Was a Russian fallen angel found? Viral TikTok video claim explored
On January 25, 2023, a TikToker shared a video of a statue that was claimed to be of a fallen angel. The video has since gone viral, and people have different speculations about it. The sculpture was allegedly excavated by miners at a location 340 kilometers away from the Russian town of Zeya in Amur Oblast.
A Blagoveshchensk resident, who goes by the username @yura.amyr28rus, shared the video clip on TikTok. A friend of the user reportedly sent him the footage, where an old sculpture can be seen. However, it was unclear from the video whether or not the figure was built in a standing or a knelt-down position.
The statue had a sword and a shield in front of it. A large cloak was covering its head and half of its eyes as well. Although the statue looked eerie, the massive wings on its back made the miners claim it was a fallen angel. However, the press secretary at the Elga coal complex confirmed that the sculpture is not of a Russian fallen angel.
The viral TikTok video of the alleged fallen angel is a fake sensation
In the video, the two mine workers working at a gravel pit seem to have stumbled upon a bizarre statue. They spoke about digging it up from the ground using an excavator. The workers took turns taking a photo with the object and were heard talking about repenting something.
They also claimed that they felt the statue was emitting some kind of energy. The two workers further said they wasted no time informing the authorities, who were apparently sent choppers to get the statue.
Until their arrival, the user and his companions were asked to be there with the statue. The video quickly spread across the local social networking circle of Yakutia and the Amur region.
However, the fallen angel video, which caused quite a stir among the residents of the Amur region, turned out to be fake. As explained by the press secretary at the Elga coal complex, Irina Kichigina, the miners were reportedly from the Elga coal mine in the Sakha Republic.
The statue did not belong to anyone and had been lying around for a long time in the shift camp. The two mine workers coincidentally stumbled across it and decided to weave a story on it to make it an internet sensation.
After the video was reshared by a few other TikTok users and even on YouTube, netizens flooded the comments with their own version of what the statue could be. Some said it looked real, as if the angel was petrified and was turned into stone. Others believed it was just a prop from some old movie.
A similar rumor of a 'fallen angel' surfaced in Russia back in 2011
Surprisingly, this is not the first time there has been a rumor regarding a fallen angel in Russia. A similar hoax surfaced more than ten years ago. A rumor circulated in 2011 that the skeleton was unearthed in Russia, which, as per popular claims at the time, belonged to a fallen angel.
The footage of the findings was shared on television alongside a news segment. However, since the video was in Russian and no subtitles were provided, many drew false conclusions and made up rumors that the skeleton belonged to a celestial being.
Interestingly, the news segment showed a young man's skull, which was found next to a skeleton of a sheep or a goat. They believed that unearthing was most likely the remnants of a sacrifice or a ritual burial.
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