The lost library of Ivan the Terrible, known as the Golden Library, is believed to hold ancient manuscripts and occult works. While still undiscovered, there are some who believe that the library was destroyed by fire.
This article covers the 1914 search for the lost library.
Searching Under the Kremlin for Ivan the Terrible’s Secret Palace
The Czar of Russia has given orders to evacuate the ground beneath the Kremlin at Moscow in order to discover the famous “lost library” of Ivan the Terrible. The order has been given for the purpose of clearing up an interesting historical mystery and to protect the Czar from the possible attacks of revolutionists by way of the underground chambers.
The Kremlin is a fortified city a mile and a half in circuit within the city of Moscow. It includes palaces, cathedrals and public buildings. It is really the cradle of the Russian autocracy.
Ivan the Terrible, who lived from 1530 to 1584, was Grand Duke of Moscow, and made himself the first Czar of Russia. He gained his name of “the Terrible” from the frightful brutality he showed in his later years. He slaughtered the whole population of a city that had only threatened to rebel against him. He killed innocent women and children along with the rest. In a fit of rage he beat his only son to death with an iron bar. This episode is the subject of a very powerful painting by the Russian artist Ilya Repin. The painting was slashed by a visionary who objected to an act of horrible brutality being perpetuated by art.
By another artist, Ivan has been depicted as sitting by the bedside of his young wife, waiting to hear her utter some word of treachery against him in her sleep. He kept a spear by him, ready to stab her if she uttered a suspicious word.
Ivan the Terrible added many buildings to the Kremlin. The ancient records say that he constructed wonderful underground passages and chambers. In the course of centuries the location of these has been entirely lost sight of.
The vague knowledge that they exist causes the Russian police, whenever the Czar visits the Kremlin, to seal up with wire and a lead seal every single opening, cellar, chute, surface drainage grating to be found anywhere over the area of the ancient citadel. It is in order to set at rest the possibility that some revolutionist may make use of the secret passages to enter the Czar’s palace that he has given orders to settle the mystery by thorough excavation.
The task of finding such underground hiding places is a colossal one. The surface soil has increased by five or six feet since Ivan the Terrible’s time. Nearly all the buildings were rebuilt after the burning of Moscow in Napoleon’s time, and the location of many ancient landmarks was lost sight of. Add to this that the Kremlin covers half a square mile and you will see the difficulty of finding a lost chamber beneath it.
From time to time new evidence comes to light of the lost underground chambers, thus adding to the Czar’s uneasiness. A short time ago a professor of theology in the University of St. Petersburg purchased at a shop in Moscow a manuscript copy of the Gospels dating from prior to AD 1000. On examination it was found to have belonged to the great library collected in his youth by Ivan the Terrible – when he believed that he had a divine mission. This library was once thought to have been burned in the great fire of Moscow of 1812, but no proof of this can be given.
On a subsequent visit to Moscow the professor traced his book to the family of a laborer, who said that he had found it with several similar volumes in a subterranean passage near the Kremlin.
The famous library is now supposed to be still hidden in some underground vault, which the efforts of generations have hitherto failed to discover. It was Ivan the Terrible – whose reputation as a great ruler has been obscured by the fascination of his extraordinary excesses – who established the printing press in Russia.
There is a wide field of conjecture as to what might not come to light in the event of this curious library one day being discovered. Ivan the Terrible was in close communication with all the rulers of our hemisphere, from London to Peking, one branch of knowledge is almost certain to be well represented in this lost library, and that is the science of black magic. It is equally likely that new codices of Holy Scripture may yet come to light, for Ivan the Terrible undertook to print the Scriptures in the common tongue. Only one thing is certain – that such a library existed and has never been found.
Legends of a labyrinth of underground passages have been current among the populace for centuries, but it is only within the last decade or so that the very extensive building enterprise on modern lines undertaken in Russia’s “premier capital” has given substance to these ancient legends. It was in course of these operations that many underground passages came to light.
Source: The times dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 29 March 1914.
