CHAPTER 29

CIA, ESPIONAGE, AND SOVIET UFOS

That the Soviet UFO phenomenon has attracted attention of

various intelligence agencies, from at least 1920’s is a
fact that few would dispute; and those who would should
browse through the recently declassified KGB files of Gleb
Bokiy, Barchenko, and Soviet paranormal research. We are
very much interested to show how foreign intelligence
services had viewed reports and sightings of UFOs over the
USSR. Although only a few files have been released,
nevertheless some files have been declassified in the United
States, too, and the information contained in them sheds
some light on the subject of the CIA research, as well on
the Agency (and other services doing similar research)
itself. The Agency had a special, very keen interest in
Soviet UFOs and those who had studied them (whether
officially or unofficially) behind the Iron Curtain.

We will examine those CIA documents that have been

declassified, released, made available whatever the
description; suffice it to say that even the few files
available help us learn what the Agency was interested in in
terms of Soviet UFO phenomenon.

Title: USSR AND SATELLITE MENTION OF FLYING SAUCERS

Pub Date: August 21, 1952
Release Date: November 161978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director (Intelligence)
SUBJECT: USSR and Satellite Mention of Flying Saucers

This curious CIA document, released in 1978, was a

memorandum prepared for the CIA’s deputy Director of
Intelligence (DDI). The document contains a number of
deletions. It mentions that a search of (deleted) files has
so far produced no factual evidence that the subject has
been mentioned in the Soviet satellites (countries under
Soviet domination-P.S. and P.M.) within the past two years.
It is believed that a derisive comment was made in a Russian
newspaper in 1948 on this subject, but so far the article
has not been found.

But there was one broadcast made on the subject; the date of
the broadcast is June 10, 1951; and the content is attached
for the Agency’s attention. The summary of that broadcast
states that in what appears to be Moscow’s first mention of
the flying saucers, a “Listener’s Mailbag” answers questions
on the subject, to the effect that the “Chief of Nuclear
Physics in the U.S. Naval Research Bureau had explained them
recently as used for stratospheric studies. U.S. Government
circles knew all along of the harmless nature of these
objects, but if they refrained from denying ‘false reports’,
the purpose behind such tactics was to fan war hysteria in
the country”.

Curiously, as mentioned elsewhere in this book, top Soviet

scientists tried to convince Stalin that UFOs were indeed
quite harmless, or at least did not pose a threat to the
armed forces and security of the nation.

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Getting back to the curious memorandum, we find there a
mention of a State department cable received from Budapest
that quoted the August 14th copy of Szabad Nep, as follows:

“Flying saucer stories are another American attempt to fan

war hysteria”. A radar detection of “saucers” is quoted in
the article, and it comments on the ridiculous aspects of
the source of the mystery. The article concludes that it is
but a part of American rulers’ propaganda to prove the
Western countries are threatening (sic). Perhaps they meant,
“threatened”. The memorandum concludes that the FBID
(Foreign Broadcast Information Department) had been
requested to alert field stations to any mention of flying
saucers by Iron Curtain states.

Title: ENGINEER CLAIMS 'SAUCER' PLANS ARE IN SOVIET HANDS

SIGHTINGS IN AFRICA, IRAN,
Pub Date: August 17, 1953
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-036

This article definitely attracted the Agency’s attention in

1953. We have summarized it below.

GERMAN ENGINEER STATES SOVIETS HAVE GERMAN FLYING SAUCER

EXPERTS AND PLANS
Athens, I Vredyni, May 13, 1953

The information contained in this CIA document was obtained

by the Agency from a Greek source. The document was analyzed
in Vienna, by some entity entitled “Special Service”. The

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document states that according to recent reports from
Toronto, a number of Canadian Air Force engineers are
engaged in the construction of a “flying saucer” to be used
as a future weapon of war. The work of these engineers is
being carried out in great secrecy at the A. V. Row Company
(transliteration from the Greek) factories.

