History Of Ufo State Research In The Uss

(B ulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences) HISTORY OF UFO STATE RESEARCH IN THE USSR Yu. Platov, B. Sokolov Dr. Yulii Platov. Leading research scientist at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). He has utilized his expertise for the study of paranormal phenomena including UFOs, and held the position of a Vice Chairman of the RAS expert group, which has been investigating paranormal phenomena from 1977 to 1995. Dr. Boris Sokolov. Colonel of the Soviet Army, he has actively participated in the organization of paranormal phenomenas investigation, as well as its carrying out in the former Soviet Union. In the period 1978-1990, he was the coordinator of these researches in the Army and the RAS, now resigned. The State research program on a physical nature of paranormal atmospheric and space phenomena in the USSR: a history of creation and realization of the program, plus perspectives, and hypotheses for a physical nature of "UFOs". In the mid-70s in the USSR, various public organizations involved "in studying the problems of UFO" became more active, and, as a result, the interest to this problem among the broadest layers of a public considerably increased. The arguing of a problem became a noticeable social phenomenon in the life of the country, especially among the scientific and technical intelligence. The so-called "lectures" (very popular at the time) by the ufologists of the country and numerous materials based on foreign publications (poured oil on the flames?) gave copious food for various kinds of gamble. The managing bodies of the country did not encourage discussions of the problem in mass media, but also did not prohibit the lectures in the institutes, and various companies, including military units. It should be noted that these lectures were rather popular and the lecture halls were always full. The authors of these lectures (of greatest popularity were F. Zigel, the teacher of Moscow Aviation Institute, and V. Azhazha, the retired naval engineer) oriented the students on extraterrestrial origin of the UFO, although there were mentioned and not less extravagant hypotheses of underwater and even underground civilizations contacting with the mankind. Actually, the research on the UFO problems in various public organizations at this period was reduced just to collecting of various information about strange phenomena. The collected data frequently had a rather doubtful origin; they were deformed to unrecognizability by repeated retransmission or were not simply checked. The authors of the "lectures" just postulated the strange phenomena with the activity of extraterrestrial civilizations, and the results from the analysis of the observed data or measurements at the places of UFO landing turned to be, softly speaking, incorrect. However, as at this time all over the world, including the USSR, a line of investigation studying the probability of the plurality of extraterrestrial civilizations (SETI- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and CETI- Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has gained wide development, it was not difficult to create the public opinion on the importance of establishing the contacts with our "brothers". In the course of time, there appeared the publications about the observation of extraordinary light and optical phenomena in various regions of the USSR. In the AS of the USSR, in the newspapers and journals, and in private collections there was gradually accumulated a rather significant quantity of the messages describing various strange things, and the requests to give a scientific or simply reasonable and logical explanation to this "phenomenon". The Department of Physics and Astronomy of AS organized a group of employees headed by V. Leshkovtsev, the scientific secretary of the Department, to work with the letters on these subjects. The task of the group was to file the obtained messages, to consult with the experts involved in various lines of research, to analyze the materials, and answer the letters. It is natural, that such a primitive approach to the organization of the problem research could not bring good results. A comprehensive research of the problem necessarily needed the creation of a team of specialists of various specialization, the coordination of contacts between the Institutes of the AS, the Ministry of Education, Hydro-meteorology Committee and, certainly, the Ministry of Defense, since such a research should have been conducted in tight cooperation with the militaries. A so-called Petrozavodsk phenomenon gave an impact to the deployment of such an organizational activity. On September 20, 1977, late at night, the inhabitants of north- west region of the country have observed (during several minutes) an extraordinary large-scale light phenomenon. The description of this phenomenon based on the words of the eyewitnesses has appeared in the newspaper "IZVESTIA" on September 23 under the title The Unidentified natural phenomenon ". "The Inhabitants of Petrozavodsk were the witnesses of an extraordinary natural phenomenon. On September 20, about four o'clock in the morning, in the dark sky there suddenly appeared a huge "star" with impulsive beams of light coming to the ground. This star" slowly moved toward Petrozavodsk and, hanging over the town as a huge "jellyfish ", illuminated all around with a set of thinnest radial beams, which gave an impression of a down-pour rain. A bit later the irradiation stopped. The "jellyfish" wrapped into a bright half-disk and restored its motion toward the Onega Lake, the horizon of which was covered by grey clouds. Then a round gully of bright red color in the middle and white on each side was formed in the clouds. The observed phenomenon, under the testimonies of the eyewitnesses, proceeded 10-12 minutes. Yu. Gromov, the director of Petrozavodsk hydrometeorology observatory, has told to the correspondent of TASS, that the workers of the hydrometeorology service of Kareliya observed no analogies in nature... " The eyewitnesses of this colorful phenomenon were rather numerous, and among them were representatives of different professions: the workers of a brigade of first aid, on duty employees of militia, seamen and the dockers of Petrozavodsk lake port, military men, staff of the airport, and even the astronomer - fan. Thus, the fact of observation by the inhabitants