UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat

«Samizdat is a Russian word for a document that is secretly copied by individuals to be circulated among trusted friends.» — la definición que da título al libro, y es de método.

«even today the major sources of documentation on this subject are barely readable carbon copies of the reports and commentaries that a few dedicated Soviet researchers have been collecting» — el estado material de la fuente.

«This book is a tribute to their perseverance and courage.» — declara el libro como homenaje a esa cadena de custodia informal.

«the transliteration of Russian names. Instead I have tried to simplify them while retaining their most common form of pronunciation, and I have taken the liberty of anglicizing many first names.» — declara que no siguió estándares rígidos; la frase arranca al pie de la p. 13. Los nombres propios de esta obra están normalizados por el autor.

«The subject of UFOs divides Soviet scientific opinion just as much as it does the Western public.» — el diagnóstico del que sale su dispositivo editorial.

«To highlight this controversy, I have presented selected quotes from both sides before every chapter in the text.» — declara que los epígrafes son un dispositivo de contraste, no su posición.

«this report, with all its details, was entered into the records of the monasterv of St. Cvril in 1663, forty years before the first newspaper appeared in Russia» — así lo enmarca; `monasterv` y `Cvril` son corrupción de la capa de texto y se consignan tal cual.

«salutations from your humble servant Ivachko Rievskoi.» — el encabezamiento del documento, dirigido al archimandrita Nikita y al sínodo del monasterio de San Cirilo.

«The farmer Lievko Fiedorov, from the village of Mys, has related to me the following facts» — la atribución del testimonio dentro del documento de 1663.

«On this Saturday the fifteenth day of August of the year 1663, the faithful from the district of Bieloziero had assembled in great number in the church of the village of Roboziero.» — la datación y el lugar.

«which for him was a sign from God» — cómo entendió el testigo lo que vio, según el propio documento.

«At noon a large ball of fire came down over Roboziero, arriving from the clearest part of the cloudless heavens.» — el cuerpo del suceso.

«It came from the direction whence winter comes and it moved toward the lake, passing over the church.» — la orientación, dicha en el vocabulario de la época.

«The ball of fire measured some 140 feet from one edge to the other and over the same distance, ahead of it, two ardent rays were extended.» — las medidas y los dos rayos.

«Fishermen who were in their boat on the lake, a little over one mile away, were deeply burned by the heat.» — los efectos físicos sobre los pescadores.

«The waters of the lake were illuminated to their greatest depth of thirty feet and the fish swam away toward shore.» — Sobre el lago.

«The prudent author of the report took pains to send an investigator, as he concludes» — la glosa con que introduce el cierre del documento.

«And I, your servant, dispatched a messenger to the priests of the district of Bieloziero who confirmed in writing that what was related did happen at that date and place.» — la verificación que el propio notario de 1663 declara haber hecho.

«The modern public and many researchers often assume that such old reports should be discounted» — su objeción al descarte fácil de la fuente antigua.

«In the words of an American ufologist, all that is “folklore of dubious authenticity.”» — la fórmula que atribuye, sin nombrarlo, a un ufólogo estadounidense.

«Such arguments are used to support the idea that the UFO phenomenon is of recent origin and follows the narrow patterns ascribed to it by the ufologists in question.» — a qué sirve, según él, ese descarte.

«The Roboziero report gives the lie to such a hasty judgment.» — su conclusión sobre el descarte.

«Not only is it one of the earliest cases on record involving beams causing physiological effects, but it is given with all the earmarks of careful investigation and intellectual integrity.» — por qué le da valor al documento.

«It is noteworthy that the people involved, including the author of the report, thought they were preserving the record of a sign from God.» — su argumento de fiabilidad es de sanción institucional, no de ingenuidad.

«They were transmitting it to the highest authority of their church, and the penalties for distortion would have been severe.» — Su segunda mitad: la pena por distorsionar.