“Flying saucers” have been known to be an actuality since

the possibility of their construction was proven in plans
drawn by German engineers toward the end of World War II.
George Klein, a German engineer, stated that though many
people believe the “flying saucers” to be a postwar
development, they were actually in the planning stage in
German aircraft factories as early as 1941.

Klein said that he was an engineer in the Ministry of Albert

Speer (who, in 1942, was Reich’s Minister for Armament and
Ammunition for the Third Reich) and was present at the first
experimental flight of a “flying saucer”. During the
experiment, Klein reported, the “flying saucer” had reached
an altitude of 12,400 meters within 3 minutes and a speed of
2,200 kilometers per hour. Klein emphasized that in
accordance with German plans; the speed of these “saucers”
would reach 4,000 kilometers per hour. One difficulty,
according to Klein, was the problem of obtaining materials
to be used for the construction of the “saucers” but German
engineers toward the end of 1945 had solved even this, and
construction of the aircraft was scheduled to begin. Klein
went on to state that three experimental models had been
readied for tests by the end of 1944 (sic), built according
to two completely different principles of aerodynamics.

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One type actually was in the shape of a disc, with an
interior cabin, and was built at the Mite (unidentified
transliteration from the Greek) factories, which had also
built the V-2 rockets (this statement confirms a report by a
Soviet eyewitness who was a POW at the Mite; see Chapter
One, Subchapter UFOs and the Bolsheviks).

This model was 42 meters in diameter (although this does not

confirm the Soviet eyewitness’s account; the size he
mentioned was much smaller). The other model had the shape
of a ring, with raised sides and a spherically shaped pilot’
placed on the outside, in the center of the ring. This model
was built at the Habermol and Schreiver factories
(identified, stated the CIA, as both names transliterated
from the Greek). However, the locations mentioned above,
became quite familiar to those ufologists who had pursued
the German trail, in the West and in the USSR.

Both models had an ability to take off vertically and to

land in an extremely restricted area, just like helicopters
do today. During the last few days of the war, when every
hope for Nazi victory had been abandoned, the engineers in
the group stationed in Prague carried out orders to
completely destroy their plans of the aircraft models,
before the Red Army victoriously marched in, after heavy
battles (Paul Stonehill’s grandfather was one of the Soviet
soldiers who battled Nazis to liberate Prague from German
occupation). The engineers at the Mite factories in Breslau,
however, had not been warned in sufficient time of the
Soviet approach, and Soviet forces therefore succeeded in
seizing their archives. Captured plans, as well, as
engineering personnel, were immediately transferred to the

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Soviet Union, under heavy guard (coincidental with the
departure from Berlin of the creator of the Stuka JU-87 dive
bomber, the man who later developed MIG 13 and 15 aircraft
in the Soviet Union).

Klein had more to say, but we will stop here. In the Chapter
One, Subchapter Ural Mountains, we have discussed an alleged
CIA operation in the Urals, and the German scientists
working in the USSR on another secret program. There, too,
the American agent involved in the operation who escaped
from Soviet Russia, mentioned five flying saucers built by
the Soviets.

Title: FLYING OBJECTS SEEN IN SHAKHTY AREA, 1953

Pub Date: August 8, 1955
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653
USSR (Rostov Oblast’)

The Agency deleted classification status of the report. The

date of content was August 1953. The information in the
report was obtained in late September of 1954. Source of
information was deleted from the declassified report.

Shakhty, which is a small town in a coal mining area, is

about an hour and a drive half from Rostov (south of Moscow
on the Don river east of Ukraine).

