The world's gold rushes gave mankind jeans, the city of San Francisco and the stories of Jack London - you can list them in any order, depending on priorities. They also presented various secrets and legends that inspire even modern gold miners, in particular, the heroes of the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush program. They have been trying to find their own Eldorado for the seventh season in a row. However, it all began in the 30s of the XIX century in Siberia. Sib.fm publishes Discovery Channel's historical investigation of the secrets of Siberian gold.

Do you remember how it all started?

In 1812, the Senate issued a decree "On granting the right to all Russian subjects to find and develop gold and silver ores with payment of taxes to the treasury." He gave the official start to the gold rush in Russia, which, however, for some reason, did not begin immediately, but almost 20 years later. Only in 1828 did the Ural merchants Popovs submit an application to the Tomsk province to develop a section of the Berikul River. How did the Ural merchants end up in Siberia and why did this not happen immediately after the Senate decree was issued?

The Popov merchants spent more than two million rubles on geological exploration in the Tomsk province in search of gold

According to numerous testimonies, Yegor Lesnoy lived in these parts - either a former exile, or an escaped convict, or just an Old Believer hermit. Previously, he worked as a prospector in the Ural placers, but he handed over the mined gold not to the owners of the mine, but to illegal dealers - they paid several times more. For this, Yegor was sent into exile in Siberia. Freed (or escaped), the peasant settled at Lake Berchikul, where he began to mine gold on the Sukhoi Berikul River. Yegor did not communicate with anyone except his assistant, and he kept the place of gold mining a secret from everyone.

But the land is full of rumors: stories about a peasant who discovered a gold-bearing province in Siberia soon reached the Urals. The rich merchants Popovs first sent their people to explore, and a year later they themselves arrived in the Tomsk province. They did not find Yegor Lesny alive: he died under mysterious circumstances, and many versions agree that the peasant, who did not want to reveal his secrets, was simply strangled.

Apparently, his pupil told the merchants about the mine of Yegor Lesny, and already in 1828 the mine "1st Berikulskaya Square" began to work.

On November 23, 1851, such a coat of arms of Krasnoyarsk was approved. The lion symbolized strength and courage, and the sickle and shovel reflected the main occupation of the inhabitants - agriculture and mining, primarily gold

Around the same time, the Popovs explored other major Siberian deposits in the vicinity - on the Sukhoi and Mokrom Berikul, the Salairk ridge, in the Krasnoyarsk, Achinsk, Kansk and Nizhneudinsk districts. So the gold rush began in Russia, which in 50 years gave the country 583 tons of the precious metal.

Gold feeds, gold feeds, gold leads naked

The largest gold-bearing region of modern Russia is Krasnoyarsk: it is here that almost 50 tons of precious metal are mined annually, which is 20% of the total production. The region took the leading positions for a long time: back in 1851, the coat of arms of Krasnoyarsk was approved - a golden lion holding a shovel in its paws, the main tool of a prospector. Of course, the largest gold mine in Siberia gave birth to its own millionaires, and the rich, as you know, have their own quirks. So, the gold miner N.F.Myasnikov ordered himself business cards made of pure gold: for each he paid five rubles, but he could buy 16 kilograms of sturgeon caviar with this money.

The merchant ordered a medal with the inscription "Emperor of all taiga", for which he received the nickname taiga Napoleon.

According to legend, the medal on the chain "Emperor of All Taiga" weighed more than five kilograms, so Gavrila Masharov never wore it

Gavrila did not rest on this: right in the middle of the taiga, he built himself a house that looked more like a palace, as befits an emperor. Glass galleries, greenhouses where pineapples were grown, rose gardens, and in a factory built nearby, they produced real Venetian velvet.

Everything ended predictably and not at all rosy: Gavrila went bankrupt, went bankrupt, and creditors announced a real hunt for him. Fleeing from them, Gavrila died - most likely in a labyrinth of underground passages, which he dug under his house. The location of his palace is still a mystery, and many people who are haunted by the history of the taiga Napoleon are trying to solve this riddle.

On December 3, 2010, the first season of the Gold Rush telecast on Discovery Channel aired.

