1 00:00:01,369 --> 00:00:04,636 GEORGE NOORY: Russia may be one of the areas on this planet 2 00:00:04,739 --> 00:00:06,538 that has been ladened with 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:08,674 incredible amounts of UFO activity 4 00:00:08,776 --> 00:00:10,743 since the beginning of time. 5 00:00:10,845 --> 00:00:13,112 ERICH VON DANIKEN: These flying machines 6 00:00:13,214 --> 00:00:15,781 were seen all over the Soviet Union. 7 00:00:15,883 --> 00:00:19,685 NICK POPE: The Soviets knew something about UFOs. 8 00:00:19,787 --> 00:00:21,420 They had secrets. 9 00:00:21,522 --> 00:00:24,289 NICK REDFERN: The Soviets have in their possession 10 00:00:24,392 --> 00:00:28,227 no less than the remains of five crashed and recovered UFOs. 11 00:00:28,329 --> 00:00:30,763 DAVID WILCOCK: There is undeniable evidence 12 00:00:30,865 --> 00:00:34,333 that Russia is sitting on a virtual treasure trove 13 00:00:34,435 --> 00:00:37,202 of information that proves 14 00:00:37,304 --> 00:00:39,972 that extraterrestrials visited Earth in our distant past. 15 00:00:40,074 --> 00:00:43,542 NARRATOR: Since the dawn of civilization, 16 00:00:43,644 --> 00:00:47,479 mankind has credited its origins to gods 17 00:00:47,581 --> 00:00:50,282 and other visitors from the stars. 18 00:00:50,384 --> 00:00:52,718 What if it were true? 19 00:00:52,820 --> 00:00:55,587 Did extraterrestrial beings 20 00:00:55,689 --> 00:00:58,657 really help to shape our history? 21 00:00:58,759 --> 00:01:00,659 And if so... 22 00:01:00,761 --> 00:01:02,227 might the ultimate proof 23 00:01:02,329 --> 00:01:06,932 be found in Russia's secret files? 24 00:01:35,629 --> 00:01:38,597 Moscow, Russia. 25 00:01:38,699 --> 00:01:42,935 December 25, 1991. 26 00:01:43,037 --> 00:01:47,706 At 7:00 p.m., Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev 27 00:01:47,808 --> 00:01:50,342 makes a nationally televised address 28 00:01:50,444 --> 00:01:53,112 to announce his resignation. 29 00:01:53,214 --> 00:01:54,746 GORBACHEV (translated): I hereby discontinue 30 00:01:54,849 --> 00:01:58,884 my activities at the post of President of the U.S.S.R. 31 00:01:58,986 --> 00:02:01,120 NARRATOR: Moments later, 32 00:02:01,222 --> 00:02:03,856 the Soviet flag is lowered from the Kremlin 33 00:02:03,958 --> 00:02:06,792 for the final time. 34 00:02:06,894 --> 00:02:10,529 One of the world's two superpowers... 35 00:02:10,631 --> 00:02:11,930 has fallen. 36 00:02:15,736 --> 00:02:19,238 From 1922 to 1991, 37 00:02:19,340 --> 00:02:21,807 Russia was under the restrictive regime 38 00:02:21,909 --> 00:02:25,144 of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 39 00:02:25,246 --> 00:02:27,679 which ruled over much of northern Asia 40 00:02:27,781 --> 00:02:29,515 and Eastern Europe. 41 00:02:31,085 --> 00:02:34,153 The Soviet government was known for its brutality, 42 00:02:34,255 --> 00:02:38,023 oppression and culture of absolute secrecy. 43 00:02:44,532 --> 00:02:46,532 POPE: It was very much a case 44 00:02:46,634 --> 00:02:48,567 of everything that happens 45 00:02:48,669 --> 00:02:51,003 within government stays within government, 46 00:02:51,105 --> 00:02:52,704 and the consequences were lethal. 47 00:02:57,678 --> 00:03:02,347 This was a closed, highly secretive society 48 00:03:02,449 --> 00:03:04,483 that kept secrets, not just, of course, 49 00:03:04,585 --> 00:03:06,785 from us in the West, 50 00:03:06,887 --> 00:03:08,720 but from its own people. 51 00:03:10,157 --> 00:03:11,823 One of the challenges of defending 52 00:03:11,926 --> 00:03:14,726 this vast landmass in Russia is that, uh, 53 00:03:14,828 --> 00:03:18,030 its borders are very insecure, at all points. 54 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:21,233 So in order to conquer space, 55 00:03:21,335 --> 00:03:24,703 it has an obsession with national security. 56 00:03:24,805 --> 00:03:27,706 Secrecy has become imbedded within the political culture; 57 00:03:27,808 --> 00:03:30,709 and also, many people in Russia agree with the idea 58 00:03:30,811 --> 00:03:33,345 that most things should be kept a secret. 59 00:03:35,049 --> 00:03:37,382 NARRATOR: When the Soviet Union was dissolved, 60 00:03:37,484 --> 00:03:42,354 so too was its main security agency-- the KGB. 61 00:03:42,456 --> 00:03:46,391 The top-secret KGB files were suddenly vulnerable, 62 00:03:46,493 --> 00:03:48,927 with many in the hands of former agents, 63 00:03:49,029 --> 00:03:51,697 ready to sell them to the highest bidders. 64 00:03:51,799 --> 00:03:56,368 Thousands more were smuggled out by Vasiliy Mitrokhin, 65 00:03:56,470 --> 00:04:00,505 who worked in the KGB's foreign intelligence archive 66 00:04:00,608 --> 00:04:04,509 from 1972 to 1984. 67 00:04:04,612 --> 00:04:06,478 The documents that have been leaked 68 00:04:06,580 --> 00:04:10,649 include KGB information on secret Russian weapons caches, 69 00:04:10,751 --> 00:04:12,317 Russian spies, 70 00:04:12,419 --> 00:04:15,020 and even UFO reports. 71 00:04:15,122 --> 00:04:16,421 RICHARD DOLAN: The Soviet Union 72 00:04:16,523 --> 00:04:19,791 had a large number of UFO encounters. 73 00:04:19,893 --> 00:04:22,294 Western researchers had really no knowledge 74 00:04:22,396 --> 00:04:24,997 of what was going on behind the Iron Curtain. 75 00:04:25,099 --> 00:04:28,967 We now know that there were thousands 76 00:04:29,069 --> 00:04:31,903 and thousands of Soviet UFO cases 77 00:04:32,006 --> 00:04:33,338 that were taking place during that time. 78 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,874 A number of records did indeed come out. 79 00:04:35,976 --> 00:04:37,342 And we now have access to them. 80 00:04:37,444 --> 00:04:40,045 NARRATOR: Could the definitive evidence 81 00:04:40,147 --> 00:04:42,347 of extraterrestrial contact 82 00:04:42,449 --> 00:04:45,417 lie hidden within the secret KGB files 83 00:04:45,519 --> 00:04:47,786 that are just now coming to light? 84 00:04:47,888 --> 00:04:51,990 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 85 00:04:52,092 --> 00:04:54,760 and suggest recent findings reveal 86 00:04:54,862 --> 00:04:59,298 the Soviets were not only covering up modern UFO reports, 87 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,601 but also proof that aliens visited Earth 88 00:05:02,703 --> 00:05:05,504 in the distant past. 89 00:05:07,975 --> 00:05:09,474 Leningrad, Russia. 90 00:05:09,576 --> 00:05:13,412 December 1, 1934. 91 00:05:13,514 --> 00:05:15,380 Sergei Kirov, 92 00:05:15,482 --> 00:05:17,082 a Communist party leader 93 00:05:17,184 --> 00:05:21,787 and rival to fellow party leader Joseph Stalin, is murdered. 94 00:05:24,091 --> 00:05:26,591 The assassination marks the beginning 95 00:05:26,694 --> 00:05:30,562 of the darkest period in the history of the Soviet Union: 96 00:05:30,664 --> 00:05:33,865 The Great Purges. 