George Gurdjieff: what connected the mystic with Stalin. Stalin and Hitler or the mysticism of bloody dictators Gravestone, fire and the ghost of Gogol

TO It seems that communist ideology and occultism are incompatible, but few people know that literally from the first years of the existence of the Soviet state, research on magic, witchcraft and other occult sciences was secretly carried out. Even Stalin himself more than once resorted to the services of people who mastered magic and had superpowers.

ABOUT Stalin's attitude towards magic, witchcraft, psychics, astrologers and telepaths was kept in the strictest confidence for a long time. And this is not surprising, because, as a true communist and materialist, he should not have believed not only in God, but also in all sorts of otherworldly forces and occult sciences. Meanwhile, some believe that Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was a real mystic.

B The future “leader of the peoples” studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Having received a theological education, he was well aware of the existence of both light and dark forces. It is known that the famous occultist and magician George Gurdjieff studied at the theological seminary with Stalin, and they were closely acquainted. There is an assumption that Joseph Dzhugashvili could even be a member of the so-called Eastern Brotherhood, the members of which were both Gurdjieff himself and his students.

M You can also find interesting information regarding Stalin’s famous party nickname - Koba. It turns out that translated from Old Slavonic “koba” means “sorcerer” or “prophet”. By the way, in the 5th century this was the name of the Persian king Kobades, who conquered Georgia, who advocated the elimination of social inequality and proposed dividing all property between the poor and the rich. So, this king with communist ideas was a powerful magician...

Z Having received power in a huge country, Stalin sought to retain it by any means, even with the help of black and white magic. According to the writer and historian, author of the book “Occult Stalin” Anton Pervushin, with Stalin coming to power, a special department appeared under the OGPU, whose employees dealt with all sorts of anomalies - shamans, sorcerers, witches, clairvoyants, telepaths, magic and magical artifacts, the secret knowledge of distant ancestors and disappeared civilizations. In the 30s, the leading specialist of this secret department was the scientist parapsychologist Alexander Barchenko. He not only studied ancient esoteric science, but also examined magicians, witches, psychics, in general, all those people who could have superpowers.

WITH There was even a special secret black room for conducting communication sessions with spirits. It is possible that this department was created specifically to identify people capable of remote magical or other influence. Later, Barchenko and his colleagues were shot on charges of espionage, most likely, and all people with superpowers identified by the special department were repressed or destroyed. The leader was afraid of people over whom his guards were powerless and whom the enemy could use to influence him remotely.

WITH Talin lasted in power for 30 years; it is believed that this would have been simply impossible if he had not relied on some otherworldly forces. What were these forces? Perhaps we will never know about this until the end.

Culture

The occult background of Soviet power was discussed no less actively than the occult background of the Third Reich. What role did Joseph Stalin play in it, who ruled the country of “victorious socialism” for almost 30 years? Was he an ordinary tyrant or were there unknown forces behind him? Unfortunately, we only have a few random facts at our disposal.

It is known, for example, that Stalin attended the Tiflis Theological Seminary, where the future famous magician, philosopher and occultist Georgiy Gurdjieff also studied; at one time they were even friends. There is also a theory that Joseph Dzhugashvili was part of the occult "Eastern Brotherhood", which consisted of Gurdjieff and his followers.

Sources say that Gurdjieff often mentioned the mysterious figure of Prince Nizharadze. This was the pseudonym of a person whose “essence” was changed on an energetic level, which made him a zombie. Gurdjieff describes an expedition in the Persian Gulf that included him and Prince Nizharadze. He says that the “prince” fell ill with a fever on the road, due to which the travelers were forced to stay in Baghdad for a month. It is known that in 1899-1900 Dzhugashvili worked in Tiflis in a geophysical laboratory, so in theory he could well have taken part in the expedition. The leader's face was covered with pockmarks, maybe this is a side effect of the "Persian" fever?

The party leader's nickname, Koba, also raises some questions. Translated from the Old Church Slavonic language, this word means “sorcerer” or “prophet”. This was the name of the Persian king Kobades, who conquered Eastern Georgia at the end of the fifth century. The Byzantine historian Theophanes says that Kobades was a great magician and the head of a sect whose ideals were close to the ideals of communism, for example, they considered it necessary to divide property into equal parts in order to eliminate the difference between rich and poor.

During the Stalin era, the state security service created an entire department that was engaged in the search for extraterrestrial civilizations and ancient cultures. The Bolsheviks needed knowledge and technology that could make their power invincible.

It is also said that in 1941, Stalin secretly visited the famous Moscow Blessed Matrona (Matrona Dmitrievna Nikonova). According to one version, Matrona told Stalin: “The red rooster will win. Victory will be yours. You are the only leader who will not leave Moscow.”

