Vladimir Rubtsov is Director of the independent
Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena (RIAP) in Kharkiv,
Ukraine.
What is the state of world ufology nowadays? Having been engaged
in ufological investigations for some 40 years, and firmly
believing that these investigations are of very high importance
for science as well as for the future of humanity, I feel I
have some right to offer an opinion. Ufology today is a heterogeneous
mixture of serious research with entertainment, pop-religion,
and hysteria. There exists a distinguished circle of serious
UFO students in various countries, but the general public judges
ufology by its worst elements.
Some 40 years ago Jacques Vallee described the UFO phenomenon
as a "challenge to science." Science as a social
institution has pusillanimously refused to meet this challenge
and shirked its main responsibility to society - namely, serving
it as a searchlight, not as a blindfold. Fortunately, some
individual scientists have been more responsible, thanks to
which UFO phenomena are still being investigated.
What place was occupied by the now-departed Soviet branch of
ufology, and what place is occupied by its shade?
Until the middle 1980s only a feeble streamlet of Soviet UFO
data reached Western ufological organizations. It contained
both reliable and not-so-reliable reports, the usual mixture
of obvious IFOs and quasi-UFOs with true UFOs. This was fully
explainable and did not cause much discontent on the part of
Western ufologists. Everyone understood that these data were
obtained with difficulty in a totalitarian state, being another
- and valuable - confirmation that flying saucers under socialism
do not differ significantly from their democratic counterparts.
And thank goodness for that.
Beginning with 1986, however, this streamlet turned into a
real flood. It became possible for Soviet citizens in general,
and for Soviet ufologists in particular, to go abroad and participate
in ufological meetings, which resulted in considerable expansion
of the data exchange. Even the secret UFO reports gathered
by the Ministry of Defense became available to the public in
the atmosphere of economic and social liberation.
There is a danger, however, that all the difficult experience
of Soviet ufology will be reduced to effusive citations from
post-Soviet newspapers about alleged Roswell-like incidents
and other wild rumors. Pop-ufology is already exploiting this
tasty morsel, making serious research more difficult and worsening
the general atmosphere of superficial and incompetent denial
of UFOs by "educated" (or rather miseducated) public
opinion in the West.
The situation in the USSR was always very different in this
respect. Soviet ufology originated and existed as a pure field
of research and cognitive interest. Yes, the state suppressed
independent investigations in this field, but at least we lacked
any sort of pop-ufology.
An ostrich cannot keep its head in the sand forever; sooner
or later the poor thing will have to pull it out and look around.
Similarly, one day in the future, science will discover that
UFO phenomena deserve serious study. Then the data accumulated
by Soviet ufologists will be properly used.
Nervous Life in a Bureaucratic Environment
Ufology in the USSR had two different wings: official, government-funded
studies, and independent or "dissident" research.
Both had their pluses and minuses. The former was sometimes
overly skeptical, the latter overly enthusiastic. Their mutual
relations were less than serene. Independent ufology emerged
first, but the most essential findings were certainly made
during the fulfillment of the government-funded UFO study
program. I participated in Soviet ufology on both sides.
Independent Soviet ufology originated in the late 1950s through
the mid-'60s in the talks and papers of Yuriy Fomin, an engineer
and lecturer at the All-Union Society for Propagation of Political
and Scientific Knowledge, and of Felix Zigel, Assistant Professor
at Moscow Aviation Institute. UFO observations in this period
were not few and far between, but witnesses usually did not
know where to report their observations. Some wrote to astronomical
observatories and popular science journals, usually receiving
a few indifferent words in reply. Only debunking articles were
then allowed to appear in Soviet newspapers and journals. The
official position for a long time remained unequivocal: Soviet
people never see any mysterious objects in the sky, but even
when they do, specialists can always convincingly account for
the events.
In October 1967, Dr. Zigel established in Moscow the first
Soviet public organization dedicated to collecting and analyzing
UFO reports: the UFO Department of the All-Union Space-Exploration
Committee of the USSR Voluntary Society of Support to the Army,
Aviation, and Navy (DOSAAF). It included more than 200 scientists,
engineers, military representatives, journalists, and others.
Its elected head was Major-General Stolyarov; his deputy for
science was Zigel. On November 10 they spoke on central TV
about the new organization and invited UFO observers to send
in their reports.
Reports arrived and were used by Zigel to prepare the first
volume of his famous typewritten collection, UFO Observations
in the USSR. But in the meantime the Soviet authorities realized
their mistake, and in November the Central Committee of DOSAAF
disbanded the UFO Department. Sometime later the Branch of
General and Applied Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences
passed a resolution against UFO research in the Soviet Union.
In the late 1970s, ten years after Zigel compiled his first
collection, it was subjected to serious statistical analysis
by Soviet scientists L. M. Gindilis, D. A. Men'kov, and I.
G. Petrovskaya. They concluded that there was no conventional
explanation for one-third of these reports. Clearly, there
was something here worth studying.
