The Strange Days of December 1991

The final days of the Soviet Union were steeped in chaos, confusion, and history-making decisions. As the hammer and sickle descended for the last time over the Kremlin on December 25, 1991, few imagined that another world-changing event may have occurred—one buried deep beneath layers of secrecy and disinformation. According to obscure declassified memos, eyewitness testimonies, and whispers passed among intelligence communities, a bizarre incident involving an unidentified flying object (UFO) unfolded just two weeks before the Soviet Union officially dissolved.

This story is a strange cocktail of Cold War paranoia, the desperation of a collapsing superpower, and the shadowy machinations of rogue agents and foreign governments. It starts in North Korea, detours through a desperate Soviet operation, and ends—if it can be said to end at all—with a mystery that remains unsolved.

The Capture

It was December 11, 1991, a cold, gray afternoon near the mountainous border region of North Korea. According to a now-lost radio transmission intercepted by a Japanese intelligence outpost in the Sea of Japan, North Korean radar installations detected a high-speed object entering their airspace from the north. The object’s velocity and movement were unlike any known aircraft.

Within hours, North Korean ground forces and aerial units scrambled to intercept the craft. Official reports never surfaced, but defectors from the region later claimed a “metallic object” had crash-landed in a remote valley outside the city of Chongjin. What the troops found was not a damaged spy drone or a malfunctioning satellite. It was something else.

Witnesses described a smooth, saucer-like structure, about 40 feet in diameter, embedded halfway into the hillside. Its surface was metallic, yet emitted no heat, and had no visible seams. Soldiers who approached the object reportedly fell ill, and several were evacuated after suffering seizures and hallucinations.

It was December 11, 1991, a cold, gray afternoon near the mountainous border region of North Korea. According to a now-lost radio transmission intercepted by a Japanese intelligence outpost in the Sea of Japan, North Korean radar installations detected a high-speed object entering their airspace from the north. The object’s velocity and movement were unlike any known aircraft.

Within hours, North Korean ground forces and aerial units scrambled to intercept the craft. Official reports never surfaced, but defectors from the region later claimed a “metallic object” had crash-landed in a remote valley outside the city of Chongjin. What the troops found was not a damaged spy drone or a malfunctioning satellite. It was something else.

Witnesses described a smooth, cigar-like structure, about 40 feet in length, embedded halfway into the hillside. Its surface was metallic, yet emitted no heat, and had no visible seams. Soldiers who approached the object reportedly fell ill, and several were evacuated after suffering seizures and hallucinations.

The KGB Intervention

What followed remains a testament to the reach and speed of the Soviet intelligence apparatus, even in its dying days. The KGB, though rapidly fracturing under political pressure, was still monitoring all major military communications throughout Asia.

Colonel Dmitri Volkov, a mid-ranking but well-connected officer in the KGB’s Department of Technological Anomalies (a division few admitted existed), received the report within hours. Volkov had spent the past decade following rumors of extraterrestrial sightings and anomalous technologies across the globe. For him, this was the moment he’d been waiting for.

Using forged diplomatic credentials and drawing upon the Soviet Union’s waning but still potent relationship with North Korea, Volkov boarded a military jet from Vladivostok to Pyongyang. Within 36 hours, he was standing before North Korea’s top brass, offering an explanation that bordered on the unbelievable—and yet was accepted without hesitation.

Volkov told them the object was a top-secret Soviet reconnaissance drone, developed in partnership with cosmonauts and elite engineers at Baikonur Cosmodrome. Due to a navigational malfunction, it had crash-landed in Korea. He stressed that its technology was too dangerous for non-specialists to handle and that its presence in North Korean territory was a “grave risk to the socialist brotherhood.”

The gamble paid off. North Korean officials, ever fearful of American or Chinese espionage, agreed to relinquish the object to Soviet custody. On December 14, the UFO was loaded onto a heavily guarded train headed toward Moscow. Its final destination: the Roscosmos Building in the capital, where a secret research division awaited.

The Train to Nowhere

The train began its long journey through the Siberian wilderness. A specially modified flatcar, reinforced with radiation shielding, bore the mysterious object. The convoy included KGB operatives, engineers, and armed guards. Surveillance aircraft monitored the skies, and satellite feeds tracked its progress.

Somewhere near Irkutsk, however, things went dark.

On December 18, communications with the train ceased. Satellite imagery showed a derailed section of track, but by the time investigators arrived, the flatcar was missing. The rest of the train, abandoned by its crew, was intact. Snow-covered the tracks, and tire marks led into the forest but vanished after a mile. No bodies were ever found.

The KGB scrambled to locate the craft. Special teams scoured villages and border crossings. Airports were placed on high alert. Yet, no trace of the UFO—or those who had taken it—was ever found.

