The mysterious "standing" of Zoe. Video: "Zoya standing" - what was it? How was Zoe's life after standing

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A girl from Kuibyshev (now Samara) got angry at her fiancé and started dancing with the icon. After that ... it froze, like a block of ice, in place and stood like that for 128 days. Stories of this divine retribution have been passed down by word of mouth for forty years.

LEGEND

On January 14, 1956, on the day of the old New Year, a young factory worker Zoya decided to have a party. The youth divided into pairs and began to dance. And Zoya herself sat in sad loneliness, waiting for her fiancé Nikolai. Then her gaze fell on the goddess, and she, out of annoyance, grabbed the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, shouted to her friends: “Since my Nicholas did not come, I will take this Nicholas.”

To the exhortations of her friends not to commit sin, she replied: "If there is a God, let him punish me." And she began to dance with the icon in her hands. Suddenly, an unimaginable noise was heard in the room, a whirlwind, lightning flashed ... Everyone rushed out in horror. And when they came to their senses, they saw Zoya frozen in the middle of the room - cold, like marble, petrified.

Arriving doctors tried to give her a tetanus injection, but the needles could not pierce the skin - they bent and broke. Zoya herself, however, was alive: her heart was beating, her pulse could be felt. Zoe's mother, who returned, lost consciousness from what she saw and almost lost her mind. Upon learning of what had happened, crowds of people began to gather near the ill-fated house, so that the authorities put up a police cordon at the door.

Often in the stories about Zoya, Hieromonk Seraphim from the Glinskaya Hermitage appears, who, having arrived around Christmas, served a prayer service near the girl and consecrated the room. After that, he was able to take the icon from her hands and predicted the day when she would be granted forgiveness.
Popular rumor claims that after standing for 128 days, Zoya woke up, her muscles softened, she was put to bed. After that, she repented, called everyone to repentance, and peacefully departed to the Lord.

PANIC IN THE REGIONAL COMMISSION

From the transcript of the 13th Kuibyshev Regional Conference dated January 20, 1956. Comrade Efremov, First Secretary of the Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the CPSU, answers the questions of the delegates:

“There were about twenty notes on this subject. Yes, such a miracle happened, a shameful phenomenon for us communists. Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people were dancing, and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone. The people began to gather because the leaders of the militia acted clumsily. Apparently, someone else had a hand in this. A police post was set up right there. And where the police, there and the eyes. There were not enough police ... they put up a mounted police. And the people - if so, all there ...

Some even thought of sending priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon. The bureau of the regional committee recommended that the bureau of the city committee punish the perpetrators severely, and Comrade Strakhov (editor of the regional party newspaper Volzhskaya Kommuna. - Ed.) Give explanatory material to the newspaper in the form of a feuilleton.

The scandal in the regional committee had something to break out from. Everything that happened so impressed the residents of Kuibyshev and the region that crowds of people were drawn into the church. To perform the rite of baptism, the priests did not have enough pectoral crosses ...

NEIGHBORHOOD: NICHOLAI BECAME A RECIPIENT

As it turned out, it was not Zoya and her mother who lived in the house at 84 Chkalovskaya in 1956, but her fiancé Nikolai and his mother Claudia Petrovna Bolonkina. After those events, according to Klavdia Petrovna's acquaintances, she became withdrawn. A few years later she moved to Zhigulevsk, where she died 20 years ago.

Young Nikolai got drunk and went down a slippery path. He was in prison several times, once he escaped, and the police ambushed him in that very house. In the end, Nikolai, as an incorrigible alcoholic and recidivist, was sent to the countryside, where he soon died.

KGB: IT WAS A RUMOR

With the help of the press center of the regional department of the FSB, it was possible to find an eyewitness to those events from the KGB. Mikhail Egorovich Bakanov says:

“At that time I was a senior KGB officer. The authorities sent me to look into the same house on Chkalovskaya. There I saw cunning people who, for a gold piece, promised to lead those who wished into the house and show the petrified maiden. Yes, no one prevented them from entering. I myself led several groups of curious people into the house, who confirmed that they had not seen anything. But people didn't leave. And this mess continued for a week. I don't remember if I talked to Zoya herself or not. So many years have passed."

