UFO phenomenon was strictly tabooed in USSR

The world celebrates the International UFO Day on July 2. Oleg Stolyarov became the first person in Russia who chose the UFO subject for his doctoral dissertation.

Photo: UFO phenomenon was strictly tabooed in USSR

UFO phenomenon was strictly tabooed in USSR

The world’s first-ever scientific work dedicated to strange objects in the sky was penned by Carl Yung, a renowned Swiss psychologist. He equated the phenomenon of the UFO with Maya myths and the symbols of unconscious collective. He returned to the subject in 50 years in his article “UFOs as Rumors.”

US professor Joseph Allen Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies in 1974. Several other scientists dedicated their works to the mysterious phenomenon afterwards, but no one dared to do it in the Soviet Union.

“That was a tabooed subject in the USSR. Any piece of information about the flying saucers was treasured. Any public jokes about the UFO were strictly forbidden,” Mr. Stolyarov said.

The situation changed drastically in the beginning of the 1980s. Everyone in the country started speaking about the phenomenon. Newspaper articles, TV and radio programs about the UFO became plentiful. Many respectable scientists even lost their interest in the mystery because of the national boom.

The UFO Day is celebrated on July 2 in honor of the so-called Roswell incident. An unidentified aircraft, which many consider to be of extraterrestrial origin, crashed on the outskirts of Roswell on July 2, 1947.

On July 8, 1947, many US newspapers wrote that the US Air Force found the debris of the unknown aircraft on the crash site in Roswell. General Roger Ramey rejected the information several hours later. The official explained that it was not an alien spacecraft, but a top secret space probe that crashed near the town. The probe, Ramey said, was launched within the scope of the program to observe the nuclear tests of the USSR.

Major Jesse Marcel, a former intelligence officer, said in1947 that the story with the probe was not true. The major said that the debris found on the crash site was of extraterrestrial origin indeed.

There is no evidence to prove the fact that it was a UFO that crashed in Roswell. However, over 200,000 people visit the town every year in the beginning of July to take part in seminars, lectures and the alien parade.

The UFO industry brings $5.2 million of profit to the town every year.