A local resident, Viktor Potyazhenko, called the editorial office of the Vladimir city portal. The man said that he is a living witness to the events on Mount Otorten. According to the man in the documentaries that try to tell about what happened, there are many inaccuracies and inventions. He wants to tell everything he knows about the events that happened 55 years ago.
A participant in those events met the journalists at home. As it turned out, his wife, Margarita Potyazhenko, is also directly related to that incident. When it all happened, she was a radio operator. Half a century has passed, but the events of that time are still being discussed by experts, various versions are being built. The pensioners admitted: until recently, they did not tell anyone that they knew about the terrible incident.
The mysterious story took place in February 1959. On the slopes of the mountain, the name of which in translation from the Mansi language sounds like "Don't go there", a group of tourists died under unclear circumstances. The search engines who found them and forensic experts were surprised by what they saw there …
How it all began
- At that time I served in a squadron in the Northern Urals - I was a flight commander - recalls Viktor Potyazhenko. - On the eve of February 23, we received an order: tomorrow you will go on the AN-2, YAK-12 planes, Mi-4 helicopter to Ivdel. (At that time, however, as now, it was the center for serving prisoners' sentences). They also added: Comrade Gorlak, Chief of Staff of the Air Force for the Urals District, will fly with you. Unfortunately, I have already forgotten his name. We prepared the planes and moved to the set point. Arrived, landed at a small airfield. I looked: the police were all around. Everyone is running and fussing. Well, I think - maybe someone escaped from the prisoners, so they are looking now.
Later it turned out that a group of Sverdlovsk students did not get in touch on the night of February 1–2. The students went on a hike, which was timed to coincide with the XXI Congress of the CPSU. For 16 days, the participants of the hike had to ski at least 350 km in the north of the Sverdlovsk region and climb the northern Ural mountains Otorten and Oiko-Chakur. At some point, they did not reach the finish point of their route. From the latest reports, the coordinates of the place of a possible stopover for the night were known. As it became clear, the military was sent to search for them.
“I was given the order to fly over and inspect the area from the air,” the participant in the events continues to recall. - Of course, there were big doubts that we would not find anything from above. It was necessary to fly 12 kilometers from Ivdel along the railway. After that, another 50 kilometers to the mountains, where after 500-600 meters an ominous plateau opened up.
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The interlocutor admitted that it was scary to fly. Around the changeable relief, giving way to plateau. And over the bare, gray landscape - a thick "hat" of clouds. In his first landing, the pilot had to land in the forest, on a previously cleared area.
- There was a dense, impassable forest. Some cedars were up to 5 meters high. I asked them to cut down my landing area - 50 by 50 meters. The square is such that the screw does not touch the knots. This is where I had to "sit down". The second time I flew with dog handlers and dogs on board. This is where strange things began to happen.
About mystical events
When they tried to take the large service shepherd dogs out of the rotorcraft, they began to resist, to break off the leashes.
- The search dogs rested their paws on the floor. They were literally pulled out of the compartment. And when the animals were outside, they lowered their ears and curled their tails. The four-legged clearly expressed concern. They felt something. You know, when they were taken back after this search, they themselves ran aboard. It was probably possible to walk on them, someone could have stepped on unintentionally - but they did not even snap. Although, on the first day, one dog bit his wife on the leg. Here, they were obedient, if only they were not touched, - the narrator noted an interesting detail.
How the group's parking lot was found
That day, Victor was lucky enough to find a tent. It all happened completely by accident. The dog handlers went to the mountains in search. The helicopter took off, made a circle and flew towards the base. After 500 meters, the pilot saw what looked like a tent.
- Of course it was difficult to disassemble the outlines, - the interlocutor admitted. - When I flew "home" I transmitted over the radio: the object is located directly from the place from where we took off. A search group was hastily sent there, on the same evening …
Remembering the scene
And already in the morning, our hero was there. At dawn, he set off with a new team to the pass. After some time, a tent covered with snow was found, with a wall cut from the inside. Everything in it remained as on that night, when something made everyone run out of it without looking back.
