Death of tourists from Leningrad in 1961. Disaster at Mount Kholatchakhl. Lake Teletskoe. Altai

Attention!

This hypothesis was based onassumption thatthe cause of local snow melting in February 1959 in the area where tourists died was methanol sprayed over the Pass, but due to the fact that no factual data about the fate of the AN-8T aircraft was found, THIS HYPOTHESIS IS NO LONGER CURRENT. Read the author’s new hypothesis about the cause of the death of Igor Dyatlov’s group at the link Harbingers of the Dyatlov Pass tragedy

There were eight of them, desperate, experienced tourists, senior students and former students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI), who, after the winter session in January 1959, on the eve of the Extraordinary XXI Congress of the CPSU, went on their last trip to Mount Otorten and died before reaching it just a few kilometers, at the foot of Mount Kholatchakhl.

Senior students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI):

Igor Dyatlov, Lyudmila Dubinina, Yuri Doroshenko, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Alexander Kolevatov.

But first, I propose to plunge into that time and get to know these wonderful guys, whose mysterious death has haunted thousands, and maybe even millions of people around the world for more than half a century, and live with them the last days of their tragic campaign.

So, the hike...
On January 23, 1959, after the formation of the group and the replacement of several of its members, ten people went on a ski trip across the Northern Urals to Mount Otorten:

Igor Alekseevich Dyatlov, born January 13, 1936, fifth-year student at the Faculty of Radio Engineering. Team leader.

Igor Dyatlov is a 5th year student at the Faculty of Radiophysics at UPI, a talented young man who grew up in a family of engineers and inventors. Since childhood, he has been interested in radio electronics, and at that time devoted a lot of time to the popular sport of tourism. Igor's peers spoke differently about him, but everyone recognized that Igor was an extraordinary, talented person and had phenomenal abilities in the field of radio engineering. He was reasonable and measured in his actions.
It is a known fact that Igor, while studying at school, showed the first steps of his talent. He independently converted the gramophone into a sound recording device on X-ray film (tape recorder), for which he was awarded the 1st prize at the 5th regional exhibition of children's technical creativity at the Regional Children's Technical Station. And at the age of 15, Igor assembled a radio receiver.
Afterwards, Igor became interested in shortwave radio communications and assembled and registered a radio transmitter himself. High-quality amateur radio stations of that time operated on 7-8 radio tubes, but Igor had an entire wall with 17 tubes. After graduating from the institute in 1959, Igor Dyatlov could have taken the position of deputy dean of the radio department; he was offered to stay at the institute. Igor was professionally involved in tourism, he was many times the leader of groups that carried out tourist trips of varying degrees of difficulty, and was seriously involved in photography. Friends, lovingly, often called Igor “Gosya”. Igor Dyatlov had solid experience of 10 hiking trips of varying difficulty categories and second category. To qualify as a master of sports, he only had to go through the role of trek leader 2 times. When leaving for the hike, Igor promised his mother that he was going on a hike for the last time.

Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Dubinina, born May 12, 1938, 3rd year student of the Faculty of Engineering and Economics.

Lyudmila Dubinina was the youngest participant in the campaign, she was only 20 years old.
Before entering UPI, Lyuda studied at the 39th Krasnogorsk school of the Kazan Railway. Father Dubinin Alexander Nikolaevich was the director of the Krasnogorsk timber mill. Before being accepted into the Komsomol until October 1952, she was a member of the squad council, after which she was a member of the academic committee and a counselor in the 5th grade.
Luda went in for sports. In 1953, she participated in sports competitions (short-distance running) in the city of Kazan. She studied at Sverdlovsk school No. 3 from the 9th grade, and graduated from there. In 10th grade I passed the GTO standards for the 1st level badge. In the 10th grade, I did not do any specific social work; I only carried out Komsomol assignments and class assignments.
The girl was responsible, responsive, brave, loved tourism from the first days of her studies and entered the tourist life of UPI. There is a known case that happened to Lyudmila in the taiga under the Grandiose peak in the Eastern Sayan. There, an accidental shot occurred as a result of the hunter’s poor handling of the gun, and Lyuda was hit in the leg by shotgun pellets. Lyuda Dubinina bravely endured all the hardships of her transportation through the off-road taiga. Luda loved to sing and took good photographs.
During the winter holidays of 1958, Lyudmila Dubinina, at the age of 19, already led a group on a ski route of the second category of difficulty in the Northern Urals.

Yuri Nikolaevich Doroshenko, born January 29, 1938, 4th year student at the Faculty of Radio Engineering.
Yuri's specialty is automatic, telemechanical and electrical measuring instruments and devices.

Yura was born in the Streletsky district of the Kursk region in a family where 3 children were raised. Yuri’s father graduated from the Kiev State Medical Institute in 1935, and when the Great Patriotic War began, the Doroshenko family, together with the plant where his father worked, went to the Urals to the city of Rezh.
After the death of her father from a heart attack in 1954, the mother and children moved to her mother in the city of Aktyubinsk, where she recently lived with her children. Yura was an excellent student at school in 1955. received a matriculation certificate with a medal and entered the UPI, his younger brother Volodya followed his brother to study at this institute.
Yura Doroshenko courted one of the group members, Zina Kolmogorova, for some time, and even traveled with the girl to her hometown of Kamensk-Uralsky, where he was introduced to her parents and sister. But later their relationship apparently broke down. Yuri, despite this, retained good feelings for Zina.
Yuriy Doroshenko was a well-prepared, experienced tourist; he himself led groups on complex, categorized, long-term ski trips across the Middle Urals of varying degrees of difficulty.

Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, born January 12, 1937, 4th year student at the Faculty of Radio Engineering.

Zina was born in the village of Cheremkhovo, Kamensky district, Sverdlovsk region, and lived there until 1948. She was the soul of the tourist club of the UPI Institute, and like the other members of the Khibina group, she had extensive experience in hiking in the Urals and Altai of varying degrees of difficulty.
During one of the campaigns, the girl was bitten by a viper, for some time she was on the verge of life and death, and with great courage and dignity she endured the suffering that befell her.
Zina Kolmogorova demonstrated unconditional leadership qualities, knew how to rally a team, was a welcome guest in any student company, had experience of six trips, including experience in leading a ski team.
After the hike, Zina was in a hurry to return home to her parents.