Another eyewitness, an employee of the Samara Labor Inspectorate, Valery Borisovich Kotlyarov, considers all this an invention of the “churchmen”: “I was a boy then. We boys were not allowed into the house. And the adult militia wound up 10 people. When they came out, they said: "There is no one there." But the people did not disperse ... I saw a truck with pipes driving along the street and crippled several people when turning with a load. And the pilgrims gossiped: "This is God's punishment ..."

CHURCH: THE PRIEST WAS NOT ALLOWED TO ZOYA

The headman of the Ascension Cathedral Andrei Andreevich Savin shares his memories:

“At that time I was the secretary of the diocesan administration. Alekseev, the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, calls our Bishop Jerohim and says: “We must announce to the people in the church from the pulpit that nothing has happened on Chkalovskaya.” In response, the bishop asked to be allowed into the house of the rector of the Intercession Cathedral, so that he would be convinced of everything himself. The commissioner said, "I'll call you back in two hours." And he called only two days later and said that he did not need our services. So none of the clergy were allowed there. Talk about the fact that Hieromonk Seraphim visited Zoya is not true ...

And the crowd was shown a small empty room and said: "You see, there is no one there." People asked to see a big room. “Yes, their things are dumped there, there is nothing to see,” the authorities assured. These days, brigades of Komsomol members worked in the city trams, who convinced people that they were in the house and did not see any frozen girl.

PRAYERS: POLICEMAN TURNED GRAY WITH FEAR

Many believers in Samara know the pensioner A.I. Fedotova.

“In those days, I was twice near Zoya’s house,” says Anna Ivanovna, “I came from afar. But the house was surrounded by police. And then I decided to ask some policeman from the guards about everything. Soon one of them - very young - came out of the gate. I followed him, stopped him: “Tell me, is it true that Zoya is standing?” He replied, “You are asking exactly like my wife. But I won’t say anything, but it’s better to see for yourself ... ”He took off his cap and showed completely gray hair:“ See ?! This is more true than words ... After all, we gave a subscription, we are forbidden to talk about it ... But if you only knew how terrible it was for me to look at this frozen girl!

DOCTORS: "NEEDLES BREAKED"

A man was also found who told something new about the Samara miracle. It turned out to be the rector of the St. Sophia Church, respected in Samara, priest Vitaly Kalashnikov:

“Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova, my mother's aunt, 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. She tried to give the unfortunate injection, but the needles bent, broke, and therefore the injection failed.

Everyone was shocked by her story... Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova worked as an ambulance doctor for many more years. She died in 1996. I managed to consecrate her shortly before my death. Many of those to whom she told about what happened on that very first winter day are still alive.

RELATIVES: "IS ZOYA ALIVE?"

In 1989, the Volzhsky Komsomolets newspaper published an article by journalist Anton Zhogolev entitled "The Miracle of Zoya." Soon an elderly man came to Anton, claiming that in the late 50s he worked in a mirror shop located opposite the house on Chkalovskaya. And his workmates were the first to run to the cries of young people for help even before the police outfit. According to their stories, the face of the frozen girl, pale as a candle, seemed eerie...

And then Zhogolev got a call... from a relative of the petrified Zoya and said that... Zoya is still alive. She spent many years in a mental hospital. Then her relatives took her to Kinel, where she lives under their supervision. Very afraid to remember those terrible days. Yes, and relatives do not allow anyone to her - so as not to worry.

“I immediately went to Kinel,” says Zhogolev. - But relatives met me with hostility. They confirmed that their ward had ended up in a psychiatric hospital in 1956, but they denied any involvement in the Samara miracle and put me out the door.
So I still don’t know: is this Zoya and how true is the story itself ... ”- Anton Evgenievich concluded in bewilderment.

