Mountain of the Dead (26 page)
7.
This claim was made by Davidenko without any suppoting evidence.
8.
Davidenko’s account in ‘Investigation – Death at the Pass’,
Evreiskii Kamerton
, 20 March 2003.
9.
Davidenko to how the bodies of the Dyatlov group were found, in
ibid
. This assertion was nor borne out by the facts.
10.
The conclusion of the official investigation in to the incident led by Lev Ivanov.
11.
The conclusion of the authopsies in to the causes of the Dyatlov group deaths; the actual wording was ‘elemental force’.
12.
Details of the anthrax investigation are given in Jeanne Guillemin,
Anthrax:
An investigation of a Deadly Outbreak
,
University of California Press, 2001.
23 Jan | Full party of ten leave Sverdlovsk railway station to Serov. An eleventh member of the group is too late and fails to reach the railway station in time for the departure. He decides not to try and catch up with the group and thus saves his life. |
24 Jan | Group arrive in Serov. George Krivonischenko is arrested by the police for creating a disturbance at Serov railway station. |
24– 25 Jan | Group arrives at Ivdel railway station just after midnight and wait there for transport to Vizhay the following morning. |
25 Jan | The group travel from Ivdel to Vizhay by bus where they spend the night of 25/26 January in very basic accommodation. |
26 Jan | They leave Vizhay at 1.10 p.m. on an open GAZ-63 truck to travel to 41st Kvartal (woodcutters settlement). |
27 Jan | After spending the night at the 41st Kvartal settlement, they leave for the second severny (an abandoned village of around twenty huts) using a borrowed horse and cart to take their packs. They spend the night of 27/28 January in one of the huts. |
28 Jan | Yury Yudin decides to turn back and return to Sverdlovsk on account of the severe pain in his back and leg. |
30 Jan | The group move along the River Auspia, a right-hand tributary of the River Lozva, following the sleigh-and-deer track on the riverbank. Midway they reach an old Mansi camp. The deer path ends and they continue moving across virgin snow, which is hard work because the snow is almost 120cm deep. |
31 Jan | Last entry is made in the diary by Igor Dyatlov. |
1 Feb | Tent is pitched just before sunset. At some point, believed to be approximately two to three hours after the tent is pitched, something happens forcing the group to exit the tent as fast as possible by slashing their way out of it. |
2 Feb | The tent is discovered by Boris Slobtsov and his search party. |
27 Feb | First bodies found by cedar tree – George Krivonischenko and Yury Doroshenko. This was quickly followed by discovery of Igor Dyatlov’s body 400m from the cedar tree and then the discovery of the body of Zina Kolmogorova 500m away from the cedar tree. |
5 March | Body of Rustem Slobodin is found. |
3– 5 May | Remaining bodies (Luda Dubinina, Alexander Kolevatov, Semyon Zolotarev, Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle) are found by a den they had tried to create to protect themselves from the severe weather. |
Extract
Samples of solid biosubstrates and clothes combined in groups under Nos 1, 2, 3, 4 were submitted to the radio-isotope laboratory of the Sverdlovsk sanitary-epidemic station and were analyzed for presence of radioactive materials.
Dosimetric measurements of clothes showed excessive radioactivity (Beta-emission only, no Alpha or Gamma-quanta) of 200–300 counts per minute (cpm) over the natural background. Further investigation allowed maximum contamination to be established on different spots of clothing:
Brown sweater from No. 4: 9900 cpm on 150 sq.cm.
Bottom part of bloomers from No. 1: 5000 cpm on 150 sq.cm.
Belt of sweater from No. 1: 5600 cpm on 150 sq.cm.
Table 1. Contamination on different items of clothing. The underlined figures show higher than expected levels of radiation due to contamination. Test washing in cold running water during three hours showed 30–60 per cent contamination removal.
