Ghost. Russia

Once I was in Nizhny Tagil on official business, and since I love rare books, one evening I looked into the oldest city library. I was interested to find out if there is a poem "Aurora" in their collection, written in the 1920s by a young poet G.V. Maslov.

...When the library employee heard the name of the author and the title of the poem, her face twitched.

- I knew that an unpleasant event was going to happen today… I had a dream... no, I won't give you this book… I don't want you to become another victim… It's enough that IT will definitely appear today," the pale woman muttered.

My face, apparently, expressed such deep bewilderment that the employee found the strength to explain herself:

- Do you know who the poem is dedicated to?

- Yes, to Aurora Karlovna Karamzina. Pushkin knew her, Karl Bryullov painted her portrait.

- Have you heard what nickname her contemporaries gave her?

- no.

- She was called "deadly beauty".

- So what?

- And the fact that it's true: Aurora Karlovna sowed death everywhere...if you want, take me home. It's time to close the library, especially since IT will certainly appear today…

- My God, who is it?

- The ghost of Aurora Karlovna. I noticed that if readers ask for a poem by Maslov, then in the evening of that day, a ghost necessarily walks through the corridors of the library and cries bitterly.

- I don't believe it.

- It's your business… And I also know that if I give out this book, the person who read it dies after a while. There have already been five cases.

...The librarian closed the reading room, and we found ourselves on the street. It was already dark, melancholy was blowing from every house, a fragile November snowball was floating in the air – the most suitable atmosphere for scary fairy tales. However, are there any fairy tales? With every word my companion said, I believed more and more what she was saying.

... At the beginning of the XIX century, the place of the governor of Vyborg was occupied by a Swede named Schernval von Wallen. He had two daughters, Aurora and Emilia, both of amazing beauty. The eldest, Aurora, began to appear in the world in 1824, for the first time it happened in Helsingfors, now Helsinki.

The young Aurora Shernval had many admirers, but two fell in love with her especially ardently – the famous poet Yevgeny Baratynsky and his friend Alexander Mukhanov. Aurora reciprocated the passionate Mukhanov, but the father wanted to marry his daughter to a Swedish nobleman. No matter how Aurora resisted, the wedding day was set. And... on the eve of the wedding, the groom died.

Death shocked Aurora: she blamed herself for his death, it seemed to the girl that it was her resistance to marriage that caused his departure. It was as if fate had heeded her plea and delivered her from the unloved-in such a terrible way.

Aurora decided not to get married at all – to punish herself for sin. But Alexander Mukhanov was persistent, and in 1834 Aurora agreed to become his wife, especially since the feeling for this man lived in her heart in spite of everything.

A few days before the wedding, Mukhanov died.

Two years later, Pavel Nikolaevich Demidov, a fabulously rich entrepreneur, made an offer to Aurora Karlovna. She said yes.

Here it is, happiness! Aurora Demidova shone like a star of the first magnitude in the salons of St. Petersburg. Dark brown hair, blue eyes - a beauty! Soon the Demidov couple had a son, Pavel Pavlovich. But... 4 years later Pavel Nikolaevich died.

6 years later, in 1846, Andrei Karamzin, the eldest son of the famous historian, made an offer to Aurora Karlovna. He confessed that he had loved her for a long time, for 10 years - passionately and hopelessly. He did not believe any premonitions and fatal coincidences. His love will conquer death! And again Aurora goes down the aisle.

This time she was granted as much as 8 years of peace. However, fate did not give up – she only gave a break to hit the harder. In 1854, Andrei Karamzin tragically died at the beginning of the Crimean campaign.

The widow's grief was boundless: she never recovered from this misfortune until her death. In Florence, where she and Andrey Nikolaevich spent many happy days, Aurora Karlovna put up a chapel surrounded by arches that rest on elegant columns of precious silver marble. In Nizhny Tagil, she also erected a monument to her last love…

And for almost half a century she lived alone, shut away from the world, in sorrow for the departed, for those whom her favor had brought to the grave. Aurora died in Helsingfors at the beginning of the XX century.

But the fatal "count" of deaths did not end there. The image of the legendary beauty continued to excite the imagination of descendants. So, the poet Maslov, famous at the time, was captivated by the image of the "deadly beauty" and dedicated the poem "Aurora" to her. The day when he gave the manuscript to the press was his last. Maslov died suddenly…

"You know the rest," the librarian sighed. - Five took Maslov's poem in the library – and all died. And on those days when they ask for this book, the ghost of Aurora wanders the corridors of our library.

- But why, why did the unfortunate beauty, who, as I understood, had a kind heart, cause so many deaths?! I exclaimed.

- Damn it!

"What curse?"

- According to family legend, there was a terrible omen at the birth of Aurora. The birth started unexpectedly, a doctor was sent for, but the woman in labor could not wait for him, and she needed help. And then a stranger knocked on the door, introduced herself as a midwife and offered her services. At another moment, Karl Schernval would certainly have refused her: the guest was too ugly. But there was no choice - and the strange midwife was taken to the woman in labor. However, Mrs. Schernval flatly refused the uninvited assistant. When she saw the terrible old woman, she shrank into the pillows in horror and exclaimed: "Take her away – she smells of death!". The guest snarled: "Death?! So let death stay with you! You will give birth to a daughter at dawn, she will be of unwritten beauty, but everyone who loves her will be in the grave. To marry her is like kissing death!" And rushed out of the house.

Aurora was born early in the morning. The witch's prediction was hidden from her all her life, and in the governor's house they did not believe in scary fairy tales. However, the event itself left such a heavy mark on Mrs. Schernval's soul that she described it in her diary and often returned her thoughts to that fateful night.

Aurora found and read these diaries too late – the family archive fell into her hands after the death of Karamzin, in those days when she erected a monument to him in Nizhny Tagil…

And when moving from Tagil to Helsingfors, the diary disappeared. Aurora kept hoping that he stayed in Nizhny Tagil, sent to look for him, but in vain. Our library has a rich historical archive, huge collections of manuscripts. Apparently, the ghost of Aurora Karamzina is still trying to find her mother's diary…