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One of the world enigmas are ghost towns that vanished from the surface of the globe either due to natural cataclysms or by choice of people. There are such mysterious traces of vanished towns in Russia as well.
Mologa Town
The harrowing story of this town makes one think about the cruelty and short-sightedness of the human being. This paradise-like city with houses, church cupolas and centuries-old history was flooded at the discretion of people. Nowadays, the remains of the ghost town can be seen above water surface during the low tide.
In the fall of 1935 the construction of Rybinsk and Uglich water-engineering systems was started. Building the hydroelectric power station meant constructing dams and flooding hectares of land. The authorities wanted to arrange one of the biggest man-made seas, having damming out Rivers Sheksna and Volga.
Administration started to prepare people for resettlement long before the beginning of construction, but nobody believed that it was possible. The locals went on living their normal life.
Deforestation was started and old churches were blown up. According to eyewitnesses, these silent bystanders resisted such barbarity in their own way. People were laid under the necessity of leaving their houses. Some of them took their house down to beams, enumerated each of them to make it easier to assemble them and transported them by dray carts. Those who were somewhat late had to float the timber.
On April 14 the rivers Sheksna, Volga and Mologa were dammed and flooded the lands.
There were rumours about victims: 294 people who did not want to leave native places went to the length of mass suicide! They allegedly chained themselves to their houses and were flooded. Nobody can say for sure now, whether it is true or not. However, the memories of Mologa dwellers say nothing about such an act of resistance to the Soviet power.
The main argument discrediting the myth about suicidal citizens is that it was a very long process of flooding: it took six years for Mologa to disappear under the water. After all, the town and its vicinities were flooded just a couple of centimeters per month. There was no Great Flood and could not be.
Thus, Mologa became a ghost town. About 800 more settlements faced the same. Uglich suffered too, whereas Kalyazin town had to sacrifice half of its land to the flooded water. Until now the belltower St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kalyazin rises above water as a symbol of human cruelty.
As is wont in such cases there is mysticism about it. They say that the part of the water reservoir covering the ancient town is a restless place. All of a sudden, a real storm can start there. Even boating in nice weather there leaves unpleasant feeling.
Some people attribute these burdensome impressions to that fact that the water reservoir is literally based on bones of the political prisoners of GULAG. According to the official documents 50 000 prisoners took part in construction works, and mortality rate was very high among them.
Descendants of Mologa dwellers revere the memory of the flooded town. Every second Saturday of August they go by motor ship to the middle of the water reservoir, where their beautiful town once stood. They throw flowers into water, listen to stories about the history of Mologa, and travel down memory line.
Author: Vera Ivanova
