The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation.
According to Russian folk beliefs, (sometimes referred to with the shortened “нечисть”) prefer to settle in evil places or places viewed as conducive to evil.
These can be categorized in several broad categories (not all of which are listed here). One consists of uncivilized places or places not conducive to civilization. These include: , , , and . Another category deals with the concept of – where one area crosses to the next. These include , , , , , , and .
Crossroads are traditionally considered places of evil across Europe because, in ancient times and into the middle ages, people who died while traveling were traditionally buried at the next crossroad. As the places became associated with death, tales of and of became common.
Places that are considered are also places that might be haunted. These include and especially , which are often associated with . Places known for their such as and the are often settings for grizzly tales of evil spirits burning people alive or even flaying off their skin. , where people are at , are also sometimes inhabited by evil spirits.
Places associated with make up another category. This includes , , , and . Russians once commonly made the sign of the cross before opening flour jars, for instance, and those that didn’t were sometimes tormented by devils.
There are also certain trees associated with evil, such as , , and . The beliefs about these trees originate from the particular features of each tree. For example, spoilt hazel nuts turn black inside their shell, as though burnt. Folklore explained this with stories of the trees saving people from lightening or fiery devils by catching the evil forces inside its nutshells. Ancient Slavs would sometimes make circles of hazel wood branches around themselves for protection. Some Russians still consider the hazel nut tree to be a .
Sometimes, the same tree can symbolize both good and evil spirits. For example, a young pussy-willow symbolizes growth, health, fertility and protects from natural calamities, evil spits and disease. At the same time, an old pussy-willow is considered a home or hiding place for .
It is not recommended to or to . This allows evil spirits to .
One difference between haunted houses in Russian culture and western culture is that sometimes, in Russian culture, houses are haunted not because of a or other connected with it, but because all homes naturally have spirits in them called the . Cats can see the домовой, though humans usually can’t. Some Russians believe that when a cat plays, it is playing with the домовой.
While generally positive or neutral spirits, домовой can become evil if not treated well. When moving to a new house, the домовой should also be invited. If not invited, the home becomes haunted by the slighted домовой, who can be extremely dangerous. Anyone attempting to reside in an , risks , , or at the hands of the . An abandoned home may be abandoned for good reason! Sometimes a home to which people move will already have a домовой, and the домовой that the new residents invited from their old home will fight with this second spirit, causing in the home until one is driven from the house or defeated.
Some places are by . The Moscow Kremlin is among one of them – where the ghosts of old Russian czars like Alexander II and Ivan the Terrible have been seen. An official working late one night in 1994 in the room under Lenin’s former office by . Sure that this was Lenin’s ghost, the official stopped staying late at the office for fear of disturbing the spirit.
St Petersburg has many ghosts – Peter the Great has been reported haunting the Winter Palace and the murdered Tsar Paul I haunts Mikhailovsky Castle. The ghost of Sofiya Perovskaya, a Russian revolutionary who is best remembered for her role in assassinating Tsar Alexander II and being the first woman in Russia for political crimes, is often seen on the bridge crossing Ekaterininsky Channel, the purple imprint of the noose still around her neck and the lantern she used to signal her terrorists still in her hand.
The village of Kukoboi is perhaps the place with the greatest concentration of haunted places in Russia. This village, in the Yaroslavsky Oblast (some 200 miles from Moscow), is considered the home of an old witch immortalized in Russian fairy tales who, among other things, and sometimes eats children. Kukoboi has several haunted houses, spots, and even a haunted library.
Former World War II battlefields are also known as Here, many people were killed and often not buried properly, leaving their ghosts to remain on earth. One can reportedly see and shouting while attacking enemies. There are such places in many Russian regions with the most notorious being Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), where more than 3 million people died defending the city, and Myasnoi Bor in the Novgorod region where tens of thousands of soldiers died in the swamps and are, to this day, unburied.
