The secret of the mountain pass (part 1)

There is a certain magical appeal in the story of the death of a group of hikers in the Northern Urals in early February 1959. It is not for nothing that journalists return to it again and again, and writers find material for the most intricate plots.

This is not only our fellow countryman Yuri Yarovoy, who wrote "The Highest Category of Difficulty" in hot pursuit. This is the venerable Moscow science fiction writer Sergey Alekseev - the search for mysterious underground storerooms leads the hero of his novel "The Treasures of the Valkyrie" to the notorious Dyatlov Pass, where the tragedy occurred.

Oh, how dangerous it turns out for our journalist brother to touch this story! I thought that I would introduce to the readers my good friend Yuri Yudin, the tenth member of the Dyatlov group, who survived by a coincidence, and step aside. I will follow the investigation of the tragic mystery by the publications of colleagues, as 40 years in a row, from the moment when we, the students of the Ural University, learned about the incident from our teacher Aleksander Matveev, a famous toponymist - this is what the authors of publications usually refer to when deciphering the name of the place where the tragedy took place: Kholat Syakhl, Mountain of the Dead.

Alexander Konstantinovich then came to the lecture in hiking gear and said that, perhaps, he would have to go in search of the group that disappeared in the mountains ...

From that moment on, the dark shadow of that misfortune loomed from time to time on the horizon. But it was worthwhile to read together with Yudin the archival "file" about the death of the hikers, go with him to two or three addresses of people who took part in the search, but that was all, nothing followed after that! The Dyatlov pass does not let go, takes time and thoughts.

Many meetings - in Yekaterinburg, Ivdel, Moscow - have not yet answered the main question. And yet I would like to "report on the work done" in order, firstly, to somehow sort out the accumulated information, and secondly, to invite our esteemed readers to a joint search for the truth. Well, and thirdly, since it is not yet possible to answer the question of what happened at the Dyatlov pass, we will try to at least eliminated what didn't happened.

I don't think the Dyatlov group were "eliminated", murdered because they became unwitting witnesses of secret tests, by some special command tasked to keep the state secret at all costs.

The point is not only that near the tent, cut with a knife from the inside and hastily abandoned by the hikers, there are no traces of strangers, but also the nature of the injuries received by the hikers does not fit into any real version of the massacre. The supporters of the criminal versions base their scenarios on facts that do not stand up to criticism.

Of course, our life provides many reasons for all sorts of suspicions. But sometimes they come from basic carelessness. For example, my colleague from another, highly respected, publication saw an empty space in one of the typed protocols of the inspection of the location where four (out of nine) dead hikers were found and jolted. The only explanation, he thought, is that the space of several lines is not accidental. Some incriminating facts have been left out! My colleague suspected that the genuine protocol was handwritten and contained incriminating information. In fact the blank space was left because there was a drawing of a flooring built near the stream built by the guys in distress. The drawing was not transferred to the typewritten version. That's all! So much for the mysterious omission.

The ambassadors of the "cleansing" version made an amazing "discovery": the bodies of the hikers were dropped along the slope from a helicopter. One of the "proofs": under the frozen body of Y. Doroshenko (he was found under a cedar near an extinct fire together with Y. Krivonischenko) there were cedar twigs allegedly broken down during a fall from a helicopter. But from the same publication it follows that the comrades took off some clothes from those already dead. So, Doroshenko's body was moved, turned. Is it any wonder that a previously broken off branch turned out to be under the body?

The authors of the criminal theories are desperately clinging to shreds of evidence. They say that the hikers had ski poles, so why aren't they mentioned in the documents? They claim that the perpetrators hid the bodies in the water, rearranged the tent, moved things into it, but forgot the ski poles.

Meanwhile, in the protocol of the inspection of the scene it is written: "The tent is stretched out on ski poles, secured with ropes." The Dyatlov group tent tarpaulin tent was rather big, made of two, sewn together. It took a lot of полес to install it in a treeless place, almost twenty!

So something is "missing"! Yes, you can hardly build a version of a brutal murder on ski poles. The same goes for the "unidentified" items.

Yudin did the identification. He was summoned to Ivdel and presented with the belongings of his friends brought from Kholat-Syakhl in two large backpacks. He named who, in his opinion, owns the sweater, hat, checked shirt. Dozens, if not hundreds of items. Yuri could not identify several things. This caused new suspicions among the amateur investigators. If Yudin does not know who the cross cut saw belongs to, then it must have been brought to the mountain by none other than secret killers.