- Everything was absolutely untouched, - the counterpart confirmed. - Things lay in their places - all ran out in what they were. All food, alcohol, money remained in the tent. There was a light bulb inside, a sheet of paper with plans for the next day was attached. Remember? There was a version that fugitive convicts attacked the guys. But the fact that everything was untouched suggests otherwise. And the runaways could hardly hold out for a long time in the bitter frost … We looked at everything, discussed it. And then they all went down the slope of the mountain with a strong slope. In some places everything was covered with snow on which we saw a chain of tracks. They all led down into a hollow …
About the results of searches
On that day, February 26, the first victims of the mysterious incident were found.
- The corpse of a man lay in the snow with outstretched arms, - the memory of the pensioner draws terrible images. - The body was all frozen, it was icy. When we had to carry him, it turned out that he grabbed him by the heel. And she broke off! I tried to return it to its place, but where there. So I left it there, because it was inconvenient to carry the deceased.
Victor's wife, Margarita Potyazhenko added: at that time the frosts were severe. The husband had to warm up the helicopter for two hours to get it ready for departure. The air temperature sometimes dropped to minus 52 degrees.
The conversation returned to the topic of the terrible find. Some time after the discovery of the first body, 3 more were found. They were lying in a kind of lowland, near the rise to the mountain. The experienced "flyer" remembered broken branches of fir trees, scattered sticks. So far, it remains a mystery why the deceased needed them.
- Nearby there was a trace of the remnants of a fireplace, the snow was smoky. So they kindled a fire. Of course, maybe they also wanted to make bedding, but why? There are a lot of questions. The prosecutor and the investigator were constantly leaving to whisper, discussing something. They decided that the bodies could be covered with snow. They decided to search with special probes - pits, - added the witness.
For weeks they searched for the rest of the expedition members, from the group of Igor Dyatlov. A few more days after the first "finds", the body of a woman was excavated, with burnt clothes. And then, even before May, they continued to search for people who were considered missing. In the middle of the month, 3 mutilated corpses were found with gouged out eyes, burns, without a tongue …
What versions of what happened?
There are many speculations about what happened on that unfortunate night. Various versions have been expressed - from mystical to natural phenomena. Among others: bacteriological weapons could be sprayed over the forest. But this version seems funny to the Potyazhenko couple. They also reacted with a smile to another version: an American spy entered the group and could simply "remove" the witnesses.
- All this is not true, - the spouses laugh. - Why test bacteriological weapons over a completely uninhabited territory! And speculation about a spy is generally a fairy tale. We guess what could have happened there, but we were silent all the time.
In those days, Margarita worked as a radio operator, receiving and transmitting urgent radio messages. She well remembers how one day during a search she heard: a rocket landed on Otorten.
- I remember these words exactly, - assures our countrywoman. - It was about a rocket that landed in the mountains. And then a refutation came. There was nothing like it, it just seemed. All this, of course, is strange. Moreover, there was an inexplicable incident on the night of April 1-2.
Margarita's husband, Victor, joined the conversation again. The man said: that night, as the search continued, a luminous object hovered over the soldier's tent.
- Then the lieutenant told me, but I did not believe it. Well, I think he's cheating on me on April 1st. And everyone said that a luminous "donut" hovered over the tent. The attendant dozed off when the whole neighborhood was lit up like day. The soldier shouted: "Oh lads, I slept through everything, the sun is shining." He runs out into the street, and this thing hangs over his head, everything glows. Boy, let's shout, wake everyone up … Then at three o'clock in the morning, they were looking for everyone in the surrounding forests. Everyone was very scared.
The couple are sure that no one will ever tell about the true causes of the tragedy. They tend to believe in an extraterrestrial trace in the case of the death of the tourist group. In their opinion, something happened that night that was inexplicable to the mind of an ordinary person. What they believed on August 23, 1973. - I saw "them", although if I had said it before, I would have been taken to a psychiatric hospital. It all happened near the village of Peshino, near Izhevsk. These "guests" literally floated over the buckwheat field … I remember their high growth, under 3 meters. Then of course I got really scared.
As the hostess later added: the husband then came to his senses for a long time. He partially lost his memory. But most importantly, despite the version in the documentaries, that everyone who faced the secret of Otorten died, this is not the case. Our fellow countrymen remember every day when they were looking for 9 young people.