Top 10 Most Haunted & Ghostly Destinations in Russia

Top 10 Most Haunted Places in Russia. Image: KnowInsiders.com

Russia is the world's largest country by land area, covering 11 time zones and a wide variety of landforms. It is recognized for encompassing more than 1/8th of the inhabited land area of Earth and shares land borders with nations like Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Poland, among others.

Russia is undoubtedly a fantastic country with exquisite food and stunning churches, but when it comes to horror, it really elevates the experience. that upon your next visit, you will undoubtedly get goosebumps.

Russia is home to numerous haunted locations that will stay with you forever, from Stalin's mansion to the Yakutia diamond mine.

15 Weirdest Things You Can Only See in Russia

What are the most haunted and ghost places in Russia?

10. Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is a fortress located in the city's center and represents the oldest historical, social, political, and artistic complex.

The Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian President in the Volga Federal District, as well as the Mayor and Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, have their official residences here.

It is situated at the meeting point of the Oka and Volga rivers on the right high bank. The Kremlin's northwest section descends nearly to the base of the slopes, its southeast section leads to Minin and Pozharsky Square, and its southwest section rises above the People's Unity Square and the deep Pochainsky ravine.

There is a story that the builders of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin were unable to complete one of the towers. It continued to fall. Ultimately, they chose to offer a sacrifice and erect the tower using the blood of the first passerby. It turned out to be a pregnant lady rushing to get water from the river. Captured, she was bricked up alive inside the tower. Since then, the ghost of a pale woman carrying a baby has been seen close by.

9. Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg

Photo: St. Petersburg

This canal is small and winding, running through the heart of St. Petersburg between the Fontanka and Moyka Rivers, running parallel to them for the majority of its length. Despite being shorter than six kilometers, the canal is crossed by over 21 bridges, many of which are pedestrian. The Obvodny Canal has the most bridges—24—among all of them. The five-kilometer canal embankment offers a wide view of St. Petersburg's architecture spanning centuries and architectural styles, from opulent palaces and cathedrals to modest tenements from the early 20th century. The canal is also well-known for being the scene of one of the most well-known terrorist attacks of the 19th century, where Russian Emperor Alexander II was assassinated by anarchist revolutionaries.

The Griboedov Canal was constructed parallel to the small Krivusha River, which flowed through this area long before St. Petersburg was built. In the 1730s, houses for Navy Department workers were constructed on the river's right bank. The Krivusha River channel was linked to the Moyka in 1737. The Court Stables' homes and barns were situated along the newly named Konyushennaya channel. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli constructed a mansion for General Villebois at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the canal between 1759 and 1761. The best masquerades and balls in the city were hosted here in the 1820s and 1830s by millionaire Baron Vasily Engelhardt; today, chamber music concerts take place in the Maly (Small) Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia.

The ghost of a small child is visible in St. Petersburg near the Griboyedov Canal on a misty night in March. She has a large scarlet mark on her neck from a rope, and her face is blue from asphyxiation. This is the renowned revolutionary Sophia Perovskaya, who was hanged for her actions after killing Tsar Alexander II. It is ill luck to encounter this ghost, which could endanger the lives of nighttime pedestrians.

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8. Tower of the old hospital in Ryazan

Photo: Alexander Usoltsev

Among the high-rise modern buildings at 15 Gorky Street in Ryazan is an old tower – all that remains of the old hospital. At night, a lonely dark figure can be seen walking in this tower. This is the ghost of Alexander Smitten, who administered the hospital more than a century ago.

7. Mikhailovsky Castle

Photo: Visit Petersburg

In addition to being a striking example of unique architecture in St. Petersburg, the Mikhailovsky Castle silently observed a number of intriguing events during the brief reign of Emperor Paul I, son of Catherine the Great. In order to take the Russian Imperial throne, Catherine deposed her husband Peter III. She ruled Russia until her passing in 1796. By that time, her 42-year-old son Paul was expected to have inherited his mother's position of authority. However, Paul lived in constant fear of being assassinated because neither the nobility nor the royal guards liked or respected him. He gave the order to have a fortified palace—a castle encircled by deep ditches—built for him in order to allay these worries. A legend states that one of the soldiers stationed at the construction site had a vision of Archangel Michael standing next to him, watching over the castle. After the Emperor was informed of this, the castle was renamed Mikhailovsky (St. Michael's).

