Solter interview 2008

NAVIG: What Pelageya Ivanovna will say will be filmed on video so it can serve in court as an evidence.
VK: This is a case that even parents still do not know how their children died. There are many contradictions ...
NAVIG: You lived there at this time?
VK: The administration was very strange at that time. I lived in Ivdel and worked in enterprise N-240.
NAVIG: In what capacity?
VK: I was later a senior engineer, and before that, in the 59th, I was the inspector of the State ... Soyuzgosles Inspectorate. I was in charge of logging, procurers, consumers ...
NAVIG: Did you know the Mansi? Kurikov, Anyamov?
VK: I did not know them in person. Saw them in the press, in the local newspaper, and in the city... I am familiar with the life of Mansi to some extent. I myself am a mushroom picker, in these areas where the mountains begin, between Ivdel and Polunochnoe, there is a road to these mountains to the north ...

Pelageya Ivanovna Solter

PI: Where did you get those from? (photos on the table are brought by the Center)
NAVIG: Yudin gave us this... Is this you in the photo?
PI: (nods).
VK: We can give you a lot of medical photos. She was the Head nurse of the surgical department.
NAVIG: Prudkova?
VK: Yes, Prudkova. Prudkov was a surgeon ...
TUAPSE: Civilian or military?
VK: He was famous, very conscientious, hardworking, accepted people ...
PI: Such a good man! And I worked with him.
VERDEN (asks again): Was he a military surgeon or civilian?
VK: He was a certified?
TUAPSE: What is "certified"?
VK: "Certified" means doctors who worked in the enterprise, in the camp area - there was a whole hospital, with staff ... Then they started to certify, there are all surgeons and nurses ...
TUAPSE: Was the hospital civil or a military department?
VK: No, it was special, for enterprise N-240 Ministry of the Interior of the USSR. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had great power at that time.
NAVIG: It used to be Ivdellag.
VK: They did not even submit to the hill, but to the camp management, well, to some extent, the KGB.
NAVIG: KGB directly?
VK: No, the Ministry of Internal Affairs
NAVIG: In the year 59, I was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and before that it was Ivdellag ...
NAVIG: We want Pelageya Ivanovna to tell us about the Dyatlov group. What happened, in what order, how did it worked back then.
TUAPSE: Maybe you will tell, how did you get to know them? Did you ever meet them?
VK: You know, she can be mistaken, her memory is not the same ... But I remember them. We lived near the Headquarters. And there was a bus station. When I went to work, there were all these hikers who came there and waited the bus with their backpacks, 5 or 10 at a time. That's where she saw them.
NAVIG: Here they are, 9 people. Do you remember anyone? (a photo)
VK: No, she did not know them in person.
PI: Did they all die? Well, you say "you don't remember"... We were called with Prudkov. I washed, and Prudkov helped the bodies to be dress ... Then they took them to the car and drove them to the airfield. And they were sent directly to Sverdlovsk in coffins. And they were buried in Sverdlovsk. Without relatives.
NAVIG: Was there an autopsy?
PI: Prudkov only examined, described. I washed them, wiped them ...

VK: Allow me? The fact is that according to Matveeva's book the autopsy was done in Ivdel. She says that the autopsy was not done in Ivdel. It was a preliminary preparation for them, probably for an autopsy ... And the autopsy was done somewhere else, it was not known where. Or maybe in the city hospital ...
PI: No, they did not do it in the city hospital. They were sent to Sverdlovsk by airplanes.
VK: No, it wasn't in Sverdlovsk, according to the book that they did it in Ivdel.
PI: We washed them here ...
NAVIG: Pelageya Ivanovna ...
TUAPSE: And how do you know that they were sent to Sverdlovsk then?
VK: Yes, because she thinks that it was all ...
NAVIG: Pelageya Ivanovna, do you remember their external appearance? Look, here is what they looked like in the morgue of N-240. Were they like that? Do you remember?
PI: I can't recognize them, of course.
TUAPSE: How about the degree of decomposition?
NAVIG: Or is it not them?
VERDEN: Are these them? Did you see them? Did you wash them off? You washed them in this way?
PI: We washed them in the morgue ...
NAVIG: No, but their appearance? Is this the Dyatlov group ...
VERDEN: Did they look like this? Did they?
VK: These was them. Only she says that they were very dirty.
VERDEN: You see here, there is great damage, there is no face ...
NAVIG: Well, they were found in a creek, they were brought like that...
PI: Prudkov described them.
NAVIG: Nothing is mentioned about this in the case files.
VK: I read about Vozrozhdenniy ...
PI: Prudkov described them, washed them and put them in coffins. Then they were send on an airplane to Sverdlovsk where they were buried.
VK: Listen, and why there is no signature of the second surgeon, German surname ...
NAVIG: Yes, there isn't. Was he there?
VK: I do not know, Matveeva writes ...
NAVIG: And was Ganz with Prudkov? Pelageya Ivanovna, did you know him?
VK: They didn't know. They didn't know Vozrozhdenniy either. They just prepared and they were taken away ... Where were they taken? Maybe they were taken to the city hospital. Maybe they took them somewhere else ...
NAVIG: Victor Konstantinovich, we assume that there were two groups of bodies, and they did not know each other. This is what we trying to find out. Did you work with the Dyatlov group or the other people? And who did Ganz and Vozrozhdenniy perform autopsies on?
PI: We did not attend any autopsies.
NAVIG: None? But the act says that the autopsies were done in N-240, Vozrozhdenniy and Ivanov - the investigator ...
PI: We did not do autopsies on anyone. Prudkov only examined, described, I washed them all ...
NAVIG: Were they wearing clothes?
PI: They were wearing clothes. They were very dirty.
NAVIG: And here you write that there were two girls and one guy ... So were there two girls?
PI: One girl was found with the guys, and the second girl was found after 2 or 3 days.
NAVIG: Or a month?
VK: Month! No, I said "two days"?
NAVIG: Months or a days? This is very important.
PI: Month ... no.
NAVIG: No? And they were found in early May, and those at the end of February. So were they brought all together or at different times?
PI: One girl was found right away, and the second girl was found later.
NAVIG: So you and Prudkov were repeatedly summoned? Have you been called twice or just once?
PI: We were called out with Prudkov - as soon as they were brought, they call us immediately.