Colleagues, read the "case" further! The identification of items continued in Sverdlovsk, where relatives and friends of the victims took part in it. The ill-fated saw was recognized by the hiker Slava Halizov - he took it from a friend of the head of the instrumental section and gave it to his friend, Kolya Tibo, for a hike. And no "villains" have anything to do with it.

Same goes for the scabbard found in the area of the tent. For one of the authors of the publication about the Dyatlov group, they somehow "double", it seemed to him that there were two scabbards, and he wonders where they mysteriously disappeared, why they are not mentioned anywhere else. Again a hint of someone's "malicious", criminal hands.

There is a simple explanation. The scabbard was "reunited" with the knife for which it was intended. The Finnish knife with a black plastic handle belonged to Sasha Kolevatov and as a memory of him was later returned (in its sheath*) to his sister Rimma Sergeevna. (*ed. note - Rimma Sergeevna's daughter claims otherwise)

The list of absurdities that the conspiracy version is based on can be continued. What is, for example, the assertion of one of the authors, already published on the pages of the central press, that 40 years ago hikers did not take blankets with them on a hike, but exclusively sleeping bags!

I can refer to my own humble hiking experience as a student: in the late 1950s, the most typical camping "sleeping bag" was a dormitory blanket. But more weighty, apparently, will be the authority of Yuri Yudin, who went through the entire preparatory stage with the Dyatlov group and knew perfectly well that the guys took blankets with them.

Crime stories fans cite Vladislav Karelin, a participant in the search for the missing group, recorded in the protocol, that only an armed group of at least ten people could have frightened the Dyatlov group to cause the panic in which they fled the tent. We met with Vladislav Georgievich more than once. He recalls that this record appeared as a result of persistent leading questions of the investigator Lev Ivanov, who at the beginning of the investigation was building a case with the local Mansi revenging the invasion of their sacred places. The version was soon discarded as absurd, but the coerced phrase remained in the case.

It seems that there was no foul play on Kholat-Syakhl 40 years ago. Something unintended happened! Let's leave aside for now the search for the root cause of the tragedy, that is, the situation that made the guys jump out of the tent naked and rush down the slope. Let us turn to pages equally mysterious - the circumstances of the death of four Dyatlov group members who were found in early May, that is, three months after their death, in a stream, one and a half kilometers from the tent.

- A completely different story begins here, - sighed Yuri Yudin, thinking about the horrible findings in May. Indeed. Unlike the rest of his comrades in misfortune who died from the cold, the examination revealed injuries incompatible with life in three found in May.

But they all ran from the tent together! At least eight pairs of footprints have survived on the windswept slope. Three stone ridges were crossed on the way to the stream. In the opinion of most of the participants in the search that I have discuss the case, it is not surprising to get injured on these stones, especially on the run and in the dark. But...

"Multiple depressed skull fracture" recorded in Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle's autopsy report, under the circumstances, apparently, is possible. As for the injuries sustained by Lyuda Dubinina and Sasha Zolotaryov ...

Experienced criminologist P. Gritsaenko explained to me that a bilateral fracture of the ribs is possible on impact or pressure on the body with a wide surface. If the body is compressed from the side, then a unilateral fracture along the axillary line is possible. Pyotr Petrovich did not participate in the investigation of the circumstances of the death of the hikers, he came to the regional forensic examination bureau later, replacing B. Vozrozhdenniy as an expert, who happened to conduct that investigation in 1959.

Therefore, Pyotr Petrovich did not make any conclusions but at my request enlightened me in theory. His words came to mind as soon as I finally decided to take a closer look at those terrible photographs that are included in the case file. We will not reproduce the pictures in the newspaper - neither their quality nor their content allows (the second photo we are showing was not included in the original article). We are only publishing the photo taken during the trek - it was already in the newspaper. On it - cheerful, lively, exactly those who a couple of days later were mortally injured. All, except for Zina Kolmogorova, standing on the right.

First on the left is Kolya Thibeaux-Brignolle. Next to him is Lyuda Dubinina. Then Sasha Zolotaryov. Kolya and Sasha exchanged hats. Who does not know that the old felt hat is a favorite decoration of the head of the "Count de Brignolle", as he was jokingly called.

