We were the first... Precision that amazed the world!

ON September 14, 1959, MANKIND REACHED ANOTHER CELESTIAL BODY FOR THE FIRST TIME - the USSR pennant was delivered to the Moon!

September 14, 1959 at 00:02 a.m. 24 sec. Moscow time, the Soviet automatic interplanetary station “Luna-2” for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the Mare Mons region near the craters Aristyllus, Archimedes and Autolycus. For the first time in history, a space flight from Earth to another celestial body was carried out. The station was manufactured at the Korolev OKB-1. Its mass was 390.2 kg. The diameter of the spherical body is slightly more than 1 meter.

The station was launched on September 12, 1959 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the Vostok-L launch vehicle (LV) of the R-7 family. To ensure that the vehicle reaches the Moon (at the second escape velocity), it was necessary to modify the launch vehicle. The launch vehicle was equipped with a third stage - block “E” with an RD-0105 engine, created at the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (OKB-154).

Scientific equipment was installed at the Luna-2 station - scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, micrometeorite detectors.

Research was carried out on the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Moon; study of radiation belts located around the Earth; study of the intensity and intensity variations of cosmic radiation; study of heavy nuclei in cosmic radiation; study of the gas component of interplanetary matter; study of meteoric particles.

The data from Luna-1 were confirmed that the Moon does not have a noticeable magnetic field and that there are no radiation belts around it. As we approached the lunar surface, a slight increase in the concentration of the gas component was discovered compared to interplanetary space.

One of the important scientific achievements of the mission was the direct measurement of the solar wind.
The station's trajectory was set for a direct hit on the Moon.

The geocentric part of the Luna 2 orbit was hyperbolic, and for the first time the second escape velocity was exceeded. The device did not have its own propulsion system, so there was no orbital correction, and there was no speed deceleration when approaching the Moon. In the acceleration section, while the control systems of the three stages were operating, sequentially for 12 minutes. subsequent flight trajectories were formed so as to get to the center of the visible disk of the Moon with a diameter of only 3476 km.

An error in determining the rocket's speed when the engine is turned off by just one meter per second, that is, by 0.01% of the full speed, leads to a deviation of the meeting point with the Moon by 250 km
A deviation of the velocity vector from the calculated direction by one arc minute will lead to a displacement of the meeting point by 200 km.
The deviation of the launch time from the Earth from the calculated one by ten seconds causes a shift of the meeting point on the surface of the Moon by 200 km.

Obviously, ensuring such precision in missile control was a very difficult task. However, it was solved with accuracy that amazed the world.

The head of the American space program, former chief designer of the German V-2 rocket, Wernher von Braun, assessed the launch of Luna 2 as follows:

"Russia is far ahead of the United States in terms of space projects and no amount of money can buy lost time..."

The history of any country is fraught with many mysteries. We do not know whether Atlantis actually existed, for which the Egyptians built monumental and majestic pyramids, where the burials of the greatest commanders of the ancient world are located - Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. And there are a lot of such unsolved secrets. One of them is a terrible story that happened in a place that is now called “Dyatlov Pass”. What really happened here more than half a century ago?

Background

In January 1959, a group of skiers from the tourist club of the Ural Polytechnic Institute went on a hike for 16 days. During this time, they planned to travel at least 350 kilometers and climb to the tops of the Oiko-Chakur and Otorten mountains. The hike belonged to the highest category of difficulty, since its members were experienced hikers.

Place of events

The tragedy, the mystery of which has haunted researchers for several decades, occurred on the slopes of Mount Kholatchakhl, located in the Northern Urals. The mountain at the Dyatlov Pass (as the place of the tragedy is now called) is also known under another, ominous name - “mountain of the dead.” This is what they call it Mansi - representatives of a small ethnic group living in that region. Later they began to talk about it in connection with the tragic death of members of the Dyatlov expedition.

Chronicle of events

The trek of 10 group members started on January 23. From this moment the history of the Dyatlov Pass began. Six were students (including the head of the tourist group, Igor Dyatlov), three were graduates, and one was an instructor.

On the twenty-seventh, Yuri Yudin was forced to leave the route due to illness (radiculitis). He was the only surviving member of the expedition. For four days the group walked through completely deserted places. On January 31, tourists went to the upper reaches of the Auspiya River. The plan was to climb to the top of Mount Otorten and then continue the hike further, but due to strong winds that day the summit could not be reached.

