Soviet Psi Research During the Cold War: What the Documents Show

In 1970, journalists Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder published Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain — a book that introduced Western audiences to a fact most had not known: the Soviet Union was funding extensive scientific research into psi phenomena, often more openly than U.S. scientific institutions did at the same time.

The book electrified the field. It also, according to documents declassified decades later, was one of the catalysts that pushed the CIA to seriously fund what became Project Stargate. The Cold War psi program on both sides was, in part, a function of each side's belief that the other was making operational breakthroughs.

This is what's actually in the Soviet record.

The 1920s-1930s: Foundations

Soviet psi research began in the post-revolutionary period when many traditional disciplines were being reorganized along Marxist-materialist lines. Psi was permitted IF it could be framed as a physical phenomenon (electromagnetic, biofield, etc.) rather than as supernatural.

Bernard Kazhinsky (1889-1962) — Engineer who proposed the "biological radio" hypothesis: that the human brain emits electromagnetic waves that carry thought-content, and that telepathy is reception of these signals by another brain. He published Biological Radio Communications (1923, expanded 1962). His work influenced subsequent Soviet bioelectromagnetic research.

Leonid Vasiliev (1891-1966) — Chair of physiology at Leningrad State University. Conducted the most rigorous early Soviet telepathy experiments, including studies of mental suggestion at distance and induction of hypnotic states without sensory contact. His book Experiments in Mental Suggestion (1962, English translation 1976) summarized 40 years of work.

Vasiliev's experiments included:

• Inducing hypnotic sleep in subjects from distances of 1+ km using only mental concentration by the operator
• Statistical analysis of accuracy of "mental telegraphy" experiments
• Use of Faraday cages to test whether telepathy was electromagnetic (his finding: it persisted through Faraday shielding, which he interpreted as falsifying Kazhinsky's electromagnetic hypothesis)

[Vasiliev LL. (1976). Experiments in Mental Suggestion. Galaxy Books, English translation.]

The 1950s-1960s: Institutional expansion

After Stalin's death (1953) and the Khrushchev thaw, Soviet psi research expanded significantly:

Institute of Brain Research (Leningrad) — continued Vasiliev's tradition with multiple researchers University of Moscow — telepathy and psychokinesis research under Pavel Naumov Akademgorodok (Novosibirsk) — interdisciplinary research center for parapsychology

Kirlian photography (Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, developed 1939, became prominent 1960s) — a high-voltage electrography technique producing dramatic "aura" images around objects. Soviet researchers proposed it visualized "bioenergetic" fields. Subsequent investigation showed Kirlian images are explainable by ordinary corona-discharge physics — but the technique remained influential in Soviet bioenergetic theorizing.

Psychokinesis demonstrations: Most famous was Nina Kulagina (1926-1990), a Leningrad housewife who appeared to move small objects without touching them. She was filmed multiple times and tested by Soviet researchers including Genady Sergeyev. Her demonstrations were never fully replicated under controlled Western conditions, but Soviet researchers maintained she produced genuine effects.

[Ostrander S, Schroeder L. (1970). Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Bantam Books.]

The 1970s-1980s: Military involvement

By the 1970s, the Soviet psi program had military and intelligence dimensions:

Yuri Kobzarev — radar physicist who became involved in psychotronics research, claimed by some sources to have led classified projects on telepathic communication for submarines (where radio communication is constrained)

Department of Theoretical Problems, USSR Academy of Sciences — funded "biophysical" research that overlapped with psi topics

Igor Smirnov / Institute of Psychocorrection — research on subliminal influence and "psychotronic" effects (some of this work continued into the post-Soviet era and became controversial in the 1990s for ties to alleged "mind control" claims)

The Soviet Defense Ministry's involvement is documented in CIA tracking documents but the Soviet original sources for this period remain partially classified or destroyed. The U.S. assessment (declassified in the Stargate release) was that the USSR was investing the equivalent of "tens of millions of rubles per year" in psi-related research at the program's height.

[CIA. Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research. Defense Intelligence Agency report, declassified 2017.]

