For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of WWII
In 1978, Soviet geologists prospecting in the wilds of Siberia discovered a family of six, lost in the taiga
- By Mike Dash
- Smithsonian.com, January 29, 2013, Subscribe
Siberian summers do not last long. The snows linger into May, and the cold weather returns again during September, freezing the taiga into a still life awesome in its desolation: endless miles of straggly pine and birch forests scattered with sleeping bears and hungry wolves; steep-sided mountains; white-water rivers that pour in torrents through the valleys; a hundred thousand icy bogs. This forest is the last and greatest of Earth's wildernesses. It stretches from the furthest tip of Russia's arctic regions as far south as Mongolia, and east from the Urals to the Pacific: five million square miles of nothingness, with a population, outside a handful of towns, that amounts to only a few thousand people.
When the warm days do arrive, though, the taiga blooms, and for a few short months it can seem almost welcoming. It is then that man can see most clearly into this hidden world—not on land, for the taiga can swallow whole armies of explorers, but from the air. Siberia is the source of most of Russia's oil and mineral resources, and, over the years, even its most distant parts have been overflown by oil prospectors and surveyors on their way to backwoods camps where the work of extracting wealth is carried on.
Karp Lykov and his daughter Agafia, wearing clothes donated by Soviet geologists not long after their family was rediscovered.
Thus it was in the remote south of the forest in the summer of 1978. A helicopter sent to find a safe spot to land a party of geologists was skimming the treeline a hundred or so miles from the Mongolian border when it dropped into the thickly wooded valley of an unnamed tributary of the Abakan, a seething ribbon of water rushing through dangerous terrain. The valley walls were narrow, with sides that were close to vertical in places, and the skinny pine and birch trees swaying in the rotors' downdraft were so thickly clustered that there was no chance of finding a spot to set the aircraft down. But, peering intently through his windscreen in search of a landing place, the pilot saw something that should not have been there. It was a clearing, 6,000 feet up a mountainside, wedged between the pine and larch and scored with what looked like long, dark furrows. The baffled helicopter crew made several passes before reluctantly concluding that this was evidence of human habitation—a garden that, from the size and shape of the clearing, must have been there for a long time.
It was an astounding discovery. The mountain was more than 150 miles from the nearest settlement, in a spot that had never been explored. The Soviet authorities had no records of anyone living in the district.
The Lykovs lived in this hand-built log cabin, lit by a single window "the size of a backpack pocket" and warmed by a smoky wood-fired stove.
The four scientists sent into the district to prospect for iron ore were told about the pilots' sighting, and it perplexed and worried them. "It's less dangerous," the writer Vasily Peskov notes of this part of the taiga, "to run across a wild animal than a stranger," and rather than wait at their own temporary base, 10 miles away, the scientists decided to investigate. Led by a geologist named Galina Pismenskaya, they "chose a fine day and put gifts in our packs for our prospective friends"—though, just to be sure, she recalled, "I did check the pistol that hung at my side."
As the intruders scrambled up the mountain, heading for the spot pinpointed by their pilots, they began to come across signs of human activity: a rough path, a staff, a log laid across a stream, and finally a small shed filled with birch-bark containers of cut-up dried potatoes. Then, Pismenskaya said,
beside a stream there was a dwelling. Blackened by time and rain, the hut was piled up on all sides with taiga rubbish—bark, poles, planks. If it hadn't been for a window the size of my backpack pocket, it would have been hard to believe that people lived there. But they did, no doubt about it.... Our arrival had been noticed, as we could see.
The low door creaked, and the figure of a very old man emerged into the light of day, straight out of a fairy tale. Barefoot. Wearing a patched and repatched shirt made of sacking. He wore trousers of the same material, also in patches, and had an uncombed beard. His hair was disheveled. He looked frightened and was very attentive.... We had to say something, so I began: 'Greetings, grandfather! We've come to visit!'
The old man did not reply immediately.... Finally, we heard a soft, uncertain voice: 'Well, since you have traveled this far, you might as well come in.'
