WEBVTT - S02 Episode 4: When the Snow Melts pt.1 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.400 Nothing's better than feeling comfortable in your own shoes. Maybe 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:05.760 you're a parent raising a little rock star, or a 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.640 technomad working from anywhere. All Birds wants you to be 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.520 comfortable in your actual shoes too. They're wool runners, pipers, 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.720 and loungers are so cozy you might forget you're wearing them, 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.599 and they're crafted from natural materials that tread lightly on 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:21.759 our planet. So get comfortable in your shoes. Get to 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.760 know the wool runners, pipers and loungers at albirds dot com. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:41.239 That's alllbi rds dot com. It could be said that 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.040 the history of life is a history of movement, a 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:50.680 vast dance of inexorable entropic change, from the propulsion of 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.960 the stars and the planets to the vibrating of subatomic 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:58.320 particles and the stretching of space itself. It's useful to 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.840 remember sometimes, but even the most solid seeming of objects are, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.800 in one way or another, in a constant kinetic state, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.760 be that the glass in your window, the elements of 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:15.200 a diamond, or even the earth under our feet. Let us, then, 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:19.120 for a moment, take one singular place and look upon 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.760 it as an ageless being of omnipotence might observe it. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:38.119 You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClain Smith. At first, 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.120 we see a minute speck hanging in the depths of space. 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.120 Drawing closer, we see it is in fact a nameless 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:51.480 planet moving around a nameless star. Drawing closer still, we 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.920 see on the surface of that planet, two gigantic land 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.960 masses are set on an imperceptible but devastating collision course, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.559 and on the edge of one we find our spot. 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.320 The movement of the land is generated in part by 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.560 the heat of the planet's core, a solid ball of 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.000 iron nickel raging at almost five and a half thousand 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:18.160 degrees centigrade that in turn heats a mantle layer below 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.520 the planet's surface. This outer shell appears to be a 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:30.120 static rock composed mainly of silicon, iron, magnesium, oxygen, and aluminium, 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.440 but of course it is not still. Instead, it bends 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.400 and creeps, cajoled by the planet's warm belly, expanding and 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.320 contracting in convective circles as the heat rises and falls 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.960 through the silicate layers. It is on this sea of 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.040 rock and waves of heat that the two land masses 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.360 are being thrown toward each other and on this planet. 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.960 By our measurements, the days last just over twenty two hours, 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.040 and oxygen levels in the air are fifty percent higher 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.200 than anything we have ever experienced, and there is life 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.600 in plenty across the continents. Owing to the humid climate, 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.320 the land is smothered in vast swamps and enormous trees. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:19.959 Amphibious creatures dominate, while giant invertebrate arthropods wiggle and cruel 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:25.960 in abundance. Some even fly too, their twitching segmented bodies 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.000 lifted into the air by gossamer wings Over half a 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:34.800 meter in span. The two continents draw ever closer, until 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:40.640 finally they collide to form one giant singular mass. As 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.720 they merge, our spot is pushed and pulled as vast 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.280 splinterings of rock rise into the sky to form mountains 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:53.240 and rolling hills. Over time, the land beneath continues to 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:57.960 move and break apart into many separate pieces, and over 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.480 the land above, more and diff front creatures are taking 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:06.200 their place, entire species rising into falling, while the planet 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.640 spirals on through space as it continues to orbit the 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:14.840 nameless star, a mere three hundred million orbits later, and 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.560 now the oxygen levels on the planet have depleted, the 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.680 days have become longer, and from out of a central place, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.839 what was once four legs has become two. In herds, 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:33.520 these strange bipedal creatures are dispersed throughout the planet. Eventually 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.160 they will learn to give themselves names and names two 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.520 for the many things around them, including the very planet 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.520 they walk upon, which will become known as Planeta Zimna 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:54.520 jigu hen Song, or to others, planet Earth, and those 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.279 