It never occurred to anyone to record and publish such stories. They were simply passed from mouth to mouth. This continued until the early 1990s.


It was then that the famous children's writer Eduard Uspensky in the program "Pioneer Dawn" turned to all the teenagers of the Soviet Union and asked them to send him scary stories that exist in pioneer camps.
In response, Ouspensky received a huge number of letters, which eventually turned into a unique book for its time, Spooky Children's Folklore. Moreover, the writer managed to convey both children's voices and their "goosebumps" from these terrible stories. These stories show how, with the help of fear and overcoming it, children gain knowledge about life and death, and go through some kind of initiation, without which growing up is impossible.

1. Coffin on wheels

There lived a girl. And somehow my mother went to work, and forbade her to turn on the radio. But she did not listen, and turned on.
And suddenly they say on the radio: “Girl, girl, a coffin on wheels left the cemetery, looking for your street. Hide, run away." But the girl decided that they were transmitting some kind of terrible tale .... And they say to her again: “Girl, girl, a coffin on wheels found your street, it’s already looking for your house.” And give her address.
It was then that she got frightened, began to lock the door, but did not run away from the house. And the radio again transmits: “Girl, girl, your house found a coffin on wheels. Moves into the apartment!
Mom returned from work - and there her daughter was lifeless. Only some kind of wheel is lying nearby.

2. Black piano

There lived a mother and father, a girl and their grandmother. The girl wanted to play the piano, and her parents decided to buy it for her. Then the grandmother said that they should never buy black. But the store only had black pianos, and Mom and Dad bought it.
The next day, the adults went to work, and the girl sat down at the piano. And as soon as she pressed the key, a skeleton crawled out of the piano and demanded blood from her. The girl got scared, gave him blood, the skeleton drank it, and climbed back into the piano. This went on for three whole days, and on the fourth day the girl became very ill. No one could help her, because every day a skeleton appeared and drank her blood. Then the grandmother said that the black piano should be broken. Dad took an ax and chopped up the piano. The skeleton disappeared, but the girl recovered immediately.

3. Queen of Spades

One day, two pioneers decided to call the Queen of Spades during a quiet hour. They drew a house and steps on the mirror with soap, read a spell. Immediately a black spot appeared, which climbed the steps to the house ....
The girls were frightened, but it was too late - after a quiet hour they were found unconscious. And each of the girls held a card in their hands - the Queen of Spades. Then one counselor said that all that was needed was to erase the house from the mirror. Then the Queen of Spades wouldn't hurt anyone.

4. Statue of a drummer

When the pioneer camp was just built, two stone sculptures were placed at the central gate - a drummer and a bugler. And then one night lightning struck the bugler and he crumbled to dust.
The drummer began to long for her bugler, and since then she has been walking around the camp after lights out - looking for a similar boy. And if he finds one, he will turn him into stone and place him next to him to guard the entrance. And if the wrong boy comes across, she will catch him and rip out his heart.

5. White woman

Previously, there was a castle on the site of the pioneer camp. There lived a rich and evil gentleman. He had a maid. One day he ordered her to wash his white shirt. She washed it, but when she hung it up to dry, she accidentally dropped it. The master was terribly angry, cut off the head of the maid, and buried it under a tree.
After that, the maid became a ghost, she walks around the camp after midnight: if she sees any unsleeping pioneer in a white shirt, she will surely strangle him.
Of course, in our childhood there were other horror stories: about a blue / red curtain, about red gloves, about a scary picture, about green eyes, about bloody numbers ...
They were united by one thing: the main character, most often a child, was forbidden something, but he violated this taboo - and terrible things happened. Or it did not happen if the hero (as a rule, with the help of adults - father, grandmother, counselor or policeman) defeated the insidious dark forces.