However, the ban on public UFO studies in the USSR did have
a certain rational basis. Regardless of how much the Soviet
scientific establishment overestimated its importance and authority,
the main force behind this prohibition was the Soviet
military-industrial complex. Military leaders feared that publicity
given to UFO sightings (some of which were undoubtedly inspired
by chance observations of military and space rocketry) might
result in the uncontrolled circulation of military secrets.
Strategic parity with the U.S. was the chief political goal
of Soviet leaders under Leonid Brezhnev, and "flying saucers" were
not the biggest thing sacrificed for this purpose.
Glavlit, the censorship office, was ordered to prevent any
publications on the UFO problem, except those that said there
was no problem. Even the term "unidentified flying objects" was
prohibited. Organized independent UFO research in the USSR
ceased - leaving only the most stubborn dissident ufologists.
By 1977 it seemed that the Dark Age of Soviet ufology would
never end. But then something unexpected happened, and changed
everything in the Soviet ufological scene.
Red Army UFO Alert
In the early morning of September 20, 1977, the residents of
Petrozavodsk, capital of the Karelian Autonomous Republic,
witnessed the apparition of a luminescent jellyfish in the
dark sky, throwing "a multitude of thinnest ray spurts" over
the city. Thanks to careless censorship, the incident was
reported by the largest Soviet newspapers. It raised many
questions within the Soviet Union and beyond.
We know today that the Petrozavodsk phenomenon occurred almost
simultaneously with the launching of the Cosmos-955 satellite
from the Plesetsk launching site. But whatever its explanation,
this incident will be remembered as the stone that triggered
an avalanche.
The Petrozavodsk phenomenon attracted attention at the very
top and caused the authorities to understand that the UFO phenomenon
was worthy of attention. Military and scientific bureaucrats
were directed to look into the question. A complex research
program was included in the State Plan of Scientific Research
Works in Defense Fields for 1978: "Investigation of anomalous
atmospheric and space phenomena, their possible origin and
influence on the operation of equipment and on the condition
of the personnel." This program was divided into two parts:
"Setka MO" ("The Net of the Ministry
of Defense") - "Studies of anomalous atmospheric
and space phenomena and their influence on the operation
of military technical equipment and personnel"; and "Setka
AN" ("The Net of the Academy of Sciences")
- "Studies of the physical nature and mechanisms of
manifestations of anomalous atmospheric and space phenomena."
In 1981 and 1986, Soviet authorities approved five-year plans
that included scientific research on anomalous phenomena. The
state-directed program of investigating UFO phenomena proceeded
without interruption until 1991, and for several years later
on a lesser scale.
In accordance with the State Plan, two centers of UFO research
were formed, one in the Ministry of Defense and the other in
the Academy of Sciences. The main difference between these
studies was in their sources of data. The MOD center obtained
its information from diverse arms of the service, whereas the
academic studies were based on reports gathered in scientific
institutes, hydrometeorological centers, and various periodicals.
The aims of the two investigations were also different. The
military worried about possible harmful influence of UFOs on
equipment and personnel, and hoped to puzzle out and use for
military purposes such attractive properties of UFOs as radar
invisibility and high maneuverability. The Academy of Sciences
was mainly interested in investigating the physical nature
of the phenomena.
Both military and academic researchers understood that only
joint effort could lead to a well-substantiated answer to the
UFO question. At the same time, I am not sure that the military
shared all their data and findings. Most likely, something
was and still is kept secret.
In January 1980 the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed
Forces of the USSR authorized a directive that played the main
part in all this work, containing instructions on how UFO data
should be gathered and where should they be sent for further
examination. The directive was immediately announced to every
unit of the Soviet armed forces. Now every military man, wherever
he was, had to report any extraordinary phenomena he happened
to observe in written form to his superiors. For some 13 years
the armed forces were put on duty observing anomalous phenomena
in the whole territory of the Soviet Union, as well as in those
foreign countries where they were stationed.
During this period some 3,000 official reports of UFO sightings
were obtained. Some 90 percent of them could be explained by
conventional causes such as rocket launches and flights of
high-altitude balloons. But ten percent of these sightings
(some 300 cases) remained unexplained, even after a thorough
examination.
This figure may not seem that large, but one should note that
these were reliable, informative, and detailed reports, filtered
on the site by experienced officers, whose main duty was to
send only the best data to the center. Bearing this in mind,
nobody can assert that UFOs are an invention of irresponsible
saucer buffs. In fact, they are real and truly enigmatic.
Saucers over Airfields
In 1980, I defended my dissertation on philosophical and methodological
aspects of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
I was writing a book based on this dissertation, and I wished
to include a chapter on the UFO phenomenon and its possible
connection with extraterrestrial intelligence. The censorship
limitations were still fully alive, however, and the publication
of such a chapter had to be approved by the academic committee
on anomalous phenomena. I had little hope for such approval,
as my sympathy for the extraterrestrial hypothesis was obvious.
To my great surprise, the chapter was immediately approved.
With time, I was even offered the opportunity to participate
in the work of the expert team. However skeptical about the
extraterrestrial origin of UFOs the experts seemed in their
public statements, they were ready to discuss this possibility
seriously among themselves. And they tried to collect as
much information about the phenomenon as possible.