1. Pelageya Ivanovna Solter - nurse
2. Iosif Davydovich Prudkov - surgeon

NAVIG: They were frozen, the bodies? Frozen?
VK: I saw 5 bodies being brought. In Ivdel. I saw them in front of the morgue, in the car. Brought apparently from the airport. I saw how they were unloaded. I didn't go close, but I just know that they were frozen in different poses, wrapped in blankets ... I think they were blue blankets.
NAVIG: That's the way ... Here they are photographed on the pass, in the snow.
NAVIG: And the bodies, were they thawed?
PI: They were brought and put in the morgue.
NAVIG: But they probably had to be thawed somehow?
VK: Well, I saw that the hands even here were like (pose), and remained ... 5 people.
VERDEN: How did they wash it at the same time? They were defrosted first?
VK: Of course. Laid down, defrosted probably ...
PI: Thawed. In the morgue, everything ...
NAVIG: And how much time did they thaw?
VK: We did not deal with these details. I only know about the situation in the city. If they were autopsied in Ivdel, we would have know about it.
NAVIG: What did they do with their clothes?
VK: Well, ... They could have burned them, throw in the furnace and burn it. Moreover, they also had radiation on their clothes. Although they lay in the water ...
NAVIG: And the first group?
VK: Yes, I again read this from the book, that she (Matveeva) there leads the facts. An autopsy, it also describes everything.
VERDEN: Do you remember what were they dressed in (after being washing)? What were the clothes?
PI: We had to buy the clothes. There were no relatives ...
VK: Look, the first group did not even have any damage, and the second one had all the ribs broken. Who could casue these injuries on them? For this type of injuries, it should be ...
TUAPSE: And who discovered that the ribs were broken? Or did you read this in the book?
VK: Yes, we learned this from the reports. This can only be determined with an autopsy.
NAVIG: And besides Prudkov, who else was there?
PI: There was no one, he was alone there.
NAVIG: You were unsupervised, there was no guard?
PI: No, there was only Prudkov and that's all.
NAVIG: And who was on the washing? You, Iosif Davydovich... who else?
PI: No one else.
NAVIG: Was the morgue guarded?
PI: No, there was no one.
VK: And there were no orderlies who were washing?
PI: I washed them.
NAVIG: And their appearance? What did the bodies look like?
PI: Of course, if I immediately wrote everything down, but now ...
VERDEN: Are the bodies were they well preserved?
PI: Well, they were in one piece. One had a head wound, a crack in his head, but they were all in one piece, not injured.
VK: The group found in the spring, they were decayed. The second party.
VERDEN: How many bodies were there? How much do you remember?
PI: I remember that the first time they brought six people. And first one girl, and the second girl was later found ...
NAVIG: Did you know Korotaev? This is an investigator, he worked in the Ivdel Prosecutor's Office.
PI: I do not remember who he was...
VK: I know who is he.
NAVIG: Korotaev wrote that he assisted Ganz and Vozrozhdenniy in Ivdel with the autopsies, that he packed the organs for analysis. In Ivdel.
VK: Could be.
NAVIG: I have his story. He personally told me this.
VK: In each autopsy report it says in which hospital or morgue it was performed ...
NAVIG: In the morgue of N-240 ...

VK: Maybe it was done at night, and they just prepared them ...
VERDEN: So, they apparently had the impression that the corpses would be sent, but in fact the corpses were not sent? Maybe that was it?
VK: That's right. They said so and probably... Because there is everywhere a veil of mystery, some haste ...
PI: These corpses were later put in coffins and sent by plane to the cemetery in Sverdlovsk. And there they were buried.
VERDEN: Did you see how they were put in coffins?
PI: Of course. We dressed them and laid them down. Clean.
VK: If there was some sort of collusion or some kind of pressure, no one could tell them where the corpses were actually sent. Here they prepared them, and at night in the same morgue they did an autopsy. And that's all they were told. End of conversation.
TUAPSE: This is not likely, because it says here that the autopsy was performed in daylight.
VK: "In daylight" who wrote this?
NAVIG: Investigator Ivanov and expert Vozrozhdenniy. And the expert criminalist Churkinа.
NAVIG: They couldn't have been prepared. Bodies can not be washed before examination. They should be in the clothes in which they were found.
TUAPSE: The bodies were not prepared, they were in the clothes in which they were found.
NAVIG: They (the experts) undressed them themselves. "The corpse lies, dressed in a hat, in a mask" ... Before the examination they can not be undressed... Or maybe they made a synthesis?
VK: I am telling you, there was some sort of undressing. They simply cut all the clothes with knives, to remove them faster... I know that they were buying suits in Ivdel.
PI: All the clothes were dirty, everything was dirty, everything was removed from them ... Clothes were bought.
VERDEN: This is the second evidence that clothes were bought in Ivdel.
PI: Clothes were bought and they were laid in coffins ...
NAVIG: Did you see it yourself?
PI: Yes. Went to the coffins at once. Coffins brought ...
NAVIG: And who was lying down?
PI: ... The coffins were sent to Sverdlovsk.
NAVIG: Did you give a non-disclosure statement?
PI: Prudkov was doing all this.
NAVIG: We talked with his wife, Valentina Ivanovna. Did you know her?
PI: Yes, I did.
NAVIG: And she says she did not know you.
PI: She doesn't?
NAVIG: Were you called Maria?
VK: She may not know Prudkov's wife. How do you know her?
PI: Well, why wouldn't I know her? She is a teacher...
VERDEN: No, she's a pediatrician.
NAVIG: It is not her then.
VERDEN: No, that one. She called her "Valentina Ivanovna" ...
NAVIG: I told her that.
VERDEN: No, she called her even at the very beginning of the conversation, and I wrote down to clarify everything later.
NAVIG: Let him repeat it again.
VERDEN: What was the name of Prudkov's wife?
PI: Valentina Ivanovna.
NAVIG: A teacher?
PI: Yes.
VERDEN: She says she's a teacher. A pediatrician and children's teacher are somewhat similar: working with children
NAVIG: Do you have a pictures of Prudkova? The medical department there, its kind ...
VK: There are photos, I can bring you...

1. Tsilya Davydovna Schmidt - doctor
2. Ekaterina Vasilyevna Evstigneeva - pediatrician
3. Savenkov - Head of Ivdel hospital
4. Iosif Davydovich Prudkov - surgeon
5. Shrayner N.K.

NAVIG: Your name is Pelageya, right? And why are you sometimes called Maria?
PI: I am Pelageya, but some have addressed and called me Maria.
VK: But according to the documents Pelageya Ivanovna.
NAVIG: Pelageya Ivanovna, and on what operations did you usually assist Prudkov?
PI: Yes, all operations. Who was brought, all were operated on...
NAVIG: Did you know the instruments you handed to him?
PI: I boiled the instruments that were used in operateds.
NAVIG: Did you know the names of the instruments?
PI: Scalpel, then clamps ... there were clamps and bent tips...
TUAPSE: And Prudkov, did he perform autopsies?
PI: Of course. He was a very smart doctor.
PI: So the autopsy were perfomed in the morgue ...
VERDEN: So, he operated on living and dead people? Corpses?
PI: Yes, he did everything there, he was in charge ...
VERDEN: Maybe because it was the zone? ...
VK: I know that there was better pay for autopsies. In my opinion, Sharonin did all the autopsies.
PI: Sharonin came in the picture later ...
NAVIG: We have a letter ... Pelageya Ivanovna, you wrote to Yudin ...
VK: I wrote this.
NAVIG: No, you wrote the second letter, and the first one she wrote. Pelageya Ivanovna, you wrote in it that when they were brought they looked like dead. What does it mean?
VERDEN: "At first they brought three, two girls and one guy. Their faces were like those of the dead. "
PI: Yes.
NAVIG: What does that mean? They were brought dead, not alive? Why did you write that?
PI: No, they did not bring them alive, they brought them dead ...
NAVIG: So you wrote it right? All correct?
PI: Of course.
NAVIG: This was written in 2000 when you remembered everything.
VERDEN: You wrote further: "At one girl the hair from one side was charred, on one arm the sleeve slightly burnt ...". Do you remember these corpses? Were they burnt?
PI: Yes, they were burnt. You know, they were very dirty.
NAVIG: Where would the mud come in winter. Those were the ones in spring, probably ...
PI: If I knew that you would ask, I would have written everything down ...
VERDEN: And where were the documents kept, Prudkov files? Where can they be?
VK: Well, she's a nurse ... If they were in the hospital, they would be in the Administration office ...
PI: In Sverdlovsk. Everything is in Sverdlovsk ...
VK: There is a special department in that institution, which keeps all sorts of tricks ...
NAVIG: We have now sent an official request to Ivdel. We sent it to the Headquarters of the correctional penal system, and they sent it to Ivdel. In Sverdlovsk there are no documents on the Dyatlov group.
VK: In Ivdel this institution is now closed. It is suspended. In Ivdel, there are now 7 or 8 colonies and each colony, it ... But all the archives from the Main Directorate that was in Ivdel is stored somewhere ...
PI: Main Directorate archives, you can still apply in Ivdel.
NAVIG: Well, they sent the request to Ivdel, but the answer has not come yet.
NAVIG: That's how you remember them? This one is in his clothes ...
VK: Well, how can one remember, they look different here ... Let me see ...
NAVIG: They are already thawed here. Lie normally ...
VK: Is this the first group or the second?
NAVIG: The second.
NAVIG: Do you remember how they were brought? Did you see them?
VK: I did not see the second group. I went to business trips often. But on the first groupf I just came across ...
TUAPSE: And when was that - the first group. What time?
VK: Well, they were also brought to N-240. And there the surgical department and I went to the procedures. I saw that the car was standing and unloaded ...

