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UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (ABSTRACT)
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NOTE |
The following is an excerpt from the CIA’s abstract of Feliz Ziegel’s 1968 Soviet Life article advocating for the study of UFOs. According to a memo from the CIA, the agency was especially interested in this article because another Soviet publication ran an article contradicting its pro-UFO conclusions: “It is surprising to find any disagreement on any subject in Soviet media… The irony is obvious.” In 1968, Ziegel was pressuring the Soviet government to launch an official UFO inquiry, a request the Soviet government denied as it turned away from UFO studies. Later portions of the CIA memo analyzing Ziegel’s article were redacted but probably discussed this fact as well as CIA attempts to plant fake UFO stories for Soviet consumption.
Perhaps most interesting is that the CIA abstractor chose to reproduce the entire passage about ancient astronauts and the 1903 Tuguska event, when a comet or meteor hit a remote part of Siberia, while severely abstracting discussion of modern UFO reports. |
AUTHOR: Zigel, F. (Doctor of technical sciences, Assistant professor)
TITLE: Unidentified flying objects
SOURCE: Soviet life, no. 2, 1968, 27-29
TOPIC TAGS: atmospheric optical phenomena, unidentified flying objects, meteorite
ABSTRACT: The author (Moscow Aviation Institute) presents several striking and reliable UFO observations […]
Some people think that UFOs have appeared in the earth’s atmosphere only during the past two decades. This is not the case. The UFO phenomenon has been observed throughout the history of mankind. There are medieval and ancient reports strikingly similar to our own.
Among the earlier UFO reports, as an example, may be the well-documented observations of a “large saucer” in 1882 and a “procession of bolides” in 1913. These reports still await investigation.
The most remarkable UFO phenomenon is the famous “Tungusky meteorite.” In recent years Soviet scientists have established that the Tungusky explosion had every parameter of an atmospheric nuclear blast. The USSR Academy of Sciences Reports (Volume 172, Nos. 4 and 5, 1967), include studies by Alexei Zolotov which attempt to prove that the Tungusky body could not be a meteorite or a comet.
In the summer of 1967 the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research at Dubna published a study by Vladimir Mekhedov, who concludes that the Tungusky blast left considerable residual radioactivity. Finally, as recently as 1966, after analyzing the sum total of observations on the Tungusky body’s flight, this writer showed that before the blast the Tungusky body described in the atmosphere a tremendous area of about 375 miles in extent (in azimuth), that is, carried out a maneuver.
All these new results warrant the conclusion that the Tungusky body seems to have been an artificial flying craft from some other planet.
Should this be finally confirmed by investigations now in progress, the significance of the Tungusky disaster would be inestimable.
[...]
TITLE: Unidentified flying objects
SOURCE: Soviet life, no. 2, 1968, 27-29
TOPIC TAGS: atmospheric optical phenomena, unidentified flying objects, meteorite
ABSTRACT: The author (Moscow Aviation Institute) presents several striking and reliable UFO observations […]
Some people think that UFOs have appeared in the earth’s atmosphere only during the past two decades. This is not the case. The UFO phenomenon has been observed throughout the history of mankind. There are medieval and ancient reports strikingly similar to our own.
Among the earlier UFO reports, as an example, may be the well-documented observations of a “large saucer” in 1882 and a “procession of bolides” in 1913. These reports still await investigation.
The most remarkable UFO phenomenon is the famous “Tungusky meteorite.” In recent years Soviet scientists have established that the Tungusky explosion had every parameter of an atmospheric nuclear blast. The USSR Academy of Sciences Reports (Volume 172, Nos. 4 and 5, 1967), include studies by Alexei Zolotov which attempt to prove that the Tungusky body could not be a meteorite or a comet.
In the summer of 1967 the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research at Dubna published a study by Vladimir Mekhedov, who concludes that the Tungusky blast left considerable residual radioactivity. Finally, as recently as 1966, after analyzing the sum total of observations on the Tungusky body’s flight, this writer showed that before the blast the Tungusky body described in the atmosphere a tremendous area of about 375 miles in extent (in azimuth), that is, carried out a maneuver.
All these new results warrant the conclusion that the Tungusky body seems to have been an artificial flying craft from some other planet.
Should this be finally confirmed by investigations now in progress, the significance of the Tungusky disaster would be inestimable.
[...]
