More than half a century ago, a mysterious and tragic event took place in the mountains of the Northern Urals. In early February 1959, nine tourists were killed for some unknown reason. After this tragedy, three deputy chairmen of the KGB lost their posts at once, which was an unprecedented case in the history of the most powerful secret service in the world.
FEAT ON SCHEDULE
A ski trip to one of the peaks of the Belt Stone ridge of the Subpolar Urals, Mount Otorten, was conceived by members of the tourist section of the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after V. I. SM Kirov in the fall of 1958. The route belonged to the highest category of difficulty.
The group had to overcome more than 350 km in 16 days in harsh winter conditions and climb the mountains Otorten and Oiko-Chakur. The trip was timed to coincide with the XXI Congress of the CPSU and was supported by the leadership of the Ural Polytechnic University.
The initial composition of the group consisted of twelve people, but in the end, on January 23, 1959, ten left the Sverdlovsk railway station: Igor Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Yuri Doroshenko, Georgy (Yuri) Krivonischenko, Nikolai Thibault-Brignolle, Lyudmila Dubinina, Semyon (Alexander) Zolotarev, Alexander Kolevatov and Yuri Yudin. I must say that the group was only nominally considered a student group, since four of them by that time were no longer students, and some had nothing to do with UPI at all.
The composition of the group was heterogeneous. The youngest was 20-year-old Dubinina. The instructor of the Kourovskaya camp site, Zolotarev, who joined at the last moment, turned 37. The group leader, Dyatlov, was 23. Despite his youth, Igor Dyatlov was already a very experienced tourist and had more than one route of varying difficulty behind him. And the rest were far from novices. In addition, they already had experience of joint campaigns and all of them, with the exception of Zolotarev, knew each other well and were a close-knit, friendly and proven team of like-minded people.
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Each person counted, and it was all the more offensive to lose one of the participants in the very first days of the campaign. Due to the aggravated radiculitis, after the first transition from the village 41st quarter to the uninhabited village, the 2nd Northern mine was forced to leave the route of Yu. Yudin. Acute pain did not allow him to move at the planned speed even without a backpack.
The loss of one of the experienced male tourists forced the leader of the group to reconsider the schedule and postpone the date of the group's arrival back to Sverdlovsk in the event of a successful completion of the hike from 10 to 12 February. However, no one doubted this outcome. And no one could have foreseen that this annoying absurdity would save Yuri Yudin's life - the only one from the whole group.
Based on the diary entries, it is possible to only partially restore the picture of what happened: in the evening of February 1, 1959, a group led by Dyatlov set up camp near Mount Otorten in order to climb its summit the next morning. However, subsequent events did not allow the group to fulfill the intended …
The group did not get in touch either on February 12, or later. A certain delay did not particularly alarm the leadership of the institute. Relatives were the first to sound the alarm. At their request, a search and rescue operation was organized, which began only on February 22. Everyone took part in the search for the missing people: from students and tourists to army units and special services.
Moreover, all further events took place under the close control of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB. The level of what happened is evidenced by the fact that a state commission was created to investigate the tragedy near Mount Kholat-Syakhyl, which included: Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs M. N. Shishkarev, Deputy Chairman of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee V. A. F. T. Ermash, Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk N. I. Klinov and Major General of Aviation M. I. Gorlachenko.
Pay attention to the last figure on this list. It would seem, what is a military pilot to do here? Nevertheless, some data allow us to assert that the Air Force Major General was included in the commission for a reason. The case was under the personal control of the 1st secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU A. P. Kirilenko.
SCARY FINDINGS
The official investigation could not give an answer to the question about the causes of the tragedy on the night of 1 to 2 February. Or didn't want to. The criminal case was closed on May 28, 1959. The document drawn up by L. Ivanov, an employee of the Ivdelskaya procurator, said: "… it should be considered that the cause of their death was a spontaneous force, which people were not able to overcome."
Nevertheless, the search was continued by enthusiasts. Today, there are several dozen versions of the reasons for the death of the Dyatlov group. Among them:
unfavorable weather conditions; quarrel between tourists; death at the hands of the local population; attack of escaped prisoners; clash with the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; paranormal phenomena (mysticism and UFOs); man-made disaster (version by G. Tsygankova); avalanche (version by E. V. Buyanov); special operation of the KGB during the Cold War (version of A. I. Rakitin).
