Taganay National Park. To the suspension bridges

Probably, when you heard this name, you imagined something like a hole in the ground filled with garbage. This is wrong. The Averkin Pit is one of the attractions of the Urals, and many mysteries are associated with it.

Caves have always attracted people. Well, start from the Stone Age, when caves were used for housing, and ending with a time closer to ours, when treasures were hidden in them. If there is a treasure, it means that there will be hunters to go down into the cave.

There are also legendary caves in the Urals. One of them is called the Averkin (or Averkiev) pit. Getting to it is difficult, but not impossible if you have the ability to use a navigator. The pit is located in the Satka region Chelyabinsk region, near the village of Staraya Pristan. By the way, there are other famous caves near the Ai River - for example, Laklinskaya near the village of Lakly, Kurgazak near the village of Pokrovka. Traces of prehistoric people were found there - rock paintings. But not about that yet.

In general, to get to the desired point A from Yekaterinburg, you need to take the highway to Perm, then turn onto Mikhailovsk and drive in the direction of Paris. No, really, there is one locality, but in fact you won’t need to pass it, but you should go through the villages of Sokolki, Verkhniye Kigi and Teply Klyuch. Then drive through the village of Suleya, and then after it turn onto the dirt road. After passing through some dachas, you will see a birch grove, which will give way to a forest with pine trees. At every turn I thought that the road was about to end, but it continued. The places are very beautiful.

The village of Staraya Pristan suddenly pops up from behind the transparent trees - several dozen houses are immediately visible against the backdrop of the “Ural hills”. Behind the village there will be a river called Ai, from which the Pier got its name. Today it is difficult to imagine that at least some kind of watercraft other than rafts once sailed here. I was tempted to swim in the river, but the cold weather was not conducive to this. I parked near the old fence and talked with the owners of the house, who turned out to be normal people, and even agreed that they would take me all the way to the Averkin pit.

You can drive a little more there, about a kilometer or a little more, but the road turns either into a forest path or into a deep rut, and if you don’t have an all-terrain vehicle like the Niva, then it’s better to walk.

There is a well-trodden path through the forest to the Averka Pit. Apparently, the attraction is no longer as inaccessible and unvisited as it is written about in enticing articles about the mysticism of this place. Probably because they are written by authors who have never been close to the Averkin pit. You have to climb a hill to get to the cave.

When I saw the pit, I immediately understood why it was called that. This is indeed a large stone pit with a dark hole in the middle. I didn’t go down inside, so I can only describe Averkin’s cave from the outside. The pit is surrounded by forest, and it looks like the beginning of an underground passage lined with stone blocks. The gap is bridged by a log, onto which, as I was told, ropes are attached to get down. There's dampness coming from the hole in the ground. If I weren’t alone, but at least paired with someone and with reliable equipment, maybe I would have risked going down.

You have to go down 20 meters. There are two grottoes in the cave, their floor is strewn with stones, in the first there is a small shallow lake, in the second too, but it appears and disappears. Both grottoes are connected by a narrow passage. The total length of the underground passages of the cave is more than 100 meters. It’s always damp there and the temperature, although low, is positive, and bats love it.

The mystery of the Averkin Cave has been worrying residents of surrounding villages for a hundred years, and now also several thousand travelers throughout the country. The story about the Averkin pit was shown on TV, where they called it one of the most mysterious places in Russia.

Mysteries of Averkin Cave

One of the first mysteries is related to the name of the cave. Why Averkina? I'll start from afar. Cave seclusion was characteristic of Byzantine Orthodoxy, read – Old Believers. After the split, entire villages of Old Believers left the European part of Russia for the taiga wilds of the north, the Urals, and Siberia, where they “kept the ancient rank.” The monks kept themselves apart, setting up hidden hermitages in the vicinity of mountain ranges, in the rocks.

In the books of the Ural local historian Vitaly Chernetsov (1938-2001) about legends Southern Urals There are the following records about the cave elders and the Averkina Pit: “There are many legends about the Averkiev Cave. Already in ancient times it was shrouded in a veil of mythical mystery. Some said that a long time ago counterfeiters associated with E. I. Pugachev lived in it, others claimed that the schismatic Averky was hiding in the cave, by whose name it is still called.”

The elders come together (sketch for the painting). N.K. Roerich. 1898-1902.

The memory of the elder Kerzhak remains in one more geographical name in the same area. Below the confluence of a small stream (Vinokurny Klyuch) into the Ai River, on the same bank of the river, there is a noticeable rock - the Averkin stone.

They say that near this rock Averky fished and went boating with the nuns of the Resurrection Monastery, located on the Istrut River.