The sight that greeted the geologists as they entered the cabin was like something from the middle ages. Jerry-built from whatever materials came to hand, the dwelling was not much more than a burrow—"a low, soot-blackened log kennel that was as cold as a cellar," with a floor consisting of potato peel and pine-nut shells. Looking around in the dim light, the visitors saw that it consisted of a single room. It was cramped, musty and indescribably filthy, propped up by sagging joists—and, astonishingly, home to a family of five:
The silence was suddenly broken by sobs and lamentations. Only then did we see the silhouettes of two women. One was in hysterics, praying: 'This is for our sins, our sins.' The other, keeping behind a post... sank slowly to the floor. The light from the little window fell on her wide, terrified eyes, and we realized we had to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Agafia Lykova (left) with her sister, Natalia.
Led by Pismenskaya, the scientists backed hurriedly out of the hut and retreated to a spot a few yards away, where they took out some provisions and began to eat. After about half an hour, the door of the cabin creaked open, and the old man and his two daughters emerged—no longer hysterical and, though still obviously frightened, "frankly curious." Warily, the three strange figures approached and sat down with their visitors, rejecting everything that they were offered—jam, tea, bread—with a muttered, "We are not allowed that!" When Pismenskaya asked, "Have you ever eaten bread?" the old man answered: "I have. But they have not. They have never seen it." At least he was intelligible. The daughters spoke a language distorted by a lifetime of isolation. "When the sisters talked to each other, it sounded like a slow, blurred cooing."
Slowly, over several visits, the full story of the family emerged. The old man's name was Karp Lykov, and he was an Old Believer—a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect, worshiping in a style unchanged since the 17th century. Old Believers had been persecuted since the days of Peter the Great, and Lykov talked about it as though it had happened only yesterday; for him, Peter was a personal enemy and "the anti-Christ in human form"—a point he insisted had been amply proved by Tsar's campaign to modernize Russia by forcibly "chopping off the beards of Christians." But these centuries-old hatreds were conflated with more recent grievances; Karp was prone to complain in the same breath about a merchant who had refused to make a gift of 26 poods [940 pounds] of potatoes to the Old Believers sometime around 1900.
Things had only got worse for the Lykov family when the atheist Bolsheviks took power. Under the Soviets, isolated Old Believer communities that had fled to Siberia to escape persecution began to retreat ever further from civilization. During the purges of the 1930s, with Christianity itself under assault, a Communist patrol had shot Lykov's brother on the outskirts of their village while Lykov knelt working beside him. He had responded by scooping up his family and bolting into forest.
Peter the Great's attempts to modernize the Russia of the early 18th century found a focal point in a campaign to end the wearing of beards. Facial hair was taxed and non-payers were compulsorily shaved—anathema to Karp Lykov and the Old Believers.
That was in 1936, and there were only four Lykovs then—Karp; his wife, Akulina; a son named Savin, 9 years old, and Natalia, a daughter who was only 2. Taking their possessions and some seeds, they had retreated ever deeper into the taiga, building themselves a succession of crude dwelling places, until at last they had fetched up in this desolate spot. Two more children had been born in the wild—Dmitry in 1940 and Agafia in 1943—and neither of the youngest Lykov children had ever seen a human being who was not a member of their family. All that Agafia and Dmitry knew of the outside world they learned entirely from their parents' stories. The family's principal entertainment, the Russian journalist Vasily Peskov noted, "was for everyone to recount their dreams."
The Lykov children knew there were places called cities where humans lived crammed together in tall buildings. They had heard there were countries other than Russia. But such concepts were no more than abstractions to them. Their only reading matter was prayer books and an ancient family Bible. Akulina had used the gospels to teach her children to read and write, using sharpened birch sticks dipped into honeysuckle juice as pen and ink. When Agafia was shown a picture of a horse, she recognized it from her mother's Bible stories. "Look, papa," she exclaimed. "A steed!"
But if the family's isolation was hard to grasp, the unmitigated harshness of their lives was not. Traveling to the Lykov homestead on foot was astonishingly arduous, even with the help of a boat along the Abakan. On his first visit to the Lykovs, Peskov—who would appoint himself the family's chief chronicler—noted that "we traversed 250 kilometres [155 miles] without seeing a single human dwelling!"
