The Vladimir G. Paltsev Incident

Here is a questionable but enjoyable Russian UFO encounter from the 1970s. I'm a fan of classic UFO lore and history, but I'm not going to get into a bunch of theories or debunking of this event at this time. For fun, I wanted to share this underrated and little-known classic. If nothing else, it's an interesting example of how a UFO encounter can become terribly convoluted with numerous iterations (while somehow maintaining its integral elements).


Here at this link is a summary of the event and many other iterations of it including write-ups from FSR (Flying Saucer Review) and other sources: ufologie.patrickgross.org... There is a handy table of information towards the bottom.
According to the above source,

The first version came under the signature of the sensationalist Russian ufologist Valimir Azhazha in FST in May 1979. It said:
In the summer of 1975, First Lieutenant Pal'tsov, stationed in the Borisoglebsk Region, was returning in the morning to his unit when he saw a cupola shaped "something" in the bushes beside the road. He walked towards it, and when he was some 30 metres from it, it took off and flew across the road and landed again. Pal'tsov ran towards it, but when he was only a few metres from it, he felt himself running into a resilient wall, and lost consciousness. The last thing that he could remember was seeing two humanlike figures in a transparent cupola. One of them was seated at what looked like a desk, and the other was standing and looking out through the cupola.
Then, the June 25, 1980, issue of Weekend magazine apparently reported that they found details of three UFO and entity cases, sent in by their Moscow correspondent Alan Henderson. One of these was said to come from an undated Pravda newspaper

The event according to I Tsarev in Planet of Specters was described as an encounter on May 15, 1975 near Voronezh, Russia. "Senior Lieutenant" Vladimir Paltsev was on a highway near the city early in the morning when he saw a peculiar object in a clearing off the side of the road. He got out of his car to investigate. As he neared the object he could see that it was a transparent ellipsoid. He continued approaching the object and noticed two human-like figures inside a transparent cupola. One of the figures places its palm on the internal dome of the object. Paltsev said the hand appeared human. A "dense wall of air" stopped Paltsev from getting any closer to the object shortly before he lost consciousness. When he came to, he again attempted to approach the object but was still unable to penetrate the invisible barrier, so he decided to sit at the edge of the road and watch as the object lifted off the ground and flew low over the road. A motorcyclist who was driving by also appeared to notice the craft which soon disappeared from sight.




I Tsarev describes the same event as though it were a second event the same area one month later in June of 1975. This time, the witness (described as an officer in the Soviet Army), saw a nearly identical object at about 0100A. The craft was disc-shaped with a semi-translucent cupola on top. He observed two human-like silhouettes inside the cupola. Like the "first" witness in May, this man also encountered an invisible "barrier" and lost consciousness. When he came to, the object was already flying away at a high speed. He thought the entire event took about five minutes and was shocked to realize he had been missing for two hours. Following the incident, he suffered from frequent nightmares of flying onboard a similar UFO.

A similar craft was described in a different story. The co-founder of the first officially approved Soviet UFO research group,Felix Y Zigel (a Doctor of Science and a docent of Cosmology at the Moscow Aviation Institute), published a similar story in UFO landings in the USSR And other Countries. In April 1978, a witness in Beskudnikovo Russia looked out the window of his second floor apartment at 0530A and saw four hovering disc-shaped objects at the same level of his apartment. Each of the four UFOs had a transparent dome with a humanoid inside. The humanoids all wore transparent helmets and resembled normal "earthmen" who appeared to be in their mid thirties. They wore dark "motorcyclist" jackets and appeared restful and content. The objects emitted blue-green beams towards the ground; each beam appeared to be composed of dotted "particles" of light which slowly descended towards the ground. The witness lost consciousness and did not see the objects leave.

Strangely, in Fortean Times #33, Zigel detailed another version of the first case (with the invisible barrier etc) from an area near Borisoglebsk Russia which, this time, was said to have occurred on June 16, 1978. Some time after midnight, the witness was hitchhiking home when he saw a soft glowing object on a field nearby. He approached the object and saw that it had a transparent dome on top with three short humanoid figures inside of it. The beings appeared to have large "egg-like" heads (helmets?) and long fingers. They seemed to be working around a central console. When the witness got within about 20-25 yards of the object, he hit some type of invisible barrier and lose consciousness (much like the first two witnesses in Voronezh). When he came to, he found his brief case frayed and damaged. The invisible barrier went away and he walked up to the object, only to be knocked down by a blast of wind. The craft began to glow and lifted off the ground before darting away at a high speed. He later realized he had lost about 45 minutes of time. Later under hypnosis he was able to remember being led into the craft for examination, but hypnotic regression, although occasionally successful, can be questionable due to factors such as leading and over-active imagination.

The spring of 1978 was active in the UFO department, some of you may remember N F Kusov's encounter with infrasound and a cigar shaped object: Infrasound and a Cigar-Shaped UFO, Russia, 1978

The original story with the "air barrier" and transparent UFO is so convoluted it's difficult to say if any of it was real or a hoax (and, if you want my personal opinion, I am very skeptical of this case) but it's hard to argue with the fact that the Soviet 1970s were swimming in UFO reports and high-strangeness incidents. On a serious note, I was busy compiling RF (radiofrequency) related incidents by decade and location last month and took a break due to time constraints and travel, but I've added a few more cases, several of which took place in Soviet areas in, you guessed it, the 1970s. I will discuss those at another time.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed this quirky story from a fascinating era of UFO history.
"See" you next time. WL

I had never heard of an invisible 'wall' surrounding a UFO before. I love knowing I'm not too old to learn something new!

originally posted by: nugget1

I had never heard of an invisible 'wall' surrounding a UFO before. I love knowing I'm not too old to learn something new!

Never ever too old to learn!

The "air wall" in this story is peculiar, isn't it! I've seen a few cases where witnesses reported difficulty approaching an object, but not necessarily because of any kind of invisible wall or barrier.
For example, N F Kusov could not approach the cigar-shaped UFO because of an infrasound field which caused him severe discomfort. I've also heard of witnesses experiencing temporary paralysis in the vicinity of an object for the duration of its stay, thus were unable to approach the craft. Others felt too "heavy" to approach an object.
I'll dig up a few of those later when I get a minute.

a reply to: wavelength

an infrasound field which caused him severe discomfort

temporary paralysis

too "heavy" to approach an object

Hunh.....If I didn't know what the subject matter was I might think we were discussing Big Foot encounters.

a reply to: nugget1

It kinda does look like that, doesn't it?

As promised, here's another example of a case where the witness was stopped by a strange force (also from Russia). As I mentioned in my earlier post, most of these witnesses report a sensation of temporary paralysis rather than hitting a "wall" like in the Paltsev incident.

Izberbash, Dagestan, Russia, March 28, 1990, 0430A
Source: Sergey Semenduev, "Iks" (UFO News) Mahachkala Dagestan #10-11 1992
Also available here: The Fall of the Iron Curtain and the Return of the Humanoids

Alibek Karachev, a dispatcher for the local bus service, was driving his car on his way to work doing about 35-40 kph when his car’s engine came to a sudden stop. Thinking the battery had something to do with it, he stepped out of the car but was surprised to see a bright light and a few “people” standing a little over 100 meters away. He thought that maybe someone else was fixing their car as well, so he decided to go over and offer assistance. He only took three steps when an unknown force stopped him in his tracks. He was frozen in place in an awkward position, but was still able to watch the bright light. He saw a cigar shaped object hovering at a low altitude above the ground with several strangers walking under it. At first he saw two figures, then a third appeared. They appeared to be conversing among themselves using expressive hand gestures. The figures were wearing shiny, tight-fitting coveralls which Karachev compared to the suits worn by deep sea divers.
Attempting to focus on the object to get a better look, he perceived three windows on the “craft”, each one approximately 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide. The center window was lightly lit and he could see what looked like to him like a female silhouette (it apparently had long, wavy hair below shoulder length).
While he watched this supposed figure, the other figures who were working under the “craft” vanished. He felt compelled to turn around and when he looked back towards the object again, he found that it, along with the figures around it, were gone. At this moment, his car’s headlights switched on and he regained control of his body. He got into the car and drove over to the location over which he had seen the cigar-shaped object hovering just a few minutes prior. He found nothing there, nor in the sky above the area.
Alibek continued on his way to work but noticed that his watch was 10 minutes behind, and he could not remember what had occurred over those lost minutes. Three days later, Alibek became ill and went to the hospital in Machachkala, feeling weak. A doctor told him that his weakness appeared to have been the result of radiation exposure and that it would soon go away. He returned home, but his condition continued to deteriorate. 13 days after the incident, he couldn’t get out of bed and had no appetite. A week later, his health suddenly returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

A bit of a weird one (also skeptical, but the reports of "radiation" injuries following the incident are interesting).

a reply to: wavelength

Great post.

As an aside, "senior lieutenant" is a rank in the Russian forces.

I'll bet he was an armored forces guy as he described the object as a cupola.

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

You may be right.
Some sources say the witness was a veterinary surgeon, but most sources say he was a senior lieutenant. In an attempt to understand where the veterinary surgeon idea came from, Patrick Gross's article speculated the witness may have been a retired veterinary officer. Hmm.

a reply to: wavelength

PM for @wavelength

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

PM for @F2d5thCavv2