For over five hundred years, legends and songs have been composed on the banks of the Don and its tributary, the Voronezh River, about the mysterious robber Kudeyar, about his countless treasures buried in numerous caves and underground hiding places. However, information about Kudeyar is quite contradictory and vague. Some sources speak of him as a successful robber, others as a disgraced boyar who was forced to hide from the wrath of the sovereign, and others as a relative of the tsar or even the brother of Ivan the Terrible himself.
As the leader of a gang of robbers, Kudeyar organized and participated in the robberies of rich convoys on the road leading from Muscovy to the Golden Horde. This happened during the time of Ivan the Terrible. The treasures stolen by the lucky robbers are still being sought in the Tula, Saratov, Voronezh provinces, as well as near Kiev, in the Bryansk region.
The most frequently considered version of the mystery of Kudeyar's birth is the following. In 1525, the ruling Moscow prince Vasily Ivanovich, not having waited for an heir from his beloved wife Solomonia, sent his wife to the Suzdal monastery. And he himself married Elena Glinskaya. Three years later, the royal couple had a son – the future Ivan the Terrible.
However, the exiled to a monastery, the former wife of the Grand Duke, gave birth to a boy. They named him Georgy. No one would probably have been interested in this fact, if the people had not said that this Georgy later became the legendary robber Kudeyar (in slang: kud is reprisal, yar is rage, precipice). The famous Russian writer, poet, and historian Nikolai Karamzin in his famous book “History of the Russian State” believed that Kudeyar was a fictitious historical character. But he could have been wrong.
There is a legend that says that for several years before Kudeyar was born, there were constant droughts in the principality, which caused hunger and suffering for the people. During the birth, a witch came to Solomonia and said: “You have given birth to a great warrior and he will become a formidable eagle, but without wings. He will have both intelligence and courage, but he will not have the sovereign's power, since it will end up in the hands of his half-brother.” Solomonia was very afraid for her son and asked the witch for advice on how to save the child's life. Soon the sovereign's people arrived at the monastery, who organized an investigation into the fact of the birth of a child by the sovereign's former wife. Soon the people were told that the child had suddenly died, but a rumor spread through the cities and villages that instead of a boy, a wooden doll lay in the grave. And the baby was taken away and hidden in the remote Russian forests near Volokolamsk, sent to be trained by a witch.
One day, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich went on his favorite hunt with dogs. And lo and behold, he visited Volokolamsk this time. During the pursuit of prey, the prince's horse suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and stamped its hoof. The rider looked around and saw a small boy nearby. Although the baby was small, his wise and piercing gaze surprised and frightened the prince. The prince ordered the boy to approach him, but he quickly turned around and disappeared into the forest thicket. The ruler became angry and ordered that the boy be found. But no matter how hard the servants tried, they never found the boy. And although they were experienced hunters, they did not find a trace of the boy, nor a broken branch that marked the fugitive's path, not even the birds noted his run with their cries. Only the wooden idol was seen by the prince's servants in the wilderness. Out of anger and frustration they chopped it up and returned to the owner with nothing. The prince himself suddenly felt a strong pain in his leg and ordered to go quickly to the Joseph Monastery, where he hoped to receive help and relieve the pain. But despite the efforts of the nuns, Vasily Ivanovich's leg continued to hurt until his death in 1533.
It became clear from legends that there was a mystical and mysterious connection between Kudeyar and Ivan the Terrible. There is information that they met secretly. After their conversation, Kudeyar left the forests near Moscow for the Don. Several times, Ivan the Terrible ordered the pursuit of Kudeyar to be stopped, which allowed the robber and his gang to escape alive and unharmed. One of the tsar's oprichniks said that he passed a note from the sovereign to the robber Kudeyar. To do this, he had to go to the Wild Field, which was located between the Don, Oka, a tributary of the Dnieper and Desna. And more than once he brought Kudeyar's answer to the tsar. But this oprichnik did not blab the tsar's secrets for long. By order of Ivan the Terrible, his tongue and ears were cut off so that he would not blab too much. From then on, an unspoken rule was in effect: no one was allowed to talk about Kudiyar, or even remember him.
Ozhegov's dictionary mentions “thief-towns”. There were many of them in Rus'. Kudiyar had his own thief-town (and most likely, more than one!). No stranger could get into it, secret paths led to the town, which only the ataman himself and his closest comrades knew about. In these towns, robbers kept stolen treasures, hid from pursuit, feasted, divided the spoils and rested.
After the death of Ivan the Terrible, Ataman Kudiyar decided to become a monk to atone for his sins for the rest of his life and give his wealth to the monastery. But the unexpected happened – Kudiyar forgot where he buried his treasures. After all, he did not keep any records of where his gold and silver were.
There are different rumors about the last years of Kudeyar's life. According to some, he spent them in one of the monasteries in Ukraine. According to others, he turned into a beggar and went in search of his 18 treasures. The formidable ataman of robbers wandered under different names, but most often, he introduced himself as George. Many then said that they often saw how in any weather an old ragamuffin wandered through swamps, forests, cities, asking everyone he met about the location of the thieves' towns. Only a few people recognized the former dashing ataman Kudeyar in the beggar.
Kudeyar's treasures still haunt treasure hunters. They are looking for the ataman's wealth in the Astrakhan floodplains, in the Saratov region, near Kiev, near Shatura, in the Don sands, in Krylatskoye in Moscow, and on Losiny Island. In these places, in all likelihood, there were thieves' towns. But there is a legend: it says that no one will be able to get to the treasures, since they are guarded by the same magical wooden doll that was placed in the coffin instead of the baby in the monastery. Rumor has it that the curse is very strong – treasure hunters lose their memory and become beggars and vagabonds.
The name of the famous robber Kudeyar is associated with the names of many geographical locations. There are about a hundred Kudeyar towns, where, according to legend, the ataman's treasures are buried. In the Lipetsk region there is “Kudeyarov Log” – this is a very secluded place and could well have been a robbery town. In the same Lipetsk region there is a mountain called Black Yar. On it there is a strange blue stone. According to legend, it was in this place that Kudeyar's fortress was located. There is also a legend associated with it. They say that Kudeyar had his closest friends-robbers Boldir and Anna. Kudeyar hid with them on the Don, robbing rich merchant caravans. The Don Cossacks were angry with Kudeyar. First, they destroyed the camp of Anna and Boldir, and then attacked Kudeyar's headquarters. But Kudeyar's fortress was impregnable, and then the Cossacks simply set it on fire from all sides. Then Kudeyar buried his treasure and placed his horse over it, turning it into stone. He did not manage to escape far, the Cossacks caught him, chained him and threw him into the Don.
Popular rumor says that in the Bryansk forests there are stones under which Kudeyar's treasures are hidden. Lights flare up over these stones at night, and twice a week at midnight the plaintive cry of a baby is heard over them.
Time has shown that no mystical stories connected with the search for Kudeyar's treasures can stop treasure hunters. The results are still insignificant: in August 1893, two coins found in Kudeyarova Gora arrived at the Saratov Museum. Much later, a more significant treasure was found there – about 12 buckets of copper coins from the time of Kudeyar. Perhaps these finds serve as a catalyst for the treasure hunters' continued interest in searching for the treasures of the robber Kudeyar. Interestingly, to this day, none of the historians can say anything reliable about the last years of the famous chieftain's life. Only legends speak of the robber's repentance and the construction of a church with a golden iconostasis, the bells of which were made of silver. And that until his death, Kudeyar atoned for his numerous grave sins.