Pelageya Ivanovna Solter

TUAPSE: It was in March, or in February, you do not remember?
VK: It was probably early March.
TUAPSE: And did you write this letter?
VK: Yes.
PI: And does Prudkov's wife live in Sverdlovsk?
NAVIG: Yes, we talked with her. She said that her husband did not tell anything at home that they were not allowed to tell.
VERDEN: How did the bodies thaw? Did they just lay and thaw?
PI: They just lay there ...
VERDEN: How long? How many days does it take to thaw a body?
PI: Well, a week, probably / they were lying ... They were all frozen.
NAVIG: 49 years have passed, but no one knows why they died.
VK: This is a cruel case. Nobody knows ... And agree, but it is not only my opinion: people, could have even blinded them, could be explosion of some sort ... the thing is that they started to choke, there was not enough oxygen to breathe. And in their fever they ran down, everybody in same direction ... And then, down below, there was more oxygen, they began to breathe, and so on ... But why did not they have enough strength to stick together? If you are going to die, so be it, but why in this manner, some here, another there, by the stream, almost half kilometer away ... Why did they split? You can imagine that there was, for example, 27 degrees below ... and they were barefoot. How did they manage to move? Dyatlov himself, you could tell it was him, holding on to that birch, trying to go back to the tent, because there was their salvation, there was alcohol, clothes ... Maybe they even use psychotropic weapon on them.
PI: They said there was a fireball ...
VK: It was later, it was said there ... I personally often saw in the evenings in this region some kind of firebolts ...
NAVIG: Far away?
VK: Well, there, in the Ural Mountains. Ivdel is higher and the Ural Mountains are close by... In that area.
NAVIG: What year? About? Before?
VK: Yes, and before that, and after I saw.
NAVIG: What was the situation in Ivdel when they were found? Do you remember? Was there a lot of military, special communication? Did the generals come?
VK: No.
NAVIG: Shtrauh wrote that they came. Do you know Shtrauh?
VK: Shtrauh I know.
NAVIG: He said that there was special communication, telegraph pole were installed, the generals were walking about ...
VK: Maybe there was something like that, but I do not know anything about it. I know that there was a military unit that guarded the institution, the camps. There was the regiment, or in my opinion, even a division... And so maybe some generals ... Well, the colonels were of internal troops.
NAVIG: So you have not seen them?
VK: I did not see it.
NAVIG: A Shtrauh says that he saw.
VK: Well, Shtrauh is an intelligent man, a correspondent of a newspaper, he could have known more.
NAVIG: Did you know Solomonovich?
VK: Felix Yakovlevich? But what about.
NAVIG: We spoke with him recently. He had there, by the way, his wife was also present. She worked somewhere in the office.
VK: We worked together with Solomonovich, in one department, he was a lieutenant colonel.
NAVIG: Solomonovich says that the autopsy was done in the zone and sent to Sverdlovsk.
VK: Did he say that? Well, so they did. And, you see, she (Pelageya Ivanovna) was told that they were taken on planes to Sverdlovsk.
VERDEN: She might not know the fate of the bodies, she just did some specific task ...

Enterprise N-240/4 – The Zone is behind the barb wire
Original drawing (translated)

VK: There's a hospital in the zone, all the contingent was treated in it ... in the zone ... there is surgery ...
NAVIG: A where is the morgue?
VK: The morgue is outside the zone.
VERDEN: Pelageya Ivanovna, do you remember if all the corpses were dirty? All nine?
PI: All dirty, everyone was washed ...
NAVIG: So the morgue was outside the zone?
VK: This morgue was in the hospital. There, in the housing, we had a therapeutic department, in a decent brick building, good doctors.
NAVIG: So it was outside the zone? And what was in the zone then? Was there a morgue?
VK: I do not remember, maybe there was a morgue... they didn't bring the prisoners here... Maybe there was a small morgue, and the next day the prisoners were taken out and buried ...
NAVIG: The autopsy was done in the zone morgue ...
VK: Correct.
NAVIG: So, where was Prudkov called - to the civilian morgue or to the camp morgue?
VK: In the civilian, I know for sure.
VERDEN: Did Prudkov operate in the civilian morgue?
VK: In the Enterprise N-240 hospital, and the camp hospital is separate, in the camp zone.
PI: He worked in the hospital, and the morgue was at the hospital.
VK: They sent the bodies to Prudkov to be examined ...
NAVIG: In the civilian?
VK: Yes, they made the protocol there ...
NAVIG: I have to clarify, they worked all in what hospital, on the territory of the zone or in the civilian?
VERDEN: Pelageya Ivanovna, did you work in the morgue with Prudkov on the territory of the zone or on the territory of the hospital?
PI: On the territory of the zone.
VK: What zone?!
PI: Well, I went into the hospital in the zone... With Prudkov.
VK: What zone? You and Prudkov worked in the morgue outside the zone. What morgue is there in the zone?
NAVIG: Behind the barbed wire?
VK: Let's determine what in the "zone" means!
NAVIG: Yes, this will help ...
VK: There was a contingent there, tens of thousand of people, you have to treat them. There was Four, it was in the city, very close to Administration.
NAVIG: What is Four?
NAVIG: Management? Zone - Four?
VK: The zone of enterprise Four, in this Four there was a hospital for the convicts specially, from all the colonies were brought and treated. There is surgery and operations were performed, well, everything ..., and there were many doctors. And there were good specialists, because ...
PI: Well, maybe there's still someone left.
VK: They paid there more than in the civilian.
NAVIG: In the zone?
VK: In the zone, yes, they paid more. And here, outside the zone, there was surgery, too, there was hospital, the clinic was separate. It was for civilian contingent only. Well, the personnel who worked at the N-240.
NAVIG: It was for them, yes?
TUAPSE: For civilians?
NAVIG: What about the population from the village?
VK: No.
NAVIG: I.e. for civil service personnel.
VK: There was a central hospital for Ivdel's population. It is still there. It's a special hospital, you see, they even had a slightly higher salary.
NAVIG: No, I see. Well, what about barbed wire, was the area surrounded by a fence? Was there a checkpoint?
VK: Sure. There were the barracks where the prisoners lived.
NAVIG: So, this hospital was inside the zone?
VK: It was in this Zone, but it was still fenced off separately.

