Beginning: "Grid-AN": first difficulties
Despite the openly "anti-tampering" attitude of the leadership of OOFA and IZMIRAN, there were quite a lot of enthusiasts in the "Setka-AN" program who did everything to reveal the secret of UFOs.
On August 7, 1979, an expeditionary group of IKI employees was sent to the Mangyshlak region of the Kazakh SSR in search of UFOs, which worked there until August 31. The group consisted of four people: the scientific secretary of the "Set-AN" IG Petrovskaya, NF Sanko, Ya. G. Lifshits S. Yu. For 10 days, a representative of NII-4, BA Feshin, collaborated with them.
“It should be noted that the field group was conceived as the first trial and methodological step in order to clarify the expediency of sending, the productivity of the activity and working capacity of the small group, as well as the effectiveness of the very method of expeditionary research of anomalous phenomena,” the expedition report says. - The group was sent on an accelerated basis so that by the summer of 1980 it would be clear whether or not such a step is needed, what is the optimal number of the expedition and how to organize it, if necessary …"
Despite such modest goals, the team received 85 UFO reports "and carried out the greatest possible analysis" (Fig. 44).
It turned out that of these, 35 cases belong to missile launches, satellite convergence - 5, firing - 4, atmospheric effects - 2, fireball - 1, unidentified - 36 (of which presumably scientific and technical experiments - 10, real anomalous phenomena - 26) …
“Noteworthy is the data received from the pilots, in particular the following message No. 44 about radar detection of an unknown target with anomalous characteristics,” the report goes on to say. - On August 14, 1977 at 20.00-20.30 Gopachenko Raisa Nikolaevna, the dispatcher of the Shevchenko airport, found a target in the radar coverage area, which she took for a military object. The target appeared suddenly over Aksu and remained motionless for about 1 minute. I told the flight director Irina Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. The flight director checked the route restrictions. On this day they were not at all. Moreover, at the time the object was detected, there was not a single aircraft in the radar field of view.
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Not later than a minute after the discovery, the object began to move along the sea towards Yeraliev, repeating the bends of the coastline. Before reaching Yeraliev, he turned sharply towards Uzen, his speed increased to 500 km / h. The military airfield of Krasnovodsk was immediately asked about the presence of their aircraft in the air. No response received.
After passing Uzen, the object turned to Muynak and developed a speed of about 700 km / h. His path did not correspond to the civil aviation route. The dispatcher warned Nukus about the approach of the object to the zone of their radar. At that time, an "AN-24" appeared from the direction of Muynak, heading for Shevchenko. The target was in his direction, without changing direction. The dispatcher contacted the plane. The AN-24 answered that they were not observing anything. During the accident run, the dispatcher turned the AN-24 away from the object's course when they were at a distance of 220-250 km from Shevchenko. Having moved away at a distance of 300-350 km, the object went out of the Shevchenko's radar station and disappeared from sight. Nukus airport flights told Shevchenko that they do not see the targets, contacted military airfields in Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd, Baku, Tashkent, Alma-Ata and Moscow.that their planes or other objects were not in the air (it was a day off), and asked the Shevchenko airport about the circumstances of the observation.
After 5-6 minutes, the object reappeared on the radar screen of the Shevchenko airport in the same place where it disappeared. He followed strictly the same route in the opposite direction to Uzen at great speed (according to the flight director, it was about 40 km per 1 revolution of the radar antenna, which is about 7200 km / h).
We again asked Nukus about the presence of their aircraft on this course, again received a negative answer. The flight director contacted the air defense of Krasnovodsk. From there they officially replied that there are no bans on the highways. From Uzen, the object turned to Aksu and disappeared in the same place where it appeared, although it was in the zone of confident registration of the Shevchenko a / p radar, at a distance of about 170 km from it. According to the dispatcher's impression, he disappeared as if he had turned off the radio answering machine.
During the entire observation period, the object was tracked using a request-response system. The locator P-35m ("Sword") was used, the rotational speed of the antenna Zob / min … The object could be registered by the locator only if it possessed a device that worked as a radio transmitter tuned to the operating frequency of civil aviation with the set code. It looked like a high-altitude plane (bow). During the entire escort period I did not get in touch. The Air Defense Service tried to find the target and clarified its location with the flight director after it disappeared from the radar screen."
It is not known whether the "Grid" staff traveled to the Mangyshlak peninsula in the summer of 1980, but rumors about an expedition that year are still circulating.
