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The Untold TRUE Story o f

the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Donnie Eichar and J.C. Gabel COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION

The Hikers’ Story

Рюкзаков, по традиции, легких, Let your backpacks be light, Погоды—хорошей всегда, weather be always fine, Зимой—не слишком морозной, winter be not too cold, А летом ­—чтоб не жара. and summer without heat

GEORGY KRIVONISHCHENKO, excerpt from “New Year’s Poem,” 1959.

If one had been able to glimpse inside dormitory 531 on the 23rd of January, 1959, one would have seen the very picture of fellowship, youth and happiness. The room was not particularly attractive or comfortable. The furnishings were serviceable at best, and the room was perpetually drafty, compelling its occupants to wear hats and bulky sweaters indoors for half the year. One might have assumed in observing the room—with its blistered paint, lumpy mattresses and lingering odor of kerosene—that the students who resided in these dormitories must have taken pleasure in things outside material comforts. They must certainly have lived for books, art, friends and nature, interests that could carry them beyond this dingy cupboard. And one would be right. On that third Friday in January, a month

8 COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION before the school term was to begin, the ten friends in 531 were younger sister Tatiana would later attest, his bedroom walls at home engaged in last-minute packing for a trip, one that would take them were plastered with radio panels, homemade receivers, and a short- far away from the confines of college dormitory life, and far beyond wave radio that he would use to communicate with other radio en- their familiar surroundings. thusiasts, even though short wave radio transmissions were forbidden The room that early morning was filled with excitement, each in the during the Fifties Cold War era. But even if had member of the group busy in their designated task and each talking been permitted, Igor could not have packed a radio for their trip— over the other in an eagerness to be heard. radios of the time were over 100lbs and cumbersome and bringing We’ve forgotten salt! them into the Russian wilderness was unthinkable. Igor! Where are you? Born into a large family of rural farmers in Pervoralsk, at an early Where’s Doroshenko, why does not he take 20 packages? age Igor showed an exceptional technical knowledge in engineering Will we play mandolin on the train? and was adept at mastering whatever he set his mind to. Photography, for instance, not only became a hobby for him, but also a means of Where are the scales? getting work published in his teenage years. Damn, it does not fit in! He was under the influence of his older brother, Slava, who was Who has the knife? two years ahead of Igor at UPI. Right out of the gates, Igor found One of the men stuffed a backpack full of food, trying to find the most himself surrounded by storied Russian adventurers like Anatoly frugal configuration for multiple bags of oats and cans of meat. Nearby, Grigoryev, and Volodya and Valya Poloyanovs, who unofficially his friend cataloged medicines. Another searched desperately for mentored Dyatlov. mislaid footwear. “Thanks to Igor, we had a handmade radio receiver on our hiking Where are my leather boots? trips,” Volodya remembers. “His technical knowledge was encyclo- On this chilly morning, the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov, was pedic. On these early trips, as a teenager, Igor was testing tents and overseeing with somber concentration the final preparatory steps of personal equipment in the severe conditions prevalent in the Urals. their expedition. The way Igor moved and spoke suggested the easy They were trying to perfect working in cold night conditions for future command he took over any situation. But this morning, Igor would groundbreaking trips. If Igor’s young life hadn’t ended so soon, he not be completely at ease. If the group were to forget something, they would have become a minister in the government for sure. Igor had wouldn’t be able to stop and pick up extra supplies in the middle of indisputable authority. Leaders are never assigned—they become the . And no one wants to be the one responsible for leaders by themselves.” forgetting to pack something crucial. The ten of them must be pre- — pared like the Grade II hikers they were, because if this trip went as Nearby, scribbling in her diary, sat one of the two women in the planned, Igor’s group would be awarded a hiking grade of III. It was room—Zinaida Kolmogorova. To her friends in the room, “Zina” was the highest hiking certification, one that would allow them to teach regarded as lively and bright, always ready with an amusing remark others their craft as Master of Sport. or engaging story, and never afraid to speak her mind. But at that Igor was lean and strong, with a head of closely cropped hair. His moment she was silent. Having been appointed the diarist of the mouth was passionate, almost feminine, and his eyes wide set. He group, she felt obliged to record the last moments of preparation for possessed an artistic heart and a finely tuned, scientific mind. As his

