Starobil's'k Favorites

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Favorite thing: old Russian architecture and bridges

Fondest memory: The name of the city is also connected with Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian guerilla leader, who is often called Russian Count of Monte Cristo.
Makhno used to help the poor and the suffering and took revenge on the rich and powerful during the turbulent years of the Bolshevik revolution.
Nestor Makhno had his own program. He was an anarchist. He organized his own Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army and wanted to built his own republic. More and more people are convince he had lots of treasures and those people torment themselves with the question where all the treasures have gone / are hidden. They think they are hidden in the numerous catacombs that were made under the city in the 19th century.
Nestor Makhno stayed in Starobilsk twice.
He could not fight independently for a long time and had to conclude a cooperation treaty with the Bolsheviks who had promised him the territories of the north of the present Luhansk region for a “anarchist communist experiment” and formation of his “anarchist republic”. The treaty was signed on October 2, 1920 and, of course, the Bolsheviks betrayed Nestor Makhno after his army had helped them to oust the White Guards of Baron Wrangel. The Bolsheviks outlawed Nestor and he had a narrow escape to the Romanian border in the summer of 1921.
He died in Paris in 1934 at the age of 45 in utter poverty.

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Favorite thing: Starobilsk seems to be a city of legends.
Underground passages is one of them.
Nobody knows when the underground passages appeared in Starobilsk.
The locals know or have heard that they connected the women’s monastery and city churches.
One of the passages was about three kilometers long. It began in the monsatery and led to the riverbank.
People can only guess what purpose those passages served.
The locals who managed to wander along those passages said that were faced with masonry and their width allowed a horse cart pass.
They say there are smaller underground passages under the city.
They appeared in the 19th century when it was a fashion to built such passages between houses. Lots of merchants inhabited the city and it is no wonder they wanted to conceal their wealth in safe places.
Many people, and my local frinds are among them, tried to explore those catacombs, but to no avail. It was dangerous and often impossible because of their destruction. Special equipment would be necessary.
They say no expedition has ever made a proper exploration of those catacombs.