Alexander Kolevatov immediately after graduating from school entered the Sverdlovsk Mining and Metallurgical College (with a degree in metallurgy of heavy non-ferrous metals), and after graduation he went to Moscow to work as a senior laboratory assistant at the secret institute of the Ministry of Medium Engineering, which at that time was called post office box 3394, which later became the All-Russian Research Institute of Inorganic Materials and which was engaged in developments in the field of materials science for the nuclear industry.
While working in the laboratory, Alexander entered the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute and studied there for one year, then he transferred to the 2nd year of the Sverdlovsk UPI.
Alexander Kolevatov was distinguished by such strong character traits as accuracy, which sometimes reached the point of pedantry, methodicality, diligence, as well as pronounced leadership qualities. Alexander Kolevatov was a reasonable person and enjoyed the trust of people.
During his campaigns, he carefully kept his diary, but did not show it to anyone, apparently trusting the diary with his observations and maintaining confidentiality.
Alexander Kolevatov had experience in hiking trips of various difficulty categories.

Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, born January 11, 1936, recent graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Rustem's parents lived in Central Asia for a long time. His father was a professor at the Sverdlovsk University.
In addition to Rustem, his older brother grew up in the family. Rustem was named by his parents after one of the national folk heroes. His friends simply called him Rustic.
Rustem was a very athletic young man, active, resilient, was fond of long-distance running, played the mandolin well, led an active, sporty lifestyle, and was the ringleader of all sports and tourist events. If he had to go out with a group to harvest potatoes, and it was raining at that time, the guys would sit and play cards, and Rustem would put on sneakers and go on cross-hikes.
After graduating from the mechanical engineering department of UPI, he worked for some time as an engineer at Uralkhimmash (Sverdlovsk), in this position he went as part of a group to the northern Urals.
For a number of years, Slobodin Rustem went on hiking trips of various categories of difficulty and was, of course, an experienced tourist.

Georgy (Yuri) Alekseevich Krivonischenko, born 02/07/1935, a recent graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, worked as an engineer in Chelyabinsk-40.

Georgy grew up in an intelligent family, his parents were hospitable and encouraged all sorts of student gatherings and tea parties at their home, which united second-year students with older and more experienced comrades. Georgy loved to write poetry.
He was a member of the Komsomol since 1949. After graduating from UPI, he worked in Ozersk (then Chelyabinsk-40) in the construction organization “Mailbox 404”, later called the South Ural Construction Department. On September 11, 1957 - a few weeks before the notorious accident at Mayak - a graduate of the Ural Polytechnic Institute was appointed foreman of the 1st district (that is, an industrial site) with a salary of 1000 rubles per month. Apparently, the young man managed to prove himself in the best possible way, because already on May 8, 1958 he was transferred to another area, also industrial and also a foreman, but with a higher salary - 1,200 rubles per month.
Getting acquainted with the short biography of the civil engineer Georgy, it is impossible to get rid of the prickly thought about the vicissitudes of fate. On February 21, 1959, G. Krivonischenko was supposed to go to mailbox 73, that is, go to Siberia, to the equally closed town of Krasnoyarsk, to build another chemical plant there. An order for his dismissal had already been signed in connection with his secondment to a new place of work. But Georgy decided to definitely use the remains of the next vacation and additional days for harmful activities. He was entitled to a total of 29 days of rest, starting on January 19.
On February 7, 1959, he would have turned 24 years old, but he did not live to see his birthday. As before the time when all participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Mayak Production Association (and Georgy Krivonischenko took a direct part in the liquidation activities) will be provided with appropriate benefits.
Yura Krivonischenko participated in many category campaigns under the leadership of Igor Dyatlov and was his reliable friend.

Nikolai Vladimirovich Thibault-Brignolle, born July 5, 1935, recent graduate of the UPI Faculty of Civil Engineering, engineer.

ABOUT Nikolai's father was born in the Urals, when he studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, in the shipbuilding department, he joined the cadet party. After being expelled from Russia for participating in the student movement, he was educated at the Mining Academy in Freiberg in Germany. After the October Revolution he worked at metallurgical enterprises. In 1931, on charges of participation in the Ural Industrial Party, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in the camps and worked in the mines. Sometimes, for good work, he was allowed to see his family. When Nikolai was 9 years old, his father died.
Nikolai's mother was Russian. Kolya was born in a Stalinist camp.
Nikolay gave the impression of a cheerful, reliable, self-confident person, constantly joked and communicated with teachers and the dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in a free manner.
Nikolai Thibault graduated from the Faculty of Construction of UPI and worked as an engineer, he was talented and original, and enjoyed great fame and popularity in student dormitories. Sometimes they brought him rare and then prohibited books from the category of rarities.
In tourism, Kolya, with great skill and grace, drew terrain along the route with carefully marked contours and topographical signs. At that time, detailed maps for tourists were of great value, and all of them on a scale less than a million were classified. Nikolai Thibault had many difficult hikes behind him.

Semyon (Alexander) Alekseevich Zolotarev, born 02/02/1921, instructor at the Kourovo tourist base.

Semyon Alekseevich Zolotarev was born in one of the villages of the Krasnodar region, Udobnaya, went through the entire war, accomplished many feats and was awarded the medals “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Capture of Koenigsberg”, “For Victory over Germany” and the Order of the Red Star.

About one of the exploits of Semyon Alekseevich Zolotarev:

“Senior Sergeant Zolotarev S.A. under enemy artillery and mortar fire, it transported a crew of 9 people on the night of April 21-22, 1945, using a panton with a top structure of one 50t. ferry.
Arriving at the ferry assembly site, Comrade Zolotarev quickly and skillfully began to assemble the ferry. The enemy began shelling the place with guns, mortars and machine guns. One soldier was wounded, but senior sergeant Zolotarev did not stop working, but himself took the place of the disabled soldier and, with his example of fearlessness, inspired the soldiers to complete the task as quickly as possible. The same shell destroyed two purlins and a flooring.
About 300 meters away in the swamp lay the upper structure of the broken ferry, then Comrade Zolotarev reached it waist-deep in water.
Kr. Korneev, without orders, followed senior sergeant Zolotarev and together they drove the girders to the ferry that was being assembled.
The task was completed on time and the ferry was brought into the bridge line, which ensured the timely passage of cargo and tanks to the opposite bank.
For skillful command of the squad, for the courage and courage shown during the execution of a combat mission, he was awarded a Government award.”

