The death of the Dyatlov group: a mystery that does not have an unambiguous solution. What happened to the Dyatlov group? Opinion M

The death of the Dyatlov tourist group is one of the most mysterious and terrible incidents of the 20th century, which happened on the night of February 1-2, 1959 in the Northern Urals, when a group of tourists led by Igor Dyatlov died under unclear circumstances. Here and below are photos taken by the participants of the trip:

At the moment when, having set up a tent on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated from Mansi - “Mountain of the Dead”), the tourists were getting ready for bed, something happened that made them leave the shelter in a panic, starting down the slope. All were later found dead, presumably from the cold. Several people had severe internal injuries, as if they had fallen from a height or been hit by a car at speed (no significant skin damage was found).

The group consisted of skiers from the tourist club of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI, Sverdlovsk): five students, three engineers graduates of the UPI and an instructor of the hostel, veteran Semyon Zolotarev. The group leader was a 5th year student of UPI, an experienced tourist Igor Dyatlov. The other members of the group were also not beginners in sports tourism, having experience in difficult hikes.

One of the participants in the campaign, Yuri Yudin, dropped out of the group due to sciatica when entering the active part of the route, due to which the only one from the whole group survived. He was the first to identify the personal belongings of the dead, and he also identified the bodies of Slobodin and Dyatlov. In the 1990s, he was deputy head of Solikamsk for economics and forecasting, chairman of the Polyus city tourist club. Lyudmila Dubinina says goodbye to Yudin. On the left, Igor Dyatlov with bamboo ski poles (there were no metal ones then).

The first days of the hike along the active part of the route passed without any serious incidents. Tourists advanced on skis along the Lozva River, and then along its tributary Auspiya. On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (Kholat-Syakhl, translated from Mansi - "Mountain of the Dead") or peak "1079" (on later maps its height is given as 1096.7 m), not far from nameless pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).

The first days of the hike along the active part of the route passed without any serious incidents. Tourists advanced on skis along the Lozva River, and then along its tributary Auspiya. On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl or peak "1079" (on later maps its height is given as 1096.7 m), not far from the nameless pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).

On February 12, the group was supposed to reach the end point of the route - the village of Vizhay, send a telegram to the institute's sports club, and return to Sverdlovsk on February 15. The first to express concern was Yuri Blinov, the head of the UPI tourist group, which drove up with the Dyatlov group from Sverdlovsk to the village of Vizhay and left from there to the west - to the Prayer Stone ridge and Mount Isherim (1331). Also, Sasha Kolevatov's sister Rimma, Dubinina and Slobodin's parents began to worry about the fate of their relatives. The head of the UPI sports club, Lev Semenovich Gordo, and the department of physical education of the UPI, A. M. Vishnevsky, were waiting for the group to return for another day or two, since earlier there had been delays on the route for various reasons. On February 16-17, they contacted Vizhay, trying to establish whether the group was returning from the campaign. The answer was negative.

Search and rescue operations began on February 22, a detachment was sent along the route. Around for hundreds of kilometers there is not a single settlement, completely deserted places. On February 26, a tent covered with snow was found on the slope of Mount Holatchakhl. The wall of the tent facing down the slope was cut. The tent was later dug up and examined. The entrance to the tent was opened, but the slope of the tent, facing the slope, was torn in several places. A fur coat stuck out in one of the holes. Moreover, as the examination showed, the tent was cut from the inside.

At the entrance inside the tent lay a stove, buckets, a little further cameras. In the far corner of the tent - a bag with maps and documents, Dyatlov's camera, Kolmogorova's diary, a bank of money. To the right of the entrance lay the products. To the right, next to the entrance, lay two pairs of boots. The remaining six pairs of shoes lay against the wall opposite. Backpacks are spread out at the bottom, they are wearing padded jackets and blankets. Part of the blankets are not spread out, warm clothes are on top of the blankets. An ice ax was found near the entrance, and a flashlight was thrown on the slope of the tent. The tent was completely empty, there were no people in it.

During the trip, the group members took pictures with several cameras, and also kept diaries. Neither photographs nor diaries, by the way, helped to establish the exact cause of the death of tourists.

Further, the search engines began to open a continuous series of terrible and cruel mysteries. Traces around the tent indicated that the entire Dyatlov group suddenly left the tent for some unknown reason, and presumably not through the exit, but through the cuts. Moreover, people ran out of the tent into the bitter cold without shoes and partially dressed. The group ran about 20 meters away from the entrance to the tent. Then the Dyatlovites in a tight group, almost a line, in socks through the snow and frost went down the slope. The tracks indicate that they walked side by side without losing sight of each other. Moreover, they did not run away, namely, with the usual step, they retreated down the slope.

After about 500 meters down the slope, the tracks were lost under a layer of snow. The next day, February 27, one and a half kilometers from the tent and 280 m down the slope, near the cedar, the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were found. At the same time, it was recorded: Doroshenko had a burnt foot and hair on his right temple, Krivonischenko had a burn on his left leg and a burn on his left foot. Near the corpses, a fire was found, which had sunk into the snow.

Rescuers were struck by the fact that both bodies were stripped down to their underwear. Doroshenko was lying on his stomach. Below him is a broken branch of a tree, on which, apparently, he fell. Krivonischenko was lying on his back. All sorts of small things were scattered around the bodies. There were numerous injuries on the hands (bruises and abrasions), the internal organs were full of blood, Krivonischenko was missing the tip of his nose.

On the cedar itself, at a height of up to 5 meters, branches were broken off (some of them lay around the bodies). Moreover, branches up to 5 cm thick, at a height, were first filed with a knife, and then broken off with force, as if hanging on them with their whole body. There were traces of blood on the bark.

Nearby, cuts with a knife with broken young firs and cuts on birch trees were found. Cut tops of firs and a knife were not found. At the same time, there were no assumptions that they were used for a firebox. Firstly, they do not burn well, and secondly, there was a relatively large amount of dry material around. Almost simultaneously with them, 300 meters from the cedar up the slope in the direction of the tent, the body of Igor Dyatlov was found.

He was slightly covered with snow, reclining on his back, with his head towards the tent, his arm around the trunk of a birch. Dyatlov was wearing ski trousers, underpants, a sweater, a cowboy shirt, and a fur sleeveless jacket. On the right leg - a woolen sock, on the left - a cotton sock. The clock on my hand showed 5 hours and 31 minutes. There was an icy growth on his face, which meant that before he died, he breathed into the snow.

Numerous abrasions, scratches, deposits were revealed on the body; a superficial wound from the second to the fifth fingers was recorded on the palm of the left hand; internal organs are filled with blood. Approximately 330 meters from Dyatlov, up the slope under a layer of dense snow 10 cm, the body of Zina Kolmogorova was found.

She was warmly dressed, but without shoes. His face showed signs of nosebleeds. There are numerous abrasions on the hands and palms; a wound with a scalped skin flap on the right hand; encircling the right side, passing to the back of the skin; swelling of the meninges.

A few days later, on March 5, 180 meters from the place where Dyatlov's body was found and 150 meters from the location of Kolmogorova's body, the body of Rustem Slobodin was found under a layer of snow of 15-20 cm. He was also quite warmly dressed, while on his right leg he had a felt boot worn over 4 pairs of socks (the second felt boot was found in the tent). On the left hand of Slobodin, a watch was found that showed 8 hours 45 minutes. There was an ice build-up on his face and there were signs of nosebleeds. A characteristic feature of the last three found tourists was skin color: according to the recollections of rescuers - orange-red, in the documents of the forensic medical examination - reddish-crimson.

The search for the remaining tourists took place in several stages from February to May. And only after the snow began to melt, objects began to be found that indicated the rescuers in the right direction to search. The exposed branches and scraps of clothes led to the hollow of the stream about 70 m from the cedar, which was heavily covered with snow.

A large tent of the Dyatlov group, sewn from several small ones. Inside was a portable stove designed by Dyatlov.

The excavation made it possible to find at a depth of more than 2.5 m a flooring of 14 trunks of small firs and one birch up to 2 m long. On the flooring lay a spruce branch and several items of clothing. According to the position of these objects on the flooring, four spots were exposed, made as "seats" for four people. The bodies were found under a four-meter layer of snow, in the bed of a stream that had already begun to melt, below and slightly away from the flooring. First they found Lyudmila Dubinina - she froze, kneeling, facing the slope at the waterfall of the stream.

