VORONEZH September 27, 1989 by Jose Antonio Caravaca

Copyright 2018, Jose Antonio Caravaca

At the end of 1989, the winds of change were blowing in the old European continent. The Soviet Union was finally ready, after decades of isolation, to open up to the Western world. The Berlin Wall, imposed by the communist bloc since the end of the Second World War, was beginning to crack. New times were approaching.

And in the midst of this unprecedented political spiral, an unusual event took place....perhaps the biggest X file of the extinct almighty USSR.

On October 9, 1989, TV stations around the world opened their news programmes with unconventional news. More than one viewer had to rub their eyes, to make sure it wasn't a dream. The news anchors announced that an Unidentified Flying Object had landed in a public park in the Soviet Union, causing great expectation and fear among all the witnesses present, most of whom were children playing soccer.

In addition, to add to the impressive chronicle, Russian scientists were said to be confirming the veracity of the incident and investigating it. Since it was such a "juicy" news story, offered to the western world by the Russian agency Tass, it spread like wildfire and hundreds of newspapers took care to capture in their pages the events that were narrated by the hitherto secretive Soviet Union, as far as unidentified air phenomena were concerned.

It even read on the telex sent to the European agencies that the UFO gave rise to some strange and gigantic beings accompanied by a robot who made a child who was in the vicinity disappear using a kind of ray gun. Some of the press releases published in media: "USSR: Scientists confirm UFO landing". Special Report from the Russian Agency T.A.S.S.: A UFO lands in a park in Voronezh, Russia: Four aliens, 10 meters tall, leave the ship, causing panic among the crowd of spectators. The events happened at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 27, 1989 when several children playing in the park of the Russian city of Voronez and people waiting for the bus had seen a pink light in the sky, which then turned into a dark red balloon about ten metres in diameter.

According to Vladimir Lebedev, a correspondent for the Tass agency in the small Russian town, many children had witnessed the landing of the UFO and the subsequent descent of several aliens into the park. Dressed in a silvery monkey, bronze boots and a 3-meter-high puck on his chest with a tiny head and three eyes, one of the supposed aliens came out of the ship accompanied by a robot. "The extraterrestrial made a sound and drew a light triangle of about thirty by fifty centimetres on the earth, which quickly disappeared. The strange creature touched the robot's chest, and it began to walk. At that moment, one of the children shouted in terror, and the alien looked at him and the little boy was paralyzed. "Then, the alien pointed an `arm' at one of the young men, an object similar to a half-meter long tube, and the boy disappeared instantly, to reappear when the being returned to his ship and it left at high speed.

But the most irritating aspect of the matter, as the headline precisely indicated, was the confirmation of the phenomenon by scientists from the University of Voronezh "A team of scientists from the Voronezh geophysics Laboratory, 500 km from Moscow, confirmed the recent landing of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), while locating alien footprints, which, according to eyewitnesses, were three to four metres long. "We have identified the landing site using biolocation systems," said Tass Genrij Silanov, head of Voronez's geophysics laboratory. "We detected a circle of 20 meters in diameter, in which four slots of 4 to 5 cm in depth and 14 to 16 cm in diameter each are visible at the four points of a rhombus. We found a mysterious red stone." The scientist added that the analysis of the mysterious red rock showed that there are no analogous substances on Earth, although more research is needed for a definitive conclusion. Journalist Vladimir Ledevev indicated that the scientists of the Geophysical Laboratory also found a hole in which, according to the analyses, the alleged extraterrestrials took samples from the ground. 

CHRONICLE OF EVENTS

After such a dazzling start, little by little, and after occupying dozens of reports in Spain, even the prestigious news program Informe Semanal took care to send a correspondent to Voronezh and provided viewers a short documentary with exclusive images of the park and interviews with young witnesses,. It was then that the case began to fall into a clear decline. To this I contribute notably that in the subsequent news that became known about the sensational incident, it was said that the supposed UFO of Voronezh had in its fuselage the "ummite" symbol so well known in our country and linked to the controversial affair "Ummo". The report itself, broadcast on Spanish public television, concluded that the landing could possibly have been a gross lie, caused by the "economic hardship" of the inhabitants of Voronez. It was also intended to link the alleged staging to the recent opening of the USSR to the world, through "Perestroika" and even to be a simple political ploy that served to divert media attention from other more important issues in the country. I do not see much to contribute to the credibility of the event, the testimonies offered by the journalists were reduced to a group of children who mentioned the use of ray guns' by the alleged aliens.  