It must be said that the investigations carried out by volunteers command respect, and some of them answer, if not all, then many questions.
On February 27, one and a half kilometers from a tent half-buried and frozen in the snow, set up on the slope of Mount Kholat-Syakhyl, the bodies of Yury Doroshenko and Yury Krivonischenko were found. Almost immediately, the body of Igor Dyatlov was found three hundred meters higher. Then, under a small layer of dense snow, the body of Zina Kolmogorova was found, and on March 5, the body of Rustem Slobodin was found.
The next two months of searches yielded no results. And only after the warming, on May 4, the rest were found. The bodies were at the foot of the mountain under a layer of snow 2.5 m thick in the bed of a stream that had already begun to melt. First, the body of Lyudmila Dubinina was found, and the others were found a little further downstream: Alexander Kolevatov and Semyon Zolotarev were lying at the edge of the stream hugging "chest to back", Nikolai Thibault-Brignolle was downstream, in the water.
The first assumption was that the tourists were caught in the worst weather. A hurricane gust of wind blew part of the group down the mountainside, the rest immediately rushed to their aid. As a result, people were scattered by a hurricane along the slope, and as a result, everyone froze. However, then the investigation abandoned this version, since the subsequent finds did not fit into it.
There could be no question of psychological incompatibility. Who would go on such a difficult and dangerous route with untested or conflicting people? You should know this at least in order to understand: all members of the group trusted each other, each of them deserved the right to be one of the lucky ones, and all stood up for each other like a mountain. Thus, the version about the death of all members of the group as a result of a quarrel also did not stand up to criticism.
A careful examination of the camp revealed several signs of a crime. At the same time, it cannot be said that it looked like a robbery, as if the group faced some criminal elements. A fairly large amount of money, as well as watches, cameras and even alcohol, remained intact. Only one camera disappeared along with the loaded film. But at the same time, the tent was torn apart and could not be repaired. The examination showed that she was incapacitated from the inside.
But by whom and for what purpose? However, the abandoned valuables and the damaged tent indicate that the criminal version is untenable. It is unlikely that fugitive criminals would have left themselves without a roof over their heads, when at night the thermometer could drop to 50-degree mark.
It has been suggested that the group was mistakenly destroyed by a special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which confused tourists with criminals who had escaped from prison. But knowledgeable people say: in this case, small arms would definitely be used, and it would not have done without gunshot wounds. And they were not on the bodies.
The idea was put forward that the tourists entered the sacred slope of the prayer mountain and were killed by representatives of the local population (Mansi). However, as it turned out, in these places there is no prayer mountain, and all the witnesses characterized the indigenous population as calm and friendly people to tourists. As a result, the suspicion was removed from the Mansi.
People inclined to mysticism and sincerely believing in the otherworldly argue with ardor: everything happened because the group violated the boundaries of a sacred place protected by spirits. They say, it's not for nothing that they say: this zone is forbidden for humans, and the name of Mount Otorten (the Mansi call it Lunt-Khusap-Syakhyl), where the group was going to set out in the morning, translates as “Don't go there”.
However, A. Rakitin, who has devoted several years to research, asserts: in fact, "Lunt-Khusap" means "Goose's Nest", and it is associated with the lake of the same name Lunt-Khusap-Tur at the foot of the mountain. Lovers of the otherworldly insisted: the tourists recklessly set up their last camp on the slope of Mount Kholat-Syakhyl, which in translation from the Mansi language means “Mountain of the Dead”. Confirmation is that even the Mansi hunters do not enter these places.
The tourists were killed by something unknown and terrible. In particular, Igor Dyatlov's nephew testified later: all the victims had gray hair. However, the absence of people in this area is also explained very prosaically: these lands are too scarce in game, and there is simply nothing for hunters to do here. And the creepy name Mountain of the Dead, with a more accurate translation, turns into “Dead Mountain”.
V. A. Varsanofieva, a geologist, doctor of sciences, who worked for a long time at the Institute of Geology of the Komi branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, argued that the grim name was given to the mountain only because there was nothing on its slopes, not even vegetation - only talus and stones covered with lichen … Thus, the mystical version also looks untenable.
It added to the mystery that all the bodies were found far from the camp, while most of the people were on this extremely frosty night (up to -30'C) half-naked and without headdresses, six were barefoot, only socks on their feet. Some were not dressed in their own clothes, two were only in their underwear. The version of E. Buyanov was seriously considered, claiming that there was an unexpected avalanche, and it was this event that forced the people to leave the camp in a hurry, half-naked.
