Voronezh, Russian Federation (9-27-1989)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
The story of the Voronezh aliens recounts the adventures of several young children who claimed to have seen a three-eyed alien with a robot escort. The alien was said to be about nine foot tall. The craft, according to eye witness testimony, landed on the outskirts of the city. Shortly thereafter, the tall alien appeared, and upon seeing the young lad, shot a type of weapon at him, causing him to vanish before the eyes of the other people around him.
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Case Briefing
by BJ Booth
One of the most bizarre accounts of UFO folklore involves an incident that allegedly occurred in Voronezh, Russia. This case was reported in the United States by the St. Louis Dispatch. The story was originally published on October 11, 1989, in America, but its origin was the Russian newspaper TASS.
The report recounts the adventures of several young children who claimed to have seen a three-eyed alien with a robot escort. The alien was said to be about nine foot tall. The craft, according to eye witness testimony, landed on the outskirts of the city. Shortly thereafter, the tall alien appeared, and upon seeing the young lad, shot a type of weapon at him, causing him to vanish before the eyes of the other people around him.
There are several important elements one must keep in mind regarding this extremely strange case of a close encounter. The original details of the case were brought forward by Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, who gave details to the TASS agency. Silanov stated that the media took an enormous amount of creative freedom with his report.
"Don't believe all you hear from Tass," he stated." We never gave them part of what they published."
I take this statement to mean that only a part of the news agency's report was based on the facts obtained from Silanov.
The agency had informed the entire world that Russian scientists had confirmed that an alien spaceship carrying giants with tiny heads had landed in Voronezh, a city of over 800,000 people located about 300 miles southeast of Moscow. They stated that as many as three of these giant creatures had emerged from the alien ship. The ship was described as a large, shining ball. These strange creatures were said to have walked in a nearby park, accompanied by a menacing robot. Ironically, TASS was the only media member to print the story in Russia. The newspaper Pravda declined to print, or comment on the strange tale.
In defense of the TASS account, Soviet reporter Skaya Kultura said that the agency was following the the golden rule of journalism." "The reader must know everything.
The TASS account stated that the UFO landed in Voronezh on September 27, 1989, at 6:30 P.M. Young boys playing soccer witnessed the event, stating that a pinkish glow preceded the descent of the unusual flying craft. The pink glow became a deep red as it touched down. Most witnesses described the object as a flattened, disc shape. A crowd quickly gathered, and peered through a hatch that opened. They saw a three-eyed alien about 10 feet tall, clad in silvery overalls and bronze-colored boots and wearing a disk on his chest. "
The TASS account also stated: "A boy screamed with fear, but when the alien gazed at him, with eyes shining, he fell silent, unable to move. Onlookers screamed, and the UFO and the creatures disappeared."
According to the report, about five minutes later, they reappeared. The alien had an object similar to a pistol - a tube about 20 inches long, which it pointed at an unidentified 16-year-old boy, making him disappear. The alien went inside the sphere, which then took off. At the same time, the boy reappeared.
"Children and eyewitnesses of the abnormal phenomenon have been questioned by police workers and journalists," wrote E. Efremov, the Voronezh correspondent for Soviet Skaya Kultura."
"There are no discrepancies in the description of the sphere itself or the actions of the aliens. Moreover, all the children who became witnesses to this event are still afraid, even now."
Several drawings were made by some of the children who supposedly witnessed the events of Voronezh. A couple of these are included here. One of the drawings showed the Cyrillic alphabet character "zhe" on the side of the UFO.
TASS listed three witnesses' names, all of whom were youngsters. They also stated that a group of international researchers would be investigating the claims of the witnesses.
Voronezh residents interviewed later claimed they had observed this UFO not just during the above incident but also many times on September 21, 23, 29 and October 2, between 6 and 9 PM. Some of these incidents involved a different entity: small, with grayish-green face and blue overcoat resembling a loose raincoat.
This phenomenal account is still in need of more eye witness testimony and research. The Voronezh landing remains an unsolved mystery.
Image Gallery
 Sketches of the UFOs and robots/beings drawn by some of the witnesses. The top-left drawing of the UFO and robot is by sixth-grader Roma Torshin; and the top-right drawing by Genya Blinov. (credit: Hesemann / Jacques Vallee) |
 Artist's rendition of the Voronezh landing by Elena Penkova. |
 Sketch of the object by one of the children who witnessed the object. |
 Some of the children of Voronezh: Lena Sarokina; Vasya Surin; Vova Startsev; Alyosha Nikonov. (credit: Michael Hesemann) |
Newspaper Articles Regarding This Case
Strange Tale of the 3-Eyed Alien That Zapped a Boy!
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 11, 1989
MOSCOW - A three-eyed alien with a robot sidekick landed aboard a spaceship and made a boy vanish by zapping him with a pistol, a Soviet newspaper reported Tuesday in a second day of strange tales in the state-run media.
But as the bizarre saga of the space invasion of the city of Voronezh unfolded for a second day, a scientist whose words were used to buttress the first published report voiced doubts and said he was in part misquoted.
