Traditionally, Belarus does not pay much attention to the appearance of the so-called "Bigfoot" - there are incomparably fewer such messages than in some remote regions of Russia. Therefore, when Ufokom received another message about a meeting with some hairy Neanderthal in the Vitebsk region, we decided to fill up the collection of such stories, talk with an eyewitness and visit the meeting place.
Neanderthal on a stick
On June 4, 2017, a reconnaissance trip took place to the area of the village of Kulakovo, Vitebsk region (No. 187; I. Butov, E. Shaposhnikov), where a few years ago one of the residents of the suburb of Vitebsk came into contact with a strange creature whose analogues we have not yet been able to find [ten]. The closest is the comparison with the folklore goblin or "Bigfoot", however, with some significant reservations. The meeting itself in the indicated area took place around 2012, but all this time the eyewitness - Alexander O. - did not tell anyone except close relatives and friends about it. His daughter told us about this, thus extending a bridge of trust between researchers and a person who faced an inexplicable phenomenon and automatically decided not to take her anywhere else from the family circle.
Below we give a verbatim account of the informant and a possible reconstruction of the creature:
“I went there for mushrooms. It was 4 years [ago] means. Somewhere in the beginning of August. And, therefore, we stopped at this place. They left the car. Means that: believe it or not. The wife went to the side of the lake. I looked around - there were not very many mushrooms and began to call my wife: “Lena! Lena! Go! Go!". And she went further and did not hear. Maybe I called him? Or what? So, I look, here's a trifle: berezovichki, aspen mushrooms, and so. Such a small forest. I collect and call on. I looked: something, like, a burnt tree. Here is such a thickness. Black-black absolutely. As they say, after a fire you see a tree. I did not pay attention, I go on. The tree stands still. I walked over and thought: "Well, I'll see." I was kind of attracted to something. I lift my head up - there my head is three times larger than mine. Like a monkey - low forehead,big eyes … Looks at me, well, it's literally four meters away. Three or four meters away. So he looks at me … and such a kind face, pleasant. Not evil at all. I wasn't scared at all. Overgrown and black. And the face is black too. Lips, nose seem to be human and a big head. But, as one might say, I never saw the body. I saw neither hands nor feet. I paid attention and even wanted to communicate, but … Since he is such an attentive, very intelligent creature. And I said, "Wow!" So that's it. Voice. As he said "wow" - [he] instantly disappeared. [Disappeared or hid behind a tree?] No, it was not at all before my eyes, just disappeared! […] So further - there are tall pines on the right side. To the lake there. No wind, nothing, that's the weather, that's beautiful. And these trees, behold, diverge and converge, diverge and converge. Towards the lake. Fifty meters from the car. AND,So, it went towards the lake, sort of like a whirlwind. And there was no more after that. My wife came … But for some reason I was terribly unlucky after that. Not that I was touched inside or I was scared: I broke a wheel in one place - "sat down", drove further along this road - a forest road. [That is, what you took for a tree, it also disappeared?] No, not a tree, it was gone too. It was like a torso. Torso type. It just disappeared from sight. And three meters, maybe even more, was a height [And the girth?] And the girth - not thick [60 centimeters?] Less [And the head?] And the head exactly with the body. But overgrown like this. Or there could be short hair, this is such a thick wool. Or he stood sideways … But the main thing is that I did not see my hands or feet. "My wife came … But for some reason I was terribly unlucky after that. Not that I was touched inside or I was scared: I broke a wheel in one place - "sat down", drove further along this road - a forest road. [That is, what you took for a tree, it also disappeared?] No, not a tree, it was gone too. It was like a torso. Torso type. It just disappeared from sight. And three meters, maybe even more, was a height [And the girth?] And the girth - not thick [60 centimeters?] Less [And the head?] And the head exactly with the body. But overgrown like this. Or there could be short hair, this is such a thick wool. Or he stood sideways … But the main thing is that I did not see my hands or feet. "My wife came … But for some reason I was terribly unlucky after that. Not that I was touched inside or I was scared: I broke a wheel in one place - "sat down", drove further along this road - a forest road. [That is, what you mistook for a tree disappeared too?] No, not a tree, it was gone too. It was like a torso. Torso type. It just disappeared from sight. And three meters, maybe even more, was a height [And the girth?] And the girth - not thick [60 centimeters?] Less [And the head?] And the head exactly with the body. But overgrown like this. Or there could be short hair, this is such a thick wool. Or he stood sideways … But the main thing is that I did not see my hands or feet. "has it disappeared too?] No, not a tree, it was gone too. It was like a torso. Torso type. It just disappeared from sight. And three meters, maybe even more, was a height [And the girth?] And the girth - not thick [60 centimeters?] Less [And the head?] And the head exactly with the body. But overgrown like this. Or there could be short hair, this is such a thick wool. Or he stood sideways … But the main thing is that I did not see my hands or feet. "has it disappeared too?] No, not a tree, it was gone too. It was like a torso. Torso type. It just disappeared from sight. And three meters, maybe even more, was a height [And the girth?] And the girth - not thick [60 centimeters?] Less [And the head?] And the head exactly with the body. But overgrown like this. Or there could be short hair, this is such a thick wool. Or he stood sideways … But the main thing is that I did not see my hands or feet."