The government at that time often resorted to the services of the hypnotist Wolf Messing. They say that one day Stalin called him and ordered him to get 100,000 rubles from the bank using blank paper. He had to convince the banker that he saw a check for 100,000, but when the experiment was completed and the cashier saw a blank sheet instead of a check, he suffered a heart attack. Messing’s other task was to get into Beria’s office without a pass, bypassing the security. He coped with this task easily.

There is also evidence that the “leader of the peoples” possessed magical knowledge and extraordinary abilities. Parapsychologists say that in most portraits Stalin was depicted with a pipe, and all because tobacco smoke gave him magical protection.

Daniil Andreev in his “Rose of the World” argued that Stalin could enter a special state of trance, which allowed him to see the deepest layers of the astral world. The leader, as a rule, went to bed before dawn, because he had access to his “astral body” only when the night was over. At these moments, even Stalin’s appearance changed: wrinkles disappeared, his skin smoothed out, and his cheeks became flushed.

Stalin needed to go into a trance to gain energy, as well as to predict future events. Thus, Stalin found out what troubles and dangers could threaten him and tried to prevent them. According to Andreev, Stalin also communicated with spirits and demons. The mass executions were nothing more than sacrifices to this astral being. This is why Joseph Stalin managed to stay in power longer than any other Soviet ruler.

No less has been written about the occult background of Soviet power than about the legendary occultism of the Third Reich. What role did Joseph Stalin play here, who ruled the country of “victorious socialism” for almost 30 years? Who was he - an ordinary tyrant, or were there unknown forces behind him? Unfortunately, we only have scattered facts at our disposal...

It is known, for example, that Stalin studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary together with the future famous magician, philosopher and occultist Georgiy Gurdjieff and at one time was quite friendly with him. There are also suggestions that Joseph Dzhugashvili was a member of some occult “Eastern brotherhood”, which included Gurdjieff and his like-minded people.

Stalin's party nickname, Koba, also raises questions. The fact is that translated from Church Slavonic it means “magician” or “fortune teller.” This was also the name of the Persian king Kobades, who conquered Eastern Georgia at the end of the 5th century. The Byzantine historian Theophanes claims that Kobades was a great magician and led a sect with ideals close to communist ones, for example, the sectarians preached the division of property equally, so that, thus, there would be neither poor nor rich...

During the Stalin era, entire departments were created under the state security services to search for traces of extraterrestrial civilizations and ancient cultures. The Bolsheviks needed knowledge and technology that could make the power invincible.

They also say that in 1941, Stalin secretly visited the famous blessed Matrona of Moscow (Matrona Dmitrievna Nikonova). According to one version, Matrona told Stalin the following: “The red rooster will win. Victory will be yours. You alone from the authorities will not leave Moscow.” According to another, she hit the leader on the forehead with her fist with the words: “Don’t give up Moscow, think, think, and when Alexander Nevsky comes, he will lead everyone with him.”

The then government also used the famous seer and hypnotist Wolf Messing. They say that one day Stalin called him to his place and gave him the following task: to receive 100,000 rubles from the bank using a blank piece of paper. I had to convince the cashier that he saw a check for 100 thousand, but when the experiment was completed, and the cashier saw a blank piece of paper instead of a check in front of him, he had a heart attack... Another task was that Messing had to go into the office of Beria himself without a pass, bypassing security. He did it without difficulty...

There is also evidence that the “leader of the peoples” himself possessed magical knowledge and unusual abilities. It is not for nothing that in most portraits he is depicted with the same pipe: tobacco smoke served Stalin as a magical protection, preventing “strangers” from penetrating his aura. At least that's what parapsychologists think.

And Daniil Andreev in “The Rose of the World” argued that Joseph Vissarionovich knew how to enter a special state of trance - hokhkha, which allowed him to see the deepest layers of the astral world. As a rule, the leader went to bed only in the morning, since he could only induce the release of his astral body at a certain time - when the night was already ending... At the same time, even Stalin’s appearance changed: wrinkles straightened out, his skin became smooth, a blush appeared on the cheeks...

The “father of nations” needed Khokhkha to receive a surge of energy, as well as to predict future events: in this way Stalin learned about what troubles or dangers might threaten him, and tried to prevent them. According to Andreev, during his trance Stalin also communicated with spirits and demons. Mass executions were nothing more than sacrifices to these astral beings. That is why Joseph Vissarionovich managed to hold on to power for so long as no other Soviet ruler could.

On September 7, 1947, on the day of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, at exactly 13:00 in the afternoon, eight high-rise buildings, later called “Stalin’s high-rises,” were symbolically founded in different parts of the Soviet capital. And although this act was preceded by a January resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers, which directly linked the construction of houses with the proposal of Comrade Stalin, construction began only two years later.

Over the six decades that have passed since Moscow acquired such striking architectural dominants, high-rise buildings have become overgrown with legends, they are attributed with a certain sacred meaning, they are even seen as Masonic symbols. Experts are still arguing about what formed the basis of the projects and who actually was their main architectural leader.