97 00:05:34,868 --> 00:05:36,868 With Kirov gone, 98 00:05:36,970 --> 00:05:38,704 Stalin's power grew, 99 00:05:38,806 --> 00:05:41,840 and he unleashed a widespread campaign 100 00:05:41,942 --> 00:05:44,042 of ruthless political persecution 101 00:05:44,144 --> 00:05:45,977 meant to weed out dissenters... 102 00:05:47,981 --> 00:05:51,416 ...and consolidate his absolute authority. 103 00:05:51,518 --> 00:05:54,653 (speaking Russian) 104 00:05:54,755 --> 00:05:57,222 Among the millions who were arrested 105 00:05:57,324 --> 00:05:59,958 and interrogated during this period 106 00:06:00,060 --> 00:06:01,727 was respected Russian scientist 107 00:06:01,829 --> 00:06:05,230 and philosopher Dr. Genrikh Ludvig. 108 00:06:07,668 --> 00:06:09,267 PAUL STONEHILL: An incredible human being. 109 00:06:09,370 --> 00:06:12,104 This was a person who could speak 20 ancient 110 00:06:12,206 --> 00:06:14,072 and modern languages. 111 00:06:14,174 --> 00:06:17,376 He had incredible encyclopedic knowledge. 112 00:06:19,179 --> 00:06:20,946 NARRATOR: Dr. Ludvig was accused 113 00:06:21,048 --> 00:06:23,115 of being a spy for the Vatican 114 00:06:23,217 --> 00:06:25,150 and spent decades 115 00:06:25,252 --> 00:06:29,488 in one of Stalin's brutal Gulag labor camps. 116 00:06:29,590 --> 00:06:32,023 But in 2011, 117 00:06:32,126 --> 00:06:34,626 38 years after his death, 118 00:06:34,728 --> 00:06:38,497 an article in the Russian newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno, 119 00:06:38,599 --> 00:06:40,232 or Top Secret, 120 00:06:40,334 --> 00:06:44,236 revealed the true purpose of Ludvig's work at the Vatican, 121 00:06:44,338 --> 00:06:49,207 and possibly also for his arrest. 122 00:06:49,309 --> 00:06:52,177 The reason he was accused of being a spy for the Vatican 123 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:54,012 is because in 1920s, 124 00:06:54,114 --> 00:06:56,915 as a young student of architecture, 125 00:06:57,017 --> 00:06:59,985 he visited the Vatican, 126 00:07:00,087 --> 00:07:03,622 where he was given access to the secret library. 127 00:07:04,992 --> 00:07:06,691 In that library, he found manuscripts 128 00:07:06,794 --> 00:07:10,729 that describe extraterrestrial civilizations and more. 129 00:07:12,733 --> 00:07:16,201 Dr. Genrikh Ludvig discovered a number of manuscripts 130 00:07:16,303 --> 00:07:17,836 suggesting that there had been 131 00:07:17,938 --> 00:07:21,173 historic extraterrestrial contact 132 00:07:21,275 --> 00:07:26,645 with ancient civilizations in Egypt, 133 00:07:26,747 --> 00:07:28,146 Israel 134 00:07:28,248 --> 00:07:30,949 and Mesopotamia. 135 00:07:31,051 --> 00:07:33,985 These manuscripts that talked, for example, 136 00:07:34,087 --> 00:07:35,654 about the pyramids 137 00:07:35,756 --> 00:07:39,257 and described them as energy machines. 138 00:07:41,862 --> 00:07:44,830 DAVID CHILDRESS: When he went back to the Soviet Union, 139 00:07:44,932 --> 00:07:46,965 they treated him very poorly, 140 00:07:47,067 --> 00:07:48,900 when, in fact, he was perhaps 141 00:07:49,002 --> 00:07:52,938 the greatest of all the early researchers 142 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,942 into the whole concept of ancient aliens 143 00:07:57,044 --> 00:07:58,176 coming to our planet. 144 00:08:01,949 --> 00:08:04,816 NARRATOR: Might Dr. Ludvig have really discovered 145 00:08:04,918 --> 00:08:07,085 ancient manuscripts within the Vatican 146 00:08:07,187 --> 00:08:09,087 that describe extraterrestrials 147 00:08:09,189 --> 00:08:11,122 visiting Earth? 148 00:08:11,225 --> 00:08:13,058 Did the Russian government 149 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,694 accuse him of espionage in an attempt 150 00:08:15,796 --> 00:08:18,630 to suppress his controversial findings? 151 00:08:20,033 --> 00:08:23,134 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 152 00:08:23,237 --> 00:08:26,938 and claim Ludwig was not the only one silenced 153 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,875 by the Soviet government for his research. 154 00:08:32,713 --> 00:08:36,581 When Vladimir Lenin seized power in 1917, 155 00:08:36,683 --> 00:08:38,517 he established the first state 156 00:08:38,619 --> 00:08:41,052 to seek the elimination of religion. 157 00:08:41,154 --> 00:08:43,688 The Communist regime 158 00:08:43,790 --> 00:08:46,725 also actively suppressed a philosophy 159 00:08:46,827 --> 00:08:49,094 that had become widespread throughout Russia 160 00:08:49,196 --> 00:08:51,830 in the early 20th century: 161 00:08:51,932 --> 00:08:53,698 Cosmism. 162 00:08:56,270 --> 00:08:58,036 JENKS: There is a Russian tradition, 163 00:08:58,138 --> 00:09:01,740 beginning in the late 1800s called "Cosmism." 164 00:09:01,842 --> 00:09:05,243 The cosmists began with a philosopher, 165 00:09:05,345 --> 00:09:07,612 a guy named Nikolai Fyodorov, 166 00:09:07,714 --> 00:09:09,447 in the 1870s and 1880s, 167 00:09:09,550 --> 00:09:12,217 who inspired the father of Soviet rocketry, 168 00:09:12,319 --> 00:09:13,885 who actually designed the rockets 169 00:09:13,987 --> 00:09:15,687 that put the first man into space. 170 00:09:15,789 --> 00:09:18,089 They believed that human civilization 171 00:09:18,191 --> 00:09:19,958 actually had origins 172 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:22,627 in outer space 173 00:09:22,729 --> 00:09:25,630 and that it was our destiny, as human beings, 174 00:09:25,732 --> 00:09:27,198 to move back into space; 175 00:09:27,301 --> 00:09:30,268 we would go back into the "cradle of civilization." 176 00:09:30,370 --> 00:09:34,139 And after Joseph Stalin died, many of those individuals 177 00:09:34,241 --> 00:09:35,774 that were exploring the idea 178 00:09:35,876 --> 00:09:38,910 of ancient paleo-contacts with aliens, 179 00:09:39,012 --> 00:09:42,247 uh, were allowed to voice their opinions publicly. 180 00:09:43,750 --> 00:09:45,684 NARRATOR: In 1961, 181 00:09:45,786 --> 00:09:49,688 Russian physicist and mathematician Matest Agrest 182 00:09:49,790 --> 00:09:51,756 published a controversial paper 183 00:09:51,858 --> 00:09:54,426 proposing that extraterrestrials 184 00:09:54,528 --> 00:09:58,029 had visited Earth's ancient civilizations. 185 00:09:58,131 --> 00:10:01,600 Similar theories were also offered 186 00:10:01,702 --> 00:10:03,702 by author Alexander Kasantsev 187 00:10:03,804 --> 00:10:06,605 and astronomer Iosif Shklovskii. 188 00:10:08,175 --> 00:10:10,208 But while these researchers did not suffer 189 00:10:10,310 --> 00:10:13,645 the same persecution as those that came before them, 190 00:10:13,747 --> 00:10:16,314 they claimed that the Soviet government 191 00:10:16,416 --> 00:10:19,217 worked to suppress their theories. 