Days after the initial uproar, the Russian Ministry of the Interior itself was skeptical about the event, and the Ministry of Defence stated that it was not a matter for it. In fact, on 29 October 1989, the Soviet authorities announced that after sending an official commission of inquiry to investigate the matter, no evidence had been found in the area to confirm the astonishing landing, although strangely enough they admitted that they had detected abnormal radioactivity in the park.

In the United States, the homeland of the UFOs, as in the old continent, the news was taken as an anecdote and some opinions expressed to the press by experts and scholars expressed a certain disbelief and suspicion, although some people trusted Tass's report blindly. But a few months later, with little, if any, credible information coming from the East, almost no one was convinced of the authenticity of the impressive news and the matter was wrapped up in a strange atmosphere, and two possible culprits for the hoax were found. On the one hand, it was the hot and imaginative minds of children, too fond of science fiction and Russia's desire to show the world that Perestroika had reached the flying saucers... 

TRUTHS AND LIES OF A MEDIA UFO LANDING

To analyze what can be hidden behind the episode of the spectacular nature and repercussions of  the  alleged Voronezh landing, we must analyze the details of the experience, point by point, with all the information we have. For the time being, it must be said that with the exception of the outstanding researcher Jacques Vallée, no renowned Western ufologist went to the city of Voronezh with the intention of revealing the enigma. For the time being, suffice it to say, for anyone who thinks that the matter can be resolved at the stroke of a pen, Vallée himself in his book, co-authored with the scientific journalist of the prestigious daily newspaper Le Figaro, Martine Castello "UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat", stated that there are signs of reality in the case.

On his visit to the town in 1990, although he was not at all convinced of what had happened there, he discovered that he could be misinformed from the outset so that the landing would soon be forgotten and not taken seriously beyond Russia's borders. Therefore, many data and information may not match the true nature of the phenomenon manifested in Voronezh. The use of the "ummite" symbol is one of the issues that made Vallée most doubtful, at first, about the credibility of the landing and at the same time would confirm to him, once his investigations had been carried out, the possible involvement of "external agents" to the witnesses to add fraudulent details to the experience.

The manipulation obviously has to have a purpose, to detract from the credibility and create confusion, so there must be some truth behind the unique UFO episode (although it must be borne in mind that the "ummite" symbol is very similar to the letter Z in Cyrillic and therefore perhaps the witnesses saw it on the UFO). As an example of the interest in settling the matter in a fast and thorough way, let's see the following press release reproduced just two days after the exclusive and whose devastating headline speaks for itself, without the need to entertain oneself in reading the rest of the text: THE TASS CORRESPONDENT WHO GAVE THE UFO NEWS, A VODKA LOVER. 

"The deputy editor-in-chief of the Soviet news agency Tass, Igor Yefimov, said he does not believe in the UFO story of the Russian city of Voronezh released the day before yesterday by an agency correspondent known for his love of vodka. "Reporter Vladimir Ledebev will have to examine the case with a magnifying glass," said Yefimov." 

Obviously this information was intended to demolish the case without contemplation... But we will try to reconstruct the plot of this incredible story...

WHAT HAPPENED IN VORONEZH?

Voronezh has about one million inhabitants and is one of the most important cities in Russia, although here in the West hardly anyone had heard of it until the issue of "aliens" was mentioned. At the end of September 1989, there were several UFO sightings over this locality, during at least 5 consecutive days (9/23-27/1989), which culminated in the supposed landing of an aircraft in a public park called Yuzhniy, and the subsequent landing of several humanoids before dozens of witnesses. On September 27, 1989, around 6:30 p.m., at least 20 people waiting for the bus at a stop near the site watched as an orange light from the sky slowly descended on the grove of trees (some sources indicate that the UFO could have made several approaches before landing, appearing and disappearing). As it approached, the light turned into a bright red balloon about 10 meters in diameter. A group of children playing soccer also sighted the object and ran in haste, along with other passers-by who were walking around, to the place where it looked like it was going to land.  Through a small "hatch" that was opened in the object a humanoid figure seemed to inspect the best place to land. The rare artifact landed in a small clearing, using four "legs" as a landing gear. The UFO was shaped like a melon and the measurements estimated by the witnesses would indicate that it was about 15 meters long, 4 meters wide and about 8 meters high, being of a color similar to bronze (some accounts speak of a rather reddish color and the existence of 2 windows in the shape of an ox eye on the left side).

Immediately a door was opened, and an indeterminate group of beings, three according to most sources, descended down a ladder, accompanied by a dark coloured headless robot (although they cannot agree if they all went down at the same time and if after the first inspection observation of the humanoid the hatch was closed at some point and then reopened). The robot is clearly identified by the cores as its appearance and unnatural mechanical movements were evidence of this. The humanoids are more than three meters high, have anthropomorphic characteristics and were muscular in build (other descriptions refer to very long arms). They wore silver one-piece suits and wore tall bronze boots. The particularity of these beings lay in their tiny heads, in comparison to their bodies, and in having three eyes on their faces. The head is only described in passing, although in some illustrations it has the shape of a flattened dome (!), (although it seems that this description belongs to another close encounter that occurred months before and in another place).