of Petrozavodsk of an extraordinary light phenomenon was indisputable and did not call doubts. It was soon found out that at the same time a similar picture was observed in the sky in the regions rather removed from Petrozavodsk: the northwest region of the USSR and even Finland (Sadankul), where some photos of this phenomenon were made. It is clear, that the title of the phenomenon - "Petrozavodsk" - is of a rather conditional character. It was impossible to disregard or simply to wave away from such an event, and in this connection, the local authorities have addressed the Presidium of the AS of USSR with the request to explain an origin of the observed phenomenon. At the same time, the AS and the newspapers have been flowed by the letters concerning this matter: what has taken place in the night sky above Petrozavodsk that September night? The same problem was posed in the official letters from the countries of northern Europe addressed to the President of the AS. In these letters there was expressed a concern, whether the observable effects come from any military-technical experiments, and present danger to the natural environment of this region. Under the pressure of these circumstances, the President of the URSS Academy of Sciences, academician Anatoly Aleksandrov, signed a letter to the USSR government. Addressed to L. Smirnov, the Vice-president of the government and simultaneously the Chairman of Military-Industrial Commission (MIC), with a request to consider in the urgent order a possibility to start a complex research of paranormal phenomena, similar to the "Petrozavodsk" one. The research should broadly involve the organizations of the Ministry of Defense and war industry. Pursuant to the order adopted in that time, L. Smirnov, the Chairman of MIC, entrusted one of the assistants, academician A. Schukin, who was the Chairman of Scientific and Technical Council (STC) of MIC, to consider at the nearest meeting of STC the topics listed in the letter by the President of the AS of the USSR. Such a meeting was held in October 1977 in Kremlin under the presidency of general - Lieutenant B. A. Kijasov, one of the assistants of academician A. Schukin. Opening the meeting, B. Kijasov briefly stated the contents of academician . Aleksandrov's letter to MIC. The essence was stacked in one phrase: "The Academy of Sciences of USSR can neither ignore, or explain the paranormal phenomena similar to that observed in September, 1977 in Petrozavodsk, and, in this connection, the AS asks to organize a complex research of paranormal phenomena with the involvement of organizations of the Ministry of Defense and MIC." The MIS members speaking after B. Kijasov supported the proposal of the President of AS. They have noted, that the information on the observation of extraordinary phenomena comes to the organizations of the Ministry of Defense from the military men as well, and during such events sometimes were marked the cases of violation in the operation of the means of maintenance of the army forces. The meeting resulted in the solution to recommend the MIC to include into the state plan for 1978 research works on defensive subjects a complex research program on a theme "Research of paranormal atmospheric and space phenomena, the reasons of their origin and influence on the operation of the military-means and condition of a personnel". The STC recommended (before the end of 1977) to send to Petrozavodsk a group of experts, including the militaries, so that just at the place to understand what actually happened in this region on September 20. The recommendation of STC was adopted by the MIC under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and at the nearest updating of the current five years' plan of research activities on defensive subjects has included into the plan for 1978 two topics on studying the paranormal phenomena: * "Setka MO" (Ministry of Defense) - "Research of paranormal atmospheric and space phenomena and their influence on the operation of military technical equipment and personnel"; * "Setka AS" (Academy of Sciences) - "Research of a physical nature and mechanisms of paranormal atmospheric and space phenomena". Thus, in 1978 in the USSR the state program of studying the UFO phenomenon started, and proceeded without interruption for 13 years down to 1990. The STC MIC meeting in October 1977, which played a so important role in the organization of this research program, was the first and last measure with a so high official level of the participants engaged in the problem. Later still twice, in 1981 and 1986, the five years' plans of research activities on defensive subjects were approved which included the scientific-research-work on paranormal phenomena. It should be noted that after the stopping of the activity performed at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences, the group of experts continued its work up to 1996. The task of the group was to analyze the materials coming from the eyewitnesses to the Academy of Sciences. Nowadays such messages are rare, and they pass expertise in Department. After STC MIC meeting in October, 1977 the representatives of the State Machinery, including the members of STC MIC, started to display keen interest to the problem of UFO (paranormal phenomena), and some of them have personally participated in separate episodes of the researches. Nevertheless, the official recognizing of an urgency of studying of the paranormal phenomena was incomplete and has not become a well-known fact. In the official documents the use of an abbreviation "UFO" was not accepted, instead of it the term paranormal phenomenon was used. The use of a word combination "paranormal phenomena" was determined in the main by two reasons: the word combination "paranormal phenomenon" corresponds better to the nature of the observed effects than the one unidentified flying object", and was not connected with the fever around "aliens, arriving on flying saucers". To decrease a public resonance from the certification of the activities on "UFO" the researches were classified. It was stipulated at least by three circumstances: * This program of activities formally entered the classified plan of activities on defensive subjects; * In the beginning of the activities there was assumed a high probability of a military- technical origin of the observed strange effects; * A capability of a military use of some probable properties