Elena Kolevatova's letters

At the beginning of March 2014, I received a letter from a well-known researcher with an offer to talk to Elena Kolevatova. I got her address and phone number. After some hesitation, I agreed.

I called Elena, having prepared several 'burning' questions.

Elena answered me, having first asked me at length and meticulously how I knew her phone number and address. I told her everything as it was.

The conversation began gradually. First of all, I asked whether Sasha Kolevatov had been baptized, because my friends and I were interested in the matter at that time. Elena said that 'the older children were definitely baptized', but she was not sure about the younger ones. Also, at the request of one of the researchers, I asked about her grandfather, Sasha Kolevatov's father, what he was doing in Tavda. Elena replied that her grandfather was a chief accountant, he was transferred from one enterprise to another for work. He worked at a plywood factory in Tavda. Sasha lived there with his mother.

Then we talked about Rimma Sergeyevna, Elena's mother, and comrade Ryagin, whose map the Dyatlov group received for their expedition to Otorten. For certain reasons, I will not retell the conversation about Ryagin. I have already passed on Elena's answer to anyone who asked about it. I was not authorized to voice her answers about Ryagin.

When I asked her what does Rimma Kolevatova think happened to the Dyatlov group, Elena said that she doesn't feel like discussing this question over the phone. It would be better to write me a letter. Of course, I asked if Elena used the Internet, could we correspond by e-mail? No, Elena answered, she almost never goes online, and although she has an e-mail address, she has not used e-mail for a long time, she has a computer at work, but they are forbidden to go online. We came to an agreement that I would send Elena my letter with questions and scans of materials about Sasha, and Elena would write me back. We agreed that we would send the letters in printed form, so that there would be no problems with deciphering handwriting. Elena also asked me that as soon as I sent the letter, I would call Elena so that she would know approximately when to expect it. And when I receive her letter, I will call Elena that I have received her letter. And that's how our conversation ended.

I sent a long letter to Yekaterinburg with questions, also adding the material "Remembering Sasha Kolevatov", based on the story that Valentina, a participant in the hikes led by Aleksander Kolevatov, told Mihail Antonov. My letter to Yekaterinburg and Elena's reply to me in Spain took almost three months. Sometimes I even forgot that I was waiting for a letter. But in my heart I believed that since Elena promised, she would write back. Even if not to all the questions, and there were a great many of them, then at least she would send an answer that she did not want to answer the questions. And just on my birthday, I received a message from the postman that a package had arrived for me. My first thought was about Elena Kolevatova, it was her letter. It turned out to be a package from Denmark, from a friend, for my birthday. But from that day on, I began to eagerly wait for Elena's letter, as if I felt that it was about to arrive. It arrived on June 10, the day of St. Elena Diveevskaya. And it was sent on May 26, as I saw from the postmark. On my birthday! Such coincidences happen.

The letter is on three sheets of paper, printed on both sides. It turns out that there are six completely filled pages, the pages are numbered by me myself, for the convenience of scanning and publishing.

On my question weather it was possible to show her letter to researchers on the Internet, Elena thought about it, filled with doubt. Should the life of her relatives be put on public display? I understand her, knowing how dangerous some Dyatlov researchers are in their cruelty and narrow-mindedness in perceiving the facts. I showed the letter I received to the person who gave me Elena's address and phone number. I was warned that the letter would be torn to pieces figuratively speaking.

But still, there are normal, kind people in Dyatlov studies. It is to them that Elena's memories are addressed. They will understand that Elena told what her relatives, and especially her mother, once told her. They could spare her and soften or keep silent about some things.

And who are these so-called Dyatlov experts to criticize and doubt the words of a person who wanted to share memories of Sasha Kolevatov, a person about whom we still know nothing, since no memories of his relatives were ever left?

My hands were shaking with excitement when I was opening the letter. And when I started reading the letter, I just broke down, tears gushed, so shocked and excited was I by her simple story. I was especially shocked by the mention of a dream that Rimma Sergeyevna had on February 2nd or 3rd, Elena does not remember the exact date. This dream "was about saying goodby" - that's how she described it. This is the first admission by relatives that one of them dreamed of the deceased Dyatlov group. And he dreamed on a specific day, which may carry an important message about the date of the group's death. Only those who themselves shed tears from suddenly breaking out feelings for the Dyatlov group will understand me. I now recall the words of one researcher, how he looked at photographs all night and suddenly began to sob over the one where Semyon exchanges a hat with Kolya. Laugh at our tears and feelings, you, callous people, we are like this. And you are not our judges.

