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The Russian Roswell Case

In a speech at the 1992 MUFON [Mutual UFO Network] Symposium, Major-General Pavel Popovich, a pioneer cosmonaut who had been designated a “Hero of the Soviet Union” and was the president of the All-Union Ufology Association of the Commonwealth of Independent States, said:

Today it can be stated with a high degree of confidence that observed manifestations of UFOs are no longer confined to the modern picture of the world. . . . The historical evidence of the phenomenon . . . allows us to hypothesize that ever since mankind has been co-existing with this extraordinary substance, it has manifested a high level of intelligence and technology. The UFO sightings have become the constant component of human activity and require a serious global study. . . . The scientific study of the UFO phenomenon should take place in the midst of other sciences dealing with man and the world.¹

January 29, 1986, Dalnegorsk, Soviet Union: About 8 p.m., many citizens of this small mining city near the southeastern coast of Russia began observing a reddish spherical object flying parallel to the ground; it made no sounds as it continued its flight. It was later determined that the speed of the object was slow, approximately 15 meters per second (34 miles per hour) and that it had been flying about seven hundred to eight hundred meters (2,500 feet) above the ground.

The process of the descent was described differently by different eyewitnesses. Some said the object fell down with a flash and was not visible after that; others claimed it oscillated in altitude above the hill, radiating light of varying intensity as it went up and down. The light given off by the object was described by some as resembling the flames of a forest fire, and the light lasted for approximately one hour.

Two days later, Valeri Dvuzhilini, a member of the Academy of Sciences, was the first to arrive on the scene. He collected samples of an unidentified metallic mesh that was scattered around the site and samples of rocks and vegetation that had been scorched in the crash.

The impact site was two meters wide and two meters long (six feet by six feet). The ground looked like it had been burned at very high temperatures. The rocks at the impact site were covered with a black film, and the remnants of a burned tree were found within the landing zone. The remnants were not typical of a forest fire.

On some of the rocks were drops of a silvery metal, which were later analyzed and determined to be lead. The type of lead found in local lead deposits. In addition, black, glassy, drop-shaped beads were found scattered about the site. In all, approximately seventy grams of lead, five grams of metallic mesh fragments, and forty grams of beads were discovered.

Geiger counter readings determined that the radiation level in the landing zone was normal. Dvuzhilini’s group took pictures of the site using two different cameras; however, the film later developed as blank.

Chemical analyses of the beads showed they were mostly composed of lead, silicon, and iron. Some of the drops contained significant amounts of zinc, bismuth, and rare earth mineral elements. An analysis of the soil, rocks, and burned wood taken from the landing ground was also performed. It was noted that the chemical composition was similar to the composition of similar samples taken from the site of the Tunguska event, a large explosion that flattened 770 square miles of forest in central Russia in 1908. That event is generally attributed to an exploding meteor.

The mesh fragments were also analyzed. It was found that the fragments were composed of a material that did not dissolve in strong acids or organic solvents, even when exposed to high temperatures for prolonged periods of time. One of the mesh fragments was discovered to be composed of scandium, gold, lanthanum, sodium, and samarium.

An analysis of another mesh fragment showed gold, silver, and nickel. After that fragment was heated in a vacuum, these elements did not show up; however, molybdenum and rhenium were detected.

The concentration of gold detected in one of the mesh fragments was equivalent to 1,100 grams per metric ton. This is much higher than gold deposits in the region. Ore becomes economic to extract when the concentration of gold reaches four grams per metric ton. There are no gold deposits in Dalnegorsk that contain gold at concentrations high enough to extract.

Altogether, three Soviet academic centers and eleven research institutes analyzed the materials from the alleged UFO crash site. Additional conclusions of these analyses include that the distance between atoms is different from ordinary iron and that radar signals 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 antigravitational properties.

This is a better case than the Roswell incident because it was properly investigated, with the materials collected and then immediately turned over to a number of reputable labs for analysis. At the time, during the cold war, the Soviets assumed it was probably the result of American technology. However, nothing quite like it has ever turned up in the United States.

CONCLUSION

This “Russian Roswell” case was not dismissed by the government. It appears that the debris material in this case was anomalous in several ways. The various elements are well known on Earth, but we should not necessarily expect extraterrestrial objects to be otherwise. However, we should expect that different fabrication techniques and processes would produce unknown features, as shown in the samples from this incident.