In the early 1980s, Shevchenko residents started talking about some kind of silver balls. The conversations were conducted with a look around, with a laugh - painfully incredible events happened almost every day. One citizen came to work late and said that he had seen two silver balls on the Caspian coast. It was far from them, so it was not possible to determine the size. Friends laughed at "joke", but were soon put to shame. On Monday, the geological party returned, and the geologists repeated the story of the "joker" word for word. On their own, they added that they were trying to drive up to the balls, but, having driven straight about 5 km, they suddenly realized that they had not come close to the objects at all. As if they were standing still. At some point, the balls disappeared - according to geologists, "burst like soap bubbles."
From that day on, an avalanche of testimony began, but all the stories were quite the same type. Strange balls about 30 m in diameter were found only in groups. Soon the geologists stopped paying attention to them.
They tried to photograph them, but those who have dealt with photography know what it is like to photograph a silvery object in the desert. The result was inexpressive white spots. Yet it was with the help of the camera that one riddle was solved. In one of the pictures, it was possible to see that the silvery ball does not disappear, but very quickly soars up.
Since all these events took place near the border, the case received publicity. According to rumors, some kind of commission arrived in the city, chartered a car from one of the city's organizations and drove out along an unknown route. Curiously, having a load of instruments, the members of the commission returned light and quickly, without comment, left. It is not known whether it was the "Grid" commission or some amateur amateurs came to Shevchenko. And the balls were observed for another month, then they disappeared somewhere …
Another expedition "Grid" worked in the Kazakh city of Derzhavinsk.
Anatoly Listratov, an employee of the Institute of High Temperatures of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, said: “Our institute has been involved in the 'Setka-AN' program since October 1979.“I have been actively involved in this problem.
A collision immediately occurred between G. S Narimanov and V. V. Migulin. Narimanov admitted the presence of the incomprehensible, the unidentified, admitted that UFOs are not just some kind of atmospheric glow and plasma formations, as Migulin interpreted it and still interprets it, and it is possible that these are spacecraft of an extraterrestrial civilization, that they are piloted by extraterrestrial beings … Narimanov's installation in the "Grid" program was as follows: since the problem was not stated unambiguously and was veiled as anomalous phenomena, it is necessary to find the most indicative case where there would be a UFO landing and a humanoid exit: to go to the site as quickly as possible, document, make possible fixation and measurements.
I started going to editorial offices, working with mail, looking for interesting cases. After all, people write about unusual phenomena in their favorite newspaper, magazine … At the end of 1979, by the will of fate, I attacked a letter with a message about the contact. The years were then, as they say now, stagnant, post-Stalinist, people were afraid of everything, and therefore the letter was anonymous."
A copy of this letter (No. 5393 dated July 19, 1979) fortunately has survived:
"Dear editors of the" Technology for Youth "magazine!
Very often, on the pages of your journal, we come across materials that tell about interesting and mysterious phenomena in nature, about encounters with the unknown, comments of scientists on all these riddles are given. And we really want you to help us figure it out and, perhaps, comment on the event on the pages of the magazine that took place here, in the city of Derzhavinsk, Turgai Region, Kazakh SSR.
We were not eyewitnesses of this phenomenon (unfortunately !!!), but the guys told us - direct witnesses of this “miracle.” And there were about 20 of them - children and two adults.
The case took place in the pioneer camp "Berezka" (which is located 20 km from the city, in a birch grove) at the end of June this year.
The day before the closing of the first shift in the camp, the guys went to the hill, which is located 3-4 km from the camp. The guys began to shout out each other's names in chorus. And when the last name sounded, the guys suddenly noticed a group (four people) of "people" of a very strange, in our human opinion, appearance. They were gigantic (3-3.5 m), but fragile in build. To the guys, they seemed completely black. They differed from each other only in the color of their wide belts (yellow, red, blue, white). They moved easily, as if sliding along the ground. Their arms were stretched forward and motionless when they walked. Seeing them, the guys screamed and ran in fear The teacher was with them. Looking back, the children saw that one of these "people" was following them, but, not reaching the camp, he turned back.
Emboldened, the guys began to shout and call him, but he continued to leave, only once looking back. And then the whole group of these "people" suddenly began to disappear, as if gradually sinking into the ground. But that did not end there.
In the evening of the same day, the student saw one of these "people" sitting on a stool near the camp canteen. She did not notice him immediately, as she walked in thought. At first she suddenly noticed someone's legs, which seemed extremely large to her. Looking up, she saw "Man" of enormous height. What she remembered is his square eyes and burning gaze and a mouth that resembled (in her words) the mouth of a horse. She got scared and ran to the guys. When everyone came to this place, there was no one else. Only the stool was broken.
On this day, after lunch, the guys noticed buildings visible in the distance, shaped like tents, as if made of something similar in color to slate. When, after a while, they came to the place where these "tents" were, there was nothing there, only in this place the grass was burnt.
