Kyshtym — 'Alyoshenka', the Kyshtym dwarf

OVERVIEW

Alyoshenka, the 'Kyshtym dwarf', is an infant whose unusual mummified remains were found in mid-1996 in the village of Kaolinovy, near Kyshtym in Chelyabinsk Oblast. The remains, a little over 20 cm long, had a hairless head, large eyes and a skull without a lower jaw, and were examined by investigators as those of a prematurely born baby with congenital anomalies.

HISTORY

Tamara Prosvirina, 74, found the body near the village cemetery and well, took it home believing it alive, named it Alyoshenka and cared for it; neighbours, worried by her history of mental illness, called medical staff and she was hospitalised. The police opened an investigation. The gynaecologist Irina Yermolaeva found it a genuine body — a miscarried or aborted fetus, whose deformities she linked to the fallout of the 1957 Kyshtym nuclear disaster — while others who saw it dissented. In April 2004 scientists announced that DNA testing showed a premature female human infant with severe deformities. By then the body could no longer be found and preserved tissue was tested instead. Prosvirina died in 1999 after being struck by a vehicle.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Paranormal explanations were put forward, and a local ufologist claimed the remains had been taken away by extraterrestrials; others said a private collector had them. None of these claims has been verified. Anchored at Kyshtym: the village of Kaolinovy is nearby.

VISITING

The remains are lost; nothing survives but photographs and video. The pin marks the town of Kyshtym.