The first, perhaps the main and certainly significant difference between the constructed buildings and the published projects is the presence of spiers. In the drawings, the Foreign Ministry building on Smolenskaya Square was topped with a flat roof. At the top of the Moscow State University building there was supposed to be a 40-meter statue of Mikhail Lomonosov, and on the high-rise building on Vosstaniya Square there was a cylindrical octagon, and it itself was not intended for people to live in, but for officials of certain departments. There was no trace of any area with fountains in front of the Temple of Science on the Lenin Hills. And Lomonosov appeared after it was decided to erect a new building for the university there instead of the previously planned hotel.

The resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers states the construction of “one 32-story building, two 26-story buildings and five 16-story buildings.” Of course, the high-rise building on Lengory should have had thirty-two floors. One of the 26-storey buildings was supposed to be located in Zaryadye, the other - with a hotel and residential sector - in the area of ​​the Dynamo stadium. Initially, according to the project, 16-story buildings rose where planned, only their number of storeys differed greatly from the announced one. The tallest, 240-meter building of Moscow State University was transformed into a 36-story building. The 32-story buildings that were never built in Zaryadye and near Dynamo went into oblivion. And as a result, none of the capital’s high-rise buildings are lower than 24 tiers.

However, playing with floors and the purpose of buildings is, as they say, an everyday matter. But the story with the spiers is really full of mysteries. Because, according to the general opinion of the architects themselves, many of whom left memories, only one person could have ordered them - Stalin. Mikhail Posokhin, a young specialist at the time of working on high-rise buildings, one of the authors of the project for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, and later the chief architect of Moscow, wrote: “His tastes were especially clear when designing high-rise buildings in Moscow, topped with gabled ends at his request.”

According to one version, the leader adjusted the projects after he saw the almost completed Foreign Ministry building while driving at night along the Arbat to the Near Dacha. Apparently he caught some incompleteness in the stepped silhouette. A tower with a spire, of course, was built, but unlike other high-rise buildings, it is the only one not topped with a star. They say that a hastily installed light metal finial would not have withstood either the enormous weight of the decoration or the wind load.

But was it really “the best friend of architects” who was guided only by an instinctive feeling of incompleteness? Trying to answer this seemingly simple question, we inevitably have to figure out what it actually is, the “Stalinist style” in architecture?

Spire of stumbling

An interesting report was voiced at an international conference in Belgrade by former Russian and now German citizen Dmitry Khmelnitsky. The architect, who is still building houses in Germany, analyzed the socio-political origins of the phenomenon called the “Stalinist Empire style”.

According to Khmelnitsky, Stalinist ideology, which had nothing in common with Marxism, served despotic feudal society in its most extreme form. However, she used Marxist vocabulary, which had lost its original content. But architecture - all civil and industrial construction - expressed the real social structure of society. And more clearly than any other sphere of Soviet culture, it revealed the true intentions of the leader, but contradicted the official Stalinist ideology.

According to the architect, no programs were developed to solve the housing problem in the USSR either in the 1920s or 1930s. After Stalin's plan for accelerated industrialization moved about 14 million people into cities, the average and, it is worth emphasizing, the planned housing provision stabilized at four square meters per person. And it didn't change until the 1950s. The new industrial cities built in the first five-year plans are barracks settlements for workers and apartments for a very narrow layer of management. And Khmelnitsky illustrates this situation with the fruitless work of foreign architects in Soviet Russia in the early 1930s. For example, the German Ernst May, a specialist in mass construction from Frankfurt am Main.

May's group created general plans for several new cities, including Magnitogorsk. Its population in 1931 was about 200 thousand people, mostly peasants who had fled from the village, dispossessed kulak people, exiles, and former prisoners. The architect managed to build only one block of two dozen stone buildings with communal apartments without kitchens and bathrooms. By the late 1930s, they housed about 15 percent of the city's population, several people per room. The remaining one hundred and fifty thousand are in barracks and dugouts. In which, Khmelnitsky clarifies, more than 95 percent of the population of all new industrial cities then lived. Even earlier, the authorities, who decided that such housing was too expensive, refused May’s services. And they themselves have built a closed village for the highest authorities - for two or three percent of the population of Magnitogorsk.

Probably the apotheosis of this approach to urban planning is the project of the Palace of Soviets. According to Khmelnitsky, it is the only Soviet building that can be considered as an ideological symbol of society. But that old idea is interesting to us primarily because it is the forerunner of all Stalinist high-rise buildings, not only in their socio-political purpose, but also in purely architectural solutions.

