Where is "The End of the World" and why is it closer than you think

The expression "in the middle of nowhere" is known to everyone. It can often be heard in conversation when talking about some remote place. But no one thinks about what it means and how it appeared. Meanwhile, these "sandwiches" have certain coordinates and getting there is not at all difficult.

It should be noted right away that the "kulichki" from this catchphrase have nothing to do with the Easter cakes that are baked for a holiday, or with the children's Easter cakes from the sandbox. In general, this word sounds more like Kulishki. This was the name of a tract of land in the old days, located on the site of one of the districts of Moscow.

The city was not even in the plans at that time, and Kulishki was the name of a treeless marshy place in the forest. Even before the advent of Christianity, such bald spots were considered an evil place inhabited by evil spirits. Now those same Devil's Kulishki are located just half a kilometer from the Moscow Kremlin, near the Kitay-Gorod metro station.

Kulishki became famous in 1666, when paranormal phenomena began to occur in the Trinity Church on Solyanka, opposite the Salt Yard. An unknown force, having settled in the temple, began to disturb people. It threw beggars who spent the night in the almshouse at the church off the benches, thundered, howled and even threw stones at parishioners.

At that time, the sovereign was Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, nicknamed the Quietest, the father of Peter I. Since the evil spirits were raging not far from the royal chambers, the monarch quickly learned about it. The only known way to combat the devilry at that time was prayers and holy water. The sovereign ordered the priests to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

The person in charge was a monk from the Florishcheva Hermitage, Ilarion Ananyev. He fought the demon for five days at the head of a detachment of clergy, pouring holy water into the church and its surroundings and shouting prayers around the clock. Then the monk got bored and came up with something. The cunning monk said that he had managed to talk to the evil spirits.

The evil spirit called himself Ignatius and said that he was of noble birth - a former prince's son. He had fallen into such a disgraceful life because his own mother had cursed him. The demon also said that everything was fine with him and he had no intention of leaving the Trinity Church. But Hilarion was not going to give up either. He dispersed his assistants and fought the devil Ignatius one-on-one. When the evil spirit fled, the monk lived in the church for another 10 weeks, consolidating the effect achieved.

The feat of Ilarion Ananyev made him a famous and authoritative person. His career took off and he became the Metropolitan of Yuryev. Rumor quickly spread throughout Rus' the story of the monk's battle with the devil in a place called Kulishki. But on the outskirts the accent was not at all metropolitan and the toponym began to be pronounced as Kulichki.

The famous Trinity Church on Kulishki was rebuilt several times after that, and in 1754 it burned down. It was restored, but in 1765 it somehow displeased Empress Catherine II, and she ordered it to be dismantled. In 1768, a new church was erected according to the design of the architect Karl Blank. Bricks from the old building were used in the work. It was dedicated to the holy miracle workers and unmercenaries Cyrus and John.

The Church of Cyrus and John on Solyanka survived the revolution, but in 1932 the Bolsheviks got to it too. The last two priests, Dmitry Kryuchkov and Alexey Kozlov, were repressed, and the church itself was closed. Two years later, in 1934, it was torn down. For a long time, the site of the church housed the Culinary Pavilion and the Wine Kiosk. Then a cafeteria was opened in this place.

In the early 2000s, developers liked the place and erected two buildings with a grocery store and a furniture store. Between them, a fence post of a destroyed church miraculously survived. So, at one time, for residents of Russia who did not know the geography of Moscow, "devil's east end" was some abstract place where a monk fought with the devil. That is, a distant location, and not necessarily a real one. Well, then this phrase became a catchphrase, and we use it without even thinking about it.