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The Top 10 Greatest Russian Mysteries of All Time

Russia is a vast country, by far the largest country on earth in terms of land mass. The Soviet Union was much larger even. It's not surprise that some of the most famous unsolved mysteries in the world come out of that part of the planet. Join us as we glance at 10 of the most famous unsolved mysteries from there.

10 - Arkaim

Photo of Arkaim by Rafikova m - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 Arkaim is an ancient citadel built nearly 4,000 years ago that is full of mystery. The entire city was built around the spiritual idea of "reproducing the model of the universe" which was derived from ancient Indian literature. It was built in three concentric rings and featured the ancient swastika religious symbol found throughout the region at the time. It held as many as 2,500 people at the time, making it the largest citadel in the region. The city has also been associated with ancient Aryan culture (not the Hitler variety) and may have been the source of Vedic knowledge in India as well as the Asgard mentioned in ancient Germanic literature.

9 - Russian Ghost Cities

Photo By Laika ac from USA - Kadykchan, CC BY-SA 2.0 The USSR or Soviet Union built dozens of cities with controlled access, now known as Ghost Cities. These cities were completely cut off from the outside world except for gated roads coming in and out of the towns. Most were built around nuclear power or research centers. These towns are nearly all abandoned now, a testament to the iconic Brutalist architecture of the period.

8 - Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok is by far the most remote location heavily researched by Russian scientists. Lake Vostok is not in Russia. It is a lake under about 2.5 miles of ice. Bizarrely enough, Russian researchers have been fascinated with drilling through the ice to see what was underneath. Beginning in the 1950s until 2011, from the height of the Cold War to Putin's Russia, they drilled through the ice to see what ancient forms of life may lie underneath. The unrelenting focus on getting through the ice of a lake in Antarctica has left many of us scratching our heads.

7 - The Petrozavodsk Phenomenon

The Petrozavodsk object stands out in UFO research as one of the most puzzling and well documented cases of all time. On September 20th, 1977, one of the most widely viewed celestial events of all time unfolded over the city of Petrozavodsk, Russia (The USSR at the time). The event was witnessed from Copenhagen, Denmark all the way to Helsinki in Finland. According to eyewitnesses, 48 unidentified luminescent objects appeared in the atmosphere starting around 1:00 AM. The objects were observed for over two hours in various cities around the region. They appeared to shift direction abruptly, sometimes being stationary and sometimes traveling at enormous speeds. They were witnessed by military officials as well and there were official investigations into the issue. Nearly all of the eye witnesses also reported that the object emitted other glowing objects and that the objects were entirely silent.

6 - Psychotronics: The Russian MKULTRA

The Russian MKULTRA was as large its American counterpart. From 1917 to 2003, the Soviet Union and the modern Russian government spent nearly $1 Billion on "psychotronics", similar to the MKULTRA program in the United States. One area of the program focused on a Soviet idea that the brain emits high-frequency electromagnetic waves which can be received by other brains. Research seemed to show that it could change the magnetic polarity of hydrogen nuclei and stimulate immune systems in various organisms. They even made a device which could store and generate the energy, known as a "cerpan".

5 - The Voronezh UFO

On September 27th, 1989, a UFO appeared to a group of children in the city of Voronezh in the Soviet Union. The children report taht the craft landed in front of them, a three eyed alien popped out with a robot. The alien mind controlled another witness by freezing them in their tracks. The craft then left and returned five minutes later to abduct a 16 year old boy. There were as many as 12 eyewitnesses to all of that. Interestingly, the craft was also reported by the local police department as well.

4 - UVB-76: The Buzzer

Somewhere in Russia, there is a radio tower which has been broadcasting an inexplicable series of sounds since at least 1973. To really grasp the strangeness of it, listen to the example audio above. The sound has evolved over time. It was mostly a chirping sound until 1990, where it changed to a buzzer sound. Nobody knows what on earth it means. One interesting detail is that, on occasion, conversations have been heard in the background which seems to indicate that the sound is going through an open mic.

3 - Nano Spirals and Coils of the Ural Mountains

An example of a nanocoil found in the Ural Mountains. In the mysterious Ural Mountains, where our number one mystery also took place, researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered thousands of tiny nano-components which appear to be designed and very precisely manufactured. Dating to about 300,000 years ago, there is no known natural explanation for how they got there or what they were even designed to do. The objects, also known as Out of Place Artifacts or Ooparts, continue to amaze scientists. There are coils, shafts, spirals and other mechanical parts which are so small, they can only be appreciated with a microscope.