The report states that on a warm starry moonlit evening in

August of 1953, three flying objects were observed moving

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over an Ayuta “camp”. The location was 10 kilometers
southeast of the southern perimeter of Shakhty, about 600
meters west of the Rostov-Novoshakhtinsk highway, about 2
kilometers southeast of the Ayuta mines and about 3.5
kilometers from Ayuta. The objects were sighted at different
times (one hour one after the other, starting at 21:45
hours). The fiery gleam accompanying the object disappeared
over the partially lighted installations of the Ayuta mines.
The objects moved from southeast to northwest at a deviation
of 60 to 75 degrees from the vertical line, and crossed
approximately north of the camp. The flight altitude could
not be estimated. No sound was heard while the objects were
overhead. The speed of the phenomena could not be compared
with that of aircraft or Soviet jet fighters. The first
object was observed departing toward the Ayuta mines for 5
or 4 seconds. The second body was seen for 6 or 7 seconds
after passing the camp. It also disappeared in the direction
of the Ayuta mines. No statement could be made about the
third object. The two objects observed had a fiery gleam in
a reddish color which was similar to that of planet Mars. It
looked like a comet or a shooting star. The approach of the
phenomenon (sic) was not observed.

Here’s the fascinating part (P.S and P.M.):

On the day following the evening observation, the individual
PKs differed considerably in their opinions about the
phenomena. Immediately after the observation, source and
sub-source believed the objects observed were rockets,
similar to F weapons. After the objects disappeared, no
detonations were heard.

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Field Consent. All previous reports on flying objects
observed in the Shakhty area mentioned that loud noise
accompanied the action. The description of the noises
indicated that the body was propelled by a rocket or fitted
with a pulse-jet engine. See (and the Agency deleted
whatever followed). The object mentioned in the present
report possibly flew at such a high altitude that the sound
of the engines could not be heard. Another possibility is
that a different phenomenon was observed, which, however
appears rather improbable. Another filed consent added that
the observation reported agrees with previous information
and indicates that a ramjet or a rocket engine propelled the
body.

Questions, upon reading the above report:

What came from the Ayuta mines? Who were “PKs”? What was the
“F weapons”? What powerful rockets and jets were developed
by Soviets in 1953, to propel craft at incomparable speeds?
In Part Two, Chapter Two STALIN, UFOS, AND OTHER SECRETS we
have discussed Soviet super-secret rocket and spacecraft
development of the Stalin era (a still forbidden subject;
most files or documents have been heretofore unavailable to
researchers). Perhaps the Agency was also interested in the
same subject 45 years ago. Here’s another report that seems
to support our view.

Title: FAST-MOVING FLYING OBJECTS OVER STALINGRAD IN SPRING

1954
Pub Date: August 1, 1956
Release Date: November 16, 1978

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Case Number: F-1975-03653

The report was taken from someone who, in the spring of

1954, was hospitalized at a Soviet military hospital in
Stalingrad (now Volgograd). On one occasion, the narrator
along with other patients had observed the flight of an
unknown object from horizon to horizon. The object appeared
to be climbing. The narrator could not describe the object,
but he recalled that it took approximately one minute for
the object to leave the range of his vision. The object
caused a great amount of vibration in the air and made a
screeching, whistling noise, which was different from the
noise made by an artillery shell. The narrator reiterated
that he did not see the object itself, but did see the
disturbance in the air, which seemed to envelop it.

Title: UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT OBSERVED ON IRAN/USSR

BORDER
Pub Date: August 12, 1957
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

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On 12 June at 11:00 a.m. local time, a flying object was
seen Iranian Juifa, traveling on a course from Nakhichevan
[N 39-15, E. (unclear text-P.S.), USSR. The object appeared
to be a ball about one-half meter in diameter and had a tail
of half meter in length. It traveled (this is how the word
is spelled in the document-P.S. and P.M.) at high speed at a
height of about 2,000 feet and was visible for only a few
seconds. (unclear writing) trail left by the object drifted
over Iranian b Juifa from the USSR and (unclear) of a trail
about 5 to 10 centimeters in diameter.

Field Comment: (deletion) also reported seeing a flying

object at the same time and described it about the size of a
football and moving at a height of 2,000 meters. He said the
smoke track left behind the object was visible for about 15
minutes.

