( Ivan the terrible – 1530 – 1584)
The Claim
A vast library of ancient texts is hidden somewhere in Russia
The lost library of the Moscow Tsars, or the lost library of Ivan the terrible as its sometimes known, is supposed to be a vast collection of ancient Greek, Egyptian and Latin texts that were hidden during the reign of Ivan IV.
The library was once thought to be kept openly, belonging to whoever was in charge of Russia at the time, but during the reign of Ivar the terrible between 1547 and 1584, the library vanished. The most common story is that for some reason Ivan decided to hide the texts and deny their existence, with the most probable hiding place being underneath the Kremlin.
The first mention of the library is from 1518, and comes from a man named Michail Tripolis, who more often went by his nickname “Maximus the Greek”. He was a famous scholar and translator of texts and was sent to Russia to meet with Prince Vasili III, and it was during this encounter that he was shown countless multitudes of Greek books.
A biography of Maximus the Greek called “The tale of Maxim the Philosopher” was written by biographer Prince Kurbskii, a member of Russian nobility and contains various phrases of how Maximus responded to the texts, with such sentences as “Maxim was astounded and impressed, and assured the prince that even in Greece he had never seen so many Greek books.”
After this first mention of the library nothing else comes up for almost 80 years, when a Livonian writer called Franz Nyenstadt wrote about German minister Johannes Wetterman, who wanted to establish a new church in Russia. As part of this the minister met with Ivan IV who apparently told him that he had been hiding a vast supply of weapons under the Kremlin.
Ivan IV later invited this priest to the Kremlin to see the underground store rooms, but upon entering the complex of tunnels and rooms, the minister was instead shown a store room, apparently not opened for over 100 years that contained dozens of wooden trunks filled with books.
Wetterman was then given the task, along with 6 other people to document the collection. He noted that some of the books contained in the room were believed to have been destroyed and some he had only heard of being mentioned in ancient texts, but didn’t think they actually existed.
He was given the chance to stay for a while in Russia and translate one of the books, but he refused, fearing that this would lead to more work that would trap him in the country under the service of Ivan IV. The collection was then locked away once again in the secret room that it had been in for countless years.
The last mention of the library comes from a report made by Moscow petty official Konon Osipov in 1724. He claimed that V. Makariev, one of the men he was responsible for, was ordered into a secret passage below the Kremlin and found a room full of trunks. When he reported his find to Princess Sophia Alekseyevna he was sworn to secrecy and she forbid anyone to try and find or access the room.
These are the only documented mentions of the library of the lost Tsars, and as always it isn’t much to go on. One interesting thing about the second claim is that Ivan IV also said he had hidden a load of weapons under the Kremlin, something that wasn’t proven until 1978 when a Soviet construction team working on the subway actually found them.
This on its own isn’t proof that the library exists, but it does bolster the claim slightly. Its also important to keep in mind that anything kept in a secret room below a countries primary governmental building isn’t exactly going to publicly accessible information.
Its very possible the collection is real, and could be the result of an insane ruler who stashed the books away out of paranoia or some other crazy reason, or perhaps this is nothing more than a few sketchy historical documents that have been misinterpreted.
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