In the 70s of the last century, many did not even hear about UFOs in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the so-called Petrozavodsk phenomenon has received repeated mentions in the press - this phenomenon turned out to be very unusual.
Eyewitness accounts
September 23, 1977 in the newspaper "Socialist Industry" was published a note with the following content: "The inhabitants of Petrozavodsk witnessed an unusual phenomenon of nature. On September 20, at about four o'clock in the morning, a huge star suddenly flashed brightly in the dark sky, impulsively sending sheaves of light to the earth. This star was slowly moving towards Petrozavodsk and, spreading over it in the form of a jellyfish, hung, showering the city with a multitude of the finest ray streams that gave the impression of pouring rain. This phenomenon, according to eyewitnesses, lasted 10-12 minutes."
On September 24, 1977, already in the Petrozavodsk edition of Leninskaya Pravda, an article appeared, written by a local correspondent, which cited eyewitness testimony about the events of September 20. For example, the ambulance driver V. A. Belyaev said the following:
“At about four o'clock in the morning, a medical team and I arrived on a call to Anokhin Street, house 37-6. At approximately four o'clock five minutes, a glow appeared over the roof of the opposite house. Then I saw a strange halo and a glowing star from which jets were emanating, filling most of the sky. When the fireball approached the "handle" of the Big Dipper, the glow disappeared, and it began to descend vertically downward. This lasted for 10-15 minutes ".
Was there a rocket?
Promotional video:
A popular version, supported by the director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation, Academician V. V. Migulin, was the following: a rocket with a military satellite "Kosmos-955" flew over Petrozavodsk, launched at 4:00 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. The rising sun could illuminate the rocket's exhaust jets, giving the object the appearance of a jellyfish.
However, a researcher
State Astronomical Institute. PK Sternberg (GAISh), candidate of physical and mathematical sciences LM Gindilis came to the conclusion that the version of the rocket flight cannot fully explain all the observed phenomena. In particular, two hours before the aforementioned launch, a UPI correspondent from Helsinki reported that a bright fireball flew over the Finnish capital from west to east. And even earlier, an hour before the observation in Helsinki, a similar object "sat down on the tail" of a passenger plane flying from Kiev to Leningrad. The UFO accompanied the liner all the way to Pulkovo airport. There were recorded negotiations between the crew commander and the dispatcher on this matter.
The management of the Plesetsk cosmodrome refrained from commenting: all data on launches of space technology were strictly classified, only the launch time was known.
Who damaged the glass?
In No. 8 of the journal "Aviation and Cosmonautics" for 1978, an article was published by Professor M. Dmitriev, which said that on the night of September 20, 1976, equipment failures occurred en masse in computing centers located in the Petrozavodsk region and its environs … And from October 1977 to the beginning of 1978, through holes with a diameter of 50-70 millimeters appeared in the glass windows of some Petrozavodsk houses located in different parts of the city. Some of them were irregular in shape, others were almost perfectly round. Hole edges looked melted or sanded.
So, on New Year's Eve, January 1, 1978, in house No. 12 on Dzerzhinsky Street, holes appeared in the window panes of four apartments at once, and some of the residents heard the sound of an explosion. However, later an examination showed that they allegedly fired at the windows from a slingshot, a traumatic pistol or a blowgun. According to ufologists, these traces were left by the radiation of an unidentified flying object. Meanwhile, no such objects were officially observed over the city after September 20, 1977.
Most researchers are inclined to believe that the Petrozavodsk phenomenon was of a technogenic nature and, most likely, eyewitnesses observed the launch of an artificial Earth satellite. However, this incident served as an impetus for the study of anomalous phenomena in our country. It was after him that a special group was created at the USSR Academy of Sciences, which worked under the "Grid - AN" program with the participation of employees of the Ministry of Defense.