of the UFO, in case of a successful solution of the posed problems, - absence of a radar contrast, high maneuverability, etc. In connection with the classified character of the activities on this problem the number of publications in press was rather limited, and it has been recommended that the publications on "UFO" should be directed for reviewing (do not confuse with censorship) in the AS of the USSR. The decision of MIC actually created two centers of UFO research: In the Ministry of Defense and in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The lines of research differed in the sources of the data. The MD worked with the data coming from various kinds of troops, and the AS conducted the research based on the messages assembled in scientific organizations, Hydrometeorology Committee, the newspapers and journals, etc. Certainly, there were differences in the purposes of the spent activity, and this is seen just from the titles of the topics. One of the main objectives of the military men was to find out possible influence of "UFO" on the operation of the military technical equipment and the personnel and, "if yes ", what is the mechanism of this influence and how far dangerous is it. The Academy of Sciences put as the main problem the study into the physical nature of the paranormal phenomena, i.e. modelling of the processes of development and vanishing of the unknown effects, their correlation with physical conditions in the environment and probable anthropogenic effect on nature. It is clear, that these research lines partially intersected and supplemented each other. It is also obvious, that only joint efforts in the research could result in fast and adequate solution of the posed problems. The leading institution of the military part of the program of UFO research was one of the central military research institutes in the Moscow region. Its Chief, V. Balashov, a very qualified expert in the field of studying the effect of radiation and other striking factors on military technical equipment, was assigned scientific chief of this line of activities. To fulfil the research, a small group of military and civil experts (including four or five persons, depending of years) was formed at the MD head institute, and as a matter of fact, the group has executed the main scope of work on collecting the messages about observations of "UFO", their processing and analysis, preparation of the account documents. Naturally, except the MD head institute, some other MD organizations from various kinds of the armed forces, the scientific institutions of war industrial (by a total number about 15) became the executors of the program. The formation of a structure of the program executors was made without enforcement, on the voluntary basis, and the participation of these organizations in particular activities on identification of "UFO" was also voluntary and, as a rule very limited. Academician V. Migulin was the Director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of AS of the USSR (IZMIRAN). A radio physicist, a great expert in the field of the theory of oscillations, propagation of the radio waves and radiolocation- He was assigned Chief of an "academic" direction of research, and IZMIRAN was determined as the head institute in this field of activity. Like in the MD, a workgroup of 4-5 persons was formed for direct activity on the topic of research. The group was headed by Yulii Platov. The institutes of the AS, the institutions of Hydrometeorology Committee, and the Ministry of Education became the organization -executors. Their participation in the work varied from the collecting of the messages on the observations of "UFO" to the particular analysis of the material and development of physical models for various kinds of paranormal phenomena. The budget financing of the research program included the salary of the experts occupied in these activities and the costs of business trips. All the money was coming from the budget of organizations - executors and there was no special financing of the It should be noted that the program of the paranormal phenomena investigation was the most inexpensive one, if not the cheapest, among the scientific works on defensive subjects. The shortage of financing did not allow certain developments as well as to acquire additional specialized equipment to make special experiments, and, therefore some of the scheduled researches, in particular the ones concerning the formation of large-scale plasma formations in atmosphere, were not carried out. The means shortage has somewhat affected the technique of the carried out research, which, was mostly limited to the analysis of the assembled material and development of physical models of the observed phenomena. Only in separate, most "interesting" cases, the research program participants visited the places of UFO observations, and special, target observations connected with the realization of technical experiments were organized. In spite of the fact that to the moment of the beginning of the work a rather large archival material on the observations of "strange" phenomena has been assembled, only a small part of these messages has been subjected to a retrospective analysis. In the main, there were the most well documented descriptions of various mass observations of paranormal phenomena. As a whole, the emphasis was given to the analysis of the messages obtained during the work on the program and the results from the teleological observations. The research program was based on three main principles: * A serious attitude to the problem, understanding of the circumstance that the observation of paranormal phenomena" is an actual objective fact and, that the messages about the UFO observations come from the eyewitnesses who, for the most part, are sincerely wishing to understand the nature of the observed phenomena. * Rejection of the a priori solutions of the problem. * Orientation toward long-term and thorough investigation of a problem. In spite of the fact that at the beginning of our activity we tried to avoid a prejudiced attitude to any hypothesis on the nature of "UFO", the theoretically possible versions of their origin had a somewhat priority character. * "UFO"s are the product of human activity, i.e. these phenomena are of anthropogenic origin; * "UFO"s are the product of natural processes taking place on the Earth, Earth atmosphere and in the near space -a hypothesis o