Isolation made survival in the wilderness close to impossible. Dependent solely on their own resources, the Lykovs struggled to replace the few things they had brought into the taiga with them. They fashioned birch-bark galoshes in place of shoes. Clothes were patched and repatched until they fell apart, then replaced with hemp cloth grown from seed.
The Lykovs' mountain home, seen from a Soviet helicopter.
The Lykovs had carried a crude spinning wheel and, incredibly, the components of a loom into the taiga with them—moving these from place to place as they gradually went further into the wilderness must have required many long and arduous journeys—but they had no technology for replacing metal. A couple of kettles served them well for many years, but when rust finally overcame them, the only replacements they could fashion came from birch bark. Since these could not be placed in a fire, it became far harder to cook. By the time the Lykovs were discovered, their staple diet was potato patties mixed with ground rye and hemp seeds.
In some respects, Peskov makes clear, the taiga did offer some abundance: "Beside the dwelling ran a clear, cold stream. Stands of larch, spruce, pine and birch yielded all that anyone could take.... Bilberries and raspberries were close to hand, firewood as well, and pine nuts fell right on the roof."
Yet the Lykovs lived permanently on the edge of famine. It was not until the late 1950s, when Dmitry reached manhood, that they first trapped animals for their meat and skins. Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. Dmitry built up astonishing endurance, and could hunt barefoot in winter, sometimes returning to the hut after several days, having slept in the open in 40 degrees of frost, a young elk across his shoulders. More often than not, though, there was no meat, and their diet gradually became more monotonous. Wild animals destroyed their crop of carrots, and Agafia recalled the late 1950s as "the hungry years." "We ate the rowanberry leaf," she said,
roots, grass, mushrooms, potato tops, and bark, We were hungry all the time. Every year we held a council to decide whether to eat everything up or leave some for seed.
Famine was an ever-present danger in these circumstances, and in 1961 it snowed in June. The hard frost killed everything growing in their garden, and by spring the family had been reduced to eating shoes and bark. Akulina chose to see her children fed, and that year she died of starvation. The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in their pea patch. The Lykovs put up a fence around the shoot and guarded it zealously night and day to keep off mice and squirrels. At harvest time, the solitary spike yielded 18 grains, and from this they painstakingly rebuilt their rye crop.
Dmitry (left) and Savin in the Siberian summer.
As the Soviet geologists got to know the Lykov family, they realized that they had underestimated their abilities and intelligence. Each family member had a distinct personality; Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites. The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when "the stars began to go quickly across the sky," and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: "People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars."
"What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'" And Karp held grimly to his status as head of the family, though he was well into his 80s. His eldest child, Savin, dealt with this by casting himself as the family's unbending arbiter in matters of religion. "He was strong of faith, but a harsh man," his own father said of him, and Karp seems to have worried about what would happen to his family after he died if Savin took control. Certainly the eldest son would have encountered little resistance from Natalia, who always struggled to replace her mother as cook, seamstress and nurse.
The two younger children, on the other hand, were more approachable and more open to change and innovation. "Fanaticism was not terribly marked in Agafia," Peskov said, and in time he came to realize that the youngest of the Lykovs had a sense of irony and could poke fun at herself. Agafia's unusual speech—she had a singsong voice and stretched simple words into polysyllables—convinced some of her visitors she was slow-witted; in fact she was markedly intelligent, and took charge of the difficult task, in a family that possessed no calendars, of keeping track of time. She thought nothing of hard work, either, excavating a new cellar by hand late in the fall and working on by moonlight when the sun had set. Asked by an astonished Peskov whether she was not frightened to be out alone in the wilderness after dark, she replied: "What would there be out here to hurt me?"
A Russian press photo of Karp Lykov (second left) with Dmitry and Agafia, accompanied by a Soviet geologist.
