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28th January 1959. Lyudmila Dubinina says goodbye to Yuri Yudin, who had fallen ill with sciatic neuralgia. On the left is Igor Dyatlov, behind Lyudmila is Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle’s backpack.
Experiences

Burn After Reading

An Interview with Alice Lugen
Stasia Budzisz
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time 15 minutes
Stasia Budzisz:
is a reporter and translator from Russian who graduated in Polish and Russian studies and also attended the Polish School of Reportage. A Kashubian by descent, she specializes in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. She is the author of a work of reportage titled “Pokazucha, Na gruzińskich zasadach” [Pokazucha: On Georgian Principles], and is now working on a book about her native Kashubia.

Over 60 years ago in the Soviet Union, a group of young hikers never returned from the mountains. The prosecutor’s office and the communist party opened an investigation, but the case soon fell into oblivion. Stasia Budzisz talks with Alice Lugen, an investigative journalist and the author of the book Tragedia na Przełęczy Diatłowa [The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy], about what really happened at Otorten Mountain.

In the winter of 1959, a group of students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnic set out on an expedition to the mountains. They wanted to reach the peak of Otorten in the northern Urals, to celebrate the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The journey was led by Igor Dyatlov – an ambitious final-year student of radio engineering and an experienced mountaineer with remarkable orientation in the field. He was considered someone who always kept things under control. Nobody came back. All the hikers died in uncertain circumstances, which still haven’t been explained. The investigation concluded that their death was caused by a “compelling natural force”.

Stasia Budzisz: How did you come across this case?

Alice Lugen: I learned about it in Russian media, which I regularly follow, and right from the start I approached it with great caution. The disclosed information seemed unbelievable and almost absurd. What I found most surprising was that the investigation was supervised by Leonid Urakov – the deputy prosecutor general of the Soviet Union. In the publications on the incident one could see the names of high-profile politicians like Nikita Khrushchev, Boris Yeltsin, Andrei Kirilenko (named as a possible successor to Leonid Brezhnev) and Nikolai Stakhanov, the Minister of Internal Affairs. This is why initially it seemed to me unlikely that the quotes provided by Russian journalists were sourced from the case files.

What did those quotes consist of?

They included, for instance, some speculations about shaman’s prohibitions, the Mansi people’s sacred mountain, and local legends. In his testimony, one of the

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Stasia Budzisz:
is a reporter and translator from Russian who graduated in Polish and Russian studies and also attended the Polish School of Reportage. A Kashubian by descent, she specializes in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. She is the author of a work of reportage titled “Pokazucha, Na gruzińskich zasadach” [Pokazucha: On Georgian Principles], and is now working on a book about her native Kashubia.
Translation: Joanna Mąkowska
Publish date: 09.08.2020

Also read:

The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy
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26th January 1959. The Dyatlov group on a truck trailer during an expedition to Otorten. Yuri Krivonischenko is missing from the photo.
Experiences

The Dyatlov Pass Tragedy

Alice Lugen
Alice Lugen:
a Polish investigative journalist interested in modern Russia, the history of the USSR and the Cold War.

In the summer of 1958, on a trekking trip to the Altai Mountains, Igor Dyatlov shared his ambitious plan: he wanted to lead an expedition to the northern Urals and become the first in history to reach the winter peak of Otorten Mountain. This bold idea appealed to some of the experienced hikers that accompanied him. Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle, Rustem Slobodin, Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Yudin expressed their readiness to take the risk and asked Dyatlov if they could join his team.

Everyone knew that the terrain around Otorten was hostile, dangerous and challenging. Although the altitudes were moderately high and the slopes rather gentle, in winter-time hikers had to deal with harsh weather conditions, mostly with freezing temperatures. In the 1950s, the elevation of Otorten Mountain was estimated to be 1182 metres above sea level. Dyatlov understood that the main challenge wasn’t to reach the summit, but to get to its foot through the snow-covered and ice-bound taiga. The journey could be hindered by strong winds, blizzards and massive snowdrifts, which in river valleys reached almost two metres. Some parts of the northern Urals were inhabited by the indigenous Mansi people, and others were their hunting grounds. Hikers wouldn’t be able get any help and would have to rely solely on themselves.

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