1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:22,850 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Trust is at the center of so many cautionary tales. 2 00:00:23,250 --> 00:00:25,610 Speaker 1: I've told you about the people who trusted a man 3 00:00:25,650 --> 00:00:29,130 Speaker 1: in uniform and allowed him to steal from the city coffers, 4 00:00:29,810 --> 00:00:32,170 Speaker 1: and the woman who drove into the desert because she 5 00:00:32,330 --> 00:00:35,530 Speaker 1: trusted the sat now ahead of her instincts. Then there 6 00:00:35,570 --> 00:00:39,730 Speaker 1: was the celebrity author who trusted photographs of fairies as 7 00:00:39,890 --> 00:00:43,250 Speaker 1: proof of their existence. We've had people who trusted in 8 00:00:43,330 --> 00:00:46,570 Speaker 1: technology when they shouldn't, and those who didn't trust it 9 00:00:46,970 --> 00:00:50,250 Speaker 1: when they should and that's before we get to the doctors, 10 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:54,330 Speaker 1: business leaders, and scammers who abuse the trust put in them. 11 00:00:55,490 --> 00:00:59,330 Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by questions of trust, and given that you're 12 00:00:59,410 --> 00:01:03,170 Speaker 1: a loyal listener to cautionary tales, I'm guessing you're quite 13 00:01:03,250 --> 00:01:07,090 Speaker 1: interested in them too, And that's why I've invited Rachel 14 00:01:07,210 --> 00:01:11,770 Speaker 1: Botsman to join me for a special edition of Cautionary Questions. 15 00:01:12,610 --> 00:01:16,330 Speaker 1: Rachel is the author of the new audiobook How to 16 00:01:16,410 --> 00:01:20,890 Speaker 1: Trust and Be Trusted, So do better to answer your 17 00:01:20,930 --> 00:01:25,210 Speaker 1: trust questions. Maybe you'd like to know why we naturally 18 00:01:25,250 --> 00:01:29,890 Speaker 1: trust some people but recoil from others. Maybe you're curious 19 00:01:29,890 --> 00:01:33,330 Speaker 1: about why so many people are taken in by particular 20 00:01:33,530 --> 00:01:37,650 Speaker 1: historical figures, there might be an episode of cautionary tales 21 00:01:37,690 --> 00:01:40,850 Speaker 1: that makes you tear your hair out at the gullibility 22 00:01:40,850 --> 00:01:44,610 Speaker 1: of those involved. Are we right to be suspicious whenever 23 00:01:44,650 --> 00:01:51,010 Speaker 1: a politician says, trust me? Can being too distrustful be 24 00:01:51,050 --> 00:01:55,930 Speaker 1: as dangerous as being too trusting? Whatever your query, you 25 00:01:55,970 --> 00:01:59,010 Speaker 1: can trust Rachel to have the answers, So send them 26 00:01:59,050 --> 00:02:03,050 Speaker 1: two tales at Pushkin dot FM. That's t a l 27 00:02:03,170 --> 00:02:13,130 Speaker 1: e s at Pushkin dot FM. To Soviet officials, it 28 00:02:13,250 --> 00:02:18,530 Speaker 1: was simply height one zero seventy nine. But the indigenous 29 00:02:18,570 --> 00:02:22,490 Speaker 1: people of the Urals knew the peak by a different name. 30 00:02:23,770 --> 00:02:31,250 Speaker 1: The Manse called it holat Seakle Dead Mountain. There's an 31 00:02:31,290 --> 00:02:34,610 Speaker 1: equally bleak mancy name for a ridge just to the 32 00:02:34,650 --> 00:02:40,930 Speaker 1: north mount or Tauton. Or Tauton means don't go there. 33 00:02:42,290 --> 00:02:47,210 Speaker 1: But engineering student igord Yatlov was going there, and in 34 00:02:47,290 --> 00:02:51,690 Speaker 1: the freezing depths of winter no less, he was cheerfully 35 00:02:51,730 --> 00:02:56,330 Speaker 1: planning to ski across two hundred miles of Mansei territory, 36 00:02:56,370 --> 00:02:59,890 Speaker 1: taking a route that even in January nineteen fifty nine, 37 00:03:00,810 --> 00:03:05,290 Speaker 1: no Russian had likely traversed before. He wouldn't be going 38 00:03:05,330 --> 00:03:09,530 Speaker 1: alone of course to accompany him on the sixteen day trek, 39 00:03:10,170 --> 00:03:15,250 Speaker 1: Dyatlov recruited friends from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, both current 40 00:03:15,330 --> 00:03:20,210 Speaker 1: students and recent graduates. They were a gleeful bunch. The 41 00:03:20,330 --> 00:03:25,770 Speaker 1: joker of the pack was Georgi Krivonishenko, newly employed at 42 00:03:25,810 --> 00:03:30,210 Speaker 1: a top secret nuclear facility. His real love was to 43 00:03:30,250 --> 00:03:33,970 Speaker 1: sing and play his mandolin. En route to the mountains, 44 00:03:34,050 --> 00:03:37,410 Speaker 1: his exuberance nearly landed him in a police cell. He 45 00:03:37,490 --> 00:03:42,570 Speaker 1: had burst into raucous song at a train station. Street performers, 46 00:03:42,850 --> 00:03:51,850 Speaker 1: it turns out, were not welcome. Senaida Kolmogorova might have 47 00:03:51,930 --> 00:03:55,370 Speaker 1: been glad of a cheery song, for she was nursing 48 00:03:55,450 --> 00:04:00,970 Speaker 1: a broken heart. We're not even talking, she explained, not 49 00:04:01,130 --> 00:04:04,610 Speaker 1: saying hello to each other. He's already going everywhere with 50 00:04:04,650 --> 00:04:11,370 Speaker 1: another girl. The object of her spurned affection was Yuri Doroshenko, 51 00:04:11,690 --> 00:04:15,330 Speaker 1: and he had signed up for the trek too. Her 52 00:04:15,370 --> 00:04:18,490 Speaker 1: plan was to stay as far from her former lover 53 00:04:18,690 --> 00:04:23,570 Speaker 1: as possible, no small feat in the cramped train carriages, 54 00:04:23,930 --> 00:04:27,930 Speaker 1: remote cabins, and the single tent that would be their 55 00:04:28,010 --> 00:04:32,490 Speaker 1: home for the duration of the trip. Zinaida was resigned 56 00:04:32,610 --> 00:04:38,090 Speaker 1: to arguments flaring, though not necessarily stemming from affairs of 57 00:04:38,130 --> 00:04:45,770 Speaker 1: the heart. We will quarrel, she predicted. After all, Kleevatov 58 00:04:45,890 --> 00:04:52,290 Speaker 1: is with us quarrelsome Alexander Kolevatov was a nuclear physicist 59 00:04:52,370 --> 00:04:57,090 Speaker 1: who just landed a plum job in far away Moscow. 