Mansi "runes". The traditional system of Mansi individual "marking". The signs are called "tamgi" ("tamga" in the singular). Each Mansi has his own personal tamga. It's like a generic business card, a signature that is left in some memorable places - usually hunting or parking places. Let's say a hunter got an elk, butchered it and left it to take it out later. He makes a stes and marks it with his tamga.

The other three were found a little lower. Kolevatov and Zolotarev lay in an embrace "chest to back" at the edge of the stream, apparently warming each other to the end. Thibaut-Brignolles was the lowest, in the water of the stream. Krivonischenko and Doroshenko's clothes - trousers, sweaters - were found on the corpses, as well as a few meters from them. All clothes had traces of even cuts, as they had already been removed from the corpses of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko. The dead Thibault-Brignolles and Zolotarev were found well-dressed, Dubinina was worse dressed - her faux-fur jacket and cap ended up on Zolotarev, Dubinina's unbuttoned leg was wrapped in Krivonischenko's woolen trousers. Krivonischenko's knife was found near the corpses, with which young firs were cut near the fires. Two watches were found on Thibault-Brignolle's hand - one showed 8 hours 14 minutes, the second - 8 hours 39 minutes.

At the same time, all the bodies had terrible injuries received in their lifetime. Dubinina and Zolotarev had fractures of 12 ribs, Dubinina - both on the right and on the left side, Zolotarev - only on the right. Later, the examination determined that such injuries can only be received from a strong blow, like hitting a car moving at high speed or falling from a great height. It is impossible to inflict such injuries with a stone in a person’s hand. In addition, Dubinina and Zolotarev do not have eyeballs - they are squeezed out or removed. And Dubinina's tongue and part of her upper lip were torn out. Thibaut-Brignolles has a depressed fracture of the temporal bone. Very strange, but during the examination it was found that the clothes (sweater, trousers) contain applied radioactive substances with beta radiation.

According to experts, the start of climbing the mountain in bad weather was Dyatlov's mistake, which may have caused the tragedy.

One of the last photos. Tourists are clearing a place for a tent on a mountainside.

The last and most mysterious photo. Some believe that this shot was taken by someone from the Dyatlov group when the danger began to approach. According to others, this shot was taken while the film was being removed from the camera for processing.

Here is a schematic picture of a hypothetical incident and the recovered bodies. Most of the group's bodies were found in the head-to-tent position, and all were located in a straight line from the cut side of the tent, for over 1.5 kilometers. Kolmogorova, Slobodin and Dyatlov did not die while leaving the tent, but on the contrary, on the way back to the tent.

The whole picture of the tragedy points to numerous mysteries and oddities in the behavior of the Dyatlovites, most of which are practically inexplicable.
- Why did they not run away from the tent, but retreated in a line, with the usual step?
- Why did they need to kindle a fire near a high cedar in a windy area?
- Why did they break cedar branches at a height of up to 5 meters, when there were many small trees around for a fire?
- How could they get such terrible injuries on level ground?
- Why didn’t those who reached the stream and built sun loungers there survive, because even in the cold it was possible to hold out until the morning?
- And finally, the most important thing - what made the group leave the tent at the same time and in such a hurry with practically no clothes, no shoes and no equipment?

The tent discovered by the search group:

Initially, the local population of the northern Urals, the Mansi, was suspected of the murder. Mansi Anyamov, Sanbindalov, Kurikov and their relatives fell under suspicion. But none of them took the blame. They were more afraid of themselves. Mansi said that they saw strange "fireballs" over the place of death of tourists. They not only described this phenomenon, but also drew it. In the future, the drawings from the case disappeared or are still classified. "Fireballs" during the search period were observed by the rescuers themselves, as well as other residents of the Northern Urals.

And on March 31, a very remarkable event occurred: all members of the search group who were in the camp in the Lozva valley saw a UFO. Valentin Yakimenko, a participant in those events, in his memoirs very succinctly described what happened: “Early in the morning it was still dark. Orderly Viktor Meshcheryakov came out of the tent and saw a luminous ball moving across the sky. He woke everyone up. "He did not hide behind the slope of the mountain. We saw him in the southeast of the tent. He was moving in a northerly direction. This phenomenon excited everyone. We were sure that the death of the Dyatlovites was somehow connected with him." What they saw was reported to the headquarters of the search operation, located in Ivdel. The appearance of a UFO in the case gave the investigation an unexpected direction. Someone remembered that "fireballs" were observed approximately in the same area on February 17, 1959, about which there was even a publication in the newspaper "Tagil Worker". And the investigation, resolutely rejecting the version of "malicious Mansi killers", began to work in a new direction. Well-preserved traces of the Dyatlovites:

The Mansi legends say that during the global flood on Mount Kholat-Syahyl, 9 hunters disappeared earlier - they “died of hunger”, “boiled in boiling water”, “disappeared in a terrible radiance”. Hence the name of this mountain - Kholatchakhl, in translation - the Mountain of the Dead. The mountain is not a sacred place for the Mansi, rather the opposite - they always bypassed this peak. The discovery of a storage shed made by the Dyatlovites with supplies that they left here so as not to drag excess cargo up the mountain. One of the strange circumstances of the case is that, fleeing from an unknown danger, the tourists did not go to the storehouse, where there was food and warm clothes, but in the other direction, as if something was blocking the way to the storehouse.

There are many versions of what happened, which can be divided into 4 groups: natural (an avalanche descended on the tent, the tent collapsed under the weight of the attacking snow, the snow that attacked the tent made breathing difficult for tourists, which forced them to leave the tent, etc., the impact of infrasound formed in the mountains , ball lightning, this also includes versions with attacks by wild animals and accidental poisoning), criminal (attacks by Mansi, fugitive convicts, special services, military, foreign saboteurs, illegal gold miners, as well as a quarrel between tourists) and man-made (testing of secret weapons (for example , a vacuum bomb), hitting a tent with a snowmobile or other equipment, etc.) and, finally, fantastic ones (evil mountain spirits, UFOs, Bigfoot, air electric discharge explosions of comet fragments, toroidal tornado, etc.).

There is a version of A. I. Rakitin, according to which the group included secret KGB officers: Semyon Zolotarev, Alexander Kolevatov and, possibly, Yura Krivonischenko. One of them (Kolevatov or Krivonischenko), posing as an anti-Soviet young man, was “recruited” by foreign intelligence some time before the campaign and agreed to meet with foreign spies disguised as another tourist group under the cover of the campaign and transfer samples of radioactive materials from his enterprises in the form of clothing items containing radioactive dust (in reality, it was a “controlled delivery” under the supervision of the KGB). However, the spies revealed the group's connection with the KGB (perhaps when they tried to photograph them) or, conversely, they themselves made a mistake that allowed the uninitiated members of the group to suspect that they were not who they claim to be (they used the Russian idiom incorrectly, discovered ignorance of the well-known for the inhabitants of the USSR fact, etc.). Deciding to eliminate the witnesses, the spies forced the tourists to undress in the cold and leave the tent, threatening with firearms, but not using it, so that death looked natural (according to their calculations, the victims should have inevitably died at night from the cold). The corpse of Igor Dyatlov in socks:

It is worth noting that at all times a lot of tourists died. Mostly from the cold. Thus, the death of a group of tourists in the winter in itself was not something extraordinary. Out of the ordinary it was made by various mysterious circumstances. The peculiarity of the incident is that all "realistic" versions (such as the version about an avalanche) rest on these inexplicable nuances and inconsistencies, which suggests that the group encountered something from the category of "unknown". The official version read: “Given the absence of external bodily injuries and signs of a struggle on the corpses, the presence of all the values of the group, and also taking into account the conclusion of the forensic medical examination on the causes of death of tourists, it should be considered that the cause of their death was an elemental force, which people overcome were unable to."