This is what they write in the book “ Tourist routes Bashkiria" in 1972: "Some Staropristanino residents heard interesting details about Averkia. The old schismatic brought a lot of gold from Siberia. Between prayers, Averky was engaged in carpentry and made crosses from the cave “flowing stone” - stalactites. By nature he was an active, energetic person, he loved to smoke, fortunately he had money. Therefore, the Staropristanin residents began to call the spring adjacent to the cave Vinokurny. The overly pious old women were dissatisfied with Averky and spread rumors that the lonely old man was a great adulterer and a real devil in Christ.”

Since the elder was in hiding, there are no mentions of him in official sources of the 18th-19th centuries. Well, we will once again return to Chernetsov’s notes, made already in the 20th century: “It’s as if several years ago the Averkiev Cave almost told its secrets to two curious people, but the latter could not bear this discovery. Not far from the cave, they rolled away a large slab and looked inside. After this incident, one of them forever remained a stutterer and crazy, and the second did not want to talk about what he saw under the stone and always remained silent when they tried to ask him about it. So they fled in fear from the secrets of the Averkin pit, burying them with the same slab. No one can specifically confirm whether this happened. However, it should be said that for those who have visited it several times, the cave does not seem so mysterious, although some facts are not entirely explainable. It is unclear, for example, why the cave contains many bones in both grottoes. Who needed to lay a stone staircase with many steps to the far end of the first grotto in complete darkness and dampness at a depth of almost 30 meters?”

More precisely, the researchers discovered a dilapidated stone staircase, a wooden door, a wooden machine of unknown purpose, some boards and bones. Later, hollowed out logs were found in the Averka pit - as if the remains of a water supply system.

The version that is connected with the machine is that the Averkin Pit was the location of a den of counterfeiters in the 18th century - they say, the wooden machine was precisely intended for creating counterfeit money. I haven’t seen this machine myself, but what I bought it for is what I’m selling it for, that is, I’m telling you how I heard a story from a local resident.

Help from the Urals to Pugachev. M.I. Avilov, N.V. Levushin, V.A. Print. 1952

On the Internet, they very often express the opinion that the remnants of Pugachev’s army allegedly hid here until their death. This could explain the presence of a large number of bones. They also write that ancient coins were found in the Averka pit. By the way, it is possible that some of them are still stored in the secret passages of the cave...

In a word, until you go down yourself, you won’t check it.

Averkiev pit, cave. A horizontal karst cavity embedded in a massif of Proterozoic limestones and dolomites.

It is connected to the day surface by a vertical shaft. The cave is located in the Satka district, on the left bank of the river. Ai, three km south of the village of Staraya Pristan (near the so-called White Ford), 300 m from the confluence of the Vinokurny Spring into the Ai River.

The entrance to the cave opens into a steep wooded slope at the bottom of a karst sinkhole. The entrance hole is oval-shaped with dimensions of 2x3 m. It is followed by a vertical shaft 21 m deep with a variable trunk diameter (from 2 to 8 m).

From the bottom of the shaft there is a steep, inclined descent in the form of a stone staircase with steps made of limestone slabs (probably of artificial origin). After 7 m, an inclined corridor leads to horizontal part caves, which are a system of narrow low passages and 2 large grottoes. The first grotto - Cave Hermits - stretches from north to south by 35 m, its width is from 5 to 9 m, the maximum ceiling height is 8 m. From the southern part of the grotto, the 12th passage leads to the 2nd, more extensive grotto - the Musical Drop. It stretches in the north-west direction for 25 m, its width is from 8 to 14 m, the ceiling height is from 4 to 8 m. In the southern wall of the grotto there is a new move, which stretches to the southeast. After 10 m it branches into 3 dead-end passages.

The total length of the passages and grottoes of the cave. 130 m, maximum depth 28 m, width from 1 to 14 m, height from 0.8 to 8 m. The cave has high (up to 98-100%) humidity, the air temperature is always 4-5 ° C.

There are 2 underground reservoirs in the cave: one of them is a small shallow lake with clean spring water; the second appears only in the spring as a result of melt water entering the underground cavity. There are a few stalactites on the vaults of the grottoes. The cave is home to a small colony of bats.

In 1924, residents of the village. During an excursion in the cave, Eilina discovered the remains of a hut, a wooden bench, a stone bed, various iron items, a print from a copper icon, human skeletons and bones of domestic animals. On the floor of the grotto of the Cave Hermits, a large stone cross was laid out of uncemented cobblestones.

The cave got its name from them. Elder Averky, a hermit and schismatic who lived there in the 1870-1880s.

Based on the results of the environmental assessment “Sinegorye” (1986), by decision of the Chelyabinsk Regional Executive Committee in 1987, the Averkiev Pit Cave was declared a natural monument.

