The birth of legend

On March 31 at 4 in the morning Sergey Sogrin left the tent and saw in the sky a bright star that had a shining halo of «fiery sphere». He gave a signal to Mesheryakov, a man on duty, and then Mesheryakov passed on the signal to the sleeping searchers who jumped out outside and observed the «star» was slowly moving across the sky. The «star» light became considerably stronger, so everyone thought that it was flying directly towards them. But then the light began to die away, and the «star» disappeared behind the mountain. Silent flight lasted long enough – about 22 minutes and only after the «star» had disappeared behind the mountain slope 905 a short flash, «as if made by electric welding», took place. People were influenced by this phenomenon in different ways: some apprehended it rather quietly and the others were stressed.

Having observed this phenomenon that confirmed the earlier story by Karelin’s group, many participants of the search believed that the accident with Dyatlov’s group could probably be connected with flights of «fiery spheres». There were plenty similar moments in behavior of Dyatlov’s and Karelin's groups and search teams: they ran out from the tent «what they slept in” feeling stress and fear caused by the strange phenomenon. One can reasonably suggest that the similar phenomenon has a stronger impact on Dyatlov’s team, and their behavior became clearer. It can be clear why after receiving a signal from their companion outside the tent they cut, tore the tent apart and ran out of it, escaping from danger. And then after instinctive flight in the dark, they have lost, couldn't find their way back to the tent and have been frozen by severe cold without warm clothes. The searchers and investigator Ivanov imagined this accident something like the one described above. But the absence of four victims prevented any final conclusions. That’s why the searchers were looking for them and missing evidences: the Finnish knife by which the tent was torn apart and the young firs were cut off. Everyone believed that discovery of all victims and missing evidences will allow us to reconstruct the accident as it happened.

The searching operation was being held in difficult conditions of winter in taiga. The working hour were limited by a short winter day and moreover before their camp was relocated to the valley of the Lozva’s head the researchers had to take more than 2 hours to get the site and back to the camp at Auspia river. As the wind was getting stronger the works had to be stopped: it was common when one working day was followed by the day of waiting and sometimes bad weather made it very difficult landing of helicopters which arrived to supply works and change the members of search teams. Due to the strong wind helicopters often couldn’t land on the mountain pass and had to fly back without landing and the cargo has to be either dropped at a speed or taken back. The helicopter was sometimes drifted aside by a strong crossing wind with power around 1 ton – this drift could provoke heavy touchdown and damage of gear legs. In many cases such kind of damages can be accompanied by the vehicle falling aside and the rotor coming against the earth. In this case the accident could lead to the complete vehicle wrack with possible injuries and victims among people. The helicopter pilots were fully aware of this fact and didn’t risk unduly and followed the flight instructions. As a consequence during searching operation there weren’t any plane crashes (the accident described in the film by REN-TV about the crash of helicopter carrying the bodies of the victims is not true).

The morale of new searchers was not always in line with the conditions of the rescue operation and the nature of performed tasks. One part of young students who were inspired by the romantic side and came to “see” and become a “searcher” were about to go back home when they have been faced with the first difficulties of living and working in taiga. Not everyone was ready to perform this day-to-day hard, routine and dangerous work in difficult conditions. Arising from that “excursion atmosphere” some conflicts between several searchers and teams leaders took place. Grigoryev, a staff writer (in his “Notebooks”) mentions how Ortyukov was indignant with the behavior of one of the UPI turns (Ural State technical university) who were preparing to leave for home soon after arrival. One can understand that in difficult situations not many people can act like heroes. In big companies you can meet different people including those who are just emotionally and physically unprepared for such specific kind of activities like rescue operation In fact, at that time the emergency rescue services have not yet existed, professional rescuers were not trained and not all tourists with little expeditions experience had enough morale and strength to be a true rescuer.

Searching works have taken place during all April – the taiga and slopes of the Holatchakhl mountain began to release from snow, and the circle of search was getting narrower. At the site where the tent was located they found some small objects, in particular, a textolite sheath from a knife. But victims have not been found yet. Monotonous unsuccessful work began to fatigue and affect the rescuers, the discipline changed for the worse, their interest became dull. People started to look for "entertainments"– not only “innocent” but also for idle ones (unfortunately sometimes it happens).

Finally due to the snow melting separate pieces of clothes have been discovered from under the snow (Krivonishenko's burned trousers and a jacket). As well as scrapings of firs branches and its needles let the rescuers define a proper direction of search. They led them into a stream hollow approximately 70 m from a cedar. The hollow has been strongly snowed under so it was necessary to lengthen avalanche probes to 3 m. Only after that it became possible to seize the new findings under snow 15 m from discovered earlier pieces of clothes. The excavation of the suspicious places allowed rescuers at a depth of 3 m to detect flooring consisted of 14 trunks of small firs and one birch 2 m in length. There were fir twigs and some pieces of clothes on the flooring. According to A.G. Mokhov the positions of these objects on the flooring showed four spots which have been made like «seats» for four persons. The missing tourists haven’t been found there. A new riddle they had! But the searchers were close to succeed.

