Many years ago, when people were uneducated and they couldn’t explain natural phenomenon, they hoped for magic strength. Those were years when people made a lot of legends and told them to descendants in the hopes that they would protect them from sickness, natural elements, and enemies. Because Russia is located between Europe and Asia, she had plenty of enemies from one side and the other. The armies from both sides regularly attacked Russia’s territory and destroyed it. I would like to write about one old legend from my original city.

Nizhny Novgorod was built in 1121 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky. In the old days, this territory was often exposed to armed attacks of Tatars, that is why the city was built with an assumption to be a fortress. The first time a citadel was built. It was a wooden citadel on the beach, where the junctions between the two rivers Volga and Oka were. But a fire destroyed the first citadel. When the second one was built, the army of Tatars destroyed it again.

Several times the citadel was built and destroyed. Then somebody remembered an old belief that if one grabs someone and buries him alive, the fortress will be indestructible in that place. One morning the ambush was prepared. Who will go by the ambush first, this one will be buried alive. A young girl went by the ambush first that day. She had a yoke on her shoulders, because she was going to bring some water from the river. That girl was grabbed by the people for the ambush and buried alive.

On that place there was built a new fortress. Many years have passed since that time, but this citadel stands even now. One tower has a name, ‘Yoke’s Tower.’

Julia Lugina is a pediatrician from Russia. She has 7-year old twins. She is interested in art and volunteers at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, She is an advanced ESOL student at the Framingham Adult ESL Program.