60 00:04:57,130 --> 00:05:00,290 Speaker 1: Maybe it was this good fortune that caused him to 61 00:05:00,450 --> 00:05:05,130 Speaker 1: laud it over his university friends. He'd have found it 62 00:05:05,170 --> 00:05:08,130 Speaker 1: hard to pick a fight with Rustem Slobodin, of course, 63 00:05:09,210 --> 00:05:12,570 Speaker 1: them was a long distance runner and perhaps the epitome 64 00:05:12,690 --> 00:05:15,690 Speaker 1: of that lonely pursuit. He was a man of so 65 00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:18,890 Speaker 1: few words that he had even forgotten to bid farewell 66 00:05:18,930 --> 00:05:24,450 Speaker 1: to his family before heading off to the wilderness. Nikolai 67 00:05:24,650 --> 00:05:29,290 Speaker 1: t beau Brugnol was more outgoing in nature, often adopting 68 00:05:29,330 --> 00:05:32,970 Speaker 1: the role of mentor. On previous trips, he had taken 69 00:05:33,290 --> 00:05:37,770 Speaker 1: younger adventurers under his wing, teaching them to light fires 70 00:05:38,450 --> 00:05:42,490 Speaker 1: and allowing them glimpses of his copy of a titillating 71 00:05:42,610 --> 00:05:51,170 Speaker 1: but educational tome the sexual Question. The expedition members were 72 00:05:51,490 --> 00:05:57,010 Speaker 1: all achingly young, but at twenty Yurdmilla Dumina was the 73 00:05:57,090 --> 00:06:00,170 Speaker 1: baby of the group, and while she may have looked 74 00:06:00,210 --> 00:06:04,130 Speaker 1: like a child she certainly had an inner steel. She 75 00:06:04,170 --> 00:06:07,530 Speaker 1: had been accidentally shot on a recent hike, and yet 76 00:06:07,650 --> 00:06:12,490 Speaker 1: had hobbled home and undeterred, signed up to go out again. 77 00:06:14,290 --> 00:06:17,450 Speaker 1: I say they were all young, but just before they 78 00:06:17,490 --> 00:06:23,170 Speaker 1: departed their university, the Ural Polytechnic Institute insisted on a 79 00:06:23,250 --> 00:06:29,530 Speaker 1: late addition. At thirty seven, Semyon Zola Tariov was far 80 00:06:29,730 --> 00:06:33,210 Speaker 1: older than Igor Yatlov and the rest, and for many 81 00:06:33,290 --> 00:06:38,170 Speaker 1: years had served in the Soviet Army. Now a civilian, 82 00:06:38,650 --> 00:06:41,690 Speaker 1: he was odd man out in the fresh Faced party, 83 00:06:42,170 --> 00:06:47,850 Speaker 1: a mustachioed interloper who threatened group cohesion and might challenge 84 00:06:47,930 --> 00:06:52,850 Speaker 1: Yatlov's leadership. At first, no one wanted him in the group, 85 00:06:53,050 --> 00:06:56,930 Speaker 1: because he's a complete stranger, wrote Yudmiller in her diary. 86 00:06:57,970 --> 00:07:00,810 Speaker 1: But then we got over it, and he's coming. We 87 00:07:00,850 --> 00:07:05,730 Speaker 1: couldn't just refuse to take him. So the party set 88 00:07:05,770 --> 00:07:09,730 Speaker 1: off with this stranger in tow. After the sleeper train, 89 00:07:10,050 --> 00:07:14,450 Speaker 1: they took a bus, then a truck, and finally piled 90 00:07:14,490 --> 00:07:19,850 Speaker 1: onto a horse drawn sleigh. Each leg of the journey 91 00:07:20,570 --> 00:07:26,290 Speaker 1: past grim prison goulags, abandoned mines, and remote logging camps 92 00:07:26,890 --> 00:07:33,370 Speaker 1: took them further from civilization and closer to Dead Mountain. 93 00:07:35,210 --> 00:07:38,490 Speaker 1: They promised the Polytechnic Institute they'd send a telegram the 94 00:07:38,530 --> 00:07:42,450 Speaker 1: moment they completed their trek and reached safety on the 95 00:07:42,530 --> 00:07:53,170 Speaker 1: other side. Of course, no telegram ever arrived. I'm Tim Harford, 96 00:07:53,730 --> 00:08:22,010 Speaker 1: and you're listening to another cautionary tale. When search parties 97 00:08:22,170 --> 00:08:25,930 Speaker 1: reached holat Seakle, tracks in the snow led them to 98 00:08:26,010 --> 00:08:31,090 Speaker 1: a tent just short of the summit. Mikhail Charavin was 99 00:08:31,130 --> 00:08:34,530 Speaker 1: among the student volunteers who had been sent to find 100 00:08:34,570 --> 00:08:38,530 Speaker 1: the Yatlov expedition. Part of the canvas was poking out, 101 00:08:39,250 --> 00:08:43,690 Speaker 1: Mikaiele said, but the rest was covered in snow. They 102 00:08:43,770 --> 00:08:46,690 Speaker 1: used an ice pit lying nearby to uncover the entrance. 103 00:08:47,810 --> 00:08:52,970 Speaker 1: Everything inside was neat and orderly. The skier's boots were 104 00:08:53,010 --> 00:08:57,490 Speaker 1: lined up, wood was stacked for the stove, and Mikail 105 00:08:57,610 --> 00:09:00,890 Speaker 1: saw that a plate of pork fat, a calorific treat, 106 00:09:01,250 --> 00:09:05,010 Speaker 1: had been prepared. It was sliced up, as if they 107 00:09:05,050 --> 00:09:09,210 Speaker 1: were getting ready to have supper. He said, but what 108 00:09:09,290 --> 00:09:14,850 Speaker 1: are the diners? Worryingly, there was a great slash in 109 00:09:14,890 --> 00:09:22,690 Speaker 1: the canvas shelter outside. Footprints stretched out, then disappeared. The 110 00:09:22,770 --> 00:09:26,330 Speaker 1: prince showed that one of Dyatlov's party had pulled on 111 00:09:26,410 --> 00:09:29,930 Speaker 1: a single boot, but the others had fled in just 112 00:09:30,010 --> 00:09:38,090 Speaker 1: their socks or, more horrifyingly, barefoot. Frostbite in such temperatures 113 00:09:38,450 --> 00:09:42,490 Speaker 1: would have taken hold in mere minutes. It dawned on 114 00:09:42,530 --> 00:09:47,290 Speaker 1: the student volunteers that they were unlikely to find their 115 00:09:47,370 --> 00:09:55,570 Speaker 1: comrades alive. The first bodies spotted belonged to mandolin playing 116 00:09:55,650 --> 00:10:01,010 Speaker 1: joker Georgi and Zeneida's ex boyfriend Yuri. They lay in 117 00:10:01,050 --> 00:10:04,370 Speaker 1: their underwear under a cedar tree on the edge of 118 00:10:04,410 --> 00:10:10,130 Speaker 1: a forest. Beside them was a burned out campfire. The 119 00:10:10,170 --> 00:10:15,010 Speaker 1: trunk of the tree told a piteous story. Branches a 120 00:10:15,050 --> 00:10:18,010 Speaker 1: dozen or so feet from the ground had been torn away, 121 00:10:18,810 --> 00:10:22,370 Speaker 1: and the bark was dotted with shreds of clothing and 122 00:10:22,530 --> 00:10:27,170 Speaker 1: human skin. The dead bodies bore the marks of multiple 123 00:10:27,290 --> 00:10:33,370 Speaker 1: injuries and burns. A hunk of flesh was discovered in 124 00:10:33,410 --> 00:10:38,650 Speaker 1: Georgi's mouth. It was part of his own hand. The 125 00:10:38,690 --> 00:10:44,410 Speaker 1: expedition leader, igord Yatlov, was found next, struck down, making 126 00:10:44,450 --> 00:10:48,050 Speaker 1: his way from the cedar tree back up towards their tent. 127 00:10:49,290 --> 00:10:53,730 Speaker 1: With him on this climb was Yuri's jilted girlfriends in ida. 128 00:10:54,690 --> 00:10:59,770 Speaker 1: These bodies were semi clad and pocked with injuries. Rescuer 129 00:10:59,890 --> 00:11:03,850 Speaker 1: Mikhail Sharavin later told the BBC he thought the bruises 130 00:11:03,970 --> 00:11:08,010 Speaker 1: resembled the results of a beating. The long distance runner 131 00:11:08,170 --> 00:11:12,050 Speaker 1: Rustam had made it closer to the tent before he'd died. 132 00:11:13,050 --> 00:11:17,010 Speaker 1: He was more warmly dressed than his compatriots, wearing a sweater, 133 00:11:17,490 --> 00:11:21,570 Speaker 1: two pairs of pants, and several layers of socks. But 134 00:11:22,010 --> 00:11:27,730 Speaker 1: another detail was more striking to the volunteers. Rustem had 135 00:11:27,730 --> 00:11:33,890 Speaker 1: a fractured skull. Of the remaining four skiers, there was 136 00:11:33,930 --> 00:11:39,170 Speaker 1: no trace. Though young, the adventurers were no novices in 137 00:11:39,210 --> 00:11:42,850 Speaker 1: the mountains, no strangers to the hazards, they would have 138 00:11:42,970 --> 00:11:48,370 Speaker 1: known that venturing out of their tent, especially barefoot and 139 00:11:48,450 --> 00:11:53,010 Speaker 1: in their underwear, would prove fatal. So what could have 140 00:11:53,210 --> 00:11:57,610 Speaker 1: prompted them to flee warmth and safety for the dark, 141 00:11:58,090 --> 00:12:02,850 Speaker 1: sub zero hell outside? And did they flee by choice? 