Paul Stonehill

Early Life and Emigration

Paul Stonehill was born in 1959 in Kiev, USSR (now Kyiv, Ukraine), where he spent his formative years during the Cold War. In his youth, he demonstrated a commitment to resistance and intellectual freedom—smuggling people out from behind the Iron Curtain, aiding Soviet dissidents, and smuggling banned literature into the USSR. In 1972, at age thirteen, Stonehill emigrated to the United States, beginning a new chapter that would eventually position him as the foremost Western researcher of Soviet and Russian UFO phenomena.

Stonehill pursued higher education at California State University, earning a BA in Political Science and writing his thesis on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan—a project that reflected his deep engagement with geopolitical matters and his fluency in Russian. These skills would later prove invaluable in his work accessing and interpreting classified Soviet-era UFO documentation.

Russian Ufology Research Center and Publications

In 1991, Stonehill founded the Russian Ufology Research Center in Los Angeles, establishing the first systematic Western effort to catalog, research, and disseminate Soviet and Russian UFO cases. The center gained significant recognition when OMNI Magazine featured his work in October 1993, bringing his research into mainstream awareness during a pivotal moment when Cold War archives were becoming newly accessible.

Stonehill's major publication, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters Behind the Iron Curtain (1998), represents the first comprehensive Western documentation of Soviet-era UFO cases. The work draws on declassified KGB documents, eyewitness accounts from cosmonauts and military pilots, and top-secret Soviet military records—material previously inaccessible to Western researchers. He has since authored or co-authored numerous books, including Paranormal Mysteries of Eurasia (2010), Russia's USO Secrets: Unidentified Submersible Objects in Russian and International Waters, Russia's Roswell Incident (co-authored with Philip Mantle), and UFO Case Files of Russia.

Soviet and Russian UFO Documentation

Stonehill's unique value to UFO research lies in his position as a bridge between Western and Russian ufology. Fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, he has worked as a journalist covering warfare and freelance writer on UFO and anomalous phenomena, providing him with both linguistic competence and investigative experience. Since 1989, he has served as a consultant to American television and motion picture production companies seeking to incorporate authentic Russian perspectives and declassified documentation into their work.

His research reveals that Soviet military and intelligence agencies maintained extensive UFO investigation programs paralleling Project Blue Book and other Western initiatives. Through his work, Stonehill has documented accounts from military pilots, cosmonauts, and KGB personnel, revealing a previously hidden history of Soviet-era aerial phenomena that challenged the communist state's scientific orthodoxy. These cases include encounters by military personnel, radar-visual incidents, and phenomena associated with Soviet naval operations—evidence that UFO interest and concern was not exclusively a Western phenomenon.

Contemporary Role and Legacy

Stonehill continues as a contributing writer to OpenMinds.tv, publishing articles and analysis on UFO and anomalous phenomena. His regular appearances on Coast to Coast AM and other media platforms have made him a familiar voice in contemporary UFO discourse, offering Russian and post-Soviet perspectives on disclosure, military encounters, and the geopolitical dimensions of UFO research. His work has appeared in numerous languages across international newspapers and magazines, making him one of the most widely published researchers of Russian ufology.

Stonehill's contribution to UFO scholarship is significant not merely for quantity but for providing access to a previously sealed archive of non-Western UFO cases and military documentation. His research demonstrates that UFO phenomena and official response to it transcended Cold War divisions, with both superpowers maintaining classified programs and witness testimony that remains incompletely understood. As Western access to Russian archives expands, Stonehill's early pioneering work in translation, analysis, and synthesis of this material has proven foundational to understanding the global history of UFO investigation.