I called Elena, as I promised, that her letter had arrived safely. Of course, I was overwhelmed with emotions and questions, the answers to which I simply could not wait another three months. I asked about the knife and sheath. I asked about Sasha's notebook. Elena told me that she had moved, that she had written a letter to the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda, that she wanted to meet and talk with them, but the move postponed this meeting. The journalists came and did not find Elena at the old address. She asked me to contact them when she was ready to meet with the journalists. I promised to help. I have already given all the phone numbers to Elena. So a new report about the Dyatlov group is expected in the near future.

It's a pity that in her first letter Elena never got to the point what Rimma Kolevatova's version was, so I asked about it over the phone. The answer was - the missile theory. Elena liked the Komsomolskaya Pravda article, which had an interview with some 'missile man'. It seems that Sergey Sogrin also liked this article, he mentioned it positively in one of his letters. I am not a supporter of the missile version, I consider it disinformation, specially launched among the population and the investigative group by the KGB back in March 1959. Therefore, I ignore all this information, don't hold it against me. Those who need it will find the material themselves.

Elena said that she has not yet written about what happened at the Dyatlov group's funeral, around the organization of the funeral, that Rimma Sergeevna was aware of many events. Elena promised to write about it the next letter.

I also asked to write in more detail about the dream that Rimma Kolevatova had. This topic interests me especially.

Knife and sheath

Unfortunately, Elena couldn't take a photo of the knife because that her camera was broken, but promised to take a photo and send it later. In the meantime, she outlined the the knife on the page of her letter to clearly show its dimensions. At first, I took this drawing for scribbles that children like to leave on adults' papers. But after reading the letter, I realized what these lines mean. Yes, this is the very knife that Sasha had with him on his last trek to Otorten, and the sheath for it, the very same Rimma Kolevatova personally identified - Elena confirmed. The knife is approximately 23.5 cm in size from the tip of the blade to the tip of the handle. The length of the blade itself is approximately 12.2 cm.

As Elena said, this is a kitchen knife, it has been in the family for a long time, Sasha and Rimma Sergeyevna herself took it on trips. She considered it a family heirloom, treasured it as a memory of Sasha. Therefore, she begged investigator Ivanov to return this knife to the relatives. Lev Ivanov, for reasons known only to him, did not want to give back either the knife or the sheath. Then he agreed to return only one of the two items: either the knife or the sheath. Rimma Sergeyevna chose the knife. The scabbard remained with the investigator.

This photo was taken during a meeting between documentary film director Eduard Anishchenko and Elena Kolevatova.

I remember Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle's camera, which investigator Ivanov showed to Kolya's relatives, but never gave it back, locked it in the safe. And the plea of ​​Semyon Zolotaryov's mother to return her son's camera.

Sasha didn't have a camera on that hike, - said Elena.

Sasha's diaries and notebooks, where are they?

I was shocked when I heard Elena's answer. Yes, all of Sasha's old notebooks and diaries were kept in the family until recently. And then Elena burned them: notebooks, hiking diaries, maps... I don't remember about the photos, whether she burned them too. But I asked for the photos, if they survived. At first Elena wanted to give all the diaries and maps to the hiking club, as she said. I did not want to interrupt her asking which club because it did not matter anymore. But then she saw some TV show, "Battle of Psychics" or Malakhov's show, other shows came on, Elena was very outraged by what was said on TV, and decided that all these personal diaries and maps of Sasha should not fall into the hands of strangers, "psychics", as Elena said, and she burned them. She says that when she burned them, she cried. But at that moment she was going through a difficult period - she was very ill, afraid to die at any moment and leave Sasha's personal things to strangers. "I did not want psychics to rummage through these diaries."

Let's hope that manuscripts do not burn. That Sasha Kolevatov's diary from that last hike will appear someday.

Sasha's notebook from that last hike was not returned to them, and the family was not told anything about it at all.

Well, that's all for now.

There are still many questions left unanswered.

I am very grateful to Elena for her letter. This is the first message from close relatives about Sasha Kolevatov. Not the memories of strangers, but the memories of a loved one.