Two factors make the Mikhailovsky Castle well-known: First of all, it is the only castle in St. Petersburg, and secondly, tsar Pavel I, the most well-known ghost in the city, resides there. He took the initiative to have the castle built, and once it was finished, he made it his haven. A group of inebriated soldiers killed Pavel, with the intention of apprehending him to allow his son to succeed to the throne. He ruled for precisely four years, four months, and four days, and he spent just forty days in his castle. His life was also filled with great fortune. Legend has it that he can be seen playing his favorite instrument, the violin, out of a specific window in the castle.

6. Rotonda

There is a house that dates back to the end of the 18th century located at the intersection of Gorokhovaya Str and the Fontanka embankment. It's just your average St. Petersburg building, but

The Rotunda, the city's most enigmatic location, is located here.

The structure is circular and has six free-standing columns. The lines of the stairs, reaching infinitely upward, are repeated in the bends of the walls.

The rise of informal Soviet youth movements and subcultures, such as rockers, hippies, and punks, in the 1970s and 1980s gave rise to the Rotunda's cult status.

This place is the subject of numerous legends. For instance, wishes and dreams inscribed on the Rotunda's walls might come true. But there are other legends as well. Since the Rotunda is situated where the St. Petersburg hexagon's meridians converge, someone has dubbed this location the universe's center.

Another legend concerns a young man who entered the parallel world through the house's basement and stayed there for roughly fifteen minutes. Upon his return, he appeared to be elderly.

Many people think that you can meet Satan here at midnight. The Rotunda was a gathering place for Freemasons during the Russian Empire. It was also Grigory Rasputin's favorite location.

5. Obvodny Canal

Photo: - Wikimedia Commons

Obvodny Canal had functioned as a city boundary at one point. The suburbs were on one bank of the Obvodny Canal during the 19th century, while the Fontanka served as the city boundary during the 18th century. Even though the city boundary has moved forward considerably since then, Obvodny Canal's appearance has evolved over the previous century, and the term "city outskirts" has acquired new meaning, it still has a certain "uptownish" quality. The Obvodny Canal is not only a hydrotechnical marvel of unparalleled quality for its era and a crucial waterway connecting the port to the upper Neva; it is also an integral element of the city's artistic identity, sharing equal significance with Nevsky Prospekt in terms of cultural significance. Without the Obvodny Canal, St. Petersburg's image would be lacking, at the very least. St Petersburg had always offered a contrast between two images: the industrial, noisy, smoggy, and disheveled, and the solemn, official, and beautiful. But together, the two likenesses made up the singular whole, which was the Russian Empire's capital. The growth of the city had been impacted by these two likenesses.

At eight kilometers, the Obvodny Canal is the longest artificial waterway in St. Petersburg. Currently, the canal acts as a temporary wall dividing the city's southern industrial district. Numerous structures along the Obvodny Canal, including industrial and civil buildings, bridges, and support walls, have significant historic and architectural significance. Like Nevsky Prospekt, Kolomna, and Vasilyevsky Island, the current architectural environment along the canal shores is very unique and an integral part of St. Petersburg.

The longest man-made canal in St. Petersburg, the Obvodny Canal, was formerly the city's southern border. It is not very deep, but it has been the site of numerous successful suicide attempts. The people who have been spared have stated that they didn't intend to end their lives. They were just driven to act by an intense force. Some claim it's the result of the restless spirits in the company that craves canals. If you choose to go, keep your distance from the water.

4. Northern Crown – The Stranded 5-Star Hotel

Photo: TravelTriangle

After the magnificent project was shelved almost twenty years ago, this crumbling five-star hotel is empty when it should be teeming with affluent vacationers and corporate executives.

There is an eerie silence in the corridors of the Northern Crown Hotel, which should have been a grand lobby, despite its 247 rooms having never been slept in.

