In 1896, an unusual dispatch came to St. Petersburg from Ashgabat:
“On April 7, at 8 pm, a balloon was seen from the Kaakhka station of the Trans-Caspian Railway, crossing the Persian border. It is believed that the British were on the ball, studying Russian territory, illuminating it with electric light."
In early April 1899 the Yaroslavl newspaper Severny Kray published a lengthy letter from a certain K. Amosov from Arkhangelsk:
“On March 28, at 8:25 pm, a balloon-like object, illuminated from the inside, slowly flew over the city in a north-west direction.
The illuminated part of the ball looked like an electric bulb, that is, it was spherical from below, and from above it ended in a high pipe. Under the illuminated spherical part, with a simple eye, the resemblance of a boat was discerned, but it was extremely unclear, because it was already dark at that time. The ball moved very slowly and was well below the clouds.
We knew immediately that we were not dealing with a meteor. The flight of a strange object was observed by us for about five minutes, until it disappeared beyond the horizon. It should be added to what has been said that the air was completely quiet that evening, and a reddish light emanated from the ball, like the light of a burning stove."
Apart from Amosov himself, the owner of the bakery V. Z. Afanasyev, his son and wife, employees of the Vologda railway V. Pfeif and T. Kozlov, Mrs. Fedorovich and many others. Amosov stressed that all the witnesses were "quite intelligent persons."
The Vostochny Vestnik newspaper, published in Vladivostok, reported on June 10 of the same year:
Promotional video:
“In the village of Kamen-Rybolov on June 1 at 10.50 pm a blue ball about 3/4 arshins in diameter appeared from the south, sailing to the North at a distance of no more than 30 sazhens from the Kazak Ussuriysky steamer in the roadstead and at the same height, at a speed from the visible horizon to hide to the north for 20 minutes.
At 11 hours 15 minutes in the evening, the balloon appeared again from the north, going back to the south, and passed from the steamer at the same distance, but with a higher speed, and at 11 hours 26 minutes disappeared in the south. This phenomenon was observed by the boatswain of the steamer Cossack Aleksey Burdinsky, the fireman Ivan Stukov and the commander of the steamer P. Ya. Dmitriev. When the balloon passed from south to north and back, no noise occurred, and its color did not change, which is recorded in the logbook."
In 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War began, eyewitnesses persistently attributed the "balls" to the Japanese. They were not embarrassed by the fact that "balloons" were observed even thousands of kilometers from the front line, where there seemed to be nothing to reconnoiter. The knowledgeable people only laughed, but the stream of telegrams and reports from the Siberian hinterland did not dry up.
Three chiefs of gendarme departments reported that "on the railway sections of Khorhonde and Manchuria on the night of July 11 and Andrianovka Karymskaya on the night of July 11-12, they definitely saw an illuminated balloon between 10 and 11 pm."
A telegram from July 11, road foreman Gorshkov brings here just one, but very remarkable detail: “At 10 o'clock in the evening, to the left of the path, you can see a balloon with rotating searchlights. The lights were turned off at 10 o'clock. 5 minutes.
The head of the Trans-Baikal Railway, Sventitsky, confirmed that as early as 10 July at 10 pm, the gendarme police observed a “balloon” that “seemed to be glowing and seemed to have searchlights. The light was visible for about half an hour ….
On July 13, the head of the Mysovsk station received a telegram from another station that a balloon was seen on the horizon, according to some information shining with two searchlights - blue and white. Less than an hour later, the object appeared "in the mind of Mysovsk", sweeping over it to Tankhoy. Soon they saw him there. The correspondent of the local newspaper "Zabaikalye" also said that near the Selenga a brigade of a passing freight train saw the "ball" when it was sitting on the ground!
“The head of the junction No. 48 of dispatches dated October 30 reported to the authorities that switchman K. at 5 hours 25 minutes in the evening noticed a balloon flying over the train from west to east,” wrote the newspaper journalist. - A view of a cigar-shaped ball. When the train entered the bridge, the waykeeper gave the usual horn signal that "the way is clear."
The passengers of the balloon probably heard this signal and turned sharply to the south, and behind it there was a strong sparkle for about three minutes. Sparks poured in a continuous stream. After this maneuver, everything plunged into darkness. The switchman's testimony is partly corroborated by the words of the orderlies who arrived with train no. 36. They also saw sparks pouring into the air in the south, but beyond the distance they could see nothing more.
