in the skies over the Soviet Union had  persisted since World War II. With top  

secret US spy planes flying over the nation  though, there was little reason to believe the  

phenomenon was otherwordly. But what happened  that morning in the city of Petrozavodsk would  

leave Soviet leadership with no doubts-  something unexplained had crossed nearly  

the entire air space of the Soviet Union, and  even been spotted by NATO countries in the west.

No one is sure who was the first to spot the  phenomenon, but a group of dock workers just  

starting the early shift were stunned  when they saw a blinding light emerge in  

the horizon from the direction of Lake Onega  in northwest Russia. A local first-aid unit,  

numerous military personnel, on-duty  militia members, seamen at the port,  

airport staff and an amateur astronomer  all bore witness to what happened next.

At first the few residents of Petrozavodsk  who were up at this early hour feared the  

worst- a nuclear attack was occurring.  This being the height of the Cold War,  

the threat of American nuclear weapons  raining down on their heads was an ever  

present one for the Soviets, much like  the reverse was true of the Americans.  

The approaching light was almost too bright  to look at directly, and as it neared the  

city it seemed to reform itself to resemble  a massive jellyfish in the sky. Any thoughts  

that this might be an incoming nuclear attack  of some sort vanished when the light slowed  

to a hover and suddenly bathed the city below  it in beams of ultra-thin light, like lasers.

The mysterious object continued drifting  over the city for ten to twelve minutes  

before transforming into a bright semicircle and  jetting off to the northwest in the direction it  

had come from. Witnesses described it leaving  a faintly glowing red hole in the clouds it  

punched through before disappearing, as if  it had burned through the clouds themselves.

As news of the event broke, the Soviet Union  scrambled to respond to what might have just  

been the most significant intrusion  of its air space in history. Was this  

another damned American secret craft of  some kind, or could it be that something  

else entirely had just made its presence  known to the citizens of Petrozavodsk?

The director of the nearby hydro-meteorological  observatory noted that none of his personnel on  

duty had witnessed the event. However, there  was no denying the flood of eyewitness reports  

coming from the city itself. Soon though,  reports came in of a similar phenomenon  

across the Soviet Union, and even reports  that it had been spotted in Finland as  

well. Photos of the phenomenon were even  reported to have been taking by the Fins,  

though no one knows what happened  to the images. Only one image of  

the event inside the Soviet Union was ever  released, and its authenticity is unknown.

A quiet panic set in amongst the political  and military elite of the Soviet Union,  

as by now it was undeniable that something  completely unexplained had crossed a significant  

chunk of their air space, and gone completely  unnoticed by the Soviet Union's air defense  

networks. Local authorities in affected regions  wrote to the Presidium of the Academy of Science  

asking for an official explanation to quell  their citizen's fears, but none was available.  

Letters from the public were growing in number  by the day, and nations in northern Europe were  

expressing concern over a possible new weapon test  by the Soviet Union, which they naturally denied.

Anatoly Aleksandrov, under domestic and  international pressure, wrote a letter  

to the vice president and chariman of  the military-industrial commission,  

requesting that a formal investigation be  put together. This prompted the chairman  

to ask Dr. A. Schokin, chairman of the  scientific and technical council, to bring  

up the possibility of launching an official  investigation at the next council meeting.

The next month, at the council meeting, the  contents of Aleksandrov's letter was shared with  

the committee, and Lietuenant General B.A. Kijasov  would state, quote- The Academy of Sciences of  

the USSR can neither ignore, nor explain the  paranormal phenomenon similar to that observed  

in September, 1977, in Petrozavodsk, and, thus,  the AS asks to organize a thorough investigation  

of paranormal phenomenon with the involvement of  organizations of the Ministry of Defense and MIC.”

Eyewitness statements from military service  members helped to legitimize the need for a  

formal investigation to the council, and  ultimately the meeting concluded with a  

resolution recommending that funding be included  in the 1978 state budget for a program titled:  

Research of Paranormal Atmospheric and Space  Phenomena. The STC also recommended that a  

group of experts be sent to Petrozavodsk  to investigate the mysterious sighting.