Volumes have been written about the never-built building, whose height was originally supposed to be 420 meters. And therefore it is worth citing only a few facts and figures characterizing the approach of the authors of the construction and the main customer, Stalin. According to the final project, chosen in 1939 from several dozen, the volume of construction was 7 million 500 thousand cubic meters. The large hall of the palace, 100 meters high and 160 meters in diameter, was intended for 21 thousand people, and the small hall for six thousand. Above the large hall are the chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and its Presidium. It was planned to use 300 thousand square meters of granite for the cladding of the building. Volkhonka Street and a number of others adjacent to the construction site will be covered with earth, and the Museum of Fine Arts will be moved 100 meters away. The surrounding areas will be paved and converted into a parking lot for five thousand cars.

It is curious that in the first projects, one of the authors, Boris Iofan, proposed to crown the building with a tower with a sculpture of a worker with a torch in his hand, but his teacher, the Italian architect Armando Brazipi, suggested erecting a statue of Lenin. And although Iofan had not ideological, but purely professional objections to this matter, he had to agree with the idea. And, contrary to his thoughts, the building with the sculpture on top turned into a giant pedestal for the figure. The hundred-meter-tall, 6,000-ton rotating sculpture, whose index finger alone stretched six meters, visually pressed on its pedestal.

When the idea of ​​high-rise buildings arose in the 1940s, the end of the Palace of Soviets had not yet been completed. But the architectural solutions have already begun to be taken away - fortunately, practically the same people were involved in both projects. And they knew perfectly well how the main customer felt about the step pyramid-ziggurat. But where did the spiers come from?

A bit of Gothic and Orthodox churches

Although formally, according to American standards, only Stalinist high-rise buildings with at least 30 floors can be called skyscrapers, their prototypes, undoubtedly, were giant Manhattan buildings. But not the rectangular ones crowded on New York Island, but pyramidal, stepped ones with a relatively wide base.

The Soviet press tirelessly denounced overseas high-rise architecture and, oddly enough, in some ways it was absolutely right. Thus, the yearbook “Soviet Architecture” wrote in 1951: “Moscow’s high-rise buildings are erected according to principles directly opposed to the “principles” of the construction of American skyscrapers, generated by the conditions of capitalism with its land rent and frantic competition, which only aggravated the contradictions of the capitalist city.”

Only the powerful granite base of cramped Manhattan made it possible to build skyscrapers despite the imperfect construction technologies of the 1910-1930s. And only the cramped conditions dictated their shape - rectangular, with a narrow base: the land is really expensive. As a rule, there are no pronounced spiers, only sometimes an accentuated stepped shape of buildings in those American cities where the problem of land acquisition was not so acute. In this regard, Soviet architects could have gone wild. And they swung: the perimeter of the base, for example, of the Moscow State University high-rise building is more than three kilometers.

In their memoirs, the fathers of the capital's skyscrapers claim: both the design and construction of palaces was a completely new matter for them. This means that both architectural and construction solutions must be borrowed. But at the same time, hide the borrowing, especially after the victorious war, which not only brought the USSR into the world military leaders, but also injected the poor country with an injection of imperial self-awareness. And instead of the previous triumph of the victorious proletariat and gratitude to Lenin, captured in the Palace of Soviets, motives of universal superiority of a powerful power arise. Ready to teach wisdom to the rest of the world, controlling Eastern Europe, threateningly aligned with China.

As the same Mikhail Posokhin wrote, “at that time we could not by order use foreign magazines in design: this would exclude borrowings and influence from the West.” To which a modern critic notes that Posokhin is disingenuous; rather, the ban on using foreign magazines had the opposite purpose - to hide the fact of obvious architectural borrowing from as many people as possible. Moreover, back in the early 1930s, Soviet architects visited New York, and Boris Iofan a little later.

It is still unknown how exactly the mechanism for coordinating projects and such details as the notorious spiers worked between the architects themselves and Stalin. Either the leader actually drew the tops of the pyramids on the drawing sheet, or experts who knew about his commitment to Gothicism themselves proposed such a solution. Perhaps Stalin’s wishes to give the buildings purely Russian, Moscow motifs, inspired by the Kremlin towers and classical Orthodox churches, played a role.

It is possible, however, that the spiers simultaneously served as elements that fundamentally distinguished Soviet skyscrapers from American ones. And as a result, according to experts, in the house on Vosstaniya Square, ancient Roman sculptures on the risalits happily coexist with lobbies decorated with Gothic stained glass windows, marble columns and candelabra lamps, as well as with “Orthodox” pointed turrets around the spire. In a word, the result was what a certain German architect called “Joseph Stalin’s cathedrals.”

When both the architects and Stalin had their say, it was necessary to get down to quite prosaic construction. And this despite the fact that the country did not have experience in constructing buildings higher than 9-12 floors. That, unlike New York, Moscow stands on loose, sometimes swampy soils, on karst cavities and underground rivers. That just one foundation for a high-rise building required as much concrete and metal as was required for seven ten-story buildings. That, finally, in those years there were not even building codes regulating strength and fire safety standards, the use of materials, the design of heating and ventilation of buildings, high-speed elevators and much more. Just as there were no special cranes capable of working at heights above 200 meters, as well as pumps that supply concrete from the ground almost beyond the clouds.