The story of Gavrila once again confirms the veracity of the saying, popular among gold prospectors, "Gold gives water, feeds gold, drives gold naked." However, you can even seize the initiative from fate. Modern prospector Tony Beats - the legend of the Klondike, a member of the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush project - is known for his experience and intuition. He does not blindly rely on luck, but prefers to create it himself, and instead of buying gold business cards and building palaces, he invests in the development of his mine. So, he risked investing a substantial amount in the restoration of a 75-year-old idle dredge, although everyone around said that this ruin was not worth a kind word. Tony calculated everything perfectly accurately: after putting the repaired machine into operation, the prospector made a profit of more than five million dollars.

Crime chronicles of Siberian mines

The so-called Demin's gold is shrouded in mystery even more. Legend has it that almost a century and a half ago, in the mid-1860s, a group of prisoners escaped from the Aleksandrovsky Central prison, not far from Irkutsk. To survive in the harsh conditions of the mountainous terrain of the Eastern Sayan was only the most persistent and hardy - Dmitry Demin. He settled in the valley of one of the tributaries of the Kitoy River, where he built himself a winter quarters and hunted.

And then one day he accidentally stumbled upon a large ore gold deposit.

Unlike Yegor Lesnoy, Demin was not going to live as a hermit: he took the gold he had mined and went to a relatively large settlement - Tunka. Here he bought himself freedom by sharing the precious metal with a local official.

After Demin got married and settled in Tunka, and every few months he went to mine gold to his secret mine. He revealed the secret only before his death to his sons: supposedly the gold mine was located between the Kitoya tributary and the Shumak River, somewhere in the watershed. But neither the sons of Demin, nor the gold miner Kuznetsov, who somehow found out about a secret mine, nor the mining technician Novikov, who spent more than three years in search, managed to find the legendary Eldorado of the fugitive convict.

But there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. There was a revolution in Russia, and after that - the Civil War. Novikov was on the side of Kolchak. Fleeing with his officers from the partisan detachment, Novikov accidentally stumbled upon gold. It is not known whether this was the same Deminskoye field, especially since the exhausted White Guards could hardly get at least something. However, there was not long to rejoice at the find: all three were soon arrested, and Novikov ended up in an Irkutsk prison. He left there only in 1927, and together with his companions and hired workers - the Leonov brothers - immediately went in search of gold.

The thirst for profit, which did not disappear anywhere even after the arrest and imprisonment, turned out to be fatal: Novikov never returned, as did his companions.

Later, their bodies were found, and the investigation quickly found the killers - the Leonov brothers confessed to everything. This is where the legend ends - and more or less reliable facts, confirmed by archival documents, begin.

In December 1905, Alexander Kolchak received a golden weapon "For Bravery" - a saber with the inscription "For the difference in cases against the enemy near Port Arthur." Later, the golden weapon was equated to the status of the state order of the Russian Empire.

Several geological exploration expeditions following different routes, including those named by the Leonovs, ended in nothing. No gold was discovered in the Kitoy and Shumak region, which does not prevent modern gold diggers from hoping for a miracle today: the Eastern Sayan annually attracts thousands of hunters for luck and at least grains of gold.

White admiral's yellow gold

With the outbreak of the First World War, for security reasons, the evacuation of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire began, which at that time, after the payment of all military loans, amounted to approximately 1.101 billion rubles. They took out state treasures by train from Petrograd to the cities of the rear. So, in Kazan, captured in 1918 by white and Czechoslovak officers, half of the country's total gold reserves turned out to be - and this despite the attempts of the Bolsheviks to recapture it.

After Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia in November 1918, Kazan gold was nicknamed exactly Kolchak's gold - it has not gotten rid of this label to this day, although the admiral had practically nothing to do with him.

In total, the white movement had 650 million rubles in the hands - almost 500 tons of ingots.

1 gram of gold as of April 10, 2017 at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation costs 2,313.7 rubles. More than 115.5 billion rubles can be earned for 500 tons of gold

It is these figures that were obtained by the specialists of the branch of the State Bank in Omsk, where the gold was transported through Samara and Ufa, when recalculating and checking.

However, the gold did not remain at Kolchak's rate for long. On October 31, 1919, he was sent in 40 cars along the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was controlled by Czechoslovak soldiers loyal to Kolchak at that time in the section from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk. In addition, the white movement officers also guarded the gold reserve: they accompanied him in an additional 12 wagons. But all these security measures turned out to be useless: when the train arrived in Nizhneudinsk (a city in the Irkutsk region), representatives of the Entente forced Kolchak to renounce the title of Supreme Ruler, and give gold to the Czechoslovak Corps.

