Draft resolution on the outcome of the investigation

Russian

Sheet 18а

[ draft of several phrases of the project ]

Subsequently by the ski track, preserved at the time of the search, it was possible to establish that moving towards the valley
Returning on 31.I.1959 in the valley of the Auspiya river and knowing about difficult terrain conditions of the area height 1079 Dyatlov, as leader of the group where they were supposed to climb, Dyatlov, as leader of the group, made a gross mistake starting clim the group started climbing on 1.II.1959 only at 15.00.

[ project sheets are crossed out and have handwritten revision in italics ]

Sheet 18

Top Secret

Decree

28 May 1959

The criminal prosecutor of the Sverdlovsk regional prosecutor’s office, Junior Justice Counselor Ivanov, having examined the criminal case initiated on the death of 9 hikers in Ivdel district of the Sverdlovsk region,

ruled:

On January 23, 1959 a group of 10 amateur hikers went skiing along the route: city of Sverdlovsk - city of Ivdel - village of 2nd Northern - Mt Otorten - Mt Oyka-Chakur - Northern Toshemka river - village of Vizhay - city of Ivdel - city of Sverdlovsk.

The group included: Igor Dyatlov - student of the Ural Polytechnic Institute, leader of the expedition; L.A. Dubinina, Z.A. Kolmoogrova, A.S. Kolevatov, Y.E. Yudin, Y.N. Doroshenko, - UPI students; A.A. Zolotaryov - instructor of the Kourovska tourbase, R.V. Slobodin, Y.G. Krivonischenko, N.V. Thibeaux-Brignolle - engineers of enterprises in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk.

All members of the group had a good hiking training and could participate in expeditions of category III of difficulty. The group was equipped with the necessary equipment and food. The trek was financed by the trade union committee of the Ural Polytechnic Institute.

Arriving safely at the start of the trek, the village of the 2nd Northern in Ivdel District, the group started off on Jan 28, 1959. went camping. Y.E. Yudin could not continue hiking due to illness, and he turned back from the 2nd Northern.

It can be deducted from diary entries, topos of the route and developed films of the hikers that on Jan 28, 1959 the group went upstream Lozva river, on Jan 30, 1959 the group continued to move, Jan 31, 1959, the hikers reached Auspiya river and tried to pass to the valley of the Lozva river via the pass, however, due to the low temperature and strong wind, they were forced to return lower and and have a overnight. Feb 1, 1959, according to the plan in the upper reaches of the Auspiya river the group built a cache in which they left part of the food supplies and all the excess equipment. At 15:00 they began the ascent to the pass

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Subsequently, from the ski road track of the hikers, preserved at the time of the search, it was apparent that moving to the valley of the fourth tributary of the Lozva river, hikers deviated 500-600m to the left and instead of the pass formed by the peaks "1079" and "880", they reached the eastern slope of the peak "1079". This was Dyatlov’s second mistake.

Using daylight hours to climb to the peak "1079", in the presence of strong wind, common in this area, and temperature at about 25-30°C, Dyatlov found himself in unfavorable overnight conditions and decided to pitch a tent on the slope of the peak "1079" so that in the morning of the next day, without losing altitude, to continue to Mt Otorten, approximately 10 km away in a straight line.

In one of the cameras, a photo frame (last in a row) was preserved, which shows the moment of excavation of snow for setting up the tent. Considering that this frame was shot with a shutter speed of 1/25sec, with aperture of 5.6, and with a film sensitivity of 65 units.GOST, as well as taking into account the frame density, we can assume that the hikers set up the tent at about 5 pm on Feb 1, 1959. A similar shot was taken by another device. After this time, not a single record and not a single photograph was found.

According to the protocol of the route commission, the group leader Igor Dyatlov had to sent a telegram on Feb 12, 1959, to inform the UPI sports club and the Physical Culture Committee (comrade Ufimtsev) about their arrival in the village of Vizhay. Since the target date Feb 12, 1959 passed without any information from the group, hikers who knew Dyatlov closely began to insistently demand the measures to serach for the group and on Feb 20, 1959 the leadership of the institute sent a search group along the Dyatlov route, followed by several more groups. Later, soldiers and officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, planes and helicopters of civil and military aviation were sent on the search.

On Feb 26, 1959, on the eastern slope of peak "1079" the tent of the group was found with all the equipment and food in it. The tent and everything that was in it was well preserved. Inspection of the tent showed that it was set correctly and provided the hikers with an overnight stay. In the tent were 2 blankets, backpacks, storm jackets and trousers. The rest of the blankets were crumpled and frozen. On the blanket were found several pieces of crust from a loin.

The location and availability of items in the tent (almost all shoes, all outer clothing, personal belongings and diaries) indicated that the tent was abandoned suddenly by all hikers at the same time, and, as established by the subsequent forensic examination, the leeward side of the tent where hikers usually laid their heads, was cut from the inside in two places, in areas that provide a free exit of a person through these cuts.

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Below the tent, for up to 500 meters in the snow, traces of people walking from the tent to the valley and into the forest have been preserved. The traces were well preserved and there were 8-9 pairs. Inspection of the tracks showed that some of them were almost barefoot (for example, in one cotton sock), others had a typical footprint of felt boots, legs covered in a soft sock, etc. Prints of tracks were located close to each other, converging and again separated one from another. Closer to the border of the forest, the footprints were covered with snow and disappeared.

