A Visitor from Beyond: Ghost Stories from Russian Folklore
"My husband wanted to go to the mill on Easter, and I told him: ‘Wait, don’t go on a holy day.’ At first he listened, but then he changed his mind. Came back and said, ‘I must be the only man left who obeys his wife,’ and went off to the mill. There, on the dam, a stone struck him, and he drowned. I cried so bitterly for him. Then one day I came back from the threshing floor—and he was sitting there. He said, ‘I’ll bring you and the children everything you need. Let’s live like we used to.’ For three years he came like that. Tormented me. I'd come home—he’d already be waiting. But he only promised things. Never brought anything. Just once he said, ‘I brought sweets for the children.’ He kissed me and held me. After he left, I looked—and the ‘sweets’ were just wood shavings.
Once he came on a horse. It snorted like a real one. ‘Let’s ride,’ he said. ‘I’ll take you to the forest.’ ‘I’m afraid,’ I told him. ‘You weren’t afraid before,’ he said. ‘You’re an unclean spirit,’ I replied. ‘You’ll lure me away.’ He left, and suddenly the yard burst into flames. Then—he was gone.
Three years after his death, the priest held a prayer service. Afterwards, when we came home, he couldn’t enter the house anymore—so he hid behind the stove and knocked. The children were frightened. ‘Someone’s living there,’ they said. He knocked for three days, then stopped. Never came back after that."
— From "Mythological Tales and Beliefs of the Lower Volga Region"
Notably, in this tale the mill is depicted as a zaklyatoe mesto—a ritually dangerous place one must avoid during religious holidays.
The accompanying photographs were taken in Teriberka, a remote northern village. The cemetery lies between sand dunes and mountains, right by the icy sea—one of the northernmost burial grounds in Russia.
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