Sloboda Ukraine—a land of legends and folklore. Like a majestic symphony, the life stories of our fellow countrymen resonate throughout the universe, becoming part of history.
Kharkiv’s centenarians—what do we know about them? After all, they continue to be the focus of attention for the press. These days, they’re mostly people who’ve managed to live to be 100. However, things used to be a little different…
In Issue No. 40 of a very popular magazine, dated October 22, 1881, you can find an interesting article related to our beloved city.
“A rare example of longevity.
An elderly woman named Sanzharova recently passed away in Kharkiv at the age of 137. Despite her advanced age, she retained, according to the newspaper, a certain vigor, strength, and memory right up until her death. Sanzharova was born at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. The deceased clearly remembered the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich by Potemkin of Tavria, the fall of Poland, the Year of 1812, and other events; she also remembered how, on Moskovskaya Street in Kharkiv, houses were bought for a few dozen rubles in banknotes, and young brides wore nothing but long shirts, cinched with braid.”
Who knows if it’s true or not—did it really happen that way? After all, people back then, just like today, bought newspapers and readily believed everything written in them.
Thanks to this, the story of the elderly woman Sanzharova has become one of Kharkiv’s true legends.
But in the July 1882 issue of the magazine, you can also find a very interesting article related to magic.
According to the *Kharkiv Vedomosti*, a local “Wunderfrau” has appeared in the village of Lipsky, five versts from Sumy. An “old woman” (as everyone calls her), Praskovya Nazarievna, has lived in this hamlet for as long as anyone can remember. The “grandmother,” who is quite attractive, is about 40 years old. At this very moment, the village of Lipsky has become a veritable sanatorium: all the cottages are occupied by patients, and many are waiting their turn, since the course of treatment is short—only three to 12 days. Grandma is credited with healing a certain gentleman whom all renowned foreign doctors had pronounced beyond hope. The old woman, incidentally, possesses a quality that doctors in general seem to lack: if her diagnosis fails to determine the nature of a prospective patient’s illness, she says bluntly, “I can’t treat you—go see a doctor.”
But such cases are rare. As an example of the unique conversations the “grandmother doctor” has with her patients, the reporter cites an incident involving an acquaintance of his. This acquaintance, who had been unsuccessfully treated for several years for some sort of “misunderstanding” in his stomach, finally turned to the grandmother. After a very thorough examination, the grandmother decided that he would be cured in three days.
“What’s wrong with me?” asks the patient.
“Your fontal has dropped.”
“What’s a fontal?”
“Well, you could call it a nerve.”A friend of mine decided to put himself in his grandmother’s care for three days. His grandmother doesn’t go anywhere, and although she delivers medication to people’s homes upon request, she’s only responsible for the successful outcome of treatment for patients who are right there with her—that is, in the village of Lipsky.
The story, however, does not mention how successful the treatment of the correspondent’s acquaintance was.
What is far more interesting and mysterious to us is the author’s use of the German word “Wunderfrau,” which means nothing other than “healer/witch doctor.” Why was this particular term applied to the Sloboda Ukraine “grandmother”? How widespread is the use of this word?
Does this suggest that German culture had an influence on the Slobozhans? We have not yet been able to obtain reliable confirmation. However, there are certainly a number of hypotheses and speculations.
But one thing is certain—our real history, preserved in particular in articles like these, is far more fascinating than any made-up story.
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