2 - The Tunguska Event

The Tunguska Event was a massive explosion in remote Siberia which still baffles scientists. On June 30th of 1908, there was a massive explosion in Siberia which knocked down 80 million trees, covering an area of 830 square miles. The explosion had the power of as many as 30 megatons of energy, more than 1,000 times the energy of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Heroshima. This is, of course, well before any atomic weapons had been invented by humans. Speculation has ranged from UFOs to a meteorite exploding before it impacted the ground since there is no crater.

1 - The Dyatlov Pass Incident

The Dyatlov Pass Incident is the most mysterious Russian event of modern times. The Dyatlov Pass Incident is without a doubt one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th Century. 10 skiers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute set out to travel to a nearby ski town. The trip was not thought to be dangerous. One turned back due to illness and the other nine were all killed by an "unknown compelling force". Camping on the side of Dead Mountain, something forced the hikers to run out of the tent in a hurry. Their tent was cut open from the inside. Two of the hikers were found near a fire pit in only their underwear. One hiker had high levels of radiation on his clothing. Three hikers suffered massive crushing injuries but had no signs of physical violence. Read our full article on The Dyatlov Pass Incident here. Read the full article

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The Dyatlov Pass Incident Revisited

The infamous Dyatlov Pass Incident captures the modern imagination because of how bizarre the circumstances are surrounding the deaths of the nine hikers who tried to cross Kholat Syakhl, which translates to the Dead Mountain in English. Does new research into UFOs, Soviet Missile tests or psychedelic mushrooms help explain the mystery?

An Overview

For a super quick overview of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, you can also see our video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTmNJX6w7o4 In 1959, a group of ten skiers took off on a skiing expedition into the Ural Mountains of the Soviet Union. All members of the team were very experienced hikers. Some were certified in mountain climbing as well as hiking. In either case, Kholat Syakhl is not known to be a dangerous hike, especially considering the skill of the team. The team was lead by Igor Dyatlov, for whom the pass is known in the modern imagination. Before reaching the point at which the incident happened, one of the hikers by the name of Yuri Yudin, turned back because he was not feeling well, leaving the remaining eight hikers: Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina, Yuri (Georgiy) Alexeyevich Krivonischenko, Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov, Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, Nikolai Vladimirovich Thibeaux-Brignolles and Semyon Alekseevich Zolotaryov.

This is a photograph of the tent taken by the initial investigation team. Some have noted that the ski pole in the back of this image did not move when compared to an image taken by the hikers while setting up the tent, indicating that there was not an avalanche. The team set off from the town of Vizhai to cross over to the town of Otorten. On February 1st, they started to move through the pass but started to veer off course because of a major snowstorm. After realizing they were off track, they made camp. That night, there was a mysterious incident which resulted in the deaths of all nine hikers. Piecing together the details from their diaries and evidence found at the camp, the tent had been cut open from the inside and the hikers had run down the mountain, away from the tent, some of them partially clothed. Two of the hikers (Krivonischenko and Doroshenko) were found near a large pine tree in nothing but their underwear. They seemed to have built a fire nearby. Some of the branches of the pine tree were broken, indicating that one of them had tried to climb the tree to look for something. Dyatlov, Kolmogorova and Slobodin were found in the snow between the tree and the camp, at various distances (300, 480 and 630 metres) from the tree. The other four hikers would be found four months layer under heavy snow.

These are the bodies of the two victims found in only their underwear. They were not under much snow at all. Nearly all of the mystery surrounds the details of the investigation that followed. The facts that are known are as follows. The tent was cut open from within the inside. The two hikers found near the tree (Krivonischenko and Doroshenko) were found naked other than their underwear. However, some of their clothing was found on the three hikers found between the tree and the cap, indicating that the others may have salvaged some clothes from those two, presumably after they had perished. In general, there was a lack of clothing, as if the hikers had ran from the tent without grabbing anything at all. Lyudmila Dubinina was found with quite a bit of her face missing including her eyes, lips and part of her skullbone. Semyon Zolotaryov was missing his eyeballs and Aleksander Kolevatov was missing his eye-brows. Only the hikers' footprints were visible and their paths did not indicate any sort of struggle. Some of them did not even have shoes on initially, supporting the idea they ran out of the tent without any time to prepare. One of the hiker's had a very high level of radiation on his clothing. Krivonikschenko's camera was found and contained several images from the expedition. Check Out More Russian Mysteries: https://buzzesque.com/top-10-russian-mysteries/