Well, we will also put dots in the story of the Samara miracle. After all, any miracle is based more on faith than on evidence.

On the morning of that day, my mother came home and immediately woke us all up. Here you are all sleeping, - he says, - and the whole city is already on your ears! On Chkalov Street, a girl turned to stone! Standing right with the icon in his hands - and not moving, I saw it myself! And then the mother told us how she tried to give her an injection, but only broke all the needles, ”Nina Mikhailovna, the daughter of the doctor Kalashnikova, told the Russian Reporter.

Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova in 1956 was an ambulance doctor in Kuibyshev (now Samara) and it was she who tried to provide first aid to a girl who was petrified with an icon in her hands. The girl who was later named Zoya Karnaukhova.

This year, the history known to all Orthodox in our country, which received the name "Zoya standing", is 60 years old.
In honor of this considerable anniversary, let's try to figure out calmly and without twitching what happened then in quiet Samara.

So, we have already mentioned a witness who clearly spoke about the fact that the girl was and that her condition did not allow her to be injected.

Another person speaks about Anna Pavlovna and her words.

This is the rector of the Sophia Church, priest Vitaly Kalashnikov, who is very respected in Samara:

“Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova, my mother’s aunt, worked in Kuibyshev as an ambulance doctor in 1956. 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 spoke about the petrified girl. And she also admitted (although she gave a subscription) that she was now in that house on a call. She saw Zoya frozen. She saw the icon of St. Nicholas in her hands. She tried to give the unfortunate injection, but the needles bent, broke, and therefore give an injection Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova worked as an ambulance doctor for many more years. She died in 1996. I managed to consecrate her shortly before her death. Many of those whom she received on that very first day are still alive new year told about what happened. "

What happened at the end of December 1956? Why did this event agitate the whole city and forced the party authorities to raise this issue even at the 13th regional party conference (January 20, 1957), when the first secretary of the regional committee, Mikhail Efremov, said: “In Kuibyshev, there are rumors about an alleged miracle that happened on Chkalovskaya Street. Notes about 20 pieces on this occasion. Yes, such a miracle happened, shameful for us, the communists ... Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people danced - and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone, stiffened ... And it went, people began to gather ... They immediately set up a police post. Where the police are, there are eyes. They put up mounted police, and the people, if so, 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 posts, there is nothing to guard there. It was stupid: there were no dances there, an old woman lives there.”

This is what the secretary of the regional committee told about the incident. And so the people:

The city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), Chkalova street, January 1956, New Year's holidays.

There was a party in the house: people gathered to celebrate the holiday. 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 where she worked, Zoya 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 Nicholas is not there, then I will dance with Nicholas the Wonderworker! She grabbed the icon and began to spin in the dance.

For such sacrilege, the girl immediately suffered a terrible punishment: she turned to stone and stood without signs of life for 128 days, until Easter.

The rumor about the "stone girl" shook the whole city. The people rushed to the house, they demolished the iron gates, a double cordon was set up around the house, they did not let anyone in.

Panic grew, rumors multiplied, people fled en masse to the church, carried and led small children there, bought up all the crosses, dragged holy water home. And this was during Khrushchev's persecution of the church! The fear of God's wrath turned out to be stronger than the fear of the party leadership. Yes, and the authorities themselves were in fright: what to do now?

First, it was decided to involve priests in order to extinguish the popular unrest with their help - the people would believe the priests!

Here is what hegumen German, a resident of Optina Hermitage, said in 1989 (in the 1950s he served in the Kuibyshev Cathedral): “What I didn’t see, I won’t talk about, but what I know, I’ll say. The rector of the cathedral was called by a commissioner and asked to announce from the pulpit next Sunday that there was no miracle.
The father rector answered: "Let me go and see and tell people what I saw." The commissioner thought for a minute and promised to call back soon. Another call came an hour later and Fr. The abbot was told that there was no need to announce anything."

Other witnesses claim that some priests were nevertheless allowed into the house where the unfortunate woman was standing.

