събота, 27 юни 2015 г.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (Strange encounters)

I received all of these stories in 2013.

She (old relative) is known in the family for her visions...sometimes she dream them...sometimes she speaks with strangers on the streets that dissapears just like that...

The last such case happened before two weeks. She was on the field with one of her sons, her son's wife and their child. They were working each on some distance from the others, only the small child was running around. Soon a young man on a horse without a saddle appeared and asked the old woman about the direction to the main road E79. She told him, at that time the child came and the old lady turned toward him to see what the boy want. When she turned again toward the horseman, he was dissapeared.

Her son's wife said later that she saw from a distance that the old woman was talking to a man on a horse. When the other son of the old lady heard this story, he started to joke that the woman was sleeping but again the wife of the other son claimed to have seen the horseman. Then the son jumped on his car and went to the field but he found no traces of a horse, not even from the shoes of the stranger - the woman took very good look at them - they were old fashioned but looked brand new.

Was this horseman a time traveller?

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I received this story on skype. My questions are in green.

It happened in the winter of 2010 after we finished high school. We decided to gather in the hut of my aunt in village Svidnya.

We were 9 people total. Everything was normal, we celebrated. Then I, two other boys and a girl decided to take a walk at the forest in the night as there is no wolves or bears here. It was dark, we had lights and everything was ok but we decided to go back because it was cold. I decided to use different path passing near an old abandoned hut. There is a legend about this hut and I wanted to scare a bit my friends. While we were walking the girl started to scream and to cry. We asked her what was the problem and she told us that she has heard noise behind her and she has seen a big man with glowing dark blue eyes. I thought that she knew the legend and that she was joking but there was no way for her to know the story as she was for the first time in the village.

Myself and one of the other boys decided to return to take a look but there was nothing or at least I did not see anything. But before I realised what was going on the other boy started to run. I shocked - I was alone in the forest in 2-3 o'clock in the night so I started to run too. I reached the others but this boy (Martin) was not with them. We were scared, we called the other to search him but after we were unable to find him we called a forest patrol. At 6:30 we found him sitting next to a tree, his clothes were torn and he had wounds on his back. He was talking some strange things about a man or a creature with blue eyes, long arms and big hair - it appeared behind him and Martin lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness he was in shock and waited there until we arrived. He spent next 3 weeks in a hospital in Sofia without to talk.

Since then this boy has mental problems and no one goes to the hut anymore, I fear too.

What is exactly the legend?

It is about a man and a woman that used to live in the abandoned hut. Once the man went to the village to buy some food. When he returned he found only blood strains and the blue eyes of his wife. In his madness he went in the wilderness to search for her. Some claim that he is still searching for the body of his wife and that he attacks everyone that he meets. Some people claim that they have seen him. People call him the blue-eyed demon.

Is your frind ok now?

He started to talk but he does not want to remenber that day. He still has scars on his back. The strangest thing is that no one can survive more than 2 hour outside when temperatures are as low as - 20 C.

Maybe the creature has saved his life?

Yes and bringed him to madness.

This is a serious case with attack on human - did the local newspapers wrote about this?

I don't know, we were in shock after this.

***

I did not find anything more on the internet about this case or about the legend. This does not mean that this hasn't happened. A lot of information is still not digitalized in Bulgaria. For example I found a refference to a book with local legends about Svidnya but I still cannot find the book itself.

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This happened in May 1997. That year I decided to visit a friend who lives in city of Ruse and without a warning I took the train and went to that city. I worked in Sliven, I traveled all day and I arrived in Ruse at the evening. I went to the post office (we did not have mobile phones back then) and I called my friend. His father picked up and he told me that my friend was in the hospital (maybe I should tell you that we met in a clinic where we were healing from alcohol addiction). I want to emphasize that I hadn't been drinking for months and what I saw was not under the influence of alcohol.

So I found myself in a the city alone and without money (I called my mother to send me money on the next day) and I had to survive the night. I walked along the Danube river. I sat in the park with huge trees, lanterns were lit, but soon it began to darken. It was late spring, but the nights were still cold. I did not know what to do. I went outside of the town, truck drivers whistled and waved to me as if I was crazy. At the end of the town I approached something like a grove. There were houses nearby so I was not completely isolated. When I found a small clearing among the trees it was almost night. I used my backpack as a pillow. From the nearby houses I could hear barking of the dogs. I tried to sleep but then the wind came and the trees started to make noises and I got a little bit afraid.

Then in the branches of a nearby tree I noticed greenish light. I thought it was a butterfly but it came up to me and landed on the grass close to me. I thought "wow, what a glowing butterfly" but it was no butterfly because I clearly could make out tiny little body and delicate face. It was a fairy or something that resembled it as we imagine fairies. Although her aura was pale green, clearly I saw the tiny white dress. So this thing landed and went to sleep. I was suddenly calmed and staring at it I also fell asleep. In the morning there was no sign of it, but I was accompanied by the pleasant feeling long after that.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (Ghosts)

A young woman sent me this story in 2013

Ghost in an apartment building in Veliko Tarnovo (2010)

...But the story is very interesting and I still wonder if it is possible. It was exactly 3 years ago. I was working in a flower shop whose owner was the father of the boy involved. His name is M. and his girlfriend is D. They rented an apartment, they have lived together and they had no troubles till this moment. Only the rent was strangely low, that is very strange for a city like Veliko Tarnovo where rents are quite high.

All started one night with the wake of their dog. It started to bark toward the door. Almost every night this animal barked toward the empty space and nobody was able to calm it. They did not pay big attention to this until one morning M. found his shoes in front of the mirror. Whereever he put them in the evening on the next morning they were always next to each other in front of the mirror.