In addition, Alexander said that he had been to the Energetik sanatorium in the town of Novolukoml (Vitebsk region) and talked about it with the former chief engineer of Electroseti. The latter was not surprised, and told that he had already heard similar stories …
The meeting place with the unusual hominoid was located near the intersection of several roads, in a coniferous forest, in which there were quite a few trees with twisted trunks. Not far from the meeting place there is a lake to which the "whirlwind" was moving. According to an employee of a camp site located nearby, he has lived here for several years, but has not encountered anything unusual. We were able to talk to the forester living in the neighboring village: he was also surprised by this story. The most unusual thing he had to deal with was bears, which are not uncommon in these places. But to confuse this three-meter creature with a bear is hardly possible, even with all the desire.
Promotional video:
At the very place where the eyewitness encountered the creature. Photo by Evgeny Shaposhnikov
Separately, it should be noted that our informant is inclined to believe that the debris from trees, which are abundant in the forest, could have something to do with the life of our Belarusian Yeti. We showed photographs of these improvised "dwellings" to Igor Burtsev, PhD in History, a well-known Russian expert on Bigfoot, and he said that the crosshairs of the trunks could well have been the creation of a "Goblin" or "Bigfoot". Similar signs appear here and there in different parts of the world - in North America, Russia, Australia, in Europe - along with other signs (for example, footprints).
Blockage of trees. Photo by Evgeny Shaposhnikov
Twisted trees near the observation point. Photo by Evgeny Shaposhnikov
What do we have in the bottom line? Unfortunately, only eyewitness testimony and the fact that his colleagues recalled similar stories. It is interesting that this forest itself is a part of a relict forest, through which you can get almost to Karelia …
As for the unusual form of the creature and its sudden disappearance, Igor Burtsev was not at all surprised at this. According to him, reports of such cases have also been repeatedly registered by researchers. One of the last, according to V. A. Titova, happened to her in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region in June 2015.
In the future, we plan to interview the local population in the villages adjacent to this forest area, and check information about the presence of a certain cave on the lake shore (an object that is extremely uncharacteristic for the Belarusian landscape and therefore almost always generates various legends around itself). It is also possible to install camera traps directly next to the place of the mysterious meeting.
