Teodora Hadjiyska and Igor Pavlov

Teodora Hadjiyska

I am all over the map: born in Bulgaria and raised in Cuba, I lived for ten years in the US, am currently based in Austria, and never stay for too long in one place. My lifestyle is that of a traveler, explorer, and mountaineer, with a propensity for finding myself in the center of disasters. I have been caught up in avalanches, volcano eruptions, rockfalls, and permafrost slide. Staying home does not help much – one evening, while I was watching TV, the ceiling collapsed right on top of me. If I am going to die, I prefer to do it somewhere with a view. In 2012, I was evacuated from Karangetang, an active volcano on the island of Siau, Sulawesi, Indonesia. I found myself bedridden with a subdural hematoma, shattered elbow and scapula, flail chest, and six broken ribs after a near-death accident with a runaway truck. If you know anything about the Dyatlov case, you will notice a close similarity between my trauma and that of two of the hikers – a trauma that, in 1959, the pathologist described as hard to explain under the circumstances. It looked as if it had been caused by a fast moving car, and he referred to it as a high velocity trauma, but the nearest road was hundreds of miles. It so happened that, after surviving Karangetang, I read about the incident on Dyatlov Pass, and I have not stopped researching it since.

Igor Pavlov

Igor Pavlov was a nuclear physicist. Graduate of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now St. Petersburg Polytechnic University) with a degree in Dosimetry and Radiation Protection. He took part in decontamination activities after the Chernobyl accident, in international research programs in collaboration with specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Lund University (Sweden), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU Uppsala, Sweden), National Defense Research Establishment, Sweden (FOA, now Swedish Defense Research Agency, FOI).

Pavlov has been investigating the causes of the death of the Dyatlov group since 2009. He focused on the analysis of archival documents and witness recollections. Author of most well-known textual transcripts of handwritten documents of 1959, such as criminal case files, diary entries, and testimonies of the search group members. He had the complete archive of materials on the topic. He collaborated with leading researchers of the tragedy. Lived in St. Petersburg (Russia).

I have an emotional and karmic bond with the case, Pavlov had the best sources of all kinds. Together we made a strong case.