Customer Reviews

The Soviet Ufo Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind the Iron Curtain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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
rurcla@hotmail.com

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.

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.

A woman friend of mine, a very sweet person, gave me this book for my birthday. It's a very good-condition copy and it set her back almost $.... Which just makes it all the more painful....

This book is everything a work on this subject should not be. It's presentation is sensational, the "evidence" presented is all anecdotal, and there are no footnotes whatsoever. In short, as a serious study, it's utterly useless. I mean, it could scarcely be any dumber if it were written by David Hatcher Childress himself. Simple minds will be reassured to know however, that there are lots and lots of big, bright pictures....

Seriously though, reading this book (which incidentally takes all of about 30 minutes) did convince me that there were sufficient UFO phenomena in the old Soviet Empire to justify the interest of genuine researchers. Especially if under the heading of "UFO phenomena", you include the reactions of the Soviet Overclass. Their attempts to juggle investigating these reports, while at the same time keeping their herd of human subjects from being spooked, seem to have been at least as entertaining as our present rulers' ongoing attempt to do the same....

But until someone writes that book save your money, and whatever you do, don't waste it on THIS PIECE OF ....!

placed my order with amazon 11/15, and it still hasn't been shipped out. Lousy service !