The Theories

Avalanche An obvious theory in such a mountainous and frigid region would be they were either in the middle of an avalanche or were fleeing from one. Looking at the area though, this is extraordinarily unlikely. The slope was not steep, there were no snow patterns indicating anything other than steadily accumulating snow and in the more than 100 expeditions to the region since then, there have not been avalanche conditions in any of them. None of the bodies were covered with more than a few inches of snow and none of the trees seemed damaged from any sort of avalanche. Murder There was a theory that the indigenous people of the region, known as the Mansi may have attacked the hikers for invading their lands. No evidence supported this theory however. The Mansi people were not quick to attack others, there were no footprints other than those of the hikers in the snow and none of the bodies indicated any normal physical violence. Three of the bodies did have injuries but seemed to resemble some physical force but not anything resembling normal human violence. Dubinina and Zolotaryov both had major chest damage, which struck investigators as similar to that of a car crash. None of the bodies had any external wounds. It was almost as if they were crushed by some mysterious force. The other six deaths were easily attributable to hypothermia.

Photos of Mansi markings were found on photos taken by the hikers in the days preceding the event. Wind There are several theories involving wind as a mechanic. One is that of katabitc winds which are winds that are high in moisture, carried down the surface of a mountain by gravity. These types of winds are common under certain circumstances. The idea is that the winds would have been so strong, the hikers would have panicked and ran out of the tent with whatever clothing they could grab. Another wind theory is that proposed bye Donnie Eichar in his book Dead Mountain. Eichar proposes that the wind around the mountain created a type of vertex which could produce a very low frequency (VLF) sound which is thought to cause panic attacks in humans. He proposes that the hikers ran out in a panic and three of the hikers ran into the ravine and died from the fall. Both of the wind theories rely on the notion that the hikers ran out in a panic, almost presupposed by the cut in the side of the tent. However, initial reports from the first investigation indicate that the footstep patterns are of a normal walking speed and not from people running and stumbling down the side of a mountain. Military Tests The most common theory regarding military tests is that the Soviet Union was testing parachute mines in the area and the concussive nature of the weapons would have caused a sense of delirium in the hikers. The idea is that the hikers cut a hole in the tent, stepped out and saw the flash of bombs on the side of the mountain and decided to retreat to the woods where they would be safer. There are records of military tests of that nature around the time the team was in the area. The main reason for the theory is to explain the radiation on the clothing of one of the individuals. Later analysis indicates that radioactive weapons would have caused the same fallout on the clothing of all the individuals. UFOs The UFO theory is based on some of the earliest evidence from the investigation. One of the leading investigators, Lev Ivanov, noticed that the tops of the pine trees were burned. There had been reports of fireball like UFOs on the mountain around the time of the disappearance. Whether this also coincides with the military tests is unknown. One intriguing bit of information from another investigator is that the burn marks on the tree did not seem to indicate an epicenter but rather they seemed to come from a beam of concentrated energy. That investigator actually went on to become a UFO consultant for the KGB.

Some have argued that this photo, found as the last photo on Krivonischenko's camera, resembles the glowing orbs of a UFO. This appears to have been a technical shot though, to finish out the reel. Shrooms