Don't believe all you hear from Tass, Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, said from Voronezh in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. We never gave them part of what they published.
On Monday, the usually staid, official Soviet news agency told the world that scientists had confirmed that an alien spaceship carrying giant people with tiny heads had touched down in Voronezh, a city of more than 800,000 people about 300 miles southeast of Moscow.
As many as three aliens 13 feet tall left the spacecraft, described as a large shining ball, and walked in the park with a small robot, Tass reported. A Tass duty officer stood by the story. It is not April Fools' today, he said.
The purported close encounter in Voronezh was only the latest weird tale to appear in the Soviet media. Under the policy of glasnost, or openness, the media have recently told of other sightings of unidentified flying objects and the yeti, or Abominable Snowman.
Monday's report spawned rumors in Moscow, including one that the aliens told Voronezh residents the Earth would be destroyed by the year 2000 if people didn't stop polluting it.
Nonetheless, a Communist Party paper whose avowed mission is to write about culture was the only major national daily to print anything Tuesday about the UFO, indicating that more authoritative newspapers like Pravda had thought the topic too hot to handle.
Sovietskaya Kultura said its coverage had been motivated by the golden rule of journalism: The reader must know everything.
The daily quoted witnesses as saying that the UFO flew into Voronezh on Sept 27. At 6:30 p.m., it said, boys playing soccer saw a pink glow in the sky, then saw a deep red ball about 10 yards in diameter. The ball circled, vanished, then reappeared minutes later and hovered, it said.
A crowd rushed to the site, Sovietskaya Kultura said, and through an open hatch saw a three-eyed alien about 10 feet tall, clad in silvery overalls and bronze-colored boots and wearing a disk on his chest.
The newspaper, quoting witnesses, gave this account:
The UFO landed. Two creatures, one apparently a robot, exited. A boy screamed with fear, but when the alien gazed at him, with eyes shining, he fell silent, unable to move. Onlookers screamed, and the UFO and the creatures disappeared.
About five minutes later, they reappeared. The alien had a pistol - a tube about 20 inches long, which it pointed at an unidentified 16-year-old boy, making him disappear. The alien went inside the sphere, which took off. At the same time, the boy reappeared.
Children and eyewitnesses of the abnormal phenomenon have been questioned by police workers and journalists, wrote E. Efremov, the Voronezh correspondent for Sovietskaya Kultura. There are no discrepancies in the description of the sphere itself or the actions of the 'aliens.' Moreover, all the children who became witnesses to this event are still afraid, even now.
It gave the names of only three witnesses, all youngsters.
Scientists from a nationwide group that investigates abnormal phenomena were looking into the landing, the newspaper said.
Soviets report Alien sighting
Associated Press, Oct. 9, 1989
By JOHN IAMS Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- The official Tass news agency said today that scientists have confirmed the landing of an alien spaceship carrying giant people with tiny heads.
The report was the latest strange tale in the official Soviet media, which under the policy of glasnost, "or openess," have recently told of other sightings of unidentified flying objects and alien creatures.
"Scientists have confirmed that an unidentified flying object recently landed in a park in the Russian city of Voronezh," Tass said in a dispatch from the city, 300 miles southeast of Moscow. "They have also identified the landing site and found traces of aliens who made a short promenade about the park."
Tass said Voronezh residents saw a large shining ball or disk hovering over the park. They reported that the UFO landed and up to three creatures similar to humans emerged, accompanied by a small robot, Tass said.
"The aliens were three or even four meters (9 to 12 feet) tall, but with very small heads," the news agency quoted witnesses as saying. "They walked near the ball or disc and then disappeared inside."
The report was similar to a story last summer in the daily newspaper Socialist Industry, which told of a purported "close encounter" between a milkmaid and an alien in Central Russia's Perm region.
In that report, Lyubov Medvedev was quoted as saying she encountered an alien creature "resembling a man, but taller than average with short legs." The creature, she said, had "only a small knob instead of a head."
The Tass report, which did not give the date of the purported landing in Voronezh, said onlookers were "overwhelmed with a fear that lasted for several days."
Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, told Tass that scientists investigating the UFO report found a 20-yard depression with four deep dents as well as two pieces of unidentified rocks.
"At first glance, they looked like sandstone of a deep-red color. However, mineralogical analysis has shown that the substance cannot be found on Earth," Tass quoted Silanov as saying. "However, additional tests are needed to reach a more definite conclusion."
Silanov said the landing site and path taken by the aliens were confirmed using the "biolocation" method of tracking, but Tass didn't explain what that was.
Further confirmation came from witnesses, who were not told of the experiments and whose accounts matched precisely the scientific findings, Tass said.
The Tass report said residents also reported recent sightings of a "banana-shaped" object in the sky.
In July, Tass disputed a report in Socialist Industry quoting a UFO specialist, A. Kuzovkin, as saying a 26-foot-wide patch of burned ground near southern Moscow was probably caused by the landing of a UFO.
Tass said firefighters believe a haystack simply caught fire and scorched the ground.