«What we have here is a valuable report from the depth of tsarist Russia, describing the UFO phenomenon in its full glory with its most modern characteristics.» — el cierre del argumento.

«His story had never been published anywhere until Le Figaro featured his encounters and his paintings in the article Martine wrote following our trip.» — sobre el pintor Malichev, 21 de julio de 1975; adjudica la primera publicación a su colaboradora.

«But everyone we met in Moscow seemed to have heard of it.» — la circulación oral frente a la ausencia de publicación: eso es lo que llama *samizdat*.

«Malichev's observation is one of the cases that demonstrate polymorphism, in my opinion one of the principal arguments against the idea that UFOs are simply spacecraft from another planet.» — su posición declarada sobre el polimorfismo.

«The disk divided itself into eight parts that reunited into a single block, turned into a torus, then a cylinder.» — la descripción del cambio de forma.

«The same question can be asked, of course, about many other UFO reports in the Soviet Union and elsewhere.» — se abstiene de resolver el caso y generaliza la pregunta de Azhazha.

«Firsthand personal interview with the witness by a source of proven reliability» — grado máximo del primer dígito, fiabilidad de la fuente.

«Site visit by a skilled analyst» — grado máximo del segundo dígito, visita al sitio.

«No natural explanation possible, given the evidence» — grado máximo del tercer dígito, explicaciones posibles.

«A new effort in this direction is given here in the appendix, but it is too early to tell if it can be applied successfully to the Soviet data.» — acota el alcance de su propio sistema.

«with the caveat, of course, that it constitutes only a very small sample of the overall phenomenon in the Soviet Union.» — El de su índice de casos.

«The first scientist who made an effort to compile these observations was Felix Zigel.» — consigna al primer compilador soviético por su nombre.

«In a report published in 1979 by the Academy of Sciences, time and space data were found to correlate closely among Soviet samples and Western databases.» — la convergencia estadística entre bloques.

«the three authors of the Soviet study found that half of all sightings in their sample lasted between one and nineteen minutes» — la cifra, contra un tercio en las bases que él y Claude Poher habían compilado.

«sighting frequency tends to increase in the early evening hours, going through a maximum between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m.» — la Ley de los Tiempos, confirmada de forma independiente.

«In January 1990, following a wave of reported UFO sightings in the Soviet Union, renowned UFO investigator Dr. Jacques Vallee and Martine Castello, a science reporter for the prestigious French newspaper Le Figaro, took an extraordinary journey to Moscow» — solapa del sobrecubierta, con precio impreso. No es voz de la obra.

«What they heard had never been said in the West.» — misma solapa; frase muy tentadora y de la editorial.

«this is a major contribution to our knowledge about alien contact.» — cierre de la solapa, en registro promocional.

«UFO chronicles of the Soviet Union : a cosmic Samizdat / Jacques Vallee in collaboration with Martine Castello.» — ficha de la Library of Congress; ISBN 0-345-37396-0, primera edición marzo de 1992.

«Maps and illustrations rendered by Patrick O'Brien» — crédito de mapas e ilustraciones; el diseño es de Ann Gold.

«My trip with Martine Gastello was no exception to that rule.» — `Gastello` por Castello, en los agradecimientos, es decir, en el texto firmado. Se consigna tal cual: ver Notas de carga.

«The well-known Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky admitted the possibility that space and time were multidimensional.» — epígrafe de la conclusión, firmado por el periodista O. V. Stolyarov, Voronezh, octubre de 1989. Voz de tercero, no posición de Vallée.

«Apparently we've tread on the corns of some supercivilization, and it has decided to regulate our progress as it sees fit.» — segundo epígrafe de la conclusión, de Arkady y Boris Strugatsky, *Definitely Maybe*, 1977.

«Historians and folklore experts should get involved. We need psychics and we need physicists. We even need philosophers.» — voz de Vladimir Azhazha reclamando un enfoque multidisciplinar.

