Let Them Talk (May 7, 2026)
New episode of the TV show "Let Them Talk" on the Dyatlov Pass topic New trace. A survivor at Dyatlov Pass (2026-V-7):
(Some people have already died, their voices are recorded).
[–] This is Channel One. Good evening! I am Dmitry [BORISOV]. This is "Let Them Talk." The Dyatlov Pass mystery, which has haunted minds for decades, may finally receive a shocking, unexpected explanation today. Previously unknown testimony from the first witness has been found in the criminal case archives.
He claims that eight people, not nine, followed the trail from the tent that fateful night. What was the ninth doing at that time? Could he have killed the others?
[/] 1959. Dyatlov Pass. A tent ripped open from the inside, belongings abandoned—and a group of students, almost naked, leaving the warmth of the camp for the bitter cold in the middle of the night. Who or what compelled them to take this fateful step? Our program has been investigating this tragedy for many years. Sensational testimony from those who were among the first to reach the site of the tragedy has been broadcast in the studio. And not one of them believes the theory of a natural disaster.
[SHARAVIN] (archive): The fire pit was next to a cedar tree. The charred embers suggested the fire had burned itself out. One man's leg was draped over the other's body. Of course, they didn't lie there themselves. They were placed there by others…
[/] Searcher Mikhail Sharavin was struck by the fact that the bodies weren't haphazardly arranged. It seemed they'd been deliberately arranged to create the appearance of death by cold. Other search participants, as well as forensic expert Eduard Tumanov, concurred. They are all convinced that the possibility of a natural disaster has been ruled out, and that Dyatlov's group was killed by humans.
[SABINA]: Do you think they were murdered?
[TUMANOV]: Yes... A significant number of Dyatlov's group members died as a result of mechanical injuries that were deliberately inflicted.
[/] There was also a suggestion that the students were victims of a ritual murder.
[DEGTEREV]: Shamans killed them with clubs... Not because they disturbed the peace of this sacred place. They sacrificed them.
[/] But who was really behind the group's demise? Take a look at this sensational, until recently classified document. It is an excerpt from the interrogation of Ivdel city prosecutor Vasily Tempalov. It's known that he served in the NKVD, and the very appearance of such a figure at the pass in those years raised a host of questions.
(Tempalov didn't work for the NKVD, and the protocol wasn't classified!)
Here in this photo, Vasily Tempalov, wearing a long white raincoat, watches as the bodies of the dead are recovered. Now let's return to Vasily Tempalov's testimony, which he gave after returning from the pass:
Downstream from the tent on the slope, I discovered eight pairs of human footprints. I couldn't locate a ninth footprint, and it wasn't there. The footprints showed me that the people were walking at a normal pace down the mountain.
[/] And this is the testimony of another witness, searcher Vladislav Karelin. He was one of the first to arrive at the site of the group's death and also examined those very same footprints – and drew attention to a crucial detail: the condition of the footprints.
[KARELIN]: But one day I wanted to test this footprint. I touched it with my boot – and it was hard. I started kicking the footprints with my boots, and they were icy. He didn't care! A true fact. The tracks are icy, and there's no way I could have damaged them!
[/] This means that the scene near the tent is exactly the same as the one that emerged when the group left. Moreover, a sensational detail has been discovered that completely upends the entire case. It turns out the people were descending at a measured pace, not running. Could this detective detail hold the key to solving this most mysterious tragedy?
Where was the ninth participant? Why were no traces of him found? Are those who suggested that the students were being led to execution right?
Our studio has previously heard a version that still sparks heated debate. What if one of the participants in the expedition could have been involved in the tragedy? We're talking about the most enigmatic member of the expedition, Semyon Zolotaryov, around whom there are too many inconsistencies.
KUNTSEVICH (archive): Tattoos. That Zolotaryov (the teacher) didn't have any! This is what his relatives say. That Zolotaryov had only one gold tooth (the real Zolotaryov), but this one has seven steel teeth!
[/] This testimony raised the question of who was really buried under the name Semyon Zolotaryov. To find the answer, a DNA test was conducted, which completely disproved the theory that it was him.
Could it be that someone else is buried under the name Zolotaryov? But who is he? And where then is the real Semyon Zolotaryov? Could it really be he—the ninth man whose footprints were never found on the slope? The man who forced the others to walk down in a line to certain death?
[–] Sergey Sogrin is in our studio—assistant-consultant to the first investigator in the Ivanov case. He was acquainted with Igor Dyatlov, Semyon Zolotaryov, and Zinaida Kolmogorova. Good evening, Sergey Nikolaevich! What do you know about that criminal case that we don't know? And only today have you decided to tell us!
[SOGRIN]: The thing is, I was among the first to begin searching for the dead guys. And today, there are only two of us left. Karelin and me. And we were witnesses to what happened there, right on the heels. The thing is, we're from the same section.
The entire Dyatlov group were our friends. We had a common background, common tactics, and common hiking techniques. Furthermore, I emphasize that Karelin and I were highly qualified at the time, with extensive travel experience. I was a Master of Sports in sports tourism at the time. And Karelin was too, apparently, maybe even a Master of Sports.
I want to point out something. At the site where the tent was found, there were no other signs of outside presence, other than traces of Dyatlov's activities. So all these speculations about some kind of murder, about some strangers involved—they're all just fabrications of later years!
[–] But for what reason were the organs of the deceased removed from the chemical lab back then?