142 00:12:03,810 --> 00:12:07,610 Speaker 1: Or were they driven from the shelter? Had a violent 143 00:12:07,930 --> 00:12:12,130 Speaker 1: internal dispute broken out amongst the group, or were intruders 144 00:12:12,130 --> 00:12:16,850 Speaker 1: to blame? Such foul play could not be ruled out, 145 00:12:17,770 --> 00:12:21,610 Speaker 1: so the corpses were gathered up and their belongings were 146 00:12:21,690 --> 00:12:25,250 Speaker 1: packed into a helicopter and flown to a police station 147 00:12:25,530 --> 00:12:37,290 Speaker 1: for careful examination. In spring, Hollat Searcle gave up the 148 00:12:37,410 --> 00:12:40,850 Speaker 1: last of its dead. A man sea hunter and his 149 00:12:41,010 --> 00:12:47,090 Speaker 1: dog made the grizzly find. Receding snow revealed scraps of clothing, 150 00:12:48,130 --> 00:12:52,490 Speaker 1: torn pants and half a sweater. It was the entrance 151 00:12:52,530 --> 00:12:57,450 Speaker 1: to a den, dug into a snow drift. Inside with 152 00:12:57,570 --> 00:13:03,970 Speaker 1: the four missing skiers. Nikolai, the owner of the risque 153 00:13:04,050 --> 00:13:08,810 Speaker 1: sex guide, had had his head stoved in. Bits of 154 00:13:09,370 --> 00:13:13,570 Speaker 1: were driven into his brain. The others, too, were smashed 155 00:13:13,610 --> 00:13:19,610 Speaker 1: and battered. There were broken ribs and awful internal injuries. Semyon, 156 00:13:19,970 --> 00:13:23,130 Speaker 1: the army veteran and last minute addition to the party, 157 00:13:23,330 --> 00:13:26,210 Speaker 1: was there, and so was lud Miller, the young woman 158 00:13:26,250 --> 00:13:31,410 Speaker 1: who had been so opposed to his inclusion on the trip. Chillingly, 159 00:13:32,090 --> 00:13:38,130 Speaker 1: the eye sockets of Semyon's corpse were empty. Lud Miller's 160 00:13:38,170 --> 00:13:44,210 Speaker 1: eyes were missing too, as was her tongue. Something had 161 00:13:44,250 --> 00:13:54,250 Speaker 1: removed them, something or someone. Cautionary tales will return in 162 00:13:54,330 --> 00:14:05,450 Speaker 1: a moment. How had the Dyatlov expedition gone so disastrously wrong? 163 00:14:06,290 --> 00:14:10,530 Speaker 1: How had such a joyous, lusty band of explorers ended 164 00:14:10,610 --> 00:14:16,330 Speaker 1: up naked, burned, and broken in the snow. No simple 165 00:14:16,610 --> 00:14:22,290 Speaker 1: explanation was forthcoming, so to some Russians the Yatlov saga 166 00:14:22,450 --> 00:14:26,490 Speaker 1: became as rich a seam of speculation as the assassination 167 00:14:26,610 --> 00:14:31,170 Speaker 1: of JFK was in the West. In fact, the conspiracy 168 00:14:31,210 --> 00:14:36,490 Speaker 1: theories are far weirder and far wilder than those surrounding JFK. 169 00:14:37,850 --> 00:14:42,490 Speaker 1: How they sprang up and multiplied is instructive. It has 170 00:14:42,650 --> 00:14:48,610 Speaker 1: echoes of the conspiratorial thinking that seems increasingly common today. 171 00:14:48,770 --> 00:14:53,410 Speaker 1: Outlandish theories seem to thrive at times of unsettling change, 172 00:14:53,930 --> 00:14:59,810 Speaker 1: for instance, following assassinations or terrorist attacks. The distrust deepens 173 00:14:59,850 --> 00:15:04,050 Speaker 1: when governments have been found to have misled or failed citizens, 174 00:15:04,770 --> 00:15:08,970 Speaker 1: and conspiracy theories could be supercharged by those seeking to 175 00:15:09,170 --> 00:15:13,650 Speaker 1: benefit from the suspicion and the cynicism they spread. There's 176 00:15:13,690 --> 00:15:18,850 Speaker 1: money to be made by media personalities, influencers, even podcasters 177 00:15:19,210 --> 00:15:23,610 Speaker 1: who trade in wild stories. But as we'll see, it 178 00:15:23,610 --> 00:15:27,890 Speaker 1: can be the politicians themselves, sometimes at the fringe and 179 00:15:27,930 --> 00:15:31,970 Speaker 1: sometimes at the center of power, who use conspiracy thinking 180 00:15:32,370 --> 00:15:36,890 Speaker 1: to bolster their position. This isn't just a story about 181 00:15:36,890 --> 00:15:41,130 Speaker 1: the destruction of the Diatlov expedition in nineteen fifty nine. 182 00:15:41,290 --> 00:15:44,170 Speaker 1: It's a story about the world we live in right now. 183 00:15:45,170 --> 00:15:48,530 Speaker 1: So to unpick the many conspiracies about the deaths on 184 00:15:48,650 --> 00:15:54,490 Speaker 1: Dead Mountain, let's start with one root cause, the politics 185 00:15:54,530 --> 00:16:02,370 Speaker 1: of the time. While the temperatures dropped far below freezing 186 00:16:02,450 --> 00:16:07,290 Speaker 1: on hollat Siakle in the winter of nineteen fifty nine, metaphorically, 187 00:16:07,370 --> 00:16:11,530 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union was enjoying us thor. The prison camps 188 00:16:11,530 --> 00:16:14,570 Speaker 1: that Dyatlov's party passed on the way to the mountains 189 00:16:14,810 --> 00:16:19,650 Speaker 1: were being emptied of dissidents and other politically inconvenient citizens. 190 00:16:20,650 --> 00:16:25,490 Speaker 1: Under Stalin's rule, the Gulag population had swelled. He saw 191 00:16:25,610 --> 00:16:31,010 Speaker 1: traitors everywhere and ordered them rounded up, along with their families, friends, 192 00:16:31,450 --> 00:16:38,610 Speaker 1: friends of friends, neighbours. Cold malnutrition and the executioner's bullet 193 00:16:39,330 --> 00:16:45,810 Speaker 1: carried off millions. But then Stalin suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, 194 00:16:46,490 --> 00:16:51,490 Speaker 1: lay for three days on a sofa, and died, with 195 00:16:51,610 --> 00:16:57,610 Speaker 1: his iron grip loosened. A reckoning took place. Stalin was 196 00:16:57,610 --> 00:17:03,770 Speaker 1: a very distrustful man, sickly suspicious, so said Nikita Khrushchev, 197 00:17:04,050 --> 00:17:10,050 Speaker 1: an underling of the Soviet dictator, now angling to replace him. 198 00:17:10,090 --> 00:17:15,530 Speaker 1: Everywhere and in everything, he saw enemies, two faces and spies. 