Case file · High strangeness
Barchenko's expedition to Seydozero
In 1922 the occultist-scientist Alexander Barchenko led an expedition to Lake Seydozero and Lovozero on the Kola Peninsula to study 'meryachenie', a trance-like Arctic hysteria among the Sámi, and reported seeing traces of an ancient civilisation.
1922 CE · 67.82, 34.85 · status: account
The account
The team described a giant dark figure on a cliff (the 'Old Man Kuiva' of Sámi legend), 'pyramids' and paved roads. Barchenko later worked with the secret police chief Gleb Bokii on parapsychology and a search for 'ancient knowledge'; both were shot in 1937–38. In the 1990s Seydozero became a centre for Russian 'Hyperborea' theories.
The sceptical view
The Kuiva figure is a natural stain of lichen and water on the rock; the 'ruins' are geological.