Once again, as elsewhere in the book, that UFOs kept coming

to the Iranian-Soviet border. We are yet to learn what has
attracted them to the area; obviously, the CIA is
interested, too. Could the Agency’s interest be aroused also
because of the oil fields in the area? Maybe. One year
before the case mentioned here, there was something else
that drew the Agency’s attention. Case Number: F-1975-03653,
February 7, 1956; Release Date: November 16, 1978. Here the
Agency was interested in an object sighted over Baku,
capital of the Soviet Azerbaijan. The actual sighting took
place on October 4, 1955, and the Office of Scientific
Intelligence prepared its analysis of it.

There was another document, declassified by CIA, dealing

with the same area.

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Title: SIGHTING OF UNUSUAL PHENOMENON ON HORIZON
NEAR IRANIAN/USSR BORDER
Pub Date: September 27, 1966
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

The document, a testimony of a nameless witness, describes

an unusual phenomenon, a brilliant white sphere on the
horizon, some 25 miles away from the Mehrabad airport. The
UFO was on a expanding variety; was clearly visible, and was
sighted by another aircraft, too.

Title: MAYBE THERE IS NO UFO

Pub Date: December 25, 1967
Release Date: October 31, 1987
Case Number: F-1990-01473

The Agency is interested in the report about the creation in

November of 1967 of the committee for the investigation of
the unidentified flying objects. This committee, a part of
the DOSAAF (see Part Three of this book, Chapter CHRONICLE
OF SOVIET UFO RESEARCH), is under the command of the Air
Force General Porfiri Stolyarov. General Stolyarov
recommended that the photographic method be used. The data
obtained during the investigation would be correlated to the
Pulkovo Laboratory and the Crinca Astronomical Observatory.
The observation has been entrusted to a chain of
astronomical observatories all over the USSR, as well as
civil aviation.

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We already know what had happened to the committee (see
Chapter CHRONICLE OF SOVIET UFO RESEARCH).

What is interesting is how much time it took the CIA to

declassify the document mentioning General Stolyarov and the
committee.

Title: FLYING PHENOMENA (UFO'S) - SOURCE-SOVETSKAYA LATVIYA

- THE DIRECTOR OF…
Pub Date: December 9, 1967
Release Date: October 31, 1987
Case Number: F-1984-01392

Unfortunately, the CIA document is virtually impossible to

read, and seems to contain deletions. But something
definitely attracted the Agency’s attention to a Soviet
publication.

It was Dr. Zigel, mentioned throughout our book, who had

attracted the Agency’s attention in 1968.

Title: DATA FROM CRS AND FROM FBIS ON ZIGEL, F. YU., DR.
OF TECHNICAL SCIENCES WRITES
Pub Date: December 31, 1968
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

Actually, CIA was interested in his articles published in

Soviet magazines; his subjects ranged from the Tunguska
Meteorite to a “Dialog on Mars”.

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But, of course, the Agency’s fascination with Dr. Zigel’s
views did not end there. An 11-page document was published
the same year.

Title: NOTHING BUT THE FACTS ON UFOS OR WHICH NOVOSTI WRITER

DO YOU READ?
Pub Date: April 8, 1968
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

“Unidentified Flying Objects” by Felix Zigel, Doctor of

Science (Technology), assistant professor, Moscow Aviation
Institute, appeared in the February 1968 issue of Soviet
Life (counterpart to USIA), for which APN supplies all
materials (APN, the Soviet “unofficial” news agency). The
other article, espousing views of Soviet debunkers, was
titled “Flying Saucers? They are a myth!” by Villen
Lyustiberg, and appeared in the February 16th issue of
Moskovsky Komsomolets.

By the way, as we have described elsewhere in the book, the

late 1960s had seen crucial battles for openness in the area
of UFO studies in the USSR. There was an obvious conflict,
as proponents and opponents (among them top military brass)
on both sides. The Agency was quite interested, too, and
collected whatever information was available.

