On February 1, 2019, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced the resumption of the investigation of the mysterious and inexplicable death of the Dyatlov tourist group in the Northern Urals. The tragedy occurred 60 years ago, in February 1959, but still remains one of the main mysteries of the 20th century. Hundreds of amateurs and professionals all these years have studied circumstances and evidence, practiced various versions in search of an answer to the question of what happened to the group of Dyatlov.
Last trip
In the middle of the 20th century, sports tourism was rapidly gaining popularity in the USSR. Its focus and driving force were mainly students. In the universities of the country, tourist clubs began to appear, which contributed to the unification of students of different ages and specialties. Such a club also existed in the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI), one of its participants was a fifth-year student Igor Dyatlov, who studied at the radio engineering faculty.
Igor Dyatlov
Over the years of hobby for camping, he has accumulated tremendous experience in passing routes of varying degrees of difficulty, including the most difficult, longest and longest. In the summer of 1958, Dyatlov had the idea of a winter hike to Mount Otorten. He personally developed a new route that had not been tested by anyone before, and then passed the necessary approvals with him in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).
Together with Dyatlov 13 people were supposed to go on a hike, but three for various reasons could not join the tourist group. Another student of UPI, Yuri Yudin, was forced to return home due to illness. Thus, in the group were:
- 2 female students of UPI - Zinaida Kolmogorova and Lyudmila Dubinina;
- 2 students of UPI - Yuriy Doroshenko and Alexander Kolevatov;
- 3 graduates of UPI - Rustem Slobodin, Georgy Krivonischenko, Nikolay Thibault-Brignoles;
- Tourism Instructor Semyon Zolotarev.
During the campaign, many participants took notes, and they also had a common diary, which covered all the events until January 31. The last time the group members were seen alive was January 28, 1959. It is known that on February 1, tourists settled down for the night on the slope of Mount Holatchakhl next to an unnamed pass, later named after Igor Dyatlov.
On the appointed day - February 12 - they did not appear at the final destination of their route. They waited for some more time, and then proceeded to search. On February 25, an empty tent was discovered in which there were items of clothing, shoes, food, cameras and other personal belongings of the missing. The next day, they found the bodies of the first victims - Doroshenko, Krivonischenko, Dyatlov, Kolmogorova. Rustem Slobodin was discovered on March 2. The remaining four tourists were searched until May 4.
Official investigation
From the very beginning, many oddities were present in this matter, from the tent cut from the inside to the lack of shoes for almost the entire group. The cause of death of the victims was officially called freezing, but some of them were found to have suspected fractures, bodily injuries, and head injuries. Two people left traces of radiation on their clothes.
An official investigation was conducted by an employee of the Sverdlovsk prosecutor’s office, Lev Ivanov. As soon as he began to familiarize himself with the case materials, he was summoned to Moscow for secret negotiations with the country's top leadership. Further, Ivanov coordinated all his actions in the course of the investigation with local party workers. According to rumors, they also contributed to the speedy closure of the criminal case. The findings presented by the investigator were crumpled and vague. The reason for the death of tourists was called an irresistible elemental force.
Later, many saw in this wording a reference to the Civil Code of the RSFSR. Just in article 404, it was stated that the activities of individuals or enterprises associated with increased danger are liable for the damage caused, unless the effect of force majeure or gross negligence of the victim is proved.
By his findings, Ivanov argued that the owners of the "high-risk facility" would not be punished, since it was a spontaneous influence. In addition, Dyatlov was credited with the same “gross negligence” committed in two aspects: the late start of climbing the mountain and the loss of the right direction, as a result of which the tourists were not at all where they planned.
All the details hidden behind the wording “persons and enterprises” did not find an explanation in the conclusions of the official investigation, and remained classified information.