A complete speleological survey, topographic survey and description of the cave were carried out in 1971 by speleologists from the Chelyabinsk club “Pluto” and the Satka club “Poisk” (expedition leader S.V. Faizullina).

Book "Mountain heart of the region. Historical, cultural, natural attractions of the Satka region" - Chelyabinsk
Publishing house "Rifey", 1994

You live in Ailino, of course, you know aboutAverkin pit. I have a request for you as a local historian: draw up a plan and make a description of the cave, collect stories about it. — The director of the Satka Museum, Dmitry Ivanovich Vakhrushev, approached me, a young guy who had recently returned from the army, with this proposal. And he explained the request: “You see, people often ask about her, there are a lot of stories floating around.”

Averkin pit from the inside


It was the beginning of April 1966, when I, with my volunteer assistants, tenth-graders Volodya Trapeznikov and Sasha Efremov, began to examine the Averkin pit. When we approached, the edges of the well were covered with frost crystals, and moisture was drawn from the depths. We blocked the gap with two logs, built a flooring from boards, and began lowering a homemade wicker staircase. 10 meters... 12... 15... Only at the 20th meter did our ladder let us know that it had reached something. They secured it and I began to descend.



After about five meters there was a ledge. It became gloomy, so I turned on the flashlight. A light spot of sky was already barely visible overhead. The walls shone a little from the drops of water. A few more minutes passed until my legs felt support. He turned on two flashlights at once and looked around. My assistants came down after me.

There’s a log block ahead,” said Volodya, who had been here before. - Look how many logs and poles there are! How the cave was littered.

Squeezing between slippery, half-rotten trunks, we climbed out into the first grotto.

“Stone stairs,” Volodya said.

Steps made of stone went down. We walked along the stairs to the southern wall of the grotto, turned, and walked along the stone corridor.

The first grotto was large. White icicle stalactites hung from its ceiling. Here and there bats hung upside down on ledges. They wrapped themselves in their membraned wings, like cloaks. The mice were still in their hibernation season. With the arrival of spring, they will wake up and unmistakably find their way to the surface.

Climbing back up the stairs, we examined the western side, where the second part of the grotto led, walked through a low corridor, and came out to an underground lake. The water in it turned out to be very clear and clean. But the grotto narrowed further and turned into a tight hole with two side branches that ended in dead ends and crevices.

On the way back, Volodya and Sasha found the bones of some animals in the first grotto. Upon examination, it was found that among them there were teeth of domestic goats and sheep.


On the way to Averka Pit

For more than a hundred years, the secrets of the Averkin cave-pit have worried the residents of the surrounding villages - Staraya Pristan, Verkhneaiskaya, Ailino, Vanyashkino and Novaya Pristan. The cave is located three kilometers from the Old Pier on the left bank of the Ai River in a wooded mountainside. A little further down the river there is Sandy Island on the so-called White Ford near a stormy riffle. The entrance to the cave is invisible; you need to look for it from the Aya floodplain, 300 m up the Vinokurenny Spring, to which the cave owes its origin. The underground cavity is interesting in its structure. A vertical hole measuring 2 by 3 m opens right in the mountainside, into which you have to descend to a depth of 20 m. In the cave, as already mentioned, there are two quite spacious grottoes. Both have uneven floors, covered with detrital limestone mixed with clay. In the first grotto there is a small shallow lake, in the second too, but it appears only in the spring. Its depth reaches 1.5-2 m, length is about 10 m, width - 6 m. The length of the second grotto is 24 m, width - 12 m, height - 6 m and above. This grotto ends with three dead-end passages 8-15 m long. Both grottoes are connected by a 12-meter manhole. The total length of all cave passages is about 130 m. The greatest depth of the cave cavity is 28 m. The cave is damp and the air humidity is excessive. The temperature is always positive.

It has now been established that the cave was named after the schismatic Kerzhak Averky, who appeared on the shores of Ai over a hundred years ago. He lived in this cave for several years and then suddenly disappeared. This disappearance caused a lot of rumors.

In 1974, the newspaper “Satkinsky Rabochiy” published an ancient Aylin legend called “The Golden Tragedy”, in which the events also concerned the Averkin Cave. Heated debates broke out as to whether this was true or false. Everyone who knew at least something or had heard about the secrets of the cave, and those who knew nothing at all, argued.

But relatively recently we managed to discover interesting material about the cave - Dolgov’s article “Journey to the “Holy Fathers”,” published in the Zlatoust district newspaper “Proletarskaya Mysl” on July 3, 1924. It says, in particular:

“On June 15, the Aili youth decided, and on June 29, carried out an excursion to the Ai River and to the Averkin Cave... The guys created a commission that stocked up on kerosene, candles, ropes, bread and everything necessary for traveling underground.

