Launch That Pig!

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• OMG, the poor little thing!

• Any Russian readers of your blog? I'd love to know what "Kaгop No. 9" is...

• Very interesting photos. Although my first impression tells me these are hoax, nevertheless.

  Apparently, these are Soviet Air Defence troops, plying a pig with Russian church wine, Kagor #9, developed at NKVD (former KGB) and signed off on April 22, 1936, and shooting the pig into the air with some sort of cannon.

  I am going to ask around russian forums.

• Now thats where Frank Oz got the idea for Pigs in Space

• Oh, I thought Pigs in Space had come from the Muppet Show.

• I came across your blog post after getting emailed a copy of this, and trying to find out what it is. At this point, my best guess is that it's an ad.

  Reasoning:

  • photos far too crisp and clear compared to the grainy stuff the Russians produced in the 30's;
  • closeup of the Kagor looks like obvious product placement, why else would they emphasize what brand the pig was drinking;
  • Kagor is a variety of East European noble wine which has recently become available in the West, but is still very little known here (hence motive for advertising);
  • Kagor is too expensive to give to a pig, why not give it cheap stuff;
  • Kagor traditionally comes mainly from Albania, Romania and Moldova (hence, you see the East European pig farmer/string and duct-tape jokes), however, none of these countries were part of the Soviet Union in 1936;
  • Even the Albanians don't do air defence/aerospace research with just 2 guys and three observers;
  • Photographing the projectile leaving the mortar is possible in principle but extremely unlikely without sophisticated electronic switching, as against pulling a piece of string (I have seen exactly one such photo ever taken honestly, which showed the projectile);
  • the headgear worn by the troops is that normally used by eastern bloc tank crews (to avoid banging your head against the hull), not artillerymen; and
  • I am reasonably familiar with East European artillery and have never seen anything like the mortar in the photos. Actually, it bears a slight resemblance to some nineteenth century coastal artillery, but you wouldn't see one of those in the middle of a muddy field.

  -- Roger

• You just part of coverup, comrade! Capitalist have secret alien base 51 in desert, have mush experience in coverup! This just more of same!

• Relax! ;)

  It's photo from present day russian hoax pseudo-documentary (film) named "First men on Moon".

  imdb about film: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0459929/

  poster:

  http://www.arthouse.ru/img/films/1STMOON/1STMOON-poster.jpg