TUAPSE: Do we understand correctly that there was a hospital for prisoners, another one for the personnel who worked in the Zone and a third one for civilians and residents of Ivdel?
VK: This is what I am explaining.
TUAPSE: We have three hospitals?
VK: Yes, there were three hospitals. Convicts were treated, and specially, and this structure is still in the medical institutions of the Ministry of Justice. But, given that now the Colonies have autonomy, the Headquarters reduced it, so they left the medicine and left the clinic. They didn't even abandon all branches
PI: And Prudkov's wife is she still alive? Does she live in Ivdel?
VERDEN: No, in Sverdlovsk.
PI: Does she live in Sverdlovsk? And the sons are they both surgeons?
VERDEN: Yes.
NAVIG: One is Chief surgeon of the Urals Federal District, Mihail. And this one - he is the Head of the department of the Sverdlovsk administration.
VK: Are these the sons of Prudkov?
NAVIG: Yes. Aleksander, he will be the shorter.
VK: Here she was in the hospital, in the 40th or in some kind of place she was lying. There, her son even attending her. The son, I do not know, was he a surgeon?
NAVIG: Surgeon.
VERDEN: In the 40th hospital of what city?
VK: In Sverdlovsk. She (Pelageya Ivanovna) got in the hospital with stones. And I went there, and even lived in the hospital for 2-3 days, I slept in the corridor on a couch.
PI: Prudkov son operated on me. Got out the stones from my kidney.
VERDEN: So you know him well?
PI:Yes. Acquaintances. Still, you know, they will come: "Call dad." They will come in surgery for free oepartion.
VK: Do you want a graphic plan for the hospital?
NAVIG: Where is the barbed wire, where was the pass?
VK: Give me that. I will ...
NAVIG: Because we do not understand.
VK: This is town. City of Ivdel, it is mostly down, around, on both sides is Ivdel river. This is Ivdel river. Here is the road to Gorodok (small city - ed. note). Here is Gorodok.
VERDEN: You do not know what happened to Yudin during the hike, why did he leave the trek?
PI: I do not know.
VERDEN: They did some kind of operation on him? Did you attend an operation of appendicitis? Did Prudkov operated him in the city? Was he operated on?
NAVIG: The letter says he was.
VERDEN: Do you remember Yudin? Do you know who Yudin is? It was the tenth hiker who did not go to the mountains. You wrote him a letter ....
PI: Well, I wrote, but I already forgot.
VK: There's a road here, near the road is the Administration. Here, from the Administration, the road goes to Vizhay. Opposite the Administration is the civil polyclinic.
TUAPSE: Was it all open to access?
VK: It's civil, it's open. This is the Zone.
NAVIG: Write there "Zone".
VK: Zone. The N-240 was then called Four.
NAVIG: Was there a barb wire?
VK: Sure thing. A double fence even.
NAVIG: There lived the prisoners in general.
VK: So in the zone, there was inner fence, and one outside.
NAVIG: Sure.
VK: There was third zone outside.
NAVIG: You mean, one more fence?
VK: Fence. There was a guard, too. And here is where the hospital was. I think there were several rooms there.
VERDEN: Have you ever been to the territory of the Zone?
VK: But what about. And not once was. Went there. There, Aleksander Ivanovich Popov is still working, doing X-rays. Radiologist. He is still working, his wife passed away, also a doctor. And in the Zone there are barracks, messroom, surgery, therapy. In the Housing here, I abbreviated it, there are also residential buildings, polyclinic, there was a boarding house and so on. Here, too, there was a civilian surgery, and a polyclinic for all those who worked in the enterprise. This is surgery.
NAVIG: Is this a road?
VK: It's the road from the river, Ivdel river. On the right side here is the city, and here it is all city.
TUAPSE: And this clinic is for those who worked in the Administration?
VK: The administartion, everyone who works in enterprise, the penal colony in Vizhay...
NAVIG: Was there barbed wire here?
VK: No, why? It is for civilians.
NAVIG: But they did not treat civilians?
VK: They treated all civilians that worked in the system.
NAVIG: But not if you work in a kolkhoz.
VK: The city residents were treated in the city hospital. And here - only the people from the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Those who worked in the colonies, on the field ..., there was a whole system.
NAVIG: Morgue?
VK: Right here at the polyclinic, in the same district, here is the morgue. Here is how the road goes, the paths... And this is the morgue, and this is the enterprise. Here is this hospital and the civililian morgue. If the morgue was there it was also for the convicted.
NAVIG: Was there a morgue in the zone?
VK: They were not kept there for long.
NAVIG: Well, was there a morgue there?
VK: Well, I guess there was.
NAVIG: Because it says here that the autopsy was performed in the morgue of the N-240. But they were washed in this morgue.

TUAPSE: And this system belongs to N-240?
VK: You know, well, some logic, there should be some logic in all this ...
NAVIG: The report is there, see? They will not lie, it's a document.
VK: Wait, there should be some logic, I reckon. Why do it, you know, in the morgue, there are no conditions for perfom surgical operation. When next to it, you know, there is a surgical department in the zone. At night, take them there, do an autopsy, take them out. Where, no one will know. Or do... well, it's unlikely, it was a fiction, so that someone would do an autopsy in the morgue.
NAVIG: This is a reference to Dyatlov group. We are only talking about Dyatlov group. And why, there is a table and it's done.
VK: So even the same Dyatlov group. Well, you need tables, some instruments.
NAVIG: Well, probably, they brought them there.
VK: If this is what Solomonovich said, maybe he could have known more, then...
NAVIG: Yes, he does not state any facts, he just said it. You can not confirm anything.
VK: Did you talk to him?
NAVIG: Yes, on the phone. He said the autopsy was done there, but where he got this information is unknown. Yes, no one knows.
VK: I know because I lived there. Well, you know, in the city..., there was this murmur that people died, that Mansi could have attacked them and so on. So, probably, it went on for a month. Then all this quieted down. But the fact is that if there was an autopsy done, one way or another, I would have known.
NAVIG: Here? (outside the zone)
VK: Yes.
NAVIG: And why would you know? Because your wife worked there?
VK: Yes, I worked too, I was connected with everything, I...
NAVIG: Did you come here? Did you had access to the zone?
VK: I came here, she worked here. Later she worked in the zone.
NAVIG: After that?
VK: Yes, she worked there for another 30 years or 40 in the zone.
NAVIG: Well, let's not be particularly interested in this.
VK: And we were good friends, greeted for the holidays and the Day of medicine, with all the doctors and medical personnel from this hospital and this hospital, we always gathered in the clinic and spent the evenings.

Recording stopped.

Forest Management Central Polyclinic

1. Valentina Ivanovna Tychinina - ambulance paramedic
2. M.I. Drobot - doctor
3. M.I. Savintseva - doctor
4. Tatyana Stepanovna Orina - orderly
5. Varvara Demyanovna Tsatskina - doctor
6. Tsilya Davydovna Schmidt - doctor
7. Sara Mihaylovna Agisheva
8. Ekaterina Vasilievna Evstigneeva - pediatrician
9. Iosif Davydovich Prudkov - surgeon
10. Aleksander Evgenyevich Tsatskin - obstetrician
11. Savenkov - head of the hospital
12. Anna Petrovna Taranova - obstetrician
13. Boris Zaharovich Raskoshniy - doctor
14. Filatova - doctor
15. Gunko - doctor