Chronology of meetings with the Belarusian "Yeti"
Reports of a meeting with a certain tall, fur-covered creature, at least occasionally, were encountered by us before, although in numerous books on this topic only a few stories related to our country are mentioned. Thus, the Polish author Jan Redwich wrote that in 1661 several bears were driven out while hunting in the Lithuanian-Grodno forests. Among them was a "wild man" who was caught and taken to Warsaw as a gift to King Jan II Casimir. The "boy", as he was called, was about 13-15 years old. His body was covered with thick hair, and he himself did not know how to speak at all. The queen tried to "humanize" this creature. And as a result, he was taught to do simple kitchen work [11]. In the end, it was presented to Vice-Chancellor Adam Opalinsky, after which traces of it are lost. Karl Linnaeus even came up with a Latin name for the "monster" - Juvenus ursinus Lithanus ("a young bear from Lithuania"). Some time later, in 1694, history almost exactly repeated itself: then “in the Lithuanian forests” the “second Lithuanian boy” was caught [3, 6]. He was also brought to the court and presented to another king - Jan III Sobieski. Among other observers, he was described by the king's personal physician, Bernard Connor, who later became a member of the Royal College of Medicine and the Royal Society of Great Britain. In addition to Western European ones, there is a Russian report about this boy: “In Poland recently, King Jan III had a bear-man, in the forest he was caught, not verbally speaking, but only roaring. All shaggy, ascending on a tree”[6].then “in the Lithuanian forests” the “second Lithuanian boy” was caught [3, 6]. He was also brought to the court and presented to another king - Jan III Sobieski. Among other observers, he was described by the king's personal physician, Bernard Connor, who later became a member of the Royal College of Medicine and the Royal Society of Great Britain. In addition to Western European ones, there is a Russian report about this boy: “In Poland recently, King Jan III had a bear-man, in the forest he was caught, saying nothing, but only roaring. All shaggy, ascending on a tree”[6].then “in the Lithuanian forests” the “second Lithuanian boy” was caught [3, 6]. He was also brought to the court and presented to another king, Jan III Sobieski. Among other observers, he was described by the king's personal physician, Bernard Connor, who later became a member of the Royal College of Medicine and the Royal Society of Great Britain. In addition to Western European ones, there is a Russian report about this boy: “In Poland recently, King Jan III had a bear-man, in the forest he was caught, saying nothing, but only roaring. All shaggy, ascending on a tree”[6]. In addition to Western European ones, there is a Russian report about this boy: “In Poland recently, King Jan III had a bear-man, in the forest he was caught, saying nothing, but only roaring. All shaggy, ascending on a tree”[6]. In addition to Western European ones, there is a Russian report about this boy: “In Poland recently, King Jan III had a bear-man, in the forest he was caught, not verbally speaking, but only roaring. All shaggy, ascending on a tree”[6].
And such stories are by no means isolated. This is what the newspaper Belaruskaya Krynitsa, published in Vilno, wrote in 1928: “During the recent military exercises in the Baranovichi district, the soldiers found a wild man between the villages of Berezovka and Tartak, who was without clothes and overgrown with black hair. The forest man had a red beard up to his waist and long claws on his arms and legs. The hair on the head was so long that it completely covered the face and eyes. When they approached him, he was asleep, and when he woke up and saw people, he howled in a wild voice and disappeared. The relevant authorities probably issued an order to capture this person”[2].
Several years ago, in an interview with Polish researchers, interesting information flashed. It turns out, having studied some documents, they came to the conclusion that an analogue of the well-known Bigfoot should have lived on the former East Cresses, that is, on the territory of modern Belarus. Most of the reports about him allegedly date back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. According to the surviving descriptions, the monkey-man was 2–2.4 m tall and was covered with dark hair, from under which only the nose, eyes and mouth stood out [12].
Alas, it has not yet been possible to find out where our Polish colleagues got their information from. Did they mean meeting mermaids? Here is a description of a typical captured Belarusian “mermaid” from the book “Byazdonnae bagazze”: “Once upon a time, grandfathers told, two were brought to our village. So everything is feminine, only their breasts are large and their hair is long. And they don't say anything, they just cry and weep, tears flow like a river until they let go”[7]. Or here's another testimony about mermaids: "yany are such a small one, like these monkeys, cash-lined" [8].
There is also such a message from a cryptozoologist from Donbass Anatoly Sidorenko, candidate of historical sciences: “50 km from Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century, a peasant was working in the field and decided to have a snack. He lit a fire and began to fry meat and lard on it. Suddenly Almasty came out of the forest, looked with interest and left. But a few minutes later he returned with a frog and, one might say, made a company for the man: he put it on a rod, browned it over the fire, took a bite and silently walked into the thicket”[9].