Villen Lyustiberg’s article laughed off UFOs, and accused

the United States of publishing accounts of UFOs to divert
people’s attention from its failures and aggressions. What
surprised the Agency was the fact that the Soviets actually

13
published two conflicting views about a subject (any
subject).

A truly mysterious document is revealed in the following CIA

document. Alas, it is also full of deletions.

(TITLE DELETED)-USSR-UFO SIGHTINGS-SOMEONE MUST HAVE MADE A

POLITICAL DECISION
Pub Date: May 7, 1975
Release Date: May 18, 1989
Case Number: F-1985-00010

Yet, what remains is most interesting. Basically, on one

occasion someone, whose name is deleted (just as the first
two pages of the document were deleted completely) asked
whether the U.S. Forecast Center was ever bothered with UFO
sightings. He explained (whom to? -P.S. and P.M.) that at
one time (deletion) and (deletion) in particular, had been
plagued with calls and questions about UFO sightings
(sightings was underlined by hand-P.S. and P.M.). He said
that some of their scientific balloon flights had prompted
some of them. Now, he said, he never gets these calls
anymore, and half jokingly surmised that someone must have
made a political decision that they were not to be sighted
anymore (underlined by hand starting with someone must
have).

Unfortunately, it is most probable that UFO researchers will

never find out what was deleted from the 1975 document.

Title: USSR NATIONAL AFFAIRS SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS

'UNUSUAL' NATURAL PHENOMENON OBSERVED

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Pub Date: September 22, 1977
Release Date: November 16, 1978
Case Number: F-1975-03653

In this document the CIA’s attention is turned to the

Petrozavodsk phenomenon. Moscow TASS information service is
the source of the brief mention of the phenomena.
Descriptions of a “huge star” and “medusa” were given. We
have described the events surrounding the Petrozavodsk
Phenomena in Chapter One, Subchapter Karelia.

Just as we had become curious in the late 1980s with all the
UFO glasnost developments in the USSR, so had the Agency.

Title: USSR: MEDIA REPORT MULTITUDE OF UFO SIGHTINGS

Pub Date: November 21, 1989
Release Date: July 31, 1991
Case Number: F-1990-00393

Among publications mentioned in the document is one by

Anatoly Listratov (Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya, September
30, 1989), whose findings we have mentioned elsewhere in the
book.

We will not list here every single declassified CIA document

dealing with Soviet UFOs after 1989. Statements from top
military brass, reports in the Soviet media, the Agency was
interested in everything that Soviet/CIS newspapers revealed
month after month. Most of the information is covered in
other chapters of UFOS OVER RUSSIA.

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What needs to be pointed out is that the CIA became
interested in the report of a joint Sino-Soviet UFO
research.

Title: USSR, PRC SCIENTISTS IN JOINT STUDY OF UFO'S

Pub Date: May 20, 1990
Release Date: May 31, 1994
Case Number: F-1990-01096

We already know that the People’s Republic of China has

joined the space race, and its astronauts may soon orbit the
earth, and go beyond. Here is what worried the Agency in
1990.

The source of the report was Moscow Domestic Service in

Russian on May 21, 1990.

A report from Vladivostok: scientists of the PRC and the

Soviet Far East have begun joint study of UFOs. The first
meeting of ufologists of the two countries has ended in the
small maritime town of Dalnegorsk. The Soviet and Chinese
specialists of anomalous phenomena have mapped out a program
for investigating incidents that are already known and have
also arranged to directly exchange video and photographic
materials on new similar phenomena. Dalnegorsk has not been
chosen by chance as the place for such meeting.

(There have been a number of cases of visual observation of

UFOs over Dalnegorsk and one crash in 1986; see Part Three,
Chapter Six THE DALNEGORSK CRASH).