In the first photo - Semyon Zolotarev with a friend after the end of the Second World War, in the second - Semyon with his parents in the Caucasus.

Before joining Igor Dyatlov’s group, Semyon Zolotarev worked several shifts as a tourism instructor at the Artybash tourist center (Teletskoye Lake) in Altai and the Kourovskaya tourist center, went on hikes many times, but he didn’t know many of the guys in the group, so the tourists were a little surprised , why Semyon, who was much older than the participants in the hike, decided to go with a group of students. Most likely, this trip could raise his level in tourism to master and the timing was right, because Semyon said that after the trip he wanted to go to his old parents in his homeland.
Semyon Zolotarev drew well, knew a lot of songs, and was a cheerful person. On the day of the tragedy, February 2, 1959, he turned 38 years old.

And the tenth member of the group is Yuri Efimovich Yudin, who, due to illness at the very beginning of the journey, in the village of Second Northern, left the route and therefore, by the will of fate, remained alive.

On April 27, 2013, Yuri Efimovich’s heart stopped beating. Yuri Efimovich devoted most of his time to searching for the cause of the death of his friends.

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1959, February - over the mountains of the Northern Urals, eyewitnesses have been observing unusual fireballs for a week. Luminous objects either approach the ground or suddenly soar upward. And quite often they hang motionless over the hills for a long time. In the first days the sight aroused curiosity, then panic. Local residents are convinced that the gods are angry. Moreover, the sacred mountain - Mount of the Dead - has not given up climbers for several days now who dared to include it in their route.

Rescuers are looking for the missing group of Igor Dyatlov. Hundreds of volunteers make their way through snow-filled passes. Civil and military aviation were involved. Only on the fifth day, three local residents came across a lonely tent. Its walls are torn, and it itself is empty. Backpacks, camping equipment and all supplies are in place, only personal belongings are randomly scattered. An overturned pot with the remnants of dinner, woolen socks in different corners of the tent, a lonely felt boot... One gets the impression that people left the place where they spent the night in a panic.

The chains of footprints from the tent go in mysterious zigzags, converge and diverge again, it seems that people wanted to run away, but an unknown force drove them together again. There were no signs of a struggle or the presence of other people. There are no signs of any natural disaster. At the border of the forest, the tracks disappear, covered with snow.

“Inspection of the footprints showed that they were left with bare feet or had cotton socks on, some were wearing felt boots, some were wearing boots,” forensic expert Alexander Chernikov told us. “This circumstance is confirmed by the fact that people left the tent in a hurry, without even getting dressed.”

Two hours after the mysterious discovery, a message arrived: pilot Gennady Patrushev, in the area of ​​Mount Otorten, noticed the figures of two people lying in the snow. Patrushev makes a couple of circles above them with the hope that the guys will raise their heads. But there is no answer. An hour and a half later, rescuers reached the area. At the border of the forest they found the remains of a fire, and near it two corpses - Doroshenko and Krivonischenko. The men are stripped down to their underwear.

Three hundred meters from them they found the body of Igor Dyatlov. It’s clear from his pose: Dyatlov was trying to crawl towards the tent. Another corpse was found - Slobodina. And again, as in the first three cases, there were no signs of violence or struggle. A little further on, another terrible discovery is the corpse of Kolmogorova. The snow was stained with blood that flowed from the girl’s throat... But again there was no damage to the body itself. There is only one “but” - the unusual color of the skin of the corpses: purple or bright orange. What happened? What could make people tear down their tent and jump out practically naked into 40-degree frost? And where are the other five people who were part of Dyatlov’s group? There are no answers. In local villages there are legends, one more terrible than the other.

The authorities forbade newspapermen to even casually mention the tragedy, a telephone message was received from Moscow not allowing the removal of the bodies of the dead until the arrival of a special Moscow commission, and local residents performed their rituals 24 hours a day. The ancient people are sure: this is war. And the gods who came from heaven declared it.

The first version of the death of the group: War of the Gods

The name of the gloomy and inaccessible Mount Otorten, on the slope of which 5 corpses were found, is translated from the Mansi language as “don’t go there.” Immediately behind Otorten there is an even more disastrous place. Mountain of the Nine Dead.

By some terrible pattern, groups consisting of exactly nine people die in this area. According to legend: 9 is a cursed number that can open the door to the abode of evil spirits.

Pilot Gennady Patrushev knew local folklore well and considered all this not just the fantasies of the aborigines.
The widow of Gennady Patrushev recalls that Gennady often told her that on Mount Otorten he actually saw silhouettes in shiny clothes more than once.

Pilot Gennady Patrushev was a close friend of Igor Dyatlov. Having learned about Dyatlov’s intention to climb Mount Otorten, Gennady, according to his wife, even persuaded Igor and his comrades to change the route. But Dyatlov only made fun of these horror stories. What kind of gods, spirits and curses are there when it’s the middle of the twentieth century?! Dyatlov's main argument is the number of people. There were not 9 of them in Igor’s group, but 10. Patrushev, oddly enough, also agreed with this argument, for which he later blamed himself.

Only on the sixth day of the group’s search, on the day when five missing people were found dead and five more disappeared into the water, a young man came to the rescue headquarters. After hanging around the threshold for a while, he timidly enters the room. “Guys,” he says, addressing those present, “I’m tenth. I didn’t go...” Everyone present’s faces harden. Yuri Yudin fell ill the night before setting out on the route. And in the morning the group left without him. Nine of us!

Panic among local residents is growing. And the fact that the distant capital became interested in the story of the dead climbers only intensified the fear.

After all, a telegram came from Moscow, signed not by ordinary officials, but by Assistant Prosecutor General Terebilov, with a categorical instruction: “Immediately report the results of the investigation.”

Therefore, everyone who has anything to do with the search for the missing climbers is forced to sign a document on non-disclosure of state secrets. Meanwhile, fireballs continue to appear over the crash site several times a night. Pilots who have flown in this area are already openly talking about being followed by UFOs.

