In the fall of 1989, all Soviet and world media reported on the landing of aliens in Voronezh. Dozens of local residents witnessed the anomalous phenomena.
In mid-October 1989, all the world's leading publications reported sensational news from the Soviet Union. In provincial Voronezh, a meeting of local residents with aliens took place. Unidentified flying objects were observed by dozens of witnesses, and some even saw their passengers up close. The world media referred to the Soviet news agency TASS, which was considered the official mouthpiece of the state and the party. The mysterious incident in Voronezh became a global event and is still the most famous of all cases that occurred in the USSR.
Aliens in South Park
At the very end of September 1989, several worried parents and children came to the editorial office of the Voronezh newspaper Kommuna. They assured that a few days ago, their children, playing in South Park, saw aliens. Parents, of course, dismissed these stories, considering them the fruit of childhood fantasies and fantasies. However, over the next few days, they themselves observed strange glowing objects in the sky. Some of their acquaintances have also seen something similar.
The journalists and guests went to South Park, where they tried to reconstruct the events of September 27, when the first sighting of the aliens took place. In the park, the teenagers spoke in detail about the meeting with aliens and indicated the place of landing of a bright glowing ball. They also pointed out that when landing, they hit a nearby poplar, causing it to bend over.
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Then two came out of the ball. One is very tall (about three meters in height), silvery and has three eyes. The second small, strangely moving, most likely robot. One of the aliens said something and looked at one of the boys, which made him paralyzed for several seconds. In addition, he aimed at him a certain object resembling a pistol. Then the teenager disappeared for a few seconds and then reappeared in the same place. After that, the children fled in horror.
It all sounded incredible. The journalists interviewed several residents of a multi-storey building located near the park. Some of the respondents confirmed that over the past few days they saw glowing balls over the park.
Then it was decided to give a small note in the newspaper about what happened and ask all the witnesses to respond. The result exceeded all expectations. The editorial office received several dozen letters from witnesses. They were all of different ages, different professions. Among them were teachers, workers and even policemen. All claimed to have seen the same strange flying balls at the end of September.
World sensation
In early October, "Commune" published an article "Football with Aliens", in which it described the incident. A few days later, the leading Soviet publications reported on the story. Then she got into the Western media. The appearance of aliens in the USSR has become the number one topic in all the world's leading publications.
“This is not a joke, not a hoax, not madness, or an attempt to spur local tourism. TASS insists on an alien visit to the south of Russia, wrote the New York Times. The newspaper, citing Soviet sources, also published several interviews with witnesses, including even a police lieutenant.
Ufologists all over the world rejoiced. If the closed and classified USSR has officially announced an alien visit, then the aliens definitely exist. Meanwhile, a real commotion began in the city. The chairman of the city executive committee Viktor Atlasov has formed a commission to investigate this incident. The children underwent a thorough medical examination. Conversations were held with their district doctors, hospital records were checked. Everyone was asked to draw the objects and creatures they saw.
Investigation
A real UFO mania began in the city. Members of the commission were inundated with hundreds of letters from residents of the city, who were in a hurry to tell that they too had seen something unusual in the previous few months. One of the men brought a stone of a strange color and claimed that it was of extraterrestrial origin. Another brought a photograph of a clear sky and swore that he captured a UFO in the photograph, but for some reason it did not appear in the photo. One of the teenagers reported that the day after the UFO landed in South Park, he saw a luminous object elsewhere and saw on it a symbol resembling the Russian letter J.
Specialists arrived in South Park to conduct research on the site of the proposed landing of the object. The investigation commission formed by the head of the city involved forensic experts, employees of the local sanitary and epidemiological station, specialists in nuclear physics, chemistry and biology. They carried out soil tests, took samples of foliage and soil. The seals left over from the UFO landing stands were also checked.
Two months after the events that rocked the city, the commission officially presented the results of its investigations in a special broadcast on local television.
Official version
The chairman of the commission, Igor Surovtsev, announced the results of the investigation in person. According to him, none of the various experts involved in the work was able to fix any anomalies. A thorough analysis of the soil in the park showed that the pollution in the park does not exceed the general indicators for the city and is explained by man-made factors. The only minor deviation was the level of radioisotope contamination in the park. On the soil surface, it was 1 curie per square kilometer.
This is a non-life-threatening pollution level. Experts explained it by precipitation that took place in the region after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant several years ago.
In addition, in the depressions that remained after the UFO landing, experts found an increased level of suppression of microorganisms. However, this fact can be explained by various natural reasons.
It was officially announced that no material evidence of the presence of an unidentified object was found. The commission did not rule out that some anomalous phenomenon could indeed have been observed in those days, but earth science, with the tools at its disposal, could not find anything unusual.
Ufologists version
However, not everyone agreed with the official version. Voronezh has become a cult place for ufologists. In their opinion, a huge amount of evidence from a variety of people suggests that in the fall of 1989, a series of anomalous phenomena was indeed observed in Voronezh.
Another weighty argument is the testimony of one of the teenagers who saw on the object a symbol resembling the Russian letter J. This is the so-called “Ummo” symbol, popular among Western ufologists since the 60s of the twentieth century. In their opinion, it is a sign of the ship's belonging to a certain planet Ummo from the constellation Virgo, whose inhabitants often visit Earth. Supporters of the version about the visit of aliens point out that a Soviet teenager of the late 1980s could hardly have known anything about Ummo, since such materials practically did not penetrate the USSR.
In addition, the argument of the supporters of the version about the existing contact is the geographical location of Voronezh. Nearby is the so-called. Borisoglebsk triangle. According to the recollections of the staff of the "Grid" (organizations created in the late 70s under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense and the Academy of Sciences of organizations designed to investigate anomalous phenomena), it was in this region that anomalous phenomena were observed (aircraft pilots repeatedly reported observing strange flying objects), which they and could not clearly explain.
Skeptics version
As for the skeptics, from the very beginning they were inclined to see in the Voronezh incident only a hoax. The teenagers decided to play a prank on their parents and, unwittingly, found themselves in the center of the hype. During the investigation, it was not possible to find any physical evidence of contact, no traces of the stay of the aliens. Flying objects were not detected by any radar station.
This story might not have received such a scale, if it did not coincide with the then beginning policy of publicity. The UFO craze, which began in the late 80s, also played a role. The arrival of a large number of journalists, in combination with all other factors, caused a real mass induced psychosis in the city, when almost hundreds of flying balloons began to be seen. UFOs were discussed in schools, hospitals, police stations and even the city executive committee.
The wave of UFO mania subsided as quickly as it appeared. A few weeks later, the city began to live its former life. Nevertheless, the Voronezh incident left a significant mark on history. To this day, it remains the most famous UFO incident in the history of the USSR.
This story has acquired a cult status among foreign lovers of the unknown. Dozens of articles and books have been devoted to the Voronezh contact; it was not spared even by such a famous TV channel as Discovery, which shot a story about it.
Ultimately, everyone remained unconvinced. Skeptics began to believe that this case can be called anomalous, except in the sense that it is not so often that a children's joke grows to a global scale. UFO advocates continued to believe that, for some obscure reason, the aliens had visited the provincial Soviet city in the fall of 1989.
Evgeniy Antonyuk