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Title: 1. OVERVIEW OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE
UKRAINIAN SSR

Pub Date: January 9, 1990

Release Date: August 27, 1997
Case Number: F-1993-02057

We cannot ignore this document. There are a number of

deletions in this document, yet even the remaining
information is enough to arouse our curiosity.

Someone connected with the Agency paid a visit to the

Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (probably, in September of
1989). Someone, a Soviet whose name is deleted in the
document, asked about the U.S. research in the area of the
unidentified flying objects (underlined). The person with no
name also said that the Academy has several organizations
that follow the subject and that some scientists think this
is a serious research.

Who was this unnamed scientist? What happened to the

findings of “several organizations”? There are no answers in
our possession.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Now, let us look at the information from 1970, and the

intelligence agency here is the Department of Defense
Intelligence. We will refer to this document in other
chapters of our book. The report number is 2 723 1209 70,
the date is August 19, 1970. The information contained in

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the report dates back to may 18, 1970. The subject is Soviet
Space Development, and the country is Japan. Actually,
Yokogama, Tokai University in Kanagawa Prefecture, where
Soviet cosmonaut Leonov was giving a lecture at the Shohan
Annex. The cosmonaut talked about Soviet experiences in
space and future plans of the USSR in space exploration, to
include a mammoth space station, which the USSR planned to
put into orbit. Leonov also expressed disbelief in UFOs.

Leonov talked about several subjects that day. One had to do

with improvement of the Soviet space capsule braking
equipment. The other was the confirmation of Soviet moon
data by U.S. astronauts. This confirmation interested
American military intelligence, and we think we know the
reason: like the CIA, they heard about early (and still
classified) Soviet attempts to reach the Moon. By the way,
it is quite likely that Leonov was instructed to misinform
people in the West about UFO sightings in the USSR. Two
years before his speech in Japan, an organized attempt by
Soviet scientists and military researchers to study UFOs
independently (including through television broadcasts) was
ruthlessly crushed. UFOs once again became a taboo subject.
Leonov had to know about UFO sightings reported by other
cosmonauts. But, like other Soviet people, he was not free
to express his true opinion; like them, he was a slave,
albeit a privileged one.

Here is what Leonov revealed about Soviet exploration of the

Moon:
The Soviet Union has a well-coordinated program for travel
to the moon and has compiled complete and detailed data
concerning conditions on the moon through its moon station.

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It has photographs of the moon’s dark side and complete data
on the make-up and characteristics of its surface, the
moon’s gravity field, etc. “The US astronauts who landed on
the moon only confirmed what we already knew.” he said.

Here is what he said about UFOs. The speaker said he does

not believe in the existence of unidentified flying objects
(flying saucers). Why, he asked, would flying saucers, if
they do exist, be seen only over the United States, France
and Italy? He said there is no record of any of the Soviet
observatories, which are manned by highly trained
technicians, ever having seen a flying saucer.

Again, this is a crude misinformation attempt. A well-placed

functionary of the Soviet space program, Leonov knew what
was really happening at the observatories. We have discussed
what Soviet astronomers knew about UFOS in Chapter Five.

The source of the information for the report was a Japanese

government agency official.

Question: what happened to the Soviet data about the Moon?

Even the data mentioned by Leonov has not become freely
available to researchers. Just as the Lunokhod
(“moonwalker”) craft remains an enigmatic mission (the
archives, revealed recently on Russian TV, confirmed our
research, described in THE SOVIET UFO FILES, 1998, that
special compartments were built for cosmonauts to guide the
craft once it “landed” on the Moon), files about Soviet
secret exploration of the Moon are still an enigma wrapped
in a mystery. Why? Has this secret information become
available to other nations? China, for example?

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The more declassified intelligence files we look into, the
more questions arise. Apparently, CIA and other intelligence
agencies had as many questions but more answers than we do.
We can only hope that that more files will be released in
the future, which in turn will answer more of our questions.

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