192 00:10:20,354 --> 00:10:21,920 GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: The idea 193 00:10:22,022 --> 00:10:23,755 that there were Soviet astronomers 194 00:10:23,857 --> 00:10:26,558 who were seriously studying 195 00:10:26,660 --> 00:10:28,593 these topics and ideas 196 00:10:28,695 --> 00:10:30,295 leads me to think 197 00:10:30,397 --> 00:10:32,631 that we're the one's who are on to something. 198 00:10:34,234 --> 00:10:37,102 And we are now able to access information 199 00:10:37,204 --> 00:10:39,738 that for so many years, has remained censored. 200 00:10:43,877 --> 00:10:45,310 NARRATOR: Is it possible 201 00:10:45,412 --> 00:10:48,480 that the truth about extraterrestrial contact 202 00:10:48,582 --> 00:10:50,782 was hidden behind the Iron Curtain 203 00:10:50,884 --> 00:10:53,818 of the former Soviet Union? 204 00:10:55,088 --> 00:10:57,589 Perhaps further clues can be found 205 00:10:57,691 --> 00:11:01,526 by examining a mysterious site that may hold proof 206 00:11:01,628 --> 00:11:05,463 of an ancient extraterrestrial visitation. 207 00:11:07,334 --> 00:11:10,135 Coming up... 208 00:11:10,237 --> 00:11:11,703 HUGH NEWMAN: Arkaim has been described 209 00:11:11,805 --> 00:11:14,239 as Russia's Stonehenge. 210 00:11:14,341 --> 00:11:17,042 CHILDRESS: Someone, possibly extraterrestrials, 211 00:11:17,144 --> 00:11:20,945 identified this as a site of special energy. 212 00:11:26,461 --> 00:11:27,961 NARRATOR: Russia. 213 00:11:29,698 --> 00:11:31,364 Spanning a staggering 214 00:11:31,466 --> 00:11:34,034 6.6 million square miles, 215 00:11:34,136 --> 00:11:37,003 it is the largest country on Earth. 216 00:11:37,973 --> 00:11:40,140 Its massive territory 217 00:11:40,242 --> 00:11:43,510 is also the most geographically diverse, 218 00:11:43,612 --> 00:11:47,981 consisting of some of the most extreme terrain on the planet, 219 00:11:48,083 --> 00:11:51,718 including dense forests, 220 00:11:51,820 --> 00:11:54,754 frozen tundra, 221 00:11:54,856 --> 00:11:57,023 remote mountains, 222 00:11:57,125 --> 00:12:00,327 and barren deserts. 223 00:12:01,496 --> 00:12:03,763 Despite its physical size, 224 00:12:03,865 --> 00:12:05,799 as much as 50% of Russia 225 00:12:05,901 --> 00:12:07,067 remains uninhabited 226 00:12:07,169 --> 00:12:11,204 and largely unexplored by mankind. 227 00:12:14,810 --> 00:12:18,478 Russia is almost twice the size of the United States. 228 00:12:19,815 --> 00:12:22,015 Just to compare, the United States 229 00:12:22,117 --> 00:12:25,251 expands over four time zones, 230 00:12:25,354 --> 00:12:28,888 while Russia expands over eleven time zones. 231 00:12:28,991 --> 00:12:30,857 The size of Russia, 232 00:12:30,959 --> 00:12:33,627 its harsh climate, 233 00:12:33,729 --> 00:12:35,362 especially in the northern parts of Russia, 234 00:12:35,464 --> 00:12:38,498 makes it very difficult to explore. 235 00:12:42,838 --> 00:12:45,705 NARRATOR: One of Russia's most mysterious areas 236 00:12:45,807 --> 00:12:48,475 is a valley just north of Kazakhstan, 237 00:12:48,577 --> 00:12:50,844 where in 1987, 238 00:12:50,946 --> 00:12:53,947 archaeologists from the University of Chelyabinsk 239 00:12:54,049 --> 00:12:57,083 discovered the remains of an ancient settlement, 240 00:12:57,185 --> 00:12:58,985 which they were able to date back 241 00:12:59,087 --> 00:13:03,556 to between the 17th and 20th centuries B.C. 242 00:13:03,659 --> 00:13:07,627 Much of the original structures of this megalithic site, 243 00:13:07,729 --> 00:13:10,797 known as Arkaim, no longer exist, 244 00:13:10,899 --> 00:13:14,401 but scientists have mapped out its original design, 245 00:13:14,503 --> 00:13:17,937 which includes massive circular walls 246 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:20,540 similar to Stonehenge. 247 00:13:22,711 --> 00:13:25,679 So, Arkaim has been described as Russia's Stonehenge. 248 00:13:25,781 --> 00:13:27,147 Now, this is quite intriguing 249 00:13:27,249 --> 00:13:30,550 because its a very similar latitude to Stonehenge. 250 00:13:30,652 --> 00:13:33,753 It's been suggested that it could've been put there 251 00:13:33,855 --> 00:13:36,222 for astronomical and surveying purposes. 252 00:13:38,293 --> 00:13:40,627 It seems that Arkaim, at some point, 253 00:13:40,729 --> 00:13:42,762 was some type of an observatory, 254 00:13:42,864 --> 00:13:45,098 which I think is incredibly fascinating, 255 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,767 because it means that worldwide, 256 00:13:47,869 --> 00:13:50,770 our ancestors witnessed other things 257 00:13:50,872 --> 00:13:53,506 that would explain this long-held 258 00:13:53,608 --> 00:13:56,843 fascination with the stars. 259 00:13:56,945 --> 00:13:58,778 STONEHILL: The way the city was built, 260 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:00,814 it was a circular structure. 261 00:14:00,916 --> 00:14:04,350 It had a very interesting central square. 262 00:14:04,453 --> 00:14:07,587 Basically, it was an interior circle 263 00:14:07,689 --> 00:14:10,724 surrounded by a circle, which to many, 264 00:14:10,826 --> 00:14:13,460 means the Mandala principle of the Buddhism... 265 00:14:15,764 --> 00:14:17,564 ...or a depiction of the universe 266 00:14:17,666 --> 00:14:20,633 in a very miniaturized way. 267 00:14:26,274 --> 00:14:28,908 NARRATOR: Incredibly, archaeologists have found 268 00:14:29,010 --> 00:14:33,079 that Arkaim was built with features aligned to measure 269 00:14:33,181 --> 00:14:35,648 as many as 18 astronomical events, 270 00:14:35,751 --> 00:14:39,085 such as the solstices and equinoxes. 271 00:14:39,187 --> 00:14:41,721 And discovered among the ruins 272 00:14:41,823 --> 00:14:43,923 was an ancient statue of a man 273 00:14:44,025 --> 00:14:45,692 looking up to the sky. 274 00:14:48,163 --> 00:14:49,596 Adding to the mystery 275 00:14:49,698 --> 00:14:52,932 are reports of strange anomalies in the region, 276 00:14:53,034 --> 00:14:55,235 that continue to this day, 277 00:14:55,337 --> 00:14:58,938 which include magnetic inconsistencies, 278 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,175 strange lights, 279 00:15:02,277 --> 00:15:04,477 and curious fog formations. 280 00:15:10,786 --> 00:15:13,119 WILCOCK: When you consider the strange lights, 281 00:15:13,221 --> 00:15:16,189 the weird fog, the magnetic anomalies, 282 00:15:16,291 --> 00:15:18,391 the unusual hallucinations, 283 00:15:18,493 --> 00:15:20,326 and things that have happened to people there, 284 00:15:20,428 --> 00:15:23,229 it appears that this is some sort of energy node 285 00:15:23,331 --> 00:15:25,231 or vortex point on the Earth... 286 00:15:27,235 --> 00:15:29,936 ...that was actually utilized by extraterrestrials 287 00:15:30,038 --> 00:15:32,405 when this was constructed. 