Of all the Lykovs, though, the geologists' favorite was Dmitry, a consummate outdoorsman who knew all of the taiga's moods. He was the most curious and perhaps the most forward-looking member of the family. It was he who had built the family stove, and all the birch-bark buckets that they used to store food. It was also Dmitry who spent days hand-cutting and hand-planing each log that the Lykovs felled. Perhaps it was no surprise that he was also the most enraptured by the scientists' technology. Once relations had improved to the point that the Lykovs could be persuaded to visit the Soviets' camp, downstream, he spent many happy hours in its little sawmill, marveling at how easily a circular saw and lathes could finish wood. "It's not hard to figure," Peskov wrote. "The log that took Dmitry a day or two to plane was transformed into handsome, even boards before his eyes. Dmitry felt the boards with his palm and said: 'Fine!'"
Karp Lykov fought a long and losing battle with himself to keep all this modernity at bay. When they first got to know the geologists, the family would accept only a single gift—salt. (Living without it for four decades, Karp said, had been "true torture.") Over time, however, they began to take more. They welcomed the assistance of their special friend among the geologists—a driller named Yerofei Sedov, who spent much of his spare time helping them to plant and harvest crops. They took knives, forks, handles, grain and eventually even pen and paper and an electric torch. Most of these innovations were only grudgingly acknowledged, but the sin of television, which they encountered at the geologists' camp,
proved irresistible for them.... On their rare appearances, they would invariably sit down and watch. Karp sat directly in front of the screen. Agafia watched poking her head from behind a door. She tried to pray away her transgression immediately—whispering, crossing herself.... The old man prayed afterward, diligently and in one fell swoop.
The Lykovs' homestead seen from a Soviet reconnaissance plane, 1980.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. In the fall of 1981, three of the four children followed their mother to the grave within a few days of one another. According to Peskov, their deaths were not, as might have been expected, the result of exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity. Both Savin and Natalia suffered from kidney failure, most likely a result of their harsh diet. But Dmitry died of pneumonia, which might have begun as an infection he acquired from his new friends.
His death shook the geologists, who tried desperately to save him. They offered to call in a helicopter and have him evacuated to a hospital. But Dmitry, in extremis, would abandon neither his family nor the religion he had practiced all his life. "We are not allowed that," he whispered just before he died. "A man lives for howsoever God grants."
The Lykovs' graves. Today only Agafia survives of the family of six, living alone in the taiga.
When all three Lykovs had been buried, the geologists attempted to talk Karp and Agafia into leaving the forest and returning to be with relatives who had survived the persecutions of the purge years, and who still lived on in the same old villages. But neither of the survivors would hear of it. They rebuilt their old cabin, but stayed close to their old home.
Karp Lykov died in his sleep on February 16, 1988, 27 years to the day after his wife, Akulina. Agafia buried him on the mountain slopes with the help of the geologists, then turned and headed back to her home. The Lord would provide, and she would stay, she said—as indeed she has. A quarter of a century later, now in her seventies herself, this child of the taiga lives on alone, high above the Abakan.
She will not leave. But we must leave her, seen through the eyes of Yerofei on the day of her father's funeral:
I looked back to wave at Agafia. She was standing by the river break like a statue. She wasn't crying. She nodded: 'Go on, go on.' We went another kilometer and I looked back. She was still standing there.
Sources
Anon. 'How to live substantively in our times.' Stranniki ['Wanderers'], 20 February 2009, accessed August 2, 2011; Georg B. Michels. At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth Century Russia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995; Isabel Colgate. A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits, Solitaries and Recluses. New York: HarperCollins, 2002; 'From taiga to Kremlin: a hermit's gifts to Medvedev,' rt.com, February 24, 2010, accessed August 2, 2011; G. Kramore, 'At the taiga dead end'. Suvenirograd ['Souvenirs of Interesting places'], nd, accessed August 5, 2011; Irina Paert. Old Believers, Religious Dissent and Gender in Russia, 1760-1850. Manchester: MUP, 2003; Vasily Peskov. Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness. New York: Doubleday, 1992
A documentary on the Lykovs (in Russian) which shows something of the family's isolation and living conditions, can be viewed here.
