Aleshenka

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Aleshenka (Russian: Алёшенька, Alyoshenka, a hypocoristic for the Russian male first name Alexey) was a small creature found in the village of Kaolinovy, near Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk in August, 1996. Aleshenka was found by an old woman, Tamara Vasilievna Prosvirina, who was mentally ill. The creature had an unusual appearance, giving rise to rumors of its extraterrestrial origin. The local population readily supported this rumor, collecting easy money from reporters for interviews – at least two Japanese companies (Asahi TV and MTV Japan) made documentaries about the creature.

1 Physical appearance
2 Later incidents
3 Investigation
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Physical appearance

Aleshenka was a greyish creature about twenty-five centimeters (9.8 in) in length. Its head was hairless, with a number of dark spots on the head. The eyes were large, occupying most of the face. It breathed with the help of a small nose below the eyes.

[edit] Later incidents

A few days after the discovery, Tamara Prosvirina was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, and Aleshenka's corpse (the time and cause of death unknown) was passed on to local militsiya (police) by a neighbour. In 1999, Prosvirina was killed in an automobile accident in an attempt to escape the hospital.^[1]

[edit] Investigation

Very little is known about what happened to Aleshenka’s remains, and accounts of its death and appearance vary greatly. A local ufologist claimed that the corpse was taken away by a UFO inhabited by members of Aleshenka's species. Some skeptics hold that it was bought by a wealthy collector of curiosities. A doctor from the local hospital who had allegedly seen the corpse claimed that it corresponded to a normal 20-25 week human foetus, prematurely born. It could have lived for several hours, but not several weeks, contrary to Prosvirina's claims. ^[2]

According to genetic experts at the Moscow Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, DNA analysis of the clothes Aleshenka was wrapped in revealed no evidence that "he" was extraterrestrial. On April 15, 2004 the scientists made an official statement that the "Kyshtym creature" was a premature female human infant, with severe deformities.^[3]