My friends became worried. D. did not want to stay alone in the apartment unit. They stopped to turn off lights in the night, TV was always on, the dog continued to bark against the void. One day in the shop D. made a scandal to M. She accused him that he was in the apartment with other woman because the bed was a mess. At that day M. did not leave the shop at all so I and other collegues calmed D. One night M. saw a girl around 10-12 years old in the mirror. They called a priest to make a ritual but the girl showed up one more time and again only M. saw her. They went to an old woman who told them to buy some clothing and to give it to a girl the same age as the ghost. They did that but I don't know if it worked as I left this job at that time. I have heard that ghosts of children do not leave easy. M. and D. talked to their neighbours in the apartment building. They asked if some kind of tragedy has happend in this unit but nothing of that kind has happend. One of the famous mediums in Veliko Tarnovo [name withheld] lives two floors under their apartment. I call them witches because they non-stop call ghosts of the dead and maybe she is the the reason why the ghost of the girl appeared.

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I received this in 2013.

One friend has a house in Botevgrad. It is one of the oldest and it is home of strange "activity". My friend's mother has a photo album with pictures of people who should not be on the photographies.

This picture is taken in this house and it shows a ball that was not present at the moment.


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A young woman sent me some stories from Varna and around

This story is from January (2013). The grandmother of one of my friends has died. I had a medical operation in January and I slept at my friend's home. At one night when he was in the bathroom, I heard that someone is opening and closings furniture lockers as if he was searching for something. I thought it was my friend but he was still in the bathroom. Also the place where the old lady used to sit and to watch TV was always warm.

***

Mall Varna is close to the cemetery and a lot of people claim that they have seen ghosts there. One collegue told me that he has seen a shadow of an old man in front of the elevator.

***

But the most interesting story is this.

In Spring of 2007 we did christening of my cousin and I was godmother. The priest was very nice. He is a real holy man, he helps addicts. When he talks you feel so peaceful.

I am interested in religion and I went again to him. There were some old ladies in front of his house who told me some unbelievable stories how the priest helped and cured them. At first I didn't believe them.

The priest invite me in a room and we talked. Then a couple came in. The woman looked sick and pale as if she was very ill. The man explained how they went to doctors but they did not find anything. Doctors told him it was all psychological. The man did not believe in magic but he has heard about the priest and they decided to come.

The priest started to talk and in the same time the woman felt bad. She told him to stop talking. We all were stunned but the priest said that she was not the one that was talking. He went to take some holy water. When the priest returned he told the man to hold his wife and she started to writhe just as in the movie "Exorcist". He sprayed her with the water and some steam started to rise from her. This was impossible! I was very frightened! Soon she calmed. The priest said that the unholy spirit was still not chased away and she should come again. Then the priest and the man went outside to talk. I was with the woman and she told me that she knew there was something in her but nobody believed her.

Later I heard that the priest chased away the evil spirit and even helped the couple to have children. I wanted to find again this priest but he has moved to another village.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (UFO)

These are some of the sotries I've received from the readers of my blog.

In 2010 a young boy sent me this story:

It was August 2009 around 22:00. Me and my father were in a villa near the city of Ruse. We went outside and my father spotted something in the sky, he showed it to me. It looked like a plane in the night but it was stationary. I just decided to go inside to take binoculars when it started to move! It made a circle and passed right above the house. It formed something like a spiral. Everything was white. Then it vanished. We heard that there was a hole in the ground on the place where it vanished.  The soil inside was frozen.

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In 2011 I received a story from a young girl about a UFO sighting in Gabrovo from 2008:

We were in school (2nd grade elementary school) and one of my schoolmates was looking through the window. He said with wonder that a military jet is chased by an oval object. All rushed to the window to see what is going on and to see if he was lying. Something was really chasing the plane. There was not enough room for me on this window so I rushed to another one. I looked through the window that was facing the Maths high school. I think I saw the object to fall behind that school.

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I received this story in 2013:

Around 5 years ago me and my girlfriend were in Aiazmoto - this is a park with alleys and benches on a hill close to the city of Stara Zagora. It was summer and we were sitting on a bench and we were talking. We were 18-19 years old at that time. There were no lights around and we were watching the night sky. There were some stars between the trees. I was looking at a star - not the brightest but bright enough. We both were looking in that direction. We talked about half an hour when exactly this star made a move like a falling star leaving a trail. It seemed that this movement is not down but up toward space. The trail was short. A second later everything was gone. I looked at my girlfriend and ask her if she has seen the same. She told me "yes". We stayed there 2-3 more minutes but the star did not appear again. There were no clouds, there were no trees there to hide it - it just dissapeared. We talked a little about that then we felt scared and we left.

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These photos were sent to me by a reader of the blog. All of them are made in 2013. I have cropped and zoomed some of the objects.

First 2 photos are taken over Rupite. They look like classical UFO known as "flying saucers".





Next picture is taken on 17 September 2013 over Belasitza mountain.



Another picture from Belasitza mountain (Spring 2013)



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UFO over Dolna Dikanya (8 august 2013)

We (me and my husband) were on our villa in Dolna Dikanya. My husband does not believe in UFO or in God. We were outside around 20:00 and we were smoking and talking. There is a small hill to the right that is called Radzovitca. Suddenly a UFO appeared from there - a bright light. We were horrified and stunned.

We watched these lights - they moved slowly, without noise, they were very bright. They passed over our house. They made rapid zigzag movement and my husband said that this was a UFO. He said it - he who don't believe in UFO!