«It lasted ten years, from 1976 to 1987,» — voz de Azhazha sobre el grupo soviético de estudio de ovnis submarinos que dirigió.

«Malichev has been subjected to psychiatric observation and to psychological analysis,» — voz de Azhazha sobre el caso del pintor; Vallée la consigna sin adjudicársela. La frase arranca al pie de la p. 157 y cierra en la 158 con «something did happen to him, but what was it?».

«All the launches from Volgograd are toward the east. But Voronezh is to the northwest of the rocket site.» — réplica de Azhazha a la explicación de Migulin, que la obra deja en pie sin arbitrar.

«It is as if you and I had been working together for the last ten years.» — Azhazha en la primera hora del primer diálogo.

«It was first reported in our region in a case that dates from 1984.» — voz de un miembro del colectivo de Voronezh defendiendo la autenticidad del símbolo UMMO.

«When such changes occur, we speak of several phases of forming.» — cita del informe soviético, no de Vallée.

«In order to emphasize that the matter has to do with changes in shape, we call the corresponding phases “forming phases.”» — el aporte terminológico, adjudicado al mismo informe.

«There may be undiscovered forms of plasma consciousness in the universe,» — voz de un participante de la mesa redonda de Moscú, consignada sin adjudicar.

«They could have existed on this planet long before mankind appeared.» — continuación de la misma especulación, en boca de otro participante.

«We have always assumed that human consciousness was the master force on earth,» — otro participante; sigue «Perhaps the UFO phenomenon will teach us that we were grossly mistaken».

«Think of all the things you could do if you were a superconducting cloud half the size of the solar system,» — voz de Charlie Rosen, pionero de la robótica en Silicon Valley, que Vallée pone al lado como paralelo occidental.

«But some of the recent observations were made at the sacred site of Moliobka, which an ancient people already regarded as endowed by divine energy.» — voz de Emil Bachurin sobre el sitio sagrado de Moliobka, en los Urales, y el monumento de los mansi.

«One day one of the two children sees a black hand that comes close to him and strikes him.» — voz de Gougenot des Mousseaux en su libro de 1854, citada dentro de la obra.

«Not since Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain was published more than twenty years ago has the West had such a revealing glimpse of paranormal activity and investigation in the Soviet Union.» — solapa del sobrecubierta, que fija el antecedente editorial del libro. No es voz de la obra.

«During their visit, they had unprecedented access to a wide range of officials, prominent Soviet scientists, and representatives of the Moscow media and Soviet technology community.» — misma solapa; la fórmula sale de los agradecimientos, donde el mérito es de Milyutenko.

«Indeed, some of what they heard had never been revealed publicly in the Soviet Union.» — misma solapa, en registro promocional.

«The nature of UFOs is unknown. But whatever they may prove to be— optical phenomena in the atmosphere, probes from other planets, a new phenomenon of nature, or anything else— the study of UFOs should begin with the analysis of the reports.» — epígrafe del capítulo 2, firmado por el profesor Felix Zigel, Moscú, febrero de 1968. Voz de tercero.

«During night flights . . . the radar operator discovered clearly defined blips in the 240° to 270° radar sector. They moved on a course of 90° at a speed of 720 kilometers per hour . . . the upper edge of the blips began to come down . . . the lower edge of the blips dropped to the ground. This was reported at another radar station [in the city of Tiraspol] and a request was made that it be checked. The data was confirmed.» — epígrafe del capítulo 3, firmado por el testigo N. A. Baydukov, Odeskaya Oblast, 4 de abril de 1966.

«UFO abductions have become especially common during 1989; so common that we believe we have now identified the mechanism of these events.» — segundo epígrafe del capítulo 3, firmado por Vladimir Azhazha, Moscú, enero de 1990; reaparece en la contracubierta.