However, according to other experts, with a slope steepness of only 15 degrees, an avalanche is unlikely to form. Although this does not exclude the movement of snow, and with sufficient density there is a possibility of serious compression injuries found on the bodies found. However, the skis stuck in the snow remained upright, which worked against this version.
All agreed on one thing: some extraordinary circumstances forced the tourists in extreme haste to leave their sleeping bags and tent in order to save their lives. But what hostile force forced them to do this? What could be stronger than the fear of death from the cold? The motives for the behavior of hardened and psychologically temperate people at the moment when their fate was being decided have not yet been revealed.
Unanswered questions multiplied. Some frozen bodies were in a defensive posture. But from whom or from what? It did not add to the clarity that some of the bodies were found to have large burned areas and traces of serious injuries, both in vivo and post-mortem. There was a strong depression of the sternum, numerous fractures of the ribs and other bones of the trunk, which could be obtained as a result of compression, a powerful effect of external forces.
Y. Krivonischenko and L. Dubinina had eyeballs damaged, S. Zolotarev had no eyeballs at all, and the girl, moreover, had no tongue. A. Kolevatov's nose is broken, his neck is deformed and the temporal bone is damaged. The tourists received all these injuries during their lifetime, as evidenced by hemorrhages in nearby organs. All the clothes had a strange purple tinge, and experts found traces of gray foam in the mouth of Y. Doroshenko.
It should be noted that already at the very initial stage, serious contradictions were revealed. Some experts claim that the holes in the tents were made by the tourists themselves for the fastest possible evacuation due to a sudden danger. Others insist: the tent was damaged by some hostile force deliberately to exclude the possibility of its use in the future, which in the conditions of the North Ural frosts, reaching critical levels, would guaranteed to lead to the death of people.
And both of these statements directly contradict the statements of the third: the tent frozen into the snow was initially intact and damaged already during an inept search operation. At the same time, they refer to the conclusions of the investigator of the prosecutor's office V. I. Tempalov, who in his detailed description of the scene of the incident did not say a word about her damage.
ON THE GUARD OF THE MOTHERLAND, BUT NOT A MAN
The most popular version is associated with weapons testing, in particular with the launch of missiles. They talked about the components of rocket fuel, the impact of the blast wave, explaining these compression injuries. In confirmation, the excess radioactivity of the clothes of tourists recorded by the investigation is given.
But even this version looks strange. Weapon tests are usually carried out at special test sites with the appropriate infrastructure capable of recording the damaging effect. In addition, over the past time, not a single document has been made public about the tests conducted in that area. On the contrary, data have become available to refute this version.
At that time, in the USSR, there were no rockets capable of flying from the launch site (Tyura-Tam, later Baikonur) to the site of the tragedy, and spacecraft launch vehicles were oriented to the northeast and, in principle, could not fly over the Northern Urals. And in the period from January 2 to February 17, 1959, there were no launches from Tyura-Tama.
The sea-based missiles, which were tested at that time in the Barents Sea region, had a flight range of no more than 150 km, while the distance from the place of death to the coast was more than 600 km. The air defense missiles adopted at that time into service could fly at a distance of no more than 50 km, and the nearest launcher was deployed only a year later. However, we will return to air defense later.
OIL IN EXCHANGE FOR BLOOD
One cannot but take into account another serious version. She claims: the cause of the death of tourists is a man-made disaster caused by a tragic coincidence. In part, this version has something in common with the version of the aforementioned E. Buyanov about an avalanche.
The whole country was preparing for the opening of the XXI Congress of the CPSU. At that time, it was customary to report on new labor achievements. The discovery of a new oil and gas field and, most importantly, a timely report on this promised considerable privileges to everyone involved.
But time was running out. To carry out urgent exploration work, by order of the government, the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Protection of the USSR and the Ministry of Aviation, methanol was delivered by the An-8T aircraft, the world's largest carrying capacity, which was specially re-equipped for the transport of dangerous goods.
Methanol is extremely toxic and, when exposed to humans, causes respiratory paralysis, edema of the brain and lungs, and vascular collapse. In addition, the optic nerve and retina of the eyeball are affected. The emergency situation that arose during the flight forced the crew commander to free himself from the cargo and, loitering, to drain it in hard-to-reach and deserted places. Unfortunately, the group's route passed in the area of the An-8T flights, and the tourists were exposed to a poisonous substance intended for completely different purposes.