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Comments (289)
This is a great story about human endurance. It's like they were living at another planet... Could someone knowledgeable make a sub-text of the documentary on the Lykovs!? A translation from Russian to English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQIGgeeYno
Posted by Gagarin Miljkovich on February 10,2013 | 02:46 AM
There are so many facets to this story that are compelling, it is difficult to list them, but the contrast between the geologist checking his pistol before entering the hut and Agafia's response about working outside after dark ("What is there to hurt me?"} is particularly revealing. They were hiding from Soviet "man" while having no fear of wild animals, afraid of encounters with other humankind, and refused to rejoin same. Sad commentary on humankind, the most fearsome animal out there.
Posted by Doug on February 10,2013 | 12:25 PM
Wow,I am suspended between disbelief and admiration. It must have been extremely difficult but to them it was their way of life. A true example of mind over matter, i know there have been some criticisms of the parents taking their children into isolation but as parents we all have to advocate for our children until they are of age. Bearing in mind their Religious beliefs and the political climate of their country it was for the physical and Spiritual protection of the family unit. A thought i got from another commenter(Fegow, 7.15,07/02/13), in respective of "if the men lived lives of celibacy?" This a very human assumption of thought but they were after alone quite Orthodox and dedicated to their faith so although we will never know it is more than likely they were celibate as there were no off-springs from the daughters. Plus they were not of the Secular world so were not afflicated with the sinful thought that most would have. They possessed will power and self control as displayed through their existence so it is plausible that there no incestious relations. It seems like a tragedy on one hand as there is only a sole member of the family left but they died in Faith and with good Stead with the LORD, Dmitry not resisting aid to hospital. I do wonder if Agafia is still alive now?
Posted by ST-Berko on February 10,2013 | 09:07 AM
I would have rather have met these people than any or all of the stars in Hollywood.
Posted by Robert on February 9,2013 | 07:39 PM
What an amazing story of a family determined to stay together, follow their religious convictions and survive. They never gave up and took life as it came to them. This is also an example of what a self-righteous,arrogant government can do to its citizens. In the eyes of the government, life was so cheap. We can learn a lot from this family, and hopefully, appreciate what we have.
Posted by Dawn Wride on February 9,2013 | 11:21 AM
What an incredible story; it is so hard to believe they survived so long with so little. It would have taken so little to provide them with the basics they so badly needed and could have prolonged their lives.
Posted by Dallas Godwin on February 7,2013 | 08:57 PM
While working on a newspaper in Eastern Oklahoma in the late 1970s, I did a story on the last home in the state to get electricity. It was on an old stage line in the middle of nowhere and the 2 sisters and brother living there, seemed to be mentally deficient. Perhaps, I just didn't appreciate a simpler time.
Posted by miss_msry on February 7,2013 | 05:44 PM
Wow ! This is the first time I knew of this I think,God bless them and the remaining one; what a story thank you.
Posted by Paul Wayne Dominy on February 7,2013 | 10:58 AM
such a fascinating story
Posted by Ruth on February 7,2013 | 10:48 AM
That was an amazing story to read.
Posted by Christine on February 7,2013 | 09:57 AM
While I do see the accomplishment and am stunned by the endurance of man, I refuse to cheer upon religious fanatism. Fleeing Stalinism doesn´t justify putting your children through famine and total isolation. Also, does anybody here believe the men in this family lived in celibacy?
Posted by Fegow on February 7,2013 | 07:15 AM
While I do see the accomplishment and am stunned by the endurance of man, I refuse to cheer upon religious fanatism. Fleeing Stalinism doesn´t justify putting your children through famine and total isolation. Also, does anybody here believe the men in this family lived in celibacy?
Posted by Fegow on February 7,2013 | 07:15 AM
Sorry Tiberius. I come from a "hillbilly" family, born in a log cabin, have worked as a newspaper editor, am a self-taught mechanical/electrical engineer, have started and sold several different companies over the years and have an IQ in excess of 150. I was also in military intelligence in Libya, Morocco and Germany, and have probably forgotten more about "practical" things in life than most people your age know. Be careful how you label people. Einstein was considered "backward" but was merely bored with a life most considered "standard". I'm 75 with six great children, 15 grandchildren and 4 (going on 5) greats. People most often show their true lack of intelligence when they try to paste labels on others. Just my opinion.