“Most often, spherical luminous UFOs flew by, from which rays emanated,” Vladimir Kuvaev, a former employee of the local police department, told me. – Moreover, the rays, according to the testimony of many interviewees, illuminated military installations: military factories, air defense units located nearby. We can assume that this was alien espionage.”

A curator with special powers arrives from the capital. All pilots who continue to search for the remaining members of the group submit written reports to the officer about their encounters with strange fiery objects. Pilot Gennady Patrushev is at a loss. How to write about something that defies any explanation?

Three days after the terrible discovery on Otorten, two helicopters flew to the site of the tragedy in the strictest secrecy. Forensic experts take final photographs of the dead and the torn tent, measuring the distances at which the bodies are from each other and from the place where they spent the night. Eventually, four large canvas bags are lifted aboard the helicopter. One of the cars takes off and soon disappears into the sky. Half an hour later, the helicopter, for no apparent reason, falls like a stone into the taiga... The first four corpses were taken out by the Mi-4 helicopter; it crashed first. Another 5 people died immediately.

A few days later there was a new disaster. An An-2 plane flies over Mount Otorten. The pilots report seeing a column of smoke rising from the pass. After this, the plane crashed into a mountain.

Despite everything, the search for the four remaining tourists continues. The best rescuers from all over the country were called to the area of ​​the tragedy. People, armed with metal probes, examine the ice-covered snow day after day. Finally, the probe of one of the rescuers stumbles upon something solid. After just 10 minutes, the leader of the group is holding a large tourist backpack in his hands, from which he extracts an invaluable find - the camping journal of the Dyatlov group. One of the last entries, not made by Igor, causes readers first bewilderment and then shock. It says in black and white that the group encountered a mountain monster.

Second version of the group's death: monster

The diary was immediately sent for examination to Moscow. The Northern Urals froze in anxious anticipation. Local residents recall an incident ten years ago. Then Maria Pakhtusova, a resident of a small village located on the shore of Lake Ulagach, first heard some strange noise in the chicken coop, and then a loud guttural cry. When the woman went out into the yard, she said she saw a tall, hairy figure. With burning eyes and arms hanging below the knees.

“The whole face of this monster was covered in blood,” said Igor Kalitin, who was present during the interrogation of Maria Pakhtusova. – The woman screamed in horror. And the creature, with unexpected ease for its mass, jumped over a two-meter fence and disappeared into the forest. When the woman recovered from the shock and looked into the chicken coop, a new shock awaited her: all the chickens’ heads had been torn off.”

This is how a new version appeared. Tourists were killed by an animal unknown to science. Everyone was waiting to see what the capital's experts who studied the diary would say. A week later it was announced: an entry about a monster in the group’s diary - a fantastic story written by one of the climbers. Although none of them had previously been noticed in writing. A few years later, the diary was given to the parents of the victims, but the last pages where the monster was described were torn out.

The rescue operation continued until May 5. On this day, the remaining members of the Dyatlov group were found. This became a new sensation.
“The cause of death of these people is significantly different from the cause of death of people in the first group. Of those found, only one person froze to death, all the rest died from injuries to internal organs incompatible with life.”

The strangeness of the situation became clear only after the autopsy. Experts argued: all injuries were caused not by an external, but by an internal source of damage. It was as if the blow had been struck inside the body. It seemed even more fantastic than the mountain monster version. The investigation reached a dead end, and then a close friend of the victims, pilot Gennady Patrushev, began his own investigation.

A year and a half after the tragedy, Gennady Patrushev, returning from work, told his wife that he had found the answer to Dyatlov’s death. But to all the persuasion to tell the truth, he answered: “Be patient, I’ll tell you everything after tomorrow I once again inspect the place of their death from the air.” But by a strange coincidence, the pilot does not return from this flight...

Objective control materials contain records that before his death the pilot reported that he was attacked by some bright balls and was going to ram him. This was the last message received from him.
Outwardly, it looks like a UFO attack. However, Patrushev’s friends are convinced: aliens are not to blame for the death of Gennady, as well as for the tragedy with the Dyatlov group.

Patrushev, according to local observers, most likely came very close to solving the tragedy. The fact is that after the death of Patrushev, a hunt began for other witnesses.

On a gloomy November morning, a car overturned on the Sverdlovsk-Chelyabinsk road. The brakes burst, as if someone had deliberately cut them before leaving. The driver was seriously injured and ended up. The passenger miraculously remained unharmed, but was in shock. There was no one on the deserted highway who could help them.

It was only by chance that a small “groove” of local mushroom pickers arrived at the wrecked car. While they were loading the driver onto the bus, he kept repeating two words: “fire” and “scary.” The passenger was silent. The strangest thing is that this passenger was Yuri Yarovoy, one of the first rescuers who got to the bodies of the dead climbers, even managed to photograph them and was going to publish a book. The book was published only a few years later. Those photographs were no longer in it.

Some time after this car accident, the doctor who performed the autopsy on the corpses found on Otorten dies. His body was brought home in a closed coffin, telling his wife to bury her husband quietly and not find out anything.

Where and how did the doctor die, who, as usual, went to work in the morning? Why does no one, not even his relatives, know anything about the causes of the tragedy that ended his life? After some time, at their dacha, in a bathhouse, a state security officer who oversaw the investigation into the death of the Dyatlov group was found shot in the head. The investigation has no doubt that what happened was... The fact that the deceased allegedly shot with his right hand, which had been paralyzed for several months, did not bother anyone. There are too many oddities in this series of deaths to be considered mere coincidences.

Soon this section of the Northern Urals was closed to tourists, athletes and even aviation flights.

The third version of the death of the group: psychotronic weapons

Researchers of the tragedy on the Mountain of the Dead are convinced that the tourists left the tent in a state of panic. Something frightened the guys to such an extent that they tear the tarpaulin of the tent from the inside and run out. A panic attack drives them down the hill. The guys stop only after they have run one and a half kilometers. Their further actions are devoid of any logic: instead of immediately returning to the tent, where there is food and warm clothes, they try to make a fire. And although there is dead wood underfoot, they climb trees and break the thickest branches that are not suitable for a fire. Only after a while do several people attempt to return to the tent, but for some reason they do it crawling, as if they were still afraid of something. Why does everything happen this way?