Some of the children due to the large height of the humanoids could not even see the head of the giants. The central eye, which was located on the forehead, was described as "a rotating radar" and the nostrils as two simple holes. The head always remained static and did not turn at any time, the existence of a neck was not mentioned. On the chest of the beings was a disc with several marks and on the waist protruded a rectangle (a belt with some kind of instrumentation?). One of the humanoids emitted a strange sound and traced a light triangle of about 30 by 50 cm on the earth that disappeared instantly. (It is not specified with what instrument it performed this function).

This same crewman touched the robot on the chest, where he had several square "buttons", and the robot began to move around the area mechanically. (In one version of the story it is mentioned that it was the robot who drew the luminous triangle on the ground). One of the children watching the scene with a large number of adults shouted in fear and one of the humanoids threw a light beam at him with the "third" eye that instantly paralyzed him. The other beings seemed to be in a hurry, collecting samples from the ground in close proximity to the artifact and depositing them in a kind of bag they carried.  It was also noted that some of the witnesses suffered headaches, vomiting and dizziness during and after the incident. One of the other young people who was in the group, a 16-year-old teenager, was the protagonist of the most disconcerting episode.

One of the humanoids pointed a 50 cm "tube" at the boy, and after throwing a beam of light at him, the teenager disappeared before the astonished gaze of the crowd. He only reappeared again once the giants, after a few minutes, embarked again on their ship and it quickly disappeared flying towards the sky. Some witnesses reported that the UFO briefly reappeared again, flashing several times.

Since that afternoon in the city, there had been no talk of anything other than the extravagant encounter with the supposed giants in the park. Most of the children involved belonged to the secondary school located at 33 Putilin Street in Voronezh, some of them being identified by the press with names and surnames; Roman Milkin, Evgeni Blinov, Yura Grinlov, Denis Murzenko, Yura Sergachov, Volodia Startshev, Aliosha Nikonov, Julia Shoojova, Basia Surin and Zheila Blinov, ranging in age from 12 to 16.

DECIPHERING THE ENIGMA

And soon after, after learning of the persistent and numerous rumours about the sighting of a UFO, the scientist Genrij Silanov, head of the Voronez Geophysics Laboratory and a leading member of a research group on anomalous phenomena in the city, appeared in the park, so it is assumed that his participation in the case was due more to a private initiative than to a determination by the aforementioned institution to clarify the facts.  To locate the exact landing site he used a means defined by the press as "biolocation systems", which is not a revolutionary or sophisticated instrument, but rather the traditional dowsing rods or a similar rhabdomance tool (used to search for water, for example).

This information is contradictory, since there are many witnesses to the case and none of them placed Silanov at the site of the footprints of the alleged UFO, unless we suppose that the investigator went alone to the area without the help of eyewitnesses. Also, if he appeared at the 18:30 hour, it would have been completely at night and locating the place correctly would have been difficult, as the park was large with very similar areas and vegetation.

But let us take up again the inquiries of the Soviet ufologist. At the site of the alleged landing, Silanov discovers, as he would later point out to the press (specifically to the journalist Vladimir Lebedev), four footprints similar to the footprints of an elephant, forming a diamond, which he attributes to the UFO's "legs" and a circular footprint of 20 metres in diameter (no details are given of how this enormous footprint can be distinguished with the naked eye on the ground, since it is not pointed out whether it is burnt, dried or crushed grass or shrubs. It is also possible that Silanov, using the rods, concluded that these 20 metres in diameter were "energetically" affected by the phenomenon reported by the witnesses. On the other hand, the marks caused by the "legs" could be measured and photographed, and were between 4/5 cm deep and 14/16 cm in diameter. The weight of the device was estimated at about 11 tons, Jacques Vallée stated in his book that it was fully in line with the range of estimates reached by French scientists studying physical markings on UFO landings in France.

The height of the "legs" should be considerable, as the branches are not twisted or broken, and the giants worked in the surrounding area with some comfort. It is also important to note that 3 of the tracks were quite close to no more than 1´ from the each other, and the fourth was the one that was the furthest away, perhaps about 3 meters.

In the same area, the Russian scientist found a strange dark red stone, similar to sandstone (some quotes speak of two red stones) that at first after a mineralogical examination was said to be a rock unknown on our planet. A few days later, however, the press announced in a new issue that "once the stone has been analysed" no foreign components were detected.