Arriving at the cave, the youth tied a block to a log above the hole and began to descend along it on a rope. At first it was creepy: they frightened us with snakes and various monsters. The entrance to the cave is a round hole an arshin and a half in diameter, then wider and wider. At the very depths of this natural well there is a lot of different debris piled up: sticks, logs, stones. Without a lantern, without a candle, it is impossible to get further. And at a depth of 10 fathoms the following picture appears: from a narrow stone entrance there is a stone staircase, then a vast stone room... There are boards from the door, a working wooden machine, and a bed lying around. The iron brackets from the door and the tin pipe still remain. There are many bones, including human ones...

Time takes its toll - everything collapsed, was covered with underground stone, sand and clay, but old-timers say that not so long ago (about 50 years) a schismatic hermit lived in this cave. The bread was lowered into the top hole. Sometimes he himself went out, but so that no one would see. He had female acquaintances who sometimes stayed with him “in fasting and prayer” or took a “holy” walk through the forest.”


Ai River Valley


“Averky, who was hiding in this cave, escaped from Siberian exile,” D.S. Chebykin, a former resident of the village of Ailino, wrote to me. - The Kerzhaks also helped him, local residents Pine trees provided food, and he was engaged in carpentry, making pectoral crosses from the cave “flowing stone”. Having visited the cave in 1910-1911, we found a workbench and scraps of iron there. Where and why Averky left the cave is unknown.”

But Elena Mikhailovna Shlyapina, a resident of Ailino (maiden name Sosnina), stated something else:

“He was not a Kerzhak at all. He was a Tatar. His nostrils were torn and one eye was gouged out. He was black-faced and had a thick beard. Averky was a horse thief and he was sent to prison, but he escaped and hid here. The brothers Savva and Joseph Sosnin said that Averky left the cave secretly, wandered through the forests, and was engaged in robbery. He was caught stealing horses, tied up, and handed over to the police. Then he appeared in these places again, the Ailin men saw him near Vinokurny Stream. He was sitting on a rock, he was thin and barefoot. Since then he has disappeared forever."

What to believe? There was, after all, another opinion, according to which the Sosnins greeted the stranger for a reason, not out of kindness or common faith. According to this version, Averky brought gold from Siberia, and this is what attracted the attention of rich men. It was also alleged that the lonely old man was a “damned adulterer”; not only widows, but also nuns from the monastery allegedly visited him in his cave.

Among the surrounding residents there were also those who seriously believed that the gold was hidden by Averky in secret passage, since there was a passage, and after the disappearance of this strange man it turned out to be walled up. Searches treasured treasure, it seems, they have been doing this for a long time, but without success. Even the author of this essay found a bent crowbar and a rusty shovel in the cave. Isn't this evidence of searches? Nowadays, of course, no one is looking for gold anymore, but speleologists and tourists have tried to find the buried passage more than once.

So, as we see, everything is the same - rumors, assumptions. Then, in July 1924, a teacher, a doctor, even “a cell of the RCP, a sex offender” visited the cave, not to mention Komsomol members. But, as the newspaper admits, “the main goal of the excursion, the study of stalactites, was not achieved, since everyone became interested in the internal structure of underground housing.”

So what emerged from this whole story? It is clear that Averky is not a fictitious person, he lived in a cave alone, worked there, probably hid from the authorities, he was supported by the Sosnins, and then for some reason he disappeared. All this happened at the end of the last century. This is the story of a hermit, whom someone even hastened to call “the Ural Rasputin.”

Already in the early 90s, students from school No. 13 began cleaning the entrance well of the Averkiev Yama cave. The entrance well, as mentioned, is littered with tree trunks. But the guys were not only pursuing an environmental goal. The bottom of the entrance well is under a flooring made of logs, branches, earth, and among the boards there are forged nails; they don’t make those anymore. And somehow they pulled out a log with a hollowed out core, which clearly served as a gutter for water drainage. And who knows what else will be discovered there?

As an introduction, I will give two excerpts of evidence about the cave.

A. V. Lopatin, A. A. Murzagulov, “Tourist routes of Bashkiria” (Moscow, 1972): “To the north of the village of Suleya, near the village of Ailino, there is the Ailinskaya cave, known among the local population as “Averkin’s pit” . This cave looks like a deep well (about 25 m). It has been almost unexplored, but, according to various reports, it contains grottoes and underground lakes. Visiting it is dangerous, as the uneven walls of the well can easily cut the rope.” G. N. Matyushin, “The Jasper Belt of the Urals” (Moscow, 1977): “Leaving Zlatoust, one cannot help but pay attention to the picturesque rocks and mountains with poetic names: Uvildy - “ Golden Mountain", Misyash - "Date Place", Taganay - "Moon Stand", etc. These places are covered in legends and tales. There are especially many stories about treasures, and people still sometimes try to look for them in the vicinity of Zlatoust and Satka. It should be noted that treasure hunting in the Urals was widespread. This was explained by the real opportunity to find gold nuggets, precious stones and rare metals. On the night of Ivan Kupala, young people went to the mountains to look for a fern flower, they looked for a candle lit at the site of a treasure, snake, etc. The caves, “Averkin Pit” and other places gave rise to many rumors. There are many such places near the city of Kusa, which is 15 kilometers north of Zlatoust between Zlatoust and Satka.”