In the late 1950s, the development of psychotronic weapons began in the Soviet Union. with the help of special radiation it influences the psyche of people, causing a feeling of fear, and then animal horror.
The first samples of psychotronic weapons were built on the basis of infrasound emitters. And as you know, infrasonic waves have a detrimental effect on the human psyche. There is a feeling of fear of death, disorientation in space, various visions - dead relatives, spirits, ghosts.

Such a weapon could drive the population of a small town crazy or disable an entire army. A powerful emitter can also cause organic damage. It was infrasound that could cause strange deformation of internal organs, from which tourists died.

The infrasound version makes it possible to answer many questions, but how can we explain that within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the site of the tragedy, people saw various balls, in particular flying balls? To conduct such a session of mass hypnosis, it would be necessary to cover the entire territory of the Northern Urals with a network of infrasound emitters. It is unlikely that anyone in the Soviet Union would dare to undertake such a senseless and unsafe experiment. The development of psychotronic weapons, although important, was not a priority. And yet this version also had a right to exist.

The fourth version of the death of the group: the battle for space

Analyzing the events of that tragedy, researchers drew attention to the fact that it was over this pass that the flight route of rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome towards the test site on Novaya Zemlya lay.

And then a version appeared that if for some reason the rocket deviated from the target, it could actually fall in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bMountain of the Dead, and then during the fall destructive infrasound radiation could arise. The rocket version also explains the appearance of fireballs over the Northern Urals. The fact is that in the late 1950s, massive tests of ballistic missiles took place in the USSR, and in order to trace their trajectory around the missile during flights, they created a so-called sodium cloud. Sodium entered into oxidative reactions with the atmosphere, and the rocket flew in the form of a brightly glowing ball. True, this method of tracking missiles had one serious drawback: sodium is deadly to humans. Those who unwittingly found themselves at the crash site of this rocket had no chance of survival.

Now we can quite accurately reconstruct the picture of what happened.
After a small camp dinner, the guys settle down for the night. Suddenly a strange hum is heard. The leader of the group, Igor Dyatlov, takes a flashlight and goes out to see what happened. He sees a giant fireball moving toward the tent from the direction of Dead Man Mountain. Igor shouts for everyone to get out, but the glow becomes so strong that it is visible through the tarpaulin of the tent. Panic ensues, someone drops a backpack, and it blocks the exit. The guys, in horror, cut the tent open and jump out into the snow wearing what. The ball turns into a fiery avalanche - this is sodium vapor, killing all living things in its path. People rush down the slope in panic. But it is useless to run: the caustic fumes cause a burn to the cornea of ​​the eyes, which results in blindness. Those who survived the infrasound wave are trying to make a fire, but for those who are blind, this task is impossible. Blind people in a state of panic are doomed.

For many years, the investigation of this tragedy initially focused on the mystical and also alien versions. Someone seemed to be pushing the researchers down this path. Dozens of books and television films on this topic are published. And all this was done, as we have seen, with the sole purpose of hiding the true causes of the tragedy.

On the border of the Komi Republic and the Sverdlovsk region, in the north of the Urals, tragedies often occur that are difficult to explain, or rather, this happens on Mount “1079”, or as it is also called Mount Kholat Syakhyl.

Until 1959, the name of the mountain was translated from Mansi as “Dead Peak,” but in modern publications, including scientific ones, the translation version “Mountain of the Dead” prevails.

Quite a lot of people died here and everyone passed away under inexplicable and mystical circumstances. Mansi legends say that once in ancient times the blood of nine Mansi was shed on this mountain.

But the most famous death occurred on February 1, 1959.

Igor Dyatlov and two students from the tour group: Zina Kolmogorova, Lyudmila Dubinina

On this winter day the weather was quite sunny, ten tourists from Sverdlovsk gathered to climb this mountain.

The group was led by Igor Dyatlov; all the tourists had quite a lot of experience in climbing the mountains of the subpolar Urals, even though they were students. One of them was unable to start the climb because his legs hurt terribly, and Yura Yudin, having started the climb with the group, returned due to the fact that he simply could not walk.

The students set off from the village of Vizhay in the number of nine people, namely: Alexander Kolevatov, Igor Dyatlov, Alexander Zolotarev, Zina Kolmogorova, Lyudmila Dubinina, Rustem Slobodin, Nikolai Thibault-Brignolles, Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko. They were unable to ascend before darkness, and had to camp on the mountainside.

A large tent of the Dyatlov group, made from several small ones. Inside there was a portable stove designed by Dyatlov.

As the tourist and mountaineering rules say, before setting up a tent you need to put your skis on the snow, the students did just that. After dinner the guys went to bed. The criminal case opened after this stated that neither the slope, the angle of which was only fifteen degrees, nor the reliability of the fastenings of the erected tent threatened the lives of the students.

Photographs found later helped investigators conclude that the tent was already standing by six in the evening. And at night something terrible and mystical happened, and all nine guys died under unclear circumstances. They were looking for the guys for more than two weeks, and only after this period had passed, pilot Gennady Patrushev saw the bodies of the tour group from the plane and informed the rescue group about it.

The pilot knew the guys during their lifetime, because before climbing the mountain they stayed at a village hotel, where they met him. The fact is that Gennady was fond of collecting legends and tales of this region, and therefore he knew a lot about the history of these places.

Before the fatal ascent, he tried his best to dissuade students from this undertaking, offering them many mountains, which are abundantly endowed in the Subpolar Urals. Patrushev also told Dyatlov’s group the legend of the mountain of the dead and how its name is deciphered in the Mansi language, and about the death of nine Mansi on the slope of this mountain. But the guys did not believe in mysticism, they relied on their experience and motivated it by the fact that there were nine Mansi people, and ten of them would ascend.

Igor Dyatlov's group on the eve of the tragedy

The most persistent was Igor Dyatlov, who denied the existence of any mysticism and never wanted to change the ascent route. The rescuers who arrived at the scene of the tragedy saw a terrible picture: two dead students were lying near the entrance to the tent and another in the tent itself, which was cut from the inside. Apparently the tourists cut the tent with a knife and, driven by horror, ran down the slope, and they were practically naked.