The death of the Dyatlovites occurred in the last period of the existence of the old system of supporting amateur tourism, which had the organizational form of commissions under the Sports Committees and the Unions of Sports Societies and Organizations (SSSO) of territorial entities. There were tourist sections at enterprises and universities, but these were disparate organizations that interacted poorly with each other. With the growing popularity of tourism, it became obvious that the existing system could not cope with the preparation, provision and support of tourist groups and could not provide a sufficient level of tourism security. In 1959, when the Dyatlov group died, the number of dead tourists did not exceed 50 people per year in the country. Already in the following year, 1960, the number of dead tourists almost doubled. The first reaction of the authorities was an attempt to ban amateur tourism, which was done by a decree of March 17, 1961. But it is impossible to forbid people to voluntarily go on a hike in quite accessible terrain - tourism turned into a “wild” state, when no one controlled the training or equipment of groups, the routes were not coordinated, only friends and relatives followed the deadlines. The effect followed immediately: in 1961, the number of dead tourists exceeded 200 people. Since the groups did not document the composition and route, sometimes there was no information either about the number of missing persons or about where to look for them. The corpse of Dubinina by the stream:

By the Decree of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions of July 20, 1962, sports tourism again received official recognition, its structures were transferred to the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (trade unions), tourism councils were created, commissions under the SSOO were abolished, organizational work to support tourism was largely revised and reformed. The creation of tourist clubs on a territorial basis began, but work in organizations did not weaken, but intensified thanks to the broad information support that appeared due to the exchange of experience of amateur organizations. This made it possible to overcome the crisis and ensure the functioning of the sports tourism system for several decades. Igor Dyatlov's body:

Special agencies suggested that the relatives of the victims bury them in the village closest to the pass, but they insisted that the bodies be brought home. All the guys were buried in a mass grave at the Mikhailovsky cemetery in Sverdlovsk. The first funeral took place on March 9, 1959 with a large crowd of people. According to eyewitnesses, the faces and skin of the dead guys had a purple-bluish tint. The bodies of four students (Dyatlov, Slobodin, Doroshenko, Kolmogorova) were buried in Sverdlovsk at the Mikhailovsky cemetery. Krivonischenko was buried by his parents at the Ivanovo cemetery in Sverdlovsk. The funeral of tourists found in early May took place on May 12, 1959. Three of them - Dubinina, Kolevatov and Thibault-Brignolles - were buried next to the graves of their group mates at the Mikhailovsky cemetery. Zolotarev was buried at the Ivanovo cemetery, next to the grave of Krivonischenko. All four were buried in closed coffins. In the early 1960s, a memorial plaque with their names and the inscription "There were nine of them" was erected at the place where the tourists died. On the stone remnant on the Dyatlov Pass, an expedition in 1963 installed a memorial plaque in memory of the "Dyatlovites", then in 1989 another memorial plaque was installed there. In the summer of 2012, 3 plates were fixed on the outlier with the image of the pages of the magazine "Ural Pathfinder" with publications about the "Dyatlovites".

Later, a lot of articles and books were written on this topic, several documentaries were shot. In 2011, the British company Future Films took on the screen adaptation of Alan K. Barker's book "Dyatlov Pass" in the style of a "horror film", in February 2013 Renny Harlin's film "The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass" was released. Dyatlov Pass today:

The Dyatlov Pass Incident

The terrible mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group

The tragic story of a tourist group of students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute in February 1959 in the Northern Urals, called the Dyatlov group, is one of the most mysterious tragedies in history. The case was partially declassified only in 1989. According to the researchers, some of the materials from the case have been seized and are still classified. Due to the huge number of strange and inexplicable circumstances back in 1959, the investigators could not solve this mystery. Until now, for many years now, initiative volunteers have been trying to investigate and somehow explain the incredibly strange and terrible history of the group. However, there is still no completely harmonious version that would explain all the mysteries of this case.

(18+ Attention! This article is intended for people over 18. If you are under 18, leave the page immediately!)

1. Dyatlov group.

On January 23, 1959, a group of 9 skiers from the tourist club went on a ski trip in the north of the Sverdlovsk region.

The group was headed by an experienced tourist Igor Dyatlov.

The task of the hike is to pass through the forests and mountains of the Northern Urals on a ski hike of the 3rd (highest) category of difficulty.

On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated from Mansi - Mountain of the Dead), not far from the nameless pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).

Nothing foreshadowed trouble.

These photographs of the group were later found in the cameras of the participants in the campaign and developed by the investigation.

The group sets up a tent on the mountainside, the time is about 17:00.

These are the most recent photographs that have been found.

2. Start of search and rescue operations.

Search and rescue operations began on February 22, a detachment was sent along the route. Around for hundreds of kilometers there is not a single settlement, completely deserted places.

On February 26, a tent covered with snow was found on the slope of Mount Holatchakhl. The wall of the tent facing down the slope was cut.

The tent was later dug up and examined. The entrance to the tent was opened, but the slope of the tent, facing the slope, was torn in several places. A fur coat stuck out in one of the holes.

Moreover, as the examination showed, the tent was cut from the inside. Here is the cut diagram

Traces around the tent indicated that the entire Dyatlov group suddenly left the tent for some unknown reason, and presumably not through the exit, but through the cuts. Moreover, people ran out of the tent in 30-degree frost even without shoes and partially dressed. The group ran about 20 meters away from the entrance to the tent. Then the Dyatlovites in a tight group, almost a line, in socks through the snow and frost went down the slope. The tracks indicate that they walked side by side without losing sight of each other. Moreover, they did not run away, namely, with the usual step, they retreated down the slope.

These protruding hills of snow are their traces, as it happens when a strong snowstorm passes over the area.

After about 500 meters down the slope, the tracks were lost under a layer of snow.

The next day, February 27, one and a half kilometers from the tent and 280 m down the slope, near the cedar, the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were found. At the same time, it was recorded: Doroshenko had a burnt foot and hair on his right temple, Krivonischenko had a burn on his left leg and a burn on his left foot. Near the corpses, a fire was found, which had sunk into the snow.

Almost simultaneously with them, 300 meters from the cedar up the slope in the direction of the tent, the body of Igor Dyatlov was found.

Approximately 330 meters from Dyatlov, up the slope under a layer of dense snow 10 cm, the body of Zina Kolmogorova was found.

A characteristic feature of the last three found tourists was skin color: according to the recollections of rescuers - orange-red, in the documents of the forensic medical examination - reddish-crimson.

4. New terrible finds.

The bodies were found under a four-meter layer of snow, in the bed of a stream that had already begun to melt, below and slightly away from the flooring. First they found Lyudmila Dubinina - she froze, kneeling, facing the slope at the waterfall of the stream.

Krivonischenko and Doroshenko's clothes - trousers, sweaters - were found on the corpses, as well as a few meters from them. All clothes had traces of even cuts, as they had already been removed from the corpses of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko. The dead Thibault-Brignolles and Zolotarev were found well-dressed, Dubinina was worse dressed - her faux-fur jacket and cap ended up on Zolotarev, Dubinina's unbuttoned leg was wrapped in Krivonischenko's woolen trousers. Krivonischenko's knife was found near the corpses, with which young firs were cut near the fires. Two watches were found on Thibault-Brignolle's hand - one showed 8 hours 14 minutes, the second - 8 hours 39 minutes.

Later, the examination determined that such injuries can only be received from a strong blow, like hitting a car moving at high speed or falling from a great height. It is impossible to inflict such injuries with a stone in a person’s hand.

In addition, Dubinina and Zolotarev do not have eyeballs - they are squeezed out or removed. And Dubinina's tongue and part of her upper lip were torn out. Thibaut-Brignolles has a depressed fracture of the temporal bone.

Very strange, but during the examination it was found that the clothes (sweater, trousers) contain applied radioactive substances with beta radiation.

5. Inexplicable.

Here is a schematic picture of all the discovered bodies. Most of the group's bodies were found in the head-to-tent position, and all were located in a straight line from the cut sidewall of the tent, for over 1.5 kilometers. Kolmogorova, Slobodin and Dyatlov did not die while leaving the tent, but on the contrary, on the way back to the tent.

The whole picture of the tragedy points to numerous mysteries and oddities in the behavior of the Dyatlovites, most of which are practically inexplicable.
- Why didn't they run away from the tent, but retreated in a line, with the usual step?
“Why did they need to kindle a fire near a tall cedar in a windswept area?”
– Why did they break the branches of the cedar at a height of up to 5 meters, when there were many small trees around for a fire?
“How could they have sustained such terrible injuries on level ground?”
– Why didn’t those who reached the stream and built sun loungers there survive, because even in the cold it was possible to hold out until the morning?
- And finally, the most important thing - what made the group leave the tent at the same time and in such a hurry with practically no clothes, no shoes and no equipment?

There are still a lot of questions, but no answers.

6. Mount Holatchakhl - the mountain of the dead.

Initially, the local population of the northern Urals, the Mansi, was suspected of the murder. Mansi Anyamov, Sanbindalov, Kurikov and their relatives fell under suspicion. But none of them took the blame.
They were more afraid of themselves. Mansi said that they saw strange "fireballs" over the place of death of tourists. They not only described this phenomenon, but also drew it. In the future, the drawings from the case disappeared or are still classified. "Fireballs" during the search period were observed by the rescuers themselves, as well as other residents of the Northern Urals. As a result, the suspicion with Mansi was removed.