On February 1, the participants of the hike set up a storage shed with some of their belongings and food and began their ascent at about 3 p.m. Having stopped at the pass, which now bears the name of Igor Dyatlov, at 17:00 in the evening the participants of the hike began to set up a tent for the night. The gentle slope of the mountain could not threaten the Dyatlovites in any way. The details of the last hours of the tourists’ lives were determined from photographs taken by the group members. After eating, they went to bed. And then something terrible happened, forcing experienced tourists to run out naked into the cold, cutting open the tent.

Search for the missing group

The mystery of the Dyatlov Pass shocked the first witnesses who arrived at the scene of the tragedy. The search for tourists began two weeks after what happened at night on the slope of Mount Dead. On February 12, they were supposed to reach the village of Vizhay - the final point of the hike. When the tourists did not appear by the appointed time, the search for them began. First, the search group went to the tent. One and a half kilometers from her, at the border of the forest, next to a small fire, two bodies were found, stripped down to their underwear. Dyatlov’s body lay 300 meters from this place.

Zina Kolmogorova was found at approximately the same distance from him. A few days later, the body of another victim, Slobodin, was found in the same area. Already in late spring, when the snow began to melt, the bodies of the remaining group members were found. The case was dropped due to the lack of any plausible versions of what happened, and the authorities called the cause of death of tourists an irresistible force of nature. Six people, according to medical experts, died from hypothermia, three from severe injuries.

Dyatlov Pass: versions of what happened

The tragedy that occurred on the Mountain of the Dead more than half a century ago was kept secret for many years during the Soviet period. If they talked about it, it was only by those who were directly involved either in what happened or in the investigation into the deaths of tourists. Of course, such conversations at that time could only be conducted in private; ordinary people should not have known about what happened in the Ural Mountains. In the 1990s, for the first time, reports of those distant events appeared in the media. The mystery of the Dyatlov Pass immediately interested many researchers. What happened on the slope of Mount Otorten went beyond an ordinary accident or natural disaster. Soon the name of the place where the young tourists died became known to everyone - “Dyatlov Pass”. Versions of the tragedy that happened grew and multiplied every day. Among them there were quite plausible attempts to explain the events that took place, and many completely fantastic assumptions. The mysterious Dyatlov Pass - what really happened? Let's look at the current versions of the tragedy in more detail.

Version 1 - avalanche. Proponents of this theory believe that an avalanche hit the tent with the people in it. Because of this, it collapsed under the load of snow, and the trapped tourists had to cut it from the inside. There was no point in being in it anymore, since it no longer saved me from the cold. Hypothermia led to the fact that the subsequent actions of people were inadequate. This led to their death. Severe injuries found in several people were the result of the avalanche. This version has many shortcomings: neither the tent nor its fastenings were moved. Moreover, the ski poles stuck into the snow next to her remained untouched. If tourists were injured as a result of an avalanche, how to explain the lack of blood in the tent? Meanwhile, one of the dead had a depressed skull fracture.

Dyatlov Pass - what really happened? We continue to consider the most plausible versions of the terrible tragedy that happened half a century ago.

Version 2 - tourists became victims of some missile tests conducted by the military. This theory is supported by the slight radioactivity of the clothes of the victims and the strange orange color of their skin. But there was no training ground, airfield or any structures belonging to military units nearby.

Version 3, which tries to explain what happened at the Dyatlov Pass, also implies military involvement in the deaths of tourists. Perhaps they became unwanted witnesses to some secret tests being carried out in that area, and a decision was made to liquidate the group.

Version 4 - among the group members were representatives of the KGB, who carried out a secret operation to transfer radioactive materials to foreign intelligence agents. They were exposed, and the entire group was eliminated by spies. The disadvantage of this version is the difficulty of carrying out such an operation far from populated areas.

Mysterious Dyatlov Pass - mystery solved?

All versions that try to explain what happened to members of a group of tourists in 1959 have significant shortcomings. But there is a simpler explanation given by experienced climbers and tourists. The sleeping guys could have been frightened by a layer of snow falling on the tent. Deciding that it was an avalanche, they could leave the shelter in a hurry, having first cut the wall of the tent. Retreating to the forest, they managed to stick ski poles into the snow so that they could later find a place to spend the night. And then, in the beginning of a snowstorm, three strayed from the group and went to the stream, to the cliff. The snow canopy they fell on could not bear the weight and collapsed. Having fallen from a great height, all three were fatally injured. The rest died, as the investigation established, from hypothermia. This is the most rational explanation of the mysterious events that occurred with the participants of the hike.