creatures will learn to tell stories, bringing ever greater potential 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.720 for change. For now, not only does the material world change, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.120 but so too will the world that is mapped onto 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.640 it in the minds of the creatures who walk upon it, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.599 Entire worlds that two can rise and fall in a 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:19.039 matter of moments. As for our spot, it will eventually 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.320 find itself nestled at the foothills of those same mountains 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:27.039 formed three hundred million years ago, still surviving today as 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:31.520 one of the oldest mountain ranges on the planet. Those 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.400 mountains will eventually find themselves encased in a country named 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:41.920 Rossia and will become known as Uralski Gorri, or as 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.560 the Ural Mountains. So let us now get closer in 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.800 time and space to the spot that we have marked. 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.839 The Ural Mountains form a natural order between Europe and Asia, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.440 running two and a half thousand kilometers through western Russia, 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.279 from the coast of the Kara Sea to the northwest 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.039 border of Kazakhstan, and just to the east of the 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:17.680 central Urals, we will find our region of interest. In 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.799 seventeen twenty three, Peter, the great leader of the Russian Empire, 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.839 establishes a town here that will be named Yachitterimborg after 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:31.480 his wife Yiketerina. Due to the abundance of minerals, vast 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.240 resources of timber, and the deep waters of the Ist River, 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.359 the location was a place of great natural beauty, but 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.960 also a prime location for what would become the administrative 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:48.800 mining capital of the Russian Empire. Just under two hundred 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.680 years later, and the city is firmly established as a 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:56.400 focal point for the country's growing industrial appetite. And in 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:02.279 that time so much has changed, not that we might notice. However, 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.800 certainly the surrounding land and even the city, to all 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:11.160 intents and purposes, has remained fixed. But even as we 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:17.040 look upon it now, invisible changes are taking place. As 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.360 a primary industrial hub, Yukaterimburg has found itself a beating 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.640 heart of a new world that has materialized around it. 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.360 Having been a town built by royal decree to excavate 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.120 natural resources that would then be turned into capital and 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.760 wealth for a fortunate few, it is now a symbol 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.480 and ode to those that generated the wealth, not through 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.120 some strange alchemy, but through the blood and sweat of 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.480 the many hands that scraped it from the earth. And 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.880 so it is that, at the beginning of the century 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.040 we find in our spot the same furnaces burning, and 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.440 the same coal brought from the land by the same hands, 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:04.640 But the status of those hands has been elevated. Two 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.160 thousand and two hundred miles away, on April sixteenth, nineteen seventeen, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.160 a train will pull into Finland Station in Saint Petersburg, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.960 carrying a man whose words, on stepping onto the station 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.800 platform will bring further winds of change. We watch as 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.160 they provoke an internacene war, turning the people of the 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:31.280 nation against each other in brutal and devastating ways. Back 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.640 in Yakaterinburg, there is a mansion house belonging to a 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:39.000 merchant named Epatiev, but as we avert our gaze for 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.280 a moment. A year has passed, and when we look 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.640 again we see the same bricks and mortar standing in 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:50.200 the same place, only now there is no Epatiev and 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.920 the mansion has been renamed the House of Special Purpose 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.840 of the Ural Soviet Committee. A year later, in the 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:03.640 spring of nineteen eighteen, seven highly prized prisoners a family 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.040 will be escorted to Yakaterinburg and imprisoned in this House 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.920 of Special Purpose. We see them now in the early 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.920 hours of July seventeenth, nineteen eighteen, as they are raised 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.920 from their beds and taken to a small room. They 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.120 are told to sit and wait for a truck to 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.800 come and take them away. But the truck never comes, 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:32.080 only a hail of bullets and thrusting bayonets that ends 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.360 with the walls dripping in blood and the prisoners lying 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:40.240 dead on the ground. We watch as the bodies are 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.480 taken to an abandoned mine shaft and one by one 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.840 are dropped to the bottom of it. It is the 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.120 last time that Russia will ever know a royal family. 