Methanol has the ability to dissolve snow and ice, turning them into a fluid mass. It is used in gas and oil fields to prevent clogging of oil wells, underground gas storage facilities and gas pipelines with crystalline hydrates resembling ice. In addition, in special cases, the method of radioactive indicators was used to carry out geophysical work. There is reason to believe that the An-8T was transporting radioactive methanol.
A large amount of matter deposited on the snow cover in the mountainous area contributed to the liquefaction of huge masses of snow. And this is precisely what provoked the formation of a heavy ice-snow landslide on a slope with a steepness of only 12-15 degrees. According to the version, it was this mass of liquefied snow that covered the tent with tourists on that February night. And it is the sprayed methanol that causes the purple hue of the clothes.
Given the traces of radioactive contamination and the nature of the injuries, this version seems much more realistic than the UFO version. Although she does not answer the question why only part of the clothes of the victims
was radioactive. True, the author of the version explains this as follows: the clothes soaked in a poisonous radioactive substance were removed from the corpses in order to conceal the cause of the death of the group. And yet there were questions, the answers to which this version could not give.
KGB vs. CIA
At some point, testimony about strange fireballs observed in the area of the death of tourists began to appear in the criminal case. They were repeatedly seen by residents of the Northern Urals, including search engines. According to eyewitnesses, a fireball of more than two lunar diameters was growing in the sky. Then the ball faded, spread across the sky and went out.
It is on the basis of this evidence that the supporters of the "Martian" version insist that the tragedy is connected with UFOs. But that was later, but for now a decision is being made to conduct a radiological examination of the clothing of the victims. The results showed that there are traces of radioactive substances on the clothes of two participants in the hike. In addition, it turned out that G. Krivonischenko and R. Slobodin were carriers of state secrets and worked at the secret enterprise "Mail Box 10", which develops nuclear weapons.
Things were starting to take a completely unexpected turn. The reason for creating a state commission with such a high status also became clear. Subsequently, it turned out that A. Kikoin, a specialist in radioactive contamination, took part in the examination of the scene of the incident as the head of the group, and even with unique equipment.
The international situation of that time should also be remembered: in the context of the flaring cold war, the USSR hastily forged a nuclear shield. At the same time, the conclusions of the official investigation become more understandable, because everything that was connected with the state secret was carefully hushed up. Still would! After all, nothing that can bear the radioactive traces of top-secret production should not leave the restricted area.
Because isotopic microtraces carry comprehensive information about what reactors are producing and how. In those days, there was nothing more valuable for foreign intelligence services than this data. Moreover, we are talking about the late 1950s, when the nuclear potential of the USSR for Western intelligence services was a secret behind seven seals. All this provided a completely unexpected direction for researchers.
Among the dead was another difficult figure: Semyon (Alexander) Zolotarev. He introduced himself as Alexander when meeting the rest of the group. A. Rakitin states in his research: Zolotarev was an agent of the KGB and carried out an absolutely secret mission with Krivonischenko and Slobodin. His goal was to control the transfer of clothing with traces of radioactive substances to a group of American agents.
Based on their analysis, it was possible to establish what exactly is produced at the secret plant. The whole operation was developed by specialists from the Lubyanka and pursued one goal: disinformation of the main enemy. The campaign itself was only a cover for an operation of state importance, and the students were used in the dark.
Apparently, during the meeting of agents and couriers, something went wrong as planned by the special services, and the entire Dyatlov group was destroyed. Their deaths were staged in such a way that the tragedy looked as natural as possible. That is why everything was done without the use of firearms and even edged weapons.
This was not difficult for the elite fighters. From the position of some bodies and the nature of the injuries, it can be assumed that the victims had to deal with hand-to-hand combat masters, and the traces of burns indicate that in this way the presence of signs of life in the victims was checked.
But the question arises: how did the agents of foreign intelligence get into the uninhabited and inaccessible region of the Northern Urals? Unfortunately, there is a very simple answer to this: until the early 1960s, NATO planes flew into the USSR from the North Pole almost unhindered, and it was not particularly difficult to drop a group of paratroopers into uninhabited places.