288 00:15:32,507 --> 00:15:36,242 If you actually look at the shape of Arkaim, 289 00:15:36,344 --> 00:15:39,612 it could have been the platform for a spacecraft, 290 00:15:39,714 --> 00:15:41,748 like a rocket, to launch off from. 291 00:15:47,556 --> 00:15:50,356 NARRATOR: Could Arkaim really have been the site 292 00:15:50,458 --> 00:15:52,692 of an extraterrestrial visitation 293 00:15:52,794 --> 00:15:54,894 thousands of years ago? 294 00:15:54,996 --> 00:15:58,431 And might this be why the structures found here 295 00:15:58,533 --> 00:16:02,101 were built with such precise astronomical alignments? 296 00:16:03,538 --> 00:16:06,973 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 297 00:16:07,075 --> 00:16:10,810 and suggest physical evidence of such a visitation 298 00:16:10,912 --> 00:16:14,047 might exist in the nearby Ural Mountains. 299 00:16:18,687 --> 00:16:22,155 Ural Mountains are very old mountains 300 00:16:22,257 --> 00:16:24,257 stretching from, uh, 301 00:16:24,359 --> 00:16:27,260 the Russian north to the Russian south. 302 00:16:30,332 --> 00:16:33,333 It, kind of, splitting Russia into two parts, 303 00:16:33,435 --> 00:16:35,201 Europe and Asia. 304 00:16:35,303 --> 00:16:39,072 Indeed, people living in the Ural Mountains, 305 00:16:39,174 --> 00:16:43,209 witness some strange phenomena in the air and on the ground. 306 00:16:43,311 --> 00:16:47,046 NARRATOR: Dozens of visitors to the Ural Mountains 307 00:16:47,148 --> 00:16:49,849 have reported strange sightings of fireballs 308 00:16:49,951 --> 00:16:52,151 and cigar-shaped crafts. 309 00:16:52,254 --> 00:16:53,786 But even stranger, 310 00:16:53,889 --> 00:16:57,056 is what has been found in the earth here. 311 00:16:57,158 --> 00:17:01,294 In 1991, geologists led an expedition 312 00:17:01,396 --> 00:17:06,199 into the mineral-rich Urals in hopes of locating gold deposits. 313 00:17:06,301 --> 00:17:10,169 While excavating sites near the Kozhim, Narada, 314 00:17:10,272 --> 00:17:12,272 and Balbanyu rivers, 315 00:17:12,374 --> 00:17:15,174 just 600 miles north of Arkaim, 316 00:17:15,277 --> 00:17:18,778 the scientists discovered something unexpected. 317 00:17:20,181 --> 00:17:21,948 At depths of over 30 feet, 318 00:17:22,050 --> 00:17:27,453 they unearthed a scattering of tiny metal coils and springs. 319 00:17:30,959 --> 00:17:34,060 That soil wasn't touched for hundreds of thousands 320 00:17:34,162 --> 00:17:35,361 or more years. 321 00:17:36,831 --> 00:17:38,765 The area where it was found, 322 00:17:38,867 --> 00:17:41,935 was probably tens of kilometers around. 323 00:17:42,037 --> 00:17:45,872 It's as if something exploded thousands of years ago 324 00:17:48,076 --> 00:17:50,476 and the fragments were lying all over the place. 325 00:17:54,516 --> 00:17:55,882 NARRATOR: The metal fragments, 326 00:17:55,984 --> 00:17:58,785 some as small as 1/10,000 of an inch, 327 00:17:58,887 --> 00:18:01,721 were sent to the Russian Academy of Sciences 328 00:18:01,823 --> 00:18:04,757 in St. Petersburg for analysis. 329 00:18:04,859 --> 00:18:08,494 Their shape resembled manufactured technology, 330 00:18:08,596 --> 00:18:11,831 rather than naturally occurring minerals. 331 00:18:11,933 --> 00:18:15,802 The smallest pieces were found to be tungsten, 332 00:18:15,904 --> 00:18:18,938 a metal used in spacecrafts and missiles, 333 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,542 due to its ability to withstand high temperatures. 334 00:18:26,114 --> 00:18:28,114 They are these metal spirals 335 00:18:28,216 --> 00:18:31,484 that consist of copper, but also tungsten, 336 00:18:31,586 --> 00:18:33,152 and Molybdenum, 337 00:18:33,254 --> 00:18:36,422 which are both very rare metals. 338 00:18:36,524 --> 00:18:39,092 We're looking at nanotechnology. 339 00:18:39,194 --> 00:18:42,095 WILCOCK: When you look down at them in a microscope, 340 00:18:42,197 --> 00:18:44,330 they're extremely regular in their structure. 341 00:18:44,432 --> 00:18:46,699 They're very nice coils. 342 00:18:46,801 --> 00:18:49,969 The only way we could make them, even now, 343 00:18:50,071 --> 00:18:52,839 is with machine-guided technology. 344 00:18:52,941 --> 00:18:55,408 You could not do this by hand. 345 00:18:55,510 --> 00:18:59,312 What we're seeing here is proof 346 00:18:59,414 --> 00:19:01,848 that someone had advanced technology 347 00:19:01,950 --> 00:19:04,617 sufficient to build the type of circuitry 348 00:19:04,719 --> 00:19:08,187 that we normally only see in semiconductors, 349 00:19:08,289 --> 00:19:10,223 computer chips, 350 00:19:10,325 --> 00:19:12,625 high technology equipment, 351 00:19:12,727 --> 00:19:16,229 using metals that are not commonly known. 352 00:19:16,331 --> 00:19:19,532 So these spirals are clear evidence 353 00:19:19,634 --> 00:19:23,302 that someone had a very advanced civilization 354 00:19:23,405 --> 00:19:26,639 right here on Earth near Arkaim. 355 00:19:30,578 --> 00:19:32,311 NARRATOR: Might extraterrestrials 356 00:19:32,414 --> 00:19:35,648 have visited the Ural Mountains in the distant past? 357 00:19:35,750 --> 00:19:38,451 And if so, did they leave behind evidence 358 00:19:38,553 --> 00:19:41,421 of advanced technology? 359 00:19:41,523 --> 00:19:43,656 Could they have helped to build 360 00:19:43,758 --> 00:19:46,459 the prehistoric observatory of Arkaim, 361 00:19:46,561 --> 00:19:49,896 as ancient astronaut theorists contend? 362 00:19:49,998 --> 00:19:52,999 Perhaps further clues can be found 363 00:19:53,101 --> 00:19:56,202 by examining much more recent accounts 364 00:19:56,304 --> 00:19:58,805 of otherworldly visitations. 365 00:20:04,345 --> 00:20:08,047 He had collected hundreds of UFO cases. 366 00:20:08,149 --> 00:20:11,651 DOLAN: The Soviet Union would not give it public credence. 367 00:20:11,753 --> 00:20:13,920 But we now have very good information that 368 00:20:14,022 --> 00:20:15,021 it was reality. 369 00:20:22,530 --> 00:20:23,495 NARRATOR: Moscow. 370 00:20:23,598 --> 00:20:26,999 May 17, 1967. 371 00:20:29,303 --> 00:20:31,236 In a secure government building, 372 00:20:31,339 --> 00:20:34,873 a meeting is held of scientists dedicated 373 00:20:34,976 --> 00:20:37,142 to collecting comprehensive research 374 00:20:37,244 --> 00:20:40,579 on reports of unidentified flying craft. 375 00:20:42,350 --> 00:20:46,552 It is the first official Soviet UFO Study Group, 376 00:20:46,654 --> 00:20:50,389 and six months later, on November 10, 377 00:20:50,491 --> 00:20:51,957 the government gives its approval 378 00:20:52,059 --> 00:20:54,960 for the group's deputy, astronomer Felix Ziegel, 379 00:20:55,062 --> 00:20:56,595 to present its findings 380 00:20:56,697 --> 00:20:58,731 on Soviet Central Television. 381 00:21:00,334 --> 00:21:02,601 Felix Ziegel asked the public 382 00:21:02,703 --> 00:21:05,904 to contact them with sightings. 383 00:21:06,007 --> 00:21:08,040 Now this was an extraordinary development. 