[SOGRIN]: This case was unusual... Because tourists in those years died from all sorts of different causes, but not a single death received the kind of publicity that this one did. The fact is, it was all connected to state secrets. When the investigation began, Investigator Ivanov wrote a resolution ordering an examination of the internal organs—chemical and histological. And when this examination was ready, the so-called "man in gray" appeared and confiscated the protocols, examination results, and internal organs from the refrigerator. And all of this disappeared without a trace, including Investigator Ivanov's order to conduct this examination.
[–] What secret could have been there that led to the removal of internal organs and the confiscation of the examination results?
[SOGRIN]: The most important thing in this story is the underlying cause, what compelled the people to leave the tent at lightning speed and run more than 1 km naked: And the first opinion we formed there was that it was either an explosion or some kind of strong light. Or some other such short-term circumstances.
After some time, we realized that if such a thing had happened, given Igor Dyatlov's experience (as the expedition leader), they would certainly have returned to the tent and, most likely, everyone would have survived. Well, maybe with some minimal losses.
[–] But what could they have seen that would have forced them out? And here all the theories begin, right down to aliens, nuclear missile tests. Some civilizations, and whatever else…
[VARSEGOVA]: I'm very grateful to Channel One and the "Let Them Talk" program for raising this issue. And I'm very grateful to Sergei Nikolaevich for agreeing to appear on this program and share what you know.
But I want to get back to the tent. When Sergei Nikolaevich said there were no signs of strangers near the tent, I know that Dmitry Kireyev, an investigator of the tragedy, is here now. He carefully studied Prosecutor Tempalov's interrogation, asking who was the first investigative body to arrive at the scene—the Ivdel city prosecutor.
He also notes that there were no traces of strangers around the tent, nor any signs of a struggle. But there was a completely different mystery with the footprints, which now also calls into question many of the events in this story.
[–] Let's ask him! What's the mystery? There don't have to be strangers for something unusual to happen.
[KIREEV]: We'll go by Sergei Nikolaevich's words, that they really didn't find any traces of strangers there. And here's the very beginning of the story: the group, in a panic, cuts open the tent's roof and goes outside. And then we see a completely different picture.
Further, according to Tempalov's description, traces of people passing by are found 50 meters below the tent. And he describes the people walking steadily, not running. There's some inconsistency there. Then they leave the tent in a panic. Something must have happened, otherwise they wouldn't have left. And then there's an orderly downward movement.
If you step on loose snow (and there's not much of it on a mountainside), after a while the snow, under the force of compression, leaves a boot or shoe print of the person who walked on it. Then these prints are swept away by the wind where the snow is loose, but the compression imprint remains and freezes. These are exactly the prints that Tempalov described about a month after the death.
– And there's the mystery: there were nine people, but only eight footprints! And what was the ninth person doing at that moment?
[KIREEV]: That already raises suspicion.
[IGNATOV] (criminalist): My question... If there was an explosion, as Sergei Nikolaevich said, there would have been an epicenter. We would have seen the crater, we would have seen the results of the explosion. If it was a serious explosion, there would have been trees lying there, you understand? And there wouldn't have been any tents, they wouldn't have been up!
– Sergei Nikolaevich isn't talking about an explosion, but about a glow.
[IGNATOV]: They wouldn't have died from the glow!
– It depends on what kind of glow! If it's a glow from an explosion…
[IGNATOV]: Their injuries are consistent with mine blast injuries or blows from a blunt, hard object. That's what they died from. There are no bullet wounds!
– So, someone killed them, but without a weapon…
[IGNATOV]: Exactly – without a firearm. So, they were simply hit hard, severely – with some kind of powerful sticks.
– Well, if the marks are from eight people, and there were nine of them, then what? Did the ninth kill all his classmates?
[IGNATOV]: There could have been strangers there. I'll explain. There's also this thing called following in each other's footsteps, you know? And no one can say for sure how many people passed by there….
[SABINA]: The nature of the tracks has been examined, and there were no "footprints in the same footsteps." And also, Dima, remind me, I just want to refresh my memory. Do I remember correctly that there were eight pairs of skis in the tent?
[KIREEV]: Yes, that's right…
[SABINA]: Eight pairs of tracks and eight pairs of skis.
[SOGRIN]: There were nine tracks! I counted those tracks myself.
– So, you saw them?
[SOGRIN]: I counted those tracks myself. I'm surprised by this statement that there were eight pairs of tracks, that someone killed them there…
– You say you saw the tracks of nine people. But before this, we always discussed and assumed that they scattered in disarray, that something emergency happened. And they ran out of the tent in panic, in terror. And you said about the tracks you saw, that they were running in panic? Or did they slowly emerge, as the prosecutor says?
[SOGRIN]: I can explain what the tracks were like. The thing is, the tracks overlapped and intersected. That's why it was very difficult to count them accurately. What does that indicate? They ran out one by one and stepped on their comrades' tracks, intersected, and ran down.
[IGNATOV]: Given all this, how can you explain that the people lying near the cedar were in a completely uncharacteristic pose... They lay there, straight, like little soldiers. Believe me, people don't lie like that when they die, people don't fall like that...
If death occurs from a blow, people fall backwards. Or their arms are splayed out, or their legs... But they were lying upright, arms and legs outstretched. And one of them had burn injuries, very serious ones, which could only have been caused by setting fire to those legs. Not near a fire, but from the bottom up!
– What did the searchers find in the tent itself? Vadim Brusnitsyn joins us. He's the searcher who first found the bodies of the Dyatlov group. Vadim Dmitrievich is in our studio today, hello! Tell us, in your opinion, did the people run out of the tent in panic? Or did they disperse at a leisurely, unhurried pace?
