Russia’s “Big White Man”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 14th, 2007
Mecheny, a Marked Hominid, as drawn by artist Harry Trumbore in The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates.
Victoria Alexander, in the midst of a blog about several non-cryptozoological items, records the following interesting passage:
Wildman of Russia. I finally came across Valentin Sapunov’s report I received when in Russia in 1992. I’d been looking for it for years! Sapunov told me and my colleagues Dr. Rima Laibow and General Bert Stubblebine that in 1989 there was an appearance of a giant white haired man near a military base 50 km from Leningrad. Sapunov interviewed the witnesses.
Soldiers began to detect a tall white figure near the gate of the military compound. It looked like a man and a giant ape.
The strange visitor was seen near the barracks, dining room and library. They named the visitor “Big White Man.” Hundreds of civilians, including policemen, also saw the “Big White Man.”
The Wildman became more cautious when under surveillance, but several of the soldiers reported making prolong contact with the creature. Sapunov and his team collected many specimens indicating that there were two creatures: one male and one female.
(The photo [directly below] taken by me comes from a Russian exhibition of paintings of Wildman done by an artist who encountered the creature.)Victoria Alexander, Devil’s Hammer, May 14, 2007
A better photo of one of these paintings (below) was shown in my earlier blog on these Wildpeople. Please click on “Russian Relics” to read more and also see possible footprints of these unknown hominoids.
Intriguingly, palebald Wildpeople, with two-tone, multi-colored hair patterns, as well as near-albino and patches of lighter hair, are frequently sighted in Russia and Siberia. The illustration at top, by Harry Trumbore, from The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006: pp. 114-115) is of Mecheny (translation, “the Marked One”).
Mecheny showed a white patch on its arm. It was seen for over 40 years (1945-1987) near a native family’s western Siberian cabin. The hominologist-cryptozoologist Maya Bykova visited the cabin in 1987, and saw the hairy hominoid near the forest’s edge, about 15 feet away, on two separate occasions, once for an hour.
The lines between the “Big White Man,” Mecheny (the “Marked One”), and “Old Yellow Top” (of Cobalt, Ontario; pages 48-49) do tend to merge.
It is time to relook at Homo gardarensis, as Mark A. Hall suggests in a new call on his website this week.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
This Marked Hominid category exhibits probably the widest diversity of forms in the illustrations of The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Mystery Primates.
The face of the reconstruction given in the photograph is plausible given similar reports in North America: I have seen several similar witness’ sketches from the USA, which were called “Bigfoot”.
Variegated fur in, for example foxes, is a result of overwhelming inbreeding. This suggests that the population is dangerously small.
Very interesting…the Russians have always seemed to have taken a more diplomatic and objective look at the BF phenomenon without making judgements about whether or not it could exist…
Of course maybe the dudes on the military base just got to interacting with a lost (and rather large) hippie left over from a Beatles concert who went out into the wastes after ’72 when the band broke up…
“An artist who encountered the creature.” An artist? Oh boy…
hey loren, very informative new article about the russia sasquatch. the above photos are very interesting. thanks bill.
The Matter of different-colored body fur, or differences between body hair and head-hair color, is in Porshnev’s original descriptioin of the Almas and John Green quotes this in his recounting of Porshnev’s findings.
There is an account of “white” bigfoot(s) (“bigfeet”?) hanging around a cabin in central Wisconsin about 15 years ago also…
All these sightings and not one picture? Especially on a military base where there should not only be cameras but video equipment.
Hall’s website has the worst drawings ever.
Hmmm, a humanoid type creature covered in white hair…
Did any of the witnesses mention by any chance whether this critter was also dressed somewhat like Father Christmas on holiday in Miami?
…then again, they say it was tall and nicknamed ‘the marked one’ – and I’m sure I spotted the words ‘pie’ and ‘bald’…
My god! It’s a well known scientific fact tattoophile Nick Redfern likes pie! And he hasn’t got a good alibi for the forty years Mecheny kept showing up!
So, they don’t typically keep cameras or anything of the sorts at military bases? I find it very odd that the creature had such a high profile, being seen by all of these personell for prolonged periods, by “hundreds of civillians” and yet not a single shred of photographic evidence was obtained. I am also curious about one passage here that says “Sapunov and his team collected many specimens indicating that there were two creatures: one male and one female.”
What does this mean exactly? Does this mean the actual creatures were captured? Does it mean evidence, and if so what kind of evidence was it that led them to the conclusion that there was a male and a female creature? Why all of the vagueness here?
I know there will be people who will come up with alolt of farfetched reasons why no photos were obtained, but another good reason is that this never really happened. I do not doubt the possibility of the existence of these Russian “wildpeople”, and I do not deny the possibility that some could be palebald or white, however I find this particular account to be doubtful.
O, and apropos jodzilla’s, “An artist? Oh boy…”
Jodzilla, speaking as one myself, I can assure you us artists, being by definition highly visually oriented, are better equipped than most to function as accurate visual witnesses.
Though I do take your implied observation we’re also better equipped than most to embellish what we see if we’re so inclined.
mystery_man, I think some of the difficulties you’re having with terms like ‘specimens’ are because it’s been translated into English by a Russian. ‘Specimens’, here, could easily’ve been referring to any statements witnesses provided.
Saying that, even US and UK soldiers to this day are forbidden from producing personal photographic material which might be militarily compromising.
And as for Russian soldiers in 1989, not only were they very poorly paid, with very poor access to such luxuries as cameras, but they still had the KGB seriously breathing down their neck.
AlanBorky, thanks for that. Artists are frequently treated worse than, than, than bigfoot witnesses. Think about how much further along we’d be if someone with an artist’s talent and ability were to draw their impressions instead of the sub-cro-magnon images we get because most people can’t draw and don’t even try. When I look at Robert Bateman’s paintings of sasquatch I open myself to a wealth of information and perceptions that even the best police report can never get approximate.
While I concur with Alanborky’s statements regarding lack of photographic evidence from soldiers and civilians, that still doesn’t entirely explain the matter. Mystery Man in quite right in suggesting that a Russian military base (Especially by 1992) should have surveillance cameras. Further, I should think the base commander would take an interest in the matter. Whose to say that these reports of a big white man weren’t really of a spy in a winter camo ghillie suit?
The data suggest 4 possibilities-
1- This never happened.
2- Something like this did happen, but the facts have been embellished in the retelling.
3- This did happen, but everyone involved was completely incompetent.
4- This happened, it was investigated, surveillance footage documented, and for whatever reason, the evidence has either been destroyed, misplaced, or classified.
3 seems quite unlikely to me, and if it is 4, there should be some evidence somewhere. I don’t suppose Russia has anything similar to a FOIA? Of course, we might want to narrow it down a little more than some military base 50 km from Leningrad first…
Re: lack of cameras at Russian military base. I find it just as unlikely that Maya Bykova would visit a site with such a history, see the creature twice, and still take no photos.
Laugh, lads, if you will, but I’ve searched the known world for the great white apeman forty years now, since it bit off my good judgement. A gold coin to the cursed soul who can find it.
This seems strangely similar to another Russian incident (or is it the same one???) from Dmitri Bayanov’s book.
This one is alleged to have occured on Jan 24th 1992 at an army barracks in Kargopol, some 300 miles north east of Leningrad. Again, two creatures were supposedly seen by multi witnesses on the army barracks. One seemed to have been an adult male, and the other a younger smaller one.
Is there a mix up in dates and locations or are they two separate reports???