Claudia Georgievna Petrunenkova from St. Petersburg is the spiritual daughter of Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich): “When the “Zoya Standing” happened, I asked Vladyka if he had been to Kuibyshev and had he seen Zoya. Vladyka replied: “I was there, praying, but I didn’t take the icon from Zoya—it wasn’t time yet. And Father Seraphim (then Father Demetrius) took the icon.”

The testimony about Father Seraphim (Tyapochkin) is one of the most controversial. On the one hand, many argue that the elder indirectly confirmed that it was he who was able to take the icon from the petrified hands. On the other hand, there are still no direct words from the priest that everything was so.

Father Seraphim

From the memoirs of Alexandra Ivanovna A.: "On the fifth week of Great Lent, 1982, I arrived in Rakitnoe. I dared to ask: "Father, where is the icon of St. Nicholas, which you took from Zoya?" He looked at me sternly. There was silence. Why I remembered exactly about the icon? My relatives lived in Kuibyshev - on the same street as Zoya. When all this happened, I was fourteen years old. So that people would not gather near the house, the lights were turned off in the evenings. Zoya's screams horrified everyone. The young policeman, who was on duty, turned gray from all this. My relatives, being eyewitnesses of what was happening, became believers and began to visit the temple. The miracle of "Zoya's standing" and everything that happened to her was deeply imprinted in my mind.

After the stern glance of Father Seraphim, the thought pierced me: "Oh, woe to me, woe!" Suddenly the priest said: "The icon was lying in the temple on a lectern, and now it is in the altar. There were times when it was ordered to be removed."

Here is what Claudia Georgievna Petrunenkova from St. Petersburg said:

“Shortly before the death of Father Seraphim, I was in Rakitnoye. In the temple, on a mountainous place, to the right of the throne, I saw the icon of St. Nicholas in salary. During a conversation with Father Seraphim in his cell, I asked: “Father, you have an icon of St. Nicholas - the one that Zoya had?" "Yes," he replied. We didn't talk about Zoya anymore."

As we can see, in the stories of women, we are clearly talking about one icon.

Archpriest Andrei Andreyevich Savin, who at that time was the secretary of the Samara diocesan administration, also tells about the Kuibyshev events:

“It happened under Bishop Jerome. In the morning I saw a group of people standing near that house. And by the evening the crowd reached a thousand people. Patrols were posted. But at first they didn’t touch people - apparently, the first confusion affected. The usual pretext: "You are disturbing the peace of the inhabitants, the movement of vehicles. " But the crowd still grew by leaps and bounds. Many even came from the surrounding villages.
House 86 on Chkalovskaya Street in Samara, where in 1956 the petrified Zoya stood with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Those days were very stressful. The people, of course, expected clarifications from us, but not a single priest even came close to that house. They were afraid. Then we all walked along the "thin perch". Priests were "on registration" - they were approved and dismissed by the Commissioner for Religious Affairs - from the executive committee. At any moment, everyone could be left without work and livelihood. And here is such a great reason to settle scores with us!

Soon there was a whisper among the believers that Zoya was forgiven and would be resurrected on Holy Pascha. People were waiting, hoping. And the Komsomol detachments were already pacing around the city with might and main. Boyko was "exposed", assuring that they were in the house and did not see anything. All this only added fuel to the fire, so that those who really did not believe in miracles doubted in the end: “Probably, the popular rumor is still right, although not in everything; and something happened in the house on Chkalovskaya Street. amazing, no doubt about it!"

After taking the icon from Zoya, Father Dimitry (later Seraphim) was slandered and a criminal case fabricated against him, and Vladyka Jerome was released from the administration of the Kuibyshev diocese.
Since there was a lot of talk among the people, even the local Soviet newspapers could not pass over this miracle in silence and tried to present it as a "deception of the priests."

The house remained standing, and people constantly lived in it. Here is a relatively recent interview with the residents of the house where it all happened, this is a young couple with children:

“We have been living for two years - absolutely nothing. Not to say that we are strongly believers, but this whole story still affects us slowly. When we settled here, we lived in a civil marriage, and now we got married and even got married. Our son was recently born - They also named Nikolai, 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. “We tried to drive it away, but it still comes back.”