Posted by The real earnesto on February 6,2013 | 12:55 AM
Great article. It's amazing how resourceful this family was.
Posted by Greg on February 6,2013 | 10:23 PM
This incredible family true story is amazing. An example of human courage and the strongest faith in God. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Posted by Koritza O Connor on February 6,2013 | 09:27 PM
wow
Posted by jack on February 6,2013 | 06:17 PM
No,theyre right about true Christians not killing anyone. Those who did werent really living as God inteded.
Posted by Mm on February 6,2013 | 06:14 PM
I am overwhelmed. Talk about living history! I studied Russian history in college. This brought it to the present tense to me, conveyed by living humans who had experienced many effects in the present time.
Posted by Ingrid Burns on February 6,2013 | 05:26 PM
This is a rather long story. But well worth reading. Talk about religious persicusion this family suffered. Then having lived in the wilderness the way they did for so many years in Russia is trully worth the read. Judy Palmer
Posted by Judy Palmer on February 6,2013 | 05:25 PM
Agafia needs companionship in her final years, a dog, at least if no human chooses; a sturdy shelter and freedom from cold and hunger. She deserves that much. A solar panel, battery, twelve volt tv and a satellite dish...let her have a bit of fun before she dies!
Posted by Penny Gray on February 6,2013 | 05:24 PM
A storey of a very very brave family a must for people to read.
Posted by Raminder Gill on February 6,2013 | 09:43 AM
Where there is a will there is a way! I highly respect those people; after all they do have the upperhand once Earth meets critical mass!
Posted by Ryan Swenson on February 5,2013 | 01:16 AM
"A true christian does not kill anyone." Wow, look up "True Scotsman fallacy." Only in religious circles would such falsehoods perpetuate for centuries. BTW, only religion can make people reject their own life for nothing. And that's not a good thing, despite usual portrayals in America. When you can subjugate precious life, you subjugate everything.
Posted by Gnostradamus on February 5,2013 | 11:27 PM
Amazing story. Hope to read the book on it soon.
Posted by Bernie on February 5,2013 | 09:09 AM
Such a fascinating story and so well written, kudos.
Posted by Resham Bhattacharya on February 5,2013 | 07:39 AM
You can see the film "Taiga blind alley" in Youtube,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plPyriABTX0 Unfortunately, the language of the film is Russian. Agafia Lykova (1945) is still alive. She asked somebody for living with her in taiga to help her but nobody wants to live there even her cousin.
Posted by Olga on February 5,2013 | 04:42 AM
SICK STORY BRO!!!!!
Posted by evan boltwood on February 4,2013 | 12:01 AM
Great but sad story
Posted by corners on February 4,2013 | 07:05 PM
A fascinating story. Can't help but comment, though, that we have people like these in America. They're called Hillbillies. :)
Posted by Tiberius on February 4,2013 | 06:05 PM
A true story of the human spirit and the struggle to survive in some of the harshest environs that the world offers. One only imagine the deprivations this family suffered. None of the children were able to marry or have children themselves. Still they kept faith in one another and the God they served. Truly inspirational.
Posted by william vicevich on February 4,2013 | 05:59 PM
Incredibile story.
Posted by Marie T Thomas on February 4,2013 | 05:07 PM
As best as I can discern these subordinates in Google maps are the location of the cabin in the Russian Video 52.264375,88.987083
Posted by Sheldon Schultz on February 4,2013 | 12:59 PM
A rare story of faith with a characteristic love between the family members.
Posted by Aditya Arya on February 4,2013 | 12:52 PM
Thanks for this great story. As a descendant of Mormon pioneers who arrived in Utah in 1847, and a person who lived in Russia in 1993-1994, I loved this story. Simply fascinating! ♥
Posted by Jessica on February 4,2013 | 12:02 PM
For anyone who is interested, recent news about Agafia from doctor Igor Nazarov: http://www.sibmedport.ru/article/7366/ - in Russian, http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.sibmedport.ru/article/7366/ - (poor) automatic translation.