The Averkin pit has been known for a long time. In 1771, she was visited by Academician I. I. Lepekhin, author of the monograph “Daily Notes of a Travel to Various Provinces of the Russian State” (St. Petersburg, 1785). This fact is confirmed by the article by G. A. Maksimovich “Karst mines and wells of the Urals” (“Caves”, issue 7-8, Perm, 1969).

There are many legends about the Averkiev Cave (Averkin Pit). Already in ancient times it was shrouded in a veil of some kind of mythical mystery. Some said that a long time ago counterfeiters associated with E.I. Pugachev lived in it, others claimed that the schismatic Averky was hiding in the cave, by whose name it is still called. It was as if several years ago the Averkiev Cave almost revealed its secrets to two curious people, but the latter could not bear this discovery. Not far from the cave, they rolled away a large slab and looked inside. After this incident, one of them forever remained a stutterer and crazy, and the second did not want to talk about what he saw under the stone and always remained silent when they tried to ask him about it. So they fled in fear from the secrets of the Averkin pit, burying them with the same slab. No one can specifically confirm whether this happened. However, it should be said that for those who have visited it several times, the cave does not seem so mysterious, although some facts are not entirely explainable. It is not clear, for example, why the cave contains many bones in both grottoes. Who needed to lay a stone staircase with many steps to the far end of the first grotto in complete darkness and dampness at a depth of almost 30 meters? For more than a hundred years, the secrets of the Averkin Pit have attracted the attention of residents of the surrounding villages and villages - Staraya Pristan, Verkhneaiskaya, Ailino, Vanyashkino and Novaya Pristan. Has anyone tried to lift the veil over the intriguing mysteries of dark, damp dungeons? Undoubtedly. But the secrets remain not fully revealed, although some details cave history Still, things have cleared up a little.

The cave is located 3 km from the village. Staraya Pristan, on the left bank of the river. Ai, on the wooded slope of the mountain, about 300 m from the so-called Vinokurny spring, to which the Averkin pit owes its origin. The underground cavity is interesting in its structure. A vertical hole measuring 2 by 3 meters opens right in the mountainside, into which you have to descend to a depth of 20 m. The cave has two spacious grottoes. Both have uneven floors filled with coarse clastic limestone and dolomite mixed with clay. In the first grotto there is a small shallow lake with clean spring water. It lasts all year round. In the second grotto, the lake appears only in spring. Its depth reaches 1.5-2 m, the ceiling height is 6 meters or more. This grotto ends in three dead-end passages ranging from 8 to 15 m long. Both grottoes are connected by a 12-meter manhole. The total length of all cave passages is 130 m. The greatest depth of the cave cavity is 28 m. The cave is damp. In some places there is heavy drip from the ceilings, and in some places small streams of water run along the stone walls. Air humidity is excessive. The temperature is always positive.

It has now been established that the cave was named after the dissenter-Kerzhak Averky (Averka), who appeared on the shores of Ai over a hundred years ago (about 1874). Averky lived in this cave for several years, and then suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared. His mysterious disappearance gave rise to many rumors, guesses, and legends. Why was such increased attention paid to him? The author of this article has been researching the cave and its history for many years. Numerous legends and rumors interested me, forced me to visit it several times and check it carefully. At the same time, I learned that a resident of the village had previously been interested in the history of the cave. Ailino D.S. Chebykin, who later left for Beloretsk. I wrote him a letter. This is what he answered me: “No miracles happened in the cave. Averky lived there, hiding from the Orthodox faith and escaping from Siberian exile. He was supported by former residents of Ailino - Joseph Sosnin and his brothers. They were Kerzhaks. Averky introduced himself to them as a Kerzhak. The pine trees provided him with food, and he was engaged in carpentry and made pectoral crosses from the cave “flowing stone”. When I was at school in 1910-1911, we went on an excursion to the cave, brought icicles of “flowing stone” and a print from a copper icon. Inside the cave we found a workbench and scraps of iron. There, inside the cave, there is a spring from which flows cold water. No one knows when Averky left the cave, and his breadwinners, the Sosnins, also didn’t know where he went. But it was not possible to climb out of the cave alone through the gorge. The cave probably had an exit somewhere near Aya. There, inside the descent, there must be a hole that has become cluttered over time. It needs to be excavated. It's about the first ledge." But the now deceased resident of Ailino, Elena Mikhailovna (Akulina) Shlyapina (nee Sosnina), granddaughter of Savva Sosnin (brother of Joseph Sosnin), spoke about Averkia like this:

He was not a Kerzhak at all. He was a Tatar. His nostrils were torn, and one eye was completely gouged out. He had a dark complexion and a thick, trimmed beard. Averky was involved in horse stealing and was sent to prison, but escaped and hid behind Ay. Yes, Joseph Sosnin was his patron. Savva Sosnin also did not hide the fact that he was hiding in a cave. He later said that Averky lost control, left the cave secretly, wandered through the forests, and was engaged in robberies. He was captured while stealing Yagunov's horses, tied up and handed over to the police.

Averky appeared in our area once again. Ailinsky men saw him near Vinokurny Spring. He was sitting on the rocks, sad, thin, poorly dressed, almost barefoot. And then Averky disappeared. There were no more rumors about him. Times changed uncontrollably, but people did not forget the cave. There were various rumors and rumors about her. There were also fictions and conjectures. So, for example, in 1972, A. I. Lazarev’s book “Poetic Chronicle of the Factories of the Urals” was published in Chelyabinsk. This folklore publication contains dubious information about the Averkiyev Cave: “Many rumors were generated by the “Averkina Pit” in the Satkinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region, in which the elder Averky allegedly lived, teaching the people how to deal with breeders. (An ethnographic expedition of the ChSPI in 1965 examined this pit - a natural failure in the rock 35 m deep. At the bottom a small lake with clean water was found, next to it was a stone bed on which a human skeleton lay).”

Some Staropristanino residents heard interesting details about Averkia. The rich people of Aili Sosnina greeted him not by chance, not out of their hearts, not out of Christian kindness, but out of their own greedy motives. The thing turned out to be that the old schismatic brought a lot of gold from Siberia. This precious metal became a secret bait for wealthy Kerzhak millers, who settled it in the cave. Between prayers, Averky was engaged in carpentry and made crosses from the cave “flowing stone” - stalactites. By nature he was an active, energetic person, he loved to smoke, fortunately he had money. Therefore, the Staropristanin and Aili people began to call the spring adjacent to the cave Vinokurny. The overly devout old women were dissatisfied with Averky and spread rumors that the lonely old man was a “great adulterer” and “a real devil in Christ,” of which there were not so many in those religious times in the great and holy Rus'. It was rumored that unmarried women, free nuns and “cursed girls” secretly visited Averky in the cave. ...By the way, the cave still excites people with its unsolved secrets and surprises. Until recently, there was talk that there were not two large grottoes in it, but as many as eight. Someone found an ancient icon.

In 1974 to gas. “The Satka Worker” published an ancient Aylin legend called “The Golden Tragedy”, in which the events described also concerned the Averkin pit. The author of this article was me. Heated debates erupted as to whether this was true or false. Everyone who knew at least something or even heard about the underground secrets of the cave, and those who knew nothing at all, argued. For example, a resident of Ailino, Zinaida Illarionovna Bonina (Sosnina in her childhood), argued that the story associated with the Averkin pit was presented basically correctly. Others refuted it and insisted that everything was wrong. The disputes reached the Kurgan region and interested the former Aili resident P. Nakoryakov. In his letter to the Aili librarian and local historian Valentina Ivanovna Kozhevnikova, he expressed his opinion about the “Golden Tragedy”. The letter deserves attention, and some of its excerpts shed additional light on the personality of Elder Averky himself: “Finally, I found a free minute to write you a letter and thank you for sending clippings from the newspaper “Satkinsky Rabochiy” about the “Golden Tragedy.” On one of my trips to Zlatoust, they told me something about these “notes of a local historian” that I wanted to check if it was true. And when, with your help, I read these notes myself, I did not find much of what I heard in conversations. I was once again convinced that “popular rumor is rich in inventions.” I even heard that a man was walled up in a cave and was well preserved after lying there for hundreds of years. I agree that one can argue about the article by local historian V. Chernetsov. Judging by his notes, this is not such an ancient legend, because the history of this legend dates back to the days of collectivization, even to the days of the Great Patriotic War, i.e. almost to this day. The size of the cave is also exaggerated. I've been there several times. Talk about the covered staircase, as well as about the second lower exit from the cave, remains just talk. If there really was a staircase, it would have been preserved or signs of it would have remained. True, inside the cave, in its second half, two smooth stone platforms are visible on the floor. They are the ones who say that the beginning of the stairs is there. We attempted to dig deeper, but found no signs of a ladder. Then we came to the conclusion that these platforms, like the beginning of a staircase, served for the occupant: the lower one for sitting, the upper one for a table.