Elena Kolevatova's letter

"I never heard of any Old Believers in the family. Both my grandmother and one of her sisters, whom I knew well, were sincerely and deeply religious people, but they didn’t flaunt it. As was customary in those days, as a teenager, my grandmother was sent to Yekaterinburg to become a milliner-hatter. My grandmother trained as a dressmaker, seamstress, hat maker and furrier and met my grandfather. Unfortunately, I know almost nothing about his family, I think they came from Vyatka. They got married, their eldest daughter Nina was born, and the civil war began. My grandfather was mobilized into the White Army, he even had some low rank, but he was a paramedic. As you understand, a profession that was extremely in demand in those days. Somewhere far away in Siberia, he was seriously wounded, and my grandmother, leaving her little daughter with relatives, went to nurse him. By the way, his brother fought for the Reds - a classic situation. Grandma and Grandpa returned to Yekaterinburg, and they had Vera, Angelina, Rimma, Sasha and Tanyusha, who died young. I assume that the older daughters were baptized, but I was never able to find out about Mom and Sasha. The fight against religion began; the older daughters asked not to ruin their future and their father's career. Grandpa by then became an accountant, he was appointed chief accountant "to strengthen production" at various enterprises, so he was a very noticeable figure, and the family's religiosity could have greatly displeased his superiors. But it is possible that Grandma and her sister baptized the younger ones secretly and did not tell anyone. Alas, only they know about it. The family did not live well, since there was almost no personal farm, but it was fun. Grandpa and Grandma often invited guests and went to the opera house at least once a week. Grandfather had a large library, as far as I remember, Balzac, Mark Twain, good children's books. With all his extraordinary appearance (he was over 180 cm tall, stately, a classic white officer), he loved to play with children. Although he had little free time, he never even went on vacation. In the winter he always built a huge snow slide for the children, sometimes he built an ice fortress. In the summer, he made a real small house for the younger ones, for which grandmother sewed small curtains and a bed. Unfortunately, grandfather died early - he was hit by a train, and grandmother was left alone with the children, and not very healthy either. She was already starting to have rheumatism. They got by as best as they could.

Grandpa was still alive when aunt Nina entered medical school, she really was an excellent student, a Komsomol member, an athlete and just a beautiful girl, as they say in the famous film. I saw her old photo, she looks like Greta Garbo. She actively participated in public life, went to extinguish peat bogs, there was this a very dangerous occupation. By the end of the institute she married Nikolay Anatolyevich Anisimov, a designer, from the nobility. During the war he worked as the head of the design bureau at Kalinin Plant, which was a position more important than any general director now. He was awarded the Stalin Prize. They had a daughter Tanya and a son Tolya, who died several years ago. Aunt Nina worked as a radiologist at the UPI clinic, she was a very famous specialist, but I have not heard any information about the participants of the expedition.

Aunt Vera was also a good student, loved to grow flowers and participate in amateur performances. Later, she entered the UPI in the chemical engineering department, and then in graduate school. She was fond of embroidery, I still have a shirt that my grandmother sewed for Sasha, which aunt Vera embroidered. It was with aunt Vera that our family became interested in photography and hiking. Later, she was invited to work at the Perm Polytechnic Institute, and she organized the department of general chemistry there. By this time, she had already managed to make several trips abroad, to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, India. In those years, few people could leave the country. She did not get married, she did not have children.

Angelina went to work at a confectionery factory early. Then she ran away from home when she was not yet 16 years old, and for a very long time the family knew nothing about her. She settled in Chechnya, married a very good man, Alexander Shevchenko. I think he was a railway worker. She had children, Tanya, Nina and Vasya. I think that's all. She died quite early, I think from overwork. Mom visited her once, I don't remember what year, and she came here once, I wasn't even born then.