384 00:21:09,543 --> 00:21:12,678 Previously, little if anything, had been made public 385 00:21:12,780 --> 00:21:15,614 about official interest in this. 386 00:21:15,716 --> 00:21:19,118 And here you have somebody going on television 387 00:21:19,220 --> 00:21:20,819 talking about it quite openly 388 00:21:20,921 --> 00:21:23,288 and inviting people to send in their sightings. 389 00:21:23,391 --> 00:21:25,124 Well, needless to say, 390 00:21:25,226 --> 00:21:29,028 there were a lot of sightings that were then reported, 391 00:21:29,130 --> 00:21:30,963 but the project itself 392 00:21:31,065 --> 00:21:35,934 soon was dogged by controversy and dissent. 393 00:21:37,471 --> 00:21:40,005 NARRATOR: Shortly after the television broadcast, 394 00:21:40,107 --> 00:21:43,175 the government forced the group to be disbanded, 395 00:21:43,277 --> 00:21:47,279 fearful that it might lead to reports surfacing 396 00:21:47,381 --> 00:21:51,216 of top secret Soviet military tests. 397 00:21:51,318 --> 00:21:55,788 But Ziegel still managed to collect a huge amount of data, 398 00:21:55,890 --> 00:21:59,958 including reports from Russian pilots. 399 00:22:00,061 --> 00:22:02,695 He was able to publish some of his findings 400 00:22:02,797 --> 00:22:08,267 in a 1968 anthology titled Inhabited Cosmos. 401 00:22:08,369 --> 00:22:10,969 VON DANIKEN: I met Felix Ziegel in Moscow. 402 00:22:11,072 --> 00:22:14,640 He had collected hundreds of UFO cases. 403 00:22:14,742 --> 00:22:17,643 He said that these flying objects 404 00:22:17,745 --> 00:22:20,412 were seen all over the Soviet Union. 405 00:22:20,514 --> 00:22:24,850 Some of them were small, others large and spherical. 406 00:22:24,952 --> 00:22:28,153 Their technology must be extraterrestrial, 407 00:22:28,255 --> 00:22:31,290 because they reach an incredible speed 408 00:22:31,392 --> 00:22:34,827 that no human would survive. 409 00:22:34,929 --> 00:22:37,596 NARRATOR: While publicly the Soviet government 410 00:22:37,698 --> 00:22:40,766 denounced the research of Felix Ziegel, 411 00:22:40,868 --> 00:22:44,303 they did not stop him from continuing his work, 412 00:22:44,405 --> 00:22:47,306 and even reviewed his findings. 413 00:22:47,408 --> 00:22:49,541 But why? 414 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:56,348 Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that the government 415 00:22:56,450 --> 00:22:59,785 may have been aware that there really was an alien presence 416 00:22:59,887 --> 00:23:02,087 in their skies. 417 00:23:02,189 --> 00:23:05,791 And they used Ziegel and other UFO researchers 418 00:23:05,893 --> 00:23:10,763 as a way to secretly monitor this activity. 419 00:23:10,865 --> 00:23:12,531 A number of records have surfaced 420 00:23:12,633 --> 00:23:15,334 from the Soviet Air Force and the KGB, 421 00:23:15,436 --> 00:23:18,604 showing that particularly in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, 422 00:23:18,706 --> 00:23:22,174 they took the UFO subject very, very seriously. 423 00:23:24,478 --> 00:23:25,744 TSOUKALOS: Soviet scientists 424 00:23:25,846 --> 00:23:28,647 had to come up with incredible ways 425 00:23:28,749 --> 00:23:30,883 with which to share their knowledge 426 00:23:30,985 --> 00:23:33,685 with their colleagues in the Western World. 427 00:23:33,788 --> 00:23:38,690 So, they essentially hid their messages in code, 428 00:23:38,793 --> 00:23:42,594 in letters, in different types of correspondence. 429 00:23:42,696 --> 00:23:45,364 Why would anyone risk going to jail 430 00:23:45,466 --> 00:23:48,700 by encoding messages to people and scientists 431 00:23:48,803 --> 00:23:50,202 outside the Iron Curtain, 432 00:23:50,304 --> 00:23:51,770 if you weren't compelled enough 433 00:23:51,872 --> 00:23:54,873 that what you're writing about is the truth? 434 00:23:57,344 --> 00:24:00,746 NARRATOR: Throughout the 1960s and most of the '70s, 435 00:24:00,848 --> 00:24:05,818 the Soviet government's interest in UFOs remained unofficial. 436 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:10,255 But that changed after September 20, 1977, 437 00:24:10,357 --> 00:24:13,258 when numerous residents of Petrozavodsk 438 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:17,196 reported seeing a glowing object floating in the sky above 439 00:24:17,298 --> 00:24:19,097 for over 5 minutes, 440 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,934 showering the city with rays of light. 441 00:24:22,036 --> 00:24:24,736 A copy remains of a lost photograph 442 00:24:24,839 --> 00:24:26,705 that was taken of the object, 443 00:24:26,807 --> 00:24:29,575 and astonishingly, 444 00:24:29,677 --> 00:24:31,543 similar UFOs were reported 445 00:24:31,645 --> 00:24:35,414 all across Russia and Eastern Europe 446 00:24:35,516 --> 00:24:38,250 within a four-hour window. 447 00:24:39,553 --> 00:24:42,221 On the heels of this mass sighting, 448 00:24:42,323 --> 00:24:43,989 the Soviet Union established 449 00:24:44,091 --> 00:24:48,260 the Russian Academy of Sciences' UFO commission. 450 00:24:48,362 --> 00:24:50,462 In 1984, 451 00:24:50,564 --> 00:24:53,732 they appointed Major-General Pavel Popovich, 452 00:24:53,834 --> 00:24:56,535 the eighth man ever to reach space, 453 00:24:56,637 --> 00:24:59,271 to head up this research team. 454 00:24:59,373 --> 00:25:01,306 Pavel Popovich brought forth 455 00:25:01,408 --> 00:25:03,775 a lot of the UFO information himself 456 00:25:03,878 --> 00:25:07,679 and he was able to obtain the KGB UFO files-- 457 00:25:07,781 --> 00:25:10,148 124 pages-- in 1992. 458 00:25:10,251 --> 00:25:12,551 He said that he knew of the existence 459 00:25:12,653 --> 00:25:14,419 of three underwater bases, 460 00:25:14,521 --> 00:25:17,990 where the extraterrestrials exist and operate. 461 00:25:18,092 --> 00:25:21,326 This is a man whom we should listen to. 462 00:25:21,428 --> 00:25:22,728 (indistinct radio transmission) 463 00:25:22,830 --> 00:25:25,330 DOLAN: He had two UFO sightings himself, 464 00:25:25,432 --> 00:25:27,933 a very significant one in 1978, 465 00:25:28,035 --> 00:25:32,537 when he was flying back from the United States to, uh, to Russia. 466 00:25:35,342 --> 00:25:38,877 Out his window, he saw an absolutely enormous-- 467 00:25:38,979 --> 00:25:41,513 football field size, or larger-- 468 00:25:41,615 --> 00:25:43,382 triangular craft, 469 00:25:43,484 --> 00:25:45,384 that was moving at a really good clip. 470 00:25:45,486 --> 00:25:46,885 I mean, easily overtook, 471 00:25:46,987 --> 00:25:49,054 uh... the commercial airliner that he was in. 472 00:25:49,156 --> 00:25:52,624 He wasn't the only one on his plane to see this, by the way. 473 00:25:52,726 --> 00:25:54,459 He talked to a lot of the other people, 474 00:25:54,561 --> 00:25:56,828 many of whom where academicians, coming back from a conference, 475 00:25:56,931 --> 00:25:59,331 many of whom saw this. 476 00:26:01,902 --> 00:26:04,703 NARRATOR: Did Major-General Pavel Popovich 477 00:26:04,805 --> 00:26:09,341 really witness firsthand an extraterrestrial spacecraft? 