Neither traces of a struggle nor presence of other people were found in the tent or near it.

26.II.59 in 1500 meters from the tent, at the forest boundary, the remains of a fire are found, and near it were the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, stripped to the underwear. At 300 meters from the makeshift fire, in the direction of the tent, was found the body of Dyatlov, 180 meters away from him - the body of Slobodin, and 150 meters from Slobodin - Kolmogorova body. The last three bodies were located on a straight line from the fire to the tent. Dyatlov lay on his backs, his head in the direction of the tent, his hands clasping the trunk of a small birch. Slobodin and Kolmogorov lay face down, their pose testified that they were crawling to the tent. Money and personal effects (pens, pencils, etc.) were found in the pockets of Kolmogorova, Dyatlov and Slobodin. On his left hand pointing outwards Slobodin was wearing a watch that stopped at 8:45. Dyatlov's watch showed 5:31.

Forensic medical examination found that Dyatlov, Doroshenko, Krivonischenko and Kolmogorova died from exposure to low temperature (frozen), none of them had physical injuries, not counting minor scratches and abrasions. Slobodin had a crack in the skull 6 cm long, which had spread to 0.1 cm, but Slobodin died from freezing.

May 4, 1959, 75 meters from the campfire, in the direction of the valley of the fourth tributary of Lozva, i.e. perpendicular to the way of the hikers from the tent, under a layer of snow 4-4.5 meters, the bodies of Dubinina, Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignolle and Kolevatov were found. On the bodies, as well as a few meters from them, Krivonischenko and Doroshenko's clothes were found - trousers, sweaters. All clothing has traces of smooth cuts, as already photographed with the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko.

The dead Thibeaux Brignolle and Zolotaryov were found well-dressed, worse dressed Dubinina - her jacket made of artificial fur and a cap were found on Zolotaryov, Dubinina's naked leg was wrapped in Krivonischenko's woolen pants. Near the bodies, Krivonischenko's knife was found, which cut off the young firs near the fire. On the hand of Thibeaux-Brignolle were two watches - one of them shows 8:14, and the second - 8:39.

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Forensic evidence of bodies revealed that Kolevatov's death had come from the effect of low temperature (frozen), Kolevatov had no physical injuries. The death of Dubinina, Thibeaux-Brignolle and Zolotaryov was the result of multiple physical injuries. Dubinina has a symmetrical fracture of the ribs: on the right 2, 3, 4, 5 and left 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In addition she has extensive hemorrhage in the heart.

Thibeaux-Brignolle has an extensive hemorrhage in the right temporal muscle - corresponding to him - a crushed fracture of the skull bones measuring 3x7 cm, with a bone defect 3x2 cm.

Zolotaryov has a broken ribs on the right 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 along the parasternal and midaxillary lines, which caused his death.

/crossed out diagonally - start/
Kolevatov has only bruising.

Physicotechnical examination found that the clothes of Zolotaryov and especially Dubinina are significantly contaminated with radioactive dust.

So, the remnants of Krivonischenko’s trousers with which Dubinina’s leg was wrapped (in the examination table of table №60) gives 9.900 half-lives per minute from 150 sq.cm, the belt from Zolotaryov’s sweater (in the examination table of table №2) gives 5600 half-lives, which is significantly exceeds the sanitary norms for clothing contamination for people working with radioactive substances. Neither Zolotaryov nor Dubinina worked with radioactive substances.

If we take into account that before the discovery the corpses of Zolotaryov and Dubinina have been in the water for a long time, then we should assume that their radioactive contamination was significant.

/crossed out diagonally - end/

The investigation did not establish the presence of other people on February 1 or February 2, 1959 in the area of ​​the height "1079", except the hikers from Dyatlov group. It is also established that the population of the Mansi people, living few days away 80-100 km from this place, was not interested in the death of the group not from religious, not from selfish motives. is Russian friendly, offers hikers accommodation, assistance etc. The place where the group died is considered to be unfit for hunting and reindeer breeding in the winter.

Considering the absence of external injuries to the bodies or signs of a fight, the presence of all the valuables of the group, and also taking into account the conclusion of the medical examinations for the causes of the deaths of the hikers, it is concluded that the cause of their demise was overwhelming force, which the hikers were not able to overcome.

For the shortcomings in the organization of sports work and weak control of the bureau of the Sverdlovsk GC the CPSU announced party penalties punished in party terms: the director of the Ural Polytechnic Institute Siunov,

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the secretary of the party bureau Zaostrovskiy, the chairman of the trade union UPK Slobodin, chairman of the board of the Sports club Gordo the chairman of the city union of voluntary sports societies Kurochkin and the inspector of the union Ufimtsev. The chairman of the board of the sports club of the Institute Gordo has been removed from work.

Given that between the actions of the above-mentioned people who have committed shortcomings in the formulation of sports work and the death of hikers there is no causal connection and, not seeing in this case the corpus delicti, guided by paragraph 5 of Article 4 of the RSFSR Code of Criminal Procedure,

ruled:
The criminal case on the death of the group of hikers and further proceedings are to be terminated.

4 copies made

Russian