The next sister to be born was my mother, Rimma. A very independent girl, grandma's biggest helper. By that time the older ones were studying, so it was mostly my mother who had to help with the housework and babysit the younger ones. Nevertheless, she was a straight-A student and loved to read. Her favorite game was not shopping or playing house, but going to the library. After school, she entered a teacher training college, after which she was assigned to work as a head teacher. Unfortunately, I don't know the school number, I can only show you where it is. My mother was not afraid of the position or the fact that some of the repeating students were her peers, she organized the work in the best possible way. I was incredibly surprised that a representative of the teaching staff came to her funeral, although I did not tell them and my mother had not worked there for over 50 years. But I will not get ahead of myself. The school was ordinary, not privileged, the contingent was quite diverse. There were a lot of punks who could gouge out your eyes, there were also children of high-ranking parents, for example, the chief prosecutor of the region, the head of the geological exploration department. As you understand, this played a significant role in collecting information on the search for the Dyatlov group, and I believe that many facts became known to my mother before the investigator. The children in my mother's class studied incredibly well, my mother was almost fired when they decided that she was "engaged in falsifications". The commission could not believe that all the children in the class, including the boys, simply knew Russian perfectly well! In the evenings they drew wall newspapers and did extracurricular activities, on Sundays they went on hikes around the neighboring country sides. When the Dendrological Park was organized in our city, the children there were so active in helping to plant flowers that the school was thanked. The parents could not stop rejoicing, there were many who wanted to get into my mother's class. I myself am a testimony to my mother's extraordinary teaching abilities: she easily put all the knowledge of the Russian language from 5 years of study into my head in less than a month. And she understood mathematics even better. My mother entered the pedagogical institute by correspondence (it was not possible to study full-time, it was impossible to live on a scholarship) and graduated with success, one of two from the entire group who graduated. By the way, what is interesting is that during the difficult war and post-war times, in a family without a father, all the children (except Angelina) received higher education, and in those years, not everyone finished school. Later, my mother was invited to work at the pedagogical institute, where she worked until almost 80 years old. As for her hobbies, despite being very busy while working at school, my mother still loved to read, embroidered on a machine (a very labor-intensive activity), did ballroom dancing, went hiking when she had a free day off, either with friends in the surrounding area, or on vacation in Crimea and the Caucasus. Unfortunately, her dream of visiting Lake Baikal never came true. She has only one daughter, me. By the way, I was born after the group died, so I am telling you everything from what my relatives said.

And finally, a long-awaited son was born into the family. At first, the child was sickly, suffered from rickets, but gradually recovered. Mom was assigned to Sasha as a nanny, and so they grew up together. One of their favorite games was "School", as a result of which Sasha at an early age and unexpectedly for his parents learned to read and amazed his father, having read the headline in the newspaper. So reading early became one of his favorite activities. As I said, there was a good library at home, and mom often brought books from the school library. Once, already being a teenager, he read about blacks and on a warm summer evening was left in his underwear; rubbed himself from head to toe with coal, tied a tong behind so that the horns stuck out, hung a necklace of electrical insulators around his neck, took a spear in his hands and stood at the gate. What he expected, I don’t know, but the herd, seeing such a miracle, roared and scattered. The housewives spent a long time catching their cattle and came to grandma with complaints. They had to tell her that she had spanked her son. Grandma, unlike his kind and caring grandfather, was more often given a harsh educational treatment. However, the family's good life did not last long: grandpa died, the war began. During the war, grandma and Sasha lived in Tavda, by this time grandma's arms and legs were already poorly obeying due to rheumatism. Mom studied at a pedagogical college in Sverdlovsk, aunt Vera - at the chemistry department of UPI. Aunt Nina was already raising children by that time. You see, by the time the war began, the family was left without their only breadwinner, grandma was sick, the children were studying. This means there were almost no vegetable garden, no work card, no firewood. How everyone survived is beyond comprehension. Mom even worked during the holidays, I think, at a bakery. As a loader, at 14 years old! And we had to bring firewood from the forest ourselves, we didn't have a horse. This continued for four years, and it didn't get much easier after the war.

But little by little life began to improve. Aunt Vera entered graduate school, and she was given a room in the dormitory. Everyone moved together: grandma, aunt Vera, mom and Sasha. The fact that Sasha was sent to Moscow after technical school did not surprise anyone: he studied well, he was a noticeable person. In those years, for serious production people were selected based on their business qualities. In Moscow, he lived in a room in an apartment, his neighbors were, I think, from the same enterprise. It seems that he had a girlfriend at that time, but he did not introduce her to his family, and it was not customary to pry into someones personal affairs. By the way, about girls. It was said here that girls did not like Sasha, I have to disagree with this. First of all, like his sisters, he did not divide people by gender. For him, it was more important what kind of person he was, and not whether he was a guy or a girl. Being an intelligent, interesting, decent, cheerful person, he tried to communicate with the people of the same kind. Of course, he tried to smoothly leave the narrow-minded girls with purely matrimonial goals, he had more interesting and important things to do. When Mom and her friends visited Sasha in Moscow after the Crimean expedition, they had a great time, the girls even shouted a chant at him in chorus. So life was in full swing in all aspects. I just don’t remember Grandma going to Moscow. I don’t think so, she could hardly walk at that time. And Sasha’s aunt lived in Moscow, if I’m not mistaken, her name was Galina and she was a railway engineer. But I don’t know if they communicated. Regarding subsequent events, you asked many questions that did not arise in our family, but I will try to answer them based on indirect data. The fact that Sasha returned to continue his education did not surprise anyone. He worked the required hours according to his assignment and went back to school - that was completely normal. There was no talk of any radiation at that time either. That I changed my specialization is also not particularly surprising.

