The Ghost of Engineers' Castle: Apparitions, Ghosts and Mischievous Cadets (edit title/settings)

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• Peter The Great: Peter the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov> ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death. Peter the Great carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into the 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power.
• Engineers' Castle: Mikhailovsky Castle, also known as Engineer’s Castle, is considered to be one of the most enigmatic structures in St. Petersburg. Even its colour, a strange mixture of brown and red, contrasting with the capital’s majestic and rational image, is like a shadow from past epochs, from the dark and mysterious Middle Ages. This Castle, named after Mikhail Archangel, with round corners was built for the Emperor Paul I in 1797-1801. Being very suspicious and wary of enemies, Paul I surrounded his residence with a system of man made ditches which were filled with water and covered with draw bridges. But Paul I didn’t escape his fate. He was assassinated at night in 1801, in his own bedroom, in this home-stronghold of Mikhailovsky Castle, where he had lived only for 40 days. The first regal owner of the Palace, Tsar Paul I, was an imposing figure in Russian history. Discussion about his role has never ceased among the historians. Paul I, sometimes called “the Knight on the throne”, was deeply impressed by the spirit of Western European Middle Ages, by the culture of Knights and dreamt of creating the residence in medieval style. In fact it was Paul I who oversaw the construction of the Palace, ensuring the decoration satisfied his unusual taste. Paul I used to interfere in many spheres of life of Russian society, including architectural styles and artistic tastes. His period went down in history as the dominance of neo Gothic architecture. The revival of medieval traditions lasted for six years because after this short period Paul I was assassinated. The assassination caused many legends which are still today associated with the gloomy brick walls of Mikhailovsky Castle. Kutuzov, the famous General who was among Paul’s guests at the last dinner before the cruel murder, wrote in his memoirs that suddenly Paul I approached the mirror and laughed: “What a merry mirror. I see myself with a twisted neck”. Historians stress that at the night of the murder conspirators got through all the obstacles on the way to the Emperor’s bedroom without any resistance, as the highest officers participated in the plot. But among the ordinary people the legend survived that murderers of the Emperor used the secret underground way which was believed to connect the Winter Palace with Mikhailovsky Castle.

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• “The cadets continued to believe that their castle was haunted by a ghost that appeared at night. This was the general conviction held equally by young and old cadets, with the difference, however, that the younger ones believed blindly in the apparition while the elder ones sometimes personally arranged its appearance. This did not prevent those responsible for the apparition from being afraid of it. In the same way " false makers of miracles," who produce the miracles themselves, bow down before them and believe in their reality.”

• “One of the general's most comic habits was that, when making a speech or doing something imposing, he always stroked his nose with all the fingers of his right hand. This, according to the cadets, made it appear as though he were " milking the words out of his nose."”

• “An uncanny weirdness was over the place; all felt uncomfortable and began to be afraid of something”

• “All this did not conduce to sobriety of feelings or calmness of reason. The oppression of these sensations was made still worse for the youngsters by the fact that they had to stand and maintain a strict silence: everything was in a state of alarm”

• “The apparition was no trick of the imagination”

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Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Nikolai Leskov (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Max Bollinger (Narrator) - Max Bollinger, Russian-born British actor, writer and producer and voice-over actor,work includes the BBC production Singularirty as Pavel Fedorin alongside Peter Davison as the Doctor, the ITV 2 part TV drama Ghostboat playing Soviet Naval captain alongside David Jason, the BBC TV film Life Beyond the Box: Margo Leadbetter as Charles Allcock, the Noise Monster audio production Space 1889: The Lunar Inheritance as Colonel Molokov, and the BBC TV series 20th Century Battlefields.