199 00:17:17,130 --> 00:17:20,730 Speaker 1: Khrushchev was addressing a closed meeting of the elite of 200 00:17:20,810 --> 00:17:25,010 Speaker 1: the Communist Party when Stalin said that one or another 201 00:17:25,010 --> 00:17:28,330 Speaker 1: should be arrested. It was necessary to accept on faith 202 00:17:28,490 --> 00:17:32,410 Speaker 1: that he was an enemy of the people. Khrushchev now 203 00:17:32,490 --> 00:17:36,250 Speaker 1: said this faith was misplaced and that evidence had been 204 00:17:36,370 --> 00:17:41,290 Speaker 1: largely falsified. He painted a picture of Stalin as a 205 00:17:41,370 --> 00:17:46,850 Speaker 1: ruler as deluded as he was cruel. Stalin was reluctant 206 00:17:46,930 --> 00:17:53,810 Speaker 1: to consider life's realities, complained Khrushchev. Did Stalin's position rest 207 00:17:53,850 --> 00:17:57,930 Speaker 1: on data of any sort whatever, of course, not facts 208 00:17:57,970 --> 00:18:02,290 Speaker 1: and figures did not interest him. If Stalin said anything, 209 00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:09,570 Speaker 1: it meant it was so to our modern ears, leader, 210 00:18:09,770 --> 00:18:14,890 Speaker 1: peddling in conspiracies, blaming their own failings on plotters, and 211 00:18:14,930 --> 00:18:19,570 Speaker 1: making up alternative facts doesn't sound that far fetched. But 212 00:18:19,690 --> 00:18:24,650 Speaker 1: to delegates listening to Comrad Khrushchev, the revelations about Stalin's 213 00:18:24,690 --> 00:18:31,250 Speaker 1: rule came with thunderclap surprise. Some audience members were taken ill, 214 00:18:32,250 --> 00:18:37,650 Speaker 1: others just held their head in their hands. Distraught, it said, 215 00:18:38,330 --> 00:18:45,210 Speaker 1: two delegates went home and killed themselves. Soviet citizens suddenly 216 00:18:45,210 --> 00:18:47,850 Speaker 1: had to make sense of a past very different to 217 00:18:47,890 --> 00:18:51,250 Speaker 1: the one they'd believed in, where the innocent had been 218 00:18:51,250 --> 00:18:55,530 Speaker 1: found guilty, where Stalin had been an abuser rather than 219 00:18:55,570 --> 00:18:59,370 Speaker 1: a protector, Where the clocks could indeed be made to 220 00:18:59,450 --> 00:19:04,730 Speaker 1: strike thirteen. A top seed turvy world where nothing was 221 00:19:04,730 --> 00:19:08,770 Speaker 1: as it seemed, a world where the strange deaths of 222 00:19:08,850 --> 00:19:16,490 Speaker 1: nine experienced adventurers just couldn't have an innocent explanation, could it? 223 00:19:20,650 --> 00:19:25,850 Speaker 1: To call Holat seacle dead mountain probably misses The mark 224 00:19:26,730 --> 00:19:32,210 Speaker 1: Holat can also be translated as quiet or barren in Mancy. 225 00:19:33,250 --> 00:19:38,690 Speaker 1: For these hunting people, height one zero seventy nine wasn't 226 00:19:38,730 --> 00:19:41,170 Speaker 1: worth the climb because there was too little game to 227 00:19:41,210 --> 00:19:45,770 Speaker 1: be caught there. Not for any more sinister reason, but 228 00:19:45,850 --> 00:19:49,410 Speaker 1: the Manci were the only people in the vicinity of 229 00:19:49,450 --> 00:19:53,890 Speaker 1: the mountain in the depths of winter nineteen fifty nine, 230 00:19:54,130 --> 00:20:00,250 Speaker 1: so suspicion for the hiker's deaths fell on them, and 231 00:20:00,410 --> 00:20:05,170 Speaker 1: maybe they had a motive. Stalin's terror hadn't spared these 232 00:20:05,450 --> 00:20:09,850 Speaker 1: semi nomadic tribes. Their lands had been taken by miners 233 00:20:09,930 --> 00:20:14,010 Speaker 1: and loggers, their religious rights had been suppressed, and their 234 00:20:14,130 --> 00:20:18,170 Speaker 1: children were gathered up and confined in Russian speaking boarding 235 00:20:18,250 --> 00:20:23,170 Speaker 1: schools in a few decades. A proud way of life 236 00:20:23,570 --> 00:20:30,530 Speaker 1: honed over centuries had been ignominiously disrupted. Had the Diatlov 237 00:20:30,530 --> 00:20:34,890 Speaker 1: expedition been a humiliation too far for the Nanci? Had 238 00:20:34,890 --> 00:20:40,330 Speaker 1: the Soviet students entered sacred land or stumbled across some 239 00:20:40,690 --> 00:20:47,290 Speaker 1: illegal ceremony and paid with their lives. The Soviet interrogators 240 00:20:47,490 --> 00:20:52,690 Speaker 1: descended on the local tribespeople to find out. Many people 241 00:20:52,770 --> 00:20:56,770 Speaker 1: around here were arrested. Valerie an Yamov told the BBC 242 00:20:56,890 --> 00:21:01,850 Speaker 1: reporter Lucy Ash Valerie's father had joined the search effort 243 00:21:01,970 --> 00:21:05,810 Speaker 1: back in nineteen fifty nine, only to find himself amongst 244 00:21:05,810 --> 00:21:11,850 Speaker 1: those treated not as rescuers murder suspects. They said that 245 00:21:11,890 --> 00:21:16,810 Speaker 1: the secret police tortured them. They were certainly interrogated for weeks, 246 00:21:17,530 --> 00:21:23,930 Speaker 1: but eventually the investigators were satisfied, and other evidence emerged, 247 00:21:24,450 --> 00:21:30,850 Speaker 1: also pointing suspicion away from the Manci. The ragged clothes 248 00:21:30,890 --> 00:21:34,570 Speaker 1: found in the snow den had been examined. They seemed 249 00:21:34,570 --> 00:21:37,450 Speaker 1: to have been torn or cut off the bodies of 250 00:21:37,490 --> 00:21:42,650 Speaker 1: the other skiers, but further analysis of the fabric revealed 251 00:21:42,690 --> 00:21:52,810 Speaker 1: something else. These rags were radio active. For all that 252 00:21:52,930 --> 00:21:58,570 Speaker 1: Nikita Krushchev mocked Stalin's obsession with spies and foreign plots. 253 00:21:59,090 --> 00:22:03,090 Speaker 1: The Cold War with the West ramped up under his rule. 254 00:22:04,970 --> 00:22:09,450 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty seven, the launch of the Revolutionary Next 255 00:22:09,450 --> 00:22:14,210 Speaker 1: satellite delighted Soviet citizens but struck fear into the hearts 256 00:22:14,210 --> 00:22:18,890 Speaker 1: of citizens in the free world. The twenty one inch 257 00:22:19,050 --> 00:22:22,970 Speaker 1: metal sphere did little but transmit a bleeping signal back 258 00:22:22,970 --> 00:22:26,490 Speaker 1: to Earth. But what if it could rain down something 259 00:22:26,930 --> 00:22:32,770 Speaker 1: more deadly? Khrushchev couldn't help boasting about his country's lead 260 00:22:32,850 --> 00:22:37,450 Speaker 1: in rocket and missile technology, prompting the Americans to hurriedly 261 00:22:37,570 --> 00:22:42,130 Speaker 1: increase their spending to close the gap. The result a 262 00:22:42,210 --> 00:22:47,050 Speaker 1: fevered arms race, and a key center of Soviet military 263 00:22:47,050 --> 00:22:53,010 Speaker 1: research was in the Urals. The closed city of Chelyabinsk 264 00:22:53,170 --> 00:22:57,530 Speaker 1: forty contained a plant making plutonium for atomic bombs, and 265 00:22:57,610 --> 00:23:03,250 Speaker 1: it was there that Mandolin playing Geyorgi Criminalshenko worked. Could 266 00:23:03,290 --> 00:23:06,450 Speaker 1: this top secret job have had anything to do with 267 00:23:06,530 --> 00:23:14,090 Speaker 1: his death? Was the radioactive residue evidence that Georgi had 268 00:23:14,250 --> 00:23:20,890 Speaker 1: smuggled something out of his workplace, something secret, something that 269 00:23:21,010 --> 00:23:28,570 Speaker 1: people would kill to possess or kill to reclaim. A 270 00:23:28,570 --> 00:23:34,250 Speaker 1: young Soviet prosecutor lev Ivanov had so far diligently chased 271 00:23:34,410 --> 00:23:38,370 Speaker 1: all lines of inquiry in the mysterious deaths of the skiers. 