VK: They were unloaded right here.
NAVIG: Did you see them? They were in what, in coffins or just like that?
VK: No, they were, they were just brought from ...
NAVIG: from the pass.
VK: They were brought from the airfield. And with a car, they are just so, you know, well, frozen, they pull them out, wrapped in blankets. I remember it now, blankets were blue.
NAVIG: In these? They had blankets there, on the Pass. They slept in them.
VK: Well, they could have used the same blankets to transport them. It's not necessarily the same blankets. Or maybe they were theirs.
NAVIG: Did you know Patrushev?
VK: Whom?
NAVIG: Pilot Patrushev? Gennadiy.
VK: No, I did not know him. There was a club opposite Dzerzhinsky's club. There were pilots, I knew one there.
NAVIG: There was Gzhatenko, I remember. Helicopter pilot, he died, crashed.
VK: No, he was an old pilot, he flew on these, U-2 or something like that.
NAVIG: AN-2.
VK: AN-2, I knew him. Now, he lived in Ivdel for a long time, even after he had already built a house. He lived there anyway.
VERDEN: But still it's unclear, was there a morgue in the zone?
VK: Well, I do not know where it is located, I just know that there was an solitary near the guardhouse in the corner for the colony. Isolator. That is, if you misbehave they put you in the solitary, from these barracks, there.
NAVIG: And if prisoners die, where did they put them? Did they bring them to this morgue?
VK: I'm telling you, no, how can they be brought in a civilian? No.
TUAPSE: Maybe they had their own (morgue) somewhere?
VK: They had their own, there was a morgue. They must have had, because if a prisoner dies, they keep him for a day or two and then bury. And that's all. Any hospital has a morgue somewhere probably. I can not draw you, I do not know where it was.
NAVIG: Well, it's clear that you didn't see it. Was the territory big?
VK: Well, the zone, I reckon, in meters, probably under 200 - length and width, probably 150 roughly, there was a colony. Well, meters 200-300, yes not 300, and all 400, probably, was. Well, something like this.
NAVIG: And in other places, 41 district, knew this? The Second Northern. There were also zones there.
VK: I know, the North ...
TUAPSE: What was in the Second Northern?
VK: So, Second Northern, now I'll draw. What do I know about the Second Northern. Well, you know from Ivdel the road went, as you may say ..., to a small town of urban type called "Polunochnoe"...

NAVIG: Well, it still exists.
VK: Polunochnoe. This is if Ivdel, let's say, from the Institution if you went to the colonies. The road goes like that, and after Polunochnoe, 7 kilometers further along the road is "Taloe". No, it's here, Taloe village is here.
NAVIG: turns to Solter: Did remember anything about Yudin?
VK: So after Polunochnoe First and Second Northern. The second Northern is about here. Well, on the road to the village, you know, there is an eating house, we always went there, went to the eating house, bought bread, general store, they had good supplies. The Second Northern. Here. And then the road went to the village "Shepichnoye", then went on, this is a colony. This is Shepichnoe. The Fourth, the Fifth are districts Colonies were colonies. In my opinion, here was the 7th district, in my opinion. Further Burmantovo, also a large settlement, further this colony was, Vizhay, more colonies, three or four colonies. There were also three or four colonies here. Settlements. Like this.

TUAPSE: And what was in the Second Northern?
VK: Second Northern, Second Northern was that ... They had a big quarry, you know, they got there manganese ore. There were big careers here, you know ...
NAVIG: Were there prisoners there?
VK: No, thеre were not. Here, then the Second Northern. Here the were the stone mountains, you see. Well, there were rocks, all the dumps, because this is a huge pit, probably a kilometer in diameter, and trucks were moving roundabout here ... And the Second Northern here was this settlement here. That's the village on this side, all here are houses. Here. Here is the quarry, here was still, you know a workshop, the crushing workshop № ... The workshop crushed the stone. Well, and then from here, probably, from the Second, probably, they went, there the road is there to the ridge.
NAVIG: And where's the 41st site? They went to the 41st after that. What is it?
VK: Well, I do not know.
NAVIG: Logging , probably some kind?
VK: Probably, too, because, you know, they had careers earlier small, probably this was the 41st district.
NAVIG: They reached the Second Northern, and Yudin turned back, and they went into the forest. And Yudin took the stones here. So 41st was here right here?
VK: Maybe there was a quarry here, maybe this one they called, an old abandoned quarry. We went there to pick mushrooms.
VERDEN: What did geologists do there, why did geologists live there? Where were they aniway - on the Second Northern or on the 41st, where is it?
VK: The Second Northern is a whole ..., it was a big settlement.
VERDEN: What did geologists do there in the winter?
VK: Well, what did they do? Firstly, they drilled in the winter ...
VERDEN: They drilled in the winter?
VK: Yes. They, for example, in the summer they went to the ridge there. Let's say, here's the Polunochnoe, then the roads to the ridge, everywhere the roads were there.
NAVIG: And what are the cores? You know?
NAVIG: Cores from geologists - what is that? They extract them in the winter for some reason. There is a report from a geologist who went there to take dirt samples and saw strangers on the Pass. So, what are these cores for geologists? Maybe it's an instrument, or something?
VK: A, cores ... I'm telling you again, here they are, they have this road everywhere ..., then the road there, everyone went to the ridge, we went there for mushrooms, we often made our way by car, the ridge was going like that.
NAVIG: The Urals?
VK: The Urals range.
NAVIG: It's called Poyasovoy kamen (means Waistband stone - ed. note)
VK: We went there, and often I, you know, spent the weekend in the woods. I was getting to Polunochnoe, not as far as Taloe, there was the military checkpoint here.
NAVIG: So there were military there?
VK: No. Given that there is a colony here, you see, from the military unit 6602, in my opinion, here it was, the checkpoint here. Then you know what, well, for security reasons, to catch convicts. Little did they make a check in the morning, and he ran away in the afternoon. During this time you could leave by car, and then the cars were checked here. And this checkpoint checked everyone. And here from this checkpoint was the road, there, up. I walked mostly along this road, mountains were already beginning here, I gathered cranberries here on these mountains, at the foothills.
VERDEN: And here was no checkpoint of some kind? There was not any checkpoint on this stretch from the Second Northern?
VK: Well, here, I'm telling you ...
VERDEN: Here you drew Polunochnoe ...
VK: No, it's not Polunochnoe, for Taloe, it's for Taloe, there can be kilometers, well, from Taloe 6 or 7 kilometers there was a checkpoint.
VERDEN: So there's a checkpoint between Taloe and Polunochnoe here, right?
VK: Yes-yes-yes.
VERDEN: And here?
VK: And then Taloe, that's why here Taloe is called, there Taloe river flowed. It goes down that way. Maninskoe lake there. Maninskoe lake was big. And this river took from there from the upper reaches and flowed there.
NAVIG: What about the cores, we forgot the cores ...
VK: A, the cores. You know, they had certain places. Let's say that they are drilling, there is a truck, say, on the road here, and the drilling machine is standing here somewhere. And these are all these, these are those that are extracted from the pipes, they are picked up afterwards, and then they are put here in boxes. In such boxes, let's say, stand here, just like this. These are all the samples from the pipes. Here. They lay here. And then they are taken to certain places, and then they are taken from there, these are the cores that are taken away somewhere.