The strangest thing was the tracks that came from the students’ feet; they zigzagged in strange ways, but then converged again, as if an unknown force was driving people together who were trying to run away. No traces of anyone else's presence were found, and no one else approached the tent. There was also no tornado, hurricane or avalanche at that time. The tracks disappeared at the border with the forest, after they were covered with snow, two dead students found their last refuge near a barely lit fire, they were also in their underwear. Apparently, their death was due to frostbite.

Traces discovered as a result of the searches of the Dyatlov group. Photo: Dyatlov Pass

Not far from them lay the leader of the group, Igor Dyatlov, who was also dead, Igor’s petrified gaze was turned to the tent, most likely he was crawling towards it, but he did not have enough strength. There were no injuries on the body of most of the students and, as the examination showed, they died from the cold, but three of the unfortunate ones died because someone or something caused terrible damage to them; they had numerous hemorrhages. Their heads were pierced and their ribs were broken, and one of the girls was missing her tongue, which was mercilessly torn out from her. But there was not a single bruise or abrasion on either body.

An autopsy showed the presence of a crack on one guy’s skull, but the skin on his head was not damaged at all in that place, which is impossible for such an injury. How could such damage be caused inside the body without affecting the skin at all?

Criminal prosecutors who studied this case went to the crime scene in May and noticed some oddities there, for example, that young spruce trees standing on the outskirts of the forest had a burnt mark, and this fire did not have an epicenter, as well as a system for its spread . The state of the fir trees that they saw once again indicated that a kind of heat ray was directed at them, or some kind of energy unknown to humanity was produced, which causes damage quite selectively, since the trees were not damaged and the snow did not melt.

The overall picture painted the impression that after the tourists, naked and barefoot, had walked more than 500 meters down the mountain, at that moment someone dealt with them in this way.

While investigating this criminal case, samples of the internal organs and clothing of the victims were taken and tested for the presence of radiation. The results of such a study showed that radioactive substances were found in small quantities on the surface of bodies and in clothing, the appearance of which resulted in beta radiation, and these radioactive substances, when washed, are washed away.

Thus, the conclusion suggests itself that they are not caused by the action of a neutron flux, but are the result of radioactive contamination. In simple words, we can say that this happens when clothing is directly contaminated with radioactive dust, which falls directly from the atmosphere, or can become contaminated by direct work with radioactive substances.

The natural question is: where could this radioactive dust fall on people? Moreover, at this very time, nuclear tests were not carried out anywhere in Russia, which could pollute the atmosphere. One of the last explosions in this territory was a tragedy that occurred on September 25, 1958. Scientists took a Geiger counter to the place where the tourists died, and it is not difficult to predict that it went off scale in those conditions.

Although it is very absurd to assume that the cause of death of these tourists was precisely the presence of radiation in these territories, since no amount of radiation can kill a person in such a short period of time, much less force them to leave the tent naked.

1.5 kilometers from the tent and 280 m down the slope, near a tall cedar, the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were discovered

Even at that time, investigators considered a version that they associated with the existence of a UFO. While rescuers were searching for the dead tourists, they watched fire-colored balls fly overhead. None of the rescuers understood the nature of this phenomenon, precisely for this reason, it seemed scary and incomprehensible to them.

On March 31, 1959, at 4 a.m., local residents could observe a strange picture in the sky for 20 minutes. A large ring of fire moved along it, which then hid behind a mountain 880 m high. However, before hiding behind it, a star suddenly appeared from the center of this fireball, gradually increasing in size, reaching the size of the moon. After that, she began to move down, slowly leaving this ring.

Excerpt from the newspaper “Tagilsky Rabochiy”

This strange phenomenon in the sky was observed by many local residents who were alerted. They were excited and concerned about what was happening, and asked local authorities, with the help of scientists, to explain the nature of this phenomenon. A similar note about this phenomenon was published in the newspaper “Tagilsky Rabochiy”, and for the publication of this note the editor of this newspaper was given a monetary penalty, and the topic of the alleged existence of UFOs was proposed not to be further developed by the regional party committee.

As a result of the investigation, for some time local Mansi were suspected of murdering students, behind whom there was already a sin of a crime committed in the 30s, when a female geologist was killed who had the courage to enter the territory that was closed to ordinary people, the sacred mountain. As a result of this, many hunters were detained and questioned, but all of them were released due to lack of evidence of their guilt.

Thus, this criminal case was closed, with unclear wording about some “natural force that the tourists were not able to overcome.”

Then the criminal case was placed in a secret archive for many years. It was later declassified due to the lapse of time. Be that as it may, investigators in 1959 failed to uncover the cause of the deaths of tourists. The mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group has remained unsolved to this day...

Modern versions

Until our time, despite many attempts to explain what happened and all sorts of versions put forward, the death of students on this mountain has remained a mystery, both for law enforcement agencies and researchers.

Since this story happened, different versions have been put forward. According to some data, they are inclined to believe that the cause of their death was ball lightning that flew into the tent. Others talk about the man-made nature of this incident. As indicated in the source files of the case, the skin of the dead students was orange or purple, and on their clothes, as mentioned above, the researchers discovered background radiation that was many times higher than normal.

An interesting fact is also that all those who died as a result of that story turned out to be completely gray, which is only possible when a person is experiencing very strong stress.

The pathologist who performed the autopsies of all the bodies noted that indeed there was a frozen expression of horror on their faces, although the skin was like that of ordinary dead people. Then it turns out that those people who painted their faces orange in their stories simply distorted this story, tilting it towards poisoning with rocket fuel, since it really has an orange color.

However, there is one confirmation regarding the version of the rocket fall in this place, after a very strange thirty-centimeter ring was found in this area. It turned out that it belonged to one of the Soviet military missiles. After this, rumors about secret tests began to spread again, and local residents reinforced them with flying balls seen in the sky, which could be either UFOs or missiles.

According to archive materials, no rocket launches were carried out in the USSR at that time, and the rocket launched on February 17, 1959 was launched in the USA, and its launch could not have been visible in Siberia. Some researchers put forward theories that in Plesetsk, starting from the 50s, only test launches of the R-7 could have taken place, but only this rocket does not contain 100% any toxic components in its fuel.

