The Soviet Ufo Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind the Iron Curtain [Hardcover]

Paul Stonehill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

Reveals the amazing secrets of the Russian X-Files. Reports of KGB officials, Cosmonauts & pilots eyewitness accounts, & top-secret documents of the secrecy-obsessed Soviet military are all referred to by the author to prove that -- despite their public denials -- the Soviet authorities treated the evidence of the existence of UFOs, & of alien visitations, with the utmost seriousness. Six chapters provide comprehensive details of UFO sightings & related unexplained phenomena in the former USSR & in Tsarist Russia. Top-secret military documents are referred to, providing hard evidence of the Soviet authorities belief in -- & fear of -- the possibility of alien invasion. 150+ color & b&W photos & illustrations, some published here for the first time.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 123 pages
• Publisher: Clb (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858338581
• ISBN-13: 978-1858338583
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,816,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Soviet UFO Files by Paul Stonehill, May 28, 2005

By 

Paul Stonehill (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soviet Ufo Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind The Iron Curtain (Hardcover)

I feel I need to add a few words about the book. The publishers gave me only 124 pages to write about Soviet and Russian UFO phenomenon. I was able to include as much fascinating information as possible; to give more details and discuss cases and patterns, I would need hundreds of pages. But this is a great book, and a good introduction to the subject for those who know little about the secrets of Soviet paranormal phenomena. There are addresses of Russian and Ukrainian researchers, should you wish to contact them. Western readers will learn of such amazing stories as the Ishimba 1953 incident over the taiga; strange account of the Phobos II demise; will see excerpts from the KGB files; and follow reports of Soviet military observers who had to report starnge objects in the sky over their nuclear missile silos, submarines, secret cosmodromes...Chernobyl, Monchegorsk, Dalnegorsk,Tunguska, the World War II sightings, ancient Russian UFO sightings...the book covers a lot. Again, I am proud of my efforts, and am eternally grateful to my contacts in the former Soviet Union, modern Russia, my country of birth Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and all others. Whether you buy the book or not is up to you, but I felt I had to defend it against a very unfair review.
Paul Stonehill
[e-mail]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Soviet UFO Files, November 26, 2009

By 

Reid M. Wilson "scifi memories" (Seminole, Florida) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soviet Ufo Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind The Iron Curtain (Hardcover)

The Soviet UFO Files describes the history of Russian experience with UFOs. Bright well-defined color and somewhat-hazy black-and-white photographs are throughout the book, showing both UFOs and the Russian cultural experience. Impressive UFO photographs are the unidentified disc over Schelkovo in 1978 (page 58), a sphere over Crimea in 1978 (page 49), disc-shaped brightness (page 113), a cigar-shaped object (page 38), and ghostly bright fog over India in May 1964 (page 47). There are also a few described fake photographs as well as two silly Roswell false photographs, all of which I attribute to the publisher's error in judgement.

Impressive UFO cases are cadet pilot Maxim Churbakov encounter with an orange sphere on August 28, 1991, Fighter Pilot First Class Lev Vyatkin's avoidance of a slanting milky-white ray from a UFO on the night of August 13, 1967, Veniamin Dodin's sighting and drawing (page 33) of a cylinder object over the Ishimba River in June 1953 as well as the loss of Soviet fighter planes on August 7, 1953 after attacking UFOs, the presence of orange spheres over Otorten Mountain before mountaineers were later found with orange-colored dead bodies, and Soviet frogmen's deadly experience with ten-foot humanoid swimmers in Lake Baikal in the summer of 1982.

The Soviet UFO Files contains the same information as Mysterious Sky with the main difference being the presence of many photographs, which visually show the Russian UFO and cultural experience. I particularly liked the highlighting organization of the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Piqued my curiousity, March 23, 2008

By 

J. Bockius (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Soviet Ufo Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind the Iron Curtain (Hardcover)

This book is a short, easy read with lots of pictures, much like one of those Time-Life books popular 20 years ago or so. I don't know much about the Soviet Union before or after the heady days of Glastnost, and this book only served to pique my curiousity more (on the subject of UFOs and otherwise!). It seems obvious to me that Russia keeps it's secrets close to the vest. In this book Stonehill can only give you enough information on some startling incidents to make you wish for the 'whole story'. Rarely in this book is the 'whole story' told, and that leaves the reader frustrated. The reviewer who gave this book only one star apparently wanted scientific proof of the reality of the UFO phenomenon.
This is not that kind of book. But the reviewer called this book a piece of s*** and I could not disagree more!

Because I am obsessed with the subject matter I Googled some of the topics Mr Stonehill writes about, and there just isn't a whole lot of information out there (if I understood the Russian language there would be more). I deduce that he does not elaborate on these topics because the details, the files are not available. Thankfully, he does not sensationalize the events for the sake of selling books. But --WOW!--there have been many incredible incidents, landings, deaths, aviator and cosmonaut 'situations' with UFOs in the past that Stonehill introduces his readers to. He writes briefly about Tunguska and other 'Anomalous Zones' that exist within that huge country, where strange paradigms exist.

As I said before, this is an easy read, and very appropriate for curious young readers and as an introduction to the history of the UFO phenomenon in the Soviet Union for any layperson. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it left me in need of a more in-depth expose' on the subject matter.

Paul Stonehill has also written (with Philip Mantle) Mysterious Sky, Soviet UFO Phenomenon. It IS more in-depth and runs 416 pages. When I finish reading it I will attempt to review it as well.