(Russia’s Rowell Incident: And Other Amazing UFO Cases From The Former Soviet Union, Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, www.roswellbooks.com, Edinburg, Texas 20012, 288 pages, $14.95.)
The book begins with what Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle believe to be a first-class Russian UFO crash: a strange spherical object that had exploded soundlessly into Hill 611 in Siberia on January 29, 1986. The object flew erratically before “jerking” to the ground at Dalnegorsk in Eastern Siberia near Vladivostok. Two girls said the UFO “jumped” four times.
ANALYSIS
Analysis of the remains were conducted by a number of scientists including V. Vysotky, Doctor of Chemistry, Dr. V. Skavinsky of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and Soviet scientist Anatoly Listratov. In 2000, four Japanese and Korean expeditions converged on the site. Samples contained all the elements in the Mandeleyev Table, but when melted in a vacuum, “strange glass-like structures appear: the carbides of the metal elements are absent.” Gold, silver and nickel disappeared after five months and molybdenum and beryllium appeared. The material resisted acids. The “netting” was a dialectic substance. When heated, it becomes a semi-conductor, but in a vacuum it is a conductor; the ‘‘iron balls” were separate mixtures of aluminum, manganese, nickel, chromium, tungsten, and cobalt.
ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM
The Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada remarks: “Three Soviet academic centers and 11 research institutes analyzed the objects from this UFO crash.The distance between atoms is different than ordinary iron. Radar cannot be reflected from the material. Elements in the material may disappear and new ones appear after heating. One piece disappeared completely in front of four witnesses.The core of the material is composed of a substance with anti-gravitational properties.”
Interestingly, on January 28, 1986, the American space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 46,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.
The area continued to be a hot-spot for UFO sightings.
TUNGUSKA
The book spends considerable time examining the famous June 30, 1908 Tunguska explosion where a mysterious object flattened more than 1,300 square miles of forest with no residual crater. The mass of the object was estimated at 100,000 tons and the force of the explosion from 15 to 40 megatons of TNT.
The authors bring all prevailing theories and findings on the case and allow the reader to speculate as to the cause.
EXPEDITIONS TO THE SITE
One peculiarity of the object was a reported seeming change of the course above Siberia over Baikal. Other witnesses said they saw ‘two’ objects: one in the south and another in the east: both at different times.
Several expeditions to the impact area have been made over the years, some having recorded more information than others. Alexander Petrovitcvh Kazantsev was first to mention an ET spacecraft. In 1949, Soviet Statesman Lavrenty Beria speculated about a nuclear-powered device, and sponsored an expedition to the area.They concluded that a megaton explosion occurred about 12 miles above the earth. There was no radiation of any importance in the area.
COMET OR OTHER
Ball lightning, an unusual earthquake, a volcanic eruption were other theories. Speculation about a meteorite or a comet was popular from 1927 to about 1934, but in 1945 the ET craft theory emerged. In 1947 the additional theory was that the object was actually “anti-matter.” The 50s and 60s had various bizarre theories ranging from a planet named Phaeton to a ‘cloud of dense mosquitoes.’
Scientists Aleksey Dmitriyev and Victor Zhuravlyou found those six months after the explosion that the Irkutsk Observatory recorded a six-hour magnetic storm. In 1991, Russian engineer E. Krutelev said the explosion was not a “crash” but actually a “take-off” of a spaceship that caused the damage. Professor A. Zolotov speculated it was an ET ‘bomb.’
Scientist Ramachandran Ganapathy found iridium in the soil of the Taigain in the Antarctica, small spheres that denoted to him an ET origin of the Tunguska object. Looking deep into the ice of the first twenty years of the 20th century, he found that in 1909 there existed sub-micron size debris on dust grains which were rich in meteoric materials from atmospheric fallout.This material indicated to his scientists that the Tunguska object would be an estimated seven-million–ton, 524-foot-diameter body.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL MACHINE
In 2004, the Tunguska Spatial Phenomena Foundation of Krasnoyarsk discovered “blocks” in Tungusaka that were claimed to be “chunks” of an extraterrestrial machine that crashed in 1908, along with a mysterious “stone” called the ‘Reindeer Stone.’ Expedition-leader Yuri Lavbin speculated that a flying machine collided with a comet six miles above Tunguska; Lavbin found two cube-shaped black stones that resembled alloys used in space rockets. In 2009, Lavbin modified his theory to include additional pieces of an alien control panel as “quartz slabs with strange markings,” indicating an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to diminish the Tunguska “meteor’s” full impact.