Another fact confirming the rocket theory is the missile craters found later a little south of this mountain. After receiving such information, the Cosmopoisk group conducted their own research, as a result of which they nevertheless discovered two of these craters. But, at the site of these craters, an explosion could not have occurred in 59, since birch trees aged 55 years grew in them, which was calculated from the rings, and accordingly this crater existed since 44. Although an interesting and dubious fact is that this crater had a strong radioactive background.

Was a radioactive bomb really detonated in 1944?

There is also an assumption that the students became victims of the “Vacuum Weapon”. This version is supported by the reddish tint of the skin and the presence of internal damage and bleeding, in a word, as a result of the action of a vacuum bomb. People who are on the periphery of the action of such a bomb, as a result of increased internal pressure, receive burst blood vessels, and those who are at the epicenter of its action can easily be torn to pieces. But the development of vacuum weapons on the territory of our country was carried out only in the late 60s, and has nothing to do with our history.

The last frame on the film of the Dyatlov group

P.S.: The very last frame was discovered on the film of the dead tourists, which still causes controversy among researchers. Some claim that this shot was taken when the film was removed from the camera. Others claim that this photo was taken by someone from Dyatlov's group when danger began to approach. However, no more photographs of Igor Dyatlov’s tour group were found, and this frame is considered the last...

Today there are 9 main versions of the death of the Dyatlov group, strangely, exactly 9 - in terms of the number of deaths:

— avalanche (Buyanov’s version)
- spy version about “controlled delivery” (Rakitin’s version)
— man-made disaster or weapons testing (versions with methanol, heptyl, etc.)
- destruction of a group by the military or intelligence services
— impact of sound (Egorov’s version)
- quarrel between tourists
- attack by escaped prisoners
- death at the hands of Mansi
- paranormal versions

None of these versions can still fully explain all the circumstances of the death of the Dyatlov group. Some versions explain well the cause of the injuries, while others examine individual facts and episodes in detail. But overall, no one gets the picture together. Most versions face a particular failure at the stage of explaining the motives for the behavior of the tourists themselves or the alleged criminals.

Another strange thing is why was the “Dyatlov group’s case” kept secret for a long time?

Mystical number 9

Members of the Dyatlov group were not the only ones who died on the slopes of the Mountain of the Dead. In total, over the past 100 years, 27 corpses have been found on Kholatchakhl, despite the fact that this place is one of the most unvisited by tourists in Russia. In three plane crashes in 1960-61 over the Dyatlov Pass, 9 geologists died.

In February 1961, in the same place, near Kholatchakhl, the corpses of 9 tourists from Leningrad were discovered. And already in 2003, a helicopter with 9 passengers crashed over the Mountain of the Dead. It was a miracle that people survived.

The Mansi have an ancient legend passed down from generation to generation. She talks about the global flood that covered the earth 13 thousand years ago. The raging waves destroyed almost the entire Mansi tribe. Only 11 people survived - 10 men and 1 woman.

These people climbed to the top of Kholatchakhl, trying to find salvation there. But the water kept rising and rising. Finally, only a small narrow area was not flooded. Everyone huddled on it, but the merciless waves took one victim after another. 9 people died, only a woman and a man survived. They hung on a tiny ledge and had already said goodbye to each other when the mighty waters began to recede. It was with the surviving couple that the revival of the Mansi tribe began, and Mount Kholatchakhl received the name Mountain of Death.

Undoubtedly, there is some truth in this terrible legend. Nine deaths marked the end of the old life and the beginning of a new one. For a global flood that destroyed almost the entire population of the planet, such an end looks more or less prosperous. But nine similar deaths in the winter of 1959 seem unnatural and incredible. Moreover, they occurred at a time when the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was taking place in Moscow. The whole country listened with bated breath to the speeches, admired the achievements of the socialist system, and here you see the disappearance of a group of young tourists consisting of 9 people...

- one of the most mystical places in Russia, shrouded in the secrets and legends of the indigenous people - the Mansi. Recently, the Northern Urals have been mentioned very often, which gives this place even more mystery. The mention of the Northern Urals is more and more associated with the mystery of the Mountain of the Dead.

Mount Kholatchakhl (Kholat-Syakhyl) is translated from Mansi as Mountain of the Dead - height 1079 m, part of the Belt Stone ridge, in the northern part of the Sverdlovsk region.

Kholatchakhl ranks first as the most dangerous and anomalous zones in our country. Over the past hundred years, at the foot of the Mountain of the Dead, 27 (twenty-seven) people died under strange and even very strange circumstances. This place is the most unvisited and inaccessible in Russia. So why did the Mansi name this mountain so scary?

The legend of Mount Kholatchakhl

According to legend, a terrible flood occurred 13 thousand years ago. Almost the entire Mansi tribe perished in the foam of the raging waves. Only ten men and one woman remained. The surviving people tried to find salvation on Mount Kholatchakhl, but the evil water was understood higher and higher. At the top of the mountain there was a small piece of land on which distraught people huddled. In the struggle for life, they pushed each other into the water, which continued to persist. When nine men died, and the remaining couple was hanging on the brink of death, the water suddenly began to recede, the man and woman remained alive. It was with them that the new history of the Mansi tribe began. Since then, the mountain on which people were saved and died began to be called the Mountain of the Dead, the mountain of death.

Subsequently, the shamans of the Mansi tribe regularly made sacrifices to the god of death Kul-Otyr. Each time nine living creatures were sacrificed (9 fish, 9 birds, 9 animals). But one day, nine Mansi hunters died at the foot of the mountain. They said that their death was not accidental, that the shamans angered Kul-Otyr, and people had to be sacrificed. Probably, human sacrifices were more to the taste of the evil god of death than fish, birds and animals. Since that time, groups of nine people have been dying in the vicinity of Dead Man Mountain. To this day, Mansi hunters bypass Kholatchakhl and do not hunt in the forests on its slopes, and if they appear there, it is not with nine of them. There reigns the mystery of the Mountain of the Dead.

Although the landscape of Mount Kholat-Syakhyl amazes with its harsh beauty and grandeur, there are not many tourists who decide to go to the Mountain of the Dead.