[BRUSNITSYN]: It's unclear what state they were in. They weren't thinking about anything at all. They were all poisoned. Their brains weren't working.
– But nevertheless, when you discovered the bodies, you saw the tent; it was clear even from the tracks... Did they run out and run in some unknown way? Or did the group simply move steadily on to the next point?
[BRUSNITSYN]: Let me tell you first. The group pitched a tent on the mountainside. They spent quite a while setting it up because the weather was bad, with strong winds, snow, and temperatures of -15°C or -20°C.
They set up the tent and gradually began to settle in, and this was already in the dark. And even getting ready for bed a little… Zolotaryov spoke up. He handed out a pill to everyone.
SOGRIN: Vadya! Did you see this? How could you see and know this? This is the secret the group took with them!
[BRUSNITSYN]: No, the group carried a second secret. Tell me, Zolotaryov—who is he? He's a KGB man, he had a mission. A mission to test the pills in difficult conditions.
[SAGLIANI]: And they should have tested these pills on tourists, not prisoners!
– Wait, his tracks were also near the tent. That is, if we assume there were only tracks of eight people, and there was no ninth. And it was Zolotaryov, he stayed...
[BRUSNITSYN]: The traces are from when they ran out of the tent. Now we're talking about how they took those pills and what happened after that!
Ilya [SAGLIANI]: I've studied this story for many years, both as a researcher and as a journalist. I've realized something very important. Today, you confirmed, firstly, that internal organs were removed. And the second, an irrefutable fact, is that the case was classified for 20 years.
So, if this case was classified, that means there was something to hide. And you're speaking in the studio as if you were in the tent with Dyatlov and witnessed it all firsthand. Even not a single researcher today can explain or answer the question of what prompted them to run naked out of the tent.
– And we have on the line the man Sergei Nikolaevich already mentioned. That same Vladislav Karelin, Igor Dyatlov's friend, and also a searcher. Vladislav Georgievich, hello! We're glad to see you today in good health. Thank you for joining us today. What did you see there?
[KARELIN]: Hello, first of all, Sergey and Vadim! I'm glad to see you. Consider me here in the studio with you. I want to talk about the strangers, as many have already mentioned. There were no strangers. I support Sergey. The proof is simple. I've done the analysis.
The idea of strangers came from Yuri Yudin. He wasn't at the search site himself, but when all the Dyatlov men's belongings were brought to Ivdel, Ivanov asked him to sort them into backpacks by name, and he did. He placed the items he believed belonged to Zolotaryov in Zolotaryov's backpack. Then he placed the items he believed belonged to Kolmogorova in Kolmogorova's backpack. After sorting through the items, he found one extra item. It was a strip of cloth with ties. A second similar item was later found near the fourth in the stream.
Ortyukov clearly stated: "It's a soldier's puttee."
So, Yudin kept pushing the same idea. Those were soldier's puttees. They were extra, they weren't Dyatlov's things!
"So there had to be someone else!"
[KARELIN]: Those were strangers' things! Kuntsevich had picked up this idea at the time, and there was a whole series of different, silly theories about strangers.
My analysis shows something completely different. Yudin was skiing with a sore on the first day. He was suffering and didn't pay attention to anyone. And he didn't notice what other people were wearing. And on the second day, he saw Krivonischenko wearing felt boots.
But we have photographs of Krivonischenko wearing shoe covers, which means he wasn't wearing felt boots, he was wearing boots. Krivonischenko wore boots the first day. But he apparently found the boots uncomfortable.
– And he took them off?
KARELIN: And on the second day, he wore felt boots. And Yudin, saying goodbye to him, saw that Krivonischenko was wearing felt boots. Krivonischenko continued wearing felt boots because his uncomfortable boots were found in the storage shed. As I know from experience, and from the experience of other hikers, when you wear felt boots, your shins get very sore. What I usually did back then was wear leggings over my pants, and then long women's stockings on top. This helped, reducing the chafing on my shins. Krivonischenko knew this, too. There's a photo of Krivonischenko on some weekend hike, wearing foot wraps. So, Krivonischenko had foot wraps. And knowing he might as well wear felt boots, he took her foot wraps with him.
– Vladislav Georgievich! Well, if there weren't any extra people, and you find every confirmation that all the belongings belonged only to the Dyatlov group, then what happened there? Tell us! Who killed, or what killed, the members of that expedition?
KARELIN: I can only make a guess… I still don't have a clear answer, even though I've been analyzing the matter for decades. Apparently, some event occurred related to a winged unidentified object. Let me remind you that on February 17th, just two weeks after Dyatlov's death, I took part in a hike that took place 50 km south and two weeks after the Dyatlov group's death. And on February 17th, I heard a cry in my sleep in the morning: "Guys, guys, look!"
The duty officers went out to prepare breakfast before us. They shouted: "Come out and look!" I jumped out of my sleeping bag and tent in my socks. I'm standing on a pine needle and see...
– What Vladislav Georgievich saw? We'll find out after a short commercial. Stay with us! We're getting closer to solving the Dyatlov Pass Mystery. Stay with us!
This is "Let Them Talk," my name is Dmitry Borisov. Good evening again! A sensational detail in the declassified Dyatlov Pass case materials. Eight distinct sets of footprints leading down from the tent. A calm gait, no panic, no flight. But where is the ninth participant? Who is he and why did his tracks disappear? Could it be that the students were taken out of the tent at gunpoint and forced to walk down in a line, as if to an execution? And we're finally getting closer to solving the mystery of the last decades!
