Just 100 kilometers from Tambov, there are several villages where people not only believe in the existence of werewolves, but have also encountered them many times. Such stories have long been anecdotal in Russia, but widespread interest among researchers arose in 1978, when dozens of strange encounters with unknown creatures began to be reported.
In 1978, residents of three remote settlements of Uvarovo, Moiseyevo and Upper Chuyevo complained of seeing strange, hairy creatures that either walked on two bent hind legs or hopped on all fours. They are described as huge wolves or dogs. Some people from the city of Uvarovo became eyewitnesses to this event.
One of the most memorable stories made it to the pages of newspapers and magazines. Milk tanker driver Stepan Sviridov has been driving on the roads of Tambov and the Tambov region for more than 12 years. He knows these places like the back of his hand. Rumors of strange wolves did not frighten him, but amused him. Until one day, he had a close encounter with a werewolf. At about 6 o’clock that morning, he saw from the Lexia River, towards a small stream, a huge creature hopping on all fours, but passing relatively awkwardly at a fast speed. Its mouth resembled a wolf’s growl, and it was covered with hair, but what appeared to be a tuft of hair around its head. Sviridov watched the creature for over a minute, until it disappeared from sight. As he looked back, he noticed another creature running towards him as well. He jumped into the cab and hurried away from Uvarovo.
There he shared what he saw, while local residents told him they had set up an ambush near a livestock pen. Someone even managed to shoot one of the creatures. That said, it’s not some folklore character, but real werewolves who can cause discomfort, hunt and kill. Another encounter with the creatures that sparked the investigation occurred relatively recently in 2013, in the village of Upper Chuyevo.
One night, local residents heard some movement in the chicken coop. Concerned that a weasel or a fox might have broken in, she woke her husband and together they went to rescue the bird. When they ran to the chicken coop, they saw that the door had been broken and there was a horrible monster inside. It is more than 2 meters tall, has orange-red eyes and is covered with hair. The mouth is like that of a dog or a wolf. It managed to eat a dozen chickens, but when it saw the bright lights, it rushed straight to the people at the door. They backed off, and the monster escaped unhindered and disappeared.
The next day, they summoned the police and criminologists from the police station. They took hair samples from the scene and tested wolf DNA, but residents of Upper Chuyevo insisted it wasn’t a wolf, but something more ferocious and terrifying. By the way, the inability of wolves to break open doors is recognized among investigative experts. The tracks left in wetlands outnumbered wolves by two to two and a half times. Since then, according to different information, observations of unexplained things have periodically occurred in the Tambov region, but no such dramatic events have occurred. However, there is sufficient reason to conclude that these territories are inhabited by a creature unknown to science. “