In our expeditions, we also recorded cases of observations of huge creatures up to 10 meters tall. Here is the post-war testimony of A. V. Rusinovich from the Svetlogorsk district of the Gomel region, which we recorded in the village of Petrovichi in 2014 (expedition No. 133) [10]:
“I’m with my butt, this is after the wine. Here the soldiers lay. The first time we rode, and we gadzin at dvanazzats. […] I for this very, in the dze club tsyaper, z that are old, chalavek ishoў - ten meters! Here. This, probably, is a pairing, there I will bend someone from saldat. And now it went on. It was a month-long night … We stopped, but then … [He walked about ten meters or so in height?] Height! Vyshynya! I, right there, the wind turbine came to us, we went a little bit i [it] plowed far away … This is the kind of pryvidzeniya happen. Phosphar here is isparazza."
As V. Yu. Makarov, the author of the fundamental Atlas of the Bigfoot, writes, “in the early 70s, a tractor driver from the village of Mozyr once, while fishing during the same day, twice, in the morning and in the evening, saw him hiding in the bushes.” hairy person”” [3]. Most likely, this means the city of Mozyr, but there is also the village of Mozyr, unfortunately, the author does not provide any more details, so one can only assume that this meeting took place in the Gomel region.
Another meeting was described to us by LV Duchits, a world-renowned Belarusian archaeologist. Lyudmila Vladimirovna conducted archaeological exploration along the banks of the Western Dvina in 1984 in the Miory district of the Vitebsk region, and in one of the villages the detachment was told that they saw an old woman, three meters tall, walking at the edge of the forest and carrying either a sack or a bundle of brushwood. This post is also published for the first time.
In addition, there were two stories in Belarusian newspapers of the 1980s. One happened in 1983 with the tenth grader of the Volmyansk secondary school, Yuri Malitsky. On April 22, 1983, not far from the village of Dushkovo, Volozhin district, Minsk region, he met a humanoid creature three to four meters tall in an old sandy quarry. It turned out to be overgrown with thick wool, which had a shade from dark brown to black on different parts of the body. The huge hairy head was planted directly on the shoulders. Arms and legs are long [5]. The second case took place on July 6, 1989 in the town of Rakov of the same Volozhin region. In the pioneer camp "Festivalny" children on a walk noticed a strange two-legged creature. Its descriptions varied greatly, it was said that it was from 3-4 to 25-30 meters high. The most accurate description belongs to Ruslan Lutskin, who,according to the children, “I saw the monster not from afar, but how to reach out”. Ruslan described him as a naked giant, which was about 3.5 m tall, covered with thick gray-brown hair. His head was large and human-like. The neck, as it seemed to the boy, was not there. He also did not notice the nose and ears, but his eyes seemed small [4].
Ruslan Lutskin at the scene of the incident in the "Festivalny" camp. Photo by Oleg Popov
In early July 2008, a teenager Yevgeny Mikulich from the village of Kovali, Lida district, Grodno region, saw a certain humanoid animal about 1.5 m tall. It looked like a monkey, covered with black hair, whose legs dangled at knee level. The "monkey" was also seen by Yevgeny's mother and the boys from the village of Krasnovtsy in the same district. And one of the local residents even went to the creature with a pitchfork, but noticed it already on a birch, located next to a corn field. After the newly-made Book-Kong, they also saw on an apple tree in the garden of one of the local residents. Quite a strange story, which we could not refute when checking, but inclined to a natural explanation of all the events that occurred [1].
Meetings with a certain huge creature are still taking place. In 2010, the students informed Aleksey Perekhod, a professor at the Kiev International University and a member of the Kiev-Cosmopoisk group, that the three-meter giant was seen by the hunter S. on the Belarusian-Ukrainian borderland (the name of the settlement is not included on the request of the researcher). So, S. was on the tower in ambush for wild boars. Through his night vision device, he suddenly saw a humanoid figure about three meters high, which he later dubbed "the Leshim." The students promised to inform about other similar observations if they are repeated. Unfortunately, so far no new information has been received.