[/] Today in our studio is Dmitry Kireyev, a representative of the Dyatlov Memorial Foundation. He thoroughly studied previously classified documents and was shocked to discover this detail in the testimony of the then Ivdel city prosecutor, Vasily Tempalov.
– And the mystery is that there are nine people, but eight footprints.
[/] The measured pace of the footsteps down from the tent is incomprehensible. Eight pairs of footprints, moving in a line. There's only one explanation: they were walking on someone's command!
[SHARAVIN]: The footprints began literally three meters from the tent. Moreover, they weren't walking one by one, but in a line.
[/] Upon hearing this shocking information, even experienced forensic experts in our studio had no doubt that someone was leading the students to the kill.
IGNATOV: Their injuries are consistent with mine blast injuries or blows from a blunt, hard object. That's what killed them.
/ But where did the ninth trace of the last member of the Dyatlov group go? Could this man really have become the executioner of the tragically infamous group?
IGNATOV: People were lying near the cedar in an unusual position... They were lying straight, arms and legs outstretched. One has burn injuries so severe that they could only have been caused by setting his legs on fire.
Earlier, forensic expert Eduard Tumanov stated that he believed one of the group members was tortured.
[TUMANOV]: The report describes injuries on Krivonischenko's body that could be interpreted as torture. He has burns, burning right down to the bone.
/ The expert suggested that there was a fight at the pass, and that Igor Dyatlov himself was even bound with ropes.
[TUMANOV]: Dyatlov has a cut across the palm of his hand. Surely he didn't get it from the snow! Such wounds are quite typical when self-defense is involved..
/ The head of the Dyatlov Group Memorial Foundation, Yuri Kuntsevich, spent his entire life trying to get to the truth and, until his last day, maintained that the key to the mystery could lie in the figure of the group's most enigmatic member, Semyon Zolotaryov.
[KUNTSEVICH]: That Zolotaryov had only one gold tooth, the real one, but this one has seven steel ones. It's written in the criminal case!
/ He was older than the others, joined the expedition at the last minute, and his biography is full of blank spots. Moreover, researchers are certain that the man found at the pass under the name Zolotaryov might not have been Zolotaryov at all. Was his body really switched? And if so, who then was the ninth, whose trace was never found? And most importantly, could this very person have been behind what happened to the Dyatlov group that fateful night?
– We're back with Vladislav Karelin, Igor Dyatlov's friend and searcher. He's telling us what he saw at the scene two weeks after the Dyatlov tragedy. I interrupted you. Let's hear the rest of what you saw there with your own eyes.
[KARELIN]: I saw it, but not at the scene, I saw it 50 kilometers to the south and two weeks later. I saw some kind of light spot in the sky, moving... It seemed to be moving from northeast to southwest. And what this spot was, I have no idea at all.
A couple of years later, they started showing us ballistic rocket launches from Baikonur. And when the rocket rises upward, and the photographer takes a picture of it from below, that's what I saw then. That's why some people believe, based on these fireballs, that it was some kind of missile.
– And that's why they classified the case?
[KARELIN]: During my analysis, I came to the conclusion that it couldn't be called a missile. It was some kind of unidentified, but winged, object.
My analysis revealed the following: This fireball was seen by more than a dozen witnesses on February 17th.
The first witness was in Nizhny Tagil, followed by witnesses in Verkhoturye and Nizhnyaya Lyala. Then tourists in the Severouralsk area saw it, then several military personnel in Ivdel, and most importantly, meteorologists and specialists saw it. And finally, Atmanaki and I saw it in the northernmost region. When I analyzed the movement of this fireball, it turned out that it initially moved northeast, then for some reason turned west, reaching the Ural Mountains. It was already seen above the ridge. It flew north, and then turned southwest again. He changed his trajectory several times.
– You're doing something dangerous right now, discussing all the extraterrestrial theories, which I'd like to finally rule out. Because when you say that some unidentified sphere is moving back and forth, I immediately think of all our contactees who came and told us they knew the secret of Dyatlov Pass. Although, when a case is classified, it's probably about some kind of human secret. Oksana!
[GREKOVA]: I believe a crime was committed, and this crime definitely shouldn't be known to everyone. That's why the materials and data from the crime scene inspections, as well as the forensic examinations, were classified. So, of course, we can speculate about aliens flying there.
For some reason, those who were 50 km from that place didn't kill any of them, but these eight were killed. I'm also working on this story. I'll quote the report of Prosecutor Tempalov, who worked at the scene of the tragedy in the first days:
Down below the tent, 50-60 meters away, on the slope, I discovered eight pairs of human footprints, which I examined carefully. But they were deformed due to winds and temperature fluctuations. I couldn't locate the ninth footprint, and it wasn't there. I photographed the footprints; they led down from the tent. The footprints showed me that the people were walking at a normal pace down the mountain. The footprints were only visible over a 50-meter stretch. There were no more.
– And where did the ninth person go? That's what we're trying to find out. Valentin! I know you're also looking into this story.
[DEGTEREV]: I found documents related to this incident on the CIA website. These documents have been declassified. And it turns out that anti-aircraft missile launchers were located in and around this area. These include silos and mobile installations. And it was precisely at the end of 1958 and beginning of 1959 that they conducted test missile launches.
LAWYER: This is the ravings of a madman!
[DEGTEREV]: It's written there, everything is listed, the coordinates are there.
– But then the murder marks on the bodies are strange. They tell us they weren't gunshots, but still weapons. If it was a missile or something…
FROM THE AUDIENCE: They were beaten with crowbars, you understand? They were simply beaten.