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:03.760 Five years later, the war is over. Yukaterinburg remains, but 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.200 now finds itself not in Russia but the Union of 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.960 Soviet Socialist Republics, and though the name and rulers have changed, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.280 the minerals and oars in the ground are still very 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:20.000 much in demand. To that end, a school has been established, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.440 named the euro Polytechnic Institute, to promote better skills in 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:29.880 the working classes to aid with increased production. The following year, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.520 we return to find the city as it was, only 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:39.560 now it has a new name, spurred Lovsk. In the 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.680 blink of an eye, just over thirty years have passed. 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.720 It is nineteen fifty nine, and both spurred Lovsk and 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.320 the euro Polytechnic as much as we left it. We 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.400 see the building's familiar majestic architecture colonnaded at the front, 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.560 underneath a vast pediment bearing the large embossed symbol of 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.360 a hammer and a sickle. But in those thirty years, 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.160 as ever, so much has changed, and a new ruler 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.240 has replaced the old, ushering an end to an era 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:15.120 of almost unparalleled upheaval. In that time, an old enemy 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.920 has risen and fallen from the west, and some considered 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.400 enemies from within have fallen too, And now the deaths 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.800 of over forty million people haunt the land. The mindset 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.080 of an entire country has been altered, and a new 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:37.160 war stalks the people of this vast nation, a Lognoya Voina, 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.280 or the Cold War, as it will come to be known. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.560 The new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, has promised a thawing of 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.640 the old ways, and a new generation are ready to 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.960 embrace it, a generation embodied by the bright and enthusiastic 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.440 students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute. And so it is 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.640 that on Friday, January the twenty third, nineteen fifty nine, 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.480 finally we arrive at the beginning of one more story 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.720 to scatter across the foothills of the Ural Mountains, a 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.920 story that is perhaps the most extraordinary of all the 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.080 stories featured on the show so far, a chilling and 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:29.760 profound mystery that remains to this day unexplained. We begin 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.320 at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Room five three one. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.960 Seven students are crammed inside the spartan dormitory, frantically shoving 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.320 various bits and pieces into backpacks, cans of meat, followed 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.400 by packets of oatmeal, survival nights, and even a cooking stove. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.240 Nothing is forgotten, but rather than chaos, it is the 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.440 steady haste of a well oiled team. They are preparing 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.960 for a difficult mountain hike deep into the euro towards 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.800 O'tauton Mountain. The journey will involve at least sixteen days 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.360 of trekking through the Siberian tundra on a path that 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.200 many consider one of the toughest at this time of year, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.959 and it will need to be since all are hoping 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:20.840 to achieve their Category three hiking certificate upon completion. It 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.800 is the highest awarded category in the country and one 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.520 that will require the team to cover over three hundred 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:33.480 kilometers of ground, spending at least eight days incompletely uninhabited regions. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:39.240 One boy, Yuri Krivneshchenko, looks perturbed for a moment as 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.079 he hunts around the room, his face brightening into a 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:47.160 huge grin when he finally finds his leather boots. Yuri, 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.559 also known as Gyogi, is the joker of the group 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.360 and at twenty three, also one of the oldest. A 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.400 recent graduate of construction and hydraulics. Back in September of 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.040 nineteen fifty seven, Georgy had been assigned to work at 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:08.120 a secret nuclear facility called Chelyabinsk forty when the plutonium 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:13.160 plant experienced a catastrophic radioactive leak. Gyorgy was part of 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.520 the team who was sent in to clean up the mess. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.040 He packs his leather boots away, then makes some space 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.680 for his much loved mandolin. Do you think I can 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.920 play it on the train? He asks, of course, shout 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.600 the others in warm reply. In the corner of the dawn, 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.200 keeping a watchful eye over the preparations is the diligent 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:41.240 and methodical Alexander Kolovatov. At twenty four, Alexander is the 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.960 oldest member of the group. A kind soul with a 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.680 ponchon for smoking antique pipes. Alexander was a distinguished student 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.800 in the field of nuclear physics who had also studied 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.280 in Moscow at a secret institute known as the Ministry 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.480 of Medium Machine Building before returning to Spurredlovsk to complete 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:06.560 his physics major. Who has the salt shouted Zinaida Kolmogorova, 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.560 or Zina as she is known to her friends. Although 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.320 only twenty Zena is in her fourth year of radio 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:19.359 engineering and is a tough and experienced hiker, known affectionately 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.520 as the engine of the University, Zina's magnetic charm rarely 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.680 went unnoticed, not least by a number of the boys 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.920 in the team. Where at Doroshenko and Iger she asks, suddenly, 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.120 let me have fifteen cents to call them. The question 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.240 is directed at Ludmila Dubanina, the only other woman in 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:45.320 the group. Luda is only twenty and the youngest in 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.920 the team. A focused and committed communist, the athletic Luda 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.880 is practically a poster girl for the party, and like Zena, 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.800 is possessed of an inner steel equal, if not superior, 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:02.360 to any of her male compatriots. On one expedition to 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.840 the Sayan Mountains, she was accidentally shot by a tourist, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.280 but didn't complain once during her long and painful journey 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:14.560 back home, except to apologize for troubling the group. Luda 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.560 hands Seena the fifteen cents from the pile of cash 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:22.640 she is diligently counting up. Meanwhile, Rustick is teasing Collier 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.560 over who has more willpower to survive the trip without 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:31.320 their beloved cigarettes. Rustick is Roostum Slobidin, another recent graduate 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.760 of the institute. Unlike the others, Rustick comes from a 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.000 wealthy family of academics, but he carries none of the 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:44.120 sense of entitlement that such wealth can sometimes entail. As 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.120 perhaps the most popular member of the team, it would 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.160 seem that Rustick had lived up to the Tartan name 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.080 that his father had bestowed on him as a symbol 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:58.760 of international friendship to all men and women. In marked contrast, 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.280 Nikolay beau Brugnol's background could not have been more different. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.840 Born in a concentration camp, Collier had been brought up 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.840 by his mother on her own after his French communist 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.840 father had been executed as part of Stalin's ruthless purges. 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.399 Collier had graduated from the Institute in fifty eight after 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:25.080 majoring in civil engineering, and with a reputation for unselfish behavior. 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.679 Was a man always looking to help others. Today holds 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.480 mixed emotions for Collier. He had promised to his mother 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.440 that this trip would be his last, and he would 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:41.240 miss moments like these the most. The giddy, nervous energy 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:47.000 of the team. Just before the journey begins, someone throws 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.400 a couple of bags to Yuri Yudin, who deposits them outside, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.679 ready to load onto the truck that will take them 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.720 to the station. The twenty one year old Yuri, a 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.119 geology student at the institute, had endured a tough and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.119 impoverished upbringing, and also suffered greatly from rheumatism in his 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.280 leg joints, but Yuri had always determined never to let 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:13.600 his affliction dictate his life. There is a great cheer 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:18.399 when Yuri Dorishenko finally arrives to join the group. The 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.720 much loved twenty one year old radio engineer had a 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.560 fearsome reputation, having once successfully fended off a black bear 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:30.639 with nothing but a geologist's hammer. His entrance is followed 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.919 shortly after by Eager Diatlov, a student of radio engineering. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.679 Twenty three year old Eager was a formidable athlete and 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:44.320 easily the most experienced hiker in the team. Strong, thoughtful, 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.240 and confident, he was a natural fit as their leader. 