Suspects and Theories

In the days that followed, intelligence communities across the world speculated. Three prime suspects emerged:

1. The United States: The CIA had long been aware of Soviet interests in alien technologies. Some believe a covert operation known as “Black Ice” had been activated to intercept any non-human tech during the Soviet collapse. The terrain and timing fit the profile of a high-risk, high-reward snatch-and-grab mission.
2. China: With increasing tensions and ambitions, China had the motive and proximity. Their Ministry of State Security had begun developing their own reverse-engineering division for captured aerospace anomalies. Did they intercept the train and quietly absorb the craft into a black research project?
3. A Rogue Faction: With the Soviet Union in free fall, rogue elements within the military or KGB might have hijacked the operation. Some theorize the craft was moved to an off-book site in Kazakhstan or even sold to the highest bidder in the global arms black market.

Regardless of the culprit, the truth remains elusive.

Fallout and the Disinformation Campaign

By December 25, 1991, the world had turned its attention to the official end of the Soviet Union. The UFO story, if it ever reached mainstream intelligence circles, was buried beneath the weight of political realignment, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical shifts.

Yet, strange clues emerged in the years that followed. In 1994, a Russian engineer published a memoir alleging he’d been part of a team preparing an “unknown device” at Roscosmos that never arrived. In 1997, a CIA document (later heavily redacted) referenced an “incident involving strategic material diverted en route to central command.”

Most haunting of all, a satellite photo released by a Norwegian space observatory in 2003 showed a saucer-shaped indentation in the Siberian snow, dated December 18, 1991, mere miles from the last known location of the train. The indentation measured precisely 40 feet in diameter.

What Was It?

Skeptics argue the entire affair is Cold War fantasy, a blend of miscommunication and deliberate propaganda. After all, the early 90s were rife with rumors, leaks, and deliberate misinformation.

But those who study UFO phenomena argue otherwise. They point to consistent descriptions, the behavior of those exposed to the object, and the feverish attempts to secure and then cover up its trail.

What kind of craft can render soldiers ill by proximity? What technology flies at impossible speeds, then vanishes entirely in a continent-spanning game of hide and seek? And who, ultimately, has it now?

Legacy and Speculation

Today, more than 30 years later, the Vanishing Craft has become legend in UFO circles, a case as enigmatic as Roswell or Rendlesham. It serves as a symbol of how quickly the extraordinary can vanish when governments collapse, when chaos reigns, and when shadows move faster than the truth.

Colonel Volkov disappeared shortly after the Soviet collapse. Some say he was assassinated; others believe he defected. No official records of his involvement exist. North Korea has never commented on the incident. Russian authorities deny any knowledge. And the world moves on, mostly unaware that, for a moment, the future may have passed through our hands—only to vanish forever.

The Unsolved Puzzle

As new UFO revelations surface globally, and governments begin to slowly admit to encounters with “non-human craft,” one must wonder if the Vanishing Craft of December 1991 still flies in secret skies. Was it a visitor from another world, a glimpse into alien engineering, or a myth spun from Cold War fear?

We may never know. But somewhere, in a bunker, a laboratory, or perhaps another continent, someone does. And they’re not talking.

If You Know Something

To those who might read this and know more—engineers, operatives, witnesses—the truth is your burden to carry. But history demands clarity. If the Vanishing Craft is real, its story belongs not just to nations, but to all of humanity.

Let the truth fly, wherever it may be hiding.

Sources:

National Security Archive. (2001). The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Declassified Documents from the Bush Administration. Retrieved from https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/

CIA. (1997, March 12). Strategic Material Diverted: Anomalous Object En Route to Central Command. FOIA Declassified Document. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/

Valenko, D. (1994). Memoirs of a Soviet KGB Officer: Encounters in the Shadows. (Unpublished manuscript, translated excerpts).

Lee, S. H. (2002). Defector Testimonies: North Korea’s Secret Military Projects. Seoul: Hanrim Institute Press.

Norwegian Space Observatory. (2003). Satellite Image: Siberian Anomaly, December 1991. Retrieved from http://norwegianspaceobservatory.no/images/1991-anomaly

Redfern, N. (2010). The Soviet UFO Files: The Russian Connection to Alien Encounters. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

Dolan, R. (2017). UFOs and the National Security State: The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973-1991. Keyhole Publishing.

Kean, L. (2010). UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. Harmony Books.

North Korean State News Archive. (1991, December). Unconfirmed Reports of Unusual Object in Chongjin Region. (Internal memo, unverified).

Popov, A. (1995). KGB Files on UFO Encounters: A Hidden History. Moscow: Mir Publishing.