272 00:23:38,930 --> 00:23:43,970 Speaker 1: He'd gathered witness statements, ordered toxicology reports, and examined the tent, 273 00:23:44,810 --> 00:23:50,370 Speaker 1: But all of a sudden, Ivanov halted his investigations, saying 274 00:23:50,370 --> 00:23:55,450 Speaker 1: that homicide was no longer suspected. His report ended, thus 275 00:23:56,610 --> 00:23:59,810 Speaker 1: it should be concluded that the cause of the hiker's 276 00:23:59,810 --> 00:24:04,850 Speaker 1: demise was an overwhelming force which they were not able 277 00:24:04,890 --> 00:24:11,610 Speaker 1: to overcome. Ivanov's file then locked up, and the exhibits 278 00:24:11,610 --> 00:24:16,650 Speaker 1: he had gathered were allowed to molder away. The families 279 00:24:16,690 --> 00:24:22,770 Speaker 1: of the dead, fearing a cover up, protested exactly what 280 00:24:23,370 --> 00:24:27,650 Speaker 1: overwhelming force had killed their children. They wrote to Nikita 281 00:24:27,730 --> 00:24:32,930 Speaker 1: Krushchev asking that he reopened the case, but Khrushchev faced 282 00:24:33,050 --> 00:24:37,730 Speaker 1: far bigger problems. Within a few short years, he was 283 00:24:37,770 --> 00:24:41,530 Speaker 1: swept from power and replaced by a regime that was 284 00:24:41,650 --> 00:24:47,010 Speaker 1: less tolerant of dissent. Details of what happened on Dead 285 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:52,450 Speaker 1: Mountain would not be forthcoming, and public speculation about the 286 00:24:52,450 --> 00:24:59,690 Speaker 1: fate of the expedition was definitely not welcome. It wasn't 287 00:24:59,810 --> 00:25:04,850 Speaker 1: until nineteen ninety that lev Ivanov then retired as a 288 00:25:04,890 --> 00:25:11,330 Speaker 1: prosecutor revealed why it shelved the investigation. His superiors had 289 00:25:11,410 --> 00:25:19,250 Speaker 1: warned him off and then transferred him to Kazakhstan. Had 290 00:25:19,330 --> 00:25:24,090 Speaker 1: Ivanov come too close to naming the overwhelming force that 291 00:25:24,210 --> 00:25:28,930 Speaker 1: had killed the trekkers. He certainly had an unnerving theory 292 00:25:29,050 --> 00:25:33,410 Speaker 1: to explain the deaths, which he expounded in an article 293 00:25:33,810 --> 00:25:41,690 Speaker 1: entitled The Enigma of the Fireballs. We found that some 294 00:25:42,050 --> 00:25:47,490 Speaker 1: young pine trees at the edge of the forest had burnmarks. 295 00:25:48,130 --> 00:25:53,810 Speaker 1: To Ivanov, these scorch marks seemed peculiar. He imagined that 296 00:25:53,850 --> 00:25:56,970 Speaker 1: they could only have been made by some heat ray. 297 00:25:58,210 --> 00:26:02,370 Speaker 1: Whoever was directing this deadly beam had eventually got the 298 00:26:02,490 --> 00:26:12,610 Speaker 1: unfortunate skiers in their sights and fired. Ivanov was comfortable 299 00:26:12,650 --> 00:26:17,610 Speaker 1: publishing The Enigma of the Fireballs in nineteen ninety because 300 00:26:17,650 --> 00:26:22,130 Speaker 1: by then the Soviet system that had stifled debate for 301 00:26:22,170 --> 00:26:27,850 Speaker 1: so long was itself all but dead, and as the 302 00:26:27,890 --> 00:26:32,450 Speaker 1: Iron Curtain rusted away, the doors to the secret state 303 00:26:32,650 --> 00:26:38,450 Speaker 1: archives began to unlock. Serious historians rejoiced, but so too 304 00:26:38,530 --> 00:26:44,730 Speaker 1: did amateur salutes titillated by Ivanov's stories of mysterious mountaintop 305 00:26:44,930 --> 00:26:50,690 Speaker 1: death rays. The fireballs cited by Ivanov had emanated from 306 00:26:50,730 --> 00:26:54,810 Speaker 1: a UFO. Some claimed or were part of a new 307 00:26:55,010 --> 00:27:00,330 Speaker 1: Soviet weapons system being tested away from prying eyes. Other 308 00:27:00,410 --> 00:27:05,530 Speaker 1: theories pointed to murder. The skiers had witnessed a secret 309 00:27:05,610 --> 00:27:12,170 Speaker 1: military operation and been silenced. Others suggested that one or 310 00:27:12,250 --> 00:27:15,450 Speaker 1: more of the party were spies, and that the whole 311 00:27:15,490 --> 00:27:20,210 Speaker 1: group had been executed by the Soviet KGB or the 312 00:27:20,250 --> 00:27:24,650 Speaker 1: American CIA. If I were being charitable, I might just 313 00:27:24,730 --> 00:27:28,690 Speaker 1: say that there are holes in many of these theories. 314 00:27:29,970 --> 00:27:33,010 Speaker 1: The unifying theme to them all is that the truth 315 00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:38,330 Speaker 1: is known to the authorities, but is being suppressed. If 316 00:27:38,410 --> 00:27:44,890 Speaker 1: only we could somehow reconstruct the expedition's final hours, well 317 00:27:45,170 --> 00:27:49,850 Speaker 1: in a way we can. The trekkers carried cameras, and 318 00:27:49,970 --> 00:27:54,370 Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine researchers gained access to the 319 00:27:54,490 --> 00:27:58,850 Speaker 1: roles of film they'd shot. In black and white, we 320 00:27:58,930 --> 00:28:05,930 Speaker 1: can see mustachioed semons Ala Tardiov, jugged Georgi Krivonishenko, beaming, 321 00:28:06,050 --> 00:28:14,490 Speaker 1: Ludmilla Domina, photograph after photograph after photograph, but then in 322 00:28:14,610 --> 00:28:21,410 Speaker 1: one an eerie, distant figure, blurry and out of focus. 323 00:28:22,330 --> 00:28:26,090 Speaker 1: It's perhaps too tall and too broad to be any 324 00:28:26,170 --> 00:28:31,170 Speaker 1: of the skiers, who could it be had their killer 325 00:28:31,610 --> 00:28:38,610 Speaker 1: unwittingly been caught on camera. Cautionary tales will be right back. 326 00:28:49,850 --> 00:28:54,690 Speaker 1: The Yatlov party filled seventeen reels of film with photographs. 327 00:28:55,610 --> 00:28:59,650 Speaker 1: There are action shots of skiing and fun group portraits 328 00:28:59,650 --> 00:29:03,730 Speaker 1: for the youngsters posing cheerfully for the camera, but the 329 00:29:03,810 --> 00:29:07,970 Speaker 1: reel attributed to Nikolai tbau Brignol, is a series of 330 00:29:08,290 --> 00:29:13,610 Speaker 1: rather dull long shots of trees and snow. Shot thirteen 331 00:29:13,970 --> 00:29:16,890 Speaker 1: appears to be a selfie done the old fashioned way 332 00:29:17,090 --> 00:29:21,410 Speaker 1: with a timer. Nikolay goofs surround in a snow drift. 