We were not able to sleep that night from fear. We heard that neighbours have seen them too but no one is talking. On the next day a helicopter was circling there - I don't know if it had any connection to the UFO sighting. I think that military knows but they are silent too.

From that day my husband believes in UFO.

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I received this story from a young man in 2013:

I think it was 2006 - I was on holiday in Burgas in the summer. My dad was out to a restaurant with a friend but I was not feeling well and I stayed at the room. I turned on the TV. At one time I went out to the terrace. I looked at the sky. It was beautiful and I felt very good. There was a tall hotel building in front of me. Suddenly something like light emerged behind the hotel. I did not pay attention because I thought it was a helicopter. But then for just a second a lot of new thoughts crossed my mind. Thoughts which I never imagined that I would think. Then I realised that the object had no typical movement of a helicopter or an airplane. It was silent and moved like a car with a drunk driver - you can not predict the course of its movement. These are some of the thoughts I mentioned:

"I did not realize that God could have created everything, not only for people because the earth is only a very small section of the entire cosmos. Like pin between the needles"

This fluttered in my mind very quickly. Immediately I ran home and I took my camera and started shooting. Here comes the surprise - in the pictures ther was only the sky. Naked sky, nothing else. I saw the camera focusing on the object and it was right in the frame but the picture showed only naked sky. I was dumbfounded, I was scared, I looked up and I saw part of it passes over the building. It was something like three knotted balloons that change color and rotate. The colors were blue, yellow, green , etc. but I was in shock and could not remember them all. Since then I know we are not alone in space. I do not feel surprise but rather awe.

MEGAPOST: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013 extended revision)

There are hundreds of internet articles in many languages about the famous Dyatlov Pass Incident. It is a topic in books and paranormal TV shows. There is even a movie based on it. I desided to do my own "little research" and to gather in one article all that is known to this date and who knows maybe someone will be able to "connect the dots". I am very fortunate to be able to read materials in three different languages (english, russian and bulgarian), so I used different resources. These are two of my main sources:


Случаят „Дятлов“ (Bulgarian, August 26, 2011)

This is going to be a long one so I advise you to read it in weekends/holidays or...in the nights.

Story begins...

On January 25, 1959, one ski instructor, seven students and three just-graduated engineers from the former Soviet Union’s Ural Polytechnic Institute, located in the city then known as Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg today), boarded a train to start a normal, albeit difficult skiing expedition. They were headed to the Otorten Mountain range, which is nestled in the northern Urals.

According to the information in the russian Wikipedia Otorden is 1182 m high (link).

The leader of the group was 23 year-old Igor Dyatlov. The goal of the expedition was to be a good training for more difficult and harsh expeditions in the far North (across the Arctic Circle). The other members of the group were Zinaida (Zina) Kolmogorova, Ludmila Dubinina, Alexander Kolevatov, Rustem Slobodin, Yuri (Georgiy) Krivonischenko, Yuri Doroshenko, Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, Semyon (Alexander) Zolotariov and Yuri Yudin.

(Dubinina, Krivonischenko, Zolotariov and Thibeaux-Brignolles)

The group took off the train in the city of Ivdel and then hopped a truck to the village Vizhai - the last village before the hills of Otorten. On January 27, they started their skiing expedition, but the next day Yuri Yudin fell ill and returned to Vizhai. He had no idea that he have seen his friends for the last time.

(Yuri Yudin, who became ill and returned is embraced by Ludmila Dubinina. In the background - Igor Dyatlov)

According to the Russian Wikipedia Vizhai was destroyed in a wildfire in August 2010. There were no casualties in the fire, and its few inhabitants moved to Ivdel. There are no plans for the village to be restored, so for anyone who decide at this time to conquer Otorten, the last human settlement is even further away than it was for the group of Dyatlov (link).

The exact location of Vizhai in the Sverdlovsk Region (Otorten is to the north):


Location of the Sverdlovsk Region on the map of Russia:


Thanks to the diaries of some of the skiers we can see the path of the group until the day before the incident. On January 31, they have left some food and equipment in a wooded valley that would be needed on their return. The next day they began to climb the mountain. They probably were planning to reach to the top and to spend the next night on the other side, but the weather had deteriorated and a blizzard forced them to stray to the west to the peak known as “Kholat Syakhl”. The group decided to camp there. No one saw them alive after that and they have had no time to describe what they experienced.

The search begins...

The group had planned to return to Vizhai on February 11 and to send a telegram for the success of the expedition. When on the appointed day the telegram did not come, their families and friends were not worried because they knew that there might be a delay on such a difficult winter expedition.

But after a week and still no word from the skiers, their relatives insisted Polytechnic Institute to start looking for them. After a few days, however, it was clear that the university can not find them alone and military and civilian authorities joined the search.


On February 25, a pilot spotted from the air the remains of skiers' camp on the slope of “Kholat Syakhl”.

The Mistery

The next day the rescuers reached by ground their camp on the mountain marked on the map as 1079, but better known as “Kholat Syakhl”. This means "Mountain of the Dead" in the language of the local nationality Mansi.

Their colleague from the Institute Michael Sharavin took part in the search. He describes their tent:

"We found that the tent was torn and covered with snow. There was no one inside, but the accessories and the shoes of them were there"


Looking at this picture, I noticed the bright spot at the top right. Most people including myself, who have dealt with photography (especially with digital photography), see a lot of such bright circles in their photos. I personally think these are illusory optical artifacts produced by the refraction of light in the lens of the camera. But there is a debate whether these are some UFOs or even creatures or ghosts that can not be seen with the naked eye. Generally I do not believe in such theories, but in this case the appearance of the bright spot is really strange. In the circle we can see darker spots that are very similar to eyes and mouth. Is it laughing at the investigators?


