The story was told to me by an emergency doctor. He was, in his words, a participant in the autopsy of Igor Dyatlov's group in 1959.
This story is not even a version. This is a narration of the story of a person who (possibly) was directly related to the autopsy of the bodies of the Dyatlovites in Sverdlovsk. He told it to me twenty years or a little more ago. In those years, I worked as a paramedic in the line, mobile team of an ambulance station in Yekaterinburg. At the first (central) substation, in the Leninsky district of Yekaterinburg. The person who told the story worked there as well. He worked as a doctor of the line brigade. Prior to that, he was a specialist neurologist, worked in a specialized neurological team. After suffering an illness, he moved to the line. His name was Alexander Filippovich Koshevets. He is almost the same age as the deceased group, he was born either in 1937 or a little earlier, unfortunately, I don't remember that exactly.
In 2008, Koshevets died after a serious illness. All these years he came to work, worked until his death. Even when he no longer had the strength to work. An honest, decent person. Outwardly, he was a very large, heroic physique. Very well-read and comprehensively erudite. By the way, it was he who first got on the call to people who fell ill from an epidemic of an unknown disease in 1979. That year, an unknown pathogen was released in Sverdlovsk. The leak was from the underground workshop of the military plant 19 of the military town on Vtorchermet. They produced the fighting virus of the causative agent of plague and anthrax. The infection got into the ventilation and was released. Employees of the enterprise and residents of Vtorchermet were the first to fall ill. People died almost instantly. Mostly men died, while at the age from 17 to 60 years. Koshevets understoodthat deals with a particularly dangerous infection of unknown origin. By phone, he contacted the senior ambulance doctor Tamara Vasilyevna Poletaeva. After that, special measures were taken in the focus of the disease, and all the sick began to enter the emergency room of 40 gkb (infectious building). So they managed to quickly identify the epidemic, as well as begin to isolate sick people from healthy people. For courage and knowledge, Koshevets received an award from the USSR Ministry of Defense. For courage and knowledge, Koshevets received an award from the USSR Ministry of Defense. For courage and knowledge, Koshevets received an award from the USSR Ministry of Defense.
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But the story that Koshevets told us was connected precisely with the Dyatlov pass. We, somehow, watched a film about the Dyatlov Pass. Then this one came out in Yekaterinburg and was shown in the program of Innokenty Sheremet. We started to argue and discuss what we had seen, and then Koshevets told everything. According to him, in his youth, he was somehow connected with the morgue of the 40th hospital. All criminal and mysterious deaths were received there (in the old building). I don't remember exactly all the details, but I think that Koshevets talked about the arrival of the last group of tourists in Sverdlovsk. Let me remind you that in May 1959, the bodies of Dubinina, Zolotarev, Thibault and Kolevatov were removed from the stream. A telephone message came over the bodies that it was necessary to work in anti-plague clothing in compliance with all protective measures. Since they will look for signs of a dangerous infection of unknown origin. She has never met beforebut there is a suspicion of its lethality and a short incubation period. Bodies from the pass will come frozen, in zinc coffins. In Ivdel, they will not be opened, they will simply describe them and prepare them for transportation by air.
Barrels with disinfection solution were installed in the room. It was about these barrels that the investigator Lev Ivanov and the prosecutor Tempalov told. Only they were standing in Sverdlovsk, and they were not present at all during the autopsy.
All the bodies delivered were strangely colored, contaminated and had traces of radiation. Their clothes were taken off only in Sverdlovsk. They also performed a sectional autopsy and took tissue samples. But most of all, doctors were interested in tissue cultures for infectious agents. It was there that an extremely pathogenic strain of a previously unknown infection was obtained. Interestingly, the infection was detected in the tissues only after thawing. In the frozen state, the infection was not particularly dangerous. Again, I am only telling this from the words of my senior colleague. This is not typical for an infectious disease. So the causative agents of plague and anthrax tolerate well both strong heating and cooling (even in liquid nitrogen). After the funeral, some activities were secretly held at the cemetery. I thinkthat the presence of stones in the grave of Semyon Zolotarev may be related to this.
Where the tourists got infected is unknown. But what was known about the bodies being infected is obvious. Yuri Yudin left the campaign due to inguinal lymphadenitis (inflammation of the inguinal lymph node). After he got to Sverdlovsk, he was taken to an infectious diseases hospital, after a purulent surgery. But Yudin very quickly went on the mend. After discharge, he did not tell anyone what he was in the hospital with. The infection strain was identified only in May 1959. Already lost people.
The disease itself, which I don't know exactly, of course. It proceeded with a short incubation period. From a day to one hour, presumably. Passed with severe hallucinations. Probably, the patients could, at this moment, hide from the imaginary persecution. They could become aggressive and injure each other. In addition, the infection could cause rejection of the tissues of the limbs. Gangrene, possibly visually reminiscent of frostbite and grade 4 burns. Vomiting with blood, for example, no more than 100 ml of blood or ichor was found in the stomach. Tongue, eyes and broken ribs could be associated with active resistance and even injury. Since people were under the influence of hallucinations. Again, I repeat for the hundredth time that the infection itself is absolutely atypical and we do not know its strain.
A. F. Koshevets believed that the 1979 epidemic was associated with the tragedy at the Dyatlov pass. Since this particular strain was identified in the dead people. But that was just his guess, nothing more. In addition, he believed that the students somewhere damaged a burial ground with animals killed by anthrax. But the picture of the disease is not typical for anthrax, just as it is not typical for plague. Therefore, I consider the issue of infection open. Or maybe someone carried the virus in a test tube to transmit it to the West, I don't know …
So or not, but the version with an infectious disease has not been studied absolutely before. Moreover, no one has ever heard a story like the one described in the article. I understand that this version is very controversial and unprovable. Since there are no documents, I have not and cannot have. But to tell it, in the same form that I once heard, I considered it necessary for myself. Believe me or not, it's up to you to decide …
19 military town Yekaterinburg.
Senior ambulance doctor Poletaeva T. V.
One of the manifestations of anthrax.
The body of Zina Kolmagorova. Perhaps, manifestations of a dangerous infection remained on her body and skin.
The fingertips of all the victims showed signs of obvious necrosis.
Pay attention to the damage to the skin of the face of Dyatlov. They are the same as those of Kolmagorova.
Author: Valentin Degterev