Soviet ideology did not recognize mysticism and metaphysics, but allowed belief in the paranormal abilities of individuals.
The phenomenon from Leningrad
The belief in paranormal (or psychic) abilities originated in the 19th century. In Bolshevik Russia, for a long time, they did not pay attention to the circles of "astral" researchers and public speeches of mediums, but the "cultural revolution", started by Joseph Stalin, made them illegal.
Therefore, beginning in the 1930s, occult practitioners began to dress up in the clothes of science. Many scientists and even entire institutes have dealt with issues of telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, hypnosis, clairvoyance, etc. In most cases, the self-styled "unique" were found to be either scammers or insane. However, from time to time, there were real nuggets among them.
In 1962, Rosa Kuleshova attracted Soviet researchers. An illiterate woman suffering from epilepsy demonstrated "skin vision", that is, the ability to read texts of any complexity with the help of one touch - not only with fingers, but also with the elbow, feet, through an impenetrable partition or dense envelope.
In December 1963, a Leningrad housewife, Ninel Kulagina (before Mikhailov's marriage), accidentally heard about the "Kuleshova effect".
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She decided to tell experts about her own phenomenon. She had a difficult fate: she went to war as a girl, served as a radio operator in the tank forces and was seriously wounded. Ninel was awarded various awards, including the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. In peacetime, she was a member of the veteran council of the 268th division.
According to Nineli Kulagina, the unusual abilities came from her mother. Since childhood, she noticed that she is able to move objects when she is angry, that is, she is a psychokinetic.
Nineli herself had to resort to meditation to influence things remotely, so she was not always able to demonstrate her capabilities. Nevertheless, she managed to convince the scientific world that it deserves attention, and the study of the "K phenomenon" (as the press called Kulagina's gift) began with complete seriousness.
Miracle or scam?
For the first time, Ninela Kulagina's unusual abilities were announced at a special conference held on January 10, 1964 in Leningrad. Psychophysiologist Leonid Vasiliev, a leading Soviet specialist in telepathy and human paranormal abilities, who took part in its organization, highly appreciated the experiments carried out at that time, called them a "scientific event" and admitted that in 30 years of his activity he had not seen anything like it.
Kulagina adjusted her own heart rate, rotated the compass needle, read the text in the magazine with her fingers, burned strangers with the touch of her hand.
At the end of the same month, Kulagina was sent for a comprehensive examination to the Leningrad Psychoneurological Institute named after V. M. Bekhterev. The results were disappointing: experts did not find any hereditary "abnormalities" in the woman's body. Moreover, she was unable to reproduce any of the experiments presented at the conference, so she was declared a swindler.
A year later, Kulagina appeared in court on charges of fraud: she allegedly collected money from citizens wishing to purchase scarce furniture, and lured more than seven thousand rubles from them. Most likely, the woman really acted as an intermediary in one of the many shadow schemes for the distribution of consumer goods, but chose to admit her guilt under the article “Fraud”, since a much more serious sentence was imposed for a crime in an organized group.
Despite the petition of scientists headed by Vasiliev, who were eager to continue studying the "K phenomenon", the court issued a guilty verdict, and Kulagina went to a colony for two years.
It seemed that the star of the Leningrad psychokinetics was gone forever, but in March 1968, articles appeared again where she appeared under her maiden name - Mikhailova. At the same time, a new series of experiments, during which Ninel Sergeevna demonstrated her abilities, according to journalist Lev Kolodny, was carried out by specialists from the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology named after D. I. Mendeleev.
The management of the institute issued a refutation, but a small popular science film was made about Kulagina, which attracted the interest of foreign specialists. The first to meet her was the Czechoslovak scientist Zdenek Reidak. The observation of the "K phenomenon" made a great impression on him - he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to study the physiological changes that occur in Ninela Sergeevna's body during psychokinesis sessions.
Lost talent
Various institutes began to invite Kulagina to their laboratories to conduct experiments. She moved objects at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, acted on liquids within the walls of the Institute of Chemical Physics, and read texts with the back of her head at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Optics.
Phenomenon K has been received in different ways. Someone recognized its reality, someone was looking for a catch. For example, Kulagina's ability to rotate a compass needle at a distance was explained by the fact that it hides magnets on the body; movement of objects such as a box of matches or a ping-pong ball - by manual dexterity and special threads that are not visible to an outside observer.
However, each time Ninel Sergeevna demonstrated new unexpected effects, leading scientists to amazement: for example, she shone a photographic film in a tight envelope or with a glance changed the acidity of water in a closed vessel.
The controversy did not stop. To dot the i's, Academician Yuri Kobzarev contributed to a series of experiments in a special laboratory set up under the roof of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics. They were carried out during 1981-1982 and produced amazing results. It was established for certain that a strong electric field arises around Nineli Kulagina's hands.
According to Yu. B. Kobzarev, among the recorded phenomena associated with Kulagina were the following:
At the end of 1987, Ninel Kulagina appealed to the People's Court of the Dzerzhinsky District of Moscow, accusing the editorial board of the Man and Law magazine of disseminating slanderous information that humiliated her honor and dignity. In fact, the court had to establish the authenticity of the paranormal abilities demonstrated by the plaintiff. In January 1988, to a surprise for many, he made a decision obliging the magazine to publish a refutation. The process went down in history under the name "The Telekinesis Case".
Laboratory employee Alexander Taratorin recalled:
Ninel Kulagina began to enjoy the fame of a psychic, and with the skills of a folk healer. Her ability to warm up the skin was perceived as a medical method. It is known that famous conductor Maxim Shostakovich, actor Innokenty Smoktunovsky, figure skaters Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova turned to her for help.
On April 11, 1990, Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina died at the age of 63, and the nature of the "K phenomenon" remained undisclosed. Probably, she was let down by the desire to please researchers: she had a unique gift, but she tried to demonstrate it even in those situations where it could not work, which caused a natural distrust of the phenomenon. As a result, today scientists refuse to discuss experiments involving Kulagina.
Anton PERVUSHIN, magazine “Mysteries of History. Secrets of the USSR No. 3, 2017