Fenid: UFO, For and Against

History

Fenid (ФЕНИД, an acronym from Fundamentalnykh Estestvenno-Nauchnykh Idey, "Fundamental Natural-Scientific Ideas") published its journal НЛО: За и Против ("UFO: For and Against") from Gomel in the Byelorussian SSR beginning in 1989, with an initial Fenomen almanac followed by three numbered issues across 1990 to 1991. The editorial board comprised L.A. Anistratenko (Candidate of Technical Sciences), O.N. Efimanov, A.A. Lukin, and D.A. Patyko, with artwork by N.A. Saulyak. The publication belonged to the brief flowering of public UFO discourse that glasnost made possible. For decades, Soviet citizens had reported aerial phenomena just as frequently as their Western counterparts, but the material had been suppressed or confined to classified military channels. When censorship loosened in the late 1980s, the pent-up interest expressed itself in publications across the Soviet republics.

Fenid distinguished itself through its explicitly dialectical structure: the title "For and Against" signalled an editorial commitment to presenting both sides of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Articles addressed the nature of UFOs, methodological questions about how ufology should be conducted as a science, and the relationship between the phenomenon and Soviet military observations. The tone was serious and academic, reflecting a research culture shaped by Soviet scientific traditions rather than the grassroots activist character of American ufology.

The journal's content included theoretical papers on the physical nature of UFO propulsion, surveys of Soviet sighting data, discussions of possible extraterrestrial civilisation in the context of the Drake equation and Fermi paradox, and brief case reports from Soviet territory. Contributors included scientists trained in the Soviet academic system, bringing mathematical and physical rigour to questions that Western ufology often approached through field investigation and witness testimony.