THE ENIGMA OF THE FIREBALLS
Surprisingly, one of the most extraordinary and astonishing versions came from none other than Lev Ivanov himself. In 1990, the retired Prosecutor published an article, “The Enigma of the Fireballs”, where he admitted that in spring of 1959, under the pressure of A. P. Kirilenko, and of his deputy, A. F. Yeshtokin, he withdrew various key materials from the case that indicated the true cause of the accident: “fireballs” or a UFO*.
“When E. P. Maslennikov and I examined the scene in May, we found that some young pine trees at the edge of the forest had burn marks, but those marks did not have a concentric form or some other pattern. There was no epicenter. This once again confirmed that heated beams of a strong, but completely unknown, at least to us, energy, were directing their firepower toward specific objects (in this case, people), acting selectively.”
It is worth noting that later on, Kirilenko professed a lively interest in the UFO’s, and received memos about sightings of unidentified objects from the Chairman of the KGB, Andropov.
THE APOCRYPHA OF A DEAD PILOT
Aside from the main body of evidence of the “Dyatlov case” comes another version, presented by the pilot-navigator of the Ural Department of Civil Aviation, Georgi Karphusin and Valeria Gamatina, the widow of the second pilot, Gennadi Patrushev.
The pilots claimed that the aircraft AN-2, specifically their crew, discovered the tent, next to which laid two bodies: one male and one female.
Moreover, Patrushev allegedly met with Dyatlov in Vizhai hotel, and tried to dissuade him from trekking out to Kholat-Syakhyl and to Otorten: the Mansi, they say, are afraid of these mountains where “flying lights” and even “gods in shining garments” used to appear.
In the wake of the Incident, Patrushev and his friend, Sergei Misharin, a KGB agent, plunged into unraveling the mystery. The widow cautiously hints that Patrushev linked the events on the Mountain of the Dead with the “glowing spheres” he had seen during flights in its vicinity. In those moments, the indicator hands on the instruments would start to shake violently and the plane would lose control.
The investigation came to a sudden finale when in 1961, Gennadi Patrushev crashed flying his Yak-12 near the Chistop mountain range. Shortly thereafter, Misharin committed suicide in his own bathhouse: a shot to the head with a service weapon.
THE LIGHTS OF YAKIMOV
On September 11th, 2002, mining master Yuri Yakimov came across something in the woods while working the night shift at the Ivdel bauxite quarry. What seemed at first to be a powerful searchlight apparatus swaying in the trees, suddenly began to show signs of intelligent life: the source of the light somehow “sensed” Yakimov’s gaze, and immediately turned to face him. However, as soon as Yakimov averted his eyes from the object, the beam, in turn, withdrew.
Then, a few “lanterns” separated from the searchlight and started to approach him quickly. As soon as Yakimov would turn away, the lights would suspend their motion. Deciding not to tempt fate, Yakimov retreated.
Shortly before that, in August, the ranger of the national park, “Denezkhin Kamen”, Valentin Rudkovskiy observed a whole cycle of “work” of some “light unit”. Just as in Yakimov’s case, it was reacting to his look and sending off rapidly moving “flashlights”. After hiding from the “unit” behind a large log for four hours, the ranger saw it “turning off” with an electric crackle, followed by a strong gust of wind.
The story made it to the pages of a local newspaper, and Yakimov was struck at its similarity with his own case. When he found Rudkovskiy and asked him about the coordinates of the sighting, the ranger snapped:
“The Mansi suggested that I do not go back there ever again.”
THE HOWLER
“There is no wind, and yet the bushes and branches are bending, as if someone is nearby…” – Prokopiy Bakhtiyarov, a hunter
According to folk beliefs, Kul-no-yer, the king of demons, and Vor-Ne, the patroness of the forest, hold sway over the Chistop* mountain range. There also dwell invisible giants whom only children can see. The Mansi sometimes brought the kids along to Chistop as “watchers”.
Following some new concepts of the Soviet Air Defense command, construction of the radar site on the mountain began in 1978. It was after two years of laying the road on the mountain relief and erecting a fort, that it become evident that the radar is standing on top of a massive electromagnetic pocket. Semiconductors instantly burned out, copper and steel wires rapidly turned to ash. There would be a signal, and then, it would disappear; the site seemed to be under an impenetrable cap for several days. Balls of lightning would fly out of the telephones in the winter. Stunning light shows unfolded in the night sky; and during cloudless weather, rectangular shadows glided across the mountains. Someone’s presence could always be felt in the most deserted and impassible places.