Sasha had no conflicts at work, the relationship was good, but apparently there was no strong friendship, so there was almost nothing to lose.

The Moscow region still could not provide such fabulous impressions as the Urals. In fairness, I must note that in addition to our amazing nature, we have an unpredictable climate, so extreme sports lovers in the literal sense of the word do not have to go far. This also gave him a chance to live again with his relatives, whom he loved very much. Probably, these years were the happiest in the family's life. The country was recovering from the war. People had to work a lot, and there was no much fun, but there was peace and prospects for happiness. The technical elite of the city gathered in Vtuzgorodok, they did everything together. Saw plays at the theater, read popular publications, paid visits to each others dwellings, in winter the favorite pastime was the skating rink. And, of course, in winter and summer they went hiking, sometimes for one day, just for fun, and not difficult, not in any category. During the hikes, Sasha kept diaries and photographed the landscapes. Of course, there were many interesting and unexpected things during the hikes. Once during the May holidays, they woke up and discovered that the tents and everything around were covered with a thick layer of snow. And once in the summer, far from home, they came across a huge clearing of wild strawberries, so Sasha baked a pie right on top of the fire. As for the homemade knife, it really was there. If you mean the one I outlined here, then I keep it. He also had a pipe, but I haven’t unpacked my things after the move yet and therefore I can’t say for sure whether it survived.

Soon, aunt Vera was invited to work at the Perm Polytechnic Institute and was given housing there, Grandma moved in with her. Mom and Sasha were left alone. Of course, the teacher's salary and stipend were not enough, Sasha had to earn extra money. He unloaded train cars, participated in crowd scenes at the opera house. By the way, he loved to sing fragments of arias, just like his grandmother. The studies were coming to an end, and his assignment to a closed city was approaching. This upset Sasha, because it meant the end of the hikes. That is why he decided to go on a hike for the last time, although he did not particularly want to go under Dyatlov's leadership. He was too authoritarian. The preparation for the hike was generally no different from all the others, the problems were quite ordinary. The only significant drawback, from my mother's point of view, was that they did not take a walkie-talkie. Of course, relatives were always worried during the hike, because anything can happen. But the guys were experienced, responsible, and could cope with almost any problem. On the night of February 2nd or 3rd, I don't remember exactly, my mother had a dream about Sasha. I won't tell you about it, because it didn't say anything about the reasons for the tragedy, but it was definitely about parting. The group didn't return on time, which was unusual. After a while, relatives started contacting the hiking club, but they couldn't tell me anything either. Relatives were at a loss, because in winter hikers couldn't stay in the forest for long, and if one of them had come out to people, he would have definitely told them. And the days of waiting and despair dragged on.

I'll stop here for now, since the post office doesn't accept more than 3 sheets.
Goodbye.
Lena"

© Maya Piskareva
June 30, 2014

On November 4, 2014, I received a second letter from Yekaterinburg from Elena Kolevatova.

I was about to call her, remind her of her promise to continue the memories. Elena asked me to give her time to sort out her urgent matters and not to disturb her until the end of September, beginning of October. November began, and I decided to remind her of myself, when suddenly her letter arrived. It is nice to know that a person remembered his promise, did not forget, wrote, responded!

The letter excited me, and you will see why.

The letter contains some information that Elena asked not to disclose, since the person signed a non-disclosure agreement. I cut these parts out of the letter.

The most important points of the letter, summary:

"I have never heard about Sasha's irradiation while working in Moscow, but I don't think that such an important event would never have been mentioned in the family. I also don't know anything about the inquiries written out by Nina Sergeyevna for the hike.

Regarding Sasha's birthday during the hike. Mom assumed that he made it up to distract his friends from some conflict situation, which was quite common in such difficult weather conditions and under such an authoritarian leadership as Igor Dyatlov. I don't think it affected anything, Sasha just didn't like to argue over trifles.

I don't know if Sasha had a camera with him during the hike, but we didn't have his camera or diaries from the last hike at home.

We stocked up on sweaters in advance, but I don't know where they got them from. I can't say anything specific about Sasha's things that went missing after the hike either, since there weren't many things in those days, and on the hike we often lent things to each other. Some of the personal things, of course, have survived. Your friends have probably already sent you a photo of the knife, the pipe has also survived. Mom, how can I put it more precisely, took the knife from the investigator, but she had to leave the sheath. Thank you for giving me the knife, it's actually material evidence. Well, he probably didn't take the pipe with him.