Both at the first appearance of the ball (July 13) and subsequent ones (September 22 and October 30), a cigar-shaped ball was noted. Only sparks poured out of it in October, and before there were searchlights, and even, according to officers' observation through binoculars on July 14 near Andrianovka, there was a red lantern in the tail of the ball, and in the middle a searchlight, the light of which disappeared and appeared. Signaling, obviously."
At the end of the 19th century, in the Western press, one could find reports of mysterious unidentified airships
On November 8, 1904, the barman Ilya Antonovich Tavzarashvili noticed an air balloon flying by from the Taidut station.
“At first I was at a loss,” said the barman, “and could not give myself an account of this phenomenon. But, having come to my senses and understood him, I immediately began to shout, calling people. All those present at the crossing fished and for a long time admired the ball, which was slowly moving away from the east to the north-west. The balloon flew from us at a distance of four versts, keeping at an altitude of no more than two and a half versts.
The size of the ball can be determined by the size of the locomotive. Something like a slowly spinning wheel was clearly visible behind him, and after each turn a light appeared, then white, then red, then blue. The phenomenon was observed by more than twenty people."
Even in 1909, when airships and airplanes had already appeared, the “mysterious balloons” did not disappear.
“On July 1 and 2 at 1 am on the eastern side of Semipalatinsk,” reported the newspaper “Sibirskaya Zhizn”, “a large fiery point appeared, which evenly moved in different directions. From time to time, a sheaf of rays escaped from this luminous point, as if from a reflector, cutting through space. The movement of the luminous point, which was four times larger than an ordinary large star, seemed surprisingly planned and reasonable.
The luminous point could be seen both with binoculars and with the naked eye. She quickly climbed up, just as quickly went down, made smooth movements in both directions. The point neatly appeared for two nights in a row about an hour after midnight and held out until two o'clock, maneuvering in airspace. There is no doubt that the mysterious luminous point is a balloon.
The question is - who are these mysterious aeronauts? And what made them stay in one place for two nights in a row? In no case should you mix up a mysterious point with a falling fireball, meteor and similar air phenomena: the movements are too unusual and calculated ….
Soon the newspaper "Siberian Life" received correspondence from the village of Salairsky Mine, Tomsk province:
“Identical with respect to the movements and sizes of light with that described in the correspondence from Semipalatinsk … was observed in the northeast of our village, at twelve o'clock in the morning on June 25th. The phenomenon was observed with the naked eye for 1/2 hour and was below the clouds, completely hiding the stars and the moon, why there is no doubt that what was seen here was nothing more than a balloon; its flight here is quite fast - heading to the northwest. It remains to be assumed that this is exactly the ball that was seen near Semipalatinsk."
Volyn Governor announced that
“On July 27, 1909, at 10 o'clock in the evening, a balloon was seen over Polonny Novograd-Volynsk district, which held for about two hours in one measure, slightly swaying to the sides and from the bottom up. The designated ball was held very high, so that it was difficult to see it in more detail with the naked eye. The ball lowered its lantern down, illuminating the area. The lantern looked like a large star of bright fiery color. The ball itself seemed to be some kind of dark spot or part of a cloud on a cloudless horizon, the direction of flight of the ball was from north to south. By 12 o'clock in the morning he disappeared."
Exactly the same phenomenon is referred to in a letter from a certain Vasiliev from the village of Klyuchevskoy, Tsagan-Oluyevskaya stanitsa to the editorial office of the newspaper "Zabaikalskaya Nov":
“About eight versts from the Kharanor station there are new coal mines called Mingan. At these mines, during night work in the period from October 15 to October 29, 1909, the following interesting phenomenon was noticed: at 11 or 12 am for four days in a row a balloon flew by, which, moving in different directions, lowered and raised a lantern in the form of a searchlight; this was especially noticeable from the 28th to the 29th, on the last night, since after that the ball did not appear again.
The lantern was illuminated with different lights, namely blue and white; the lantern often descended very close to the ground and was in this position for a long time. They say the same was noticed at Art. Haranor, but how many times I don’t know.”