TUAPSE: And what's the point of bringing them somewhere?
VERDEN: Soil?
VK: No soil, stones. There and pyrite and all possible minerals. Everything is there. To study, that's here.
VERDEN: So a core is a drill that drills this stone and takes a sample?
VK: Well, you know, this drilling technology must be known. Drilling machine, this is such, maybe 200 meters deep pipes, and the soil at a depth of 200 meters to take a sample. And then they take the whole thing upwards, put it in boxes in certain places, along the road they have warehouses for them. And then they take ...
TUAPSE: Does the box consist of several compartments?
VK: Well, different, there even the date is written, when, what, depth. There, in order to analyze these samples, you need to know where this well is located. It's getting cold, we had a settlement there, there was a geological prospecting expedition, people lived there. And there was a laboratory, I had acquaintances from this laboratory.
VERDEN: Was there a laboratory in the village of Northern?
VK: Not on the North, Second Ivdel, no ..., yes, Second Ivdel, Second Ivdel village.
VERDEN: There was such a settlement there, Ivdel-2? Or was it called Second Ivdel?
VK: Second Ivdel. The first Ivdel, this is when we come to the city, and then if you go 5 kilometers, the is Second Northern, there is a settlement, a settlement of geologists.
VERDEN: And these core samples they were made in certain places? Or just someone collected them on the road? Was there a truck that picked them up?
VK: They have their own system there, they know where to lay, what, where ... Well, let's say, the drill station is here, they have repository nearby, they cover with felt to prevent moisture from entering there, and there are the boxes ... and in these boxes, there are a lot of them there, probably about 100 pieces out there of these core samples.
NAVIG: Well, they can take them in the winter, right?
VK: In the winter they sometimes lie there in the summer ...
NAVIG: Could that be on the ridge?
VERDEN: How often did they get there?
VK: I went for mushrooms, sometimes I see, I look at this warehouse.
NAVIG: Near the ridge can there be such sample cores?
VK: No, near the ridge ..., and maybe they were.
TUAPSE: How are they going to drive there?
NAVIG: Why drive, they're on foot. They were dropped by a helicopter.
VK: The roads are going around, these are the roads.
TUAPSE: And drilling?
NAVIG: So in the summer they drill, and in the winter he went to take pictures.
VK: Listen, here's what I drew for you, here along this road, here is the Second Northern, in the same place once the establishment of the N-240 chopped down the forest, there are solid roads, the road goes up to the ridge. And the roads are so good that you can go there and geologists get there, drilling works are carried out. Then these stumps, which were harvested by loggers, after 3-4 years or 5 years later, they are hoisted and taken to the city, then unloaded, in my opinion, very good varnishes are made of them and a lot of materials are made. Osmol was called, osmol took care of their own. So there were roads everywhere, there in this area. I heard that there, somewhere in Burmantovo or nearby, that there to the ridge, there seems to be some military unit, a small one.
NAVIG: About Chistop, there is a word going around that there was some kind of radar station or something like that.
VK: Yes-yes-yes, there was.
NAVIG: In the year 59, in my opinion, it was not there.
TUAPSE: At what time was this small unit there?
NAVIG: Was it in 59?
VK: Look, Burmantovo, then we went even further along the road to one mountain, there were another 10-15 kilometers, there was a mountainous area, at the foothills already, and there was such a road, I was thinking, who is this for, such a beautiful road, very well paved. Such a big road, it must have be going somewhere, probably.
NAVIG: What year was this?
VK: Well, that's already, you know, much later.
NAVIG: And this is another question, when the civilians arrived in Ivdel, this was the area of Ivdellag, did they have to registered mandatory? For example, hikers? Or in general, so if I came there, I had to register, right? For the local it is not necessary, but for an outsider?
VK: In the city there is such a situation that hikers who come are obliged to register.
NAVIG: What kind of organization was that, what kind of unit, KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or prison security?
VK: You know, this is just how it was.
NAVIG: No, but what's there a checkpoint where to register?
VERDEN: In the cityhall, in some kind of administration?
VK: Well, that was a problem of the city.
NAVIG: In the city, right?
VK: In the city, yes. Previously, there was a Part committee. And there even was a representative of the KGB.
NAVIG: And when one leaves, he too must check his registration on the way out, right?
VK: Well, about this registration ...
NAVIG: Yudin says they did not register.
VK: They did not register.
NAVIG: Because otherwise he had to withdraw from the registration when he went back.
VK: I even heard that when there was party committee in the city, it seemed like it was forbidden to visit these places in this region.
NAVIG: Yes, exactly.

Recording stopped.

P.I. Solter reads Chernobrov publication in the background.

PI: I'm Pelageya Ivanovna, but he calls me Maria.
TUAPSE: Here you said about Buyanov that he was very interested, but who else was interested in this whole case?
VK: What now?
NAVIG: Who else was interested in what you have to say?
VK: Oh, well, Yudin wrote a letter to me first. Well, the first one I answer it. I just did not want to deal with all this scribbling, I was even pissed that I, what source am I? I am in the deep and do not know these events. What I heard as rumors, I wrote to him. So, he must find, that's the way, whether he has friends, comrades, who are better acquainted with whole thing.
TUAPSE: And Yudin was interested?
NAVIG: Yudin was there.
VK: I also, you know, I was somewhat connected with Sverdlovsk, I worked as a senior inspector of the state forest inspection of Sovivdelles (Soviet Ivdel Forrest - ed. note), lived in Ivdel, in the Northern Urals. But often I came to Sverdlovsk, I had a certificate from the Regional Party Committee. So, we went to inspect large enterprises, consumers, even large factories, metallurgical plants in Magnitogorsk, Sverdlovsk, everywhere Lespromhozes (Forrest Management Sectors - ed. note), docks were checked. But we had a certificate, besides our tasks, let's say, a reminder that we should reflect in the acts of inspections, the Regional Committee of People's Control gave us these tasks. We had to report 12 checkpoints. So I…
NAVIG: Strauh says that there was the Sosvinsky Reserve, there was a training ground. It's higher up there ...
VK: Maybe there was. What was it called again?
NAVIG: Sosvinsky Reserve, this is on the border with the Tyumen region, in my opinion.
VK: I'm convinced that ...
NAVIG: And if there was a test range, then missiles flew there.
VK: I'm convinced that this is some kind of technogenic, let's say, accident.
NAVIG: There are no traces of explosion. There is no explosion, there are no pits.
VK: The explosion maybe not so evident, the explosion can be air above the ground.
NAVIG: Then their limbs would be broken, they would be thrown back, hit, arms and legs would break. Bodies would be scattered around.
VK: How do you know what happened, and how the bodies were found? Don't you think there could be some staging? Do you know where and how were they killed?
NAVIG: This one had his skull caved in - clearly from a blow with a butt. The bone here was pressed into the skull to a depth of 2 cm, this force must be huge.
VK: This is a terrible secret. I can not even imagine. I have heard what beautiful people they were. Women see here, in my opinion, one of them Dubinina, she - an only daughter of her parents. Father, they say, was so solid. And Dyatlov himself, you see.
TUAPSE: Do you know anything about their past? Maybe something you heard somewhere?
VK: Absolutely nothing, these are students. How can we know?
TUAPSE: Well, you never know, rumors?
VK: No, no, there's something doubtful in what they say about Zolotaryov.
NAVIG: Well, no one knows who he is, and where is he from. But there are rumors. He went allegedly to get a master of sports.
VK: Listen, I imagine that there were twigs on the ground, you see, if it is a brushwood, it will be dry. You could, you know, start a fire, and not climb, but there were fragments of branches of the tree. Birches are cut, small birches. There grев birch, aspen. And they like, they tried to cut this with a knife. Why didn't they see around, you know, that there was brushwood laying around them.
NAVIG: Тhey cut branches to make the flooring. There was a stream there, a ravine, they made a den there. They found the rest in May.
VK: A, flooring, well, maybe flooring ...
NAVIG: From cut branches ...
VK: From the spruce here with this from the conifer?
NAVIG: Yes. The tops were severed. Yudin shows photos, and there are severed. And who cut them down is not clear.
VK: And what did they cut them down with?
NAVIG: With an ax, of course, what else. So there were outsiders. Some kind of strangers.
VK: Listen, aren't there ranks that do just that - clean and tie up loose ends. If there was something, they could just clean everything up and hide it somewhere in general. Not leave a trace knowing that they will be an extensive search and so on. This is unreasonable.
NAVIG: Maybe be they were in a hurry?