Now back to the name of the heroine. Zoya Karnaukhova. The name "Zoya" does not appear in any of the documents. It was first heard in the press as much as four years after the sensational events.

Zoya Karnaukhova? - asked 60-year-old Alexander Pavlovich Karnaukhov. - Yes, it was my aunt, my father's sister. She used to live in Samara. I was a kid when it all happened, and didn't really believe in the legend. But Aunt Zoya, as a religious person, talked so much about the miracle that she was completely obsessed with it. And already she began to identify herself with that sinner. And the neighbors began to laugh at her - they called her “stone Zoya”. But everyone saw at the same time that not everything was in order with the aunt's head, although she was not registered in a psychiatric clinic. Since then, our surname has become "famous" undeservedly throughout the city. And my aunt, in her old age, moved to the village of Samarsk and died there from the heart. I didn’t have any photos of her, and I don’t need to write about it ... - this is an excerpt from a journalistic investigation of the MK.

Now it is clear where the name came from and it is clear that it had nothing to do with the petrified girl. It turns out that it was not Zoya's standing, but whose ?!

Or was there no girl at all, and we are dealing with mass psychosis? But then why didn't the authorities do anything to stop the hysteria?! After all, it was as easy as shelling pears: to let people into the house, to show that there was nothing and there never was. Why a multi-day cordon, intimidation?!

It is not clear what happened to "Zoya" in the future. The last hope to find the key to this story burned down in 1997, along with documents, during a fire in the Kuibyshev police archive.

Or are other witnesses and eyewitnesses still alive? One thing is clear: it is too early to put an end to this story.

The event that excited the city, according to rumors, occurred on the eve of 1956, just on December 31. In house number 84, on Chkalovskaya Street in the Volga city of Kuibyshev, young people gathered to celebrate the holiday. The party is in full swing. Young people lightly drink, sing, dance in pairs. But Zoya Karnaukhova did not have enough cavalier - her boyfriend Nikolai did not come that evening. Well, since my friend is not there, Zoya decided, I will dance with the icon of his namesake. The girl removed the image of St. Nicholas from the wall. And as soon as she spun with him in a dance, she was immediately punished for blasphemy.

The legend says that a terrible thunder suddenly thundered, lightning flashed, and the girl at the same moment turned into a living statue. It just stuck to the floor and couldn't move. It seems that the girl is alive, but she cannot leave the place. And he can't say a word. Like petrified in an instant.

The news of the miracle quickly spread throughout the city. Soon, an excited crowd gathered near the mysterious house. Hundreds of people wanted to look at the girl who was punished by higher powers for sacrilege. Mounted police tried to disperse the crowd, but there were so many people that they failed to do so. As a result, the police authorities decided to set up a cordon near the private house. To protect the building from destruction.

As the legend says, "the standing of the stone Zoe" lasted four months. Others believe that the girl was knocked out of the floor almost immediately and taken to a special KGB psychiatric clinic. Others say that the girl stood in a petrified form in the house until Easter, after which the mysterious old man freed her with his holy word. The whole story was allegedly strictly classified by the decision of the party bodies and the Soviet authorities, since it did not fit into the canons of dialectical materialism.

So, here is a summary of the legend:

in a house on Chkalovskaya Street a girl danced with an icon;
dancing Zoya Karnaukhova turned to stone;
the girl stood motionless for 128 days.

Stone Zoya: facts

Journalists have repeatedly begun to investigate the described event. And they came to the conclusion that no mystical miracle happened on the eve of 1956 and in the next four months. Where did the legend come from?

If we turn to confirmed facts, it turns out that in the first two weeks of January 1956, crowds of people were indeed observed in the area where the house on Chkalovskaya Street was located. According to some estimates, the number of pilgrims at times reached several thousand at a time. They were attracted to this place by oral reports spread by people's rumors that here, on New Year's Eve, a girl committed a crime against religion, daring to dance with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in her hands. And for this she was turned by higher powers into a stone statue.