CONSENSUS
Consensus about the Tunguska ‘object’ stood with either a comet or a meteoroid of about 100 meters and travelling about 60,000 kph, possibly 130.000 mph, burning up to 30 million degrees Fahrenheit (La Maire, 1980), weighing from 1,000 to 25,000 tons. Tiny magnetite and silicate globules at the site support a comet (Kridec, Hughes, Whipple (1963, 1975, and 1976). In 2010, Vladimir Alekseev of Trinity Research examined the Suslov crater, as the Tunguska epicenter had been called, with ground penetrating radar. It indicated ice was an ingredient
ASTROIDAL
In 1983, however, astronomer Zdenek Sekanina said the object was asteroidal. Farinella, Foschini and Christopher Chyba (2001) said they believed the object came from the asteroid belt. In the 1990s, physicist Giuseppe Longo did a study of tree rings from that period and analysis seemingly showed that it was an asteroidal object.
Scientists point to meteoric “airbursts” of the 1930 Curuca River object in Brazil. Recently, there was the February 15, 2013 ‘air burst’ at Chelyabinsk in Ural, Russia.
The February 15 object was determined to have been about 10,000 tons and from the Apollo family of asteroids in the asteroid belt. It was traveling at an estimated 13 to 19 kilometers per second. It caused 33 million dollars’ worth of damage and injured about 1,500 people. It was estimated to have been 30 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb blast.
So far the two competing theories about the Tunguska object are unresolved.
UFOs OVER RUSSIA
The greater part of the book concerns classical but little known cases of Russian UFOs such as the UFOs that occasionally appear over KaputinYar Test Range, as well as the Cosmodrome, where a secreted ‘flying saucers research laboratory’ resides. In spring, 1979, Nilolai Semirek spotted on radar equipment targets that could move 200 miles in 50 seconds; hundreds were noted in the skies.
On March 25, 1990, personnel at the Nalchik Air Detachment, as well as the crew of a Mi-2 helicopter, observed on radar equipment and otherwise visually a spherical UFO playing “chicken” with the helicopter crew.
A UFO was seen visually and also detected on radar equipment at Samara on September 13, 1990. The triangle-shaped UFO landed just outside a fence and emitted three bluish rays. An antenna next to the fence burned and its drive mechanism was shattered. There were several military witnesses.
Pages 87-93 contain many similar reports.
THE BLUE FILES
On October 24, 1991, secret KGB UFO documents, called the Blue Folder, were given to the then President of the All-Union Ufological Association, Pavel Popovich. It entailed 1300 documents related to UFOs. In 1991 the joint American-Soviet Aerial Anomaly Federation (JASAAF) was formed. Popovich was required to sign a special document stating he did not disclose any state secrets.
EXTENSIVE LORE
Russian lore also gives an ear to legends, such as the planet “Phaeton” (also called “Moonah”) whose inhabitants still visit the Earth since a planetary catastrophe with our planet eons ago.Their home bases are in allegedly multiple hidden locations around the globe:
”In Celtic mythology there is a legend of a cave called ‘Cruachan,’ also known as ‘Ireland’s gate to Hell,’ a legendary and ancient cave from which according to legend strange creatures would emerge in ancient times and be seen on the surface of the earth,” speaking of Hidden Civilizations, Wikipedia authors and also John and Carole Barrowman in Hollow Earth: Hypotheses: Ancient History, give insightful comments: “There are also stories of medieval knights and saints who went on pilgrimages to a cave located in Station Island, County Donegal in Ireland, where they made journeys inside the earth into a place of purgatory. There is an Irish myth which says tunnels in County Down, Northern Ireland lead to the land of the subterranean Tuatha de Danaan, a group of people who are believed to have introduced Druidism to Ireland, and then went back underground.”
SUBTERRANEAN LAND
They go on to say: “An ancient legend of the Angami Naga tribes of India claim that their ancestors emerged in ancient times from a subterranean land inside the earth. There are legends from the Taíno people that their ancestors emerged in ancient times from two caves in a mountain underground.
“It is the belief of the natives of the Malinowski’s Trobriand Islands that their ancestors had come from a subterranean land through a cavern hole called ‘Obukula.’ There is an ancient legend held in Mexican folklore that a cave in a mountain five miles south of Ojinaga, Mexico is possessed by devilish creatures who came from inside the earth.”
LEGENDS SEEM TO SUBSTANTIATE
The authors continue: “There was an ancient myth held in the middle ages that some mountains located between Eisenach and Gotha in Germany hold a portal to the inner earth. There is an Old Russian legend that says the Samoyeds, an ancient Siberian tribe, traveled to an underground cavern city to live inside the earth.
“In Native American mythology, it is said that the ancestors of the Mandan people in ancient times emerged from a subterranean land through a cave at the north side of the Missouri River. There is also a tale about a tunnel in the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona near Cedar Creek, which is said to lead inside the earth to a land inhabited by a mysterious tribe. It is also the belief of the tribes of Iroquois that their ancient ancestors emerged from a subterranean world inside the earth. The elders of the Hopi people believe that a Sipapu entrance in the Grand Canyon exists which leads to the underworld.”