Rescuers found that there are traces of 8 people near the tent. Interestingly, almost all traces were left by bare feet, only one was wearing one shoe. Lost skiers were 9 - was someone carried on hands by the others for some reason? Traces of two of the skiers led to a wooded area nearby, but about 450 meters they were covered with fresh snow. Sharavin went along these tracks to the forest. Under an old pine tree he found remains of a primitive fire and something much worse. To the long-extinct fire there were dead bodies of Yuri Krivonischtenko and Yuri Doroshenko. Both of them were only in their underwear and without shoes. The boughs of the old pine tree were broken at a height of approximately 4 meters. Later field tests proved that the traces of skin found on the bark are from Krivonischtenko and Doroshenko. As if they were trying desperately to climb this pine until their hands become bloody pulp.

Investigators began to question what a beast could have scared those people to leave all their clothes and to go out in the deadly cold. The mystery was further deepened by some facts - there were no trace of any animal around and they had time to light a fire under the the pine tree perhaps in a doomed attempt to survive in the bitterly cold.

About 300 meters from the old pine tree, but closer to the tent, rescuers found the body of the leader Igor Dyatlov. He was on his back with one hand gripping the trunk of a young birch, and the other in a position as if he wanted to protect his face from an unknown assailant. At a hundred yards they found the corpse of Slobodin. He was lying with face in the snow and he had a crack on his skull, but medical experts were adamant that this was not a fatal injury and likely cause of death was freezing.

Zina Kolmogorova was the last to be found at least at this stage. She was far away from the tent. There were traces of blood around her, but it was not established whether this was her blood. Probably so. There were no signs of a fight.

Search for others did not give any result. All rescuers wondered what terror had led these young but experienced mountaineers to abandon everything and flee into the night. The investigation found that the tent was actually cut from the inside, as if skiers were in such a hurry to get out of a terrible danger that they did not have time to go through the normal exit. Among the remains photo-strips were found and the diaries of some of the members of the group, but this did not help to unravel the mystery.


After two months of fruitless searching, the Spring came in the early May. Snow melt and the bodies of others were found. They were in a glen about 70 meters from the pine tree beneath which Krivonischenko and Doroshenko were found. Ski instructor Alexander Zolotarev, graduated engineer Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles and students Ludmila Dubinina and Alexander Kolevatov were covered with a thick layer of snow and ice. But unlike the others, they had multiple injuries and were better dressed. Skull of Thibeaux-Brignolles just like Slobodin's had also been hit, but much more severe. Zolotarev and Dubina's breasts were crushed, which caused massive internal injuries. But there was no sign of tearing of the soft tissues. Kolevatov appeared to have died of frostbite.

(The place where last four bodies were found)

The doctor Boris Vozrozhdenniy who examined the bodies, would say that no man is able to inflict such damage and they can be compared to the injuries sustained in a car accident. It turned out that the tongue of Dubina had been torn out.

The investigation also found that people wore clothes of other skiers. For example, the legs of Dubina were wrapped in a piece of woolen trousers belonging to Krivonischenko and Zolotarev wore the fur coat and hat of Dubina. It is unclear whether this is due to the rapid escape from the tent in which everyone have grabbed different clothes. Or maybe after someone had died, those who were still alive took his or her clothes in an attempt to survive.

At funerals, their relatives noticed that their skin was acquired orange hue, and their hair had lost its natural pigmentation and had a greyish-white color. And as if everything till now was not enough radiation measurements were made and some of the clothes of the skiers had some low levels of radiation.

The Investigation

The first thing the investigators did was to try to recover the sequence of events leading to the tragic end of the group. Primal question was why Dyatlov decided to camp on the bare mountainside. There were better places to build a camp just a mile from there. The only survivor Yudin commented his decision:

"Maybe Dyatlov did not want to lose their already-covered distance or just want to practice camping on a mountainside"

The photos from the photo-strip showed that on February 2, around 17:00 the group started to prepare the camp. They were about 16 miles from their first goal - forest Otorden. Skiers looks healthy and happy on the pictures.


Investigators concluded that around 19:00 people ate and gradually started to prepare for bed. Temperature at the slope at that time was considered around -15 degrees Celsius (and still falling) and it was strange that skiers went to bed undressed. However, most investigators agree that at this point things were still normal.

(one of the last pictures - building of the camp)

Supposed chronology

On the basis of undigested food in their stomachs pathologists suggested that the tragic events began in the time interval between 21:30 and 23:30. Investigators suggested that about that time the group was frightened by "unknown event". People managed to cut the fabric of the tent and escaped in panic. They fled barefoot and poorly clothed.

As experienced skiers and mountaineers they must fully felt that they would not be able to survive for long in this situation. This suggests that the group probably faced a mortal danger so they preferred to flee into the night. Left behind traces suggest that the group initially seemed to be scattered in all directions, but soon they reunited and went to the near forest. Further traces were hidden by the snow, but it was assumed that all came to the pine, which Krivonischenko and Doroshenko desperately tried to climb.

Some investigators have speculated that at this point the group exchanged clothes, those who have grabbed more gave to those who were naked, but this view was not shared by all investigators. However, they managed to lit a fire. Apparently they were still so terrified that they preferred to stay there rather than to go back to the tent. Investigators wondered if the attempts to climb the tree were made to flee or to have visibility to the tent and what was there.

