Moscow guide. Леонид Гаврилов

are hidden in every second Moscow house that has survived after Napoleon's invasion. And in houses that have survived since 1917 – in every third one.

      Not only the treasures themselves, but beliefs, rumors, legends, spells and curses are important echoes of ancient times, worthy of close study. They are a necessary link for understanding a particular era.

      And let every person who has found the treasure always remember: one should not rush, make plans for a rich, carefree life. Together with the treasures, grief and curses, tragedies and misfortunes of past times can come to the finder.

      But if you have already touched someone else's wealth, it is better to immediately think about how life's path can change and how to carry this heavy burden…

      It is hardly possible to determine exactly which city on earth is the richest in treasures. But, if it carried such a study out, Moscow would be on the list of the richest.

      The convenient geographical position facilitated this for trade, the age of the city, the wealth of the inhabitants. Wealth, as you know, not only must be saved up, collected, but also protected. Since ancient times, the most reliable way is to hide it in the ground or some secret places.

      No wonder one ancient sage said: “It is calm in the country – riches are on display, dangerous changes in the country – riches are hidden deeper.”

      Do not count how many troubles have befell Moscow in its entire history. How many events forced its inhabitants to hide treasures: invasions, wars, fires, epidemics, revolutions, drastic political and economic changes. Going on a long journey, Muscovites buried treasures – both from thieves and from the authorities. The thieves themselves and those who acquired it in an unrighteous way hid the good.

      Probably, of all historical events, the most treasured time for Moscow was the invasion of Napoleon.

      The Russians were hiding the treasures when they had to leave the capital in a hurry. The French also hid it when they realized that they could not take out all the loot from Moscow.

      The poet Nikolai Shatrov, a contemporary of those events, recalled in 1813:

      Unhappy Moscow is burning

      Moscow burns for twelve days;

      It decays under a noisy flame

      Innumerable wealth in her;

      All temple decorations,

      Their treasures are age old,

      The splendor of the palaces

      Wonderful collection rarities,

      All jewels are sculpting

      Skillful brushes and incisors…

      After the capture of Smolensk by Napoleon's army in July 1812, the inhabitants quickly left Moscow. There were not enough horses. The townspeople were forced to bury part of their goods in the ground, walled up in walls, and hide in basements. They left works of art, books, jewelry, silverware, icons in frames of precious metals.

      Even government agencies, churches and monasteries were unable to take out all their expensive property, archives, valuable utensils.

      On September 2, Napoleon's troops entered Moscow. Witnesses of those sad events noted:

      “In these days, what a terrible spectacle the capital presented itself, shortly before its ruin, shining with luxury and splendor.

      In the burnt palaces of kings the desert wind rustled; the splendor of the temples of God was hidden under the blackness of the fire; inside there were traces of the wicked presence of the enemies of faith and Russia. The audacious scolders made stalls for their horses where the Lord's altars were raised!..″

      Moscow has not seen such a fire for a long time. The half-empty city was ablaze from all over. Almost the entire center and adjacent streets burned out, Zamoskvorechye burned down. Before the invasion of Napoleonic troops, there were more than 9 thousand houses in Moscow. For several weeks of the enemy's stay, almost 6.5 thousand buildings were burned down.

      Both the Russians and the French were on fire. There was nothing to put out the fires with. Contemporaries noted that Emperor Napoleon himself took part in putting out the fire in the Kremlin. The retinue and close people begged him to move to the Petrovsky Palace.

      Leaving the Kremlin on fire, the conqueror prophetically pronounced:

      – This portends us great disasters…

      The hungry Napoleonic army plundered everything that the Muscovites did not manage to take out and save. Silver and gilded frames were torn off the icons, and the icons themselves were burned in bonfires. The gilded cross was removed from the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Kremlin.

      Although the main unique documents Muscovites managed to take out and save, during the invasion of Napoleon, books by Mikhail Lomonosov, Nikolai Novikov's publications, a rare collection of Russian and foreign newspapers, the famous “Word about Igor's Campaign”, “Vladimir Monomakh's Dukhovnaya”, Novgorodskie and Dvina letters, “Life of the Grand Duke Vladimir”, “Laurentian Chronicle” and much more.

      But these are only the considered spiritual losses of Moscow and Russia. And how many were unknown, unmarked, dead, not found monuments of our past!

      A special role in the appearance of an innumerable number of Moscow treasures in 1812 belongs to Russian robbers and looters. They knew Moscow streets and houses, churches and warehouses better than the French soldiers. They knew better where, how to profit and where to hide the loot.

      They were forced to hide for several reasons. Firstly, it was impossible to keep valuables with oneself or in the house due to the fact that the French constantly searched houses and people. Secondly, it was impossible then to drink the stolen goods, to take a walk. Thirdly, it was also impossible to take goods out of Moscow, since the outskirts of the city were guarded by Napoleonic troops, and partisan detachments were operating in the vicinity. Both those and others destroyed the marauders.

      Sometimes it was possible only to exchange a gold ring in hungry Moscow – for a piece of biscuit, an icon in a silver setting – for a few grams of salt.

      This is how thousands of treasures appeared in the Moscow land of 1812.

      In one old entry, it was noted that only one gang of Lame Nikisha took out about 2 thousand kilograms of silver from noble houses. Lame Nikisha himself and several of his friends died in a drunken fight with the French.

      In that year, many Muscovites died in fires, starvation, disease, or were shot by the French. So most of the treasures remained unclaimed.