At the beginning of 1959, a group of tourists-skiers from the tourist club of the Ural Polytechnic Institute planned to make a hike in the Northern Urals, which the participants intended to devote to the XXI Congress of the CPSU.
In a little more than two weeks, the participants of the hike had to ski at least 300 km in the north of the Sverdlovsk region and climb two peaks of the Northern Urals: Otorten and Oyka-Chakur.
The final point of the route - the village of Vizhay - the group was supposed to reach on February 12, from where the leader of the campaign, Igor Dyatlov, was supposed to send a telegram to the sports club of the institute.
But there was no telegram, and the tourists did not return to Sverdlovsk. Relatives sounded the alarm, after which a large-scale search operation was launched, in which not only the forces of other tourist groups were involved, but also police units, as well as the military.
Nine dead
On February 25, 1959, a tent with the belongings of the disappeared tourists was found on the Northeastern slope of height 1079 at the head of the Auspiya River. The next day, the first bodies of the victims were found one and a half kilometers from the tent. The final search work was completed only in May.
The bodies of nine members of the group were found: the 5th year student of the radio engineering faculty Igor Dyatlov, the 5th year student of the radio engineering faculty Zinaida Kolmogorova, the UPI graduate, and at that time the engineer of the secret enterprise Rustem Slobodin, the 4th year student of the radio engineering faculty Yuri Doroshenko, a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the UPI Georgy Krivonischenko, a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Nikolai Thibault-Brignolle, a 4th year student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Lyudmila Dubinina, instructor of the Kourovka camp site Semyon Zolotarev and a 4th year student of the Faculty of Physics and Technology Alexander Kolevatov.
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The investigation established that all nine members of the group died on the night of 1 to 2 February 1959.
Dyatlov's group tent, partially excavated from snow.
Survivor
In Dyatlov's group there was the tenth member - the only one who survived. A fourth-year student of the Faculty of Engineering and Economics, Yuri Yudin, parted with his comrades four days before the tragedy.
Many years later, when Yudin was asked what he remembered about the moment of separation, he honestly admitted that he did not remember anything special. There was only annoyance that participation in the campaign was frustrated. It was not even thought that friends were leaving forever - the trip was considered difficult, but it was not associated with the word "death".
Today the "Dyatlov Pass" has become a kind of Russian "Bermuda Triangle", attracting a huge number of lovers of mysticism and conspiracy theories. The story of the death of the Dyatlov group is declared a mystery that has no analogues.
Dangerous hobby: what fans of the "mystery of the Dyatlov pass" don't talk about?
Meanwhile, for its time, the death of tourists was not an exceptional event. In the same 1959 in the USSR, a total of more than 50 members of tourist groups died, for various reasons. In 1960, this figure reached 100, and forced the authorities to begin introducing prohibitive measures.
It worked exactly the opposite - in 1961, in the absence of any registration of tourist groups, the death toll exceeded 200.
Only the introduction of new standards, the revision of the principles of organizing tourism, the creation of the Central and local councils for tourism and excursions and the system of tourist clubs, the emergence of the route qualification commission (ICC) and the control and rescue service, has reduced the number of tragic cases.
Reduce - but not exclude. For even a well-trained participant in campaigns is not immune from unforeseen circumstances that are stronger than him.
As scary as it sounds, the "Dyatlovites" were, to a certain extent, lucky - they were found quickly enough and buried with dignity. The final resting places of other missing people sometimes remain unknown for decades.
Extreme with poor health
At this point, we will finally say goodbye to the lovers of mysticism, and talk about the only member of the Dyatlov group who survived.
Yuri Yudin has not been in good health since childhood. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, he said: “Even at school, I got rheumatic heart disease while harvesting potatoes on a collective farm. And while he was being treated, he contracted dysentery. I was in the hospital for several months. But it is not fully cured."
Despite this, while studying at UPI, he became a member of the tourist club, and by the beginning of 1959 he was considered an experienced and trained person.
The candidacy of 21-year-old Yudin as a participant in the campaign did not cause doubts among the head of the group, Igor Dyatlov.
On January 23, 1959, all ten members of the group left by train from Sverdlovsk to Serov. On the evening of January 24, the group left Serov for Ivdel by train and arrived at the destination station at about midnight.
On the morning of January 25, the "Dyatlovites" took a bus to the village of Vizhay, where they arrived at about 14:00 and stayed at a local hotel.