Investigators suggested that at sometime in the night Krivonischenko and Doroshenko died of cold. Dyatlov, Kolmogorova and Slobodin decided that whatever was in the tent, it was preferable compared to white death and decided to return to the tent. None of them managed to reach it and all died of hypothermia.

After their young leader disappeared into the night the other four probably removed any clothing remained on the dead Krivonischenko and Doroshenko and perhaps this is why they both were found worst dressed of all. Probably looking for a shelter, they went to the near glen. Somewhere along the way they felt from a height and this can explain their heavy injuries, although investigators were unable to prove that it was the case. Investigators did not found a place where they could have slipped. According to pathologists Thibeaux-Brignolles died first. A few hours later this happened to Kolevatov and Dubina. Ultimate combination of cold and internal injuries were the cause of death of Zolotarev. It is not clear when tongue of Dubina was removed- before or after her death.

The last of the group died less than eight hours after the initial event. Reconstruction of what happened, however, rose more questions than it answered. In May 1959 the investigation of the case was officially closed. The official conclusion is that the nine skiers died from "unknown compelling force". Two major questions are not answered - what was the original event that started the whole series of bad events and what was the exact cause of the injuries of the people. All documents were sent to a secret archive but in the 1990s some of them were declassified.

The Passage where skiers died was renamed to "Dyatlov Pass" in the name of the group leader. Over the next three years after the tragic events it was closed for the public.

Theories

While the official investigation did not come with any exact conclusion theories are not lacking.

Mansi tribe warriors

At the beginning investigators tented toward the hypothesis that the group was attacked by people from the Siberian Mansi nationality who live in these lands.


It was thought that Mansi people cut the tent (at least until investigators determined that it was cut from inside), they have broken with a rifle heads of Thibeaux-Brignolles and Slobodin and tore off the tongue of Dubina because they were annoyed by her cries. Finally they threw some of the skiers in the glen. Others have died from the cold despite the small fire that they lit.


This hypothesis was quickly dismissed - there were no other steps in the snow besides those of the skiers themselves. No signs of struggle. Supplies and even the money belonging to the group were not touched. Furthermore Mansi themselves actively and willingly participated in the search for the lost group. However, some of today's "scholars" claim that Mansis are indeed guilty and evidences for this were hidden by the authorities, who wanted to develop the rich resources of the area. Unwilling to start a conflict with local Mansi people, the soviet government did not arrest the culprits.

In the USSR there was actually a practice to manipulate the investigation of key cases. The most famous such case is the shooting of 22,000 Poles (military officers and intellectuals) in the forest near the village of Katyn in 1939. In 1942 the Germans found the graves, informed the international community and blamed Stalin for the mass murder. In 1943, when the Soviet Union took back those territories, they sent an "independent" commission which concluded that the Germans were responsible for the massacre. Only after the fall of communism in 1990, Russia admitted that the Russians have committed the mass murder. This shows that even the most hidden truth sooner or later may emerge. It looks like in the "Dyatlov" case there are no such covering (at least not for Mansi). After the fall of the dictatorship, no one was saying that autorities have been covering the local tribe. Even the participants in search operations who are still alive today do not believe Mansi have anything to do with skiers' death, in fact they tend to a different hypothesis, but for it - later in the text.

The evil force from the legends of Mansi

The interesting thing is that this mountain got its name ("Mountain of the Dead") many years ago when a group of Mansi warriors (exactly 9 in total just as skiers) died there. This has led some researchers of the paranormal to believe that the mountain is cursed and inhabited by ancient evil spirits, and that they are the real culprits for the tragedy.

Alien attack

Is there a mysterious case of the last century (and even earlier) without someone to mention aliens? In this case, some people concluded that skiers were victims of forces beyond this Earth. What are the details of one such extreme assumptions? According to Lev Ivanov - a leading inspector investigating the case there has been reports of strange flying spheres in February and March 1959 - in this and other areas nearby. Moreover - in the alleged night of the tragedy, about 50 kilometers south from the group of Dyatlov there was another expedition. They claimed that they had seen in the north orange spheres flying at night.

In 1990 Ivanov gave an interview in which he stated that he was ordered to hide and not to publicize information about those flying spheres. In his own words:

"At the time, I thought, and now I am almost certain that these bright flying spheres have a direct connection with the death of the skiers."

Did authorities hide this information for only reason not to cause mass panic in the civilian population or did they know something more?

Ivanov imagine the events as described below.

Someone from the group spotted a UFO and yelled. Maybe even one of the sheres exploded. People fled. It is even possible that the crack on the skull of Slobodin to be caused by the explosion. Another highly speculative comparison is with the so-called "cattle mutilations". This phenomenon occurs mainly in the U.S., farmers tell of dead cows and other farm animals completely drained of blood and missing parts - often it is the tongue - just like with Dubina. Often the "cattle mutilation" happens after UFO sightings in the area. Weak radiation was also detected within encounters with UFOs.

Moreover, no one ever explained with certainty the last 33th frame from the camera of Yuri Krivonischenko.


Some say he was trying to take a picture of the flying spheres in the sky. Others believe that the picture was taken inside the tent. Lovers of the paranormal even think that this was an attempt to capture on footage the "thing" that has materialized inside.

Military experiment gone wrong

Even if we assume that the glowing orbs have something to do with the fate of skiers, it is not necessarily that those shere belong to an alien civilization. Maybe they were something much more earthly. According to this hypothesis at that time in the area military experiences were conducted. Perhaps the military did not know that a group of civilians has entered the zone, or maybe they did not care about their fate.