– It's not like people froze to death there by accident.
[GREKOVA]: If they froze to death, they would have curled up into a ball.
ALEXEY SKLYARENKO (lawyer): The route was approved. If there had been any tests planned there, not only would no one have let them in, but there would have been a cordon. This is nonsense – on the CIA website…
– Searcher Vladimir Askinadzi joins us. He found the last bodies of the group. He's here in the studio today. Hello, Vladimir Mikhailovich. Good evening! Almost everyone is here today.
[ASKINADZI]: Masters of Sport.
– Nice to see you, Vladimir. Thank you for joining us.
[ASKINADZI]: Just don't criticize me! Sit down. Don't criticize me!
– Go ahead. They're telling us now about eight footprints, not nine. Where's the ninth person? You saw the bodies. What was that? Accidental death or murder, what do you think?
[ASKINADZI]: So, accidental…
– Accidental death or accidental murder?
[ASKINADZI]: Accidental murder!
(Noise and shouts in the studio).
– Murder, after all.
[ASKINADZI]: An accident, let's say. Manslaughter, and so on.
– What happened?
[ASKINADZI]: There are two sets of factors. There's the reason for leaving the tent, and there are injuries. When you look at it from a single perspective, it turns out that leaving the tent and injuries are incompatible, but not a given. And 10 broken ribs, and six there, and so on.
This is what gives rise to doubt, or even the theory that it was someone's impact, or something... I think it was accidental...
– But how could you break all your ribs by accident?
[ASKINADZI]: Ten ribs could have been broken in Dubinina, for example, who was lying under two meters of wet snow, her chest on a rock.
LAWYER: Well, then those would be postmortem injuries. But the injuries there weren't postmortem.
[GREKOVA]: It's surprising that only the ribs were broken.
[ASKINADZI]: I'm not a medical expert. Nevertheless, ten ribs wouldn't be broken with one blow.
FROM THE AUDIENCE: There wasn't one blow. That's what we're talking about, that they were beaten and thrashed.
– Let's put it this way. We were talking about forensic examination. We asked a forensic expert who has been working on this for many years to review all of this. This story. Eduard Tumanov has been publicly voicing his theories since 2019. Now we know more. He's in our studio today. Welcome…
You're a professional expert. What did you manage to find out after reviewing all the forensic materials from that time?
[TUMANOV]: I'll clarify what was said before I went on. I heard it backstage. No internal organs were removed. It's just that during examination, not all internal organs are removed, only pieces of them.
– That's not the point. They disappeared from the refrigerator…
[TUMANOV]: They were bound to disappear from the refrigerator, because there are certain shelf lifespans. We don't keep them indefinitely! A certain amount of time passes, and the biological samples seized during the forensic examination of the deceased are disposed of. Here, the participants in the discovery are trying to convey that they found the bodies quite far away. I'm interested in the theory about eight sets of footprints. The slope there is steep! The wind blows the snow away there, but there is very little snow there. What eight sets of footprints?
Therefore, if we take the investigation seriously, then, of course, we need to reconstruct the geography of the events and the weather conditions. And not something so illusory as people sitting and imitating something without even looking at the map.
– About the map. We know from Vladimir Mikhailovich that Lyuda Dubinina was the first to be discovered there. Yes, she was in the stream,
[TUMANOV]: When they ran there, they didn't see the stream; it was under the snow. And you found her later, when the snow had already subsided, and the stream rose to the surface. When we went there, we didn't see a stream either. It was flowing under the snow. That's quite natural for northern conditions.
It's impossible to say she was lying in the stream at the moment of death. Perhaps she was lying on the snow, and then the snow sank, and she ended up there.
– And what about the nature of the injuries after examining the forensic materials? What was done with them during life or after death?
[TUMANOV]: This is where the spread begins, because some of the deceased have no injuries. Let's say Dyatlov has virtually no injuries that we could interpret as the cause of death.
On the other hand, the deceased girl had broken ribs. But they weren't broken randomly, but along specific lines. The fracture of each rib is located directly above the fracture of the rib below, running vertically.
If someone had beaten them, this would have been impossible! Because when beating, the person turns, and the blows are delivered in different places. These would be randomly distributed fractures throughout the rib cage.
– So, was it broken after death?
[TUMANOV]: No, such a fracture could also occur during life. There are certain mechanisms that explain such fracture locations. Compression is one of the possible causes of such fractures. This compression includes the circular rib cage. Something pressing on the chest, for example.
– Were they bound that tightly? Or what was it?
[TUMANOV]: No, it was precisely compression.
FROM THE AUDIENCE: How can a person be squeezed and compressed in a fight?
[TUMANOV]: If this had happened on the side of the road in the Moscow region, I would have assumed that he was run over by a vehicle wheel. But that option is ruled out there. There is some kind of compression going on. You showed this movement absolutely correctly. But this was someone very large and very strong.
[SAGLIANI]: So, it could have been done by a person, by compressing the chest or delivering some kind of pinpoint blow.
– And where did the information come from that someone from the participants was suspended over the fire?
[TUMANOV]: Look, the distribution of the burns on the legs, the complete charring of the soft tissue on the feet and ankles, right? And then the severity of the burns diminishes, and towards the hips there are only first-degree burns. This is only possible if the limb is above the flame. Under gravity, the flames travel from the bottom up. Accordingly, the further from the fire, the less severe the burns.
– But we're talking about the bodies of two students who were found under a cedar tree, apparently trying to climb it.