It is no longer a secret that in the middle of the 20th century the USSR did not have an effective air defense system, and the presence of the NATO countries "stratojets" - RB-47 and U-2 aircraft capable of climbing to an altitude of more than 20 km - made it possible with high efficiency carry out the transfer of agents and aerial reconnaissance of almost any areas of interest to them. The following facts testify to the impunity of the NATO Air Force: On April 29, 1954, a group of three reconnaissance aircraft made a daring raid along the Novgorod - Smolensk - Kiev route.
On Victory Day - May 9, 1954 - an American RB-47 flew over Murmansk and Severomorsk. On May 1, 1955, reconnaissance aircraft appeared over Kiev and Leningrad. Photographs were taken of the May Day demonstrations of Soviet workers who sincerely believed that the Red Army was the strongest and did not even suspect that spy planes were flying literally over their heads.
According to American aviation historians, in 1959 alone, the intelligence of the US Air Force and the CIA made more than 3 thousand flights! The situation looked absurd: the center received a stream of reports about foreign planes flying over the country, and domestic experts in aircraft technology declared that "this cannot be." But this applied not only to the USSR. The technical superiority of the U-2 over the air defense systems that existed at the time was so obvious that the CIA, with outright cynicism, used these aircraft around the world.
As it turned out, the fireballs had nothing to do with UFOs. They are simply huge light bombs, parachuted to illuminate large areas and secret objects at night. Now it becomes understandable and the inclusion of the general of aviation in the commission.
However, another question arises: how could the CIA agents leave the scene? Indeed, without escape and evacuation routes, this operation lost all meaning.
And if the air defense forces were powerless, then this cannot be said about the KGB. Closing the stations, combing all possible places of appearance of strangers for the special services was not difficult. And in the winter, under its own power, hundreds or even thousands of kilometers unnoticed in the conditions of the Subpolar Urals is beyond the power of anyone. And this is where truly unique know-how appears in the foreground.
HEAVENLY HOOK
In the fall of 1958, the Americans, with the help of parachutes, carried out two reconnaissance reconnaissance missions to the drifting Soviet polar station "North Pole-5", which had been mothballed two years earlier. The Americans were interested in all the draft documentation related to meteorological observations in the Arctic and the communications equipment used by Soviet polar explorers.
And here - attention! After completing the mission, the scouts were evacuated and brought aboard the aircraft using a unique system developed by designer Robert Fulton and installed on the P2V-7 Neptune reconnaissance aircraft. This device was designed to pick up a person on the surface of the earth and deliver him aboard an aircraft flying over him. The device was called the "skyhook" and was surprisingly simple, safe and efficient to use.
The evacuee was thrown a container in which there were a warm overalls with a special harness, a mini-aerostat and a compressed helium balloon. All this was accompanied by a nylon cord about 150 m long. One end of the cord was attached to the mini-balloon, and the other to the harness. Dressed in overalls and filling the balloon with helium, the passenger launched it into the sky. The evacuator plane, with the help of a special device installed outside the fuselage, at a speed of about 220 km / h, hooked a stretched nylon cord and, using a winch, lifted a person aboard the aircraft.
The first to be lifted aboard the plane in this way was the US Marine Corps Sergeant Levi Woods. It happened on August 12, 1958. Later, the "sky hook" was tested in various conditions of use: on the water, in the mountains, in a forest area. The reviews were very positive. It is known that at least two of these pickup aircraft were based in Europe.
With a flight range of 7,000 km, "Neptuns" could carry out emergency evacuation of scouts from almost anywhere in the European part of the USSR. This version is indirectly indicated by the loss of a camera with a loaded film. Perhaps he was taken as one of the evidence of the meeting of agents with couriers.
Today, many who are interested in this topic admit that A. Rakitin's version looks the most realistic. However, opponents of such conspiracy theories fend off: this is impossible, since the authorities did not prevent a wide range of civilians from participating in the search operation, from whom in this case it was necessary to hide the true causes of the tragedy.
Perhaps, over time, new data will appear, revealing the mystery of the deaths of nine tourists on the February night of 1959. However, the number of those who know the true causes of the tragic events more than half a century ago is steadily approaching zero. Will we ever know the truth? Unknown. Do we have the right to do this? Certainly. This would be a worthy display of respect for the memory of the victims. Along with the name already existing in the Northern Urals and marked on the maps, the Dyatlov Pass.
Alexander GUNKOVSKY