When work on the opulent hotel started in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in 1988, it was expected to become a popular tourist attraction.

But in 1995, with the building 90% finished, laborers at the hotel stopped working because a bank that was funding the project was having financial difficulties.

Even though there have been multiple attempts to restart construction, the incomplete hotel was instead abandoned and is soon to be demolished.

After the Soviet government commissioned the project, the company Monteksgroeksport, based in what was then Yugoslavia, started construction on the hotel in the late 1980s.

However, fate had other ideas because the project's construction was nearly finished when funding was suddenly cut off. After that, this magnificent hotel was destroyed and never had the chance to welcome any guests, turning into an abandoned location. Many residents also think that the unfortunate incident has something to do with the passing of St. Pete's Metropolitan Ioann. He passed away in Northern Crown at a celebration marking Bank St. Petersburg's 50th birthday. The rooms still have the same opulent appearance as before, but the building is beyond repair at this time.

3. Mirny Diamond Mine

Photo: Interesting Engineering

The Mir mine, also known as the Mirny mine, is an open pit diamond mine situated in the Siberian region of eastern Russia's Mirny, Sakha Republic. The mine is one of the biggest excavated holes in the world, measuring 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) in diameter and more than 525 meters (1,722 feet) deep—the fourth deepest in the world.

1957 saw the start of open-pit mining, which ended in 2001. It has been in operation as an underground diamond mine since 2009.

On June 13, 1955, Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina, and Viktor Avdeenko made the discovery of the diamond-bearing deposits while on the massive Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They discovered remnants of kimberlite, a volcanic rock typically linked to diamonds. This discovery marked the second successful attempt to find kimberlite in Russia following a string of unsuccessful expeditions in the 1940s and 1950s. (The Zarnitsa mine in 1954 was the first.) Khabardin received the Lenin Prize, one of the greatest honors in the Soviet Union, in 1957 in recognition of this discovery.

Are you someone who would like to visit a place like this and is intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle? If so, you really ought to visit the Mirny Diamond Mine at least once in your lifetime in order to see something truly remarkable. This location used to be known for producing the greatest quantity of valuable Russian diamonds, which provided employment and income for the Russian people. The bustling metropolis that encircled this massive mine was once home to a large population of contented people.

There is currently no scientific explanation for why every helicopter that flies over this hole gets sucked into it, despite the fact that this abandoned mine is closed. Isn't that odd for a diamond mine? So, if you're looking to visit some of the most well-known scary locations in Russia, make sure to stop by and discover the mystery surrounding this location.

2. The Kusovnikov House in Moscow

Image Credit: LadyElaina by Pixabay

House No. 17, located on Myasnitskaya Street in Central Moscow, was formerly the home of the extremely avaricious Pyotr and Sofya in the 19th century. They used to conceal their money in odd and strange locations because they were also highly suspicious of whether it was safe.

They adopted this tactic to ensure that no one would steal their money, but they were unaware that it would eventually lead to their own demise. It is said that one terrible night, the caregiver unintentionally set fire to their concealed cash in the fireplace, and they instantly passed away from shock. Since then, a number of people have reported seeing the ghost of an elderly man with a humped body on the nearby street who they believe to be Pyotr Kusovnikov, lamenting the loss of his money. Therefore, if you intend to stroll down this street at night, be sure to reconsider your plans before running into him.

1. The Maternity Hospital

Photo: Travel Triangle

It was erected on the grounds of the hospital meant to house the soldiers from the 1812 Patriot War. Following its conversion to a maternity hospital in the latter half of the 20th century, it was shut down in 2009 for renovations. The hospital's central heating system is still in relatively good condition, which is quite surprising given how long the building has been abandoned. It appears like the torture chamber from a horror film, which is one of the reasons it is listed among Russia's most haunted locations.

For a considerable amount of time, the Maternity hospital has been a popular tourist destination. Many eager bloggers visit this location frequently to learn the story behind the building's peculiarities. The fact that many pregnant Russian women wish to give birth in this specific hospital only serves to heighten the strangeness of this place. For individuals who have an inclination towards eerie hospitals and their eerie hallways, this is the ideal location.

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