This change in political mood was caused, firstly, by the fact that the admiral dispersed the Ufa directory, which served as the beginning of the repressions, and secondly, by the desire of the Czechoslovak corps, first of all, to finally evacuate itself from Russia, engulfed in turmoil. By returning the country's gold reserves to the Bolsheviks and giving them the chief admiral of the entire white movement, the Czechs actually made a deal and bought their freedom.

Kolchak was arrested and shot, the Czechoslovak Corps returned to their homeland, but the history of the gold reserve does not end there, but only begins. Whether the admiral guessed that he would be betrayed, or whether the Czechs left some of the gold for themselves - is unknown, but the fact remains: the RSFSR People's Commissariat of Finance in 1921 missed 236 million rubles, that is, 182 tons of gold.

It was established that Kolchak smuggled part of the money abroad and placed it in foreign banks, and spent another part on uniforms and weapons for his army, but still the missing amount amounts to tens of millions. The versions of historians and amateur researchers diverge, and in the modern media periodically there is information that a trace of Kolchak's gold was allegedly found, but there is still no reliable data on the fate of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire.

In the Soviet years - from about the middle of the 20th century - private gold mining is prohibited, that is, you cannot just take a shovel and go to explore mines or small deposits. In recent years, a bill has just been discussed that would allow everyone to engage in individual fishing. If he successfully passes approval in all ministries and departments, then, quite possibly, anyone will be able to work with the heroes of the "Gold Rush".

The lands of Siberia keep many secrets and unsolved mysteries, which to this day attract people. For many centuries, the land was inhabited by peoples little-known to the state, who left their mark on history. Each region of Siberia has its own legend.

Omsk region keeps the legend about “ Five Lakes”, One of which is the famous Okunevo lake in the Omsk region. The "navel of the earth" is the village Okunevo, which is considered the energy center of the earth. The village itself is a place where paranormal activities periodically occur. Someone saw a headless horseman here, others talk about, who knows where from, a round dance of girls on the river bank. Legend says that translucent figures of great height appeared and disappeared behind the girls' backs. There are five lakes around the village, which appeared when five meteorites fell. The water in each of the lakes is considered curative, the location of the fifth lake is still under a mystery.

The legend about Khan Kuchum is kept in the Novosibirsk region. It is believed that he hid his treasure in the region.

The Tomsk region can boast of its legend about the elder Fyodor Kuzmich. They say that Emperor Alexander I faked his death and became the wanderer Fedor.

The Kemerovo Region is considered the first and only place in the Siberian Territory where the Bigfoot was seen. Also, they say that Admiral Kolchak's treasure is kept on the territory of Gornaya Shoria.

In the Altai Territory, there are legends about the lost Demidov mines, the treasure of which has not yet been found.

The Altai Republic also has its own legends. There are stories about Admiral Kolchak's "gold reserve".

The Krasnoyarsk Territory also keeps legends about Kolchak's treasure, it is believed that when he passed through the Ob-Yenisei Canal, it was there that he chose a place to bury his gold. There is also a legend about the lost palace of Emperor Gavril Masharov.

Due to the large number of mounds in the Republic of Khakassia, there are many unsolved secrets related to their origin. Menhirs mysteriously stand next to the mounds - these are simple megaliths placed vertically by man.

The Irkutsk region also appropriates Kolchak's treasure, which is hidden in the "Deminsky Garden".

The Republic of Buryatia differs in its legends from other regions of the Siberian Territory. Most of the legends are associated with shamanism and Buddhism. Residents of the republic believe that the grave of Genghis Khan with his treasures is kept in the bowels of their lands.

Basically, all the legends of the Siberian region are associated with the names of great people who contributed to the history of the development of the regions. Each region, thanks to its legends, emphasizes its individuality, thereby attracting the attention of tourists.

The lands of the Siberian regions keep in themselves centuries-old legends and secrets, little known west of the "Stone" (Ural Mountains) - for many centuries civilizations existed here, poorly known to the Russian state, and almost unknown to distant Europe. One of the most ancient and famous myths that gives chances to almost all regions of Siberia is the legend of the "Golden Woman".

However, recent centuries have left many stories about the events of these places - although not very distant, but already forgotten enough.

Omsk region attracts legendary and "navel of the earth" near one of the lakes.