The name and surname of the girl were not called by anyone. The name "Zoya" surfaced much later, around the beginning of the 80s of the last century. And the surname "Karnaukhova" appeared ten years later. Researchers working in the archives of Samara could not find any traces of a real person with such data.

The local archive of socio-political history has a transcript of the regional party conference, which took place in the last days of January 1956. It contains the words of the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, Efremov: he mentioned a shameful phenomenon, which religious fanatics and spreaders of harmful rumors probably had a hand in. The message of the party leader speaks of a New Year's Eve, a dance with an icon, and a fictitious girl who allegedly turned to stone.

The leadership of the regional committee of the party instructed the editor of the newspaper "Volzhskaya Kommuna" to publish material exposing the falsification, and the propaganda department of the regional committee - to carry out explanatory work among the masses. The corresponding feuilleton was published in the newspaper on January 24 of the same year.

From eyewitness accounts

Documentaries on the subject provide testimonies from four alleged eyewitnesses of divine intervention in earthly affairs. They confirm the fact that the girl was petrified, being punished for desecrating the shrine. It is striking that two of those who describe the events that took place in the mysterious house on Chkalovskaya are church ministers, and due to their age they can hardly remember what happened. Two more eyewitnesses, who assure the audience of the reality of the "miracle", are simply illiterate.

The journalists who conducted the investigation managed at one time to find the tenants of the houses located next to the "cursed" place. It turned out that they did not know about the “miracle of the petrified Zoe”. But they remember that just at that time, huge crowds of curious people gathered near the house 84. The people crowded into the crowd for several days, and then the human mass quickly dispersed. Neighbors of the house on Chkalovskaya pointed out that in mid-January 1956 strange people came to them more than once, asking if they happened to have a stone maiden? The residents who did not understand anything just shrugged their shoulders.

It was possible to establish that in the indicated house, which mysteriously burned down many years later, Claudia Bolonkina lived at the time described. The woman sold beer and, according to rumors, did not have high morals. It was said that for the opportunity to look at the girl petrified in her house, she allegedly took ten rubles from the curious. The amount for those times is not the smallest. But, as it turned out, Claudia took money only for a captious inspection of her apartment, and not for showing some mythical girl.

Stone Zoya: what really happened?

Experts have repeatedly expressed that in the case of the urban legend of the "stone Zoya" we can talk about a phenomenon known in science, which is called mass psychosis. It happens that a phrase or even a single word accidentally dropped by someone in the crowd can provoke mass unrest and even riots. It only requires a certain attitude of people.

Publications on the topic of “stone Zoya” provide evidence that the ambulance doctors who came to help the girl out of trouble could not give her an injection - the tissues of the body were so dense, although Zoya’s weak breathing and pulse were allegedly tapped. Psychiatrists suggest that there could be a real case of catatonia, a numbness that often occurs in patients with schizophrenia. But a person cannot stand in a catatonic stupor for a long time.

The reports about the multitude of police officers who stood in a cordon and allegedly turned gray in one night at the sight of a horrifying sight do not stand up to any criticism. There were no such people among the former police officers. Researchers are inclined to believe that the cordon was put up only in order to maintain public order in the place of mass unrest, and not at all to protect the "stone Zoe" from the crowd.

In vain were also attempts to establish the identity of the elder, who allegedly arrived in Kuibyshev by Easter from a distant monastery. According to legend, that holy man freed the sinner by saying a few words of prayer to her. Then he took the icon in his hands, which the girl still pressed to her chest. Only then did Zoya allegedly leave the place, but she never fully recovered.

The described events became possible due to a number of factors, which include:

human ignorance;
low cultural level of the population;
the high rate of spread of rumors that are not supported by facts.

Religious fanaticism and the dishonesty of individuals may well be the cause of mass phenomena that can lead the crowd into a state of frenzied excitement. It is sad that even now, half a century later, there are people who continue to excite weak minds with new and frank conjectures about the miracles that allegedly took place in Kuibyshev.