One of the most important and disconcerting elements found at the landing site is when Silanov discovers that there is a high degree of radioactivity among the four tracks. This detail is subsequently made official by a state "commission", in which Stanislav Kádmenski (head of the Chair of Nuclear Physics at the University of Voronezh) who was concerned about the public health of the people of Voronezh. Although he is negative about the alleged landing of a UFO, he confirmed that twice as much radioactivity as usual was recorded in the area. The group, headed by Igor Sarotsev, vice-rector of the University of Voronezh, concluded that the presence of a higher than average amount of caesium, a radioactive isotope, is not sufficient evidence. Since the Chernobyl disaster, caesium has been found in higher than normal quantities in many areas of our country. But it is shocking that the only place in the vast park that registers this abnormal degree of radioactivity was precisely among the four marks that are supposed to have been left by the landing of a UFO. At least it's a very suspicious indication that is covered up with a half-truth.

It is true that many Russian towns were affected by the terrible Chernobyl accident, even the pollution reached European cities, some maps of the "contagion" do not point to Voronezh until the day of the landing, being some 300 kilometres from the nearest town affected by the escape. It was also noted that in some samples taken from the area of the alleged landing, high doses of phosphorus were found that could not be explained.

BEYOND FRAUD

But there are further indications that something strange has taken place in Voronezh.

Journalists from the EFE agency who phoned the police in the city to try to corroborate the Tass' telex were pleasantly surprised. The Militia headquarters (uniformed police) reported that for several days, between September 23 and 27, they received dozens of calls announcing the appearance in the skies of strange lights and even reported alleged encounters with aliens.  But that's not the end of the story.

V. Pereverzev, a local militia officer, told the Western press agency that he had "accompanied scientists from the city's abnormal phenomena study section, who dug a 35-centimeter-deep, 2.0105-meter-diameter hole in which they found unknown metal slag that does not react with any acid. These findings were also attributed to the scientific commission that claimed to have found up to 17 fragments of a mysterious material. The results of these elements were never made public, even though other Soviet researchers claimed them.

But it seems that censorship was not only exercised in the laboratory. The Spanish journalists, sent by the Weekly Report to Voronezh to cover the news, were not allowed to interview the adults and were only allowed to speak with Genrij Silanov and several children leaving a picture for the Western public that the case was the result of the children's imagination.

This was a ridiculous and lax attitude, as there was the presence of several adults, between 30 and 40, who had witnessed the landing. To this end, we read some press reports from the same date: "Several dozen people waiting for the bus witnessed the arrival of an unidentified flying object at 6.30 p.m.". According to Sovietskaya Kultura's correspondent in Perm, E. Yefremov: "The place was crowded with people waiting for the bus and the crowd could see clearly how the (UFO) gate was opening and the humanoid that appeared in the opening...".

But there are even more arguments to prove the existence of a disinformation and smear campaign orchestrated from the highest levels to counter the growing popularity of the landing. Dozens of adult witnesses appeared on Russian television themselves, confirming in their own words the story told by children, which is why it is not understood why the case was said to be only supported by adolescents. Police Lieutenant C. A. Matveyev told the cameras what he saw that afternoon: "I was in the south park, near the road, and I saw a flying object at a height of 200 and 250 meters. The officer told the press that he was a bit skeptical when he first observed the UFO, thinking he was very tired: "But I rubbed my eyes and it didn't leave. Then I realized, on that day, that anything was possible. His companion Captain C.H. Okunev also observed the UFO: "It stayed at the same height as it moved horizontally. That interested me very much, because it could not be a weather balloon." Albert Corchagin, metallurgical worker added more disconcerting details: "There was a squeak, like a drill putting a hole in the ground." Another adult witness, Alexander Kustischev, spoke of humanoids in the following way: "They were huge, bigger than us, and looked very strong." Some of the boys were even interviewed after a few years and re-affirmed their first statements. Sergei Makarov said he remembered a large number of people standing next to him watching the landing "all scared... all pale...".

Vladimir A. Moiseyev, director of the Voronezh regional health department, said that none of the witnesses came to the emergency room, but that as a precaution, all of them should have had a medical examination, although none of this was reportedly done.

However, it was never possible to clarify one of the details that most intrigued the researchers, including Jacques Vallée himself, in view of the impossibility of locating the alleged young man who disappeared when he received the light beam from the tube directed at him by one of the humanoids. No one was able to give clear details about this substantial part of the experience. However, the definitive proofs on this spectacular close encounter may be sleeping in some dark filing cabinet, awaiting another revolutionary Perestroika...

 JAC