The January 1947 resolution of the Council of Ministers ordered the ministries of the interior, the construction of military and naval enterprises, communications, and the aviation industry to lead the construction. The work was supervised by the deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, who looked after the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, Lavrenty Beria. Something could have been borrowed from the Americans. For example, frame technology, that is, the use of a steel structure as the load-bearing basis of the building. Facing houses with terracotta and ceramic tiles. But they covered the main masonry with it, and if it was deformed from mechanical or temperature loads, the tiles fell off almost everywhere.

Who's in charge of high-rise buildings?

Here is just a single example illustrating what purely Russian problems related to our climate had to be solved. It seems like a simple matter - windows. But first of all, they are huge. Secondly, they must save the building’s inhabitants from frost, heat and drafts, which are gaining hurricane force in a tall building. This is what one of the authors of the project proposed: “It will be necessary to create a new, hermetically sealed metal frame. On the other hand, a complex frame design can increase the overall cost of the wall. When designing multi-story buildings, the possibility of installing monolithic windows made of transparent stamped plastic, as well as the device non-opening windows and special openings for individual ventilation of rooms." That is, 60 years ago, a Soviet architect came up with the idea of ​​double-glazed windows. It was not implemented for the sake of economy and due to the lack of industrial technology, but what a visionary!

However, it was not just technical problems that tormented the builders. They say that even while working on the Palace of the Soviets project, Stalin visited the special construction department. It is clear that first they introduced him to the builders, and then to the architects. The leader pointed his finger at the architects and said: “These are the builders, and those are their assistants.” The lesson was remembered, and the “builders,” caring about high art, sometimes did not go into purely engineering details.

Remember the fountains mentioned in passing in front of the Moscow State University building, which were not in the published projects? So, they appeared as a disguise for giant air intakes, part of the extensive ventilation system of the main building. The architects simply did not think about them, and the builders and their related professionals had to quickly figure out where to suck the air from. It turned out that only outside the high-rise building itself and only on the large platform in front of it. Under the fountains and flower beds there are concrete floors, and below them there are tunnels, converging in special rooms for cleaning and heating the air.

"Monuments of Stalin's stupidity"

When Nikita Khrushchev declared a fight against architectural excesses in the mid-1950s, architect Mikhail Minkus, one of the authors of the Foreign Ministry high-rise, wrote him a letter with a proposal to dismantle the spire from the building. It should be explained that the architect had a hard time surviving Stalin’s instructions regarding this finial, but not at all because of the high cost, but simply because it traumatized the aesthetic sense of the creator. The Secretary General refused the request with the words “let the spire remain a monument to Stalin’s stupidity.”

Were "Stalin's high-rise buildings" expensive? Yes, very much. As another one of their creators, Dmitry Chechulin, wrote, “instead of one high-rise building, like the one that stands on Smolenskaya Square, it was possible to build more than a dozen standard five-story buildings with the same funds.”

I happened to visit a residential building on Vosstaniya Square. Two outstanding aviators, test pilots, Heroes of the Soviet Union Sergei Anokhin and Mark Gallay. These were not those visits when the owners introduce the guest to the apartment, and therefore I have nothing to say about its amenities and comfort. But then I came to the same house to visit a friend and colleague, and he showed me the apartment. Nothing special: two small rooms, a cramped kitchen in the Khrushchev style, a tiny hallway. Everything became clear when the owner invited, as he put it, to the balcony. I opened the door, and in front of us was an open space the size of a mini-football field with giant sculptures along the edges. That is, the apartment was located at the level of one of the steps of the building, and it was precisely under this purely external factor of the golden section that the internal structure of the housing was planned. It is also possible that this ugly two-room “vest” was formed after the design of an administrative building was converted into a residential one. And I am sure that all houses of this type are full of awkward apartments, whose layout is subject to the high canons of architectural art. And yet...

Just as the then Soviet elite moved into residential high-rise buildings, to this day they are a symbol of prosperity and prosperity. Moreover, Muscovites, who did not immediately fall in love with these pompous eclectic buildings, have long considered them to be integral dominants of the aesthetic appearance of the capital. It’s impossible to imagine her without them. What is this, a metamorphosis from the area of ​​enduring - falling in love?

The USSR not only built analogues of Moscow high-rise buildings in Leningrad, Kyiv and Riga, but also exported the highest approved architectural solution to Poland. It is clear how Warsaw residents felt about the imposed Palace of Culture and Technology. They perfectly remembered the long stand in front of the Polish capital in 1944-1945 of the Red Army, waiting until the Nazis killed the rebels - the Home Army fighters. There was no doubt that, contrary to Soviet propaganda, the captured Polish officers were shot by the NKVD. And they had no illusions about the socio-political system that the Soviet liberating army brought to them with bayonets.