On the film of the dead tourists, the very last frame was discovered, which is still controversial. Some argue that this shot was taken when the film was removed from the camera. Others claim that this shot was taken by someone from the Dyatlov group from the tent when the danger began to approach.

Be that as it may, but the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group has not been solved so far.

7. Versions.

There are 9 main versions of the death of the Dyatlov group:
- avalanche
- the destruction of the group by the military or special services
- impact of sound
- attack by escaped prisoners
- death at the hands of the Mansi
- a quarrel between tourists
- a version about the impact of some test weapon
– version of “controlled delivery”
- paranormal versions

I will not describe them in detail, all these versions can be easily found on the Internet. I can only say that none of these versions still can not fully explain all the circumstances of the death of the Dyatlov group.

8. Memory of the dead.

After the tragedy, the pass was named the Dyatlov Pass. A memorial was erected there in memory of the dead tourists.

Igor Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, Semyon Zolotarev.

In preparing the article, materials were used from several sources, forums and investigative reports:
– http://pereval1959.forum24.ru
– http://aenforum.org/index.php?showtopic=1338&st=0
– http://www.murders.ru/Dyatloff_group_1.html
– http://perdyat.livejournal.com/4768.html
– http://pereval1959.forum24.ru/?1-9-0-00000028-000-0-0-1283515314 (case)
- wikipedia stuff

Materials dedicated to the death of the Dyatlov tourist group on the night of February 2, 1959 in the Northern Urals are collected in our magazine by tag.

Publications on the death of the Dyatlov tourist group:
- a detailed overview publication on the death of the Dyatlov group.
- 30 chapters of the most interesting investigation into the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group: the version of the "controlled delivery".
- The Sobesednik publication, together with colleagues from Komsomolskaya Pravda and Channel One, took part in an expedition to the Northern Urals.
- Why is it easier to believe in the incredible, what kind of secret document the participants in the conflict are waiting for from Bastrykin and when they come face to face - in the material "URA.Ru".
- a version of the death of students on the night of February 2, 1959 from a rocket test, from an explosion in the air, which caused the crust and snow to move on Mount Holatchakhl.
- feature film directed by Renny Harlin "The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass" ( The Dyatlov Pass Incident), released in 2013, shows a group of American students trying to solve the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov tourist group in Russia in the Northern Urals in 1959.
- fragments of the rocket fell near the group, and in order to avoid the discovery of any evidence proving the involvement of the government and the military in this case, the Dyatlovites were maimed and killed.
- a film that considers and argues the version of the involvement of the government and the military in the death of the Dyatlov tourist group.

Electronic media "Interesting world". 07/30/2012

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Many researchers patiently waited for the statute of limitations to expire and the case of the death of students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute to be declassified. Here is what Gennady Kizilov writes (Death of Tourists - 1959, http://zhurnal.lib.ru): "The case was declassified in 1989, but, according to the journalists who leafed through it (these include Stanislav Bogomolov, Anatoly Gushchin and Anna Matveev), many important documents were seized from it. Probably, these documents migrated from a secret volume to a "top secret" one, which is unlikely to be shown to citizens or selected journalists over the next decades.
Amateur and professional investigations continued. In 2005, I participated in a discussion of the death of the Dyatlov group on the forum of the Ural Television Agency website - http://www.tau.ur.ru. This topic still exists and has taken almost 2000 pages in six incomplete years - http://www.tau.ur.ru/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1111&PN=1 .
I wrote under the name Sameh and the host was Loreline. Despite the fact that there were very naive and illiterate opinions *, in general, the forum clarified many incomprehensible details. Then we tried to find patterns that could become a clue. One of the main non-anomalous versions was an attack by a group of unknown people:

1. Runaway convicts;
2. Military;
3. Special Forces;
4. Local residents (Mansi).

Patterns could suggest how the group of tourists was divided in the attack. Despite the possible numerical superiority of the attackers, a group of nine tourists could be divided into parts. So during the wars, captured officers were separated from the rank and file, and the commander was separated from his unit. If young and athletic students were able to escape from the encircled camp, their own division into groups could occur - according to the situation**, kinship, friendly and authoritative relations.

And after studying the available materials on the case in the press and the Internet, I decided to mention all the matches found, even if they sound anecdotal:

1. Dyatlov and Kolmogorova knew each other well from past campaigns - they crawled together to the tent.
2. Below, by the cedar and by the stream, there were three injured and three healthy ***.
3. Both dead near the cedar had Ukrainian surnames.
4. Both dead at the cedar were no longer students, but engineers.
5. From the case file: “In the winter of 1958, many of the guys (Kolevatov, Dubinina, Doroshenko) were on campaigns in the Sayans” - it was this trio that was found below at the foot of the mountain.
6. Worst of all were dressed those who remained by the fire. The best dressed (except shoes) were the returning
into the tent.
7. Kolevatov is the only one of the “four by the stream” who did not have serious injuries. According to
many researchers - was the last to die. It is his diary that is missing from the file.
8. Dubinina is the only woman from the “four by the stream”. Found head down against
currents. While the other three men lay with their heads downstream.
9. Three with the most severe injuries (and Kolevatov) were found under the deepest layer of snow.
10. All three returning to the tent were without shoes - Kolmogorova and Dyatlov, Slobodin was in one felt boot.
11. Studying the autopsy, here's what I noticed: Three were injured in the right side of the body: Kolevatov - two wounds: the right cheek and behind the right ear. Zolotarev - a fracture of the ribs on the right along the parathoracic and midclavicular lines. Thibaut - an extensive hemorrhage in the right temporal muscle, respectively - a depressed fracture of the skull bones. It is unlikely that all these injuries were caused by one left-hander, while facing the victims. Injuries were inflicted by right-handers, behind and on the right side. This happens when they caught up and caught up with the victim.
12. From the case file: "The fire was the strongest guys - Krivonischenko and Doroshenko."(A. Matveeva. Dyatlov Pass). The corpses of the strongest guys were stripped.
13. From the case file: “The strongest and most experienced Dyatlov and Zolotarev lie down, as always, from the edges, in the coldest and most uncomfortable places. Dyatlov at the far end of the four-meter tent, Zolotarev at the entrance. I think that Lyuda Dubinina lay next to Zolotarev, then Kolya Thibault-Brignolles, Rustic Slobodin. Who was in the center and beyond, I don’t know, but the four guys at the entrance, in my opinion, lay exactly like that. Everyone fell asleep"(Axelrod). All three lying at the entrance to the tent (Zolotarev, Dubinina and Thibault) were found together by the stream.
14. Zolotarev, Dubinina, Thibault and Slobodin - all those who were lying at the entrance to the tent - were severely injured.
Doubtful matches:
The three crawling back to the tent are all students.
Four at the stream - two students and two non-students.

There are two most mysterious circumstances of the tragedy:
1. If three people (Dubinina, Zolotarev and Thibaut-Brignolles) were seriously injured on a slope in a tent, how were they brought down? Without a stretcher and at dusk, on a snowy and rocky slope?
2. Why did two of the cedars (Doroshenko and Krivonischenko) climb a tall tree with all their strength, tearing off their skin and tearing their muscles?

