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Alyoshenka, the Kyshtym dwarf

Also called Kyshtym dwarf, Алёшенька, Kyshtym alien

A tiny mummified body found in a Ural village in 1996, called an alien until DNA said otherwise.

The story

In mid-1996, 74-year-old Tamara Prosvirina found a small mummified body near the cemetery in Kaolinovy, a village near Kyshtym. She believed it was alive, named it Alyoshenka and cared for it at home until neighbours, worried about her health, called doctors and she was taken to hospital. The body went to the local police.

It was a little over 20 cm long, greyish with large eyes, long arms and an oddly shaped skull. A gynaecologist said it was a premature human baby, possibly deformed by fallout from the 1957 Kyshtym nuclear disaster, but other examiners said they had never seen anything like it, and the story spread as the Kyshtym alien.

In April 2004 DNA testing found it was a premature human girl with severe deformities. By then the body itself had been lost, so the tests used preserved tissue, which kept a small debate going.

What was shown or claimed

  • One exhibit, now lost
  • Large eyes and a ridged skull
  • No physical remains left to test

Timeline

  1. 1996Body found near the village cemetery
    Kaolinovy, Chelyabinsk Oblast
  2. 2004DNA test identifies a premature human infant
    Kaolinovy, Chelyabinsk Oblast

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