The greatest proponent of this theory was the only survivor of the group - Yuri Yudin. He believed that his friends have entered a secret military zone and they have paid for it with their lifes. When all things were collected from the place of the tragedy, he was asked to help investigators to identify what belongs to whom. He said that he saw a piece of cloth that looked like a part of a military uniform, sunglasses and a pair of skis that did not belong to anyone in the group. Yudin also claimed that he have seen documents according to which the military has launched an investigation before the camp was found by rescue teams, and he knows that body parts of his friends were sent in special boxes for testing, but this is not reflected in any document. Also he argued that in the area metal debris were found (see the picture), though investigators found no evidence of an explosion.


This square pattern reminds me of that photo:


This is a fragment that fell in 2012 in Siberia. Is it the same technology? More information about this event:

200-kilo metal ‘UFO fragment’ falls from sky in Siberia

But speaking of weapons it is not necessarily for it to be explosive. Skiers may have been victims of a chemical or biological weapon designed to cause panic. It can even be experimental supersonic weapon. Many people subjected to similar experiments panic and subsequently tell that they had a feeling that a paranormal force is involved.

Recently I came to a very interesting article that caught my attention and I immediately associate it with the "Dyatlov incident". On 1 April 2012 the Russians said they have a deadly weapon that can control the masses. Vladimir Putin has confirmed that this is true and not an April Fools joke. He said that they test a psychotronic weapon that affects the psyche of people and turns them into zombies. This weapon is using electromagnetic waves such as those of the microwave oven. When focused on someone his or her body temperature rises dramatically and one falls into a frenzied panic. Did skiers leave the tent without clothes because of such a weapon? Initially, they were so hot that they were not thinking about clothes. And here's a sentence from the article that most reminded me of the case:

Research into electromagnetic weapons has been carried out in the US and Russia since the ’50s

Dyatlov incident happened in 1959. Coincidence?

Link to the article

Avalanche paranoia

Although the group has chosen to camp on the slope of the mountain instead on a safer place in the forest as experienced hikers they probably have slept with ears pricked for any sign of a falling avalanche. There is no evidence that it happened, but any sound resembling a rolling stone might have made them thinking that an avalanche was comming. In a panic they cut the tent and fled outside.

This hypothesis has serious drawbacks. Even if they initially fled because they were thinking of a coming avalanche, they would soon realize that there was nothing like that and they would come back. But they haven't done so.

Moreover, according to the Russian Wikipedia in 2008 and 2010 experiments were made at the site of the tragedy . It has been found that there is no falling avalanches in that place.

Attack of the Siberian Snowman

This tragic story is often invoked in support of their views by UFO enthusiasts and those who believe in the paranormal evil / demonic forces. Can cryptozoologists come up with a theory too? Actually they can!

According to some, the group was attacked by the creatures known as "Siberian Snowmen" or Almas. One such creature is much stronger than a man, and could have caused the fatal injuries to skiers. But why investigators did not notice their giant steps around? Some argue that in fact the creatures did not attack skiers directly and they did not come near the tent and therefore no one have found beasts' traces. Almas only frightened the group from afar with thier chilling screams. Additionally, there is a claim that near the camp a piece of paper was found on which someone wrote "from now on we know that snow people exist". Most researchers believe that the story of this note is a complete fabrication.

Other theories

There are numerous other theories who try to explain this case. Here are only some of them.

Infight between skiers. This hypotesis is based on the fact that the group devided - Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko were found near the extinct fire while most of the others were in the glen. Did they have a serious dispute? Did they fight each other? What would make experienced skiers to do something so stupid in the wild in the middle of the winter? Investigators found alchohol in the tent. Did they get drunk? This theory don't seen very plausible. As mentioned there were no traces of struggle and if they separated in two rival groups why both group have left the tent? Why do they decide to fight away from it not for who controls it?

There are theories that include an attack by escaped prisoners or an attack by militiamen who thought that the skiers were escaped prisoners. It is easily dissmised.

There's even a hypotesis that at least three of the members of the group were western hostile spies who had to submit radioactive material to other agents embedded in another skiers group coming toward them. Things went wrong and agents were detected by others in the group. To cover their tracks the agents forced with guns others to strip from thier clothes and to go out in the cold. So death by frost would appear "normal". If people had gunshot wounds something would have been suspected. Then when they walked down toward the glen under barrels of the pistols, some of skiers attacked the agents. However, agents were trained in martial arts and managed to inflict severe wounds. From the agents only Slobotin was with slightly cracked head, but they were exhausted and died too (of frostbite). This story is good for a spy novel, but there is hardly anything to do with the reality.

The legend is born

In 1967, journalist Yuri Yarovoy wrote a novel based on the "Dyatlov Pass Incident". He was a photographer in the search party and it is assumed that he had inside information. However, because of censorship he may have hid many things from the public. The novel is with much more upbeat ending - only the leader of the ski expedition dies. However, thanks to this book this incident gradually surfaced in the West.

In 1990, another journalist Anatoly Gushin undertook the task of reviewing the original records of the investigation to write a new post. He noticed that many pages were missing and an envelope that had been mentioned in the list of materials is not there too. He summarized his findings in a book. Emphasis is on the theory that the incident was the result of an experiment of a Soviet secret weapon.

In Yekaterinburg Dyatlov Foundation was found, whose aim is to convince the Russian authorities to reopen the case.

On February 2, 2008 in Yekaterinburg Dyatlov Foundation and Ural State Technical University have organized a conference on the case. It features last still alive six people who were involved in the search in 1959, and various experts. They concluded that the skiers were victims of a military experiment. Many other people do not agree with their conclusion.