STILL REMAIN
“According to South American mythology the belief of the Brazilian Indians, who live alongside the Parima River in Brazil, claim that their forefathers emerged in ancient times,” the authors say in conclusion, “from an underground land, and that many of their ancestors still remained inside the earth. There are also legends that say the ancestors of the Inca Empire came from underground caves which are located east of Cuzco, Peru.”
TESTS CONFIRM ANOTHER LEGEND
Another legend is the Salyut-7 incident in 1984. Manned by six cosmonauts, on its 155th day of flight, a huge orange cloud of gas enveloped and permeated the space station. The crew became temporarily blinded and lost contact with Mission Control. Looking out into the cloud, the Salyut-7 crew saw humanoids resembling classical angels. The angels smiled in such a way as to give the crew intense feelings of joy and rapture. The apparitions suddenly vanished. The sighting was classified Top Secret. Tests confirmed the cosmonauts of sound mind.
A chapter is dedicated to Central Intelligence Agency’s interest in Russian UFO reports.
CIA INTEREST
“Although we will not list here every single declassified CIA document dealing with Soviet UFOs,” comment the authors, “suffice it to say that the Agency was interested in reports of UFOs whether in statements from top military brass or in reports in the Soviet media.”
Russian UFO reports are no less spectacular than global reports. One such report was on November 3, 1985 on the river Razaolnaya in the vicinity of Vladivostok. A large star-like object sent a beam towards the earth. As the UFO neared the vessel, the boat’s engine stopped. The captain V. Alexandrov started the engine once again only to have the engine stopped again when the UFO hovered over the boat. The two witnesses eventually got the engine started after experimenting with it.The UFO retracted its beam and disappeared as it approached Vladivostok.
On July 28, 1984, servicemen from two Army units near Kapustin Yar observed a UFO that carried a green, phosphorous light about it and blinked a signal-type flash. It flew over the Logistics Yard and moved in the direction of the Rocket Weapons Depot. The UFO maneuvered over the base anywhere from 65 feet to 230 feet. A cigar-shaped UFO joined the first UFO and both disappeared over the horizon. Another object seemed to rise to the flashing UFO.
UNIDENTIFIED SUBMERSIBLE OBJECTS
“….no secret USO files have been declassified for Russia, as its Navy guards their secrets very well,” say the authors, “and least we forget, the Russian Navy will become the world’s second largest in 20 years’ time….as history had demonstrated, the Kremlin had not been able to control unidentified flying and submersible objects. The strange craft crossed the Soviet Union’s borders at will, hovered over its nuclear sites and test ranges, chased fighter jets and seemingly thumbed their noses at all attempts to thwart their purposes.” (p. 183.)
Nine shinning discs circled the Volga submarine-depot-ship on October 7, 1977 and began an eerie dance about the ship for eighteen minutes. This was also seen on the ship’s radar. Radar operators were unable to contact the main base of the northern fleet. To protect their integrity and credibility, Captain 3rd Rank Taranken ordered all observing personnel to make drawings, take photographs. When the UFOs left, radio communications restored.
KVAKERI!
In the late 1960s the Soviet Navy’s High Command nuclear-powered submarines detected strange sounds from moving objects at great depths. The sound resembled frogs croaking.
Soviet Minister of Defense Marshal Andrei Antonovich Grechko inaugurated reconnaissance expeditions to research the Kvakeri. The objects circled the subs and would change the frequencies and tones of their signals. They had great maneuverability and could travel about 22 miles per hour. Sergey Vasilyevich said he was a crew-member abroad a K-433 nuclear submarine at 328 feet during a Kvakeri incident. After an hour of “croaking,” something hit the sub as if a collision had caused the submarine to shudder and shake.
The “Kvakeri” phenomena disappeared in 1985. There was never a satisfactory solution.
YELLOW JOURNALISM
The book highlights, along with many quality photographs, one mystery after another. Such a cavalcade of information surely demonstrates the UFO phenomena to be extent around this planet.
“…Soviet Ufology remained ‘pure’ and free from the influence of yellow and tabloid press,” say the authors, “…the opinions and viewpoints of those who were and are serious in their approach to the study of anomalous phenomena.”
If you would like more informaiton or to purchase this book from AMAZON COM simply click on its title: Russia’s Roswell Incident: And Other Amazing UFO Cases from the Former Soviet Union
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Those who want to reach Steve Erdmann can reach him currently at [email protected] or at [email protected], or through the editor of this magazine.
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UFO over St. Petersburg, Russia
2011 – Red Lights over Moscow
Under the periscope Guided-missile submarine cruiser Typhoon (project 941) Guided-missile submarine cruiser Typhoon (project 941)
The Epicenter of the Explosion
Tunguska
Retired Colonel Boris Sokolov
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