The answers to these questions are quite simple. If we assume that the tourists were attacked by an unknown group of people, then a fight ensued at the entrance to the tent. The Dyatlov group was simply not allowed to leave it. Then those who were captured inside cut the tent open with knives**** and ran down the slope.
It is known that being below the guys tried to keep warm and lit a fire. The attackers found them by the firelight and attacked a second time. Then serious injuries were inflicted - the wounded at the entrance to the tent were simply finished off already at the mountainside.
It was assumed that Doroshenko and Krivonischenko began to freeze. Therefore, they climbed the cedar for its lower dry branches. But many small trees and bushes grew nearby - there was plenty of fuel for the fire. Then they put forward an insane hypothesis that the engineers were blinded by UFOs or rocket fuel. But everything is again simpler - tourists were in mortal danger. Unknown people attacked Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, and they, crippling their hands, tried to escape on a tree.
Prosecutor Ivanov wrote: "When we looked around the scene of the incident, we found that some young fir trees on the border of the forest were, as it were, burnt."
I have often observed the drying of the tips of the branches near the fir trees and pines. They were brown and looked like burns. So dry branches could be found. Why, then, was it necessary to cripple your limbs and climb the high trunk of a cedar?
Here is an excerpt from the site "Mysterious crimes of the past" - http://murders.ru. Its authors are distinguished by a very serious approach to the analysis of crimes: " The bodies of the dead tourists lay in such a way that the fire was between them and the cedar. It seemed that the fire had gone out not because the firewood had run out, but because they had stopped adding it. There are recollections according to which the body of Georgy Krivonischenko lay on dry branches, crushing them with his mass, as if the deceased had fallen onto prepared brushwood from a certain height and did not rise again. But the official protocol of the crime scene inspection does not say anything about this; there are no photographs that can shed light on this very important nuance. Again, from the memoirs of the participants in the search operation, it is known that there was a lot of dead wood around the fire, which it was logical to use to build and maintain fire. However, for some reason, the dead climbed the cedar, breaking its branches, peeling off the skin from their hands and leaving traces of blood on the bark of the tree. http://murders.ru/Dy...ff_group_3.html
On the forum http://aenforum.org I had a controversy with the famous ufologist and writer Mikhail Gershtein. I leaned towards the version of an attack by an unknown group of people, focusing on the case near the cedar. Mikhail Borisovich replied that "during cold accidents, there is a period of clouding of consciousness, when a person is deprived of the ability to soberly evaluate his actions."
Then I had a conversation with a specialist in psychiatry of our research institute. He said that it was unlikely that two people with a clouded mind would commit one action at a time*****. In this case, they violently climbed the cedar.
M. Gerstein replied that "both dead at the fire could not perform one action at the same time in a clouded state of consciousness - this is not true, they helped each other as best they could, and not just sat and froze. In addition, cloudiness does not occur immediately, as from a blow to the head, they started more or less common sense and only then, losing strength due to bad weather and cold, gradually "failed".
But there is a contradiction in this statement. If engineers have not completely lost their critical analysis and thinking - even helped each other... then why did they climb a tree together at all? Why make such an effort, tearing the skin and muscles, if you can move a little away from the cedar and cut the branches of young trees? In other words, their consciousness became dim so much that, crippling their hands, they climbed onto the cedar for branches, not paying attention to the nearby deadwood ... And at the same time, their consciousness did not become dim much - Doroshenko and Krivonischenko began to help each other in an insane desire get to the cedar branches. Too complicated and contradictory. The version with the attack, when the victims fled from fear on a tree, is more plausible. This scenario is well known in forensic science.

Apparently, on the forum http://www.tau.ur.ru we have come close to unraveling the long-standing tragedy near the mountain of the Dead. After some time, the most active participants in the forum began to insult. Email threats poured in. Someone left the forum, someone returned... But riddles and questions still remain.

*For example, one of the forum participants claimed that in 1959 helicopters did not yet exist in the Soviet Union. But upon careful examination of the circumstances of the case, one can find evidence from rescuers that the helicopter pilot refused to transport the bodies of the dead tourists. Without the use of special hermetic bags, contamination of the helicopter compartment with decomposition products could occur.
**During the panic and in conditions of poor visibility (twilight), everyone could not run in one direction.
*** It is possible that each of the healthy ones helped to move one wounded man.
****The fact that the tent was cut from the inside is considered absolutely proven.
***** In the case of temporary insanity, each person's behavior becomes purely individual. In other words, everyone has "his own Hell" in his head.

P.S. I received a letter (05.05.2010) from the authors of the site http://murders.ru/Dyatloff_group_1.html
I presented the information received on the forum http://aenforum.org:

"How to explain the fact that Krivonischenko's underpants burned down on his shin (the length of the burn was 31 cm), but at the same time the SOCK DIDN'T BURNED a little lower? In what position do you need to sit by the fire to burn the trouser leg like that? was dressed later... even postmorally?
How to explain the origin of the gray foam at the nose and mouth of Doroshenko? It's very s serious clinical sign , indicating that the pressure in the lungs exceeds atmospheric pressure. Similar rapid development of pulmonary edemaonly occurs in a few cases:
- drowning;
- epileptic seizure;
- gradual compression of the chest.
It is completely frivolous to think that Doroshenko was an epileptic, this assumption can be refuted by a number of indirect considerations (at least by the fact that he did not have a white ticket and studied at the military department, well, and from five others).
Foam may also appear during agony. But only for divers and climbers,as at normal atmospheric pressure external environment this is excluded.
In reality, only the case of chest compression during intensive interrogation is suitable for Doroshenko's case. This is carried out in the field in the position of the interrogated "on the back", and the interrogator sits on his chest. For pulmonary edema and the appearance of foam in such a frost, it is enough for a person weighing 90-100 kg to sit on his chest for a short time. And this is the normal weight of a healthy man IN WINTER ROUTINES.
Message from the Yellow Wolf from the "Forum on the study of the death of the tourist group I. Dyatlov", http://pereval1959.forum24.ru/:
The SME (forensic medical examination) of Slobodin is of interest. He (the only one) has truly knocked down knuckles (metacarpal joints) and phalanges of the fingers. He is the only one who tried to fight hand to hand. The dryness of these wounds should not be embarrassing - in the cold, skin deposits will be covered with a crust and at the corpse. No falls into a snowdrift and blows on the ground cannot explain such wounds. Try it for yourself and you will immediately see the difference! On his head he has hemorrhages in both temporal muscles - both right and left. But at the same time, the skin was not knocked down, not cut, which means that the injury was blunt, from a fist. Two injuries on the left shin in the lower third - they knocked out the leg with kicks of the leg, shod in a boot, so they brought the skin. Slobodin tried (the only one) to provide physical resistance - he was beaten, knocked down and survived a knockout.

The fight apparently took place near the tent. Of all the dead men, the corpse of Rustem Slobodin was closest to the tent. And injuries, as a result of a fierce fight, he had one of the most severe (a crack in the calvaria).
If there are doubters that nine innocent people could hardly have been killed, then I will give a real case:
“But the most terrible crime of 1989 can be considered what happened on the night of August 13-14 at the Kyzylet station of the Krasnoyarsk railway. There, having missed the last train, seven vocational school students decided to stop the freight train and with the help of a wire closed the rails in front of the traffic light, and as a result of this, a red light was lit. To troubleshoot the scene, a team of track workers and a policeman went to the scene, who met the teenagers who were waiting for the train. Upon learning what, in fact, the matter was, the policeman became furious and decided to punish the "criminals". pistol, he inflicted several blows on the head to one teenager, which turned out to be fatal for the boy. Seeing this, the policeman decided not to leave witnesses and, having called for the help of four track workers, killed the rest of the teenagers. Then, loading the bodies of the dead on a cart, the killers took them to railroad tracks, where they were left to lie in the middle of the rails, in the expectation that the person leaving from behind turn the composition will not have time to slow down and mutilate the corpses beyond recognition. That's how it all happened. The investigative team that investigated this case wrote it off as an accident. For three years this was the case. But in the fall of 1992, one of the track workers who took part in the murder, while drunk, blabbed to the residents of his village about this crime. In retaliation for this, another participant in the murder, the brother of the one who blabbed, took and killed his relative. So the crime committed three years ago was solved "(F. Razzakov. "Bandits of the times of socialism". Chronicle of Russian crime 1917-1991. - M., 1996)
Most likely, no one was going to kill a group of tourists at first. But apparently, that's the way it was.

Brief scenario of what happened, with possible adjustments in the future:

(There may be minor errors in the description of the scenario that do not affect the overall picture of what happened)

1. The Dyatlov group set up camp on the slope of the Dead Mountain.
2. Judging by the products found in the tent, the tourists were going to have dinner.
3. Judging by the footprints found at the tent, one of the men went out for a small need.
4. It is possible that it was Slobodin, who entered into hand-to-hand combat with the attackers, and thus covered the retreat of his group.
5. The entrance and exit to the tent was blocked by the attackers, then the Dyatlovites cut the tent from the inside and rushed down the slope at dusk.
6. Many were poorly dressed and were forced to kindle a fire downstairs in order not to freeze ... with a faint hope that they would not be attacked again.
7. An unknown paramilitary group of attackers finds the Dyatlovites by the light of a fire and attacks a second time (This explains the ambiguity of how the Dyatlovites were able to transport the seriously wounded down the slope. Severe injuries were already received below, during the second attack).
8. Tourists are divided into groups by the attackers. The interrogation at the fire of two engineers with Ukrainian surnames begins.
9. Doroshenko and Krivonischenko try to escape on a high cedar. But to no avail.
10. The officer/s proceed to interrogation. Krivonischenko's leg is burned in a fire, an interrogator sits on Doroshenko's chest. The main questions are: the composition of the group, is there another group following them (The goal of the leader of the paramilitary group is to identify all possible witnesses to the crime and destroy them).
11. Having ascertained the death of all the tourists, the paramilitary group performs some manipulations with the corpses. In particular, they put a whole sock on Krivonischenko's burned shin. The goal is to stage an accident (Some rescuers who visited the site of the death of the Dyatlovites noted that they had a feeling of inept staging ... As if the criminals were in a hurry or did everything in almost complete darkness).