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11 12 COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION the collective records. Her finely sculpted face and full, brown eyes The eight men and two women, stooped under the weight of their were tilted away from the rest of the group, intent on capturing the packs, and in a nervous bundle of excitement, left Room 531 and departing mood. The room is in artistic disorder... Although she was descended the four flights of stairs to enter the January cold. They focused only on the movement of her pen, everyone in 531 was keenly needed to take a train out of Sverdlovsk, but first they had to rush for aware of her presence—at least, the men were. Zina was the type of the tram that would take them to the train station, [#] of miles from woman who drew male attention wherever she went. Even if the men the Ural Polytechnic Institute. [#] minutes later, when the tram in a given room appeared to be busying themselves with other activi- arrived at the Sverdlovsk train station, the friends quickly realized ties, one could bet that the corners of their minds were occupied they had not allowed themselves much time before the train’s depar- withthoughts of Zina. She had a tom-boyish, assertive personality, ture. And as they made an awkward dash for the station doors, there unafraid of the consequences of speaking her mind. was no time for nostalgic goodbyes to the [name of town square] or And then there was Lyuba, who stood out partly because she was to cast one last farewell glance over their gray, sooty town. the only blonde, and the only other woman in the group. She was a Once inside the train, the ten companions immediately shed the serious young woman, a quality evident in her assigned duty that stress of the morning, as well as their heavy coats and scarves. The morning: counting the money and rolling it tightly into a waterproof exposed pipes running along the length of the train cars made train can. Lyuba was outspoken and straightforward, and one could always travel unspeakably hot in the winter, and shedding one’s outerwear count on her friendship and unwavering sense of right and wrong. She was as much a ritual as finding a seat. The friends fell onto the benches had a strong, defiant face, and if a red kerchief had been tied round her with sighs and laughter, and as the train pulled out of the station, head, one might have imagined she’d stepped off a 1940s Soviet public- their very best selves emerged. ity poster. In fact, there was a name for such girls in the USSR—“the When Sverdlovsk had barely receded behind them, Georgiy Kri- girl in a red kerchief with a gun.” vonischenko, or “Georgy,” produced his mandolin. Georgy was the Yuri Yudin—one of the group’s three Yuris—busied himself with group’s resident clown, and one of the most musical, and the friends packing various types of medicine. When Yudin smiled, his pronounced knew that the appearance of his mandolin meant hours and hours of set of teeth erupted form his mouth, and his face became the image of singing. One of the favorite songs of the group was called Globe. Yudin ease and good humor. But having suffered lifelong problems with later remembers that they were “singing to the angles above”. rheumatism, a heart condition, and chronic knee and back pain, Yudin Hours later, after entire songbooks had been sung and new mel- was also the least likely member of the group. He had previously been odies thoroughly memorized, Zina pulled out her diary and scribbled forced to take a year off of university due to illness, but hiking had her final thoughts for the day. brought his health back. He sometimes wondered if he was fit for such I wonder what awaits us in this hike? Will anything new happen? strenuous trips, and given his continuing struggles with his health, his Oh yes, the boys have given a solemn oath not to smoke through the role as the keeper of the medicine was certainly fitting. But despite his whole trip. I wonder how strong their willpower is, will they manage struggle with illness, Yudin’s enthusiasm was as evident that day as without cigarettes? We are going to sleep, and Urals woods loom those of his friends, and his presence that morning was just as valued. behind the windows.

