Searching the “ARK”ives in Russia

I’m here in freezing cold Russia (currently 6 degrees) searching federal archives for any trace of photographs that were taken by the White Russian Army of Noah’s Ark. In 1916/17 Vladimir Roskovitsky, a Russian airforce pilot, spotted a large wooden object while flying over Mt. Ararat in Turkey. He reported back to Tsar Nicholas II what he saw. The Tsar sent 150 soldiers to the mountain to measure and take photographs of the object.

It’s been said that the results and pictures of the remains of Noah’s Ark came to the attention of Leon Trotsky, who may have placed them in a file destined to be kept permanently secret. Col. Alexander Koor was an officer in the White Russian army in 1915. He later moved to Los Angeles where he substantiated the story of Russian flyers who had flown over the mountain and reported seeing an object buried in the ice. He stated that he saw the findings when they came down from the mountain. There have been others who’ve accounted for the 1916/17 expedition as well.

An 80-year-old, retired naval machinist, named Ray Lubeck claims to have seen a silent black and white film of Russian soldiers marching past the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat while he was stationed at a U.S. naval base on Midway Island in 1942. There were 30 or more people who witnessed the film.

I started my search for the reports, photographs and silent film in an archive in St. Petersburg, formely the city of Leningrad. The professionals at the archive have taken over the research since I left several days ago. They will continue with the investigation and send me any results they find.

One evening after leaving the archives, I was stopped on the street and questioned by the FSB (federal security bureau), who my driver/translator later told me were the KGB. They asked to see my documents, passports and wanted to know what I was doing. There was another moment in the Red square where I was stopped by the police and they tried to put me in jail. Fortunately, I was able to get out of it.

I plan to travel to Moscow and continue to search multiple federal archives before I leave this country.