On January 26, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, the group hiked to the village of loggers. The tourists reached it at half past five. "Dyatlovtsy" spent the night in the room of the workers' hostel.
“Yurka Yudin is going back home. It is a pity to part with him, but nothing can be done."
Day 26 January and decided the fate of Yudin. “Before Vizhay, we rode in an open truck. Blew right through. So it took from me, as Zina Kolmogorova wrote in her diary, the sciatic nerve, he told the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda.
There are some discrepancies here: according to other sources, as already mentioned on the ride, which was an open-top truck, tourists were driving from Vizhai to the village of procurers. But this is not of fundamental importance. The main thing is that the exacerbation of the disease deprived Yudin of the opportunity to participate in the active part of the campaign.
Yuri hoped to the last that he would "let him go." In the second half of January 27, Dyatlov's group received a cart from the head of the forest site, with the help of which they got to the abandoned village of the 2nd Northern mine. Here the group spent the night in an empty house.
On the morning of January 28, it became clear that Yuri's hopes were not justified - his leg did not allow him to move normally on skis.
In the found diaries of the Dyatlov group, there is such an entry dated January 28: “After breakfast, some of the guys, led by Yura Yudin, our famous geologist, went to the core store, hoping to collect some materials for the collection. There was nothing but pyrite and quartz veins in the rock. It took a long time to get together: we smeared the skis, adjusted the mounts. Yurka Yudin is leaving home today. It is a pity, of course, to part with him, especially for me and Zina, but nothing can be done."
Among the things found in the group were cameras with films. Among the footage was a scene of farewell to Yudin. Then it seemed that friends were parting for several days, so smiles never left the faces of tourists.
Thank you for being alive
Yuri left some of his things to his comrades, which could be useful to them on the route. After that, Yudin on a cart went back to the logging village, and the rest of the Dyatlov group went out on the planned route.
Without incident, Yudin returned to Sverdlovsk, from where he went home to the village. He had no bad premonitions.
He arrived in Sverdlovsk at a time when the search for the group that had not returned in time had already begun.
Yudin was not among the members of the search groups. He could do little to help the search engines, since he parted with his comrades at the start of the main route. Despite the tense atmosphere in UPI, the belief that the "Dyatlovites" would be found alive remained. The tourist club was constantly on duty, taking the latest news. The news of the death of the group was a real shock for Yudin. Another test was participation in the identification of the belongings and bodies of the victims, for which Yudin was specially brought to Ivdel.
No claims were made to the surviving member of the group. On the contrary, the investigator persuaded Yuri that he could not help his comrades in any way: "There would be not nine, but ten dead."
Successful in career, lonely in personal life
Fans of the conspiracy theory might assume that after the death of the Dyatlov group, Yudin was "under the hood" of the special services. In reality, there was nothing of the kind.
A year after the tragedy, he graduated from UPI and was assigned to work at a magnesium plant in Solikamsk.
At first he worked as an engineer, then as an economist, and already in the 1990s, his career lifted Yudin to the post of deputy head of Solikamsk for economics.
He did not forget about the main hobby of his youth - in Solikamsk Yudin created the Polyus travel club.
Despite the fact that Yuri Efimovich reached a fairly high position, he lived modestly, in a Spartan way, he did not like luxury. His personal life did not work out either - Yudin's only companions were cats.
Until the very last days, he kept a teddy bear as a talisman, handed to him by Lyuda Dubinina, a member of the Dyatlov group. Journalists were asking if Yudin and Lyudmila had an affair, but he categorically denied it.
Last will
After in the 2000s, not just a lot, but a lot of things began to be written about the history of the Dyatlov group, Yudin, who had previously been extremely reluctant to speak on this topic, gave many interviews. The general meaning of his statements boiled down to the fact that the tourists were experienced and could not die from some natural phenomena, but became victims of murder.
There was nothing original in this version, and it was refuted many times. But Yuri Efimovich, who carried a feeling of guilt throughout his life, seemed to find it easier to live with the consciousness that his friends died not because of their own mistakes, but because of someone's evil will.
Yuri Yudin died after a serious illness in the spring of 2013, at the age of 76. On May 4, 2013, the last will of the tenth member of the Dyatlov group was fulfilled - the urn with the ashes of Yuri Yudin was laid in a mass grave at the Mikhailovsky cemetery, where the remains of his comrades rest.
Andrey Sidorchik