As before, the question of the reason for the attack on peaceful tourists remains open. My personal guess is that there is a secret underground facility in the Mountain of the Dead. Here are the arguments:
A. There is a case when two geologists spent the night on a hill, deep in the Taiga. In the middle of the night they heard a train going underground. The most important strategic objects are located deep underground. If this is a plant, then a multi-kilometer underground "metro" is brought to it. But even without underground railway lines, there were enough secret underground facilities on the territory of the USSR.
B. The Mansi Mountain of the Dead is an obvious taboo, a forbidden and dangerous zone.
Q. Compasses in the Dead Mountain area often deviate. Perhaps due to the fact that a massive structure made of iron and concrete is located underground.
G. The reason why the tourists were attacked is clear - they went into the restricted area. For some reason, the security of the facility attacked the Dyatlovites. It is possible that even earlier, the guards somehow discovered themselves. I had to "clean up" the place in order to keep the secret of the location of an important object.
D. Previously, the question arose, how did the attackers find a group of tourists? They did not look for her - the Dyatlovites themselves came.
E. Now the reason for such secrecy around the death of the Dyatlov group is clear - an important strategic object is involved here.

But I repeat - secret underground facility is just my guess. This version does not explain why the staging was not then brought to perfection ... or why the corpses and ammunition were not hidden and taken away at all. After all, there was enough time ... And the dead and their camp were under the very nose - at the top of the object.
It is possible that the Dyatlovites stumbled upon something secret even earlier, before approaching the Mountain of the Dead. Most likely there are no artificial objects inside the hill itself.
To cut the tent from the inside and run down into the chilling twilight half-dressed - could only be forced by a serious (mortal) danger. My opinion - a group of people armed with firearms, against which hand-to-hand combat did not make sense. Slobodin fought out of desperation, subconsciously covering the retreat of the group.

P.S. http://murders.ru/Dyatloff_group_1.html contains the most complete analytical analysis of the tragedy. Previously unpublished photographs from the case are presented.
But the political accents have been changed ... Western intelligence agents-saboteurs are called murderers))).

: lomov_andrey wrote - It is also interesting to read about the Dyatlov Pass. The topic is dark and I even wondered if you could find something that was previously unknown, you are reluctant to wait a month, so if you can ask me a question: The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass.

Having looked at how many of these versions, I decided so, let's collect here very briefly the maximum number of them. Where possible, references will lead to their more extended interpretation. And you are required in the comments (if you read this on infoglaz.rf) or by voting at the end of the post (if you read this on LiveJournal) to choose the most likely version in your opinion. In the meantime, I will briefly tell you what happened at the pass:

January 23, 1959 the group went on a ski trip in the north of the Sverdlovsk region. The group was headed by an experienced tourist Igor Dyatlov. The group went to the starting point of the route in full force, but Yuri Yudin was forced to return due to pain in his leg. On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (Kholat-Syakhl, translated from Mansi - "Mountain of the Dead") or peak "1079" (although on later maps its height is given as 1096.7 m.), not far from the nameless pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).

On February 12, the group was supposed to reach the end point of the route - the village of Vizhay and send a telegram to the institute's sports club. There is a lot of testimonies from participants in search operations and UPI tourists that, with Yu. Yudin gone off the route, the group postponed the deadline to February 15. The telegram was not sent either on the 12th or the 15th of February.

An advanced search party was sent to Ivdel on 20 February to organize searches from the air. Search and rescue operations began on February 22, with the dispatch of several search teams, formed from students and employees of the UPI, who had tourist and mountaineering experience. The young Sverdlovsk journalist Yu.E. also participated in the search. Yarovoy, who later published a story about these events. On February 26, a search group led by B. Slobtsov found an empty tent with a wall cut from the inside, facing down the slope. Equipment was left in the tent, as well as shoes and outerwear of some tourists.

This was seen by the Dyatlovites' tent during investigative actions.

On February 27, the day after the discovery of the tent, all forces were pulled into the search area, and a search headquarters was formed. Evgeny Polikarpovich Maslennikov, master of sports of the USSR in tourism, was appointed the head of the search, and Colonel Georgy Semyonovich Ortyukov, teacher of the military department of the UPI, was appointed chief of staff. On the same day, one and a half kilometers from the tent and 280 m down the slope, next to the traces of a fire, the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were found. They were stripped down to their underwear. 300 meters from them, up the slope and in the direction of the tent, lay the body of Igor Dyatlov. 180 meters from him, up the slope, they found the corpse of Rustem Slobodin, and 150 meters from Slobodin, even higher, - Zina Kolmogorova. There were no signs of violence on the corpses, all people died from hypothermia. Slobodin had a traumatic brain injury, which could be accompanied by repeated loss of consciousness and contributed to freezing.

The search took place in several stages from February to May. On May 4, 75 meters from the fire, under a four-meter layer of snow, in the bed of a stream that had already begun to melt, the bodies of Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Zolotarev, Nikolai Thibault-Brignolles and Alexander Kolevatov were found. Three had serious injuries: Dubinina and Zolotarev had rib fractures, Thibault-Brignolles had a severe head injury. Kolevatov did not have any serious injuries, except for damage to his head caused by an avalanche probe, with which they searched for bodies. Thus, the search work ended with the discovery of the bodies of all participants in the campaign.

It was found that the death of all members of the group occurred on the night of February 1-2. Despite the efforts of the search engines, a complete picture of the incident has not been established. It remains unclear what really happened to the group that night, why they left the tent, how they acted further, under what circumstances the four tourists were injured and how it happened that no one survived.

official investigation

The official investigation was opened by the prosecutor of the Ivdelsky district Tempalov on the fact of the discovery of the found corpses on February 28, 1959, was conducted for two months, then it was extended for another month and was closed on May 28, 1959. , apparently, faced some dangerous circumstances in which no signs of a crime are seen, and could not successfully resist them, as a result of which she died. The investigation, first of all, studied the circumstances of the case regarding the possibility of other people being in the area of the death of the group at the time of the events. Versions of a deliberate attack on the group were checked (by the Mansi, runaway prisoners or anyone else). The task of fully elucidating the circumstances of the death of the group, apparently, was not set at all, since from the point of view of the goals of the investigation (making a decision on the existence of a crime), this was not of decisive importance.

Based on the results of the investigation, organizational conclusions were made regarding a number of leaders of tourism in the UPI, since their actions were seen as insufficient attention to the organization and security of amateur (the term "sports" was not yet used at that time) tourism.

The full case file has never been published. In a limited volume, they were available to the journalist of the Regional Newspaper of Yekaterinburg, Anatoly Gushchin, who quoted some of them in his documentary story “The price of state secrets is 9 lives”. According to Gushchin, a young specialist Korotaev V. I. of the Ivdel prosecutor's office was appointed the first investigator. He began to develop a version of the murder of tourists and was removed from the case, as the management demanded that the event be presented as an accident. L.I. Ivanov, a forensic prosecutor of the Sverdlovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, was appointed investigator. The materials of the investigation by V.I. Korotaev are absent from the archival criminal case, which consists of one volume, an album and a package labeled “Top Secret”. According to Yu. E. Yudin, who was acquainted with the case, it contains technical correspondence from the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region and the prosecutor's office of the RSFSR, which got acquainted with the case in the manner of prosecutorial supervision.

According to some commentators, the investigation did not study the facts fully enough to unequivocally classify the incident as a crime or an accident. In particular, the belonging of some of the found items and the reasons for their appearance in the area of the death of the group were not established (sheaths, soldier's windings and other items of unknown origin were found). Later it turned out that the ebonite sheath found near the cedar was suitable for the knife of A. Kolevatov (a number of sources mention the second sheath near the tent). It has not been determined with what tool the trunks of the flooring found near the stream were cut down or cut off; to apply these fractures and whether it was of artificial origin. The source of the radioactivity of some items of clothing is vaguely identified. It remains unclear whether a biochemical examination of the blood and bioassays of the bodies of tourists was carried out, which (according to Gushchin) were selected and packed by Korotaev in Ivdel. There are no decisions in the case on recognizing the relatives of the dead tourists as victims, and therefore their legal representatives cannot exercise their rights to participate in a new investigation of the criminal case, if there are legal grounds for such.

