--- title: "That time aliens landed in the Soviet Union for a walk in the park" description: "In a city park some 300 miles away from Moscow, Russian citizens reported a UFO not only landed, but also saw the alien ship's crew. " date: "2022-08-03" modified: "2022-08-03" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/aliens-landed-in-soviet-union/" categories: - "Cold War" - "History" - "War History" tags: - "Cold War" - "Russia" - "Soviet Union" --- # That time aliens landed in the Soviet Union for a walk in the park ![aliens soviet union]() *Aliens might just be jerks.* The Russian people have a strange history with Unidentified Flying Objects. While 99% of the UFOs encountered by Russia and the Soviet Union over the years were most likely American spy planes, the Russians insist that one of them actually landed and its alien crew decided to step out and stretch their legs. And then they shot a bunch of children. In the late 1980s, [The New York Times]()[ quoted]() Soviet police Lt. Sergei A. Matveyev, who swore he saw the spaceship (but not the aliens themselves), but quoted other onlookers who said lanky, three-legged aliens landed in a park in the Russian city of Voronezh on Sept. 27, 1989. Some 300 miles from Moscow, citizens of Voronezh reported a deep red ball, around 10 feet in diameter, landing in a park. "It was not an optical illusion," he told Russia's TASS News Agency. "It was certainly a body flying in the sky. I thought I must be really tired, but I rubbed my eyes and it didn't go away." ![aliens soviet union]() *Admit that you were thinking about this meme.* A hatch opened in the ship's hull, and out stepped a three-eyed creature that stood nine feet tall and was dressed in silver overalls and bronze boots. It left the ship with a companion and a robot. After making a triangle formation around the robot, the robot came to life. Soviet schoolchildren Vasya Surin, Zhenya Blinov, and Yuliya Sholokhova were playing in the park when "they saw a pink shining in the sky and then spotted a ball of deep red color... about 10 yards in diameter." One of the young Soviet boys began to scream in terror. That's when the stuff hit the fan. With a look from the extraterrestrial, the boy was suddenly paralyzed. The alien disappeared briefly into its ship and returned with what the lieutenant said "looked like a gun" and shot a 16-year-old boy, who disappeared. He reappeared later, after the spacecraft had departed. Fear spread, but none of the dozens of alleged witnesses sought medical assistance. At this point the TASS news story emphasized that the story was "not a joke, nor a hoax, nor a sign of mental instability, nor an attempt to drum up local tourism." Citizens of the town reported multiple sightings of the ship between Sept. 23 and Sept. 27, but when Soviet investigators arrived at the scene, their only abnormal finding was elevated levels of radioactive Cesium-137. ![aliens soviet union]() *The witnesses.* As for the children who witnessed the landing in the park, they were all separated. When asked to draw what they saw that day, they all drew "a banana-shaped object that left behind in the sky the sign of the letter X." The boy who was abducted could remember nothing about the craft. The local interior minister said that if the craft appeared again, they would dispatch the Red Army to investigate the event. If the aliens had returned in full force to invade the Soviet Union, they would have met the combined capabilities of the Soviets and the United States, as President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed at the 1985 Geneva Summit to join forces against any extraterrestrial invader. #### Now read: [That time the US and Russia agreed to be allies if aliens attacked Earth]() ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()