There is a lot in the Omsk region and material values \u200b\u200bthat many generations left in the Omsk lands:

Pioneers, Cossacks of Ermak's squads and Kuchumov's warriors;

First settlers, servicemen and civilians of the Tobol-Ishim fortified line;

Wealthy people, mainly from the urban population, who left Omsk before the arrival of the Red Army;

Keepers of the valuables of Admiral Kolchak and the treasures of the imperial family of Nicholas II ..

Some of the hidden riches of the Omsk region are already a department for successful people.

In Omsk itself, a treasure of the "house of the Kabalkins" (1980) and a "Zubarevsky" treasure of gold coins of the royal minting (1964) were found.

The demolished house of the merchant Elizarov opened a whole bucket of gold and silver coins.

In the Omsk region - a treasure of silver and bronze beads in Krasnoyark (1999), a hundred-kilogram cache of 18th century copper coins in the village of Gornaya Bitiya, Ulyanovsk region (1954).

A similar find was made in the area of \u200b\u200ba pioneer camp near the summer cottage village of Chernoluchye (1956)

It is unknown how many more treasures the Omsk land conceals, but there are plenty of legends about uncovered riches.

The most coveted find is the treasure of Admiral Kolchak. But not the remnants of the "gold reserve", but the relics of the Holy Synod and the treasures of the royal family. The expected places of his location are the lands along the Irtysh from Omsk to Surgut, where the valuables were allegedly sent for preservation. There is a version that this treasure is hidden under the ruins of a blown up monastery.

No less interesting are the treasures of Khan Kuchum - his treasury, hidden from the advancing troops of Ermak Timofeevich. Legends say that Kuchum's treasures are reliably hidden from human eyes under water in the border areas of the Tyumen and Omsk regions. These treasures are stored by lakes - Bolshoy Uvat in the Vagai district of the Tyumen region and Lake Teka in the Tevriz district of the Omsk region.

And at the bottom of Lake Zhivoe, which is near the village of Koshkul, Tarsk region, Kuchum's "golden carriage" may still lie. Another instead of searching for a "golden carriage" is the swampy source of a small river near the village of Imshegal, which is also located in the Tarsky district of the Omsk region.

Another of the coveted treasures - the gold of Admiral Kolchak - is not actively sought in the Novosibirsk region, its alleged location is within the Kemerovo and Irkutsk regions. But even there, as nowhere else in Siberia, traces of this mysterious treasure have not yet been found - so maybe the Novosibirsk region has a chance?

But the region is rich not only in hidden treasures - the Novosibirsk lands keep many secrets and legends of Siberia.

Not so long ago, a unique archaeological discovery was made in the Zdvinsky region - the oldest (IX-VII centuries BC, transition period from the Bronze to the Iron Age) urban-type settlement was discovered. There are very reasonable assumptions that the inhabitants of Chichaburg were people of the same Europioid race, but of different cultures - as if they had gathered in the city from different places.

And to the southeast (in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Mamontovoe, Kargatsky district) there is a habitat of prehistoric animals - the last Siberian mammoths. Local residents have repeatedly found fossilized tusks of ancient giants during the construction of cellars and wells. So the ancient fossils here are no longer a legend, not a myth, but an everyday reality.

In the Kyshtovsky district of the Novosibirsk region, bordering the neighboring Omsk region, there is one of the Siberian mythical - Lake Danilovo (Danilino). Three of the remaining are located in the Omsk region, but the fifth, "Lurking" - the most mysterious - is still hiding from people. So it is quite possible that it is hidden somewhere in the north-west of the Novosibirsk region. According to legend, any of the "Five Lakes" gives a person health and long life.

Another lake, stretched out at the junction of five districts of the region (Barabinsky, Zdvinsky, Kupinsky, Chanovsky, Chistoozerny), has been endowed by people with an unusual secret - the life of an unusual creature, a huge Siberian snake-like predator, mercilessly devouring people and animals.

Tomsk region remembers the mysterious elder Fyodor Kozmich.

The Kemerovo region keeps the old legends of the ancient Shors. It is believed that Gornaya Shoria is one of the probable places of existence of the "Bigfoot". The years of the civil war left hope that the treasure of Admiral Kolchak ("gold reserve") was safely hidden in the northern taiga forests of the region.

The Altai Territory still does not forget the legends about the abandoned Demidov mines and "Demidov caches", but so far these treasures have not been found. There are also more ancient legends about the "Chudi" - the people who left "from the white king" underground along with all their treasures.

