A ghost was plaguing the household of Father Ioann Solov'ev, the parish priest of the tiny hamlet of Lychentsy, in November 1900...floating objects, strange fires, disembodied voices, fleshy masses materialising in beds. Exorcisms, guards, the police...nothing seemed to work.
In this special Halloween episode, we look at other haunted house stories from the late Russian Empire, explaining their prominence and popularity with reference to both popular demonology and the new craze for spiritualism and the occult sweeping urban populations.
Source
J. Mannherz, Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia (DeKalb: NIU Press, 2012)
Voice credit
Ekaterina Boltaeva as the voice of Marfa Larionova
The colour photographs of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii fascinated the imperial public of the early 20th century, persuading Emperor Nicholas II to sponsor expeditions across the...
The 1804/1818 song collection of Kirsha Danilov introduced the Russian reading public, in many ways for the first time, to the people's immensely rich...
As is well known, Grigorii Rasputin wielded a considerable and scandalous level of influence over Tsar Nicholas II. What is less well known is...