The 1959 tragedy in the Northern Urals in cinema

Many documentaries and feature films are devoted to the mysterious events that happened with the Dyatlov group half a century ago. Unfortunately, in most cases the emphasis is not on attempts to seriously investigate what happened, but on the mysterious and terrible events of that night. Among the latest interesting films on this topic is the investigative documentary film “Dyatlov Pass. The mystery is revealed,” created in 2015 with the participation of the REN TV channel. The creators of the film not only tried to find an explanation for the tragedy that happened, but also presented the viewer with several new versions of events.

Conclusion

So far, researchers do not have access to secret archives that may contain answers to all questions. For many enthusiasts, the Dyatlov Pass still remains cherished. What really happened that night from February 1 to 2 with a group of young tourists? While all information about this tragedy is kept secret, any of the versions discussed above has the right to exist. Let's hope that someday the story of the Dyatlov Pass will be completed.

The only survivor of the group, Yuri Yudin, died in 2013. He was the first to identify the belongings of his dead comrades, but subsequently did not take an active part in the investigation. According to the will, the urn with Yudin’s ashes was placed in Yekaterinburg in the mass grave of seven participants in the ill-fated 1959 campaign.

They were taken by foreigners who miraculously found their way to the USSR, usually exiled for these photographs as spies.

Here I came across another photo archive, that of the American Harrison Foreman, who in the summer of 1959 traveled around the Union and took a lot of pictures about architecture and everyday life. The foreigner's frame included both state trade and market trade. The photos are on Yandex in this album https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/amyat/album/575697
Now they are posted all over LiveJournal. Since the selection was made by a person with clearly communist views, Harrison’s photographs passed modern censorship. Many photos were missing.
The full version, I found 711 pieces using the tags “Moscow 1959”.
http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agsphoto/search/searchterm/Moscow!1959/field/all!date/mode/all!exact/conn/and!and/order/title/ad/ asc/page/11
But this is a small part of the USSR, only Moscow. Harrison was traveling to Uzbekistan

Many photos are simply not available on Yandex due to communist censorship.

Russia, quality of construction in a new Moscow apartment. The walls are not perpendicular to each other.

Russia, view of the floor and walls of a new apartment in Moscow


Russia, window details in a new residential building in Moscow


Road traffic on the main streets of Moscow

Russia, crowd looking at American cars in Moscow


But what interested me most in these photos were the prices; in many photos they can only be viewed at full magnification, looking at the full originals
Although, of course, many prices can be seen that way. Salary must be taken into account

According to communists, the average salary in 1959 was about 735 rubles. The median salary was about 560 rubles. I calculated the median for 1956; in 1959 the increase was 5%. The most interesting thing is that the ratio of the median to the average salary in the fairest Soviet Union was 0.76. Absolutely the same as 0.75 in the terribly capitalist 2017. Well, those who received less than 800 rubles, which is 70.3% of the population, lived below the subsistence level.

There seemed to be enough food to buy manufactured goods, but I had to stop eating. It takes a year to buy a TV; it takes 3-4 months to buy a normal camera or record player. This is a typical photo.
Car? This is already many thousands of rubles. You don’t have to eat for a third of a century to buy a wretched Moskvich 407
Prices 1959-60:
— Moskvich-401 — 9,000 rub.,
— Moskvich-402 — 15,000 rub.,
— Moskvich-407 — 25,000 — 27,000 rubles. However, car stores don’t list prices.

Amateur sausage for 2-20, unsightly, but you can buy 30 kilograms with your salary


Disposable stockings for 32.8 rubles in 20th part of the salary

Prices for typewriters and computers of that time.

The price of vacuum cleaners in the median salary

Robes and dresses for half the salary. The first price tag is 326.8, the second is 293 rubles, the brown robe is 510 rubles, the blue robe is 463 rubles. The guy looks at the price and goes crazy

Cameras cost 2 salaries, domestic ones at that.

Radios and players at 3-5 median salaries


Gun from 850 to 4500 depending on resource consumption. Nowadays a new Saiga costs one average salary.