Kolya has very distinctive years - you can't miss them. The posthumous photograph shows the characteristically outlined left ear of a person lying behind the back of another, larger one. The one in front has just such a hat on his head - barrette or a cap, belonging to Zolotaryov, and in the "live" picture worn by Thibeaux-Brignolle. They both lie on the right side - across, slightly aside, a stormy stream. At Zolotaryov, mind you, an autopsy revealed a right-sided fracture of the ribs. Thibeaux-Brignolle has a broken right temple. A little further downstream, another body with its arms thrown up, as if covering its head, hovered on a sloping rapids bottom. Apparently, Sasha Kolevatov. (ed. note - the author is swapping Kolevatov and Thibeaux-Brignolle who has two wrist watches)

Why, however, do we have to guess who is who? Is it really not recorded in the case file in what position each was found? Alas, that's exactly right. Only for one of them is it said definitely: the body has been identified as Dubinina. Well done, you can tell one girl from three guys!

We can guess why that is. At first, almost all UPI hikers gathered in search of their missing comrades. Closer to spring, the students left to finish their studies, mostly military men worked in the mountain, who did not know the dead by sight. Besides, water and time left their unforgiving mark.

The guys were taken out of the stream even before the arrival of the prosecutor and the investigator. Their injuries were examined only in Ivdel, and the bone fractures were somehow not connected with the position of the bodies in the stream. And if you try to find a corelation? Lyuda Dubinina was on her knees, pressed against a steep ledge. The bent arms are thrown up, as if clinging to the ledge. The head rests on her cheek. A waterfall rushes nearby. Lyuda, pressed against the ledge with her whole body, has a two-sided fracture of the ribs.

Of course, it can be assumed that the body settled down during the melting of the snow, changed its position. But it is difficult to imagine that frozen, hard as ice, it could so well "fit" into the complex relief.

After looking at the pictures, our editorial lawyer V. Malkin agreed with me on this point. There is another coincidence - Vladimir Fyodorovich in his youth worked in Pavlodar under the leadership of Lev Nikitich Ivanov, the lead investigator in the case of the death of the Dyatlov group.

Why on earth would the living hikers, even if wounded, choose such an uncomfortable, steeply falling, rocky place for a temporary shelter? And would their comrades have laid them here if they themselves were helpless?

Nearby, on the banks of the stream, the searchers found a flooring of fir branches with several items of clothing on it. Judging by the location of the bodies, two of them, found nearby, as if in an embrace, were moving towards the "den". Zolotaryov carried Thibeaux-Brignolle on his back, throwing his comrade's hand over his shoulder.

This is no longer my guess. Egor Semyonovich Nevolin, a former radio operator of the Northern Geological Prospecting Expedition, and now a resident of Yekaterinburg, who worked in the search group from start to finish, described the situation the same way, only the names (who carried whom) he named others. But this is what the photograph shows.

Perhaps Kolya Thibeaux-Brignolle was injured earlier than his comrades - information about the location of the skull injury in the case file differ, it is possible that there were two injuries. Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko seem to have died from the cold first. Their clothes were taken off to keep others warm. Krivonischenko's watch was the found on Thibeaux-Brignolle's hand.

The survivors split up: three went to the tent for clothes and food, others began to prepare a shelter in a place protected from the wind.

Imagine a valley filled with snow blown from the mountains. Here its layer - according to eyewitness accounts and photographs - is up to 6-7 meters deep. Beneath it, though not as stormy as in spring, but an ice-free stream. Steep, from carved boulders, river bed.

When Zolotaryov with Thibeaux-Brignolle was making his way across the stream bed, they disturbed a powerful mass of snow. It rushed from the sides of the valley, buried and crushed the guys... The nature of the injuries they received fits very precisely into this version.

Another circumstantial evidence is that the fir flooring was found intact at a depth of 2.5-3 meters from the surface of the snow. Most likely, it was made in a hole dug in a snow-covered slope, and it also turned out to be covered under a snow slab.

All this is somewhat reminiscent of the "avalanche" version of Moisey Akselrod, a participant in the search for the Dyatlov group. Only the "avalanche" happened not on the mountain slope, but in the valley, and had a purely local character. There is much more snow below than above... I look at old photographs, and this chilling guessing sinks my soul.

- Everything will turn out to be very simple! - suggested Y. Yudin. Is he right?

But the root cause of the event is by no means that simple. I would like the search for truth to become a collective one. After all, those who are involved in the secret stubbornly remain silent.

In my next publications I will write about how Yudin "used the stove" to narrow down the date of the tragedy. We also have Moscow researchers of anomalous phenomena and experts in the rocket and space advancements, and I will tell you their opinion about the Ural mystery.

Rimma Pechurkina