The story of petrified Zoya: the fate of the girl who danced with the icon

Among the many church myths and legends that actually happened in real life, a story called “Petrified Zoe” stands out as particularly terrifying. Believers consider the incident from Kuibyshev (now the Russian city of Samara) in 1956 to be real, but skeptics note many factors indicating the unreality of the event.

History in several versions

So, let's look at different versions of the Samara phenomenon and try to answer the question for ourselves: is the stone Zoya true or a myth? The most common versions are:

Zoya was dumbfounded at home;
the dancer turned into stone while visiting;
the standing image of a maiden is an old woman’s invention.

Legends of old-timers and churchmen say that on December 31st a certain resident of a Soviet city Kuibysheva gathered to celebrate the arrival of the New Year 1956 with friends. Being a Komsomol member, she did not particularly listen to the instructions of her believing mother that during the days of Lent there should be no fun and dancing. The girl called her friends and waited for the arrival of her boyfriend Nikolai, whom she had met the other day.

Time passed, the hands were inexorably approaching the 12 mark on the clock, but there was still no sign of Zoya’s admirer, while all the friends came with their boyfriends. The young Komsomol member felt offended like a woman, and she decided to express her act of protest before God’s will and, grabbing icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant, who was standing among others on the iconostasis, began to dance with her.

The friends were frightened by the girl’s unexpected decision and tried to stop her, but it was as if dark forces had taken possession of Zoya, and she continued to spin in a strange dance. “My Nicholas is gone, I’ll dance with Nicholas the Wonderworker,” she said cheerfully with a hysterical laugh. Also a young Komsomol member doubted the existence of God and added that “if he exists, then let him punish her.”

We didn’t have to wait long for retribution for the great church sin; at exactly 12 o’clock at night, lightning struck the girl from the ceiling and she froze. The petrified girl with the icon of the saint caused panic among the merry youth, especially since what happened was unexpected and lightning fast. The friends of the girl who was dancing with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker tried to somehow revive her and take the holy image out of her hands, but all in vain.

There are even authentic proofs of Zoya's standing photographs from 1956. The young Komsomol member looks like a statue, tightly pressing the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to her motionless chest. Eyewitnesses of the petrification noted that the girl’s heart was barely audible. The ambulance crew and police who were called also could not help the unfortunate woman. Zoya was not given any medical needles, and some law enforcement officers were simply afraid to approach her.

They tried to bring the frozen image back to life using the following methods:

they tried to pierce with syringes;
move by force;
persuasion and prayerful reprimand.

The rumor about the standing Kuibyshev woman spread throughout the city with lightning speed, and this brought many onlookers and other curious people to the place. To avoid religious hysteria or other manifestations of vandalism, house No. 84 on Chkalov Street was cordoned off by the police, and a squad of guards stood there for several days.

The mother, who had not left the house since the incident, told the priests that her daughter seemed to wake up at night and utter incomprehensible phrases. Sometimes the woman, desperate to see Zoya alive, could discern the clear requests of the stone maiden that everyone should pray for the sins of humanity.

Having heard the story about his fellow countrywoman, Hieromonk Seraphim volunteered to help her. The priest persuaded the law enforcement officers to let him through to the frozen woman. Finding himself in the room where the careless Zoya seemed to freeze forever, the holy father calmly took the icon from her hands and predicted that the Komsomol member will come to his senses on Easter.

And so it happened, the maiden, who had turned to stone, came to her senses and began to show signs of life 128 days after her petrification. Since Zoya stood for more than four months, her body was exhausted, and she died 3 days later.

Zoino standing - version two

There is another version according to which a similar rumor about a petrified girl began. It was also New Year's Eve. In the house at the above address, young people were having fun, a nun passed by the window and, seeing what was happening, said that for such a sin, the joyful girls should turn into “pillars of salt,” as in one of the biblical legends. These words were heard by an old woman who happened to be nearby, and after a while rumors of a great miracle spread throughout the city.

Another variation on the theme “Zoykino’s Standing” says that in house number 84 on Chkalova Street lived a certain Claudia Bolonkina with her son, who threw a party in honor of the New Year. Among the invited friends was Zoya, who a few days earlier had started dating a guy named Nikolai. Further, this version repeats the already existing generally accepted variation of events.

Third or official version

During a journalistic investigation, officials confirmed the fact that a single woman named Claudia Bolonkina actually lived at 84 Chkalova Street. There is information about Zoya Karnaukhova, who worked at a local factory, however, the fact that she ever visited the address mentioned in the story remains an unconfirmed fact. It is also interesting that the wooden building where Zoya Karnaukhova supposedly stood, where there is now a vacant lot, was destroyed by fire. Fate owner of house No. 84 no one knows for certain.

The former first secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Efremov, who had to “disentangle” the current situation, confirmed the fact that the house on Chkalov Street was cordoned off. While in office from 1952 to 1959, a communist by conviction, the man suggested that the residents of the city back in 1956 became victims of a strange mass psychosis, which is a direct disgrace for the communist committee.

In order to calm the public and besiege the feelings of believers, the Volzhskaya Kommuna newspaper published a feuilleton entitled “Wild Case” on January 24. It spoke about the event in an ironic manner and emphasized that it was truly fiction. During this period, local authorities tried as best they could to hush up the situation about the petrification of the Komsomol member.

History is not forgotten

Don't forget about this incident in modern cinema. At the beginning of the 21st century, namely in 2000, the Terra shopping and entertainment company made a short documentary film “Zoya’s Standing”. The director of the film was Dmitry Oderusov, who noted that such religious themes are very popular in the modern world of cinema.

Nine years later, the feature film “Miracle” by director Alexander Proshin was released, in which modern popular actors from the post-Soviet space were noted. In 2015, a film called “Zoya” was released, based on the play by Alexander Ignashev. Female director Alla Korovkina worked on the film, and the viewer saw the story of many years ago from a different angle.

In September 2017, the popular show “Actually” discussed the phenomenon of Zoya Karnaukhova. An entire issue was dedicated to this issue. Some participants in the program say that this is truly a miracle, while others, as is usual in such cases, are confident that what happened in the city of Samara is unreal.

In the world of writers, many writers are interested in the topic of a petrified man, whose biography is completely unknown. Most of all, believers are puzzled by this case, which is why 3 years ago a book by Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov was published by the publishing house of one of the monasteries in Moscow. The work, under the laconic title “Standing,” according to the author, is based on actual facts that the holy father collected over many months.

The mysterious story of Zoya has not been forgotten by the church, and new believers are constantly coming to the scene of the incident, who themselves want to see the place where the wrath of the Lord manifested itself. In 2012, a statue of St. Nicholas the Pleasant was installed in the former front garden of house No. 84, which the clergy consecrated some time later. The ill-fated house was destroyed by an unexpected fire 2 years after the installation of the monument to the iconized saint.

No matter what anyone says about this not entirely clear story of 1956, the fact remains a fact. It is known that there is no smoke without fire, which means that something really happened in the city of Kuibyshev.

Petrified Zoe