I appreciate Teddy’s and Igor’s scenario. The idea of a tree falling on the tent and causing the fatal injuries to three of the hikers is plausible. And with dogged commitment, Teddy continues to find physical evidence, which is remarkable. My problems with this scenario are three-fold. First, there’s the troubling photo of the hikers digging a trench on a slope in the failing light. The trench seems too large for just a storage depot. And the picture conveys an unsettling sense of hurrying against the dark. Second, even if they couldn’t reach their shoes and coats, why wouldn’t the hikers who got out of the tent eventually wrap themselves in the blankets they were sleeping in. They knew that hypothermia was now their greatest threat. Third, assuming there was a restaging, many people would have known what happened. I find it hard to believe that in the ensuing years that not even of them ever talked about it. It goes against human nature.
What did happen? Did the hikers in their tent on the slope feel their lives were in immediate danger so that they had no time but to cut the side of the tent and exit into the freezing night in their sleeping clothes? Once outside the tent they appeared to walk down the slope in an orderly manner and not in a panic. If they believed there was an avalanche, why were they simply walking down the slope and in the same direction as an avalanche would be traveling?
Or had they become irrational from infrasound, tainted bread, poisoned water, mushroom spores and so forth? Wouldn’t a few of the hikers not as been as severely affected and remain in or near the tent? Once again, why would hikers who were not thinking clearly, proceed in what appears to be an orderly manner?
Or else? It seems perhaps strange that Zolotaryov and Thibeaux-Brignolle were the only two hikers properly dressed for the cold and were standing together outside the tent. Both men had reasons to be disillusioned with the Soviet government. Zolotaryov’s brother had been wounded in the war, returned to his home village, and then accused and executed by the Soviet army for aiding the German occupation force. The shadow of his brother’s guilt hung over Zolotaryov. He was not allowed to continue his military career following the war. Jobs were difficult for him to find, and he was reprimanded and released from one job== after the other.
Tibo’s father, Vladimir Iosifovich, was sent to a Gulag in 1932. Tibo was born in Osinniki, a city on the edge of the Gulag, in 1935. In 1938, his father was sent to eastern Siberia while his wife and children remained behind. Finally free to work in 1941, he died a broken man in 1942. Although by 1959, Tibo was described as a fun-loving young man, others remarked about his absolute belief in doing what was right. I wonder how bitter he felt over his father’s unjust imprisonment (Vladimir Iosifovich was fully rehabilitated by Decree in 1991). When they had the chance to be alone together on the hike, did Tibo and Semyon talk about their disillusionment with the Soviet system?
In 1959 the Cold War was in full swing. A nuclear bomb test ban treaty was agreed upon, but neither the US nor the Soviet Union trusted each other and for good reason. The CIA paid Soviet citizens to steal and pass on classified documents while the KGB paid Americans to do the same. Spying was a way of life and a profitable one at that.
On the night of Jan. 31, 1959, Semyon and Tibo waited outside for the CIA to show up. One of them, probably Semyon, had documents and/or photos to share. Semyon’s reward was to get out of the Soviet Union with help from the CIA. He was only too happy to take Tibo along. But, there’s almost always a but, the KGB showed up first. Those inside the tent were ordered outside in their sleeping clothes only. Then everyone was marched down the slope to the forest. No need to hurry. To make it look like the hikers themselves had decided to shelter in the forest, why not let them cut branches and build a fire? And let them, perhaps force them, to build a snow shelter. At all costs, the KGB could not be implicated in any wrongdoing. For whatever mysterious reason, the hikers had left their tent and were now trying to survive on their own in the forest. Let the hikers remove clothing from those who died first. And let the living exchange bits of clothing in an effort to help keep one another warm. It would all prove in vain. But, Tibo, Semyon and and Lyudmila, who probably was the most volatile of the group, decided to fight. What they received was repeated beatings by rifle butts of their ribs, chest and skull. Then they were tossed into the ravine. No eyewitnesses remained. In the years ahead, the KGB would come under suspicion, but no evidence of their deed was ever found. Officially the hikers died by some unknown force of nature, and that was that.
A few years ago, I wrote to the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act and asked specifically about their involvement with Semyon Aleksandrovich Zolotaryov. They answered that they may or may not have been involved, but, in either case, the information was classified.
I have never read about any involvement by the KGB in the Dyatlov Pass Incident. But on an emotional, intuitive level I believe this is what happened. I do, however, continue to support Teddy’s dedicated work with occasional monetary donations and hope others do as well.
Topic: What I Believe (for what it's worth!) (Read 4957 times)