The Altai Republic hides many fairy-tale legends and secrets of old zaisans, and some of them remained in the ancient writings of Altai rocks. The 20th century brought new secrets - perhaps it is in Gorny Altai that a part of the "gold reserve" of the detachments of Admiral Kolchak's army leaving for Mongolia is still located.

The Krasnoyarsk Territory may also become the location of the treasure of Admiral Kolchak - there are suggestions that the "gold reserve" was transported along the Ob-Yenisei Canal. And somewhere in the northeastern taiga, the palace of the golden taiga emperor Gavrila Masharov was lost.

The Republic of Khakassia is rich in legends of ancient history, which left behind a large number of burial mounds, the secrets of which have not yet been revealed. Menhirs, the guards of the mounds, and independent witnesses of ancient culture, stand silently here.

The Irkutsk region also gives hope to the seekers of the treasure of Admiral Kolchak, and in the Tunkinskaya valley the gold "Deminsky treasure" is still waiting for the lucky treasure hunter.

In the Republic of Buryatia, a large number of legends are associated with religions - shamanism and Buddhism, and their clergy - shamans and lamas, as well as with datsans - centers of Buddhism in Buryatia. Genghis Khan also left his mark - his grave, along with the precious treasure, may well be on the territory of Buryatia. The history of Buddhism in Buryatia intersects with the times of the Civil War, when the Red Army defeated the troops of Baron Ungern on the territory of Buryatia. However, the fate of Ungern's treasury is still unknown.

Hunting expert Andrei Pavlovich Morozov in 1974, after graduating from the technical school, was appointed to the post of hunting expert in the Kamyshinsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which is on the border with the Evenki Autonomous Okrug. Amazingly beautiful nature, virgin taiga, surrounding the full-flowing Yenisei on all sides, amazed the young specialist. And people who have lived from the moment of their birth in small villages and villages in close unity with nature made a good impression. Among the inhabitants of the region there were many hereditary professional hunters, who nevertheless were very careful about the wealth that surrounded them. Therefore, Morozov, who was called upon to protect the resources of the animal world of the taiga, did not have any problems with them.

Uncharted taiga

The lands of Morozov stretched for more than one and a half thousand square kilometers, and therefore the game manager was often on the road.
One day in the late autumn of 1974, Andrei on horseback climbed a hundred kilometers from the regional center, to the place where the Podkamennaya Tunguska flows into the gray-haired and majestic Yenisei. It was getting dark. Glancing at his watch, Morozov decided to spend the night in a hut, located fifteen kilometers from the place where he was. He turned his horse around, crossed the ravine and was already starting to go deeper along a barely perceptible path into the taiga thicket, when the horse under him suddenly became obstinate, stopped and began to back away. Morozov looked around. Andrei did not notice anything that could alert him, but just in case he took the carbine off his shoulder. The places here were deaf, and meeting with a crank bear, wolf or lynx was not uncommon.

This is not a bear!

Meanwhile, the horse under Morozov was becoming more and more excited. Suddenly, among the spruce paws hanging almost to the ground, Andrei saw some movement. Morozov raised binoculars to his eyes and suddenly saw a large carcass of some animal in powerful eyepieces. The carcass was so large that it even surpassed itself in size. Morozov continued to gaze intently at the animal looming behind the trees, when he suddenly realized that he was not even seeing a bear at all. The animal's coat was not thick and long, like a bear's, but short and dense, like a mink, and had a strange silvery hue. Soon Andrei saw that the animal was standing on long powerful legs, holding on to the trunk of a cedar with its forepaws, very similar to those of a monkey. Here the mysterious animal jumped and quickly climbed up the tree, making absolutely no noise at all. For a few seconds Morozov lost sight of this creature. Suddenly he felt a wave of cold air rush from his back. The horse under Morozov soared so that he could barely stay in the saddle, and turned in the opposite direction. And then Andrey saw a mysterious animal, as they say, in all its glory. The creature stood at the edge of the ravine and stared at the hunter. His appearance was so unusual that Morozov froze for a while in amazement. Not only did the creature look like a man, only gigantic in size (height - 3-3.5 meters, chest volume 1.5-2 meters). It also had a long tail that twitched nervously, and strange ball-like growths on its powerful shoulders. Andrey was especially struck by the head of a mysterious animal. No bigger than a soccer ball, she sat on a long, thin neck. Two short, massive horns grew on the creature's forehead. The animal's broad, fleshy nose hung over its fanged mouth. Huge, pupilless creatures, without blinking, looked at the hunter.
Suddenly the creature crouched down, as if preparing to jump. Andrei involuntarily pulled the trigger. A shot rang out. The horse jerked under Morozov, he spurred it on and rushed to the rescue hut ...
Throughout the night, behind the tightly closed windows of the hunting lodge, there were the sounds of someone's steps, deep sighs, crackling. It happened that the log walls of the hut shook, as if someone was piling on them with all the weight of their powerful body. Only in the morning, when everything was quiet, Andrey could forget himself with a short, restless sleep.
The sun was already high when Morozov left the house, holding the carbine at the ready. In the courtyard of the gatehouse, nothing indicated that an intruder was in charge at night. Andrey went to the barn, where in the evening he led the horse, opened the door. There he was in for an unpleasant surprise - the horse was dead. Morozov carefully examined the unfortunate animal and did not find any signs of external physical influence on it. She seemed to fall asleep in a deep, serene sleep ...

