I don't think you have chosen a good source of inspiration.
In the 1950s Boris Fedorovich Porshnev, a soviet historian became interested in the possibility of a relict population of hominids surviving in modern times. He created a study group with several other Soviet scientists as a formal Commission of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. The study group, which became known as the Soviet Snowman Commission, was most active between 1958 and 1959, which such individuals as Tom Slick flew into Moscow to meet secretly with the group.
Boris Porshnev authored many articles on the topic and coauthored one book with Bernard Heuvelmans that was published after he passed away. Before his death he was known as one of the biggest advocates of the revolutionary, and highly controversial, theory that suggested Neanderthal Man still survives to this day, a hypothesis that is still argued by other students of hominology in Russia to this day.
Books: L'homme de Neanderthal est toujours vivant (1974)
Organizations: Soviet Snowman Commission
So he was the Russian equivalent of a
Bigfooter.
http://www.unknownexplorers.com/borisporshnev.php
ETA He WAS a Bigfooter! Here's a passage from the wiki biography of Tom Slick, mentioned in my note cited in this post.
During the 1950s, Slick was an adventurer. He turned his attention to expeditions to investigate the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, Bigfoot and the Trinity Alps giant salamander. Slick's interest in cryptozoology was little known until the 1989 publication of the biography Tom Slick and the Search for Yeti, by Loren Coleman. Coleman continued his study of Tom Slick in 2002 with Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology. That book mentions many of Tom Slick's adventures, in politics, art, science, and cryptozoology, including his involvement with the CIA and Howard Hughes.
At least the CIA and Howard Hughes actually existed ... unfortunately