[TUMANOV]: If he'd stretched his legs out toward the fire, this wouldn't have happened. Then, even if his feet were burned, the flames would have been constantly rising, and therefore there wouldn't have been any burns on his thighs.
– And yet they were found almost naked, completely undressed.
[TUMANOV]: Well, that can be explained quite easily. They're professional hikers. They're running toward the cedar tree in very cold weather. They've run more than 1 km in total through deep snow. They're sweating. If they remain in wet clothes, they'll inevitably die very quickly from hypothermia. The only way to survive in these conditions is to build a fire, take off all your clothes, and let them dry. You won't die near a fire even in the most severe frost, completely naked, if you know how to behave properly.
And so they take off their clothes and start drying them. Their clothes are left hanging there, on the bushes nearby. And then someone or something really scares them, and they climb up that cedar. Because a number of injuries on their bodies indicate that they did climb up. Then, for some reason, they climb down from the cedar or fall from the cedar into the snow. And then the attackers start holding one of them over a fire.
– Over a fire?
[TUMANOV]: That's the only thing that can explain the nature of the burns. We can't explain it any other way.
– So, someone is simply torturing people...
(Noise of discussion in the hall).
LAWYER: This can't be postmortem damage. This all happened during life!
[TUMANOV]: In this case, that's a good question. To determine whether the injury occurred antemortem or postmortem, a histological examination of the tissue at the boundary of the burn and healthy tissue would be necessary. But this wasn't done.
[GREKOVA]: And why wasn't this done?
[TUMANOV]: The expert (Vozrozhdenny) who conducted the examination was a highly qualified expert. But at the time of the examination of the bodies of the deceased, surprisingly, he had very little forensic experience. And look, when such significant emergencies occur, when the regional prosecutor and all the leadership are dispatched, they always bring with them a team of the most experienced experts, journalists, and forensic doctors. And here they take the youngest, most inexperienced.
– And what's the story with the finger? The finger was also bitten off. That same Krivoshishchenko, who, as you said, was hung from a cedar tree.
[TUMANOV]: The finger wasn't bitten off. A piece of skin was bitten off, and that piece of skin was found in the deceased's mouth.
– He bit off a piece of himself for some reason. Why?
[TUMANOV]: And when do we do that? When we're in great pain... or when we want to keep quiet!
– Eduard, have you reviewed the forensic reports of all the members of this group? If there were eight tracks, and the ninth person either remained quietly in the tent or later came out. If he was the instigator of these events, then who is this person of the nine?
[TUMANOV]: I'm very interested in this theory about eight tracks. What eight tracks on a mountainside when the wind blows everything away! There's a bit of snow and rocky outcrops there. And there's only one thing that surprises me about this situation, because I've climbed up and down this slope many times. Even during the day, seeing everything perfectly, being in excellent physical shape, I stepped very carefully, very slowly, every time, afraid of slipping, falling, and injuring myself.
– Regarding why the tracks were preserved? Vladislav Karelin is still on the line. Vladislav Georgievich! You yourself were surprised that the tracks were preserved and that they were frozen. What does that mean?
[KARELIN]: I want to say that I saw 8-9 tracks. And all these tracks in one place were in a line. As if the distance was such that, over a distance of a meter and a half, all nine people, holding hands, were walking down…
Then I saw two types of tracks. The first type was the track of a felt boot. The second type of tracks – there were a lot of tracks, as we said, on little steps. Besides, these tracks were also icy. Icy.
I tested one track with my boot. It's solid. I hit it harder – it's solid. I hit it hard – and it's icy. Where did the ice come from?
– Some kind of thermal effect…
[KARELIN]: Besides, I saw not just rock ridges, but ice-rock ridges. It was ice with various rocks sticking out of it. I can assume that all the injuries were inflicted there. Night, dark, icy, slippery. You slipped, fell on a flat rock – and broke your ribs.
[TUMANOV]: Let's say it happened where it says it did. And then let them tell me how someone with multiple rib fractures can walk 1.5 km through deep snow. It's impossible to breathe! Even with one broken rib, you can't run around like that!
– Who is this ninth person of the Dyatlov nine? After the commercial, we'll find out what the loved ones of the most mysterious and suspicious member of the Dyatlov group have decided to reveal. What family secret have they been hiding their entire lives? After the commercial, "Let Them Talk," stay with us!
This is "Let Them Talk." I'm Dmitry Borisov. Good evening again, everyone! A shocking detail. In the declassified materials on the Dyatlov Pass case, only eight people traced their tracks down from the tent, but there were nine in the group. Could the students have been taken out of the tent and forced to descend on someone's command? Could this have been an order from the most enigmatic member of the expedition, Semyon Zolotaryov? And are those who are sure Semyon survived right?
/ A sensational twist in the mysterious tragedy at Dyatlov Pass. The testimony of Ivdel city prosecutor Vasily Tempalov recorded that only eight people's footprints led down from the tent, but there were nine in Dyatlov's group.
"Down from the tent on the slope, I discovered eight pairs of human footprints. The footprints showed me that the people were walking at a normal pace down the mountain..."
The searchers who were the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy recalled that the prints suggested that the people were moving in an organized and controlled manner.
[SHARAVIN]: The tracks began literally 3 meters from the tent. The prints were completely different! And you could tell for sure that the socks were so visible, as if pressed out by fingers.
/ This detail changes everything! If there are eight tracks, then where is the ninth? Why didn't it leave a single print?
[KOPTELOV] (archive): There was a rise 4-5 meters ahead of us. We started climbing this rise, and then we saw a tall tree. When we turned around the tree, we discovered a clearing in front of us, and in the clearing lay two bodies, their heads at a 90-degree angle to each other. The bodies had been laid out by people about a week before us.