With the youth of Ailino, we made trips to this cave in 1923 and 1924. In 1926, I came with a group of young workers from the tool shop of the Zlatoust Mechanical Plant. In 1936 I was with a group of Zlatoust hunters. When the very first excursion was organized in the twenties, there was talk that some counterfeiter Averka lived in this cave, after whom it began to be called. There is a book that describes the deeds of a counterfeiter. But I couldn’t find such a book. After our first campaign, a note was published in the Zlatoust newspaper “Proletarskaya Mysl”. It was written by the secretary of the Aylin party organization, Comrade. Dolgov, the main inspirer of the study of the Averkin Pit. Later I heard several different legends about Averkin Cave. I remember well the legend I heard, when the counterfeiter Averka called himself a “preacher of God’s truth,” and the nuns of the Edinoverie monastery had secret connections with him. But most of all I liked the legend about the great love of the best Verkhneaya beauty for Averka. I also remember other legends. Oh, how I want to visit Ailino! With respect, former Ailynian P. Nakoryakov. June 25, 1974.”

One of the legends was remembered and restored. She talks about the ardent love of the poor Upper Ai girl Katya for Averka. But Averka did not want to marry the pregnant beauty, citing that he carries within himself a “divine rank,” which, they say, prohibits him from entering into marriage. Katya became sad, and then found out that Averka met with the prodigal nuns of the Resurrection Monastery and led forest round dances with them. The girl became completely upset, disappointed, hated Averka, and soon, out of love, jealousy and betrayal, she “killed herself” - she drowned herself in one of the Ai pools. Since then, this dark pool began to be called “Katya’s Pit” in memory of the beauty who passed away untimely. It is located near the right bank of the Ai River, not far from the former Verkhneai state farm garden and forge. After Katya's death, they began to say that a mermaid had settled in the pool - a water girl with a fish tail. It was as if the Upper Aai beauty Katya, whom she was very similar to, had turned into a mermaid (a charming nymph). Sometimes she showed herself to people. The mermaid was seen reclining on the shore. Katya's hair grew long, which she carefully and slowly combed with a bone comb.

The story of the vicissitudes of Katya's pit continues today. There lived in the village of Ailino a young single man or guy, Petya Pashkov. He, a sinner, loved to drink, and plenty of it at that. P. Pashkov was an avid fisherman. In the spring of 1987, P. Pashkov and his friend Boris Biserov went fishing on the Ai River and stopped at Katya’s pit. Suddenly, Petya saw a strange, beautiful fish in the pool, which looked at him with a bewitching girlish smile.

Look, the fish is laughing! - Petya laughed and pointed his finger at her to his comrade B. Biserov.

And then the half-drunk P. Pashkov somehow too quickly and quickly undressed to his underwear and dived into the cold spring water. B. Biserov did not have time to stop him. Soon bubbles began to appear from Petya. He drowned, freezing in the icy April water.

Later, B. Biserov said that he personally did not see any laughing fish. Most likely, Petya was pushed into the water by the “hops” or some other ghostly hairy chimeras, and the charming mermaid Katya lured him into their underwater palaces, and then dragged him by force. Petya Pashkov's body was buried at the Aylinsky cemetery, but his soul remained at the bottom of Katya's pit, where a lonely mermaid with a fish tail and a girl's face still lives. The people of Verkhneai bitterly say that even today, in the cold twilight of the pool, among the tight spiral-shaped whirlpools, the sinful and unhappy soul of the single Ailinsky guy Petya Pashkov rushes about, asking for freedom, into the light, among people, but is unable to do it.

The memory of Averkia remains in one more geographical name. Below the confluence of the Vinokurny Spring into the Ai, on the same left bank of the river, the powerful limestone rock “Averkin Stone” rises. Near this rock, Averky usually fished, met with women, had secret conversations with them, and rode on a boat with the nuns of the Resurrection Edinoverie Monastery. Otherwise, the Averkin stone is called the Deserter Stone, since deserters - the “Greens” - were hiding near it. The “Greens” were peasant partisan detachments that operated during the Civil War. They led a forest life. Hence the name. The “Greens” fought both against the Whites and against the Red Army, declaring themselves supporters of democracy. According to the stories of the old-timers of Aili, “green” deserters were really “found” in the area of ​​Averkina Yama, Vinokurny Klyuch and this section of the left bank of the Ay. For this reason, the stone (rock) was called Deserter. Deserters often visited Averkin's pit, especially during rains and severe cold.