The recommendation was adopted and included  in the next update to the current five years'  

plan for defense research activities, setting  out two investigations to begin work in 1978  

and run without interruption until 1990. The  one investigation would be conducted by the  

Ministry of Defense, specifically focusing  on the effect of paranormal atmospheric  

and space phenomenon on the military and its  equipment, and the second would be conducted  

by the Academy of Sciences and focused on  understanding the nature of the phenomenon.

The two Soviet investigations would  collectively become known as 'the network',  

but had two dramatically different goals that  made cooperation difficult, if not impossible.  

The military arm of the investigation was  only concerned with how UFOs affected the  

Soviet Union's ability to defend itself, and  investigated them as a possible threat to the  

Union's conventional and nuclear capabilities.  The civilian arm of the investigation meanwhile  

conducted more broad research into the phenomenon  in an attempt to understand its true nature.  

Given that the military side of the house had  access to far better sensors and witnesses,  

the civilian investigation was often  frustrated as the military investigation  

classified many reports, and even evidence,  outside the reach of the Academy of Sciences.

The Soviet investigation was, as  most things in the Soviet Union,  

carefully sheperded to project the correct  political and cultural narrative. The term  

“UFO” for instance was banned, both because of  its implication of extraterrestrial origin and  

because of its ties to America. Instead, UFOs  were termed “paranormal phenomenon.” Further,  

rather than conducting an open and public  investigation, the Soviet Union classified  

the research in order to avoid public alarm or  the appearance of endorsing any of a number of  

publicly held theories about the phenomenon.  The investigation thus had three stipulations:

First, all investigative activities were  

automatically classified under  the guise of defensive research.

Second, until proven otherwise, all  UFO phenomenon were assumed to be  

military activity and/or research and development.

Third, in the event that investigation of the  phenomenon led to the discovery of previously  

unknown origins, such as an extraterrestrial  one, then any discoveries or knowledge gathered  

was to first, and immediately, be  used for military applications.

The Soviet UFO investigation was thus as flawed  from the start as the American Project Blue Book  

before it, if not even more so. While Project  Blue Book kept many findings close to its chest,  

it at least engaged the public  in its ongoing investigation,  

often relying on public hotlines to discover  investigative leads as people reported UFO  

sightings and sometimes even outright crashes  or landings. Project Blue Book also shared at  

least some data with the public, allowing  for independent verification- or critique.

The Soviets would keep their investigation much  more secretive, releasing only pre-approved  

conclusions about specific events from time to  time. Often decried as being 'overly' classified,  

The Network's investigations were hampered by the  division of labor between the Academy of Sciences  

and the military, with the military refusing  to share much of its data or conclusions with  

the civilian-led investigation. The pre-assumption  that all UFO activity was military in nature also  

hamstrung the investigation- you don't conduct  science by entering an investigation with a  

preconclusion to the origin of what you're  investigating. Here though the Soviets were  

simply doing as the Americans had before them, as  both sides shared similar thinking: UFO activity  

could be exploited by a potential adversary as  cover for their own technological breakthroughs.

The third term of the investigation was  unsurprising. Whatever the UFO phenomenon was,  

it had displayed truly incredible feats  of physics and the ability to penetrate  

the Soviet air defense network and avoid  interception. Any recovered technology  

or scientific discoveries were to be  first used for military application.

Thus the two investigations set off on parallel,  but different paths. The military investigation  

took a keen interest in reported penetrations of  air space over military bases, port facilities,  

and most alarming of all, nuclear weapon  or energy sites. It sought to investigate  

the psychological impact on servicemen who had  witnessed it and the malfunctions the phenomenon  

was reported to induce on military equipment.  When possible, attempts were made to identify  

the exact cause and the degree of threat that  it posed to Soviet military capabilities.

The civilian investigation meanwhile relied  on public reports and those gathered by the  

various arms of the Soviet scientific  community. Both investigations however  

published very few public reports given  the classification of their research,  

which made it difficult for the  civilian investigation to do its job.

The military investigation was headquartered at  one of the central military research institutes  

in Moscow. V. Balashov, an expert in the study  of the effect of radiation and other phenomenon  

on military equipment was put in charge  of the investigation- which telegraphed  

that the Soviets were particularly concerned  about reported effects on military equipment  

by UFOs. A small group of four to five  military and civilian experts aided  

Balashov with his research, with the group  being frequently swapped out year by year.