/ Today, experts are certain: this may not have been a natural tragedy, but a murder. The nature of the injuries recorded on the dead indicate possible blows and even signs of torture.
[TUMANOV]: These people ran and hid, and the rest were killed. The only theory I can offer is that this was all human work!
/ The forensic expert noted burns that could not be explained by accidentally dropping a foot into a fire, as well as injuries typical of self-defense.
[ASKINADZI]: They explained to me in whispers that there is a type of blow that they teach that can break 10 ribs with a single blow.
/ Was this group really being led to their deaths? If eight were being held at gunpoint, then what was the ninth doing, whose traces were not found? Was he the executioner of his comrades?
Researchers into the tragedy believe that the key to the mystery may lie in the figure of the most enigmatic participant in the expedition – Semyon Zolotaryov. For many years, Yuri Kuntsevich, head of the Dyatlov Group Memorial Foundation, studied his biography in detail and kept finding new oddities.
Years later, another shocking detail emerged. According to Lyudmila Komova, Semyon Zolotaryov's stepdaughter, several years before the expedition, Zolotaryov, who had already separated from her mother, may have taken his son and hidden the boy. They searched for the child, but the search was futile.
[KOMOVA]: I will never forget how my mother cried. He disappeared. He went to the nursery. Well, my mother carried him to the nursery, and he disappeared from there. We were told that his father had taken him. We went, and Semyon's mother lived nearby. WE were going there, to that house. And I remember how my mother began to beg her tearfully: "Give the child back!"
And this woman said: "Don't come here again! "We gave him to an orphanage."
/ Could it be that Zolotaryov already knew back then that he was about to disappear and decided to take his son with him, separating him from his mother and hiding him safely? And what if Semyon Zolotaryov survived, if it was he who was secretly evacuated from Dyatlov Pass? Could it really be he, the ninth member whose trace was never found?
– Semyon Zolotaryov is said to be the most mysterious member of the Dyatlov group. He unexpectedly joined the group a few days before the expedition. He is the oldest of the members. He was 38 years old at the time of the tragedy. In the group, he introduced himself as Alexander, although his official name was Semyon. There are many gaps in his biography.
His great-niece, Yulia Orekhova, decided to appear in the studio today. Welcome! Good evening! So many years have passed... The family probably talks about it a lot. Were you wondering what might have happened, what happened?
It's possible he was switched, as the DNA test showed. So we're starting to think he was most likely switched. It's even possible he lived with his son the whole time, because we never found his son either.
– So, he's gone missing?
[OREKHOVA]: Yes, he's gone missing!
– We've been trying to find him ever since... But no trace.
[OREKHOVA]: He didn't want to be separated from his son! So, we're assuming he's probably been there all this time, living somewhere with his child, but under a different name.
– There's also the story with the tattoos, right?
[OREKHOVA]: Yes. When the body was found, they discovered tattoos. But as far as we know, he didn't have any tattoos or gold teeth!
– And was he an institute professor?
[OREKHOVA]: Of course, he's a very literate man...
– A tattoo on the arm of the man we found with the name Gena.
[SAGLIANI]: So, he disappeared and could have existed under a different name?
– There are also some strange DNA results. Let's explain that there were two DNA tests. They're strange because they contradict each other.
[OREKHOVA]: There are contradictions. One DNA test showed that yes, it was him, and the other DNA test showed that it wasn't. That's it...
[VARSEGOVA]: Can I still clarify about these DNA tests, because I was directly involved in them. We can't say for sure that the test showed whether it was him or not. The test shows the probability of kinship. In the first test, which was done in a private lab, the kinship was not confirmed, even with any high probability. And in the second test, which was done by the Ministry of Health, and which I trust much more, the kinship was confirmed with 90%.
"We're talking about a case here whose materials were classified for a long time. What do you think about this theory that one of the participants lived under a different name after the Dyatlov Pass tragedy, hiding. He might even be alive today?"
[OREKHOVA]: "It's unlikely now."
"Yes, 105 years old. But his son could definitely be somewhere."
Sardana AVKSENTYEVA (State Duma Deputy): "Perhaps a lot of far-fetched stuff is going on here, precisely because of the fear of the incomprehensible, the inexplicable. There's a psychological defense mechanism, a very ancient one, where we begin to blame everything that happens on something alien, foreign, or foreign."
That's why there were theories involving the Mansi. But, thank God, that theory is no longer being considered." Although, as a representative of a northern people, I can say that if this place is sacred, then no one will kill anyone there, because that would be an even graver desecration of a sacred place.
And regarding what's being said now, the materials have been uncovered, new details are emerging. I'm from the north myself, and we have mountainous terrain, and indeed, traces persisting for some time—that's simply impossible. Therefore, I wouldn't build any serious theories on this. And since I grew up in extremely low temperatures, it happens that when people get very cold, they start tearing off their clothes. This is also common knowledge. And in Yakutia, when we find people in extreme frostbite, who died from hypothermia, they're often naked. And the mountainous terrain, the rocky terrain, suggests that various injuries could have occurred in the dark. I don't think this is some kind of deliberate murder, but we can't rule out the possibility of some kind of conflict within the group.
– Wait a second! Alexey, good evening! A few years ago, during your expeditions, you found a watch there. Tell us what kind of watch it was?
[KOROLYOV]: The thing is, I participated in several expeditions, summer and winter… From the moment I started going there with my equipment, it suddenly turned out that the pass contains a great many artifacts. In particular, I'll show you a find from 2022 – this metal rod.