P. Nakryakov’s letter mentioned a book about the affairs of a counterfeiter. There really is such a book. This is one of the stories by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. Unfortunately, I didn't remember the title of the story. It describes the actions of one escaped convict. The events took place in the Middle Urals and had nothing to do with the Satka region.

Relatively recently, I discovered new interesting material about the Averkiev Cave - Dolgov’s article “Journey to the (Holy Fathers)”, published in the Zlatoust district newspaper “Proletarskaya Mysl” for July 3, 1924. This is what it says:

“The Aili youth decided on June 15, and on the 29th carried out an excursion to the river. Oh, and to Averkin’s cave.

This cave is located 6 versts from Ailino, on the left bank of the Ay in the mountains. The descent into the cave is vertical, 10 fathoms deep.

The guys created an excursion commission, which stocked up on kerosene, matches, ropes, bread and everything necessary for traveling underground. Arriving at the cave, the youth tied a block to a log above the hole and began to descend along it on a rope.

At first it was creepy: they frightened us with snakes and various monsters. The entrance to the cave is a round hole an arshin and a half in diameter, then wider and wider.

At the very depths of this natural well there is a lot of different debris piled up: sticks, logs and stones. Without a lantern, without a candle, it is impossible to get further. But then some “dared souls” were found.

They tied them to a rope with a belt, made a seat, gave them a lantern and an ax and lowered them down. The brave souls went into the depths and their voices were not heard.

And at a depth of about 10 fathoms the following picture appears: from a narrow stone entrance there is a stone staircase, then a vast stone room in which the remains of a hut are preserved.

There are boards from the door, a working wooden machine, and a stone bed lying around here. Iron brackets from the door and a tin pipe are still preserved. There are many different bones, some of them are human.

Time takes its toll - everything collapsed, was covered with underground stone, sand and clay, but old-timers say that not so long ago (about 50 years) a schismatic hermit lived in this cave.

The bread was lowered into the top hole. Sometimes he himself went out, but so that no one would see.

He had female acquaintances who stayed with him “in fasting and prayer,” and sometimes went boating or took a “holy walk” through the forest. They say that after the death of “Averka’s father,” counterfeiters lived there, and not so long ago, “greenies” and deserters were hiding there.

Judging by the recesses inside the cave, which are now blocked and covered with silt, then we can assume further passages and exits. But in order to excavate, it is necessary to equip a special expedition with picks and shovels. After fiddling around all day and seeing all the “sights,” the young people went outside. About 20 people came down.

A doctor, a teacher, an agronomist, a RCP cell, a women's department and young people went to the cave. the main objective excursions - the study of stalactites was not achieved, since everyone was interested in the internal structure of underground housing."

Interesting article! There is something for current Satka speleologists to think about. And another modern mystery.

Around 1978-1980, some Suleinsky guy settled near the Averka pit - he looked like an idiot or slightly crazy. He lived there for about three years. He built a half-dugout or hut-shaped hut near the spring, and started a small vegetable garden where he grew potatoes. But this little man was not so simple, but a special kind of “beetle”, which, apparently, “went through fire and water and copper pipes.” Tourists noticed that he showed a certain interest in the cave. They found overturned stones and some excavations. Probably, the Sulein “beetle” knew something about the secrets of the Averkin pit. It is possible that he was looking for cave gold. Otherwise, why would he need forest or mountain solitude?! The police drew attention to the man’s activities and pushed him out of the Ai shores. From this episode we can conclude that the secrets of the cave are still waiting to be solved.

Drops of water knock monotonously and echoingly in the void, hitting the cold slabs and counting down endless time. The shadows of past events hover invisibly in the pitch darkness, but the mysteries remain unsolved to the end. The cave still remains mysterious in many ways, just as the underground world of a dead stone is mysterious and fantastic.

Seems. Satka speleologists again became interested in the Averka pit. October 12, 1991 to gas. “Satkinsky worker appeared an article by A. Kazanovsky entitled “Again Averkiev Pit.” I quote it without abbreviation:

“Students of school No. 13 from the section of young speleologists again took up cleaning the entrance well of the Averkiev Pit cave.” The entrance well is littered with tree trunks that would-be tourists throw there. But the guys are pursuing not only an environmental goal. The bottom of the entrance well is under a flooring of logs, branches and earth; among the logs there are those knocked down with forged nails; such nails are not made now. A log with a hollowed out core was recently removed, apparently serving as a trench for water drainage. All this suggests that Averky’s hut (or some kind of flooring) was located directly in the well. There will be more than one cleaning expedition to the cave. But even if we don't add anything new to existing legend, we will simply make this cave safer for speleologists to visit, since protruding trunks and branches have already caused injury once, and this should not happen. A. Kazanovsky. Section Head."

 

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