Video: Standing Zoe - Petrified Girl

PANIC IN THE REGIONAL COMMISSION

“There were about twenty notes on this subject. Yes, such a miracle happened, a shameful phenomenon for us communists. Some old woman walked and said: in this house young people were dancing, and one stunner began to dance with the icon and turned to stone. The people began to gather because the leaders of the militia acted clumsily. Apparently, someone else had a hand in this. A police post was set up right there. And where the police, there and the eyes. It turned out that there were few militia ... they put up a mounted police. And the people - if so, all there ...

Video: The Great Miracle - Zoe's Standing in 1956 Samara

NEIGHBORHOOD: NICHOLAI BECAME A RECIPIENT

KGB: IT WAS A RUMOR

With the help of the press center of the regional department of the FSB, it was possible to find an eyewitness to those events from the KGB.

Mikhail Egorovich Bakanov says:

CHURCH: THE PRIEST WAS NOT ALLOWED TO ZOYA

The headman of the Ascension Cathedral Andrei Andreevich Savin shares his memories:

PRAYERS: POLICEMAN TURNED GRAY WITH FEAR

Many believers in Samara know the pensioner A.I. Fedotova.

DOCTORS: "NEEDLES BREAKED"

A man was also found who told something new about the Samara miracle. It turned out to be the rector of the St. Sophia Church, respected in Samara, priest Vitaly Kalashnikov:

Everyone was shocked by her story… Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova worked as an ambulance doctor for many more years. She died in 1996. I managed to consecrate her shortly before my death. Many of those to whom she told about what happened on that very first winter day are still alive.

RELATIVES: "IS ZOYA ALIVE?"

And then Zhogolev called ... a relative of the petrified Zoya and said that ... Zoya is still alive. She spent many years in a mental hospital. Then her relatives took her to Kinel, where she lives under their supervision. Very afraid to remember those terrible days. Yes, and relatives do not allow anyone to her - so as not to worry.

So I still don’t know: is this Zoya and how true is the story itself ... ”- Anton Evgenievich concluded in bewilderment.

Well, we will also put dots in the story of the Samara miracle. After all, any miracle is based more on faith than on evidence.

Movie: Standing Zoe

Briefly, this is what happened: the girl who dared to dance with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker turned to stone. The doctor who came on call tried to make Zoya an injection, but could not - the needle bent. The next morning, people were already crowding near the house 84 on Chkalovskaya Street.

wheezing

In the city today, many residents remember those events. " I was 14 years old in 1956, says Tatyana Fateeva. — We lived 10 minutes walk from the house on Chkalovskaya. Classmates wanted to get into the house from the backyards. But it turned out that the policemen were on duty there too. And that pissed people off even more. After all, if there is no miracle, then why guard the house? There were not enough policemen, they were collected from all over the region. My neighbor Antonina told me that from their native village of Augustovka (Samara region) a policeman was also summoned to Samara ( then the city was called Kuibyshev. - Ed. ) on duty. When he returned, he was tortured with questions. And he had no right to speak. Instead, he took off his cap, and everyone saw that the young guy had a gray head.».

In the city, word of mouth retold the circumstances of the incident. A young worker at the pipe factory named after Maslennikova Zoya Karnaukhova Celebrating the New Year with friends. All evening she waited for her boyfriend Nicholas who never came. When the couples began to dance, Zoya, out of annoyance, removed the icon of St. Nicholas from the wall with the words: “I will take this Nicholas and go to dance with him,” not listening to her friends who advised not to commit such blasphemy. “If there is a God, He will punish me,” the girl threw. Almost immediately, thunder rang out, and Zoya, with the icon pressed to her chest, seemed to be petrified. She stood in the middle of the room like a marble statue.