It was at great depth, rusted, and pointed at the end. The respected searchers and I examined it today. It's not a search probe, as many thought… They showed me today what kind of probes they had, thicker ones.
– It's possible that it could also be a torture device.
[KOROLYOV]: But an even more interesting find, which I made in 2019, is this small but significant watch. It has a gold case. And as the jewelers told me, it's a very expensive watch. It was found buried one bayonet deep under a large number of roots. It's rusted to such a degree that the watch hands are missing.
– How can you lose an expensive watch? Just like that!
[KOROLYOV]: The question is logical, because I don't think any of the student searchers would have worn such an expensive watch. The managers might have had expensive watches, but they weren't involved in the search. That is, they couldn't have protected the watch while they were working. And if they had dropped the watch, they would have found it. Accordingly, someone could have been wealthy, and they could have lost the watch in the struggle, which is why it doesn't have a strap. That's why this precious object was lost 60 years ago.
– And you think there could have been a fight there, as a result of which one of the expedition members, in that very place, lost this watch…
[IGNATOV]: Wait! I don't believe in any speculation, aliens, or anything like that. In my opinion, what happened here was simply murder. A simple criminal incident, possibly involving Zolotaryov. These people were simply murdered. One was tortured. I don't know what they wanted to know from him. Perhaps he knew something.
Oksana [MITROFANOVA] (blogger): There are facts. If they had been afraid, they would have stayed in the tent. So, they were forced to leave. At least half the group was tortured – that's also a fact. And who did it and for what purpose – that's something they'll probably declassify to us someday.
– Sabina! You spent a lot of time listening to all the stories, too.
[SABINA]: I'm still addressing the esteemed searchers. If you recall, how many pairs of skis were there? Eight or nine in the tent? In various documents we studied and saw, I saw with my own eyes that eight pairs of skis were found. The ninth pair was never found! Personally, this fact raises more questions for me: where did the ninth skis go?
[VARSEGOVA]: They put eight pairs of skis under the tent to create a level bottom. And another pair of skis stood to the side for stretching. The same as the bamboo poles. So where did Brusnitsyn's doping theory come from? Because when he was unpacking the tent, one of the poles, which was supposed to hold the tent peak, was cut, not broken. Who in their right mind would cut up a bamboo ski pole that you use as a support on a hike?
– Or someone is maliciously cutting it up.
[VARSEGOVA]: Well, or someone's cutting it up. Apparently, someone did. The thing is, Komsomolskaya Pravda has been studying this story for many years. Together with my husband, Nikolai Varsegov, we've been working on this story for literally half our lives.
– And this story took up your boss's time.
[VARSEGOVA]: Yes, thanks to Vladimir Nikolaevich Sungorkin, we're still working on this story. And he always taught us to consult primary sources. And here's one of the primary sources. In Yekaterinburg, there's a Dyatlov Memorial Foundation. Its chairman, Alexei Koskin, along with his wife, Elena, were the first to get to the bottom of this story in the late 1980s. They were the first to bring this story to the public, to the media.
Elena kept a notebook, talked to all the searchers, and took notes. She spoke with forensic expert Vozrozhdenny. And he told her this phrase... These guys studied at the Physics and Engineering Department, and Dyatlov studied at the Radio Engineering Department. So they were well versed in certain things related to testing equipment. And so, he says: "If those guys hadn't been Physics and Engineering students, they wouldn't have died."
He didn't explain what was behind this phrase. Elena didn't write it down in her notebook, and it's impossible to find out now. Boris Vozrozhdenny is no longer alive. This fact alone is very interesting.
– So many mysteries again! They often say about Zolotaryov that there's a grave. Why do you doubt that he died? There is a grave! Tell me, did his family know about its existence?
[OREKHOVA]: No, his family didn't know! Our family had no idea at all that he died on such an expedition. And his mother – they brought her and showed her that your son died there, and That's all. Nothing else! She didn't even see his body.
– And you found out about the grave later from the press?
[OREKHOVA]: Absolutely right! If his mother never even saw his body!
– And how old would his son be now?
[VARSEGOVA]: He was born in 1956.
[OREKHOVA]: 70 years old. It's quite possible he's alive.
[VARSEGOVA]: Vera Ivanovna, Semyon Zolotaryov's mother, she was at the funeral. There's evidence of this. She was put in a helicopter or a plane, and she flew around the site of his death at the pass. She received compensation of 1,000 rubles for her son's death. There are documents about this, too. Therefore, we can't say whether the family knew the location of his death and so on.
– Look... He's 70 years old now, and we hope he's alive... If you know anything about his son's whereabouts Semyon Zolotaryov, then be sure to contact our editorial team and tell us! Because maybe he'll at least tell us years later, when a lot of materials have already been declassified. What if Semyon Zolotaryov survived and lived under a different name all these years?
[OREKHOVA]: This is our big request from our entire family – find him!
[VARSEGOVA]: We need to name our son. Alexander Burgach.
[OREKHOVA]: Well, his name was Alexander. We don't know when he was adopted or what his current name is.
[VARSEGOVA]: His name was Alexander Burgach, we have documents.
[–] Alexander Burgach. We know that's what you called him. We couldn't find him. But if you know anything, be sure to let us know. His family is looking for him, and perhaps this man holds the key to one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century, the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass. We probably We're a little closer to solving the mystery, but we're still a long way off, of course. We'll wait!
Topic: Let Them Talk (May 7, 2026) (Read 14 times)