478 00:26:10,778 --> 00:26:12,744 And might he also have found evidence 479 00:26:12,846 --> 00:26:14,980 in secret KGB files 480 00:26:15,082 --> 00:26:18,383 of underwater alien bases? 481 00:26:18,485 --> 00:26:21,453 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 482 00:26:21,555 --> 00:26:25,357 and suggest even more profound evidence can be found 483 00:26:25,459 --> 00:26:28,627 in a small mountain town in eastern Russia: 484 00:26:28,729 --> 00:26:30,429 the remains 485 00:26:30,531 --> 00:26:33,365 of a crashed UFO. 486 00:26:36,070 --> 00:26:37,736 DOLAN: What people there saw 487 00:26:37,838 --> 00:26:41,073 was this low flying, very slow object. 488 00:26:41,175 --> 00:26:43,041 It dropped, almost like a stone. 489 00:26:44,511 --> 00:26:46,611 It wasn't made on planet Earth. 490 00:26:53,070 --> 00:26:55,437 NARRATOR: One of the most decorated test pilots 491 00:26:55,539 --> 00:26:56,905 in Russian history 492 00:26:57,007 --> 00:26:59,708 is a woman named Marina Popovich, 493 00:26:59,810 --> 00:27:02,945 the wife of astronaut Pavel Popovich. 494 00:27:04,848 --> 00:27:07,916 Marina set over 100 records during her career 495 00:27:08,018 --> 00:27:10,018 in the Soviet Air Force, 496 00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:12,387 which includes being the first woman 497 00:27:12,489 --> 00:27:15,591 -to break the sound barrier. -(sonic boom) 498 00:27:17,962 --> 00:27:19,595 Like her husband, 499 00:27:19,697 --> 00:27:23,732 she, too, reported on extraterrestrial encounters. 500 00:27:25,202 --> 00:27:28,470 In 2003, Marina published a book 501 00:27:28,572 --> 00:27:33,542 disclosing her firsthand experiences with UFOs. 502 00:27:33,644 --> 00:27:35,811 In it, she also referenced 503 00:27:35,913 --> 00:27:38,347 thousands of similar UFO sightings 504 00:27:38,449 --> 00:27:39,915 by other Soviet military 505 00:27:40,017 --> 00:27:41,650 and civilian pilots. 506 00:27:44,154 --> 00:27:47,055 She told their stories at speaking engagements 507 00:27:47,157 --> 00:27:48,490 all over the world. 508 00:27:48,592 --> 00:27:50,926 Like the story of a fighter pilot 509 00:27:51,028 --> 00:27:53,362 who was asked to fire upon an unidentified, 510 00:27:53,464 --> 00:27:55,797 disc-shaped craft. 511 00:27:55,899 --> 00:27:58,433 (speaking Russian) 512 00:28:12,650 --> 00:28:15,951 Marina Popovich is one of the most famous aviators in history. 513 00:28:16,053 --> 00:28:18,320 She was in a good position to know what she knew. 514 00:28:18,422 --> 00:28:20,689 She was a very well connected individual. 515 00:28:22,593 --> 00:28:25,327 She talked about something like 3,000 UFO cases 516 00:28:25,429 --> 00:28:26,828 that had occurred in the Soviet Union 517 00:28:26,930 --> 00:28:28,230 over the years which, 518 00:28:28,332 --> 00:28:30,132 considering the fact that we knew next to nothing 519 00:28:30,234 --> 00:28:32,668 about the history of Soviet UFOs before that, 520 00:28:32,770 --> 00:28:34,503 was very significant. 521 00:28:34,605 --> 00:28:38,040 There is particular interest in sightings from pilots. 522 00:28:38,142 --> 00:28:42,644 Pilots are able, for example, to judge distances, 523 00:28:42,746 --> 00:28:47,449 speeds, heights, in a way that maybe the average person can't. 524 00:28:47,551 --> 00:28:50,152 And Marina Popovich has made a particular effort 525 00:28:50,254 --> 00:28:53,989 to collate all these pilot stories. 526 00:28:55,893 --> 00:28:57,459 REDFERN: What's particularly notable 527 00:28:57,561 --> 00:29:01,063 about Marina Popovich's comments on the UFO subject 528 00:29:01,165 --> 00:29:04,266 is that she stated that sources have informed her 529 00:29:04,368 --> 00:29:06,868 that the Soviets have in their possession 530 00:29:06,970 --> 00:29:10,706 no less than the remains of five crashed and recovered UFOs. 531 00:29:13,277 --> 00:29:16,211 NARRATOR: Did both Marina and Pavel Popovich, 532 00:29:16,313 --> 00:29:20,048 along with scores of other respected Soviet pilots, 533 00:29:20,150 --> 00:29:22,984 really encounter alien crafts? 534 00:29:23,087 --> 00:29:25,020 And if so, 535 00:29:25,122 --> 00:29:27,055 might there be even more sightings 536 00:29:27,157 --> 00:29:29,024 recorded by the Russian authorities 537 00:29:29,126 --> 00:29:32,761 that have not yet been disclosed to the public? 538 00:29:37,034 --> 00:29:38,600 Dalnegorsk, Russia. 539 00:29:38,702 --> 00:29:42,637 January 29, 1986. 540 00:29:42,740 --> 00:29:44,706 Just before 8:00 p.m., 541 00:29:44,808 --> 00:29:47,909 in this small mining town in eastern Russia, 542 00:29:48,011 --> 00:29:51,613 hundreds of people see a red, glowing, sphere 543 00:29:51,715 --> 00:29:55,884 moving slowly through the sky above a nearby mountain. 544 00:29:55,986 --> 00:29:57,753 It appeared to slow down, 545 00:29:57,855 --> 00:30:00,956 before crashing into the hillside. 546 00:30:03,827 --> 00:30:07,095 Many reported seeing a fiery blaze from the site 547 00:30:07,197 --> 00:30:10,298 for as much as an hour after it went down. 548 00:30:12,369 --> 00:30:16,204 STONEHILL: The sphere flies into the Izvestkovaya Mountains 549 00:30:16,306 --> 00:30:17,205 and burns up. 550 00:30:17,307 --> 00:30:19,674 There is an explosion... 551 00:30:19,777 --> 00:30:21,576 and people want to find out what happened, 552 00:30:21,678 --> 00:30:24,312 because I've read eyewitness accounts-- incredible. 553 00:30:26,116 --> 00:30:28,984 NARRATOR: Because of the huge number of eyewitnesses, 554 00:30:29,086 --> 00:30:32,988 the crash became known as the Russian Roswell. 555 00:30:33,090 --> 00:30:35,724 And like at Roswell, 556 00:30:35,826 --> 00:30:38,293 physical evidence was recovered from the site, 557 00:30:38,395 --> 00:30:41,563 proving that a crash of some kind did, 558 00:30:41,665 --> 00:30:43,365 in fact, occur. 559 00:30:43,467 --> 00:30:46,568 STONEHILL: Some local people and researchers 560 00:30:46,670 --> 00:30:48,303 managed to get to the site. 561 00:30:48,405 --> 00:30:52,674 They find very interesting artifacts, remains. 562 00:30:54,711 --> 00:30:56,278 NARRATOR: While officials 563 00:30:56,380 --> 00:30:58,980 dismissed the event as a possible meteor crash, 564 00:30:59,082 --> 00:31:05,020 microscopic analysis of the debris yielded unusual results. 565 00:31:05,122 --> 00:31:10,525 The samples contained a complex system of woven metallic fibers; 566 00:31:10,627 --> 00:31:13,495 and the atomic structure of the metal itself 567 00:31:13,597 --> 00:31:17,833 appeared to change when exposed to heat. 568 00:31:20,237 --> 00:31:22,370 When they melted the metal 569 00:31:22,472 --> 00:31:24,272 and put it to a spectrum analysis, 570 00:31:24,374 --> 00:31:27,175 the gold and silver and other metals were gone. 571 00:31:28,812 --> 00:31:31,580 And instead, there was titanium 572 00:31:31,682 --> 00:31:33,748 and molybdenum there. 