333 00:29:21,730 --> 00:29:27,450 Speaker 1: It's not brilliantly framed. Shot fourteen isn't much better. In 334 00:29:27,490 --> 00:29:30,090 Speaker 1: the next image, Nikolay is at least in the middle 335 00:29:30,090 --> 00:29:33,050 Speaker 1: of the frame playfully munching on a ball of snow. 336 00:29:33,890 --> 00:29:39,210 Speaker 1: In frame sixteen he's now standing, But then comes the 337 00:29:39,330 --> 00:29:44,090 Speaker 1: very final image on the reel. Only the trees and 338 00:29:44,130 --> 00:29:48,810 Speaker 1: the foreground are in focus, their lower branches weighed down 339 00:29:48,890 --> 00:29:54,530 Speaker 1: with snow. Most everything else is white. But then in 340 00:29:54,570 --> 00:29:59,450 Speaker 1: the middle distance drawing the eye from behind a pine 341 00:30:00,530 --> 00:30:09,250 Speaker 1: lurches a hunched, black, almost inhuman figure. The Yetti lives 342 00:30:09,290 --> 00:30:13,410 Speaker 1: in the urals, wrote one of the party soon after 343 00:30:13,450 --> 00:30:19,170 Speaker 1: the photo was taken a yetti. The arrival of a 344 00:30:19,410 --> 00:30:25,050 Speaker 1: towering eight foot beast, all fangs and claws might well 345 00:30:25,130 --> 00:30:28,090 Speaker 1: have encouraged the skiers to dash out of their shelter 346 00:30:28,530 --> 00:30:32,250 Speaker 1: and run pale mele down the mountain, and had it 347 00:30:32,330 --> 00:30:35,130 Speaker 1: caught up with them, such a creature could have inflicted 348 00:30:35,210 --> 00:30:50,410 Speaker 1: those terrible injuries smashed skulls, crushed torsos, torn flesh. In 349 00:30:50,530 --> 00:30:56,650 Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, the respected American explorer Mike Lebecki retraced the 350 00:30:56,690 --> 00:31:01,890 Speaker 1: expedition route in the hopes of unraveling the mystery. I 351 00:31:01,930 --> 00:31:05,250 Speaker 1: know if I went missing, he said, I'd want my 352 00:31:05,370 --> 00:31:08,890 Speaker 1: family to know what happened to me. He was making 353 00:31:08,930 --> 00:31:13,490 Speaker 1: a documentary for the Discovery Channel, with the working assumption 354 00:31:13,650 --> 00:31:19,130 Speaker 1: being that a forest dwelling monster slaughtered the Diatlov group. 355 00:31:20,570 --> 00:31:24,690 Speaker 1: Lebecky ventured out onto Hollat Siakle in the dead of 356 00:31:24,810 --> 00:31:30,130 Speaker 1: night in his search for this Russian yetti. I did 357 00:31:30,170 --> 00:31:34,930 Speaker 1: hear something strange, the explorer said, I do believe it's 358 00:31:35,090 --> 00:31:40,770 Speaker 1: possible that he YETI exists. The Discovery Channel film makes 359 00:31:40,890 --> 00:31:45,250 Speaker 1: much of the supposed blurry image of a monster captured 360 00:31:45,250 --> 00:31:50,530 Speaker 1: by Nikolai Tibau Buignol when I saw this photo, this 361 00:31:50,730 --> 00:31:54,490 Speaker 1: was it. It was like bam Lebecky told viewers, I 362 00:31:54,530 --> 00:31:57,570 Speaker 1: can't tell how big it is, but it could be 363 00:31:57,690 --> 00:32:05,130 Speaker 1: eight feet tall. Someone not padding out a ninety minute 364 00:32:05,130 --> 00:32:08,690 Speaker 1: documentary might look at the photo and tell you exactly 365 00:32:08,730 --> 00:32:14,810 Speaker 1: how the figure is. It's man sized. The supposed Russian 366 00:32:14,890 --> 00:32:19,650 Speaker 1: Yeti in the photo is almost certainly Nikolai messing around 367 00:32:19,690 --> 00:32:22,930 Speaker 1: with the time of feature on his camera. And as 368 00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:27,410 Speaker 1: for the scribbled note the Yeti lives in the urals, well, 369 00:32:27,450 --> 00:32:30,610 Speaker 1: it was part of a jokey pamphlet the skiers compiled 370 00:32:30,810 --> 00:32:34,490 Speaker 1: to keep their spirits up. It also reported that two 371 00:32:34,530 --> 00:32:38,010 Speaker 1: of the highly educated scientists in the group had set 372 00:32:38,050 --> 00:32:41,250 Speaker 1: a new world record for getting the camp stove burning 373 00:32:42,130 --> 00:32:51,130 Speaker 1: one hour, two minutes and twenty seven point four seconds. 374 00:32:51,930 --> 00:32:55,650 Speaker 1: A Yeti didn't kill the Skiers any more than the 375 00:32:55,690 --> 00:33:00,370 Speaker 1: death ray of a ufoded. But to understand why these 376 00:33:00,450 --> 00:33:05,050 Speaker 1: deaths became such a focus for wild conspiracy theories, we 377 00:33:05,130 --> 00:33:07,890 Speaker 1: might want to consider how the very notion of truth 378 00:33:08,130 --> 00:33:11,010 Speaker 1: has been put in the deep freeze in Russia. Over 379 00:33:11,090 --> 00:33:16,130 Speaker 1: the years. Khrushchev had forced Soviet citizens to open their 380 00:33:16,250 --> 00:33:20,570 Speaker 1: eyes to the reality of Stalin's cruel and paranoid rule. 381 00:33:21,290 --> 00:33:25,290 Speaker 1: But after Khrushchev came laying in Brezhnev. While not as 382 00:33:25,370 --> 00:33:32,650 Speaker 1: violent as Stalin, Brezhnev also favored repression and secrecy. Under him, 383 00:33:32,890 --> 00:33:36,650 Speaker 1: Soviet citizens were told to rejoice in their communist system 384 00:33:37,130 --> 00:33:41,730 Speaker 1: while watching it crumble before their very eyes. If their 385 00:33:41,850 --> 00:33:45,690 Speaker 1: rulers were willing to lie so brazenly about shortages of 386 00:33:45,730 --> 00:33:50,370 Speaker 1: food in the shops, what else were they hiding. When 387 00:33:50,370 --> 00:33:55,010 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union finally did fall apart, yet another challenge 388 00:33:55,050 --> 00:33:59,330 Speaker 1: to objective reality arose, this time in the form of 389 00:33:59,410 --> 00:34:05,490 Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin. One feature of Putin's twenty five year rule 390 00:34:05,970 --> 00:34:11,090 Speaker 1: is his novel use of propaganda. Generations of propagandists have 391 00:34:11,170 --> 00:34:15,450 Speaker 1: abused the truth by massaging facts and inventing lies to 392 00:34:15,530 --> 00:34:19,690 Speaker 1: make the public believe their version of events. Under Putin, 393 00:34:20,290 --> 00:34:24,050 Speaker 1: propaganda is deployed to make its audience start to doubt 394 00:34:24,050 --> 00:34:28,650 Speaker 1: that the truth exists at all. Researchers have called this 395 00:34:28,850 --> 00:34:33,770 Speaker 1: modern Russian propaganda model the fire hose of falsehoods, and 396 00:34:33,850 --> 00:34:38,730 Speaker 1: it sprays out partial, misleading, or downright made up stories 397 00:34:39,170 --> 00:34:44,050 Speaker 1: in a vast torrent and in all directions government statements, 398 00:34:44,250 --> 00:34:49,530 Speaker 1: TV broadcasts, online articles, tweets, reels, posts, and comment after 399 00:34:49,610 --> 00:34:55,810 Speaker 1: comment after comment from bots all amplifier constant and confusing 400 00:34:55,890 --> 00:35:02,210 Speaker 1: commentary on world events, from wars through vaccines to election results. 