In 2011 "Dyatlov incident" was discussed in an episode of the series "Ancient Aliens" on History Channel.

On April 27, 2013 the only survivor Yuri Yudin passed away on age of 76 (link). One of the last pictures of him:


In 2013 a movie loosely based on the incident was made. Some trailers:





So what happened to those nine poor souls? For half a century criminologists, scientists, other experts and ordinary people wonders what really happened and it seems definitive answer will not come any time soon, maybe never.


Do you think the story is over. I don't think so because...

History repeats itself

Main source for the next information is this russian article:

В Бурятии существует свой перевал Дятлова

This is about another tragic incident in which at first glance there is nothing mysterious .... except that the similarities with the "Dyatlov Incident" are more than extraordinary.

This happened in August 1993, on peak Tritrans in Hamar-Daba pass in Buryatia which is part of the Russian Federation. A group of tourists was moving through the area consisting of three boys, three girls and their 41-year-old female leader.

In "Dyatlov" we also have a group of young people and an older instructor (10 in number).


In 1993 the tourist group from Petropavlovsk (Kazakhstan) began its journey with a trip by train. In 1959, skiers group also traveled by train.

Tritrans is a bare peak that has "stones, grass and wind" on it, it is 4 kilometers from the nearby forest. This is also reminiscent of the relatively barren area where Dyatlov and his group have camped - a slope near a forest.

Although it was August 1993 the weather proved to be extremely bad with rain and even snow.


The exhausted group stopped on Tritrans near a radio-repeater tower, although experts consider this as a big mistake - they had to do everything possible to reach the forest. Dyatlov's group also choose a not particularly hospitable slope, although there were other options.

On the morning of August 5, 1993 the group continued to move, but around 11:00 Alexander K.  became very ill, he began to bleed from his ears. Not long after that he died. The group of children was in shock of the death of their friend. In the report of the investigators the following is stated (told by the only survivor Valentina W.):

"Dennis started running and hiding behind rocks Tatiana was hitting her head on the rocks, Victoria and Timur went crazy, Ludmila Ivanovna (the leader of the group) died of a heart attack."

In "Dyatlov" case there is only one survivor too. Yet another similarity.

The accepted version is that the terrified tourists died from hypothermia and exhaustion one by one. Only Valentina managed to get to the forest where she was found by another group of tourists. The girl uttered not a word for several days. Corpses of others were removed after a month and buried in zinc coffins as weather and animals were mutilated them - at least that is the official explanation. This is another similarity to 1959 - the bodies of some of the group have been found a long time after the incident.

When in 1993 the mountain rescue team finally got to the unfortunate group they saw that they were all lightly dressed - this can be explained by the fact that it was August and they were not expecting bad weather, even in the mountains. But why were their shoes taken off ? Skiers in 1959 were found half naked too.

Of course, as in the "Dyatlov Incident" there is no shortage of fantastic suggestions - from poison gas to the effects of infrasound caused by the wind and the specifics of the terrain.

Nowadays Valentina was found by journalists on the internet social networks, but she refuses to talk and to give more details about what happened during that August day, it seems the psychological trauma is still strong.

Experts believe that the tragedy was solely due to unfortunate circumstances and that there is nothing mysterious. That summer temperatures reach 30 degrees, but here in the mountains cold rain was falling for several days and it finally turned to snow. Moreover, in 1993 maps were not as accurate as they are today, not to mention that there were no widely available GPS navigations or mobile phones. Maybe the leader of the group did not find a nearby shelter in the night and therefore they probably put their tents on the bare ridge. She led children, not experienced mountaineers and they were totally exhausted and they were unable to continue to look for a better place.

Not so mysterious or...

Has nothing mysterious really happened?

There are several options.

1. Experts are right - it's bad coincidence, no paranormal force is involved. Strange things (shoes off) were due to the fact that they were out of their minds.

2. Something happened out of the ordinary, something so sinister that the only survivor Valentina did not spoke for days, and when speech finally came back, she could not tell the truth and just say that everyone was going crazy.

3. Valentina told the eerie truth, but investigators did not believe her and her words were not taken into account. They just decided that the madness still holds her.

4. Valentina told the eerie truth and investigators very well understood it, but they forced her to keep silent about the incident (something she does to this day). Why did the rescuers reach the group after a month? Were they waiting "evil" to go away...

What can this case tell us about the "Dyatlov Incident"? Assuming that what happened in 1993 was a bad coincidence and normal people can suddenly go mad - to hit their heads in the stones and tear their clothes, we may assume that in 1959, everything was also due to the insanity and unfortunate circumstances. Indeed, every year tourists die in the mountains of all continents and in most cases it is actually because of a combination of factors such as a sudden change of weather, inexperience, bad luck, etc. Is "Dyatlov Incident" such a case? Some things, however, can not be ignored lightly:

- Although people from Dyatlov's group were young, they were very experienced. In fact this expedition, for most of us might feel terrible, for them was just training for their next expedition which was to be beyond the Arctic Circle!

- There are too many unexplained details, not just shoes. Starting from the fact that they cut their tent from within, to the missing tongue of Dubina and to the mysterious last photo from their camera ... these are just some of the oddities.

- Even the official investigation concluded that the incident is not due to bad coincidence. Conclusion that is recorded in the documents states that the group faced a 'unknown compelling force'.

But even if we assume that in both cases in 1959 and 1993 there are only bad coincidences and no paranormal force, the fact remains that there are so many similarities, which in itself is mysterious. Does we live in a virtual reality similar to "The Matrix"? Was one of its programmers just so lazy to write new code and does he decide to "copy-paste" from 1959 to 1993?

