The Bodies

Warning: Graphic images

Yuri Doroshenko: He was found wearing a vest, a short-sleeved shirt, knit pants (badly ripped with one large hole on the right side and a smaller hole on the left side as well as tears on the inside of the thighs), shorts over his pants, and a pair of wool socks (the left one was burned).

His injuries included: burned hair on the right side of his head (1); ears, nose, and lips covered in blood (2); a bruised right armpit (3); two abrasions on the surface of his right shoulder with no tissue bleeding (5); bruises on the right forearm (6); torn skin on fingers of both hands (9/10); bruised skin on both thighs; frostbite on his face and ears; a foamy gray discharge from his mouth on his right cheek (which gave some doctors reason to think that before death someone or something was pressing on his chest cavity, which were common during interrogations by Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD, and special forces; this could also be caused by a fall from a tree.).

His official cause of death: hypothermia.

Yuri “Georgy” Krivonischenko: He was found wearing a shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, swimming pants, pants, and a torn sock on his left foot. His clothes showed heightened levels of radiation. He had helped clean up after the Kushtumkov accident in 1957, but it is highly unlikely that any remnants of radiation would have remained or even that he would have kept the same clothes for two years after being exposed to the radiation.

His injuries included: bruises on his forehead and around the left temporal bone (2); diffuse bleeding in the right temporal and occipital region due to damage to temporalis muscle (1); the tip of his nose was missing (3); frostbitten ears (4); bruises on the right side of his chest (5); bruises on his hands (6); the detachment of epidermis on the back of the left hand (7); a portion of the epidermis from the right hand found in his mouth; bruises and minor scratches on the thighs (8/9/10/11); a bruise on the left buttock; bruises and burns on the left leg.

Official cause of death: hypothermia.

Igor Dyatlov: He was wearing an unbuttoned fur coat with pockets, a sweater, a long-sleeved shirt (it had belonged to Yudin, who had given it to Doroshenko; presumably Dyatlov got the shirt from Doroshenko’s corpse), ski pants over his pants, a woolen sock on his right foot, and a cotton sock on his left foot.

His injuries included: minor abrasions on the forehead (1); abrasions above the left eyebrow (2); dried blood on lips (3); missing incisor on the lower jaw (this was determined to have happened long before the 1959 trip); many small scratches on the right forearm and palm (4); bruises on the metacarpophalangeal joints of the right hand (a common injury in hand-to-hand combat); bruises on the left hand (5); bruised knees without bleeding into the underlying tissue (6); bruises on the lower third of the right leg (7); abrasions on both ankles with a hemorrhage into the underlying tissue (8).

Official cause of death: hypothermia.

Zinaida Kolmogorova: She was wearing two hats, a long-sleeved shirt, another shirt, a sweater with torn cuffs, trousers, cotton athletic pants, ski pants with three small holes in the bottom, a military mask, and three pairs of socks.

Her injuries included: swelling of the meninges, the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord (a common feature of hypothermia); frostbite on the phalanges (2); numerous bruises on the hands and palms (3); a long bruise that encircled the torso on the right side (3/4).

Official cause of death: hypothermia.

Rustem Slobodin: He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, another shirt, a sweater, two pairs of pants, four pairs of socks, and a single boot on his right foot.

His injuries included: abrasions on the forehead (1); a bruise on the upper eyelid of the right eye with hemorrhage into the underlying tissue (2); traces of bloody discharge from the nose (3); swollen lips (3); swelling and a lot of small abrasions of irregular shape on the right half of the face (4); abrasions on the left side of the face (5); torn epidermis on the right forearm (6); bruises in the metacarpophalangeal joints on both hands (often found in hand-to-hand combat) (7); bruises on the medial aspect of the left arm and palm (8); bruises on the left tibia (9); fracture of the frontal bone of the skull and hemorrhages in the temporalis muscle (medical autopsy further suggests that he suffered loss of coordination due to initial shock right after the blow that could have sped up his death by hypothermia; the medical examiner also stated that the injury was most likely caused by a foreign blunt object). He was found with a bed of ice underneath his body, which meant that his body was still warm when he fell. Perhaps he was knocked unconscious and never regained consciousness before he succumbed to the hypothermia.

Official cause of death: hypothermia exacerbated by head injury

Lyudmila Dubanina: She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, two sweaters, long underwear, long socks, two pairs of pants (the external pair was badly damaged by fire and subsequently ripped), two pairs of warm socks, a third sock that was not paired, and half of a sweater wrapped around her left foot.

Her injuries included: missing tongue and hypoglossal muscle and muscles of the floor of the mouth (2); soft tissue around eyes, eyebrows, and left temporal area missing with the bone partially exposed (1); missing eyes (1); nose cartilage broken and flattened; #2, 3, 4, and 5 ribs broken on the right side with two fracture lines visible (3); #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 ribs broken on the left side with two fracture lines visible (4); soft tissues of the upper lip missing, revealing teeth and upper jaw; massive hemorrhage in the heart’s right atrium (5); a bruise in the middle of the left thigh (6); damaged tissues around the left temporal bone (7); about 100 g of coagulated blood in her stomach (suggesting that she was alive and her heart was still beating when her tongue and oral muscles were removed).

Official cause of death: hemorrhage into the right atrium of the heart, multiple fractured ribs, and internal bleeding

Semyon Zolotarev: He was wearing two hats, a scarf, a short-sleeved shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a black sweater, a coat with two upper buttons unbuttoned; long underwear; two pairs of pants; a pair of skiing pants, a pair of socks, and a pair of warm leather handmade shoes known as burka.

His injuries included: missing eyes (1); missing soft tissues around the left eyebrow with the bone exposed (1); flail chest (#2,3,4,5, and 6 ribs broken on the right side with two fracture lines) (3); an open wound on the right side of the skull with exposed bone (4).

Official cause of death: traumatic internal injury

Alexander Kolevatov: There is relatively little about the state of his body when it was found.

His injuries included: lack of soft tissues around eyes with missing eyebrows and the skull partially exposed (1); a broken nose (2); an open wound behind his ear (3); a deformed neck (4).

Official cause of death: hypothermia

Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles: Like Kolevatov, relatively little was reported about his body.

His injuries included: multiple fractures to the temporal bone of the skull with extensions to the frontal and sphenoid bones (1); a bruise on the upper lip on the left side (2); hemorrhage on the lower forearm (3).

Official cause of death: traumatic internal injury