When the USSR was ordered to live for a long time, the Poles, who rightly believed that Stalin was a co-author of architectural academics, and the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Culture was a legacy of totalitarianism, decided to, if not demolish the building, then turn it into a parody. It was proposed, for example, to build a truly modern skyscraper made of glass and concrete nearby, so that against its background the massive pyramid would look like a miserable house. Arrange attractions inside, convert the congress hall into a music hall. And a lot more, designed to morally overthrow an alien high-rise building.

In 1997, at a discussion between historians, architects and public figures, the Poles decided that nothing like that should be done with the building, but that it should be placed under state protection. Ten years later, the house was included in the list of objects of historical and cultural value. It seems to be of undeniable, time-tested value. For them and for us.

High-rise buildings in rumors and legends

As soon as the Soviet man was allowed to view the world around him not only through the prism of materialism, he immediately peered both at Stalin’s high-rise buildings and at the places where they were erected.

They say that the future dictator studied not only at the theological seminary, but also at the Alexander Jesuit College. And his classmate and close friend there was the future occultist and creator of secret societies, George Gurdjieff. Already adults, they met several times.

So what of this? Otherwise, supporters of esoteric versions of the construction of high-rises claim that Stalin was an expert in occultism and embodied some symbols of the teaching in stone. In general, in order to preserve and increase his power, the owner of the country, when laying skyscrapers, was guided by certain energy lines concentrated around the Kremlin and extending, like a spider’s web, into the depths of Russia.

There was supposedly one more circumstance that was important when choosing a location for high-rise buildings: a lot of blood must have been shed there in the past. Kotelniki in ancient times was a place of mass executions. From the Sparrow Hills in November 1917, the Kremlin was shelled for three days, and on the square of three stations, where the Lenigradskaya Hotel stands, in 1905 there were fierce battles with the Cossacks, as well as on Presnya with its Vosstaniya Square.

Together with the gigantic dominant of the city, the Palace of the Soviets, Stalin's high-rise buildings, built precisely in the places of the most powerful concentration of sacred energy, esotericists are sure, create a magical space of enormous power. If we also take into account that the 100-meter figure of Lenin also had to rotate around its vertical axis, then here it is, the so-called torsion generator, whose power is even capable of reviving the dead. It was this wonderful property of the Palace-high-rise combination that Stalin intended to use to prolong his life or to be reborn from the dead if the project was realized after his death.

Supporters of the Masonic conspiracy theory saw their own in Stalin’s high-rise buildings. Like, if you look at Moscow from above, in the geometry of the avenues, streets, and squares you can see compasses, squares, and stars, so revered by the Freemasons.

Do you know why the foundation of skyscrapers took place on the same day and hour? Astrologers calculated the right time. And in general, each of the buildings has its own patron planet. Venus is near the house on Kotelniki. There is Mars near the house on Vosstaniya Square, and it is no coincidence that there are so many military test pilots and aviation industry workers there. Jupiter is responsible for the high-rise building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mercury is responsible for Moscow State University, and so on.

Such a large-scale construction, which changed the appearance of Moscow before our eyes, could not help but give rise to speculation and legends. This is perhaps the first, chronologically connected with that vast contingent of builders who came here not at all of their own free will, with prisoners. The working day is over, everyone left the construction site in formation, except for five. We searched the entire small building of Moscow State University - no one. When the guards and free leadership mentally said goodbye to freedom, they remembered that today work was carried out in the star itself on the spire. They rushed there - the prisoners were in place. It turned out that towards the end of the shift the men relaxed, decided to play cards, but did not hear the signal to form due to the distance and height.

The prisoners are also credited with the original escape attempt. On some homemade wings, the desperate guys jumped from the heights of the university skyscraper, but were met on the ground by vigilant security.

Another legend of engineering and construction. The soil under the Moscow State University building was so loose and fluid that to erect the skyscraper it was necessary to completely freeze the ground in the area of ​​the foundation. The giant freezer under the house is still in operation, and if it weren’t for it, the structure would have long ago slipped into the Moscow River.

Hello, Joseph Vissarionovich. - We received your letter. Read with friends. You will have a favorable response to it... Or maybe it’s true - you are asking to go abroad? What, are you really tired of us?

The author of The Master and Margarita is one of the most mysterious figures in our cultural history. Today Anews wants to understand in more detail the fate of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. Did mysticism have a place in his life? How did the writer struggle with drug addiction? And what role did Joseph Stalin play in his fate?

Drug addiction and do-it-yourself abortion

One of the main “scandalous” aspects of Bulgakov’s biography is his passion for drugs. Indeed, the writer had this bad habit, and acquired it quite early - in 1913, while studying to become a doctor, he tried cocaine.