The same house on Chkalovskaya street. Photo: AiF / Maria Pozdnyakova

« That winter night thunder really struck over Samara, — continues Tatyana Fateeva. — My senior work colleague Valentina Konstantinovna Surva she said that in 1956 she was on night duty at a communications center. And, when thunder rumbled and lightning lit up the sky, their boss was surprised: “Why did Elijah the Prophet confuse summer with winter ?!»

Word of mouth spread the story of Zoe's standing across the country. Here's what AIF said Elder Eli (Schearchimandrite Eli (Nozdrin), confessor of Patriarch Kirill): « In the summer of 1956, I sailed from the city of Kamyshin (Volgograd region) to Saratov to enroll in a theological seminary. By that time, I knew about Zoya's history. There were many conversations. And on the ship I met two women, they were from Kuibyshev and were under the impression of those events. They said that their friend gave money to the policemen guarding the house. And passed. And he made sure that Zoya was standing. There were many witnesses. This is an undeniable fact».

« I spoke with a woman who saw with her own eyes a petrified girl, - says "AiF" archpriest Nikolai Agafonov, writer, author of the story "Standing". — In the cordon was the brother of her friend. On one of the night shifts, he let them into the house. They saw a figure covered with a sheet. And the sound was so whistling. Apparently, it was Zoe's breath. The girls were terrified, and they ran out into the street. Residents of Samara recalled that at night Zoya screamed terribly: “Pray! We perish in sins!»

Father Seraphim (Zvyagin), who took the icon from Zoya's hands. Photo 1955 Photo: Photo from the book / "Spiritual Father Seraphim"

Father Seraphim's story

At Christmas, a priest was allowed into the house. He served a prayer service and was able to take the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from Zoya's hands. Batiushka said that we should wait for a sign at Pascha. The second visit happened on the Annunciation. " Grandmother was on Chkalovskaya, she said: a handsome old man approached the guards, and, surprisingly, they let him into the house". Later the news will be overgrown with details. The policemen on duty heard him affectionately ask Zoya: Well, are you tired of standing?“And when they wanted to let the old man out, he was not in the house ... Everyone in the city was convinced that Nicholas the Wonderworker himself came to Zoya. They began to say that through the prayers of the saint, the Lord had mercy on her. At Easter in 1956, after 128 days of standing, Zoya, whose name in Greek means "life", really came to life. Before that, she screamed especially loudly: “ Pray, people, we perish in sins! Pray, put on crosses, walk in crosses, the earth is dying, swaying like a cradle...» Softness appeared in the girl’s muscles. They laid her down. They asked: " How did you live, who fed you?» — « Pigeons, pigeons fed me...» The case with Zoya had a strong effect on the inhabitants of the city. During Holy Week, cinemas and other entertainment venues in Samara were empty. Many were baptized. The conversion was so great that the churches lacked crosses for those who asked.

It is believed that Zoya died on the third day of Easter. For a long time it remained a mystery who was the monk who managed to take the icon from her hands. turned out to be a father father Seraphim (Zvyagin). He served in a rural church in the Kostroma region, and came to Samara after he received a command from the Lord twice. In 2012, a month and a half before his death, Father Seraphim, at that time he was a Schema-Archimandrite, said: “ We were arrested, tortured". Pointing to his forehead and eyes, he continued: Marks for life. It's scary to remember!» The investigators wanted the priest to announce that there was no miracle. They said: “You are young, why do you need all this?» Batiushka refused to lie. Then they took a non-disclosure agreement for 50 years from him.

« The details of this miracle could be learned from the folders that were kept in the KGB- said "AiF" journalist Andrei Karaulov. — I know people who saw the documents on the case of “Zoya standing”, and it was indicated there that there were three folders in the case».

Monument to Nicholas the Wonderworker - in memory of the loud miracle of 1956. Photo: AiF / Maria Pozdnyakova

House 84 on Chkalovskaya has been preserved. The last tenants moved out of there after a recent fire, now the building is boarded up and is in disrepair. But a monument to St. Nicholas was erected and consecrated nearby. And today people specially come to pray at the place where the saint performed a miracle, which even during the years of state atheism led many to God.