Posted by Di on February 4,2013 | 11:20 AM
For Muffy: A lot of time when women don't eat much they lose their monthly menses.
Posted by Alek on February 4,2013 | 10:11 AM
"Let's not forget: Christians killed Atheist for centuries, so now when the tables are turned Christianity is a good thing and Atheism is bad? seems to me whoever started it is wrong Posted by Baas on February 3,2013 | 09:44 AM".........................Rubbish! The Roman Catholic church and the jesuits (an order of the church) did the killing. That church was the state, the dictated almost everything even telling kings what to do - for hundreds of years. A true christian does not kill anyone.
Posted by cog on February 4,2013 | 07:25 AM
amazing!
Posted by rayna marriner on February 4,2013 | 05:12 AM
I was very moved after reading your article on the Lykov family. I was born and spent my earliest years in the jungle of a small South American country. I learned to read and write at the tiny Episcopalian Mission school I recall this period of my life with great nostalgia and I understand why the Lykov family refused to move. At times I am tempted to think that yearning is genetic.
Posted by Albert Klautky on February 3,2013 | 10:17 PM
How (in the name of God) did they terrace that hillside?
Posted by Henry Niese on February 3,2013 | 04:43 PM
Truly amazing, people, place, story.
Posted by jim climo on February 3,2013 | 10:31 AM
Let's not forget: Christians killed Atheist for centuries, so now when the tables are turned Christianity is a good thing and Atheism is bad? seems to me whoever started it is wrong
Posted by Baas on February 3,2013 | 09:44 AM
1. Don't attack Raymond for his opinion. He too can have an opinion that is different from uours. So what now, drive him into the deep of Taiga? 2. I was born and raised in USSR. This story was told and we were just as amazed as you guys. But we of course saw it as an oddity and a testiment to human sbility to survive. Although there was never an accent placed on the religious aspect. Just the fact that they were deeply religious. As a kid living in USSR that aspect didn't impress us at all. I must say that there were many families like that and one can say that there ia a good chance there still may be some. Taiga is vast and still very unexplored. This is not the only region in Russia. The asian part of Russia is mostly deep wilderness that had offered escape for many folks through out centuries including Escaped prisoners, relegious folk and those that simply called it home since forever. This isn't the first annd certainly the last familly to be "found" there... 3. Don't judge the geologists for leaving Agafia. This ia a very Russian thing to do. Religion or not iit's a common part of Russian character to see life for what it is - a long and dusty road that streches far into horizon. They navigate that road with a speed of a long song and a pace of a walking horse pulling a large cart. There is time to rationalize, love, cry, be happy, think of reasons to live, and the death itself. So they left Agafia because each of them knew the road has been already cjosen and there is not a question about changing it. They met them as passers by and left them as such.... Never to forget each other... And tell the story. This is jow Russian unique folk stories get born and live for centuries.
Posted by Max on February 3,2013 | 08:56 AM
What an amazing story. It was sad that they died but perhaps it was the small changes in their diet. Perhaps after all those years without the food we take for granted (including salt) their bodies just couldn't cope with the richness of the new foods. As for womens' hygeine I remember reading somewhere that women in ancient day used sphagnum moss. So maybe that's what they used. This was also used apparently for binding up wounds. Clean spiders' webs are supposed to be good for helping blood clotting.
Posted by Mary Kavanagh on February 3,2013 | 08:37 AM
It is hard to belive how many people read this story and the first thing they comment on is the "Electric Torch" debate. Torch=Flashlight outside the US, absorb it, deal with it. Oh I know how "funny" you all find 'foriegners" but it doesn't compare to how ignorant we foreigners find most of you. So you read a whole story about persecution, human determination to live free. Life and death, survival and tragedy and the first thing that comes to mind is "Ha ha they don't even know what a flashlight is called" Proud of yourselves?
Posted by JD on February 3,2013 | 07:30 AM
"Managing" monthly hygiene is much easier when on a near starvation diet.
Posted by Karen on February 2,2013 | 11:47 PM
Its undoubtedly an amazing occurance. I also want to thank the writer for doing such an amazing job with this article! Kept me super engaged the whole time. Beatifully described. Felth like a novel.