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.520 He was also prodigiously talented, having designed and assembled a 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.119 radio at the age of twenty that would later be 0:18:55.240 --> 0:19:00.399 used on Class hikes. With the final checks complete, the 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.800 group gather their things and move out. Twenty minutes later, 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.919 after a short tram ride to the city station, the 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.919 team are settled into a Class three cabin as the 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:16.080 train pulls away from Sverdlovsk. Such moments are usually caused 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.080 for reflection, to be leaving behind your home town on 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.200 a treacherous journey into the wilderness, but in this moment 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:31.320 they are distracted by a stranger in their midst Are 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.280 you always taking care of your family? Do you often 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.400 take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.640 to take care of yourself. To make time for you. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.520 You deserve it. Tele Adoc gives you access to a 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.560 licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.679 best to feeling like yourself again. With tell adoc, you 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.520 can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.320 Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.119 a m. To nine p m. Local time. If you 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:05.159 feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.080 or lonely, or you might be struggling with a personal 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.480 or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.200 facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy to 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:21.040 change counselors if needed. For free teledoc therapy is available 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:25.040 through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:29.880 teledoc dot com. Forward slash Unexplained podcast. Today to get started, 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:45.040 that's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Eager introduces his handsome, 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:50.080 dark haired friend to the group as Sasha. At thirty seven, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.480 he is considerably older than the others, and although not 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.119 by any means old, he appears as if from another age, 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.040 so the young students might be forgiven their palpable sense 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:05.560 of trepidation when Sasha reveals a mouth full of gold 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:10.680 teeth from underneath his wolfish smile. Their sense of unease 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:12.800 is not helped by the sight of a number of 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:17.439 tattoos dotted about his body, but their unease is not 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.000 out of rudeness, more from the tacit awareness that they 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.639 are in the presence of a ghost. At thirty seven 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.240 years old, Sasha is part of a generation of which 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.920 only three percent remain, having been decimated by the brutality 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:38.240 of the Great Patriotic War. Though it is unlikely he 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.960 would have forgotten much from the five years he served 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.280 from nineteen forty one to nineteen forty six, Sascha bears 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.199 a constant reminder of those he had lost. Three initials 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.760 inked onto his skin, followed by an equal sign and 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:58.119 the symbol for friendship. Semion Zolotatov to give him his 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.879 full name, has been working as a tour guide in 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.199 South Siberia, and like the others, is desperate to achieve 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:08.720 his Grade three certificate. Before long, the team recognize a 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:12.439 kindred spirit, and any initial sense of unease is quickly 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.639 banished by the sound of Gyorgy's mandolin as he strikes 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.160 up to play together. As the train speeds on through 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.239 the ural countryside, they sing all the songs that they know, 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:28.959 while behind them Sverdlovsk recedes further and further until it 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:34.639 has entirely disappeared from view. Ten hours later, and the 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:39.200 train finally pulls into Serov, a small town three hundred 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.600 and fifty kilometers due north of Zverdlovsk. With their next 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.000 train not due to leave until six thirty pm. The 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.439 exhausted team are hoping to escape the cold and maybe 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.080 get some sleep in the station waiting room, but are 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:57.960 disappointed to find it locked for the day. Georgi attempts 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.680 to cheer up his friends with a comical bus routine, 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.520 but his singing has attracted the attention of two guards, 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.399 a sign perhaps that they have already entered a different 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:12.960 world to the one encased within their dormitory walls. The 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.200 guards grab Gyorgi from the platform and push him into 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:20.520 their office. A short time later, and a somewhat stunned 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.920 Gyorgi is returned to the platform after being let off 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:27.960 with a stern warning for contravening Article two point three 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:33.800 of the Internal Order at railway stations. Not wanting to 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.840 hang around, the team head off in search of shelter 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.959 when they come across an empty school hall. After knocking 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.320 on the door, they are met by the kind face 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.600 of the school's janitor. Much to their relief, she takes 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.480 pity on the young hikers and divites them inside to 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:55.560 rest and warm themselves, but there is one condition. In return, 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.280 they must give a talk to the school children before 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:02.520 they leave. A few hours later, and Zena and Sasha 0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:05.640 have the children hanging on their every word as they 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:08.920 listen wide eyed and attentively to their tales of adventure. 