“This same horror was in the sky when the masters of the mountain decided to show us some kind of spectacle. Quite frankly, I got cold feet and went into the house. I am not even sure what to compare this to: a mix of a laser and some sort of images… […] Then, the Mansi said that we should not see this, that the masters might take away my sight.” – From the evidence of Vladimir, the Commander of the Chistop radar site (1980-85)
When asked, the Mansi would mumble about evil spirits and of gates to another world*.
A resident of Ushma, Nikolai Anyamov (one of those who discovered the skiers’ tent) even said thus to the military, “the students somehow upset the spirits, and they sought revenge.”
Finally, something took revenge upon the soldiers as well. Three privates went insane and were discharged after they met themselves coming up a hill.
The ill-fated radar site was closed in 1985.
And this was just another record in the murky history of Chistop. Gennadi Patrushev crashed his plane here in 1961. Twenty years before the Dyatlov incident, a whole NKVD squad of forty people* allegedly disappeared in the area of the mountain range in 1939. The squad had been detached for search for the Golden Lady, the fabled idol of the Great Mother-Goddess of the Ostyaks, the Voguls and the Samoyads.
There is some historical evidence to back up the latter account. In the 1930’s, Soviet occultist Alexander Vasilyevich Barchenko actually led several expeditions in search for the idol in the Ural Mountains. The research was commissioned by a special occult department in the OGPU/NKVD* under the Commissar, Gleb Bokiy, one of the founders of the Gulag system. Barchenko and Bokiy were shot in the years 1937-38, while their findings remain classified until this day.
THE MAN FROM ANOTHER WORLD
Always domineering physically and psychologically, he can induce terror, stupefaction, and panic. Some say he has control over fog and wind. Telepathic phenomena are also common. Oftentimes the Kompolen melts into thin air, leaving no traces on the soil or the snow.
Among numerous evidences collected by Koshmanova only few tell of people being mutilated or killed by the Kompolen.
The Russian historian N. M. Karamzin brings up a legend about a forest giant “who would grab ten or more people with his hand so that they could not take him alive…” In 1946, in the village of Shamya, a forest man killed a child, ripping him to shreds, and put his head on a stake. Koshmanova relates a story where a “forest spirit” killed a woman by ripping out her lower jaw.
Despite his sometimes monstrous size, pointed skull and the thick short hair covering his body and face, the Mansi never refer to “the Host” as an animal. “This is a person; however,” say the Mansi, “he is from another world.”
“It was the night of February 1st, 1959”. Despite such an epic prologue, the book of the Mansi author Olga Koshmanova, Staring at the Back, makes no mention of the Dyatlov Incident, not even in passing. By a strange coincidence, that very night the author had met “the Host” in a remote village in the Ural taiga. That encounter inspired her almost 50-year-long quest for evidence of this “forest spirit”.
According to the natives’ belief, being in close proximity to “the Host” often comes with a blend of tactile, visual and mental sensations described with the concept of “mayachit*”. The places where the Kompolen roams are called “spellbound”. The Mansi put their altars at the borders of those places.
Quite often, such locations will coincide with areas of electromagnetic anomalies.
Once in the forbidden territory, people start to hear things: whistles, stamping of the feet, and shouts - at times so shrilly as to cause vomit. If trespassers do not heed the warning, the Host may appear in the flesh.
FLOW FROM THE VOID
Like any grand mystery, the story of the night on the Mountain of the Dead emits a hidden gravity, attracting different explanations to it. Seemingly isolated details merge together into one alarming and pulsing nebula, where rockets and demons, radars and anomalies, intelligence and occultism adjoin.
The longer you gaze into the strange debris of the Dyatlov Incident, the more tangible is the feeling of descent into some frightening fractal, where each puzzle falls apart in cascades of new questions. As if through a cardboard cipher, we get a glimpse of a dark and profound message, hidden behind the grid of accidents, coincidences and synchronicities.
The night of the 1st of February marks the coming of Imbolc, the ancient Holiday of the Candles*, the Day of Fires, the Day of St. Brigid, and, originally, the Day of the Mother Goddess. We are reminded of the idol brought from Rome that became the Golden Fire of the Mansi. As well as of the “fireballs”, the “light units”, the “spectacle in the sky”, and the “powerful searchlights” that release “lanterns”. The constant of strange glare pierces the landscapes of this tale.
Every year, on February 2nd, the friends of the killed skiers and all those fascinated by the mystery come to the Mikhailovsky Cemetery in Yekaterinburg, and light candles on the tombs of the “Dyatlovs”. The Golden Fire flickers anew over the bones of the Nine.
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