But the use of morphine really seriously affected Bulgakov’s health. A doctor by profession, he came to practice in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, and one day in the summer of 1917 he admitted a baby with diphtheria. Trying to save the child, Bulgakov cut his throat and sucked out diphtheria films through a tube. And then, to be on the safe side, he injected himself with the diphtheria vaccine. The effect of the vaccine caused itching and severe pain - to relieve them, the young doctor began using morphine injections.

I managed to get rid of the pain, but the price I paid for it was addiction. It is also believed that the writer had a hard time living in the wilderness and took drugs out of boredom. Bulgakov did not believe in addiction, arguing that a doctor cannot become a drug addict thanks to his knowledge.

A few months later, the writer began to experience withdrawal symptoms and attacks of insanity, during which he chased his wife with a revolver, demanding to bring a dose.

Because of this, Bulgakov began to try to get rid of his addiction by smoking opium cigarettes and reducing doses. His wife Tatyana Lappa also helped him, secretly diluting morphine with distilled water, gradually increasing its ratio to the drug.

Her husband's problems doomed Tatiana to truly terrible trials. Writer Yuri Vorobyovsky, author of the book “The Unknown Bulgakov,” said:

“Tatyana Nikolaevna, Bulgakov’s first wife, recalled how she told her husband about her pregnancy. He replied: “I will perform the operation on Thursday. I’m a doctor and I know what kind of children morphine addicts have.” True, he had never had to perform such operations before. Before putting on his gloves, he leafed through a medical reference book for a long time. The operation took a long time. The wife realized that something had gone wrong. “I’ll never have children now,” she thought stupidly.”

Tatyana, who had her first abortion back in 1913, really had no more children. Just as, however, Bulgakov did not have them either, who broke up with his faithful companion, who lived with him in the legendary “bad apartment,” in 1924. Then the writer became interested in the stylish and relaxed socialite Lyubov Belozerskaya, who at first even suggested that the three of them live together, to which Lappa responded with an indignant refusal. Belozerskaya married the writer, but after 6 years there was a divorce - it is believed that the bright woman did not pay too much attention to the comfort of her husband.

For a long time it was believed that by the early 20s the writer managed to overcome his addiction to drugs, but in 2015 a group of scientists from Israel and Italy analyzed 127 randomly selected pages of the original manuscript of the novel “The Master and Margarita”. They found significant traces of morphine on the old paper, ranging from 2 to 100 nanograms per square centimeter.

On the page with the most morphine there is a narrative outline, which the author has reworked more than once. This find suggested that in the last years of his life the writer returned to his deadly addiction.

Gravestone, fire and Gogol's ghost

In popular memory, the figure of Bulgakov is traditionally shrouded in a mystical flair. One of the legends is connected precisely with the writer’s drug addiction and includes another outstanding writer - Nikolai Gogol.

In his diary, Bulgakov wrote how, suffering from another withdrawal, he suddenly saw someone entering the room "a short, pointed-nosed man with small, crazy eyes"- he bent over the bed of the sufferer and angrily threatened him with his finger.

It is believed that the described alien was Gogol, and that after his visit, drug addiction began to rapidly fade away.

Naturally, legends connect Bulgakov with the characters of “The Master and Margarita” - and in particular with the cat Behemoth.

According to one of the stories, Behemoth had a real prototype - only not a cat, but a dog with the same nickname. He was so smart that once on New Year's Day, after the chimes struck, he barked 12 times, although no one taught him this.

True, reliable evidence names cats as the prototypes of the magical animal - the Bulgakov family's pet kitten Flushka and Murr from Ernst Hoffmann's satirical novel "The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat."

Another story is related to the famous phrase of Hippopotamus: “I’m not being naughty, I’m not hurting anyone, I’m fixing the primus stove.”. It is believed that one day, when Bulgakov was once again editing an episode with a quote, a fire suddenly started in the apartment on the floor above. Subsequently, when trying to find the source of the fire, it turned out that it was the primus stove that caught fire in the kitchen of the writer’s neighbors.

The main “posthumous” story about Bulgakov is also associated with Gogol - this time it is genuine. The writer’s third wife, Elena, wrote in a message to his brother Nikolai:

“I couldn’t find what I wanted to see on Misha’s grave(deceased Bulgakov) - worthy of him. And then one day, when I, as usual, went into the workshop at the Novodevichy cemetery, I saw some granite block deeply hidden in a hole.

The director of the workshop, in response to my question, explained that this was Golgotha ​​from Gogol’s grave, taken from Gogol’s grave when a new monument was erected to him. At my request, with the help of an excavator, they lifted this block, drove it to Misha’s grave and set it up. You yourself understand how this fits Misha’s grave - Golgotha ​​from the grave of his beloved writer Gogol.”