573 00:31:33,851 --> 00:31:37,619 And so, you have here, some kind of metals, 574 00:31:37,721 --> 00:31:41,189 which apparently are mutating into other metals. 575 00:31:41,291 --> 00:31:43,825 Which was very, very unusual. 576 00:31:45,395 --> 00:31:48,163 NOORY: I think it's part of some kind of machinery, 577 00:31:48,265 --> 00:31:50,432 nanotechnology machinery, 578 00:31:50,534 --> 00:31:53,034 but it wasn't made on planet Earth. 579 00:31:53,136 --> 00:31:54,703 STONEHILL: It was later studied 580 00:31:54,805 --> 00:31:57,239 by a number of Soviet scientific institutions 581 00:31:57,341 --> 00:32:00,542 and some of them said that technology like this 582 00:32:00,644 --> 00:32:03,278 does not exist, uh, on Earth today. 583 00:32:03,380 --> 00:32:07,048 POPE: Subsequent to the Dalnegorsk crash, 584 00:32:07,150 --> 00:32:08,984 there have been a number of sightings 585 00:32:09,086 --> 00:32:10,652 in exactly the same area. 586 00:32:10,754 --> 00:32:13,922 Some people have even seen an object 587 00:32:14,024 --> 00:32:17,425 apparently land on the hillside 588 00:32:17,527 --> 00:32:19,527 where the first crash took place. 589 00:32:21,331 --> 00:32:24,099 NARRATOR: Might the object that crashed at Dalnegorsk, 590 00:32:24,201 --> 00:32:26,835 and was witnessed by hundreds of people, 591 00:32:26,937 --> 00:32:29,938 really have been an alien craft? 592 00:32:31,441 --> 00:32:33,942 Could the physical evidence left behind 593 00:32:34,044 --> 00:32:36,044 provide undeniable proof 594 00:32:36,146 --> 00:32:39,915 that otherworldly beings are visiting planet Earth, 595 00:32:40,017 --> 00:32:44,586 and have been for thousands of years? 596 00:32:44,688 --> 00:32:48,790 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 597 00:32:48,892 --> 00:32:52,327 and believe that Russians have had contact with aliens, 598 00:32:52,429 --> 00:32:54,362 not just here on Earth, 599 00:32:54,464 --> 00:32:58,233 but even in space. 600 00:33:02,973 --> 00:33:06,775 WILLIAM HENRY: They describe seeing seven angelic beings 601 00:33:06,877 --> 00:33:08,643 traveling alongside their spacecraft. 602 00:33:08,745 --> 00:33:12,013 POPE: Whatever it was they were witnessing, 603 00:33:12,115 --> 00:33:13,014 it was real. 604 00:33:13,116 --> 00:33:13,982 It was out there. 605 00:33:21,217 --> 00:33:23,384 NARRATOR: Salyut 7 space station. 606 00:33:23,486 --> 00:33:27,454 July 12, 1984. 607 00:33:27,556 --> 00:33:31,358 Cosmonauts Oleg Atkov, 608 00:33:31,460 --> 00:33:33,360 Leonid Kizim, 609 00:33:33,462 --> 00:33:35,663 and Vladimir Solovyov, 610 00:33:35,765 --> 00:33:41,468 enter the 156th day of their 237-day stay 611 00:33:41,570 --> 00:33:44,471 aboard Russia's scientific research space station. 612 00:33:46,208 --> 00:33:50,511 To date, everything has gone according to plan. 613 00:33:50,613 --> 00:33:52,246 But on this day, 614 00:33:52,348 --> 00:33:56,317 all three crewmembers witness an extraordinary event. 615 00:33:59,088 --> 00:34:04,325 In 1984, Soviet cosmonauts on board Salyut 7 616 00:34:04,427 --> 00:34:08,262 saw a strange orange glow 617 00:34:08,364 --> 00:34:11,165 around the spacecraft. 618 00:34:11,267 --> 00:34:16,370 And they saw what they thought, at first, was maybe a gas leak. 619 00:34:16,472 --> 00:34:20,307 But it seemed that the whole station was surrounded 620 00:34:20,409 --> 00:34:23,043 by this orange cloud. 621 00:34:23,145 --> 00:34:24,578 And as they looked at it, 622 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,949 the cloud coalesced into a shape. 623 00:34:32,321 --> 00:34:36,991 HENRY: Suddenly, they are all blinded by this orange light. 624 00:34:38,260 --> 00:34:39,593 When they regain their vision, 625 00:34:39,695 --> 00:34:42,296 they look out the portals of the spacecraft 626 00:34:42,398 --> 00:34:46,166 and they're astonished by what they see. 627 00:34:46,268 --> 00:34:50,437 They describe seeing seven angelic beings 628 00:34:50,539 --> 00:34:53,307 that are traveling alongside their spacecraft, 629 00:34:53,409 --> 00:34:55,876 and did so for ten minutes. 630 00:34:59,849 --> 00:35:03,117 NARRATOR: The men described huge, winged creatures, 631 00:35:03,219 --> 00:35:05,419 as much as 80 feet tall, 632 00:35:05,521 --> 00:35:08,722 that appeared to have glowing halos. 633 00:35:08,824 --> 00:35:14,194 Officials dismissed the incident as a group hallucination 634 00:35:14,296 --> 00:35:16,764 resulting from oxygen deprivation 635 00:35:16,866 --> 00:35:19,533 and pressure fluctuations. 636 00:35:19,635 --> 00:35:21,769 Later that summer, 637 00:35:21,871 --> 00:35:25,506 three more cosmonauts joined the Salyut 7 crew. 638 00:35:25,608 --> 00:35:31,045 All six of them, once again, saw these winged beings. 639 00:35:31,147 --> 00:35:32,746 But how could all of these cosmonauts 640 00:35:32,848 --> 00:35:35,549 share one hallucination? 641 00:35:39,755 --> 00:35:43,090 It seems to me that this was not hallucination, 642 00:35:43,192 --> 00:35:45,826 that whatever it was they were witnessing, 643 00:35:45,928 --> 00:35:47,561 it was real. It was out there. 644 00:35:48,631 --> 00:35:50,464 Now, angels? 645 00:35:50,566 --> 00:35:51,799 Aliens? 646 00:35:51,901 --> 00:35:53,500 I don't know, but, uh, 647 00:35:53,602 --> 00:35:56,670 when one looks at the recurrence 648 00:35:56,772 --> 00:36:00,474 of winged figures in human history, 649 00:36:00,576 --> 00:36:04,511 in terms of religion, in terms of culture, mythology. 650 00:36:04,613 --> 00:36:07,748 Are we looking at something real? 651 00:36:07,850 --> 00:36:10,417 Are these angels that we see 652 00:36:10,519 --> 00:36:13,220 actually extraterrestrial entities? 653 00:36:17,226 --> 00:36:18,692 NARRATOR: Might the winged figures 654 00:36:18,794 --> 00:36:20,794 seen by the Salyut 7 crew, 655 00:36:20,896 --> 00:36:24,765 really have been extraterrestrials? 656 00:36:24,867 --> 00:36:27,935 Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, 657 00:36:28,037 --> 00:36:30,304 and suggest that similar sightings 658 00:36:30,406 --> 00:36:34,641 were secretly reported by many Russian cosmonauts. 659 00:36:34,743 --> 00:36:38,011 Soviet cosmonauts had a really interesting 660 00:36:38,114 --> 00:36:41,482 and challenging dilemma when it came to truth telling. 661 00:36:41,584 --> 00:36:44,451 Because at the same time that they were the public face 662 00:36:44,553 --> 00:36:46,487 of the Soviet space program, 663 00:36:46,589 --> 00:36:49,556 there was the always hidden goal of the Soviet space program, 664 00:36:49,658 --> 00:36:51,024 which was to prove 665 00:36:51,127 --> 00:36:53,794 intercontinental ballistic missile capability. 