401 00:35:05,050 --> 00:35:09,890 Speaker 1: The fire hose of falsehoods is relentless, inconsistent, and confusing. 402 00:35:10,650 --> 00:35:15,890 Speaker 1: But it's also visceral and entertaining. It's hard not to 403 00:35:15,930 --> 00:35:20,330 Speaker 1: be drawn in. Evolution has honed the human brain to 404 00:35:20,370 --> 00:35:24,370 Speaker 1: pay attention to deadly threats, and so we're suckers for 405 00:35:24,490 --> 00:35:28,210 Speaker 1: vivid stories warning of shadowy figures out to get us. 406 00:35:29,290 --> 00:35:32,410 Speaker 1: But the specific intention of the fire hose is not 407 00:35:32,450 --> 00:35:35,850 Speaker 1: to make us believe in one conspiracy. It's just to 408 00:35:36,010 --> 00:35:41,290 Speaker 1: so doubt that any voice can be trusted, not elected officials, 409 00:35:41,330 --> 00:35:45,850 Speaker 1: not established experts, not the mainstream media, not even your 410 00:35:45,890 --> 00:35:50,650 Speaker 1: fellow citizens. If everyone is lying to you and every 411 00:35:50,810 --> 00:35:55,490 Speaker 1: institution is untrustworthy, is it such a stretch to believe 412 00:35:55,570 --> 00:35:59,610 Speaker 1: that officialdom is hiding the truth that d'yatlov and his 413 00:35:59,730 --> 00:36:04,090 Speaker 1: fellow skiers were killed by a secret weapon, a UFO 414 00:36:05,050 --> 00:36:15,890 Speaker 1: or even a yetti. Solving the d'atlov mystery is an 415 00:36:16,050 --> 00:36:20,290 Speaker 1: enormous task, which is far beyond the scope of this paper, 416 00:36:21,770 --> 00:36:25,730 Speaker 1: so wrote two Swiss researchers in a twenty twenty one 417 00:36:25,810 --> 00:36:30,970 Speaker 1: article in the journal Nature, but nevertheless they had an idea. 418 00:36:32,250 --> 00:36:39,090 Speaker 1: Their area of expertise avalanches. The possibility that a mass 419 00:36:39,130 --> 00:36:43,050 Speaker 1: of snow rushing down holl at Siakle had struck the 420 00:36:43,090 --> 00:36:47,250 Speaker 1: skier's tent, prompting them to flee had long been discounted. 421 00:36:48,130 --> 00:36:52,130 Speaker 1: The slope on which d'atlov had supposedly camped was too 422 00:36:52,210 --> 00:36:55,730 Speaker 1: gentle to be an avalanche zone, and the Mansi said 423 00:36:55,810 --> 00:37:00,090 Speaker 1: they'd never witnessed a snow slip there before. But working 424 00:37:00,130 --> 00:37:05,250 Speaker 1: on new information, the Swiss researchers Johann Golm and Alexander 425 00:37:05,250 --> 00:37:10,130 Speaker 1: Puzrin concluded that the Datlov group could indeed have set 426 00:37:10,170 --> 00:37:18,250 Speaker 1: off a so called slab avalanche. First, Dyatlov, perhaps buffeted 427 00:37:18,290 --> 00:37:22,610 Speaker 1: by high winds, was somewhat off his intended route. He 428 00:37:22,770 --> 00:37:26,810 Speaker 1: was higher up Holatsiakle than had planned, and on a 429 00:37:26,850 --> 00:37:31,530 Speaker 1: slope theoretically just steep enough to pose an avalanche risk, 430 00:37:32,610 --> 00:37:35,970 Speaker 1: and crucially, to create a level floor for their tent 431 00:37:36,130 --> 00:37:39,250 Speaker 1: and protect it from the wind, the team dug out 432 00:37:39,290 --> 00:37:42,490 Speaker 1: a shelf in the snow. They packed down the ice 433 00:37:42,490 --> 00:37:46,210 Speaker 1: beneath their feet laid out a carpet of skis and 434 00:37:46,410 --> 00:37:52,090 Speaker 1: turned in for the night. But their excavations had destabilized 435 00:37:52,130 --> 00:37:55,850 Speaker 1: the snow uphill of them, and as they rested inside 436 00:37:55,890 --> 00:38:00,210 Speaker 1: the tent, the wind outside relentlessly added the new snow 437 00:38:00,330 --> 00:38:05,810 Speaker 1: to this wall above the flimsy canvas structure, until at 438 00:38:05,930 --> 00:38:12,850 Speaker 1: last the drift collapsed. The avalanche might have been modest, 439 00:38:13,130 --> 00:38:16,690 Speaker 1: but even that weight of snow could have inflicted injuries 440 00:38:16,730 --> 00:38:20,570 Speaker 1: on those inside the tent, and encouraged them to cut 441 00:38:20,570 --> 00:38:24,850 Speaker 1: themselves free and seek safety down the mountain, fearing that 442 00:38:24,930 --> 00:38:30,130 Speaker 1: a second, much larger avalanche was imminent. Dazed in a 443 00:38:30,170 --> 00:38:34,410 Speaker 1: state of undress and whipped by a wicked, freezing wind, 444 00:38:35,010 --> 00:38:40,210 Speaker 1: Benign stumbled away, first making a fire from tree branches 445 00:38:40,770 --> 00:38:44,050 Speaker 1: and getting so close to the flames that their meager 446 00:38:44,090 --> 00:38:50,890 Speaker 1: clothes and frozen flesh were scorched. Yury and Gyorgy succumbed 447 00:38:50,930 --> 00:38:55,810 Speaker 1: to the cold first, with Georgy madly gnawing at his 448 00:38:56,050 --> 00:39:01,930 Speaker 1: own hand as frostbite took hold. The survivors then split up, 449 00:39:02,290 --> 00:39:05,530 Speaker 1: with three stumbling back against the wind for the tent 450 00:39:06,330 --> 00:39:09,090 Speaker 1: and four hoping to dig a shelter in the snow. 451 00:39:10,650 --> 00:39:14,250 Speaker 1: The spot they picked for that shelter couldn't have been worse. 452 00:39:15,170 --> 00:39:19,170 Speaker 1: Situated in a ravine above a still running stream, the 453 00:39:19,250 --> 00:39:22,410 Speaker 1: diggers appeared to have caused a tunnel cut by the 454 00:39:22,450 --> 00:39:28,290 Speaker 1: flowing water to collapse. Tons of snow then crushed four 455 00:39:28,370 --> 00:39:34,410 Speaker 1: hikerds against the stony riverbed. Decomposition or the feeding of 456 00:39:34,490 --> 00:39:37,850 Speaker 1: animals accounts for the damage to the faces of young 457 00:39:37,970 --> 00:39:44,290 Speaker 1: Jurdmiller and the old man of the group, Semyon, and 458 00:39:44,370 --> 00:39:49,130 Speaker 1: as for the radio activity detected on their clothes. Though 459 00:39:49,170 --> 00:39:53,610 Speaker 1: not openly discussed in nineteen fifty nine, the Soviet nuclear 460 00:39:53,770 --> 00:39:58,210 Speaker 1: industry in the Urals did not have a stellar safety record. 461 00:39:59,130 --> 00:40:04,010 Speaker 1: Georgi had probably been contaminated thanks to a recent explosion 462 00:40:04,130 --> 00:40:07,970 Speaker 1: at his nuclear plant that rivaled the much more famous 463 00:40:08,090 --> 00:40:12,170 Speaker 1: Chernobyl disaster. It's no surprise that his clothes set off 464 00:40:12,170 --> 00:40:23,410 Speaker 1: the chirping of a Geiger counter. This explanation of what 465 00:40:23,770 --> 00:40:29,450 Speaker 1: happened on Holatsiakol in January nineteen fifty nine seems sane 466 00:40:30,490 --> 00:40:37,010 Speaker 1: and sad. Sane because the avalanche experts supplied mathematical formulas 467 00:40:37,330 --> 00:40:41,610 Speaker 1: combining things like sheer stress and snow dynamic friction values 468 00:40:42,170 --> 00:40:46,610 Speaker 1: to prove that a slab avalanche could have happened that night. 