Bulgakov and Stalin

Relations with the “Father of Nations” became a special part of Bulgakov’s biography.

Experts characterize them as very ambiguous. On the one hand, Stalin several times spoke very coldly about the works of Bulgakov, who never particularly hid his negative attitude towards the revolution and the Soviet system. The head of the USSR called the play “Running” “a manifestation of an attempt to arouse pity, if not sympathy, for certain layers of anti-Soviet emigrants”, desire “to justify or half-justify the White Guard affair”. About the play “Days of the Turbins,” based on the novel “The White Guard,” Stalin said: “An anti-Soviet phenomenon,” but added: “Why are Bulgakov’s plays performed on stage so often? Because it must be that there are not enough plays of our own suitable for production. Without fish, even “Days of the Turbins” is a fish.

If even people like the Turbins are forced to lay down their arms and submit to the will of the people, recognizing their cause as completely lost, it means that the Bolsheviks are invincible, nothing can be done with them, the Bolsheviks. “Days of the Turbins” is a demonstration of the all-crushing power of Bolshevism. Of course, the author is in no way “to blame” for this demonstration. But what do we care about that?

And here another facet of Stalin’s attitude emerged. On March 28, Bulgakov wrote a letter to the government, saying that he did not have the opportunity to publish and collaborate with the theater in the USSR. “I ask you to take into account that the inability to write for me is tantamount to being buried alive.”“, the writer concluded and asked permission to travel abroad.

Already on April 18, the phone rang in his apartment. In 1956, Elena Bulgakova wrote in her diary in memory of her husband’s story at that time:

“He went to bed after dinner, as always, but then the phone rang, and Lyuba called him over, saying that they were asking from the Central Committee. Mikhail Afanasyevich did not believe it, decided that it was a joke (at that time this was done), and, disheveled and irritated, he picked up the phone and heard:

- Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov?

- Yes, yes.

- Now Comrade Stalin will talk to you.

- What? Stalin? Stalin?

- Yes, Stalin is talking to you. Hello, Comrade Bulgakov (or Mikhail Afanasyevich - I don’t remember exactly).

- Hello, Joseph Vissarionovich.

- We received your letter. Read with friends. You will have a favorable response to it... Or maybe it’s true - you are asking to go abroad? What, are you really tired of us?

Mikhail Afanasyevich said that he did not expect such a question (and he did not expect a call at all) - that he was confused and did not immediately answer:

- I've been thinking a lot lately about whether a Russian writer can live outside his homeland. And it seems to me that he cannot.

- You're right. I think so too. Where do you want to work? At the Art Theater?

- Yes, I wanted to. But I spoke about it, and they refused.

- And you apply there. It seems to me that they will agree. We would like to meet and talk with you.

- Yes, yes! Joseph Vissarionovich, I really need to talk to you.

- Yes, we need to find time and definitely meet. Now I wish you all the best.”

Bulgakov got a job at the Moscow Art Theater, the country's main drama theater, and subsequently did not experience the threat of poverty. The mass repressions of the second half of the 30s also bypassed the writer.

However, Bulgakov never received full recognition. Some of his plays were still banned from production, a personal meeting with Stalin did not take place, and he was never allowed to travel abroad.

The writer made his last attempt to find a dialogue with the authorities and society in 1939, writing the play “Batum”, dedicated to the youth of Stalin - it was believed that the need for such a production would arise on the 60th anniversary of the head of the USSR. Along the way, Bulgakov most likely cherished the hope that the success of the play would help the publication of the main work of his life, the novel “The Master and Margarita.”

Preliminary demonstrations of the play, including in front of party officials, went very well. Elena Bulgakova wrote to her mother:

“Mommy, dear, I’ve been meaning to write to you for a long time, but I was crazy busy. Misha finished and submitted the play to the Moscow Art Theater... He was tired as hell, the work was intense, he had to submit it on time. But the fatigue was good - the work was terribly interesting. According to general reviews, this is a great success. There have been several readings - two official and others - at our apartment, and always a great success."

Bulgakov took what happened extremely hard. He told his wife: “I feel bad, Lyusenka. He(Stalin) I signed my death warrant."

“Misha, as much as I can, I’m editing the novel, I’m rewriting it”

According to the recollections of relatives, from that moment the writer’s health began to deteriorate sharply, and his vision began to disappear. Doctors diagnosed hypertensive nephrosclerosis - kidney disease.

“And suddenly Kreshkov told me(common-law husband) the newspaper shows: Bulgakov died. Arrived(to Moscow), came to Lela(to the writer's sister). She told me everything, and the fact that he called me before his death... Of course, I would have come. I was terribly worried then. I went to the grave."

The novel “The Master and Margarita” lay on the shelf for more than a quarter of a century and was first published in the November 1966 issue of “Moscow” magazine.