In 1990, L.I. Ivanov, who was conducting the investigation, published an article in the newspaper Kustanaiskaya Pravda, “The Mystery of Fireballs,” in which he stated that the case had been closed at the request of the authorities, and the real cause of the death of the group was hidden: “... Everyone was told that the tourists were in an extreme situation and froze to death… …But that was not true. The true causes of death were hidden from the people, and only a few knew these reasons: the former first secretary of the regional committee A.P. Kirilenko, the second secretary of the regional committee A.F. Eshtokin, the prosecutor of the region N.I. Klimov and the author of these lines, who were investigating the case ... ". In the same article, L.I. Ivanov suggested that a UFO could be the cause of the death of tourists. Some researchers suggest that the mystical bias that prevailed in the press of the 90s, and references to such artifacts, indicate the impossibility of the investigation to clearly and in detail explain the causes of the tragedy due to the imperfection of knowledge, both on the part of the investigators and in the scientific community of that time.

There are more than twenty versions of why the Dyatlov group died, from everyday to fantastic

And now the versions:

1. Quarrel between tourists
This version was not taken as serious by any of the tourists who had experience close to the experience of the Dyatlov group, not to mention the greater one, which the vast majority of tourists have above the 1st category according to the modern classification. Due to the specifics of training in tourism as a sport, potential conflicts are eliminated already at the stage of preliminary training. The Dyatlov group was similar and well prepared by the standards of that time, so the conflict that led to the emergency development of events was excluded under any circumstances. It is possible to assume the development of events by analogy with what could happen in a group of young difficult-to-educate adolescents only from the position of an average person who has no idea about the traditions and specifics of sports tourism. Especially characteristic of the youth environment of the 1950s.

3. Avalanche.
The version suggests that an avalanche descended on the tent, the tent collapsed under a load of snow, the tourists cut the wall during the evacuation from it, after which it became impossible to stay in the tent until morning. Their further actions due to the onset of hypothermia were not quite adequate, which ultimately led to death. It was also suggested that the severe injuries received by some of the tourists were caused by the avalanche.

4. Influence of infrasound.
Infrasound can occur when an air object is flying low above the ground, as well as as a result of resonance in natural cavities or other natural objects under the action of wind, or when it flows around solid objects, due to the occurrence of aeroelastic oscillations. Under the influence of infrasound, tourists experienced an attack of uncontrollable fear, which explains the flight.
Some expeditions visiting the area have noted an unusual condition that may be due to the effects of infrasound. In the Mansi legends there are also references to oddities, which can also be interpreted in a similar way.

5. Ball lightning.
As a variant of a natural phenomenon that frightened tourists and thus initiated further events, ball lightning is no better or worse than any other assumption, but this version also suffers from a lack of direct evidence. As well as the absence of any statistics on the occurrence of BL in winter in the Northern latitudes.

6. Attack by escaped prisoners.
The investigation requested nearby ITUs and received an answer that no prisoners escaped during the period of interest. In winter, shoots in the Northern Urals are problematic due to the severity of natural conditions and the inability to move outside permanent roads. In addition, this version is opposed by the fact that all things, money, valuables, food and alcohol remained intact.

7. Death at the hands of Mansi

“Kholat-Syakhyl, a mountain (1079 m) on the watershed ridge between the upper reaches of the Lozva and its tributary, the Auspiya, 15 km southeast of Otorten. Mansi "Kholat" - "the dead", that is, Kholat-Syahyl - the mountain of the dead. There is a legend that nine Mansi once died on this peak. Sometimes it is added that this happened during the Flood. According to another version, during the flood, hot water flooded everything around, except for a place on the top of the mountain, sufficient for a person to lie down. But Mansi, who found refuge here, died. Hence the name of the mountain ... "
However, despite this, neither Mount Otorten nor Kholat-Syakhyl are sacred to the Mansi.

Or a conflict with hunters:

The first suspects were local Mansi hunters. According to investigators, they quarreled with the tourists and attacked them. Some were seriously injured, others managed to escape and then died from hypothermia. Several Mansi were arrested, but they categorically denied their guilt. It is not known how their fate would have developed (the law enforcement agencies of those years were perfect in the art of gaining recognition), but the examination established that the cuts on the tourists' tent were made not from the outside, but from the inside. It was not the attackers who "burst" into the tent, but the tourists themselves tried to get out of it. In addition, no extraneous traces were found around the tent, supplies remained intact (and they were of considerable value to the Mansi). Therefore, the hunters had to be released.

8. Tests of secret weapons - one of the most popular versions.
It has been suggested that the tourists were hit by some kind of weapon being tested, the effects of which provoked the flight, and possibly directly contributed to the deaths. As damaging factors, such as vapors of rocket fuel components, a sodium cloud from a specially equipped rocket, and a blast wave were named, the action of which explains injuries. As confirmation, the excessive radioactivity of the clothes of some tourists recorded by the investigation is given.

Or, for example, testing a nuclear weapon:

Having dealt with the enemy's intrigues, let's consider the version of a secret test of nuclear weapons in the area where the Dyatlov group is located (this is how they try to explain the traces of radiation on the clothes of the dead). Alas, from October 1958 to September 1961, the USSR did not carry out any nuclear explosions, observing the Soviet-American agreement on a moratorium on such tests. Both we and the Americans carefully monitored the observance of "nuclear silence". In addition, with an atomic explosion, traces of radiation would have been on all members of the group, but the examination recorded radioactivity only on the clothes of three tourists. Some “experts” explain the unnatural orange-red color of the skin and clothes of the deceased by the fall of the Soviet ballistic missile R-7 in the area of the Dyatlov group’s parking lot: supposedly it scared the tourists, and fuel vapors, being on clothes and skin, caused such a strange reaction. But rocket fuel does not “color” a person, but instantly kills. Tourists would have died near their tent. In addition, as the investigation established, no rocket launches were carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the period from January 25 to February 5, 1959.

9. UFO.
The version is purely speculative, it relies on observations made at other times of some luminous objects, but there is no evidence of a group meeting with such an object.

10. Bigfoot.
The version about the appearance of a “snowman” (relic hominoid) near the tent, at first glance, explains both the stampede of tourists and the nature of the injuries - according to Mikhail Trakhtengerts, a member of the board of the Russian association of cryptozoologists, “as if someone had already hugged them very tightly ". Tracks, the edges of which by the time the search began would already be indistinct, could simply be mistaken for blowing or protruding stones sprinkled with snow. In addition, the search team was primarily looking for traces of people, and such atypical prints could simply be ignored.

11. Dwarfs from the mainland Arctida, Descendants of the ancient Aryans, and so on in the same vein.
The version is that the group stumbled upon some artifacts belonging to representatives of certain legendary peoples, sects, carefully hiding from people, or met with them themselves and was destroyed to keep the secret. No unambiguously interpreted confirmation of this version (as well as evidence of the existence of these peoples or sects) is given.

12. Zolotarev's special service past (Yefim Saturday's version).

He was forced to move from place to place, hiding from those who had reason to take revenge on him (former colleagues or victims of SMERSH). Zolotarev could not turn to the authorities for help, because he had a "secret", which he did not want to share. This "secret" was the goal of Zolotarev's pursuers. Semyon moved farther and farther until he ended up in the Urals.

13. Version of Galka about the crash of a military transport aircraft
In a nutshell, the fuel carrier aircraft made an emergency release of cargo, presumably methanol (or itself collapsed in the air). The methanol caused sliding, unusually moving landslides, then possibly an avalanche.

14. This is the work of the KGB.

Many facts of hiding, evidence, correcting information and ignoring certain facts.

15. Military poachers

It is our military who have long been the most unpunished of all possible poachers. Try to catch up with a combat helicopter on a motorcycle or an ordinary motor boat. At the same time, often, shooting is carried out at everything “that moves”, and the military personnel sometimes do not think about the problem of collecting their hunting trophies at all.

16. Crime, gold.

In the village of 2nd Severny (the last settlement), still with Yudin, who left the group, they visited a warehouse of geological samples. We took some stones with us. Yudin took some (or all?) of it with him in his backpack. From Kolmogorova's diary: “I took several samples. I saw this breed for the first time after drilling. There is a lot of chalcopyrite and pyrite here.” Several sources note that among the “locals” during the search and investigation there were rumors: “The guys’ backpacks were stuffed with gold.” In principle, some samples outwardly could resemble gold. And they could be radioactive to one degree or another. Maybe they were looking for these stones (even if they were taken by tourists by mistake?)