Now in our city there is a lot of talk about this interesting case. Opinions were, of course, divided. Some residents consider this a fiction, and some believe that this is a "contact" that people have long dreamed of, they dream now, and even not only dream, but also make attempts to establish it.
Moreover, this phenomenon was observed by many, and not only children, but also adults. These "people" were especially close to the guys: V. Chernyshov, A. Dmitriev, E. Kvacheva and their teacher in the pioneer camp. All of them are students of the Derzhavin secondary school named after N. K. Krupskaya. All of them, of course, can give more precise information about the appearance of these "people" than those that we have given in this letter. Sorry for not giving your last name. Our town is small, and not everyone will understand us correctly.
Respectfully yours, your regular readers."
Anatoly Pavlovich sent a letter to the local newspaper and, in the end, went to the secretary of the newspaper "Turgayskaya nov" PI Zhukovsky, who "in hot pursuit" went to the scene, questioned eyewitnesses. To extinguish the flaring passions, Peter Zhukovsky then had to write a feuilleton "UFO in a sundress". The very fact of an unusual meeting was not denied in him, but at the end it was hinted that this could be someone's completely earthly trick.
Zhukovsky clarified that all this happened on June 26, 1979, between 11.15 and 11.40 local time. The detachment (about 20 pioneers of the 5-7th grades), while on a walk with the pioneer leader N. P. Kolmykova, on the Lysaya hill, 2 km from the camp, met four unknown creatures of very tall stature and fragile constitution. They were black with a kind of skirt in the hips. The faces showed no noses or mouths, only two large pink “eyes” (Fig. 45).
“A group of creatures came out from behind the hill and was at a distance of about 30 m from the detachment,” he wrote to AP Listratov. - Seeing her, the guys got scared and rushed to run towards the camp. One of the creatures pursued them, his gait was distinguished by a sliding nature, his arms were stretched out and motionless when he walked. His closest approach to the guys was about 10 m. Before reaching the camp, he returned back, and the whole group disappeared.
In the evening of the same day, after supper, one of the creatures, sitting on a chair in the grove near the camp canteen, was seen by the pioneer and counselor RF Rakhimov. At night, at about two o'clock, R. Rakhimova's husband, paramedic of the "ambulance" G. Rakhimov, saw two burning "eyes" about 20 meters from the main camp building (Fig. 46).
The next day, the guys noticed buildings in the distance, reminiscent of the shape of a tent and the color of slate. When they arrived at this place, they found only burnt grass. There was information in the area that on the night of June 25-26, 1979, the passage of a luminous body was observed. Representatives of the regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB of the USSR were at the scene without delay."
We will cite only one of the testimonies recorded by Pyotr Zhukovsky from the words of eyewitnesses:
“On June 26, I left the canteen of the Beryozka camp, it was at half past seven in the evening, and walked along a birch grove, which is located on the right side of the canteen,” R. F. Rakhimova said. “I did not have time to take 5-6 steps, how the boy Zhenya from my 4th detachment ran out of the grove. He was very frightened. I immediately looked in the direction from which he was running. There was a very large man, tall (about 3 m), all black as coal, very thin and all straight, like a board. His hands are huge, human-like. Black on him is like an ordinary human skin. Below he has something in the form of a short skirt made of white material of dazzling whiteness. This material cannot be overlooked, because he is very white. Even when I immediately looked at him, I clearly saw his head. She very slowly turned in my direction so thatthat he did not have time to fully turn to me, I saw him only in profile. He had no nose, no hair, no ears, no mouth - nothing. There were only one eyes, large and bulging, it seems as if they were about to come out. These eyes are pink, shiny, and he has a very strange look. His head is slightly convex at the back. He was sitting on a chair 10-11 meters away from me. Well, I didn't see him because I was very scared and rushed to run through the grove to the linear area. I ran, fell, got up and ran again and shouted: “There’s some black man sitting there!” All the children and counselors who were sitting on the playground rushed there, in the direction I showed. I ran after them, and one became scared stay. There were only one eyes, large and protruding, it seems as if they are about to come out. These eyes are pink, shiny, and he has a very strange look. His head is slightly convex at the back. He was sitting on a chair 10-11 meters away from me. Well, I didn't see him because I was very scared and rushed to run through the grove to the linear area. I ran, fell, got up and ran again and shouted: “There’s some black man sitting there!” All the children and counselors who were sitting on the playground rushed there, in the direction I showed. I ran after them, and one became scared stay. There were only one eyes, large and protruding, it seems as if they are about to come out. These eyes are pink, shiny, and he has a very strange look. His head is slightly convex at the back. He was sitting on a chair 10-11 meters away from me. Well, I didn't see him because I was very scared and rushed to run through the grove to the linear area. I ran, fell, got up and ran again and shouted: “There’s some black man sitting there!” All the children and counselors who were sitting on the playground rushed there, in the direction I showed. I ran after them, and one became scared stay.that she was very frightened and rushed to run through the grove to the linear area. I ran, fell, got up and ran again and shouted: “There’s some black man sitting there!” All the children and counselors who were sitting on the playground rushed there, in the direction I showed. I ran after them, and one became scared stay.that she was very frightened and rushed to run through the grove to the linear area. I ran, fell, got up and ran again and shouted: “There’s some black man sitting there!” All the children and counselors who were sitting on the playground rushed there, in the direction I showed. I ran after them, and one became scared stay.
