MAJOR GENERAL MIKHAIL STEPHANOVITCH TOPILSKI

While it was not research, the Russian army and this officer had an extraordinary encounter with the creature called Almasty. There seem to be several versions of what happened in 1925 and I will tell them all.

Major General Mikhail Stephanovitch Topilski was the commander of a cavalry regiment in the Red Army during the Civil War after the Communist Revolution of 1917. In 1925, he and his men were given the task of hunting down anti-Communist forces in the Pamir Mountains southwest of the Tien Shan. They encountered more than just fighting men.


Version the first :  The army had been tracking a group of 12 plus fugitives, or "bandits" as they called them. While following the trail, the men heard gunshots, followed by three of the fugitives running towards them. The army opened fire, killed two and wounded the third.


The wounded man was an Uzbek from Samarkand. When he was questioned, he explained that the three had not been attacking the army. He claimed that they were fleeing from gigantic hairy men armed with clubs. Topilski expressed his skepticism so the man took him to where the fight had occurred. Outside of a cave next to a glacier were the bodies of five of the wounded man's companions and the body of a hairy giant.

The body had three bullet wounds. Lying next to it was a stick made of very hard wood. At first the body was thought to be that of an ape, as it was covered in hair. However, remembering that there were no apes in the Pamirs and that the body looked very human, a closer examination was made. The army doctor was included in this. There was no clothing or covering on the body except for the natural hair.  The doctor (who was later killed in combat) measured and further inspected the body. He announced that the creature was not human.

It was a male, 5' 8" tall, looked to be elderly, and was a brownish color with patches of greyish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest, and short and thick in the stomach area. Mostly, the hair was very thick and without any undercoat. There was less hair on the buttocks. The doctor stated that from the shape, the creature sat like a human would. There was more hair on the hips. The knees were completely bare of hair, calloused. The entire foot was hairless and covered with hard brown skin.

It's hair was thinner near the hand and the palms had no hair on them, calloused like the knees. The face was a dark color, no beard or mustache. The temples were bald; the back of the head was covered by thick, matted hair. It lay with open eyes and teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth large and even-shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanted; the eyebrows "powerful". The jawbones were protruding, resembling a Mongol type of face. The nose was flat with a deeply sunk bridge. Ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than usual with humans and with a longer lobe.

The chest was massive and looked powerful. The body had well-developed muscles. Genitalia resembled a human male's. The arms were of normal length, the hands slightly wider and the feet much wider and shorter than a man's. There were no important anatomical differences between it and a man.

Version the second : Topilski was leading his men on an assault on an anti-Soviet guerilla force (White Russian Army). They were following the information given them that these men were hiding in a cave high in the Pamirs. They were also told tales of a "beast-man" who lived in the higher areas of the Vanch.

Soon they came upon the cave that looked to be the reported stronghold of the guerilla force. Topilski ordered his men to open fire, aiming into the cave's opening. They were shocked when a hairy creature emerged, crying out, and falling under the hail of bullets. It lay there, mortally wounded. After a few minutes, Topilski and some of his men finally approached the lifeless body.

There is no mention of how Topilski and his army routed the guerilla force, but one of the survivors while questioned told of how they were hiding in the cave, and were attacked by several apelike creatures. Topilski ordered the cave searched; they found the body of one of the creatures. It is unclear whether he now had two bodies of the creatures or only one. But Topilski speaks as if there were only one creature to be examined.

"At first glance I thought the body was that of an ape. It was covered with hair all over. But I knew there were no apes in the Pamirs. Also, the body itself looked very much like that of a man. We tried pulling the hair, to see if it was just a hide used for disguise, but found that it was the creature's own natural hair. We turned the body over several times on its back and its front, and measured it."

He continued : "The body belonged to a male creature 165-170 cm [about 5 1/2 feet] tall, elderly or even old, judging by the grayish color of the hair in several places. The chest was covered with brownish hair and the belly with grayish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest and close-cropped and thick on the belly. In general the hair was very thick, without any under fur. There was least hair on the buttocks, from which fact our doctor deduced that the creature sat like a human being. There was most hair on the hips. The knees were completely bare of hair and had callous growths on them. The whole foot including the sole was quite hairless and was covered by hard brown skin. The hair got thinner near the hand, and the palms had none at all but only callous skin."

"The color of the face was dark, and the creature had neither beard nor mustache. The temples were bald and the back of the head was covered by thick, matted hair. The dead creature lay with its eyes open and its teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth were large and even and shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanting and the eyebrows were very powerful. The protruding jawbones made the face resemble the Mongol type of face. The nose was flat, with a deeply sunk bridge. The ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than a human being's with a longer lobe. The lower jaw was very massive. The creature had a very powerful chest and well developed muscles. The arms were of normal length, the hands were slightly wider and the feet much wider and shorter than man's."

Version the third : This one begins as did Version Two, but includes the doctor's and the men's reactions along with Topilski's, and has no mention of a surviving guerilla's telling of attacks by apelike men. There is no entering the cave and discovering the body of an ape man.

The doctor would later write in his report : "he didn't look totally like a man, but it was not an ape either. It was a male, about two meters tall, (6 ft 7 inches) covered with dark brown hair and the face was dark, distinctly ape-like." What was it? Could the wild thing they had shot have been the Russian Kaptar we hear about today?

Every man questioned agreed that the creature ran from the cave on two feet, fully upright, dazed, terrified, and fatally injured. Some added it appeared to be confused and in pain as it fell. They said, being unable to carry the body with them, they buried it under a stone covered cairn near the cave's mouth.

Version the fourth : This one contained a slightly different description of the creature.

"The corpse that of a male, was about five and a half feet long and covered with dense grayish-brown hair except for the face, ears, palms, knees, feet and buttocks. (There were shaggy hairs on the upper lip). The skin on the hands, knees and feet was thickly callused. The face was dark with dark eyes, a heavy and massive lower jaw. Although the teeth were quite large, they seemed to be those of a human. The creature had a broad unusually muscular chest, but otherwise its torso was much like that of a man."

In this version, the creature was again buried under a pile of stones.

We will never quite know exactly what Major General Topilski and his men encountered that day at that mountain cave. The differences in the stories are to be expected when the tales are told years later by older memories, perhaps from those who wished to forget what they had witnessed that day.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."