Various sources have already mentioned I.F. Ryagin's help to reconstructed the route from drafts and from memory, and my mother spoke about the same. Later, my mother also kept in touch with Y.I. Ryagin.

My mother didn't say whether she was at the pass, but she repeatedly recalled the identification procedure in the morgue. The bodies didn't really look like frozen bodies. I found Sasha's death certificate. I'm sending a copy, but it is a new issue.

Of course, Mom knew about all the injuries.

Of course, the families of the deceased maintained relations with each other at that time, Mom especially often talked about the Dubinina's family. Well, after a short time, a lot changed in life: "some are gone, and others are far away."

The fact that Sasha was not found right away, of course, gave some desperate hope. After all, one could think that, for example, they were found, nursed back to health and taken away by the Mansi, or something else incredible happened. Therefore, Mom and her sisters did not even tell Grandma about what happened. But how could one explain to her that her son returned from a hike and did not come to her? And did not write for several months? Of course, Grandma guessed, and after the funeral (first funerals in March) her legs finally gave out. And the hope that finding the remaining hikers would change something in the overall picture of the death was also not justified.

I know nothing about complaints to Moscow and the Prosecutor General's Office, and as for threats from the authorities, then, of course, all this took place.

In order not to end the letter on such a sad note, I am sending you a photograph, on the question of Sasha's hobbies. He made this photo himself and it hung in their room in the dormitory. One of the photographs from the hike was enlarged, manually colorized, put behind glass and framed. If you look closely, you will see that there is a checkered shirt thrown over a backpack, probably the day was very warm. I would like to believe that the dead hikers end up in a paradise like this.

Best wishes
Elena"

On April 9th, the third letter from Elena arrived. She sent photos of Sasha's death certificate and photos from the funeral of the "last four". The photos were posted on the social media site VK.com in the community "Pass named after the Dyatlov group" and the site "Taina.li". The most important points of the letter:

"As for your questions, I will try to answer.

The fact that Dyatlov was authoritarian is a normal character trait, often inherent in potential leaders. In critical situations, which sometimes arise during a hike, it is often necessary. It remains to be hoped that all his decisions were supported by experience and knowledge. As I already wrote to you, I think, this is precisely why Sasha did not really want to go on the hike with him. But in the end he went anyway, because he was interested in the route and he was well acquainted with most of the participants. Of course, he could have gone with another group, all this was to a certain extent a matter of chance. It's just that not many hiking groups went on such trips at that time, and this was his last chance,

I can hardly tell you anything new about my mother's dream, we never had a special conversation about it. Once, by the way, my mother mentioned that she had a very short and scary dream in which Sasha said goodbye to her, but he had nothing to do with the tragedy that happened.

Now about the identification. Indeed, relatives were not advised to identify the bodies, but my mother said that she did not want to bury an unknown body, and she and Lyuda Dubinina's father went together. Identification happened like this: they removed the sheet from the needed body and immediately covered it again. That was enough. Therefore, I can only vouch for the fact that the relatives identified Sasha and Lyuda. Mom said that Lyuda's parents had a very hard time with it and their health deteriorated significantly, and she herself lost the ability to speak for a month after that. I don't know anything about Dubinina's mom's ocupation.

Of course, Mom knew about the injuries, maybe not in great detail, but she knew. I wrote to you that all the information that was received about this case was received by Mom almost simultaneously. But Mom never focused on this, knowing full well that during a disaster people could receive a wide variety of injuries.

Regarding Krivonischenko, Mom said that his relatives wanted to bury him closer to where he lived.

Regarding Nikitin, I heard that he was a student at UPI and died of pneumonia. He was buried together with Dyatlov's group simply because he died the day before the funeral. But I do not insist on the veracity of this version.

I don't know if Sasha had two pipes, I only have one now. He smoked rarely, so there are no photos of him with the pipe. As soon as I find it I will send you a photo.

I don't know anything about Minin, I'll look when the snow melts, I don't think I've seen such a name.

About the observers at the cemetery. If I'm not mistaken, my mother once said that when she came to water the flowers, some people asked her what she was doing there. Well, my mother explained it to them. No one else approached her. They probably just wanted to scare people so that the information would not spread, although all this is stupid. But this happens often with us.

I am sending you photos from the funeral, on the top one the procession goes along Lenin Avenue, on the bottom one - Mikhailovskoye Cemetery. I gave these photos to Kuntsevich to copy last year, so maybe they are somewhere on the site."