When we ran to this chair, we immediately saw that the legs of the chair where this man was sitting halfway into the ground. We split into two groups and ran one through the grove, the others stayed near the chair. The first group examined the entire grove, but nothing was visible. Only later, when we ran to the second group, they said that there were very large footprints near the chair, but they were immediately trampled down from the younger group.
When we didn’t find anything, everyone had calmed down and came to the line site, the guys from the first squadron began to tell how they also saw four people”.
The winter passed in the correspondence, and only by the spring of 1980 did Listratov prepare an "information message" about the UFO landing and contact with humanoids.
“Naturally, I prepared these documents in order to organize an expedition and provided a certificate to Narimanov,” Listratov said. - Spring has come, there was a call to the regional party committee of the Turgai region on the "turntable", a solid paper was given to us, they found a place where we stay. And at the end of May, 11 months after the incident, we left. A group of three people was planned, but again, the attitude to the problem led to the fact that the employee of the Physics Institute was not let go by the management. We went together: I and the employee of IKI … (Fig. 47, 48).
There really was contact. On the night before contact, a fireball was observed flying. Eyewitnesses testified that the balloon was landing. The testimony also featured some other ground crews, which rolled up and down the steppe and even pursued one car. The driver dodged them and, like a madman, arrived at the destination in a completely deranged state.
Working with eyewitnesses at that time was not such an easy thing. Around the third day of our stay in this town, someone started a rumor that we were KGB agents, and our academic credentials were nonsense. After that, it was useless for us to look for eyewitnesses. We came to the driver who was being chased by the aliens' crews, his family denies: there is no home. He saw nothing, knows nothing.
Our task was to find some material traces. Many traces have not survived to us, for example, the footprint of an alien who was sitting in the camp on a chair, an ordinary broken public catering chair made of concave tubes. For him, a tall man, a chair was like a highchair for us. He sat bent over, his legs raised to his chin, and when he got up, there were traces. The chair sank half of its legs into the ground, so we estimated the alien's weight to be about 350-400 kg …
A few days after the contact, counter-propaganda began. A lecturer came from Alma-Ata, from the "Knowledge" society, gave a lecture on the topic: "Is there life on Mars", and convincingly proved that a series of space research results established that there is nothing living within the solar system and there will be no aliens can not. They trampled all traces, then started up the version that they were students who dressed up in some kind of robes and frightened the guys. All this is sewn with white thread, but maybe it was justly done, because the city is small, and there was a certain panic. Nobody began to send children to the second stream to this camp.
The guys showed that there was a burn on the hill, that they saw a flash on the far outskirts, about 5 kilometers away. The burn could have turned out to be a natural phenomenon, something like a steppe tan, but the most interesting thing is that there was a 1-meter track on the slope of this hill (in general, the entire hill was dotted with tracks with such a track), but one was literally plowed, as if some kind of apparatus had struck the ground. The trail started at the foot of the hill, and ended at the top. The impression is that the device separated and went into the atmosphere. We took samples from this track and samples of background rocks and returned to Moscow with this bag of stones."
All this, of course, did not prevent Yulia Platov from writing 20 years later:
“The most surprising thing is that, in contrast to the numerous descriptions of various kinds of contacts with aliens, collected in the collections of ufologists, within the framework of the project, which used the enormous observation potential of the army and civilian organizations, not a single report of UFO landing, contacts with UFO pilots, abduction was recorded. UFO people. Perhaps for some reason, for at least 13 years, the territory of the USSR was closed for visiting alien visitors, or the hypothesis of the alien origin of UFOs is untenable."
What makes Platov still deny the obvious can only be guessed at. Former "Grid" member Valentin Fomenko told me: “I met Migulin, but not Platov. Of course, skepticism is a good thing, but when skepticism is ordered, it already becomes disgusting."
Mikhail Gershtein