VERDEN: Maybe it wasn't on that level at all.
VK: Why hurry?
NAVIG: Why hurry? So searches have already begun on February, 12th. They had to come back by the 12th. If they don't show by the 12th, a civil search will begin. And they were discovered much later. When their accident occurred or whatever it was.
VERDEN: Pelageya Ivanovna, why did you say here that the corpses were not nine, but eleven? Is it true?
PI: Of course it's true, if I wrote it.
VERDEN: Why not nine but eleven, don't you remember you said that? Why were there eleven corpses?
NAVIG: So, what's written there, that's it?
PI: Well, I only wrote the truth.
TUAPSE: And why eleven?
VK: Before I write something, it was necessary to give me a note. It must have been writen somewhere.
VERDEN: Do you think there could be eleven corpses?
VK: How could there be eleven, Yudin's alive, well, listen, will he let his comrades down?
NAVIG: Well, maybe there were outsiders.
VERDEN: There could be outsiders.
NAVIG: They could have been killed there, too. If counterintelligence was involved, then anything is possible.
VK: But if they went up there on skis, you understand the whole thing, clothes, there was some kind of unidentified clothing there, Yudin, but maybe he couldn't recognize it.
NAVIG: There broken skis, there were pieces of film. They did not take the film.
VK: No, are you sure they didn't take the film?
NAVIG: The film, and there were pieces of film.
VK: When they were preparing a place for the tent in the snow, they photographed the first frame.
NAVIG: The films were in the cameras, and that was in the snow, it was found later. It's in the protocol.
VK: I heard there was a circle metal part there.
NAVIG: That's much later. From the S-200, the rocket. That could have fallen afterwards.
VERDEN: Pelageya Ivanovna, why did you say after all that there were eleven corpses?
VK: No, maybe she forgot.
VERDEN: But there is even a clarification there that the corpses were not nine, but eleven.
TUAPSE: And that it's written in some kind of article.
VK: Who, where is it written?
VERDEN: Well, that's what Chernobrov wrote.
VK: She (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note), you know, she was already coming to Leningrad. I came earlier, and there was a member of the Komsomol and journalist on the train. They started talking, sat into the same compartment, and she (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note) told them that they were eleven. Maybe her memory was already going astray. That's the problem.
VERDEN: And what year was it?
VK: It was probably already in 1999 or 2000. I arrived, in my opinion, in 1998, and she remained there for a while. And there she said to them something in the compartment which I don't know whether it's true or not.
VERDEN: And do you know someone in Ivdel, who in those days, could have anything to do with this matter? Transportation of corpses. Maybe you remember someone who lives in Ivdel. A truck driver, some orderlies?
VK: Well, at that time, why did I need to know about this? Now question are raised, who, whom, what. To find a catch. At that time, we absolutely went on with our lifes and an event like this, something happened, then everything died down. Years have passed.
VERDEN: Well, you know the whole system, who could be responsible for the removal and transportation of corpses, for example. Well, you had some kind of transport there, the head of the transport department.
VK: Well, to take out corpses from the scene, must be by helicopters. Helicopters were always ordered by the Institution. There was an enterprise, an Ivdel airline, there were always requested. I was even flying on a helicopter, I flew by helicopter to do my job.
TUAPSE: Was it a civilian enterprise or a military one, where helicopters were requested?
VK: No, these are civil aviation enterprises, well, the airport.
TUAPSE: And what about civil helicopters?
VK: Yes, civilian helicopters. And the Institution sometimes rented them. If it was necessary to transfer cargo or something, somewhere. Geologists often rented them ...

TUAPSE: Did the institution have its own helicopters, its aviation?
VK: No, they didn't.
VERDEN: And what did they have, any kind of transport? Were there cars?
VK: Sure. There were a lot of cars.
VERDEN: If they were sent by train, as in one version, they (corpses) should have been driven by a car.
VK: We had motorbikes, and boats on Lozva river. If somebody escaped, there were boats on the river. There was the motor depot, and they had their own vehicles. This was an large enterprise, the N-240/2.
NAVIG: You have to write here your name Pelageya Ivanovna and sign.
VERDEN: Is this Pelageya Ivanovna?
VK: Yes, that she is.
VERDEN: And where is she? In Ivdel? What year is that?
VK: One minute, let me bring the photo album.
NAVIG: And here's a gynecologist, what was her name? You were there. She was with Sharonin.
PI: A woman who worked in a free hospital, Taranova Anna Petrovna.
NAVIG: Was she also at the washout?
TUAPSE: We are talking about the free free clinic.
NAVIG: Well, she (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note) was there with her and Prudkov. Here is a letter, where she (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note) wrote about it.
PI: She (Taranova Anna Petrovna - ed. note) worked in the free clinic.
NAVIG: Was she ... was she present with Prudkov.
PI: We worked in the zone, and she worked in a free clinic. In the zone only men were allowed, not women. So Anna Petrovna did not work with us in the zone, but in a free clinic. But she knows everything, I don't know if she's alive or not.
NAVIG: She didn't work, but she was present at the morgue.
VERDEN: And why was she in the morgue?
NAVIG: So the morgue was not in the zone.
TUAPSE: I still don't understand this division to the end.
VERDEN: I don't understand either.
NAVIG: No, why, it's for a citizen anyway, but here there were convicts already.
TUAPSE: Here is for prisoners, here is for civilians, here is partially for civilians.
NAVIG: No, there were prisoners here. How can you enter here, if there are prisoners.
VERDEN: Why did you need a gynecologist?
VK: Convicts were treated separately, but it's possible with civilians.
PI: They called out how the commission was.
VERDEN: Oh, just like the members of the commission some, huh?
PI: Yes, yes. And this is me, this is my office, I was dealing with the systems.
VK: This is the surgical department at a different times.
TUAPSE: Ivdel?
VK: Well, of course, she worked here, Mary Ivanovna. These are all the doctors here.
TUAPSE: And who's this in the middle?
VK: That's Prudkov. And all the medics.
PI: That's Prudkov, that's the Head nurse. And this is Tsel Davydovna, a doctor.
VERDEN: Do you know if any of these doctors still live in Ivdel?
VK: Yes, take the photos with you.
NAVIG: Are you sure?
VK: Yes, of course.
NAVIG: Great!
PI: And this is Tsaskin Aleksander Evgenievich. He was a gynecologist.
VK: This is Savenkov, the Director if the hospital.
VERDEN: This was a free hospital, right?
VK: Yes, free. This is the wife of the Head of the department of the Institution, she was the wife of this one here ...
PI: Ivanova.
VK: Ivanova Valentina Ivanovich.
PI: She was a doctor. And this is Tsaskin Aleksander Evgenievich.

Forest Management Central Polyclinic

1. Sara Mihaylovna Agisheva
2. Iosif Davydovich Prudkov - surgeon
3. Aleksander Evgenyevich Tsatskin
4. Savenkov - Head of Ivdel hospital
5. Anna Petrovna Taranova
6. Ekaterina Vasilyevna Evstigneeva - pediatrician
7. Tsilya Davydovna Schmidt - doctor
8. Filatova - doctor

VK: These are already doctors in the zone here. Here is Sharonin ...
NAVIG: Who, the one with the glasses?
VK: Yes.
NAVIG: Sharonin.
VK: Here, Mary Ivanovna, you see, she is looking sideways.
NAVIG: Where? That's her?
VK: Yes.
VERDEN: But this is the zone, it's the hospital in the zone, right?
VK: This is a hospital in the zone, but here she is, Mary Ivanovna.
VERDEN: Tell me, do you know if any of these people are alive? Could they know something, for example?
VK: Well, this one is probably alive. Nurses are probably alive. Here is Pronovozova, she's still alive.
VERDEN: Yes? What's her name?
VK: Pronozova. Here she is, she is a Head nurse, a war veteran.

