Ural Federal University Commemorates Dyatlov’s Group with New Monument

A monument to the Dyatlov group, whose members perished in 1959 during a hike in the north of the Sverdlovsk region, was unveiled near the Ural Federal University on September 20.

The monument is a massive granite block with a plaque on which the names and surnames of the students who died under mysterious circumstances are indicated: Igor Dyatlov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Yury Doroshenko, Rustem Slobodin, Georgy Krivonishchenko, Alexander Kolevatov, Lyudmila Dubinina, Nikolai Thibault-Brignol and Semyon Zolotarev. The iconic detail of the monument is skis and poles made of metal.

“This is a monument to those people who once studied within the walls of our university. They went on their last trek and did not return from it. For many years their relatives and friends have been searching for answers to many questions about this tragedy. The monument will become a place for those who knew the students who left and who are researching the circumstances of what happened. It will also become a landmark place where guests of our city, university and the Urals will come,” said Sergey Kortov, the first Vice-Rector of UrFU.

Sergey Kortov noted that the monument was invented and installed as part of a public initiative. First of all, all this was possible thanks to Dmitry Kireev, the author and executor of the project. He helped financially and made a lot of organizational efforts to make the monument stand here and in such a way. The idea to install the monument was supported by the Academic Council of UrFU and Rector Victor Koksharov.

At the opening ceremony, the floor was given to Pyotr Bartolomei, a university alumnus, who personally knew Igor Dyatlov and repeatedly went hiking with him. This is a very bright, luminous and in many ways already legendary person.

“It is difficult for me to speak today, because Igor Dyatlov was a true friend for me, it is not easy to restrain emotions. In the Great Patriotic War, there was a saying: “to go on a reconnaissance trip once is a friend for life”. For me, people with whom I went on hikes of the highest category of complexity are friends for life. To be with them on hikes was a great happiness, it left an indelible trace in my life. I remember our communication with great warmth, I am grateful that I could see them, learn from them. They are in my memory forever,” said Pyotr Bartolomei.