The CIA's Soviet psi tracking

Among the most fascinating documents in the 2017 declassified Stargate release are CIA assessments of Soviet psi research. These documents show:

• The CIA took Soviet psi research seriously
• U.S. funding for SRI's remote-viewing work was partly justified as a counter-program — if the Soviets were achieving operational psi capability, the U.S. needed comparable capability
• CIA assessments rated Soviet research as scientifically substantial but operationally unproven
• Specific Soviet researchers and institutions were tracked over decades

This created a strange dynamic: each side's belief that the other was making breakthroughs sustained both programs longer than internal evidence alone would have justified.

[CIA. Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions. (Kenneth Kress, 1977; declassified 1996).]

What was independently corroborated?

After the USSR's dissolution and the partial opening of Soviet archives, several Soviet findings have been examined by Western researchers:

Vasiliev's telepathic-induction experiments: The methodology has been examined by Western parapsychologists, who generally find it more rigorous than its initial Western dismissal suggested. Replication attempts have produced mixed results, similar to other distance-mental-influence studies.

Bioelectromagnetic findings: Some of the EEG-coherence work between separated subjects (later replicated by Grinberg-Zylberbaum at UNAM, see psi research evidence) has Soviet precursors that are now better understood.

Kirlian photography: Confirmed as ordinary corona discharge; the bioenergetic interpretations were not corroborated.

Kulagina psychokinesis: Never replicated under controlled Western conditions. Some skeptical researchers (Massimo Polidoro, others) demonstrated stage-magic methods that could produce visually similar effects. Without controlled replication, her demonstrations remain anecdotal.

What was exaggerated or fabricated?

The Soviet program had elements that were:

• Ideologically constrained — research had to be framed as physical-materialist (electromagnetic, biofield, etc.) to receive funding, which biased the theoretical interpretations
• Propagandistically inflated — some claims (especially in popular Soviet media) were exaggerated for ideological purposes
• Methodologically uneven — some labs were rigorous, others were not, and quality control was inconsistent
• Vulnerable to fraud in some cases — Kulagina's demonstrations are the most-debated example

The U.S. CIA assessments (2017 declassified) rated Soviet research as "scientifically interesting but mostly operationally unproven" — which is similar to how the U.S. ultimately rated its own Stargate program in 1995.

What does the Soviet program establish?

Well-established:

• Soviet science funded substantial psi research from the 1920s through the USSR's collapse
• The program had military and intelligence dimensions
• Some research (Vasiliev, bioelectromagnetic studies) was methodologically serious
• The U.S. CIA tracked the program extensively as a counter-intelligence priority

Not established:

• That the Soviet program achieved operational psi capability
• That specific dramatic claims (Kulagina, etc.) survive controlled scrutiny
• That the underlying mechanisms proposed (biofield, biological radio) are correct

Open:

• The full scope of Soviet military psi research (some files were destroyed during the USSR's collapse)
• Whether Russian research has continued post-Soviet (some has; the scope is unclear)
• Whether the East German, Czechoslovakian, and other Warsaw Pact countries' parallel programs added meaningful data

How does the Soviet picture compare to the U.S. picture?

	Soviet program	U.S. program
Duration	~70 years (1920s-1991)	23 years (1972-1995)
Public visibility	Higher (Ostrander/Schroeder 1970 exposé)	Lower until 1995-2017
Funding scale	"Tens of millions rubles/year" at peak	~$20 million total
Theoretical framing	Materialist (biofield, bioelectromagnetic)	Mostly atheoretical/empirical
Operational use claims	Often exaggerated for propaganda	Documented but limited
Public outcome	Faded with USSR collapse	Officially terminated 1995
Documentation quality	Mixed; some lost	More complete (2017 declass)

Both programs ran longer than internal evidence alone would have justified. Both were sustained partly by the other's existence.

How does this connect to the broader pillar?

Soviet psi research sits within the government psi programs pillar as the parallel-history complement to the U.S. Stargate program. Related work:

• CIA Project Stargate deep dive — the U.S. counterpart
• MK-ULTRA consciousness experiments — earlier U.S. consciousness program
• Gateway Process CIA document — adjacent U.S. consciousness research

For the broader pillar overview, see Government Psi Programs.

Sources

• Vasiliev LL. (1976). Experiments in Mental Suggestion. Galaxy Books, English translation.
• Ostrander S, Schroeder L. (1970). Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Bantam Books.
• CIA. Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions. (Kenneth Kress, 1977, declassified 1996).
• DIA. Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research. (1972, declassified 2017).
• Schnabel J. (1997). Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies. Dell. — covers Soviet-U.S. comparison