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:13.080 When it is finally time to go, the children have 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:16.760 to be peeled sobbing and crying from Zena before finally 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:21.640 accepting her promise to one day return. The children wave 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.680 and shout goodbye to their ten new favorite heroes as 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:30.520 they watched them head back to the train station. Finally, 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.640 the team are on the move again, and by midnight 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:44.920 they have arrived in the small town of Evedale. Since 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:48.080 leaving spurred Lovsk, the gang had been shadowed by another 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:51.080 team of hikers from the institute, led by their good 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:55.879 friend Yuri Blinoff. That night of January the twenty fourth, 0:24:56.359 --> 0:24:59.720 they all sleep huddled together in the Evedale station waiting 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:03.359 room until the following morning, when they catch the first 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:08.280 tram to Evedale town center. The town is built on 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:11.320 the confluence of the Evedeale River and the Lozla River, 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:14.879 and like most towns in the region, Evedell had been 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.679 established as a mining colony, in this case for gold, 0:25:19.800 --> 0:25:22.800 but in nineteen thirty seven the town had taken on 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:27.320 a second purpose, becoming the location of Evedel egg Gulag. 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:32.480 The term is an acronym that translates to main administration 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:36.920 of corrective labor camps. The camps had been set up 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:41.600 during Stalin's time partly as corrective facilities for criminals, but 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:46.280 were often also used to dispense with political prisoners, a 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:48.800 fact that would no doubt have crossed Collier's mind, at 0:25:48.880 --> 0:25:52.000 least as the hikers made their way into the town center, 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:56.920 with some consideration perhaps for the desperate souls hidden away 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:00.639 somewhere beyond the snow topped roofs of the town's outskirts. 0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:04.280 They don't have to wait long before their bus arrives, 0:26:04.760 --> 0:26:07.359 and soon after the team are moving through the white 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:12.119 blanketed countryside. As the bus forges ahead towards Vizza, the 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:16.159 next stop on their journey. But there is something wrong. 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:21.040 Alexander is missing. They must have left him behind at 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:24.840 the last toilet break. The team yelled to the bus 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:29.240 driver to pull over. A quick headcount confirms their fears. 0:26:29.800 --> 0:26:33.440 Alexander is indeed missing, but there is nothing that can 0:26:33.440 --> 0:26:36.919 be done. With the bus on a tight schedule, the 0:26:37.040 --> 0:26:40.960 driver has no choice but to continue the journey. But wait, 0:26:41.080 --> 0:26:45.840 says Yuri. As far off, a small shape, steadily growing larger, 0:26:46.240 --> 0:26:49.760 reveals itself to be a fully laden Alexander, sprinting with 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:53.800 all his strength toward them. I thought you'd left, he 0:26:53.840 --> 0:26:58.400 sputters between gasps for breath, Never say the others, as 0:26:58.400 --> 0:27:02.040 they haul his exhausted body back onto the bus. Just 0:27:02.200 --> 0:27:06.359 after two pm, they arrive at Viza, and the hikers disembark. 0:27:13.640 --> 0:27:16.359 The town is a woodcutting settlement that served as a 0:27:16.400 --> 0:27:21.200 central hub from which further outposts could be reached. From here, 0:27:21.480 --> 0:27:25.280 the two teams will go their separate ways. For Blinov 0:27:25.359 --> 0:27:28.240 and his team, a bus heading their way to Sector 0:27:28.320 --> 0:27:30.960 one oh five is due to leave late in the afternoon. 0:27:31.880 --> 0:27:34.840 For Eager's group, however, they will have to stop here 0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:40.600 for the night. That afternoon, the team's many cameras, vital 0:27:40.640 --> 0:27:44.560 for recording evidence for their Category three certificates, are whipped 0:27:44.560 --> 0:27:47.359 out as they say their final goodbyes to Blinov and 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:53.000 his team. Despite the minus seventeen degree temperature, the classmates 0:27:53.160 --> 0:27:56.399 smile and fool around as they pose for one final picture. 0:27:58.160 --> 0:28:01.960 Moments later, Urient team scramble into the back of a 0:28:02.000 --> 0:28:05.479 flatbed truck and wave a fond goodbye to their friends 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:09.879 as they pull away and out of the camp. For 0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:13.280 Eager's team, it will be one last night of domesticity 0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:18.040 before heading off into the wilderness. The team are especially 0:28:18.080 --> 0:28:20.960 excited to hear of a nearby screening room and will 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:23.800 pile in later that evening to watch a film called 0:28:23.840 --> 0:28:28.400 Symphony and Gold. Rustick finds time to write a postcard 0:28:28.440 --> 0:28:32.200 to his mother and Dorishenko and Alexander make a number 0:28:32.240 --> 0:28:37.160 of final checks and adjustments to the equipment. That night, 0:28:37.640 --> 0:28:40.600 with two crammed to a bed and Georgi and Sasha 0:28:40.920 --> 0:28:46.080