Ulmesh

Soon after returning to the regional center, Andrey told about his mysterious meeting to one of the oldest hunters, Evenk Ivan Erken. After listening attentively to the young hunter, he shook his head and explained that that evening Andrey had met with Ulmesh, the taiga demon. According to Ivan Erken, Ulmesh is an ancient master of the taiga. Meeting with him promises hunters either trouble or great luck. It happened that the taiga demon more than once saved the frozen hunters. Ulmesh requires respect for himself, and therefore many local hunters, especially Evenks, sacrifice domestic animals or part of the game they have caught. Ivan himself, two or three times a year, takes chickens, ducks and even suckling pigs to one well-known place in the taiga from his backyard. Thus, he thanks Ulmesh for his miraculous salvation. About twenty years ago, Ivan Er-ken with a spear went to a bear. However, it so happened that the spear broke, and a huge furious beast rushed at the unlucky hunter. At that very moment Ulmesh appeared. From the sight of a taiga demon, both Ivan and the bear were numb, and then the frightened clubfoot rushed to his heels. Ulmesh disappeared immediately after that. That meeting with the taiga demon was the only one in Erken's life, but the grateful hunter still remembers it in every detail.

The moon hunter and the bloody winter quarters

Another old hunter told Andrey Morozov no less mysterious legend about a bloody winter quarters. As if in the taiga once every three years, at the most severe time, an old and dilapidated hut appears from nowhere. Woe to that of the hunters who enters it and lodges for the night. This hut, like a bloodthirsty predator, swallows unlucky travelers looking for shelter, and when it is full, it disappears again without a trace, taking its victims into oblivion. Erken's great-grandfather disappeared without a trace in this winter hut, and his grandfather, noticing blood stains on the steps of the porch of an unknown hut, in which he was going to stay for the night, retired in time, thereby saving his life.
The next legend that struck the imagination of the hunter was the legend of the ghost of the moon hunter. During full moon periods, a ghost dressed in a bear sheepskin coat at any time of the year sometimes appears in the thicket of the cedar forest. No one has ever seen his face. However, any hunter knows that in the place where this ghost is found, it is impossible to hunt, because this territory has already been chosen by the moon hunter. The one who breaks this rule in the taiga will face inevitable death ...

Unknown on the road

Following Erken's advice, Andrei Morozov a week later brought a killed hare to the place where the taiga demon met him. And the very next day, when a hunter began to dig a cellar in the courtyard of his own house, he suddenly stumbled upon an old wrought iron chest. When Andrei opened it, he saw that the chest was filled to the brim with gold and silver coins of old minting, as well as placers of emeralds and river pearls. The old Evenk hunter, having learned about this, said that the owner of the taiga, Ulmesh, thus expressed his favor to the young hunting expert for the perfect offering ...
For twenty years of work as a hunting expert, Andrei Pavlovich Morozov has seen everything, but only once he found confirmation of the legends he heard in his youth. When in the late eighties he drove past the Black Marsh, which is thirty kilometers from Kamyshinsk, in the late evening, he saw a human figure wandering along a forest road in the bright moonlight. Despite the summer heat, the stranger was dressed in a warm fur coat with a hood. Behind him hung an antediluvian gun, which Morozov had seen only in historical films and in the local history museum. Having caught up with the unknown man, Morozov looked into his face from the open window of the UAZ cab, and in the next instant an unpleasant chill of fear ran down his spine. Instead of a face under the hood, emptiness was black.
Morozov's car drove another fifty meters. Andrei Pavlovich turned around again. This time there was no one else on the dusty road.