Russia's alien ideals - UFO landing
by Patrick Huyghe
Westerners were intrigued back in 1989 when the Soviet news agency, Tass, reported the claims of some school children from the city of Voronezh. A spectacular UFO landed in town, the children insisted, along with its ten-foot-tall occupant toting a tube-shaped gun. Scrutinizing the Tass report, the Western press assumed the Russians were letting off steam after years of censorship. Some UFO buffs in the United States called the episode a hoax, but one Western scientist ignored the ridicule and left for Moscow instead.
In January of 1990, Jacques Vallee, a computer scientists regarded by many as the world's major UFO researcher, held a week-long series of meetings with the Soviet Union's leading UFO lights. He met with a scientist who'd studied the mysterious explosion that had rattled the Tunguska region of Russia in 1908 and with an ex-Soviet Naval officer who detailed his UFO sightings by Navy personnel. But according to Vallee, the most compelling sighting was the one in Voronezh itself.
In his new book, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union (Ballantine, 1992), Vallee describes the cast of dozens--adults as well as children--who reportedly witnessed the spherical Voronezh craft, its three-eyed giant, and an accompanying robot. He also cites engineers who examined an imprint allegedly left by the craft, an object they claimed weighed 11 tons. While Vladimir Migulin, a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, attributed the markings to a rocket launched from Volvograd, Vallee does not agree. "Migulin's skeptical attitude," he says, "is not very different from what you would get from our own National Academy of Science."
Why does Vallee believe the Soviet sightings are for real? The weight of the craft, he notes, was "in the range of estimates reached by French scientists studying physical markings left by UFO landings in France." And though the beings bore no resemblance to the familiar, short, Hollywood-style UFOnauts, they were similar to aliens reportedly seen "in a very similar case in Argentina in 1978."
Vallee's sojourn--and his ideas--have taken fellow UFOlogists by surprise. Some wonder how scientific the Russians really are, given that they regularly use dousing to gather information about UFO sites. "With all due respect," says Michael Swords, a professor at Western Michigan University and editor of the Journal of UFO Studies, "some Russians are questionable in terms of UFO research. They tend not to be very well disciplined, nor are they good at documenting their work." As for Vallee's book, Swords says "it sounds like 'What I Did on My Last Vacation.' Vallee may have met a lot of interesting people and heard a lot of interesting tales, but he doesn't document things properly, and if he has, he never seems to share it with anybody."
But Vallee insists the Russian findings are significant, in part because of the region's weak coverup system. "With the chaos spreading over the Soviet Union," Vallee explains, "I felt there was genuine information coming out from the witnesses."
Vallee supporter and experimental psychologist Richard Haines agrees that the French researcher is onto something real. Explaining the misunderstanding about Vallee's work, Haines says, "He's a theoretician. He doesn't claim to be a field investigator. And I think he has some very challenging ideas."
COPYRIGHT 1992 Omni Publications International Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
UFOs: The Psychic Dimension - The Voronezh, Russia Case
By David Pratt
At about 6.30 pm on 27 September 1989 in the Russian city of Voronezh, 3 schoolchildren and about 40 adults saw a pink or red light in the sky, which turned into a dark red sphere, about 30 ft in diameter. It flew away but returned a few minutes later and hovered over a park. A hatch opened in the bottom and a being appeared. It was about 10 ft tall, had no neck, and wore silver overalls and bronze-coloured boots. It had 3 eyes; 2 were whitish, but the middle eye -- or lamp, as one witness called it -- was red and had no pupil. The being scanned the terrain, the hatch closed, and the sphere descended, brushing against a poplar tree, which bent and stayed in that position. The object, which measured about 45 ft wide and 19 ft high, then landed. The tall being was accompanied by a small robot. The being said something and a small luminous rectangle appeared on the ground. It said something else and the rectangle disappeared. It then adjusted something on the robot's chest, causing it to walk in a mechanical way.
One of the boys watching cried out in fear. The being, whose eyes seemed to emit light, looked at him, and the boy froze. When the witnesses started shouting, the sphere and being vanished on the spot. But 5 minutes later the object and being reappeared. It now held a 4-ft-long tube at its side. When the being pointed it at a 16-year-old boy, the boy became invisible. The being then reentered the sphere, and as the object flew away, the boy reappeared. After taking off, the UFO almost instantaneously became a mere dot and disappeared in the sky. An investigation revealed that the radioactivity level at the landing site was double the background level. Traces were found where the craft's 4 legs had stood. There was an area of flattened grass, and the soil was found to have turned to the consistency of stone. It was calculated that an object weighing 11 tons had stood there.
Thousands of Voronezh residents observed several appearances of UFOs between 23 and 29 September 1989, and at least 3 landings took place, witnessed by over 30 people. As in other cases, many of the sightings occurred in polluted areas: the park used to be a garbage dump, and UFOs also visited the electricity plant and the site of a future nuclear plant [19].
Credits & Sources
- Flying Saucer Review 34, 4;
- MUFON UFO Journal 259 and 260,
- UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union.
Special thanks to BJ Booth