666 00:36:53,896 --> 00:36:57,131 So the cosmonauts were publically to disguise 667 00:36:57,233 --> 00:36:59,399 those parts of the mission that were secret 668 00:36:59,502 --> 00:37:01,468 and involved in national security, 669 00:37:01,570 --> 00:37:03,370 making it all that much more interesting 670 00:37:03,472 --> 00:37:06,340 when we try to assess what they saw, when they talk about 671 00:37:06,442 --> 00:37:09,643 anomalous things that they supposedly encountered in space. 672 00:37:09,745 --> 00:37:12,579 KARASH: You have to understand that many cosmonauts, 673 00:37:12,681 --> 00:37:16,750 even if they witnessed something strange in space, 674 00:37:16,852 --> 00:37:22,923 were, um, highly reluctant to openly talk about it, 675 00:37:23,025 --> 00:37:27,628 because of the concern of being decommissioned 676 00:37:27,730 --> 00:37:29,763 for the reason of insanity. 677 00:37:29,865 --> 00:37:34,401 Indeed, some of the Soviet and the Russian cosmonauts 678 00:37:34,503 --> 00:37:39,173 did have very strange experience in space. 679 00:37:41,110 --> 00:37:42,676 NARRATOR: Could strange encounters 680 00:37:42,778 --> 00:37:47,447 reported by Russian cosmonauts, as well as military pilots, 681 00:37:47,550 --> 00:37:51,852 be connected to the artifacts discovered in the Ural Mountains 682 00:37:51,954 --> 00:37:54,655 and the Dalnegorsk crash site? 683 00:37:54,757 --> 00:37:59,493 Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer can be found 684 00:37:59,595 --> 00:38:02,763 by examining not just what the Russian cosmonauts 685 00:38:02,865 --> 00:38:04,298 have seen in space... 686 00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:05,966 (speaking Russian over radio) 687 00:38:06,068 --> 00:38:07,568 ...but what they've heard. 688 00:38:15,369 --> 00:38:17,102 NARRATOR: Ever since Yuri Gagarin 689 00:38:17,205 --> 00:38:20,506 became the first man to reach space in 1961, 690 00:38:20,608 --> 00:38:22,975 cosmonauts, 691 00:38:23,077 --> 00:38:25,845 along with other astronauts from around the world, 692 00:38:25,947 --> 00:38:31,150 have had visions and experiences in space that defy explanation. 693 00:38:31,252 --> 00:38:34,320 Perhaps the most curious among these incidents 694 00:38:34,422 --> 00:38:37,790 is what has become known as the "space whisper." 695 00:38:39,260 --> 00:38:41,493 DOLAN: There's an anonymous cosmonaut, 696 00:38:41,596 --> 00:38:44,029 I think he's simply known as Cosmonaut X, 697 00:38:44,131 --> 00:38:47,800 who allegedly talked about an experience that he 698 00:38:47,902 --> 00:38:50,836 and another cosmonaut had while they were in orbit. 699 00:38:50,938 --> 00:38:54,473 What this anonymous cosmonaut said, 700 00:38:54,575 --> 00:38:58,611 he heard, something speaking to him inside his mind. 701 00:38:58,713 --> 00:39:02,114 (disembodied, eerie voices) 702 00:39:02,216 --> 00:39:06,452 Both apparently heard this same whispering 703 00:39:06,554 --> 00:39:11,523 inside their heads, a kind of telepathic message. 704 00:39:11,626 --> 00:39:14,360 This cosmic whisper 705 00:39:14,462 --> 00:39:17,963 said that they were his ancestors 706 00:39:18,065 --> 00:39:20,099 from the very distant past. 707 00:39:20,201 --> 00:39:25,004 They told him things about his own family in the Urals 708 00:39:25,106 --> 00:39:27,806 that no one would have known. 709 00:39:27,909 --> 00:39:32,444 And they also told him that they should go back to Earth. 710 00:39:32,546 --> 00:39:38,517 That Russia was not ready for what they were attempting to do. 711 00:39:38,619 --> 00:39:41,954 And, in a sense, go back home and, 712 00:39:42,056 --> 00:39:43,822 you know, prepare yourself. 713 00:39:43,925 --> 00:39:46,458 STONEHILL: There were more than one cosmonaut. 714 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:48,360 Some of them knew not to report it 715 00:39:48,462 --> 00:39:50,696 because this would eliminate their presence 716 00:39:50,798 --> 00:39:52,197 in the space program. 717 00:39:52,300 --> 00:39:54,466 But they talked among each other when they could 718 00:39:54,568 --> 00:39:56,635 and they found out that it was more than one person 719 00:39:56,737 --> 00:40:00,739 and in different spaceships, that had been subjected to this. 720 00:40:00,841 --> 00:40:04,310 NARRATOR: How could so many Russian cosmonauts 721 00:40:04,412 --> 00:40:06,845 have heard the same mysterious whisper 722 00:40:06,948 --> 00:40:09,048 while traveling through space? 723 00:40:09,150 --> 00:40:15,020 And just what was this celestial voice trying to communicate? 724 00:40:15,122 --> 00:40:19,858 Ancient astronaut theorists believe it is another example 725 00:40:19,961 --> 00:40:21,860 of extraterrestrial activity 726 00:40:21,963 --> 00:40:26,565 that is only now being disclosed. 727 00:40:26,667 --> 00:40:28,968 CHILDRESS: With all of the massive secrecy in Russia 728 00:40:29,070 --> 00:40:31,537 and all of the things we're just learning, 729 00:40:31,639 --> 00:40:34,673 it would seem to only be the tip of the iceberg 730 00:40:34,775 --> 00:40:38,544 of the many visitations of extraterrestrials 731 00:40:38,646 --> 00:40:41,580 that have been occurring all over the world. 732 00:40:43,284 --> 00:40:45,150 STONEHILL: There is a great wealth of information 733 00:40:45,252 --> 00:40:46,919 in the former Soviet Union. 734 00:40:47,021 --> 00:40:49,922 And when people in the west find out more and more 735 00:40:50,024 --> 00:40:56,261 about events and observations over Russia, they become amazed. 736 00:40:57,631 --> 00:40:59,098 TSOUKALOS: If we were to get access 737 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:01,667 to some of the Russian files on extraterrestrials, 738 00:41:01,769 --> 00:41:06,071 it could answer some of the questions that we have, 739 00:41:06,173 --> 00:41:08,474 because what if some of those stories 740 00:41:08,576 --> 00:41:12,211 corroborate the ones that we're familiar with? 741 00:41:12,313 --> 00:41:15,314 Because then, it could only mean one thing: 742 00:41:15,416 --> 00:41:18,717 we've all been visited by the same visitors. 743 00:41:22,089 --> 00:41:23,455 NARRATOR: Does the ultimate proof 744 00:41:23,557 --> 00:41:25,958 that extraterrestrials have visited Earth 745 00:41:26,060 --> 00:41:28,560 exist within Russia? 746 00:41:28,662 --> 00:41:32,798 Could such information have been purposely covered up? 747 00:41:32,900 --> 00:41:35,034 And if so, 748 00:41:35,136 --> 00:41:37,102 might the most compelling evidence 749 00:41:37,204 --> 00:41:40,339 still be under lock and key? 750 00:41:40,441 --> 00:41:44,610 Perhaps as more of Russia's secret files are revealed, 751 00:41:44,712 --> 00:41:48,480 we will discover that hidden within these vast archives, 752 00:41:48,582 --> 00:41:53,452 lies the truth about our alien origins.