The place called “cut fir woods”: cut firs’ tops (marked by five triangles). In the background one can be seen two cedars where the victims have been found

Victims have been found with probes in 4–6 m below and slightly away from a flooring at a depth of 1,5–2 m. A searcher Vladimir Askinadzi has found Luda Dubinina's remains – she was stiffened kneeling with her face turned to the slope by the falls of the stream. The other three victims were found next to this place – their heads were situated over 1 sq.m. area. Kolevatov and Zolotaryov were embracing each other in the position «breast to back» by the stream edge, probably trying to warm each other till the end. Thibaut-Brinyol was below than the rest of the team in the stream water. The bodies had decomposition signs but other visible damages haven’t been seen when inspecting on the death spot, making decontamination and detailed examination in Ivdel. They found small wounds on the Kolevatov’s head and scorch marks on his hands and sleeves. Some of the victims didn’t have eyeballs, and Luda Dubinina didn’t have a tongue – later this «detail» caused mystical horror and numerous incorrect guesses about the reasons of such «strangeness» (which was explained later). During transportation at first the helicopter pilots rejected to accept this «cargo» saying that it didn’t comply with their job instructions and Ortyukov argued with them. After receiving special bags the victims were packed «properly» and sent to Ivdel.

The most tragic and unclear riddles arose after forensic medical examination of last four bodies conducted by the forensic scientist Vozrojdenniy and pathologist Hans. They discovered that Kolevatov as well as previous five people died from freezing. But the other three victims had severe internal injuries which have not been identified during the external examination. Nicolay Thibaut-Brinyol had «…the depressed fracture of the right parietotemporal area in the site 9x7 cm in size… with dehiscence of the bone edges from 0,1 to 0,4 cm…». They have also found a crack in the base of skull 17 cm in size, as a result of a compression fracture (as concluded by the examination). Nicolay’s death was caused by these fractures having lifetime origin under cold weather conditions (they couldn’t discover the main reason because of tissues decomposition). In the right shoulder there was a diffuse bruise 10 by 12 cm in size on the anterior-internal surface against middle lower third of the shoulder.

Flooring excavation in a stream hollow (B.E. Suvorov is standing by the flooring)

The excavation in the site where the victims have been found (the flooring excavation can be seen in the hollow above)

From Zolotaryov: «… the fracture of II, III, IV, V, VI ribs is determined along the absternal and middle axillary line together with hemorrhage into the adjacent intercostal muscles… The death was caused by a multiple fracture of ribs on the right side with internal bleeding into pleural cavity in the presence of cold weather… The above mentioned multiple ribs fractures … were life-time and resulted from strong exposure on Zolotaryov’s thorax at the moment he was falling, was being squeezed or thrown back…»

And from Dubinina: «… On an external and anterior surface of the left hip in the middle third there is a diffuse bruise of cyanotic-lilac colour in the site 10(5 cm in size… with hemorrhage of thickness skin integuments… The size of the heart is 12(4(5. The right ventricle has the wrong oval hemorrhage 4(4 cm in size along with a diffusive impregnation of the right ventricle muscle… at the right there is a bilateral fracture of ribs II, III, IV, V along mid- clavicular and middle axillary lines, at the left there is a fracture of II, III, IV, V, VI, VII ribs along mid-clavicular line. There are diffuse hemorrhages intercostal muscles in the site of ribs fracture. The right presternum has a diffuse hemorrhage… Dubinina's death was caused by extensive hemorrhage in the right ventricle of heart, multiple bilateral ribs fracture, excessive internal chest hemorrhage. The described injuries could possibly result from strong exposure which has caused a heavy closed fatal injury of Dubinina’s chest. And life-time injuries are also a result of severe impact after which Dubinina fell, threw herself or injured her chest».

And as a result, all three victims had severe injuries: «Death of [surname] is violent».

The investigation was puzzled by the information provided by forensic medical examination. There was no explanation how these internal injuries have been done without any visible external damages in the load points. Prutkov, a skilled surgeon, didn't find these injuries when he conducted the external examination and palpated victims in Ivdel. One cannot understand how these injuries could arise from falling because the slope they went along didn’t have any abrupt faults and large stones. And falling from your own height cannot cause injuries of that kind. «Squeezing» or "throwing back"?.. What, why and how?..

The positions of victims on the slope of 1096 Kholatchal mountain

There were other questions which the investigation didn't find answers to. At first investigation was conducted by the district prosecutor's office in Ivdel, and then by the regional one in Sverdlovsk. The police didn’t take part in it. «Parallel» investigations at that time didn’t exist. Before 1961 the police didn’t have a legal mechanism of preliminary investigations; they carried out only operational search actions but did not investigate. KGB could take the case away from prosecutor's office but it didn't happen.

Initially the investigators from the prosecutor's office were looking for traces of criminal offense, but could not find them. They didn't find any credible evidences confirming the presence of any strangers in the accident site before arrival of search groups. The investigators interrogated all people who were near to the place of the accident, first of all, hunters and locals. According to these evidences the investigation followed the track of Dyatlov’s group on their way to the Second Northern mine.