There are reasons to question whether the gathering of UFO
information through official channels was effective, however.
One day I went to the Borisoglebsk Military Pilot School to
give a lecture on the UFO phenomenon to the fighter pilots
and managerial staff. The pilots listened with attention, but
reacted poorly. I was somewhat surprised by their passivity.
In the evening, meeting in an unofficial atmosphere, the pilots
explained to me why they had been so silent. They found themselves
between Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand, there existed
the directive of the General Staff, demanding the hand, the
pilots knew well from their own experience that making such
a report put them at risk of being sent to a hospital for a
long and unpleasant examination. Under these conditions the
optimal behavior for a wise pilot meeting a UFO would be to
shut his eyes. Within the airspace of the country nobody would
consider this a crime. Of course, if a strange object appeared
from beyond the border, their behavior would have been radically
different.
The pilots told me about a very interesting case of radio contact
with a UFO and showed me some official documents that confirmed
this case. This episode took place on April 9, 1975, in another
military pilot school located at the town of Zherdevka of the
Tambov Region of Russia.
There were the usual training flights that day. In the evening,
when the last airplanes were landing, the operator of the airfield
radar detected a target in the air. Thinking that it was just
another school airplane, the operator gave it commands that
were smoothly fulfilled. When a pilot overheard his call sign
being used by the operator to talk to the would-be-plane, he
expressed his surprise rather loudly. At that moment he was
at a low altitude and out of range of the radar. The operator
felt something was wrong and gave the target a false command
- that was again executed faultlessly. Then the object entered
the dead zone of the radar and never returned.
Winds of History
I could cite here many extraordinary stories of this sort.
But such stories in themselves are just a form of folklore.
It would be at least naïve to expect that one day in
the future, having accumulated a very large set of them,
we could automatically jump to a scientifically meaningful
model of the UFO phenomenon.
Eyewitness reports are only a starting point for further collecting
of information with the help of scientific instruments and
in full conformity with scientific methodology.
The mass collection of UFO observations has already reached
the limit of its potential. What is needed now is not so much
a large-scale official program of UFO studies as a sharp change
of scholarly attitude to the UFO problem. Only if the scientific
community comes to perceive UFOs as a normal scientific problem
will it be possible to move forward.
With this aim in view, Dr. Yuliy Platov and I wrote a book
to provide an introduction to the UFO problem for the Soviet
academic community. The manuscript obtained the approval of
several high-ranking academic readers, and in the summer of
1991 it was published under the title UFOs and Modern Science
by the central academic publishing house Nauka (Science). Unfortunately,
this book was not only the first but also the last Soviet scholarly
book on UFOs. After the disintegration of the USSR, Soviet
science languished, and, naturally enough, had little inclination
to pay serious attention to radically new fields of investigation.
After the Petrozavodsk event, Soviet authorities were forced
to confront the following questions: Is the UFO phenomenon
indeed real? If so, what is it? And can it be dangerous?
The first question has been successfully answered: the UFO
phenomenon in the strict sense of the term is real. Having
established this, it would have been reasonable to move from
visual chance observations by eyewitnesses to instrumental
observations. If the objects and processes composing the unexplained
part of the UFO phenomenon do objectively exist in the atmosphere
and near space, it is evident that their physical characteristics
can be determined only with the help of sophisticated technical
means. The latter may include general-purpose equipment like
military radars, as well as other surveillance systems and/or
specialized instruments designed and built specially for UFO
tracking, but in any case they must have the ability to monitor
the whole of near-Earth space, from several hundred meters
to a few thousand kilometers in altitude.
Why has nobody in Russia ever attempted to develop UFO research
in this direction? The answer is simple: too much money and
effort would have been needed. In the very grave economic situation
of the early 1990s Russia simply could not allocate the necessary
funds for an endeavor comparable in its dimensions with the
atomic bomb and the first Sputnik.
On the Threshold of the Unknown Future
What can ufologists learn from the experience of Soviet ufology?
First of all is the hopelessness of the further collection
of "ufological folklore." By its very nature this
information can be useful only for folklore studies, not
for hard science. Official study in itself, even such a large-scale
one as that fulfilled in the USSR and Russia between 1977
and 1996, cannot lead to the solution. What ufologists need
is a normal scientific methodology and systematic gathering
of hard data.
Ufology possesses a considerable amount of information about
the UFO phenomenon. We know that it is physically real and
enigmatic. A thick aura of fantasy and rumor has formed around
it, and the phenomenon is very heterogeneous and elusive. But
in its core we can see mechanical devices flying in the atmosphere
of the Earth whose technical capabilities far surpass those
of human-made aircraft. The hypothesis about an extraterrestrial
origin of this machinery is verifiable and therefore scientific.
One should not forget, however, that having substantiated this
hypothesis we will probably find ourselves before new - and
more difficult - questions. Such is the path of human cognition.
The UFO phenomenon is not only a challenge to science. It is
a challenge to humanity. Let us hope that we will be better
prepared to cope with the solution of this problem than we
were prepared to cope with the problem itself.
