For many years Stalin led the Soviet people into believing that he thought ufos didn't exist. Most Soviets were scared to even discuss the subject. Discussion had not been forbidden but you would be ridiculed or even worse. It was know among the people that you just didn't discuss this subject. But this was only the face of what Stalin wanted the people to think. There was another side to this coin. Stalin had really become worried about the ufos flying over the country and he directed that this matter be investigated. His decision was similar to that made by the US Government and several other governments around the world. Stalin had ordered the entire Soviet military, over 15 million people spread out over Russia and in several other countries, to look for ufos and to detail all the events surrounding their sightings. This was the biggest force of organized ufo watchers in the world. This order stood for 10 years.

Unknown Object
Photo Source: NASA 20005519

Several important incidents took place in the west that involved ufos, but when the Russians opened up some of their ufo files, it was discovered that the Soviets had incidents of their own. On September 16, 1989 a battle took place in the skies above the base of Zaostrovka. Many witnessed the strange events of that day. Seven saucer shaped vehicles had appeared in the skies. Six of them were in a formation and the seventh was on its own. The seventh saucer fell or was shot down out of the sky.

Another famous story was about an event that supposedly took place over a Russian air base. Hundreds of witnesses watched in horror as at least 36 ufos fought it out. The battle took place at an altitude of about 1 mile. The witnesses that saw this were from all walks of life including the Russian military. The battle lasted for about 12 minutes and everyone could see rays shooting out of ufos and sometimes hitting other ufos. Several ufo were damaged and one caught fire and crashed into the mountains. The air base was near Serov at the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Apparently there were two groups of ufos, one group coming from the northeast and the other the west. When their paths intercepted a battle broke out. Film of the fight, which was taken by a bystander, is said to have been confiscated by Russian Intelligence. The Russian government denies this event has ever taken place and also denies that any ufos have ever appeared over any Russian bases.

Unknown Object
Photo Source: NASA 20005520

Many military pilots in Russia have seen ufos as have military pilots in the US. No one wants to talk about this subject for fear of hurting their career.

In 1938 an interesting event took place. A scientist named Leon Theremin left the Soviet Union and came to the US. He had married a ballerina and lived with her in his New York apartment. He was a brilliant scientist and the Soviets didn't fail to realize this. They had him kidnapped from New York and took him back to the Soviet Union where they started a rumor that he had died. For a short time he was put to work in a Gulag, which is a concentration camp. This didn't last long as he was put to work on top secret projects. He is credited with inventing the electronic bug for eavesdropping that was used in the American Embassy and in Stalin's private apartments. He did so well that the Soviets offered him a job as head of the ufo project. Some say that the Soviets had captured some crashed ufos and wanted him to examine them. He flatly refused. He was sort of lucky, because right after that the Soviet Union was dissolved and he was allowed to return to the US.

Many old Soviet documents on ufos have been released and some have even fallen into the hands of American reporters. It seems that the Soviet Union had about the same amount of ufos that couldn't be accounted for as the US. That is about 5% of all sightings.

Unknown Object
Photo Source: NASA 20005521

There is a claim by two Russians that a huge object crashed on August 28, 1991. The object was shaped like an airship and two migs were sent up to investigate and try to force it to land. When the pilots got within visual range that sent back a description that said it was shaped like a dirigible and was about 600 meters long and 110 meters wide. They said it had two port holes but no other discernable markings or devices were viable. The migs had just pulled within 800 meters when their weapons shut down. When they got to within 600 meters they began to have engine problems. The object increased it's speed from 960 km per hour to 6800 km per hour and also began to move in a zig zag pattern. The jets had to back off. A month went by and reports started to come in that a huge ufo had crashed into the Tien-Shan Mountains. In English the area where the crash took place was called "The grave of the devil". The Soviets tried to reach the crash site but it was winter and one of their heavily laden copters crashed killing all on board. They decided to wait until the spring. A second expedition found the object. It had hit the mountain and exploded into two equal halves. There were some very odd things about the wreckage. Photography would not work because some sort of radiation would destroy the film. This radiation may have been effecting the party because they all stated that when they tried to approach the wreck and got closer than 800 meters they would feel extreme anxiety and exhaustion. Incidentally this was the same distance that the migs lost their weapons at. Compasses wouldn't work and neither would magnetometers. At 600 meters all watches and clocks malfunctioned. If a person got to within 500 meters he would get radiation burns.

A ufo is credited with arming a missile on a Soviet missile base and starting the launch sequence. After sending the launch crew into a panic and with only a few seconds remaining the ufo flew away and everything returned to normal. The equipment was disassembled but no malfunctions were found.