidence from the policemen themselves. Or again: “Several decades later, another Samara resident remembered the miracle. It turned out that his aunt worked for the ambulance, which went to the girl. For some reason he was silent for forty years, then he spoke. “My mother’s aunt, Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova, worked in Kuibyshev as an ambulance doctor in 1956. 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. I tried to give the unfortunate injection, but the needles bent, broke, and therefore the injection failed.

A special place in this story is given to Father Seraphim, a serious man who served his time in the camps, after serving in the church for a long time. Special services brought him to this house at that time. So, no matter how much the nuns and relatives later asked him - did he really take the icon from the hands of the virgin - all his answers were something like this: “Why do you need to know about this?” He also never talked about anything.

Was it Zoya?

But this address is in Samara. At least it was a few years ago. (The city authorities are constantly trying to demolish this old housing and build a skyscraper in this place, but the church asks to give them this land plot to put a chapel in memory of a miracle) Several wooden buildings belong to the address of building number 84 at once. A low hut with a lopsided roof, the house where, according to legend, Zoya stood, is considered the fifth apartment. People still live there! In 1956, the gate was blown off its hinges by a distraught crowd. And in the 2000s, the ubiquitous journalists again overcame the owners.

- Yes, there was no "stone Zoe"! the neighbors say with one voice. - A certain Claudia Bolonkina lived here, a drinking woman, she herself sold beer from a barrel. And her son Vadim was problematic - he stole. 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 eyewitness - a real one - was even recorded by local historians for reliability and photographed.

Vladimir Chigurov, neighbor: “The resourceful old woman Claudia Bolonkina began to spread rumors around the city. The crowd climbed through the gate 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.” Others said that the cordon had not been removed for half a year.

Interestingly, the name Zoya does not appear in any of the documents. For the first time it (along with the name Karnaukhov) was heard in the press as much as four years later. Our colleagues from Samara took a telephone directory and went through all the Karnaukhovs. And we found what we were looking for!

- 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. Since then, our surname has become "famous" undeservedly throughout the city.

Believers are convinced that God works miracles on Easter. Then, in the middle of the last century, the church, almost destroyed by the Soviets, really needed such miracles - maybe that's why they were silent, did not deny the miracle - in order to strengthen the faith of people? And the atheists at least thought about God, and sin, and retribution? But on the other hand... Now the Advent has just begun, and yet this whole story was born during it...

Doctors' opinion

Irina Vasilchenko,

Krasnodar city:

“I myself am a radiologist, but from the course of psychiatry at the institute I remember a picture of a disease called hysteria, which is very similar to the picture described in the article. Perhaps, when the girl began to dance with the icon, at that moment lightning flashed in the sky and thunder struck. After all, such a phenomenon of nature happens at the very peak of winter. And since Zoya was told about God's punishment, the girl had an attack of hysteria in the form of pronounced tonic convulsions. With tonic convulsions, the muscles become dense, as if petrified. Therefore, they could not give her an injection.

Vladimir Poddubny,
at that time, head physician of a psychiatric hospital, Moscow:

An attack of tonic convulsions lasts no more than a minute. Another thing is when a person falls into a hysterioform state, usually caused by a preliminary nervous shock. Then a person can really immobilize with tense muscles and freeze for a long time in any position. Can freeze while standing.

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, the 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 view of 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 who were 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 overhaul. 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, Valery Erofeeva, a local historian from Samara, also noted the modest size of Bolonkina’s dwelling, and according to neighbors, Claudia never had a drinking bout and generally lived quietly.

Window former home Bolonkina 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 the former house of Claudia Bolonkina?

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). They were all brought here oral communications(rumors) that in the indicated house there is supposedly a certain petrified girl who committed blasphemy, 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. Surname Karnukhova main character and did not emerge until the 1990s.

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: she became petrified, stiffened, and off 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 party committee 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: in this house young people were dancing - and one stunner began to dance with an icon and turned to stone, stiffened ... 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 did take 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 at 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 Rus' 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!

sources

On January 24, 1956, one of the local publications in the city of Kuibyshev (today Samara) published an article entitled "Wild Case". In it, the party leadership provided enough evidence to refute the “horror story” about the petrified Zoya that was walking around the city.

Beautiful and terrible legend

Eat two versions what happened:

• A great, religious miracle that plunged a girl into a stone statue.
• Inventions of the hostess about a miracle, for the sake of attracting attention.

