Endless sacrifices man is prepared to make on the altar of knowledge of the world around him. But the universe is in no hurry to reveal its countless secrets, even to the most inquisitive minds of our civilisation. The enigmas of the universe, the list of which has no beginning and no end, present more and more surprises to researchers.
One of these, the still unsolved secret of UFOs, reached its climax in the second half of the twentieth century. A time when aviation and astronautics were gaining momentum and new technical means of recording audio and video information were being developed and perfected. And people were thirsty for fascinating facts, stirring the imagination and challenging pundits to explain them.
Statements of the classics of Marxism-Leninism on the question of extraterrestrial civilizations
Obviously, such burning issue was not left without attention in the USSR. Since theorists of building a new society themselves believed that Reason is eternal: disappearing in one part of space, it is reborn in another (F. Engels); and conversing with representatives of the creative intelligentsia, they shared their thoughts on the feelings of living beings from other worlds (V. I. Lenin).
Public interest
Intensified interest in UFOs in the USSR came in the mid-1970s. Previously, the problem of various flying objects in the sky had not been so widely discussed in the public consciousness. Rather, it was presented by the media of those times as an object of ridicule. A kind of directive that led to this kind of reaction was the speech of M.G. Pervukhin on November 6, 1952. Where at a gala meeting, a member of the Presidium of the USSR Communist Party officially first reported on the "flying saucers" (UFOs) and "fireballs" seen by Americans.
However, this did not stop enthusiasts who began collecting information about UFO sightings. The first articles in newspapers and magazines began to appear, but most of all aimed at exposing the events. Explaining them by natural or technical factors and the dullness of the witnesses. D. Menzel's book "The Flying Saucer" was translated into Russian, putting the UFO phenomenon on a dogmatic footing with prominent scientists.
The next surge of hype about UFOs in the USSR came in the 70s. Contributed to this was the hypothesis of the famous science-fiction writer A. P. Kazantsev about man-made origin of the spacecraft, which crashed in the valley Podkamennaya Tunguska June 17 (30), 1908. In addition food for thought actively provided domestic ufologists, as well as numerous materials based on foreign publications. Especially active were lecturers-enthusiasts: F. Yu. Siegel - lecturer from MAI, V. A. Azhazha - retired naval officer and Y. A. Fomin - senior lecturer from MITIPP. There was also widespread interest in articles by Academician L. A. Artsimovich, writer I. S. Shklovsky, and student from Kharkov V. V. Rubtsov.
Everything would have been going on, but then a mysterious event occurred in the sky above Petrozavodsk, in the early morning of September 20, 1977. The event caused such a stir that it even forced the president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, A.P. Alexandrov, to submit an enquiry to the Military-Industrial Commission. As a result, the USSR was forced to launch a state programme to study UFOs:
One through the Academy of Sciences, based at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The Director of the Institute, Academician V.V. Migulin, was appointed head of the "Grid of the Academy of Sciences", under whose direct supervision was the working group headed by V. Platov. A working group of 4-5 people under his direct supervision was headed by Platov.
Another one under the USSR Ministry of Defence on the basis of one of the central military research institutes in Moscow suburbs. "The MoD grid" was headed by the head of the institute and a major specialist in protection of military equipment against harmful influences V. P. Balashov.
During the thirteen years of research, which lasted until 1990, more than three thousand UFO reports were analysed, of which only three hundred were truly anomalous. They - 2,700 cases that could be explained - were connected mainly with technical human activities (high-altitude balloon flights and rocket launches), but also with a number of fairly rare natural phenomena. After that the programme was terminated, although up to 1996 the Department of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences had a group of experts analysing the information that came in. Which is quite rare, but nevertheless continues to be carried out today.
Understandably, such a peculiar subject was not left without due attention from the all-powerful KGB of the USSR, which created its secret "blue folder" with the most interesting facts about UFOs. However, in 1991 this document, numbering 124 pages of researches, was handed over to P.Popovich, the head of the association of Russian ufologists at that time. What happened to it in the future is not known, but various inventions and fabrications on this subject appear in endless numbers.
And ufologists themselves, united in communities such as "Cosmopoisk", "Ufological Union", "Ecology of the unknown" and several other organizations continue to collect facts and reports coming from all over the world about UFO sightings. They have a lot to do, as each year the flow of information becomes more and more interesting.