Some last oddities and paranormal events

I read an interview with the russian anomalous investigator Nicholai Varsegov from March 19, 2013. He mostly comments on the new movie that is somewhat based on the Dyatlov Pass incident. (link)

But I found something very interesting in the interview - he says that on June 11, 2012 a plane with thirteen people on board falls over the Urals. They search for it several months and finally it was found near the place where Dyatlov's group died.

I searched some more about this and I found two maps.

First is in russian but it is published in a well-known english-language paranormal blog (Who Forted?) on February 2, 2009:


The second is in english but it is published in a portugese-language website on February 29, 2009:


Each map is in language different from the language of the website they are published on but this is not the strangest thing. Here are both maps:



We can see where nine skiers died. We also see the place where, according to folklore a group of Mansi warriors met their fate. Finally we see the site of a plane crash in 1991 which killed 9 people.

Note that Nikolai Varsegov mentioned that the plane crash with 13 casualties occurred in 2012, but maybe he made a mistake? Or maybe there are two fallen planes - in 1991 and 2012!

So do you think the story is over? Think again!

All these additional facts lead me to believe that in the Book of Fate, the last page of the story about Dyatlov pass is not yet finished...

Some final words. This article is based on two articles in bulgarian language I wrote in 2012 and 2013. Dyatlov Pass Incident is very special for me not just because it is one of the greatest true mysteries of 20th century. I have a very personal connection. When I started to write about this case for the first time back in the 2012, I experienced some weird paranormal activity. I was living in a rented apartment and for two weeks at nights I witnessed poltergeist activity. Yes, I know it sounds unbelievable but this was no joke for me. I moved out of that place because of this activity but it is a whole different story. I have seen several times prosaic "lights in the sky" before (I don't claim they were aliens) but I have never ever before experienced something like this. Is it a coincidence that I started to write about Dyatlov at that time? I don't know. In quantum mechanics there is a concept that physical observations affect the observable objects in the quantum scale. Are there a similar concept in the "paranormal mechanics" that the observable objects affect those who observe and investigate them?

петък, 26 юни 2015 г.

Mysterious places in Bulgaria: Markova mekhana

The remains of the fortress Markova mekhana (bulgarian: Маркова механа) are located 600 meters from the pass Gate of Trajan. More often this fortress and the whole place are called "Gate of Trajan" too. It dates from the time of the Roman empire. In ancient times it was called Stipon. Archeological excavations took place there in 1975.

Years before the excavations people from villages Gorno Varshilo and Dolno Varshilo were passing near the remains of the ancient fortress on their way to cities of Kostenetz, Samokov and Ihtiman where they were selling their production of grapes and cherries. Near the fortress, when it got dark, people started to hear some strange hissing. In the villages people started to talk that these noises are made by samodivas.

In the folklore samodivas are unearthly beautiful creatures, but in most cases hostile to people. They live in the mountains and only come out at night in the woods and on the roads. They can enchant passengers. Therefore the inhabitants of the two villages were very careful when they were passing near the Gate of Trajan.

After the excavations, hissing stops. It is assumed that it was caused by a vortex of air in a semi-open tunnel, which has been blocked by the other side.

The area itself has a very bloody history. The Gate of Trajan is one of the few passages between the field of Sofia and the Upper Trakia Valley. Therefore, all rulers fiercely defended the pass, starting from the Thracian tribe Bessi. After them Romans and Byzantines were the next to rule this pass. It is believed that the passage is named after the emperor Trajan.

Here in 986 bulgarian tzar Samuil defeated the Byzantine army. Here for 7 years, Bulgarians hold against Ottoman invasion. The countless hordes of Ottoman turks finally managed to capture the Bulgarian fortress but many of them died.

In the winter of 1443-1444 the crusaders of Vladislav Varnenchik reached the Gate of Tajan in his first campaign against the Turks. The next year he decided to go through Northern Bulgaria, knowing very well how difficult it is to capture this passage. 

In the time of the Ottoman Empire the passage is full of bandits. Nothing helped against them neither quartered Turkish army garrison, nor that Bulgarian villages Klissura (now extinct) and Vetren who were exempted from some of the taxes to the Empire in exchange for guarding the pass against bandits. Ultimately during the Middle Ages, the pass was abandoned because of banditry and people began to use the way through Momin prohod, Kostenetz and Belovo.

In 1877-1878 in the passage of Trajan, Turks dug trenches and were preparing for a decisive battle againt the Russian army, but because of the disorganization and panic they fled to Pazardzhik giving this strategic area without a fight.

Are the ghosts of all who died there still haunting this place?

The area has another peculiarity. In 1969 a small plane fell there. Rescuers were looking four days for it. It turns out that there is an "air hole" over this place. Since then, planes do not fly over there. So It can be called the "Bulgarian Bermuda Triangle."

Most of the information for this material is taken from the book of Miho Tchervenkov - "City of  Kostenetz and the valley. Book One: from antiquity to 1878."


I live in this region, and I know about some of the things described in the book of Miho Tchervenkov, but others were new even for me. Still for others I have different information. I have heard that the "air hole" is not over the Trajan Gate, but near the village of Verinsko. During the communist era a grain warehouse was built there so in case of a war with Western world, it would be hard for the enemy aircrafts to bomb it. But maybe I am wrong or there are two "air holes" - over Verinsko and over The Gate of Trajan.

Finally some pictures of the fortress Markova Mekhana from Wikipedia: