Soviet Children Told Tass About UFO

A correspondent of the Tass news agency who wrote that an unidentified flying object had landed in the city of Voronezh said Tuesday he did not see the landing and interviewed “about 10” youngsters as the source of his report.

The report by correspondent Vladimir Lebedev, transmitted by the official Tass agency on Monday, said tiny-headed aliens up to 13-feet tall terrified the residents of Voronezh when they and a robot escort took nighttime strolls through a park after landing in their UFO.

Lebedev, 59, a 20-year Tass veteran, told United Press International that he had heard of three landings in September, the last on Sept. 27 in the city about 300 miles south of Moscow.

Asked whether he had seen any of the landings, he said, “No,” and when asked how he confirmed the story, he said that he spoke to “about 10 youngsters aged 12 to 13.”

“No more were needed,” he said.

Asked whether he believed in the story, Lebedev said, “One wants to believe.”

The report about the landing of a UFO is just one of a number of such recent stories about sightings, but unlike the others, the supposed Voronezh sighting has captured the imagination of the country.

As the perestroika reform program is shaking the foundations of Soviet society, people looking for something to believe in have gone in big for mysticism, and the current rage is healing seances. One such mystic, Anatoly Kashpirovsky, appears regularly on television. Another, who said he could stop trains, was recently killed when his attempt failed.

A Tuesday morning television show, a regular program called “120 Minutes,” devoted a good portion to the UFO saga with interviews of inhabitants of the ancient Russian city with a population of 86,000.

The newspaper Soviet Culture reported Tuesday that the UFO landed on Sept. 27, frightening youngsters who were playing soccer.

The newspaper, quoting witnesses, gave this account:

The UFO landed. Two creatures, one apparently a robot, exited. A boy screamed with fear, but when the alien gazed at him, with eyes shining, he fell silent, unable to move.

Onlookers screamed, and the UFO and the creatures disappeared.

About five minutes later, they reappeared. The alien had a “pistol”--a tube about 20 inches long, which it pointed at an unidentified 16-year-old boy, making him disappear. The alien went inside the sphere, which took off. At the same time, the boy reappeared.

Lebedev, the Tass correspondent, though sticking to his story, said there might have been some make-believe.

“I think there is a certain portion of truth, but it is not excluded that there is also fantasizing,” he said.

Asked to explain, he said, “mature people may have added certain things.”