Name | Area, sq.cm | Total cpm | Radioactivity of contaminated spot | Radioactivity of contaminated spot in terms of 150 sq.cm | |
1 | Soil from No. 1 | - | 96 | - | - |
2 | Belt of sweater from No. 1 | 70 | 384 | 9600 | 5600 |
300 | |||||
After washing | 244 | 2700 | |||
218 | |||||
3 | Bottom part of bloomers from No. 1 | 55 | 297 | 1840 | 5000 |
265 | |||||
After washing | 210 | 970 | 2600 | ||
184 | |||||
4 | O | 60 | 182 | 820 | 2000 |
160 | |||||
After washing | 182 | 560 | 1400 | ||
163 | |||||
5 | Sheepskin, jacket | 60 | 176 | 770 | 1920 |
After washing | 156 | 370 | 940 | ||
6 | Bottom part of trousers from No. 3 | 66 | 120 | 1070 | 1800 |
After washing | 111 | 100 | 230 | ||
7 | Jacket from No. 4 | 88 | 210 | 1070 | 1800 |
After washing | 177 | 690 | 1160 | ||
8 | Black leggings from No. 4 | 77 | 164 | 660 | 1280 |
After washing | 140 | 360 | 700 | ||
9 | White sweater from No. 4 | 63 | 185 | 850 | 1840 |
After washing | 163 | 560 | 1340 | ||
10 | Brown sweater from No. 4 | 75 | 640 | 4900 | 9900 |
390 | 2600 | 5200 |
Table 2. Radiometric measurements of samples of solid biosubstrate from Nos 1, 2, 3, 4. These are tissues from the Dyatlov group bodies. The radiation readings were within the norm. The underlined 8400 is within the norm and due to the natuaral presence of radioactive isotope K
40
in human tissue.
Name | Sample mass, g | Raw sample mass, g | Ash mass, g | Background count | Excess over background | Sample activity, cmp | Sample activity, curie/kg | |
1 | Intestines, No. 1 | 0.2 | 24.42 | 0.670 | 23 | 3 | 2000 | 0.9×10 |
2 | Liver, No. 1 | 0.2 | 19.130 | 0.690 | 22 | 3 | 3000 | 1.35×10 |
3 | Brain, No. 1 | 0.2 | 42.820 | 0.710 | 26 | 4 | 1850 | 0.85×10 |
4 | Heart, No. 1 | 0.2 | 8.500 | 1300 | 24 | 2 | 8400 | 3.8×10 |
5 | Skin, No. 1 | 0.25 | 1.400 | 0.025 | 24 | - | - | - |
6 | Intestines, No.2 | 0.2 | 20.47 | 0.350 | 23 | 6 | 2800 | 1.25×10 |
7 | Liver, No. 2 | 0.2 | 13.59 | 0.480 | 29 | 6 | 5800 | 2.6×10 |
8 | Brain, No. 2 | 0.2 | 41.00 | 0.840 | 26 | 4 | 2200 | 1×10 |
9 | Stomach, No. 2 | 0.2 | 24.400 | 0.480 | 29 | 3 | 1600 | 0.85×10 |
10 | Breastbone, No. 2 | 0.2 | 4.170 | 0.740 | 24 | - | - | - |
11 | Breastbone, rib, No. 2 | 0.2 | 4.300 | 0.390 | 24 | - | - | - |
12 | Skin of thigh, No. 2 | 0.022 | 6.500 | 0.300 | 24 | - | - | - |
13 | Intestines, No. 3 | 0.3 | 21.770 | 0.740 | 23 | 3 | 2800 | 1.25×10 |
14 | Liver, No. 3 | 0.2 | 33.00 | 0.920 | 20 | 6 | 4600 | 2×10 |
15 | Kidney, No. 3 | 0.08 | 10.10 | 0.080 | 26 | - | - | - |
16 | Skin, No. 3 | 0.014 | 1.150 | 0.040 | 24 | - | - | - |
17 | Breastbone, No. 3 | 0.2 | 7.200 | 1.300 | 24 | - | - | - |
18 | Intestines, No. 4 | 0.058 | 14.10 | 0.100 | 23 | |||
19 | Liver, No. 4 | 0.2 | 18.830 | 0.490 | 34 | 7 | 5000 | 2.2×10 |
20 | Kidneys, No. 4 | 0.2 | 18.470 | 0.330 | 27 | 4 | 2000 | 0.9×10 |
21 | Skin, No. 4 | 0.091 | 11.910 | 0.100 | 27 | 4 | 900 | 0.6×10 |
22 | Skin of thigh, No. 4 | 0.2 | 7.600 | 0.280 | 24 | 2 | 2000 | 0.9×10 |
23 | Skin of shin, No. 4 | 0.1 | 3.840 | 9.150 | 24 | - | - | - |
24 | Heart, No. 4 | 0.2 | 10.720 | 0.350 | 24 | 4 | 3000 | 1.4×10 |
25 | Rib, No. 4 | 0.177 | 1.300 | 0.180 | 24 | - | - | - |