Nikolay Kuzminov's letter to the Uralsky Rabochi newspaper
09-02-1999
February 9, 1999
In the camp. May 1, 1959. Askinadzi and Nikolay Kuzminov
Hello, dear employees of Uralsky Rabochy!
Nikolay Ivanovich Kuzminov is writing to you from the city of Nizhnyaya Salda.
I have been a regular subscriber to your newspaper since 1963, when I first arrived in the Urals.
After reading the story in your newspaper from January 30, 1999, "The Price of State Secrets: Nine Lives", I decided to drop you a few words to supplement your article; it might be useful.
In 1959, I served in Ivdel and participated in the search for the missing Dyatlov group from early March until May, when the last four were found. I was the senior member of a group of soldiers who were dropped off at Mount Atarten (ed. note: spelling preserved) to search for the students. According to the senior member of the group, Comrade Borey (who was in charge of the soldiers during the first stage of the search), they found completely naked people by a fire. Their hands were burnt. I no longer remember their names. So much time had passed, even though the UPI students participating in the search were still naming them.
We lived in a tent in the forest. There were 20 of us students and ten military personnel. Two Mansi brothers, the Kurikovs, were also participating in the search. The search was led by Colonel Artyukov, head of the UPI military department.
Every morning, we set out to search. We walked in a chain with stakes over two meters long, tied together with rope because the winds were very strong and a person could easily be carried away. We made 5-6 punctures in the snow with stakes per square meter to detect foreign objects.
We decided to stop the search until the snow melted, but on N.S. Khrushchev's orders, it was resumed. We probed all open spaces with stakes and moved into the forest in mid-April. It was easier in the forest. The Mansi Kurikovs went hunting one day and struck gold. They discovered cut branches on trees and a trail of fallen trees leading to a ravine. Since the snow had already melted a little, the trail of lost branches was visible. We began clearing the snow and reached the ravine. Under three meters of snow in the ravine, following a trail of spruce branches, we found a platform made of branches and spruce branches with some clothes on it. There were no people. We began digging down the stream. On the second day, we found the body of a man, positioned (as if crawling) upstream toward the platform. He was wearing three watches and two cameras. About 10 meters further down, we found two more – a boy and a girl; her last name was Dubinina. The boy appeared to be crawling toward the platform, and the girl was lying on his back, her arms around his neck. The last one was found even lower down. Everyone's legs were wrapped in the clothes taken from the boys at the fire. The bodies had begun to decompose. That was the end of our search.
In conclusion, I would like to disagree with the conclusion that the Dyatlov group was killed by the military and dropped from a helicopter. Was the tree branch den, 3 meters deep, also dropped from a helicopter? We were all inclined to believe the Dyatlov group perished due to a fireball phenomenon. One night, we observed such a phenomenon. The orderly woke us up. We left the tent and watched it. After 5-6 minutes, we began to lose consciousness (the fireball was approaching us), and we wandered off like sleepwalkers. At the group leader's command, I fired my pistol into the air several times, which brought those who were starting to go dizzy back to consciousness. We returned to the tent. The day after this "emergency", we radioed for immediate evacuation from the search site. We were told that they were testing a new type of hydrogen fuel and that there was nothing life-threatening, but we simply needed to stay in the tent for the time being. They promised to stop testing for the duration of the search. We calmed down and continued the search.
Sincerely, N.I. Kuzminov
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Nikolay Kuzminov's letter to the Uralsky Rabochy newspaper