1. Iosif Davydovich Prudkov - surgeon
2. Aleksandra Ivanovna Pronozova - head nurse, war veteran
3. Evgeniy Ivanovich Tzaskin
4. Anna Petrovna Taranova

NAVIG: In Ivdel?
VK: Yes, she lives in Ivdel, still alive.
VERDEN: What's her name?
VK: She was a Head nurse in the zone.
PI: Aleksandra Ivanovna.
VERDEN: What's her name?
PI: Aleksandra Ivanovna Pronozova.
VK: She was in the free clinic at the time.
NAVIG: Do you have a phone or an address for her?
VK: No.
VERDEN: And she had something to do with this story? Well, she could have, right?
VK: Well, maybe she knows something. She's an old worker.
PI: She's from Ivdel, she would know.
VK: She worked as a civilian, she worked in the free clinic, and then she moved there. Because the pay was better.
VERDEN: She's even born in Ivdel, right?
VK: Yes, from Ivdel. A lot of them lived there.
VERDEN: And can there be anybody else? Or maybe someone else is alive, people in all are not so old in the photo.
VK: Well, this is Dr. Schmidt, this is Tsel Davydovna, she's gone now. Here it is Anya Molostova, she was our neighbor.
VERDEN: And Sharonin is dead, right?
PI: Yes. Long dead.
VK: Here I can clearly see Pronozova.
PI: Well Pronozova is still alive. She lives in the small town there.
VERDEN: In town? She lives in the town.
VK: This is what you should do.
VERDEN: We'll try.
NAVIG: We did not know, now we know.
PI: This is Elvira Andreevna, still alive, and her daughter Lisa.
VERDEN: What's her name?
VK: She is also alive, Elvira.
VERDEN: Does Elvira Andreevna have a surname?
VK: Now, one minute. Simon, in my opinion.
VERDEN: Simon?
PI: Simon? No no. What was her name ...
VK: Elvira Andreevna even wrote letters to us, there are somewhere here.
VERDEN: Maybe you have some envelope with an address? Maybe we should contact her, too?
VK: I 'll look for envelopes. Well, you see, here ...
PI: There are probably still alive too ...
PI: This is Borsch Lisa.

NAVIG: Mary Ivanovna, I mean Pelageya Ivanovna.
VERDEN: And what's her name, Borsch?
PI: Borsch Elvira.
VERDEN: How is it spelled?
PI: Lisa Borsch.
VERDEN: Is this a zone hospital?
PI: Yes. And this is Valentina, I forgot how ... She lived beyond the river.
PI: This is our hosting nurse. Her name was German, I think.
VERDEN: By the way, did the hosting nurse have anything to do with this matter?
VK: Well, probably, they are alive. I don't know. Here is Taranova Anna Petrovna. She lives in Sverdlovsk, she just recently moved. She is alive, we even have her phone number.
NAVIG: Yes, can we have it.
VK: Gynecologist.
VK: There she was, she was a young doctor.
VERDEN: This one?
VK: Yes.
PI: Doctor-gynecologist.
VERDEN: Was she present at the autopsy? Good…
NAVIG: Not at the autopsy, but at the wash.
VERDEN: And in general, in St. Petersburg, no one has moved from your friends? Is there no one else here?
VK: You know, well there was Sichkar who worked somewhere in some neurological center or in some place Sichkar, a doctor. He spent 3 years in Ivdel, and after the Institute came here, he lives here.
VERDEN: Did he have anything to do with the Dyatlov case?
VK: How should I know, I don't know.
NAVIG: We are only interested in this aspect.
VK: Well, doctor, Taranova, now I'll look, let me get up. Photos of the dead, washed them there, stored? She (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note) only has an opinion, there is noway she could know, and I heard that they were put in the coffins immediately. But it turns out, they, you see, did the autopsy there. And if they did, then must be in the zone, because ...
VERDEN: You know, the rumor could have appeared by mistake. That is, there is a certain level of personnel who knows that the corpses will be sent to Sverdlovsk. And that's all that matters for them, because their work is done. Then comes the second round, which knows that the corpses will not be sent right away, something like that.
VK: And they could have done an autopsy in the surgical department of the zone.
VERDEN: Of course, they could have come from the small town here in the zone and perform an autopsy. And people thought that they were taken to Sverdlovsk.
PI: They had everything handy, everybody knew.
VK: So an ambulance, not one, but it was ambulance, loaded the corpses, drove to the zone, and did it right there.
VERDEN: Well yes, an ambulance could have shuttled between the small town and the zone.
VK: No, not there, but next to the zone.
NAVIG: No, wait, the fact is that Pelageya Ivanovna says that they changed their clothes into new clothes. So did they take off their clothes for examination again? She (Pelageya Ivanovna - ed. note) can not confirm this, because she has forgotten it already.
TUAPSE: And what rumors, what kind of talk was there in the city after this accident?
VERDEN: Yes, what did people say, what were the rumors?
VK: First in the city, you know what, there were rumors that they were dead, here and there ...
VERDEN: And from what?
VK: Well, they were saying that an autopsy will be performed to determine in what condition they would be. They said that Mansi must have attacked them. Because the tent was cut, you know.
VERDEN: Were there any reasons for the population to think that the Mansi did it? Did Mansi generally had a habit of attacking civilians? Were there similar cases?
VK: No, Mansi, in my opinion, are unlikely to attack.
VERDEN: So you've never heard?
VK: Although they say that there they had a sacred mountain, where is not allowed ...
VERDEN: And there were no cases of attacks on geologists, there, or someone else?
VK: No, there were not.

NAVIG: Let's continue with the rumors.
VK: Ok. 300 kilometers from Ivdel there is a Mansi village. There, not far from the village, the administration of the Ivdel district built them a new settlement, so this nationality, doesn't perish completely. To help them sustain.
VERDEN: Hence the rumors. Besides the Mansi, what other rumors did you hear?
VK: Well, these rumors, they are such a benevolent people, if you visit them, you know, they give you what they have, help you what they can.
NAVIG: And rumors about the Dyatlov group?
VK: Well, nobody mentioned back then a landslide or some kind of shaft, there was no hurricane. Everybody said that must be rockets.
VERDEN: Why did people think that they were rockets? Why didn't they think that was an avalanche?
VK: Because an avalanche, who knows these mountains, especially, well, I understand the hurricane, such a hurricane can exist. Well, there are hurricanes that can raise a tractor, and throw it ...
VK: It so happened that, I think I even heard that there was an atomic bomb near the mountains, they even tested it.
VERDEN: So, there were such rumors at the time?
VK: Yes, there were such rumors that even the radiation increased in Ivdel. Yes, and no one has published any information about this in the newspaper. The background could be published to people. Although this was all hidden. Radiation background.
NAVIG: Now, I would like to, Pelageya Ivanovna ... All the same, you dressed them in clothes?
PI: Well, I was dressing them, I had some help.
TUAPSE: And who helped?
VERDEN: And how did you dress them? They were corpses, how did you dress them? You cut the suit on theback, how do you dress a corpse?
PI: First on the head, hands, and then pull them down, pants.
TUAPSE: And who helped you?
VK: Yes, there could and should be nurses.
VERDEN: Who helped?
VK: Who, some authorized people, could have been?
PI: Orderlies maybe, I have forgotten already.
VERDEN: You couldn't have been dressing them yourself? It's probably hard to put something on a corpse.
VK: Well, of course, you can imagine.
NAVIG: If they were dressed, then why do this?
VERDEN: This doesn't make any sense at all.

End of recording.

Victor Konstantinovich and Pelageya Ivanovna Solter