1989 FBI Memo USSR: Media Report Multitude of UFO Sightings

7!

RR
Taman

22 November 1989

C7N

USSR: MEDIA REPORT MULTITUDE OF UFO SIGHTINGS

Leading Soviet newspapers and journals have recently begun publishing
an increasing number of articles and news reports on sightings of
unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in various areas of the Soviet Union. A” ws
“permanent center" for the study of UFOs has been established in Moscow to
conduct research and support the investigation of reported sightings.

RKkKaKKRKKEKEKKEaREKEaEKEKEKKE KR KKK KEK

Setting the tone for this media coverage was an article in the 9 July
1989 SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA, which referred to many recent reports
of UFO sightings in the USSR. Interviewed by the paper, P. Prokopenko,
director of a laboratory for the study of “anomalous phenomena,” stated
that a "permanent center" for the study of UFOs is being established in the
Soviet Union. In addition to conducting research and presenting lectures
on UFOs, the center will support the investigation of reported sightings.

In referring to an issue of the paper published in July 1988 that
included a report on “an amazing event that took place on Hill 611 near the
village of Dalnegorsk in Primorskiy Kray," the article noted that the event
is still under investigation. Many observers saw a flying sphere crash
into one of the hill’s twin peaks, and physicists and other scientists from
the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences are still studying
the "fine mesh," “small spherical objects," and "pieces of glass" that are
considered to be small remnants left behind by the sphere. According to
the article, the alleged spacecraft was nearly obliterated in the crash,

-but there. appears to be enough material at the site for the scientists--a

mixture of UFO "enthusiasts" and skeptics—-to eventually “penetrate this
mystery."

In studying the site, scientist A. Makeyev reported finding gold,
silver, nickel, alpha-titanium, molybdenum, and compounds of beryllium.
One of the “skeptical” physicists from Tomsk has hypothesized that the so-
called sphere could have been some kind of a “plasmoid,™ formed by the
"interaction of geophysical force fields," which captured the elements
found by Makeyev from the atmosphere on its trajectory toward
disintegration on the hilltop. Other researchers have generally rejected
this explanation since the amounts of various types of metals found at the
site would imply, according to this “plasmoid" theory, that “the
concentration of metals in the atmosphere should exceed the present level
by a factor of 4,000."

ry

* ‘ >,

a

eRe
Sg he
¢

rr 3 a
Poy 4 ve ~<
retert Bro

ved for Release @)
Appro § Fy

Date VJ

2


We nr ee

Some of the scientists have concluded that the object that crashed into
Hill 611 was an “extraterrestrial" space vehicle constructed by highly
intelligent beings. Doctor of Chemical Sciences V. Vysotskiy stated that
“without doubt, this is evidence of a high technology, and it is not
anything of a natural or terrestrial origin.™ He cited the fact that the
remnants of fine mesh included bits of thin th¥éeads with a diameter of only
17 microns and that these threads, in turn, vere composed of even thinner
strands twisted into braids. Extremely thin gold wires were discovered
intertwined in the finest threads--evidence of an intricate technology
beyond the present capabilities of terrestrial science, according to
Vysotskiy.

SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA of 25 July 1989 reported that a UFO
sighting had been claimed by engineer Yuriy Ponomarenko and a group of
workers at a collective farm in the Dnepropetrovsk region. The object was
described as a disk with two beams of light emanating from its sides. The
witnesses maintained that they had observed the object on the ground for
about 20 minutes, and that it emitted no sound when it flew away.

The August 1989 issue of the Soviet journal NAUKA I ZHIZN included a
9-page article which, after summarizing the history of UFO sightings in
general, contrasted some of the views of the "skeptics" with some of the
opinions of the “enthusiasts" on the numerous reported UFO sightings in the
USSR, including incidents in Serpukhov, Petrozavodsk, and Rudnya.