469 00:40:47,650 --> 00:40:51,490 Speaker 1: You can't apply such scientific rigor to say the Russian 470 00:40:51,610 --> 00:40:57,290 Speaker 1: YETI theory and sad because it was all such bad luck. 471 00:40:58,010 --> 00:41:02,010 Speaker 1: Had Dyatlov kept closer to his planned route, they'd have 472 00:41:02,010 --> 00:41:07,010 Speaker 1: avoided the avalanche prone slope, and ironically, even in that 473 00:41:07,130 --> 00:41:11,610 Speaker 1: same spot, a less experienced team might not have feared 474 00:41:11,610 --> 00:41:14,850 Speaker 1: a second avalanche and felt such an urgency to flee 475 00:41:14,850 --> 00:41:20,810 Speaker 1: the tent. Staying inside the semi collapsed shelter might not 476 00:41:20,850 --> 00:41:25,450 Speaker 1: have been fun, but it wouldn't be fatal. After doing 477 00:41:25,650 --> 00:41:30,010 Speaker 1: exactly the right thing to survive a big avalanche, d'atlov 478 00:41:30,210 --> 00:41:34,130 Speaker 1: clearly realized his mistake, but lost his race against the 479 00:41:34,210 --> 00:41:43,650 Speaker 1: cold to make it back to the tent. If you 480 00:41:43,730 --> 00:41:47,170 Speaker 1: ever go to Hollat Siakle, and many do visit it 481 00:41:47,250 --> 00:41:51,410 Speaker 1: as a spooky tourist attraction, you'll see that the path 482 00:41:51,530 --> 00:41:55,530 Speaker 1: has been renamed in the team leader's honor. It's now 483 00:41:56,090 --> 00:42:00,970 Speaker 1: Dyatlov Pass. The memories of the dead are also kept 484 00:42:00,970 --> 00:42:05,090 Speaker 1: alive by a foundation established by their friends and relatives 485 00:42:05,610 --> 00:42:09,530 Speaker 1: and those simply intrigued by the events of that night. 486 00:42:10,450 --> 00:42:13,810 Speaker 1: The foundation takes a dim view of the avalanche theory, 487 00:42:14,490 --> 00:42:19,330 Speaker 1: believing instead that some still secret weapons test killed the hikers, 488 00:42:20,290 --> 00:42:24,650 Speaker 1: and who can really blame them? The Soviet unions certainly 489 00:42:24,690 --> 00:42:28,810 Speaker 1: tried to keep bigger secrets, and for all their formulas, 490 00:42:29,050 --> 00:42:32,770 Speaker 1: What the two guys in Switzerland know about snow movements 491 00:42:32,810 --> 00:42:36,850 Speaker 1: on a mountain six decades ago. Nothing's ever that simple 492 00:42:36,970 --> 00:42:45,290 Speaker 1: or straightforward, is it. Vladimir Putin's fire hose of falsehoods 493 00:42:45,530 --> 00:42:49,890 Speaker 1: has been successfully exported around the world. Some of that 494 00:42:50,210 --> 00:42:54,730 Speaker 1: torrent of content still comes from inside Russia, that much 495 00:42:54,770 --> 00:42:58,650 Speaker 1: is now produced in America and the UK too. Its 496 00:42:58,650 --> 00:43:01,490 Speaker 1: effect is not to make us favor one form of 497 00:43:01,530 --> 00:43:07,530 Speaker 1: government over another, communism over capitalism, democracy over autocracy, but 498 00:43:07,570 --> 00:43:12,890 Speaker 1: to render us impotent, indecisive, and distrustful in the face 499 00:43:12,930 --> 00:43:17,610 Speaker 1: of events. It wants us to believe only that everything 500 00:43:17,650 --> 00:43:21,290 Speaker 1: is rigged, that no one is decent or trustworthy, and 501 00:43:21,410 --> 00:43:27,090 Speaker 1: that all mysteries must be a conspiracy. We're becoming cynics. 502 00:43:27,730 --> 00:43:33,610 Speaker 1: Authoritarian leaders love it, says the Stanford psychologist Jamiel Zaki. 503 00:43:34,370 --> 00:43:37,730 Speaker 1: When people don't trust Sure, they might not trust the 504 00:43:37,770 --> 00:43:41,570 Speaker 1: authoritarian leader, but they also don't trust each other enough 505 00:43:41,610 --> 00:43:52,250 Speaker 1: to get together and do anything about it. The nine 506 00:43:52,370 --> 00:44:00,210 Speaker 1: deaths on Holatsiakle were very nearly ten student Yuri Yudin 507 00:44:00,890 --> 00:44:04,810 Speaker 1: was part of the expedition until nerve pain prompted him 508 00:44:04,850 --> 00:44:09,330 Speaker 1: to abandon the trek and head home. As an old man, 509 00:44:09,890 --> 00:44:12,850 Speaker 1: he was asked what he thought had killed his friends. 510 00:44:14,370 --> 00:44:17,690 Speaker 1: If they really were killed by a natural force, then 511 00:44:17,690 --> 00:44:21,530 Speaker 1: there would be no secret, he said, And we wouldn't 512 00:44:21,570 --> 00:44:25,930 Speaker 1: be talking about it all these years on. And logic 513 00:44:26,050 --> 00:44:53,770 Speaker 1: like that is music to the conspiracy peddler's ears. For 514 00:44:53,850 --> 00:44:56,410 Speaker 1: a full list of our sources, see the show notes 515 00:44:56,450 --> 00:45:02,770 Speaker 1: at Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me 516 00:45:02,970 --> 00:45:06,570 Speaker 1: Tim Harford with Andrew Wright, Alice Fines, and Ryan Dilly. 517 00:45:07,050 --> 00:45:10,130 Speaker 1: It's produced by Alice Fines and Marilyn tr us The 518 00:45:10,210 --> 00:45:13,850 Speaker 1: sound design and original music are the work of Pascal Wise. 519 00:45:14,250 --> 00:45:18,370 Speaker 1: Additional sound design is by Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio. 520 00:45:19,050 --> 00:45:23,050 Speaker 1: Bend A Dafhaffrey edited the scripts. The show features the 521 00:45:23,130 --> 00:45:27,650 Speaker 1: voice talents of Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, Oliver Hembrough, Sarah 522 00:45:27,730 --> 00:45:32,890 Speaker 1: Jupp Messeiamnroe, Jamal Westman, and Rufus Wright. The show also 523 00:45:32,930 --> 00:45:35,850 Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, 524 00:45:35,970 --> 00:45:40,810 Speaker 1: Greta Cohne, Sarah Nix, Eric Sandler, Carrie Brody, Christina Sullivan, 525 00:45:41,130 --> 00:45:45,730 Speaker 1: Kira Posey and Owen Miller. Cautionary Tales is a production 526 00:45:45,850 --> 00:45:50,250 Speaker 1: of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded at Wardoor Studios in London 527 00:45:50,530 --> 00:45:54,090 Speaker 1: by Tom Berry. If you like the show, please remember 528 00:45:54,130 --> 00:45:56,930 Speaker 1: to share, rate and review. It really makes a difference 529 00:45:57,010 --> 00:45:58,530 Speaker 1: to us and if you want to hear the show, 530 00:45:58,770 --> 00:46:01,930 Speaker 1: add free sign up to Pushkin Plus on the show 531 00:46:01,970 --> 00:46:05,970 Speaker 1: page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash 532 00:46:06,130 --> 00:46:09,290 Speaker 1: plus do