Yuri Doroshenko's Diary

[Armide]

Note: Hello again! Some of you might be seeing this for the second time on this forum as attributed to Kolmogorova. The reason behind this is because Teddy, Loose Cannon and I actually figured out that this diary actually belonged to Doroshenko, not Kolmogorova, hence the reason why it's being posted twice.

I couldn't find a translation of this diary on here (or anywhere else for that matter), so I tried my hand at translating the pieces that were featured in Anna Matveyeva's book on the matter. The translation isn't perfect, but his language is pretty direct (especially in comparison to Dubinina's for example) so it should stay decently true to the original meaning. That being said, I'm not a professional, and this is a translation based on a document that is itself a translation of the original writing, so take some of this with a grain of salt. There's some pretty heavy use of nicknames in these diaries, so I tried to specify who she's referring to by using [square brackets like these] for the sake of understanding. Please contact me if there are any errors in the translation, or if you can provide a better one even, that would be amazing.

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January 24th, 1959. Last night around nine o'clock, we took the train No. 43. Finally! There are ten of us. Slavik Bienko didn't come, the institute didn't let him leave. We are travelling with Blinov's group. We're having fun, we're singing. We arrive at Serov around eight o'clock in the morning. The staff don't let us enter the train station even though the train for Ivdel doesn't leave before 6:30 tonight. We are looking for a place to settle down. Our attempts to go to the foyer (to the right of the train station behind the café) or a school are unfruitful. We end up finding the school of the train station No. 41 (two hundred meters away) that welcome us with open arms.


January 30th. This morning it was -17° outside. The temperature dropped.

Those responsible for the chores (S. Kolevatov and K. Thibeaux for the second day in a row because they lagged behind in cleaning up) took a long time to get the fire going; yesterday we decreed that eight minutes between the moment we wake up and the moment we leave the tent should be enough. For this reason, we all woke up bright and early and we await the order for us to get up. It's useless. At 9:30 we are still trying to slowly wake ourselves up. Kolya T.[hibeaux-Brignolles] has had nothing but good things to say since this morning. No one wants to get ready.

And the weather! Unlike the previous days that have been rather mild, today is cold but the sun shines brightly.

Like we did yesterday, we are following the tracks of the Mansis. In some places we see markings on the trees; it's Mansi writing. Actually, most of the symbols are strange and enigmatic. Good title: "The Hike in the Land of the Mysterious Signs"! If only we knew what they meant, we would be able to follow the trail without ever getting lost and going off-track. Here, the trail leads us to the waterside but we lose its trace. Further ahead, the trail follows the right bank of the Aouspia. With a carriage pulled by reindeer, it is possible to cross the river but for us, we need to clear a path through the forest. As soon as we find a passage, we reach the riverbank. Walking is a lot easier along the riverside. Around two o'clock we stop for lunch. Rest! Smoked bacon, a few pieces of crackers, some sugar, some garlic, some coffee that we kept from this morning: such is our meal.

The mood is great!

Another two cross overs and it is o'clock, the time to stop for the night. We have had some trouble to find the right place to settle down, we need to go back two hundred meters. The placement is perfect: dead trees, huge pines, anyways; all we need for a night.

After having quickly fulfilled her obligations, Lyuda [Dubinina] sat down next to the fire. Kolya [Thibeaux-Brignolles] got changed and is now writing in the journal. That's the rule: it is forbidden to approach the fire until all of the work has been completed. That's why they argued for a long time about who would sew the tent back up. Ultimately, Thibeaux gave in and picked up a needle whilst Lyuda stayed peacefully by the fire. The others resewed the holes (there were so many there was work for everyone), except for the two charged with doing the chores and Lyuda, much to everyone's outrage.

Today is Sasha Kolevatov's birthday. We wish him a happy birthday and we offer him a tangerine that he immediately splits into eight pieces (Lyuda left to go inside the tent and didn't come out until the end of dinner.). In short, another day of hiking has ended well.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Very nice.  Topic set as sticky.. 

Thank you for helping us populate this new forum with content.   

[Naufragia]

Hi Armide. Can you lay out the steps to your conclusion that the "unknown diary" was written by Doroshenko? This is as far as I got.

1) The diary was not written by Dubinina, Kolmogorova, or Slobodin, as their diaries exist.

2) Kolevatov and Thibeaux-Brignolle are mentioned in the diary, so they did not write it.

3) Therefore, the diary must have been written by Doroshenko, Dyatlov, Krivonischenko, or Zoltaryov.

4) The diary was found in Dyatlov's bag, but he seems to write with more attention to the technical detail and logistics of the expedition. In addition, he wrote the group diary entry for 30 January, so it seems unlikely he would write two very different entries in two separate diaries on the same day.

5) The mention of Vladislav Bienko not coming suggests the diary did not belong to Zoltaryov, as presumably he knew few of the UPI students and so would be less likely to think this worth noting or write about him so familiarly.

6) That leaves Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, both of whom contributed to the group diary. How to choose between them as the author of the unknown diary?

[Paf]

Some differences between this translation and the site one that could change the informations we can get from this diary :

Finally he (? not sure about the identity) finds school number 41
VS
We end up finding the school of the train station No. 41

So ж\д is railway ?
 and the "(?)" passage is from the translator, not from the author...

"Volunteers" (S. Kolevatov and K. Tibo are repeating their duties as a punishment for slowing the group yesterday)
Those responsible for the chores (S. Kolevatov and K. Thibeaux for the second day in a row because they lagged behind in cleaning up)

I can't see where the "cleaning up" part comes. I get "slow gathering" , witch could be (approximately) logical to translate as "slowing up the groupe", but the "cleaning up", i don't see.

Kolya T.[hibeaux-Brignolles] has had nothing but good things to say since this morning.
Nick T. is joking about something in the morning.

The first sentence could maybe be far more wider than the second one... Is he joking, or is he only joking without doing anything else ?

Lyuda quickly got tired and sat down by the fire.
After having quickly fulfilled her obligations, Lyuda [Dubinina] sat down next to the fire.

But most of all...
Who are the attendant, this very day ?
According to the first part, it is Kolevatov and Tibo for the second day in a row.
But at the end, Tibo is sewing the tent, and there's so many there is work for everybody -save Lyuda and two attendants. Tibo is therefor not attendant anymore...

So is it really the same day here ?

[WinterLeia]

Maybe it’s the way I’m reading it, but mentioning Bienko in the way that it does still comes across as rather strange and contradictory to me. It’s like the writer is explaining why there’s only ten of them. But there would only be ten anyway. The only difference is that the tenth member is Zolortaryov and not Bienko, and it’s odd that no comment is made about a brand-new person being added to the group like Luda mentions in her diary. Was Doroshenko just more used to strangers being added to the group hikes he went on? And maybe he thought there were supposed to be eleven and didn’t realize that Bienko was being replaced by Zolortaryov instead of just being a new addition. I’m not arguing about it. These are just questions that came to my mind when I read the posts.

[RidgeWatcher]

My take is:

We are travelling with Blinov's group. We're having fun, we're singing. We arrive at Serov around eight o'clock in the morning.

Whoever wrote this knows "Blinov", there is a connotation that there is comradery between them and also familiarity, what else would you have but singing and fun with friends and acquaintances.

If Semyon had wrote this it would written as: We met up with "The Blinov group" and they were a lot of fun, we sang and I had a good time with them. Semyon had never met Blinov before.

I go with Doroshenko.