[kregasaurusrex]

How the family found out about satellites is very interesting to me- such an unexplained phenomena wouldn't make sense to some groups (ie, flat-earthers deny their existence altogether), where they would have observed Sputnik zooming across the sky while only being visible at dawn and dusk. With such perfect recurrence the Lykovs would have been able to deduce that the object followed ordinary orbital mechanics against the backdrop of the celestial cosmos rather than being a supernatural object, especially that Sputnik was only in the sky for a couple months in 1957. Later ones would have have likely indicated they were a product of man; I'd personally ascribe it to being supernatural in origin!

[dmitry-vsl]

I think this is a fabrication by the journalist. Overall, it seems to me that there was an ideological agenda behind this story. In the USSR, no topic could cause a stir in major media outlets without an ideological directive.

[HarryHirsch]

The family would have heard about airplanes, they were from Perm Oblast, which isn't exactly remote. It isn't exactly a big leap to think that what they were seeing was the lights of airplanes. Ships carry lights for safe navigation, and if you fly at night you also carry lights for safety.

[croisillon]

i sometimes wonder what it was to live in early human times and make sense of everything: time, phenomena etc. i am not religious but i guess back then i would have ascribed anything to gods

[_def]

You would need to come up with the concept of gods first though

[grecy]

Spending a few months in Iceland it was really easy to see why they have so many gods and mythical beings in their history. The place is MAGICAL.