In the mythology of the peoples of Siberia, the universe, its parts and elements (sky, earth, moon, sun, etc.) appear in the form of living beings. The earth is perceived as a huge female, usually a moose or deer, giving birth to all living things. Trees, grass, moss are the wool of the Earth, animals are insects that live in its wool, and birds are midges flying over it. According to the traditional ideas of the Nganasans, one of the main figures of their pantheon Mou-nyama (Mother Earth) has the appearance of a moose cow, on whose back people live. In the spring, it sheds, like all animals (the old fur on Mou-nyama's body is old moss, the grass crawls out, and the new fur grows); the Nganasans believe that they originated from her wool. According to the Evenk legend, once a heavenly elk stole the sun from people, and night fell on the earth. Hunter Mani, chasing a moose, ascended to the sky and returned the sun to people. The participants in this space hunt have turned into stars: Mani, his dogs and moose are the Big Dipper, and Mani's ski trail is the Milky Way.

Various versions of the myth about the hunt for the space deer-elk, explaining the origin of the constellation Ursa Major, are recorded among many peoples of Siberia. However, not all of them have preserved the connection of this myth with the theme of the change of day and night. It is all the more remarkable that still relatively recently this myth was recorded among the Evenks living in the southeastern part of Yakutia:

"It was a long time ago, when the land had not yet grown and was very small, but vegetation had already appeared on it, animals and people lived. At that time there was no night, the sun was shining around the clock. Once, on an autumn day, an elk - male during the rut) grabbed the sun and ran towards the sky. The uterine moose, walking with the elk, ran after him. Night fell on the ground. People were confused. They did not know what to do.

At that time, the famous hunter and strongman Mani lived among the Evenks. He is the only Evenk who was not taken aback. He took a bow, called two hunting dogs and ran after the elk. At this time, the moose left and ran across the sky. Mani's dogs quickly caught up and stopped them. The elk, seeing that the two of them could not get away from the dogs, passed the sun to the moose, and he himself began to distract the dogs. The female, seizing the moment, turned sharply and ran towards the north to the heavenly hole to hide from her pursuers. Mani arrived in time and shot a moose, but he had no sun. Guessing that the elk gave the sun to the moose, he began to look for it with his eyes across the sky and saw that she was already close to the heavenly hole and could hide. Then he began to shoot at her from his heroic bow.

The first arrow landed in two measurements of her body in front, the second in one, the third just hit the target. As soon as Mani took the sun and returned it to the people, all the participants in the space hunt turned into stars. Since then, there has been a change of day and night and the space hunt is repeated. Every evening the moose steal the sun, in turn, Mani chases after them and returns the sun to people in the morning "

* Told in 1976 by N.I. Antonov from the Chakagir clan, born in 1902. on the Amutkachi river, the left tributary of the Amur; publ .: A.I. Mazin Traditional beliefs and rituals of the Orochon Evenks. Novosibirsk, 1984, p. 9

According to the narrator, "the four stars that form the dipper of the constellation Ursa Major are the tracks of a male moose. Three stars of the bucket handle, three stars of the fifth magnitude near them and the star closest to the constellation Hounds of the Dogs are the tracks of Mani's dogs, who stopped the moose. Mani himself - five stars located below the bottom of the bucket, included in the constellation Ursa Major.The bucket of the constellation Ursa Minor is the traces of a moose cow trying to escape from pursuers.The first and second stars of the bucket handle are Mani's arrows. The third star of the bucket handle (Polaris) is a hole, or the hole through which the moose tried to hide. "

In other versions, the bogatyr chasing a space elk-deer is named Manga and is drawn in the guise of a bear that drives a sunny elk from east to west, overtakes and kills him. The constellation Ursa Major is interpreted at the same time as the legs of an elk half-eaten by a bear, the hunter himself is represented by the constellations Volotis and Arcturus, the trail of his skis is the Milky Way, and two stripes in the western side of the sky are explained by the fact that the bear, which had overeating itself, became so heavy at the end that it could hardly drag legs and therefore left two paths (see. Anisimov AF Religion of the Evenks in historical-genetic study. M.-L., 1958, p. 71).

Among the Erbogachen Evenks, the first star of the handle of the constellation B. Medveditsa from the ladle is interpreted as a calf, which, during a space hunt, scared to the side, fell into a heavenly hole (Polar Star) and thus found itself on earth; from him came the present-day terrestrial elk.