Fly Algaric was plentiful in the region of the incident and was used by Mansi shaman for mystical purposes. As bizarre as it sounds, mushrooms are one of he recurring alternate theories which could explain some of the bizarre behavior pieced together from the evidence. The idea is as follows. The local indigenous people in the region, the Mansi, practice a form of shamanic religion in which local mushrooms are used by shamans to travel to the spirit world and help those plagued by illness or to communicate with the dead. Shamanic culture in Siberia is extremely well studied and there are numerous books about findings from a plethora of anthropological studies in the region. The shamans value a particular mushroom, Fly Algaric, so much that they dress up like them. Fly Algaric (Amanita Muscaria), as far as magic mushrooms go, is a particularly toxic mushroom and is not easily processed in its natural form. It is so toxic that the shamans prefer to intake the naturally occurring psychedelic in another form, reindeer urine. Yes, that's right, reindeer pee. Reindeer have a physiology much more suitable for processing the toxins in the mushroom and the psychoactive component of the drug, Musciomol, comes out in their urine. Shamans will collect the snow where the reindeer pee, drink it, get high and then pee again into the snow and, in an even more bizarre urine transaction, reindeer will even drink the shaman pee, creating a cycle of acquiring the drug. If Fly Algaric looks familiar, it may be because of Alice in Wonderland where the mushroom is featured in artwork. In fact, the mushroom helped inspire the book due to some of its side effects such as macropsia in which things look larger than they are, making the person feel small. It can also cause the opposite effect, micropsia. These can even occur simultaneously, creating the effect known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Other effects are becoming delirious, entering a trance state, sweating and twitching. The theory, as it applies to this case, is that the hikers may have found a bag of mushrooms hanging on a tree, something the shaman do to dry them out, and may have experimented with them during the night. Not understanding how toxic the mushrooms are, they would have entered a nearly hypnotic state, prone to easy suggestion. They may have also begun sweating and felt as though the natural environment would not harm them. In a hasty decision, they may have exited the tent by cutting it open, walked slowly down the hillside and built a fire. Within a few minutes, considering the conditions, the exposed hikers would have succumbed to hypothermia and the others would attempt to go back to the tent to get supplies. The mushroom theory is interesting because it explains so much of the evidence. The mushrooms definitely grow in the area and photos taken from the hikers' cameras show Mansi markings all around the area. Death by Yeti Several of the hikers had cameras and all of the cameras were analyzed to see if there were clues hidden in events of the days preceding the incident. In one of these photographs, some argue, there is a figure which resembles a Yeti or what we think a Yeti might look like. The figure does not seem to have any equipment and is just crossing in front of a clearing. It's not clear if the image could have been a blurry photo of one of the hikers or the infamous snow monster. Most of the speculation around the Yeti theory relies on the fact that some of the hikers (those found in the ravine) had broken ribs and other bones. Also, these are the same hikers which are missing eyeballs and tongues. The idea is that a Yeti could explain the cause of these injuries. The Yeti theory is problematic though because it does not seem to fit with the notion that there were no other footprints coming or going from the scene. The injuries of the hikers in the ravine could also be explained by fall damage and predation.

This photo is the last photo from Thibeaux-Brignolle's camera. Many have speculated it is a photograph of the infamous Russian snow monster, the Yeti. The 2015 Investigation In 2015, Russia launched an investigation of the incident again, this time through the ICRF (Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation) due to outcries from family members of the deceased. Their findings, again under pressure to come up with an answer, relied on the notion that a slow movement of heavy wet snow down the side of the mountain (a super slow avalanche) confused the hikers by pushing their tent. Not realizing that the situation was still reparable, they panicked, cut a hole in the tent and ran outside. The theory is that the two who ran out in their pajamas ran to a firepit which already existed next to the pine tree, thinking they could stay warm. The weather conditions at the time were quite severe with a heavy snow falling and temperatures well below zero and nearly hurricane force winds. A lot of the findings from the 2015 investigation highlighted the inexperience of the team in such conditions. Many have argued, however, that the group was not that inexperienced. Some were certified in mountain climbing and hiking and would have known not to make such basic mistakes as going outside in just pajamas. There's also the troubling fact that they would even be in pajamas with hurricane force winds pummeling the side of a small tent.

In Conclusion

A monument now stands to commemorate the lives of the nine hikers who died in the Dyatlov Pass incident. Of all the theories, the mushroom theory tends to best explain the evidence we find. We know that the tracks did not indicate panic. We know that some of the hikers were in pajamas in profoundly disturbing weather conditions. We know that at least 6 of the hikers died from hypothermia as the direct cause of death. The evidence from the area, such as burn marks on the trees or could indicate some yet unknown theory. The Dyatlov Pass Incident stands out as one of the stranger stories out of the former Soviet Union and, due to the passage of time as well as the change in political structure there, the truth is probably too far gone for us to come up with definitive answers today. It will go down in history as one of the strangest and most documented unexplained events of the 20th century. However, it is such a rich source of speculation that we may revisit it ourselves in future articles as armchair sleuths come up with more ways to try to explain such a disparate set of facts. Read the full article