A Tragic Victim of Circumstances

The story of the "Karapetian Hominid," as it is generally called, has been widely publicized. The unusual hairy man wandered near a remote Soviet outpost during the war with Germany (1941). He was taken prisoner by partisan Soviet soldiers and examined by Lt. Col. V. Karapetian, MD, who declared him a highly unusual man-like creature and left it at that.

The soldiers, not wishing to take any chances, executed their hapless prisoner by firing squad. Subsequent research by Dr. Marie-Jeanne Koffmann on the fate of the unusual hominid revealed a rather sad story. The hominid was an Almasty (a Russian snowman) and the people in the highlands where it was found held such creatures in sacred regard under their Moslem belief. They would leave out food for them, and this process became part of Almasty livelihood. The partisans who found, arrested, and executed the creature were from the lowlands, and had no knowledge of such hominids. When it was first spotted, it was carrying a large head of cabbage under one arm. The illustration shown here was prepared by an unknown artist. Sometime after 1967, Karapetian was shown a still from the Patterson/Gimlin film and he said the creature filmed was like the beast he examined.

Tag: chris murphy karapetian hominid hairy man remote soviet outpost war germany prisoner partisan soldiers creature marie-jeanne koffmann hominid almasty russian snowman highlands creatures moslem sacred partisans hominids roger patterson bob gimlin beast