Dr. V. Migulin, director of the Institute of  Terrestrial Megnetism Ionosphere and Radio  

Wave Propagation of the Academy of Sciences was  assigned as chief of the civilian investigation.  

He was a radio physicist and expert in the  field of radio wave oscillation and propagation,  

and radiolocation. IZMIRAN was designated as  head institute of the investigation and a similar  

workgroup of four to five specialist  was assigned to work under Migulin.

Details remain scarce about the military  investigation, even though it ended 33  

years ago. The civilian investigation however was  budgeted by participating organizations, it did  

not receive special government budgeting and thus  was significantly hampered by a lack of funds.  

This shortage meant that specialized equipment to  track and record or photograph UFOs could not be  

procured, and some investigations such as into the  development of large-scale plasma formations in  

the atmosphere could not be carried out. As the  least funded of all defense research projects,  

the civilian investigation was far more passive  than active, collecting data and carrying out  

surveys long after the fact, with little ability  to conduct proactive research or data collection.

Nonetheless, the civilian arm collected a  massive amount of data from eyewitnesses  

and even analyzed alleged physical  encounters or landings. Unfortunately,  

given the project's limitations, only a  small percentage of the total data could  

be thoroughly reviewed. Eventually, the project  came to three conclusions about the phenomenon:

1. UFOS are the product of human activity 2. UFOS are the product of natural  

processes taking place on Earth, in the  atmosphere, or in the near-space region 

3. UFOs are the result of activity  from extraterrestrial civilizations

The Academy admitted that while the third  conclusion was the most far fetched,  

and had the least supporting evidence,  

nonetheless the investigators felt that it was  impossible to remove it as a possibility. Much  

like in US efforts such as Project Blue Book or  Project GRUDGE, a not insignificant number of  

incidents just couldn't be explained with their  current scientific understanding of the world.

But even as some within the Soviet Union  wished for the UFO phenomenon to die down,  

it did the exact opposite, with activity  increasing exponentially as sensors improved  

and more and more witnesses felt more comfortable  coming forward. Disturbingly for the Soviets,  

neighboring NATO countries were also often  experiencing the exact same phenomenon,  

and similarities in reported phenomenon were  appearing world wide. A tall iron curtain  

still existed between east and west, but the  Soviets were discovering that the same disc,  

or cigar, or orb-shaped objects  were being reported globally.

Given the rapidly advancing pace of US air  and space technology, the Soviet military  

had a markedly more enlightened approach  to UFO reporting within the military than  

the US did. While the US heavily engaged in  ridicule culture even within its own military,  

the Soviet Union enacted new guidelines  that obligated its soldiers to report  

any strange or unexplained phenomenon that  they experienced while on duty. Given that  

Soviet spy planes never flew over the United  States though, it was easy to see why the  

two sides took such radically different  approaches to their reporting on UFOs.

In 1980, the Chief of General Staff of the USSR  issued a directive that allowed the civilian UFO  

investigation access to eyewitness reports from  military personnel. This effectively gave the  

Soviet civilian UFO investigation access  to witnesses covering a staggering 1/6th  

of the earth, a feat no other organization  or nation could hope to achieve. However,  

the military investigation still retained much  information under high levels of classification,  

and sharing of data gathered  by various military sensor  

platforms remained out of reach  of the civilian investigation.

UFO reports within the Soviet military  received two levels of priority. The first  

was of a sighting or experience that had  no direct effects on the safety or normal  

function of the military unit in question.  The second, and much more serious priority  

which received immediate attention was when  the phenomenon caused equipment malfunctions,  

failures, or harm to Soviet personnel or  equipment. These reports were immediately  

sent to the program chiefs and completely  bypassed all intermediary stages of reporting. 

Over the course of the investigation, over  3,000 pieces of data was gathered and analyzed  

that was considered “extraordinary”, however  this did not mean that they were necessarily  

otherworldly. Ultimately the investigation  would reveal that most night time sightings  

were the result of rocket launches or tests of  aerospace equipment. The Petrozavodsk incident  

was ultimately explained as the launch of  the Kosmos 955 satellite from a cosmodrome  

in Plesetsk. However, some would take issue  with the explanation, which failed to account  

for the widely witnessed beams of light that  the object in question shot down to the ground,