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This region of the Ural mountains has a very small population density and high presence of the secret military sites. Many secret tests were carried out in this vast expanse of land with very few witnesses around. One of the plausible candidates for a tested weapons might be an air defense system against American strategic bombers. Soviet Union military was still trying out its R- 12 rockets that were (officially) adopted in March of 1959. Although some Western intelligence reports place these advanced surface- to- air missiles as early as October and November of 1958. As part of the defense, they were placed around largest cities in the Soviet Union including Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), hometown of the members of the Dyatlov group. Apparently not all launches were successful and some rockets fell to the ground. Soviet engineers certainly did not want to scream about their failures.
Let's not forget that through much of the 50's Soviet army was basically defenseless against the American spy planes. The first successful shot down actually happened a year later in May of 1960 when Soviet rockets shot down U2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers just 67 km (43 mi) west of Sverdlovsk hometown of the Dyatlov Group. When the safety of your country at stake and a chance for a World War III is quite plausible that the forces of Spetznaz took a drastic approach to unforeseen intruders.
Some of the findings that would be explained by this theory are strange marking on the dead. First of all it would explain why the group has left the tent. They were forced to do so. Additionally, it is plausible that Rustem Slobodin got into a fight with one of the men and got hit pretty badly. Special forces after all are trained to kill. It is their job. Zina Kolmogorova might have been another victim of the scuffle. While the autopsy report claims that there is no damage to the head, some of the first radiograms sent by the rescue team clearly indicate that her had was bashed with something heavy.
Francis Gary Powers
From that point on it might appear that the group was left to freeze to death. They descended from a tent to the tree line to look for shelter and develop some survival plan. Footprints they left shows that the group was organized, walked at a normal pace and didn't show any sign of frantic running around. They picked up a single direction and followed it. Forest was a much better option than barren slopes of the Kholat Syakhl mountain. Meanwhile, the presumed killers decided to keep an eye of the Dyatlov Pass by hiding in the tent. They cut few holes from the inside as the official documents state and waited for the Dyatlov group to succumb to the elements.
However fire under the cedar greatly increased the chances of the group for survival. Once they realized that the Dyatlov group actually attempted to survive and it seemed they they have a good chance, soldiers or special forces have descended and finished off Krivonischenko and Doroschenko, while the other part of the group went to the ravine to dig for a den for the protection. Krivonischenko it seems tried to climb a tree and even stay there. Presence of his skin between his teeth and damaged fingers might be indicative how hard he tried to evade his tormentors. He would have to bide his own hands to get a grip and stay on the tree as long as he could. He probably died from hypothermia and exhaustion either on a tree or after falling on the groun.
Body of Doroshenko and a strange grey foam around his mouth visible also on the photos from the morgue. It might be indicative of the great pressure applied to his chest that caused pulmonary edema and hence death. Young athletic men rarely cause this condition. But exhertion of pressure on the thoracic cavity resulted in an increased hydrostatic pressure of the capillaries causing liquid from the blood vessels to leak into the lungs, thus causing suffocation and death.
Killers went looking for the rest of the group in the forest. Meanwhile, seven members returned to the cedar and discovered their friends dead. They cut clothes from the dead and spread them among the survivors. Some of their clothes were later discovered on the last bodies and in the den. Given the circumstances, it was a justifiable method of survival. It explains why Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found half naked.
Three members of the Dyatlov group, Dyatlov, Slobodin and Kolmogorova, attempted to climb the mountain but froze to death at different distances from the tent. Meanwhile, the four members of the group went back to the den that initially hid them from their murderers.
The death of four last tourists found in the den happened late in the night or early in the morning then the killers got cold, tired and sloppy. While the death of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko might have been planned and carried out according to plan, the death of the last four survivors might indicate the state of mind of the killers. They didn't care about hiding the evidence of their presence anymore. They were tired, cold and really angry at people who kept them all night at the cold.
Soviet special forces/ Soviet intelligence would also explain why many witness testimonies were thrown out and why several unidentified men were following members of the investigation. The Soviet government had to hide their guilt and several facts were simply overlooked. It is a common misunderstanding exists that the criminal record was shut and made secret. It is not true. However, some of the most interesting evidence pieces and testimonies were simply overlooked, ignored and tossed away.
For example, we still don't know what happened to the 'obmotki' or puttee found on the Dyatlov Pass. This thin long strip of linen was used by the Soviet soldiers in the 1930's to secure the boots. In 1959 this piece of uniform was largely abandoned, but it is possible that some of the old school soldiers still carried them. We certainly know that none of the Dyatlov group carried this piece of equipment. Again this piece of evidence was ignored and thrown out. However, head of the search party at the time Artukov did send a radiogram.
"the presence of puttee I can not explain"
Another valuable eyewitness Yury Yudin in his interview about the Dyatlov Pass Incident to Komsomolskaya Pravda on October 17, 2012 said this: "But among all the junk, only one thing was a foreign - a soldier's puttee. I immediately pointed it out to Ivanov, but he, I have seen, for some reason did not record it in his notes." In fact, there were two puttees discovered on Dyatlov Pass. One was found near a cedar tree, while another puttee discovered near a tent.
Some of the examples of puttee on Soviet soldier dating to late 30's and early 40's. It was common other armies as well
People who oppose this scenario point out that none of the rescuers ever reported any unusual footprints. Since most of the members of the group had no footwear on one or both legs, their prints were easily recognizable and distinguishable from the Dyatlov group. However the footprints were never closely examined since no one expected to find the group dead. No one really bothered to check for a presence of other footprints. We have several eyewitnesses claimed that they saw a mark of a heel on some of the footprints, indicating that tourists were followed by men in the military boots.
Yury Yudin who was an original member of the Dyatlov Group was also a participant in the investigation of the site of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. He is not a professional in the area of criminal justice, but his subjective opinion should be noted anyway for the sake of full picture. In his interview he noted.
When we found an empty, abandoned tent, Captain Chernyshev, who was an experienced tracker and a taiga man (expression similar to a "mountain man" in American culture) and deputy head of the search party, noted that some of the footprints left by the boots had a heel. This could indicate a army boots. I noted this fact as well as some other other participants of the search. As it is known, the track - is not just a piece of evidence. For the experienced criminalist it is the key to solving the crime. However, this "key" Ivanov did not use.
Another strange inconsistency is seemingly illogic behavior after the death of the Dyatlov Group. No one tried to keep the search party from entering the territory. If the Soviet special forces did kill the members of the Dyatlov Group, they could have easily removed the bodies from the Dyatlov Pass and move them elsewhere. The area was open to the public and if the special forces had to kill members of the Dyatlov pass from revealing some secret information, why leave the bodies of these people on the Dyatlov Pass?