17. Political, anti-party and anti-Soviet overtones

ill-fated "magic power of a piece of paper", which gave official status to the Dyatlov group of tourists, with all the ensuing consequences, can be compared with a plane ticket doomed to inevitable death with all its passengers.
If the Dyatlovites had set off as ordinary wild tourists along with the Blinovites, then both episodes involving the police could seriously affect the behavior of Yura Krivonischenko, and in the village. Vizhay there would be no special need to stop, and if you had to spend the night there, then you would spend the night “in the same club where we were 2 years ago”. They would not have had to communicate with the leadership of the colony, thereby worsening their living conditions in the village. Vizhay. The Dyatlovites would not have had to advertise in the village of Vizhay the purpose of their campaign, timed to coincide with the beginning of the XXI Congress of the CPSU ...

18. The mysterious death of the members of the Dyatlov group was associated with airborne electric discharge explosions of fragments of a small comet.

Quite quickly identified about a dozen witnesses who said that on the day of the murder of students, a balloon flew by. Witnesses: Mansi Anyamov, Sanbindalov, Kurikov - not only described him, but also drew him (these drawings were later removed from the file). All these materials were soon demanded by Moscow...

19. A slightly modified version of a thunderstorm based on the fact that it is lightning discharges that are a direct consequence of the death of the group, and not temperature or a snowstorm.

20 Zeki fled, and they had to be either caught or destroyed.

Catch in the winter in forest thickets? It makes no sense. Destroy - than.
No, not cruise missiles, of course, and not vacuum bombs. Used gases. Most likely a nerve agent.

Or like this:

One of the versions of conspiracy theorists: the Dyatlov group was liquidated by the special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which pursued the escaped prisoners (I must say, there really were a lot of “zones” in the northern Urals). At night, the special forces collided with tourists in the forest, mistook them for "convicts" and killed them. At the same time, for some reason, the mysterious special forces did not use either cold or firearms: there were no stab or bullet wounds on the body of the dead. In addition, it is known that in the 50s. escaped prisoners at night in the wilderness of the forest were usually not pursued - too much risk. They passed orientations to the authorities in the nearest settlements and waited: you won’t last long in the forest without supplies, willy-nilly, the fugitives had to go to “civilization”. And most importantly! Investigators asked for information about the escapes of "convicts" from the surrounding "zones". It turned out that in late January - early February there were no shoots. Therefore, there was no one to catch the special forces on Kholat-Syahyl.

21. "Controlled Delivery"

And here is the most “exotic” version: it turns out that the Dyatlov group was liquidated by ... foreign agents! Why? To disrupt the KGB operation: after all, the student hike was just a cover for the “controlled delivery” of radioactive clothing to enemy agents. The explanations for this amazing theory are not without wit. It is known that investigators found traces of a radioactive substance on the clothes of three dead tourists. Conspiracy theorists linked this fact with the biography of one of the dead - Georgy Krivonischenko. He worked in the closed city of atomic scientists Ozersk (Chelyabinsk-40), where plutonium was produced for atomic bombs. Samples of radioactive clothing provided invaluable information for foreign intelligence. Krivonischenko, who worked for the KGB, was supposed to meet with enemy agents at the Kholat-Syakhyl mountain and hand over radioactive “material” to them. But Krivonischenko "pierced" on something, and then the enemy agents, covering their tracks, destroyed the entire Dyatlov group. The killers acted subtly: threatening with weapons, but not using it (they didn’t want to leave traces), they drove the young people out of the tent into the cold without shoes, to certain death. For a while, the saboteurs waited, then followed in the footsteps of the group and brutally finished off those who did not freeze. Thriller, and more! And now - let's think. How could the KGB officers plan a "controlled delivery" in a remote area that they did not control? Where could they neither observe the operation nor secure their agent? Absurd. And where did the spies come from among the Ural forests, where was their base? Only the invisible man will not "light up" in small surrounding villages: their inhabitants know each other by sight and immediately pay attention to strangers. And why did the adversaries, who conceived a cunning staging of the death of tourists from hypothermia, suddenly seem to be distraught and began torturing their victims - breaking ribs, tearing out their tongues, eyes? And how did these invisible maniacs manage to get away from the persecution of the ubiquitous KGB? The conspiracy theorists do not have answers to all these questions.

Rakitin's version

22. Meteorite

The forensic medical examination, examining the nature of the injuries inflicted on the members of the group, came to the conclusion that they "very similar to the injury that occurred during an air blast wave." Examining the area, the investigators found traces of fire on some trees. It seemed as if some unknown force selectively affected both the dead people and the trees. In the late 1920s scientists were able to assess the consequences of the impact of such a natural phenomenon. It was in the area where the Tunguska meteorite fell. According to the memoirs of the participants of that expedition, badly burned trees in the epicenter of the explosion could be next to the survivors. Scientists could not logically explain such a strange "selectivity" of the flame. The investigators in the case of the "Dyatlovites" could not find out all the details either: on May 28, 1959, a command was received "from above" - to close the case, classify all materials and hand them over to the special archive. The final conclusion of the investigation turned out to be very vague: "It should be considered that the cause of the death of tourists was an elemental force, which people were not able to overcome."

23. Methyl alcohol poisoning.
There were 2 flasks of ethyl alcohol in the group, which were found unopened. No other alcohol-containing objects or traces of them were found.

24. Meeting with a bear.
According to the recollections of people who knew Dyatlov, he had the experience of meeting wild animals on a campaign and knew how to act in such situations, so it is unlikely that such an attack would lead to the flight of the group. In addition, there were no traces of a large predator in the area, no traces of its attack on the bodies of already frozen tourists. This version is also contradicted by the fact that several members of the group, judging by the position of the bodies, tried to return to the abandoned tent - no one would do this in the dark, when it is impossible to make sure that the beast had already left.

What other versions did I miss?

Which version do you think is more likely?

4 (3.5 % )

5 (4.4 % )

17 (14.9 % )

6 (5.3 % )

At the moment when, having set up a tent on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated from Mansi - “Mountain of the Dead”), the tourists were getting ready for bed, something happened that made them leave the shelter in a panic, setting off down the slope. All were later found dead, presumably from the cold. Several people had severe internal injuries, as if they had fallen from a height or been hit by a car at speed (no significant skin damage was found).

The first days of the hike along the active part of the route passed without any serious incidents. Tourists advanced on skis along the Lozva River, and then along its tributary Auspiya. On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl or peak "1079" (on later maps its height is given as 1096.7 m), not far from the nameless pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).

A large tent of the Dyatlov group, sewn from several small ones. Inside was a portable stove designed by Dyatlov.

Mansi "runes". The traditional system of Mansi individual "marking". The signs are called "tamgi" ("tamga" in singular). Each Mansi has his own personal tamga. It's like a generic business card, a signature that is left in some memorable places - usually hunting or parking places. Let's say a hunter got an elk, butchered it and left it to take it out later. He makes a stes and marks it with his tamga.

According to experts, the start of climbing the mountain in bad weather was Dyatlov's mistake, which may have caused the tragedy.

One of the last photos. Tourists are clearing a place for a tent on a mountainside.

The whole picture of the tragedy points to numerous mysteries and oddities in the behavior of the Dyatlovites, most of which are practically inexplicable.

- Why did they not run away from the tent, but retreated in a line, with the usual step?

“Why did they need to kindle a fire near a tall cedar in a windswept area?”

Why did they break cedar branches at a height of up to 5 meters when there were many small trees around for a fire?

“How could they get such terrible injuries on level ground?”

“Why didn’t those who reached the stream and built sun loungers there survive, because even in the cold it was possible to hold out until the morning?”

- And finally, the most important thing - what made the group leave the tent at the same time and in such a hurry with practically no clothes, no shoes and no equipment?

The tent discovered by the search group:

And on March 31, a very remarkable event occurred: all members of the search group who were in the camp in the Lozva valley saw a UFO. Valentin Yakimenko, a participant in those events, in his memoirs very succinctly described what happened: “It was still dark early in the morning. The orderly Viktor Meshcheryakov left the tent and saw a luminous ball moving across the sky. Woke everyone up. For 20 minutes we watched the movement of the ball (or disk) until it disappeared behind the mountainside. We saw him in the southeast of the tent. He moved in a northerly direction. This phenomenon shocked everyone. We were sure that the death of the Dyatlovites had something to do with him.” What they saw was reported to the headquarters of the search operation, located in Ivdel. The appearance of a UFO in the case gave the investigation an unexpected direction. Someone remembered that "fireballs" were observed in approximately the same area on February 17, 1959, about which there was even a publication in the Tagil Worker newspaper. And the investigation, resolutely rejecting the version of "malicious Mansi killers", began to work in a new direction. Well-preserved traces of the Dyatlovites:

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