Dolls from 115 to 200 rubles, all the best for children at a quarter of their salary

Service for 2 salaries

Summer shoes at half the median salary

Spare parts for equipment collected at the dump, for those with “crazy hands”. Radio casings and burnt guts

Well, and so on, canned food costs an average of 5.8 rubles from asp. I don’t know a more bony predatory fish, even the pike is resting

Boxes of chocolates for 50 rubles, 10 boxes and a salary

1956-1961 was the golden age of the USSR. There is a thaw, there is no Gulag, there is still food.
3 years later there was a Novocherkassk execution, because disruptions in supply to the populationfood. The Soviet Union began to buy food abroad. In mid-1962 prices began to increase.

However, Harrison had Moscow like that, between trains. On the way to Bombay.

January 2 - Launch of the automatic interplanetary station “Luna-1” (the station made a flyby of the Moon and became the first artificial satellite of the Sun); the 2nd escape velocity (~ 11.2 km/sec) was obtained for the first time.
January 15-22 - All-Union population census.
In 1939-1940 The borders of the USSR expanded due to the connection of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus with Soviet Ukraine and Belarus, and the entry into the Union of the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian Union Republics, but the next census took place only in 1959. Some replacement for the census was the statistical development of voter lists after the February 1946 elections. However, these lists did not include a large number of Russian residents (those in exile, camps, prisons, military personnel), not to mention children and adolescents under 18 years of age. Similar work was carried out repeatedly, and in 1954, in addition to the lists, a count of children and youth under the age of 18 was carried out by gender and year of birth as of April 1, 1954. But these operations could not replace the census.
The 1959 census program is largely similar to the 1939 census program. However, of the 16 questions posed then, some were excluded. Thus, the item “permanently or temporarily lives here” was missing, since the next two listed on the sheet duplicated it. The issue of literacy was merged with the issue of education. In this regard, there was no need to ask whether the respondent graduated from high school or high school. Questions about the place of work and the occupation at this place of work were swapped (in 1939, they first asked about the type of occupation, and then about the place of work). For those who do not have occupations that are a source of income, another source of livelihood should be indicated.
January 27 - February 5 - 21st Congress of the CPSU; adoption of target figures for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1959-65.
January 30 - Commissioning of the 1st stage of the Karakum Canal (400 km), laid through the waterless desert.
March 23-27 - 12th Congress of Trade Unions of the USSR.
On June 12, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the collection of fees from bicycle owners, as well as the registration of bicycles as a vehicle, was abolished. The license plates have been removed from the bicycles.
June 16 - Opening of the permanent Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR in Moscow.
August 8 - Completion of construction of the Stavropol - Leningrad gas pipeline.
September 12 - Launch of the Luna-2 automatic station to the Moon.
September 14 - The Luna 2 station reached the surface of the Moon.
October 7 - Fly around the Moon, photographing it from the far side with the automatic interplanetary station “Luna-3” and transmitting the image to Earth.

Born in 1959! Do you remember that it was a fantastic year? In the sense of fantasy incarnate. The fairy tale has become reality. We have overcome space and spaciousness. On the first day of the new year (and in the following days too) in all central and many peripheral newspapers on the front page there was a short message: “At 0 hours 00 minutes on January 1, 1959, the third Soviet artificial Earth satellite completed its 3183rd revolution.”
Not only planning, but also dreaming becomes state and party policy, proclaimed by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who went down in history under the popular nickname Nikita the Wonderworker.
But in reality, it was a very eventful year, 1959: at the American National Exhibition, Muscovites and guests of the capital tasted Coca-Cola and chewing gum for the first time, at the First Moscow International Film Festival they admired the cluster of stars, and the entire Soviet people admired photographs of the far side of the Moon . Khrushchev returned from America with an ear of corn, the first macho men in elastic swimming trunks appeared on the beaches...

—Santa Claus put a bomb in the bag and gave this gift to the boy. The boy can’t dance, he can’t sing a song - There’s not even anything to put on a hat anymore... Santa Claus put a bomb in the bag and gave this gift to the boy. The little boy can’t dance, he can’t sing a song - There’s not even anything to put on a hat anymore...

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Type: Sadistic poems

—One girl had a living doll. One day, the girl’s mother sent her to the forest to pick mushrooms. The girl took the doll with her. Suddenly a pack of wolves came. Devo...