Igor Burtsev, already mentioned above, also told us that in 2013 a man came to him, who told about his meeting with a huge five-meter (!) Creature in the forest near the city of Mogilev. The researcher handed over to Ufokom a video evidence of Nikolai's testimony (let's call him that) from his personal archive. Today, with the kind permission of Igor Dmitrievich, we publish for the first time the details of this incident.
First, about the personality of the eyewitness - he himself is from Kazakhstan, spent a long time in places of deprivation of liberty, but in the early 1990s he constantly came to Belarus to study. He noticed this section of the forest a long time ago: there was something in it that attracted a "hole" of trees, and one of those with whom Nikolai talked about this place, said that when he once passed there at night on a cart, a frightened horse suddenly jerked, so much so that everyone almost fell to the ground. The horse calmed down only when it got out of the "enchanted" place. Once again, we decided to gather there around the fire with the company. At some point, there was the noise of someone approaching them from the forest. Soon a hunched over "something" appeared from there. Next, we give the floor to Nikolai:
“… Like this, squatting a little. I didn't see my legs. [And, therefore, how tall? Bent over like this, but if you straighten up?] So, bent over, he was three or three and a half meters. And I saw him from fifteen meters. And then, when I saw it, I clearly understood that it was a danger. I say in a whisper - just in a whisper, in a whisper: the boys and the girl … two or three … they have already realized that … they too have already dressed, everything is there. I say, "Look." In a whisper, barely so that only they could hear. And that's how I said - look - he took another step, then stopped, turned his head, just like an owl. He has no neck, there, you see, his hair covers his neck, his head is straight and his shoulders are large at once … He just turned his head. And just two huge red eyes. That's right, clearly at me, right like this, eye to eye. The eyes are round, absolutely round and the pupils are like those of a cat. Red. But I don't know, maybeit was the light from the fire that gave redness. [Ah, you say, what is he, if he straightens up, how tall?] He will be five meters! [Such a giant?] Yes. He's so huge … he can take a cow under his arm without any problems. […] And then I felt what I think, he kind of… [Perceives?] Yes! I just experienced such horror. That's just how I stood … I just realized that the moment of making a decision has come. That is, he can make a decision, say, now to attack. [Why did you understand that he feels your thoughts?] I don't know, I just never experienced such feelings. But I felt it, quite simply. […] I was simply seized with horror, I jumped right off the spot, I flew there, I had three meters every jump there! And so the second time I pushed off the ground, and why, I didn't even think about my friends there, I just thought to save myself. Although I've never been so cowardly. But at the moment I realizedthat at least someone needs to be saved. […] And right in the air, such a thought "catches up" - a tape recorder. We had a tape recorder near the fire. He's not even mine, I absolutely didn't need him in that situation."
Nikolay shows how the five-meter giant walked. Photo by I. Burtsev
Nikolai went back and grabbed the tape recorder, afraid to look in the direction of the hairy master of the thicket. Shouted to the others: "Run!" Everyone rushed after him. We reached the embankment, which was located next to the railway track. We caught our breath. And suddenly it turned out that no one except Nikolay had seen the "giant", and they only heard that someone was walking, and succumbed to herd instinct.
Thus, it turns out that on the pages of completely non-folklore literature, once and again, there will be a mention of a certain tall (from 2 to 10 meters tall) creature hiding (and sometimes coming out "to the light") in the Belarusian forests. While some of them can be explained by the discovery of "Mowgli children", pranks or the desire to become famous, others are much more difficult to interpret. An interesting observation of an eyewitness from Mogilev, who mentioned that the very place where the meeting took place was considered "bad". We have repeatedly come across reports from informants who used the term "frightening": in a certain place, it is a certain image that most often fits into a person's idea of the world around him. Is it possible to assume that the "Bigfoot" is only one of such images,instilled in the mass media and therefore entrenched at the level of archetypes? After all, it is difficult even to imagine that such a huge creature of flesh and blood can go unnoticed. In any case, after a close and scrupulous analysis of the data, it turns out that looking for a “Bigfoot” in Belarus is not so hopeless as it seemed earlier.
Authors: Ilya Butov, Evgeny Shaposhnikov
