Komsomolskaya Pravda: The rocket theory

[Teddy]

"Komsomolskaya Pravda" together with Channel 1 continue investigation of the death of nine tourists

Researchers have been fighting over this mystery for half a century. In the archive of the Foundation for the memory of Dyatlov group there are already 64 (!) versions of what happened - from the avalanche to the "snowman" - but none of them fully explains what has happened there after all. So it turns out that everyone walks around in a vicious circle.

In his latest publications and in «Let them talk» about the tragedy of the Dyatlov group, we come to the conclusion that some unsuccessful military trials could have caused the drama. A number of very serious facts lead us to that conclusion. For example, in the beginning of May 1959 the bodies of the last four tourists were found. Three of them were seriously injured. Lyudmila Dubinina had fractured almost all the ribs, and Semen Zolotoryov broke half of the ribs, Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle had a fatal skull trauma. All the injuries - experts established - were premortem. What immediately comes to mind? Someone beat the tourists violently. There is no other explanations. Hence, it is necessary to begin an even broader investigation, for which in 1959 the relatives of the deceased were asking. However ... the party leaders of Sverdlovsk order to curtail this business!

OBSERVATIONS OF THE INVESTIGATOR

Investigator Vladimir Korotaev then in the years of  glasnost said: "... I was invited to the first secretary of the city committee of the party Prodanov who transparently hinted: there is suggestion to close this case. It was clearly not his personal decision, but an order from above. At my request, the secretary called Andrey Kirilenko (the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the party). And I heard the same thing: to terminate the case. Literally a day later investigator Lev Ivanov took over the case, and quickly turned it off ... I was surprised by the rapid terms of the investigation - March, April, May - a case of this magnitude required a longer investigation. These places had to be inspected in the summer, perhaps, when more traces could be found. "

Investigator Vladimir Korotaev

However, in May 1959 the case was closed with a vague wording: "The reason for the death of students was an overwhelming force, which they were unable to overcome."

Why this instruction from above - to stop the investigation? If the tourists would have died from an avalanche, from a UFO, from a booze (and what other versions are there?), wouldn’t have they continued to investigate the case? Hence the conclusion: the case had to be closed only because it is connected with a state (i.e. military) secret.

We read further the memoirs of the investigator Korotaev ("AiF-Ural", No. 5, 2004):
"... From the case, which I conducted, are missing the testimonies of Mansi Anyamov and Sambindanov. They said that they had observed an elongated body over the taiga, behind which burst out flames ...

I remember well how I was present at the autopsy of corpses by medical experts Vozrozhdenny and Ganz. The bodies had no visible damage, but the bones were badly broken. Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle skull was literally flattened. After the autopsy, we were ordered to get into barrels with alcohol.

I immediately reported the results of the autopsy to the members of the government commission, who at that time were drinking in Lozva. But the new discoveries turned out to no use for them: everyone was satisfied with the version of the death of hikers from hypothermia. Soon after I was removed from the investigation. Many years later I communicated with scientists from the circle of Korolyov, Academician Raushenbach.

I was very vaguely told that there were some tests. Personally, I like the "rocket" version. A few years after the tragedy, one Mansi hunter discovered an strange piece of iron in the forest, which, apparently, was one of the debris. So far, serious searches have not been conducted on Dyatlov Pass. I think that the debris is still there and if you are looking for them ... ".

There is an opinion that the last frame Krivonischenko captured the falling stage of the rocket.

Many ask a logical question: if the tourists were killed by a rocket, why didn’t anybody from the military say anything till now? We think that they actually talked, not once. According to the memoirs of veterans, almost all of Sverdlovsk was saying that tourists were victims of weapons tests. And relatives of the dead suspected the military.

For example, the father of Lyudmila Dubinina, who was in charge of the Sverdlovsk economic council, said at the interrogation in March 1959: "... I heard the conversations of the students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI) that the flight of the stripped people from the tent was caused by an explosion and a large radiation. ., and the statement of  the Head of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee  of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Ermash, made to the sister of the deceased, Kolevatova, that the remaining 4 people, not found yet, couldn’t have lived after the death of their comrades more than 2 hours, makes us think that the violent, sudden escape from the tent was caused by a rocket shell and radiation near the mountain 1079, that forced them to escape from it further and, it is believed, affected vital activity of people, in particular, the vision.

The light of the rocket shells was seen in Serov on February 2 at about 7 am ... it surprises me why the tourist routes from Ivdel were not closed ... If the rocket deviated and did not reach the planned test site, in my opinion, the agency that launched the rocket, must send to the site of the fall and conduct aerial investigation to find out what is the aftermath of the accident. ... If aerial investigation took place we can assumed that the remaining four people were picked up. I state here my personal opinion and it is not to be disclosed publicly."

Winter expedition "KP" and Channel 1 to Dyatlov Pass in 2013

In this regard, Sergey Sogrin published interesting memories (already in perestroika) .  Sergey Sogrin was a student in UPI and participated in the search for for the missing tourists. "In the early 70's I met in Pamir with I.D. Bogachev, a master of sports in mountaineering. He worked in Moscow in some secret research institute. In the evening at the fire at Iskander-Kul lake I told him the story of Dyatlov group, to which he literally replied the following: "In those years we dropped the spent rocket launchers into the uninhabited regions of the Northern Urals, and Dyatlov was the victim”. It was impossible to ask more, he worked, as they said at the time, in a "box".

Perhaps the tourists photographed the test flight of the R-12 rocket, launched from the Kapustin Yar test site. Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS

EPILOGUE
Two arguments against this theory

• Why in the perestroika year, when everyone talked about everything, no one told the press about the events at Dyatlov Pass? After all, I.D. Bogachev (about which Sergey Sogrin wrote, see above) could tell us how the spent stages of rockets were dropped into the Urals.
  On the other hand: why should honorable retiree spoil his live with such stories? It means losing privileges and all sorts of honors and compensations from their company, betraying and losing friends ...
• Suppose tourists were poisoned by rocket fuel and jumped out of the tent. But why three guys got such serious injuries? How does this relate to the fall of the rocket stage?
  We have no hard answers to this question. Not yet. The investigation continues.