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The Criminal Case

On the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, 1,036 miles from ’s capital, lies the fourth largest city in Russia. It is a gray, industrial settlement positioned at the edge of fertile wetlands, and beyond that, the startling and seemingly endless beauty of the mountains. The city’s population of 779,000 people are surrounded on all sides by a thick blanket of evergreen, interrupted by pockets of swampland, ink-black lakes and quiet villages. It is a pristine setting for such a hardened town, one known for its machine and military hardware factories, and the contrast between the surrounding natural beauty and the city’s industrial grime is striking. Yekaterinberg enjoys pleas- antly warm weather for six months out of the year, but the other six find its streets blanketed in discolored snow and its skies streaked COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION

19 20 COPYRIGHTED: NOT FOR AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION — darkened with cumulus gusts of factory smoke. At least, this is how It is in this year of cultural flowering, 1959, on a day in mid-February, the city could be described in 1959, when it was referred to by its that we meet UPI student Vladimir Askinadzi. He is a member of the Soviet name, Sverdlovsk. university’s Municipal Sports Club, or hiking club. Askinadzi has just As part of the Soviets’ drastic renunciation of monarchic rule—and, returned from his annual winter holiday and is gathered with friends by association, the country’s westernization by Peter the Great two at the club’s canteen. It is the time of year when the chairs are filling centuries earlier—cities such as Yekaterinberg had undergone a kind up with students recently returned from family trips or—in the case of re-christening, if an atheistic one. In the mid-1920s it seemed that of sports club—hiking expeditions. By now most of the hiking groups every city was getting a new name—most famously the former Saint have returned on time for the new term, their young minds and lungs Petersburg (Petrograd) became Leningrad, and the southwestern city invigorated by the recent weeks spent in crisp mountain air. of Volgograd became Stalingrad. But all the name-changing in Russia But that afternoon, as Vladimir relaxes with a hunk of bread and couldn’t chase Peter the Great’s heritage from the country or from glass of tepid kvass. He is first aware that something is wrong when Yekaterinberg—a city named for the ruler’s wife, Catherine. Peter’s a classmate enters the canteen and informs Vladimir’s table that one architectural influence can still be seen today in the city’s neoclassi- of the hiking groups has failed to return. Vladimir expects it is one cal building and in the intense pride its inhabitants take in their less seasoned groups. But no, the classmate tells them, it is Igor Dy- educational institutions. Perhaps the finest of these institutions is atlov’s group—the hiking celebrities of their school. the Ural State Technical University, known for much of its life as the The classmate tells Vladimir and his friends that Igor’s sister, Ural Polytechnic Institute. Tatiana, is at the school that very moment, pleading with university In 1959, the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI)—along with many officials to begin looking for her brother and his friends. Tatiana’s of the educational institutions in the Soviet Union—was experienc- reported alarm gives everyone in the canteen cause for concern, but ing a renaissance. Krushchev had taken office a few years before and not yet reason for decisive action. Vladimir and his friends know that his rejection of Stalin’s cultural suppression resulted in a rapid flow- the hiking commission has signed off on Igor’s trip to the Northern ering of the arts, sciences and athletics—a nationwide post-Stalinist Urals, as they do all student trips, and that the commission would softening known as “the thaw.” And it was the students of the Ural have thoroughly checked the soundness of Igor’s proposed route. And Polytechnic Institute in the late ’50s who began to feel this thaw in besides, delays are routine in the world of mountaineering, particu- earnest. By Soviet standards, it was an exciting time to be young, larly in the winter. And with no way for the hikers to communicate physically fit and intellectually curious. The ten members of the with their hometown—except with the occasional telegram sent from Dyatlov group were all of these. They were the complete opposite of a nearby town if the hikers run up against inclement weather or a the youth culture building steam in the United States at the same sprained ankle, there is little for their families to do but await their time. Where beatniks were the proto-hippie movement looking to eventual return. tune out and drop off the map of regular society, the Dyatlov group What Vladimir and his friends could not know at that moment wasn’t anti-communist, anti-government or anti-university at all; was how this small bit of news would develop over the coming days. in fact, they viewed inclusion into the higher culture of learning and They could not yet foresee how this small quickening of the pulse sport as a once-unattainable luxury finally afforded to the people of would, in a few days’ time, increase into a full-scale panic that would their region.