According to the "enthusiasts," UFOs have left evidence of their visits on
many occasions, including the Serpukhov incident in which, they claim, a
UFO left a circular depression in the grass with a diameter of 4 meters.
The skeptics maintain that most of this so-called “evidence™ can be
explained as having no connection with extraterrestrial intelligence. Many
of the sightings could be attributed to rocket testing, for example.
Academician Vladimir Vasilyevich Migulin, director of the Terrestrial
Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation Institute in Troitsk,
which has a section for the investigation of anomalous phenomena in the
atmosphere, maintains that over 90 percent of UFO sightings can be
nullified by such mundane explanations.

STROITELNAYA GAZETA of 16 September 1989 reported that in August a
group of observers including physical scientist Elvir Kurchenko began
investigating another circular depressed area in a forest near Surgut after

‘a Worker claimed that a UFO had visited the site. - <- -- .

SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA of 30 September 1989 noted that media
all over the Soviet Union were receiving reports of UFO sightings on the
ground and in the air, adding that the psper’s editorial office vas
reviewing hundreds of reports related to UFO incidents. in response to
this deluge of reports, the paper interviewed Anatoliy Listratov, chairman
of the section of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodesic Society assigned
to the study of anomalous phenomena, who said that although his group is
“still wandering around in the darkness," some important developments in
the investigations had recently occurred. He stated that "at the sites of
the landings...the operating frequency of a crystal-controlled oscillator
changes. Simply speaking, electronic timepieces run at rates that are
either too fast or too slow."

Listratov noted that Soviet military officers and pilots had recently
Started providing some documentation on UFO sightings. As an example, he
stated that he had documentary information regarding an encounter between
Soviet aircraft and a UFO over the city of Borisov. The crews of two


ae

ee

Soviet aircraft reported seeing a large flying disk in their vicinity with
five beams of light emanating from it: three beams vere directed toward
the ground and two vere projected upward vhen the object was first sighted.
The ground controller instructed one of the planes to alter its course and
approach the object, at which point the disk flew to the same level and
aimed one of its beams at the approaching Sovfet plane, illuminating the
cockpit. Listratov cited the pilot’s log as Stating: “At this time, the
copilot was at the controls. He observed the maneuver that the object had
just carried out and was able to raise his hand to shield himself from the
unbearable light. The aircraft commander vas resting in the adjoining
seat, and a bright ray of light, projecting a spot with a diameter of 20
centimeters, passed across his body. Soth pilots felt heat."

According to Listratov, the aircraft commander and his copilot both
became "invalids" shortly after the incident. The copilot was forced to
leave his job due to a sudden deterioration in his health, including the
onset of sudden prolonged periods of “loss of consciousness." The aircraft
commander died within a few months. The cause of death was listed as
"cancer," and "injury to the organism as a result of radiation from an
unidentified flying object" was listed as a contributing factor on the
official medical record in the hospital where the commander died, according
to Listratov.

the commotion among Soviet scientists and military personnel. Instead of
the widespread skepticism that he had expected when he first began to
interview military personnel, he noted that officers and soldiers had told
him about their own encounters with UFOs, and they had even shown hin
reports that had been completely filled out on official forms.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA of 7 October reported that the Soviet Union had
just opened an official center for the study of UFOs in Moscow.
Physicists, geologists, astronomers, and psychologists are teaching courses
on the various characteristics of the UFOs that have been reported and the
types of equipment necessary to investigate UFO sightings.

- .:.0n 9 October the Soviet news agency TASS reported that a UFO had landed

in a park in the eity of Voronezh. Tass reported that the object had been
observed by many witnesses before it left.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA of 12 October reported that a group of scientists
had visited a field in Pern Oblast to investigate claims that a UFO had
landed in that area and had left behind a circular impression measuring 62
meters in diameter.

KRASNAYA ZVEZDA of 13 October suggested that mass hysteria may be an
important factor contributing to the recent outburst of videspread claims
of encounters vith UFOs in the USSR. According to the Paper, many elements
of the Soviet media vere fanning this phenomenon, which it compared to the
hysteria resulting from Orson Welles’ radio broadcast in 1938 about an
invasion of the United States by extraterrestrials.