You may or may not believe that the number 9 is fatal for Kholatchakhl, but the facts speak for themselves:

1959 - Dyatlov’s group, consisting of 9 people, dies on the slopes of the mountain.
1960 - in the area of ​​​​the Kholatchakhl and Otorten mountains, 9 geologists and pilots were killed in three plane crashes
1961 - in February, at the foot of the mountain, 9 corpses of tourists from Leningrad were found, who died under unclear circumstances
2003 - a helicopter with seven passengers and two pilots crashes in the same area; people miraculously survived.

What kind of curse hangs over Kholatchakhl, is Kul-Otyr really taking new victims, making the secret of the Mountain of the Dead more and more hidden and veiled. The truth is somewhere near!

This article will not talk about Igor Dyatlov and his group, but about the Mountain of the Dead. According to the legends of the Mansi people, on this mountain many years ago shamans stopped an evil force that threatened not only the Mansi, but also many other peoples. In those days, nine shamans who took the side of evil died there.

Since then, this place has been considered sacred. Only shamans can go there, and not everyone dares. Since ancient times, the Mansi have tried to avoid this place, believing that there live 9 evil spirits who were forever tied to this area by an ancient spell.

At first glance, it seems to be one of the usual legends, of which there are a great many among small and not very developed peoples and tribes, but today there is not a single coherent explanation for the strange death of people who dared to visit this place.

Because mountain of the dead is located relatively far from large populated areas, not all cases of strange deaths have been documented and made public.

According to the archives of the Sverdlovsk region, the first death in grief of the dead occurred somewhere in the thirties (there is no exact date, as in many other cases). Then a half-naked woman with her eyes gouged out, her tongue removed, and a frozen grimace of horror on her face was found on the mountain. At that time, believing in all sorts of otherworldly forces and other “fairy tales” was not relevant, so the version was invented quickly, and most importantly, smoothly.

The investigation explained the cause of death as follows. A female geologist entered a sacred place of the Mansi people and was ritually killed for it. Several hunters and shamans were arrested. During interrogations, they insisted that spirits did this, and as a result, not finding evidence, they released everyone and hushed up the matter.

Kholat-Syakhyl and the Nine Dead Men

The next unofficially confirmed case was the death of 9 criminals who escaped from a correctional camp located in the area. They were found on Mount Kholat-Syakhyl by soldiers of the “death squad” formed in Ivdellag (a union of several correctional colonies in the Ural region) to suppress riots and eliminate fugitive criminals.

Some had extensive injuries to the head and body, three had frozen fear on their faces. The soldiers of the “death squad” did not hesitate for long; the explanation was simple and understandable. Nine criminals got lost while trying to escape, resulting in a fight in which a group of three convicts inflicted fatal injuries on their comrades, and they themselves died from the cold.

However, it was not possible to explain what the blows were inflicted and how, because no improvised means were found near the corpses. Why the three survivors did not continue their movement further remains unclear, but no one was going to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of the fugitive criminals, the case was closed. The source of this information is the story of one of the soldiers who served in the “death squad” and took part in the search for these fugitive criminals.

Death of the Dyatlov group

The case of the death of nine tourists led by Igor Dyatlov in 1959 received wide publicity. Their death did not fit into any framework. After a long search for the missing athletes, their bodies were found at different distances from each other. The tent in which the tourists spent the night was ripped open from the inside, and the athletes themselves were found in only their underwear.

The nature of the damage to some of the bodies was simply inexplicable. No abrasions or bruises were found on the surface of the body, but internal injuries were not comparable to life. It took enormous force to inflict such injuries. Some members of the group had almost all their bones broken, others had fatal head injuries, and some corpses had a strange skin color. One of the women was missing her tongue and eyeballs.

Traces of radiation were also found on some of the corpses. It is worth noting that all the dead were completely gray, and all their faces had an expression of extreme horror. What could make young and strong athletes, who have seen a lot, leave in only their underwear? mountain of the dead? There are many versions today, but none have been proven.

The series of deaths did not end there. Between 1960 and 1961, three planes crash in the area of ​​Dead Man Mountain. A total of 9 people die. The causes of the disasters are not clear.

Death of researchers from Leningrad

A local resident who took part in the search for missing Leningrad tourists as a guide said that in February 1961 another group of 9 people died on the mountain of the dead. These were tourist-researchers from Leningrad who decided to find out the reasons for the death of the Dyatlov group and prove that it was all due to an accident.

However, their bodies were soon discovered. The scenario was similar - tents ripped open from the inside. Wild horror on the dead faces, similar nature of internal injuries. Only this time the bodies were not lying at distant distances, but in a regular circle, in the center of which was one of the tents. As in the story with the Dyatlovites, valuables were not touched, no traces of any struggle were found.

According to the same guide, it follows that the corpses of the tourists were destroyed so as not to cause panic due to a repeat tragedy. Relatives were informed that the tourists had disappeared in a completely different place, where they were covered by an avalanche, and the bodies could not be found, and the guide was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement for what happened on the mountain of the dead for a period of 25 years.

In 1970, another strange incident occurred at the mountain of the dead. A young geologist who went to those places with a group of colleagues disappeared. They looked for him for a long time, they searched carefully, since he was the son of an important ministerial rank, but naturally they did not find him. From the very beginning it was clear that the search was in vain. The way the young man disappeared almost in front of his comrades’ eyes can be said out of the blue.

A strange hunter told the secret of the mountain of the dead

In the early 1980s, there was an equally amazing case that was told by a psychiatrist at one of the Sverdlovsk mental hospitals. A middle-aged man was sent to them, who, according to the hunters who discovered him, was insane. He behaved very hunted and was completely gray, which is not typical for his age.

The patient told the doctor that he was a hunter. As usual, he got ready to hunt and, in search of prey, passed by a mountain of the dead. Suddenly, in his head, he heard voices whispering in a language he did not understand, as if they were calling. Further, his memories are fragmentary. The hunter only remembered that he experienced mortal horror and cold. He didn’t remember where he was or how he was found.

Then they didn’t attach any importance to this incident, they say, he was crazy, what’s surprising here, he talks about spirits and ghosts, says that this place is cursed, that they feed on souls there, but he also carries other nonsense from a not entirely healthy person. In general, they locked this man in a hospital as insane, and then transferred him somewhere else and nothing more is known about him.

There were many more similar cases than are described here, but the general pattern is clear that mountain of the dead The zone is special, anomalous, and it’s better not to find out what’s there if life is precious.