«Suddenly a light appeared, not very bright, trembling and flickering. The beam came down and it slowly moved along the ground toward us. It seemed strange that the surface touched by the ray was full of bluish sparkles, and everything was quivering as if one was in a haze on a hot day. . . . When the beam approached the car I experienced an unpleasant feeling of fear and loss of self-confidence.» — epígrafe del capítulo 4, firmado por el testigo de Voronezh M. N. Polyakov, septiembre de 1989.

«Over thirty people have witnessed the landings in Voronezh. Thousands have seen the objects in flight.» — epígrafe del capítulo 5, firmado por el ingeniero aeronáutico Alexander Mosolov; la contracubierta lo reproduce con el nombre de pila cambiado a Alexei.

«I don’t know what actually happened here, but an increase in the radioactive background is in evidence. What is the reason?» — segundo epígrafe del capítulo 5, firmado por la coronel Lyudmila Makarova, del departamento de peritaje criminal de Voronezh.

«Tonight the sky is covered with a dense layer of clouds. It is still pouring rain, and yet it is extraordinarily light. In fact, it is so light that outdoors one can read small newspaper type fairly easily. There should be no moon, but the clouds are illuminated by a sort of yellowish-green light that sometimes turns to pink.» — epígrafe del capítulo 6, firmado por el académico A. A. Polkanov, Siberia, junio de 1908.

«It is very difficult to sweep aside the explanation that the Tungus catastrophe was an atomic explosion. The inquiring mind is anxious for scientists to produce the true explanation.» — segundo epígrafe del capítulo 6, firmado por Alexander Kazantsev, *A Visitor From Outer Space*, 1966.

«In the city of Petropavlovsk, at approximately 11:00 p.m., with comrades Perekhov, Negayev and Yevmenenko, I observed two very strange disks which moved one behind the other and then changed formation and moved as a pair. Passing almost directly above us they emitted light toward the ground. When we fell into the zone of illumination I felt something oppressive.» — epígrafe del capítulo 7, firmado por el oficial de reserva de la fuerza aérea S. N. Popov, marzo de 1964.

«Enough has been said and there are no grounds for the revival of these absurd rumors that were buried many years ago.» — segundo epígrafe del capítulo 7, firmado por el académico Y. A. Artsimovich y citado de *Pravda*, 8 de enero de 1961.

«Every living entity generates a biological field. It is probably an attribute of the organic realm. Perhaps it is when it learned to generate this field that nature became alive.» — epígrafe del capítulo 8, firmado por el profesor Alexis Zolotov, Moscú, enero de 1990.

«There is not a single fact that would indicate that secret material objects which have been called disks or saucers are flying above us.» — epígrafe del capítulo 9, firmado por Artsimovich en *Pravda*, 8 de enero de 1961.

«These reports relate fantastic fairy tales taken primarily from the American Press. The American astronomer [Donald] Menzel devoted an entire book to an examination of this question and came to the conclusion that flying saucers are nothing but an optical effect.» — cierre del mismo epígrafe, donde Artsimovich remite a Menzel para dar el asunto por resuelto.

«The serious investigator must be mindful of the fact that there is no place for either blind credence or blind denial in science. It is extremely difficult to interpret objective sightings as ordinary natural phenomena. It seems to the authors of the present article that the time has come to give serious consideration to the space hypothesis about UFOs. They may be piloted by intelligent beings or by thinking cybernetic machines.» — segundo epígrafe del capítulo 9, firmado por Alexander Kazantsev y Jacques Vallee en *Trud*, 24 de agosto de 1967. Es texto suyo, pero de 1967 y puesto como el polo contrario del par: ahí suscribe la hipótesis espacial que el cuerpo del libro discute.

«Two hundred years ago, when science rejected the reality of meteorites, the innate sluggishness of our thinking and the deficiency of our knowledge hampered the truth. But if we agree that the past may be instructive for the present, we cannot reject certain facts simply because they do not conform to currently accepted impressions of the world. Nature is preparing many more surprises for mankind and we must always be ready for them.» — epígrafe del capítulo 10, firmado por Felix Zigel, Moscú, febrero de 1968.