The 19-25 October issue of POISK carried an article contrasting the
viewpoints of scientists from the two main Soviet institutes presently


ete

I is ell

»

engaged in investigating UFO reports-—-the newly established center for UFO
studies in the Palace of Culture of Power Engineers in Moscow and the
Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation Institute,
which has branches in Troitsk, Leningrad, and,Irkutsk. Physicist Yuriy
Platov of the Terrestrial Magnetism Institutd does not believe the claims
of scientists who maintain they have found remnants in Dalnegorsk of a UFO
constructed by extraterrestrials, and he is convinced that the materials
found at that site are really only the remnants of the unsuccessful launch
of a Soviet rocket in that region. He believes that many of the other
reports of UFOs can be explained by the inability of the observers to
recognize the phenomenon known as “ball lightning.”

The POISK article contrasted Platov’s view vith that of another
physical scientist, Vladimir Azhazha, vho vas recently elected chairman of
the new All-Union Commission for the Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
of the Union of Scientific and Engineering Societies. Azhazha compared
reports of a UFO crash in the USSR with a claim by UFO enthusiasts in the
United States that a UFO had crashed in the desert near Rosvell, New
Mexico, in 1947. He believes there is sufficient evidence to support the
claims of UFO crashes in both cases--in Dalnegorsk and in Roswell. In the
latter case, he cited the testimony of eyewitnesses who maintained that
they had seen the bodies of four extraterrestrials lying near the smashed
spacecraft. According to Platov, however, the eyewitnesses in the Roswell
case vere mistaken. He believes that the object that crashed was a USAF
experimental rocket with four Rhesus monkeys aboard and that the accident
was the result of an unsuccessful launch attempt at the dawn of the space
era.

SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA of 21 October noted that hundreds of
residents had reported observing a UFO in Omsk and that many of these
eyewitnesses had reported the sighting directly to the paper’s office in
Omsk. The article included a report by an "authoritative" military
officer, Maj V. Loginov, who stated: "I must tell you straight off that
radar did not detect this object, and so I am reporting visual
observations. The object was passing over at an altitude of several
kilometers. The visible shining sphere appeared to be about one and a half
times as large as the moon’s shape in the night sky. Four projectors—-some
parallel and some at angles to the Earth--were casting very bright beams.
The object was in the field of vision for about 5 minutes...hovering...over
the civil airport before descending a little. Then the projectors were
turned off and a whirling plume trail instantaneously appeared around this
shining sphere. The object began to recede rapidly in a direction from the
northwest to the east at the same time that flights were being carried out
from a neighboring airport. Pilots were able to observe it visually, but
they could not detect it on their radar screens.... Radar signals could
not be reflected from it. This object was immediately reported up the
chain-of-command, and our colleagues in the Altay-Kray, in the area toward
which the object flew, reported back to us vithin 5 minutes that they had
it under visual observation. That meant that it had covered a distance of
approximately 600 kilometers at a speed of about 7,000 kilometers per
hour."

According to Loginov, all observations indicated that the object was a
UFO being controlled by some kind of intelligence and that it was not
merely some kind of anomalous atmospheric phenomenon.


AA
SOVETSKAYA KULTURA of 28 October reported on the results of a
conference in Petrozavodsk of about 100 Soviet scientists representing the
“various branches of science and technology." The main topic of discussion
was the multitude of claims of recent UFO sightings in the USSR. According
to SOVETSKAYA KULTURA, more questions about UFOs vere raised at this
conference than were ansvered. — .

‘LITERATURNAYA GAZETA of 1 November reported that Yoronezh, where some

~observers had claimed to have witnessed the landing and take-off of a UFO,

has become the place for a "pilgrimage" by correspondents seeking
sensational news for their newspapers, regardless of the controversial
nature of the so-called "veighty evidence" being presented as proof that
extraterrestrials had visited Voronezh.