Making Light :: Mysteries under Moscow :: comments http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#comments Language, fraud, folly, truth, history, and knitting. Et cetera. en Fri, 14 Jun 2002 21:49:59 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.261 Mysteries under Moscow Everybody knows that New York City has dug down as well as built up. In an article from the Bulletin... Everybody knows that New York City has dug down as well as built up. In an article from the Bulletin... http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #1 from Scott Janssens comment from Scott Janssens on 11.Jun.02 This reminds me a bit of Neverwhere.

]]> <p>Posted June 11, 2002 4:19 PM by Scott Janssens</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#837 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#837 Tue, 11 Jun 2002 16:19:18 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #2 from Greg van Eekhout comment from Greg van Eekhout on 11.Jun.02 Sea Monsters, monks performing secret rites, Stalin-era skulduggery ... Does Tim Powers know about this?

]]> <p>Posted June 11, 2002 7:11 PM by Greg van Eekhout</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#848 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#848 Tue, 11 Jun 2002 19:11:47 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #3 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden comment from Teresa Nielsen Hayden on 11.Jun.02 I love Tim Powers' work, but he's the scariest writer I know. It's not the books themselves; they have just the right amount of suspense for my taste. It's the way, afterward, something like this'll come up, and I'll find myself thinking, "Cripes, what if he's right?"

]]> <p>Posted June 11, 2002 7:54 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#849 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#849 Tue, 11 Jun 2002 19:54:06 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #4 from Mary Kay Kare comment from Mary Kay Kare on 12.Jun.02 Begin quote:
A mystery, yes? But what the Diggers really want to find is the lost medieval library of Ivan the Terrible, brought from Byzantium by Princess Sofia Paleolog when she married him in 1472, and supposedly stashed in a secret underground library beneath the Kremlin. Maybe they will. That would be way cool.
End quote.

Yeah, Ivan's library would be cool, but I want them to find the Amber Room. Those lousy Nazis disappeared it and I wanna see it.

MKK

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 12:48 AM by Mary Kay Kare</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#860 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#860 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 00:48:41 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #5 from Simon Shoedecker comment from Simon Shoedecker on 12.Jun.02 Click on my name below and you'll find a reprinted news article giving some more details on Ivan's library.

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 12:42 PM by Simon Shoedecker</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#880 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#880 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 12:42:05 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #6 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden comment from Teresa Nielsen Hayden on 12.Jun.02 Clicking on your name above works better.

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 12:56 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#882 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#882 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 12:56:25 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #7 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden comment from Teresa Nielsen Hayden on 12.Jun.02 Interesting article. I imagine it containing ... oh, wonderful things. But doesn't everyone? And each one a different list.

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 1:01 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#883 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#883 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 13:01:33 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #8 from Stephanie C. Smith comment from Stephanie C. Smith on 12.Jun.02 "an inexplicable 3,000-seat bunker"? The inability to explain it depends on exactly where it is. I'd be interested to see how the capacity of that bunker compares to the number of essential personnel in the Kremlin circa 1962, or whether its location corresponds to the homes of very rich Muscovites of the same era.

As for Ivan's library, I think it likely that it hasn't been found because the chamber doesn't connect to the rest of the tunnels. Hell, if he was worried about fire, it might not connect to the palace.

Choose Your Own Adventure: You are a Russian autocrat with a fantastic library. You want to store it underground because you're worried that your palace might burn in the frequent fires that sweep the city.

Where do you put the door?

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 2:01 PM by Stephanie C. Smith</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#889 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#889 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 14:01:17 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #9 from Simon Shoedecker comment from Simon Shoedecker on 12.Jun.02 My name was below the post when I checked the "preview" draft.

Blimey. Add to pet hates: programs that make a liar out of you.

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 2:04 PM by Simon Shoedecker</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#890 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#890 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 14:04:15 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #10 from Stephanie C. Smith comment from Stephanie C. Smith on 12.Jun.02 Oh, excuse me, I hadn't quite finished the article. You're not a Russian autocrat; you're a famous Italian architect named Aristotle Fiorovanti. (!)

If Khrushchev was the last official to look for the library, I wonder if he didn't find it. The Soviets were not known as connoisseurs of great literature; I wouldn't be terribly shocked to discover that they had traded a few of Ivan's treasures for a little military hardware.

]]> <p>Posted June 12, 2002 2:07 PM by Stephanie C. Smith</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#891 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#891 Wed, 12 Jun 2002 14:07:41 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #11 from Joel Davis comment from Joel Davis on 13.Jun.02 Hmmm, found at:

http://www.russiajournal.com/ls_avt/STAR-INTERVIEW/STAR-INTERVIEW62-Custodian-of-the-Underworld.html

"The Moscow region has some 150 underground rivers carrying chemical wastes. Fish that happens to get into these rivers begins to mutate. I have seen fish without fins and without eyes, and once a carp with tiny horns on its head. We came across huge worms of grass-snake size that glowed in the darkness."

]]> <p>Posted June 13, 2002 8:41 AM by Joel Davis</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#918 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#918 Thu, 13 Jun 2002 08:41:49 -0500 Mysteries under Moscow -- comment #12 from Cassandra Phillips-Sears comment from Cassandra Phillips-Sears on 14.Jun.02 I was so fascinated with this that I found more information about these people. Here are some links, if anyone is interested.

More Exploration: http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2098.html##10

Another General-Interest Article:
http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0997/9709under.html

Tourisim, Anyone?
http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0395/3di_spel.html

Interview with the leader of "Diggers of the Underground Planet":
http://www.russiajournal.com/ls_avt/STAR-INTERVIEW/STAR-INTERVIEW62-Custodian-of-the-Underworld.html

The following sites are in Russian.

Novosibersk Diggers' Website:
http://nskdiggers.chat.ru/index1.htm

Pictures from the Minsk Diggers' Expiditions:
http://diggers.minsk.com/photos/

Unfortunately, while there also appeared to be a website for the Moscow Diggers, it doesn't work.

]]> <p>Posted June 14, 2002 9:49 PM by Cassandra Phillips-Sears</p> http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#931 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/000299.html#931 Fri, 14 Jun 2002 21:49:59 -0500