According to legend, a simple girl, Zoya Karnaukhova, lived at 84 Chkalova Street. Before being dumbfounded, the heroine of the story decided to host a party in honor of the New Year. Several city acquaintances were invited, including the fiancé of a young lady named Nikolai. The guests had already gathered, but the guy was late.

Fate decreed that she failed to meet her lover. Grabbing the icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Zoya began to dance with her in an embrace. Apparently, in this way, she represented her betrothed nearby. The image belonged, according to rumors, to the mother of a girl who professed Orthodoxy. The gathered girlfriends persuaded Karnaukhova, who was amused, to stop blasphemy. But the excited person continued to dance with the icon, cheerfully saying that if the Lord exists, he will punish her.

At that very moment, lightning struck outside the window, and Zoya became numb, turning into a stone pedestal. Her body was solid, only somewhere in the depths her heart was barely beating. The audience tried to help the petrified Komsomol member, but could not even move her. Arriving police and doctors only shrugged and did not understand what could happen. For a long time, Zoya seemed to freeze, showing no obvious signs of life. They said that at night she was shouting something indistinctly, asking to pray for all sinners.

Time passed, the house was cordoned off by the police. Onlookers kept coming here to stare at the petrified, frozen Zoya. For a long time no one was allowed to see the girl. But a local clergyman Tyapochkin Seraphim appeared on the threshold. He begged to let him go to the standing martyr. After prayers, he managed to take the icon from Zoya's hands. The hieromonk assured her that she would come to her senses on Pascha. His words were destined to come true. Having stood like a stone for exactly 128 days, the girl suddenly came to life. Everything ended badly. She lived only three days after that.

Another story about Zoe

A more real, not at all mystical, but similar version tells that the owner of that ill-fated house was a citizen Claudia Bolonkina, who lives with her son. For the New Year's celebration, she gathered guests, among whom was Zoya. Shortly before this, the girl started an affair with a young man, Nikolai, who had an internship in the city. As the first option says, the guy was very late.

It is not known which of the guests, maybe Karnaukhova herself, grabbed the icon of St. Nicholas and set off into the dance room. All this was seen through the window from the street by a passing nun. It was she who shouted the words of the curse: "For sin you will turn into a pillar of salt." Of course, nothing happened, but Bolonkina began to spread rumors about a frozen sinner. The reasons for this behavior of a woman may lie in the desire to draw attention to her own person.

Division of public opinion

Whether there was a stone Zoe, truth or myth underlies what happened to her, no one will tell for sure. But many in the area confirmed the fact that the girl was petrified after sinful behavior. The rector of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in the village of Neronovka (near Kuibyshev) said that his own father told him the story of this phenomenon.

According to him, mystical events happened in 1956, in January. Zoya Karnaukhova was a pipe factory worker. Her mother, a religious lady, did not allow her daughter to have fun parties during the Christmas fast. But the girl disobeyed. Further, the whole story repeats the familiar scenario about the petrified girl.

Residents of Kuibyshev accepted the news of such a miracle in different ways. Comrade Efremov, who then held the position of First Secretary of the local CPSU, bluntly told the public that there was a miracle, but only with that old woman who passed by and threw a curse. He did not forget to mention disgrace to the communist party from these events.

Then his speech became more frank and harsh. He claimed that not only Zoya's standing was an invention, but there weren't even any dances, and the police posts had long been removed, since there was nothing interesting in the house that required investigation. One old woman lives there and there is no one else. Efremov urged everyone not to believe in fiction and religious stories, which can only be placed in a feuilleton.

Interestingly, a few years later, research was carried out in the archives of Kuibyshev. Mentions of standing Zoe, photographs of 1956. or the biography of the monk Seraphim, have not been found. But in house 84 on Chkalova Street, a certain Claudia Bolonkina really lived. There were rumors about her as a woman who dedicated her life to the church. Allegedly, it was this person who declared herself a petrified maiden.

Bringing history to the screen

The legend was not remembered for a long time, having removed all the evidence in a distant drawer. But at the beginning of the 21st century, it was decided to film this story for the first time. Mysterious, mystical events that occurred once in Samara region, again attracted attention:

• year 2000. The first documentary film "Standing Zoya". Its duration was only 20 minutes.
• year 2009. Full-length feature film "Miracle" by Alexander Proshkin.
• 2015 TV film "Zoya" based on the play of the same name by Alexander Ignashev.
• 2015 The story of Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov about the fate of Zoya - "Standing" - was published.

Now there is no house at number 84 on Chkalov Street, it burned down on May 12, 2014. But a strange and frightening story about a petrified girl with an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker walks among Orthodox Christians to this day.

Zoe standing