Posted by Manas on February 2,2013 | 11:09 PM
I did a double-take at this remark: "What amazed him most of all was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'" Because back in the 1960s, Mel Brooks's persona "the 2,000-year-old man," when asked to name the most amazing invention he's seen in his long lifetime, immediately says "Saran Wrap!"
Posted by Janet Biehl on February 2,2013 | 09:19 PM
"Electric torch" is probably a poor translation of flashlight!" Presumably the idiot who wrote this doesn't realise (English spelling) that the translation was written by a Brit. It is not a "poor" translation, it is an accurate translation into "English" as opposed to "American". It should be self evident that a Brit, translating Russian into his/her native tongue, will translate it into their own language. If you want it translated into American, look for an American translation. Good luck. Hpwe
Posted by Hypwe on February 2,2013 | 06:23 PM
What an incredible and touching 'story'. Thank you very much for posting it here.
Posted by Marina on February 2,2013 | 02:22 PM
Two remarks: 1. This tiny family was the only free family in the whole of the Soviet Union--the largest country at the time. 2. When I reached the part that their principal entertainment was narrating their dreams, it struck me as to how intense the story was. Most amazing story. Only if Solzenitzen or Dostoevsky wrote about it. Not that it lacks anything on its own, but only if they wrote about it, they would have flavored it with yet a deeper Russian spirit.
Posted by Tony Nasrallah on February 2,2013 | 10:52 AM
Karp died 27 years to the day after his wife died. How did they know the exact day of the death of Akulina? They did not have a calendar. Did they managed to keep track of the days, months and years from the day they left their village? They did suffer from incredible harships, from not having many basic necessities to famine. In those conditions could they really have kept that accurate track of the passing of time?
Posted by alee on February 2,2013 | 06:02 AM
from _Crime and Punishment_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866): “Do you know what some of these [Old Believers] mean by ‘suffering’? It is not suffering for somebody’s sake, but simply ‘suffering is necessary’ – the acceptance of suffering that means, and if it is at the hands of the authorities, so much the better.”
Posted by Pete on February 1,2013 | 01:27 AM
silly to think the communists would have not killed him if he had relinquished his religion , after they killed his brother ..... his religion kept him going . He was running to save his life and his families life. too bad they did not fish more with the nearby stream.
Posted by john on February 1,2013 | 12:54 AM
Living as a kid in Canada - I envy and miss the exploring and wilderness. And of little things like building forts in the forests. For me it is easy to see why Agafia would not want to leave... I cant imagine having lived with the sounds of silence, birds, wind and water my WHOLE life... a very moving story for those of us caught in a modern world.
Posted by Helen G on February 1,2013 | 12:37 AM
TAX THEM TAX THEM. On the whole siberian forest! JUST JOKING.
Posted by brian on February 1,2013 | 10:48 PM
Very interesting article
Posted by Leigh on February 1,2013 | 07:46 PM
Fascinating. Simply fascinating.
Posted by Roger Pankow on February 1,2013 | 07:22 PM
Here in Nova Scotia we had "the hermit of Gully Lake" (Google that with quotation marks), a man who jumped a troop train to avoid going to world war II. He lived 60 years in the woods of Gully Lake (about 120 KM north west of Halifax) until his death in 2003. In the money driven world of ours where people are greedy, selfish and such I admire their decision to live free of debt/slavery to bankers and governments. The way world society is heading I would not mind living deep in the woods but with some alternative energy items to keep me alive like solar shower bags, solar powered motion light, shake LED flashlights, crank radios, etc. I find materialism is what our problem is in society driven by money and power.
Posted by Sidney on February 1,2013 | 07:11 PM
Interesting how a combination of medieval religious fanaticism and modern, efficient government oppression led to this.
Posted by jim on February 1,2013 | 05:22 PM
Agafia lives alone in Taiga to this day according to the video on youtube. I will do some more research, she is doing great :) In regards to comments here...difference between western mentality and Russian is massive, but this movie certainly brings us (I'm Russian) more closer then all politicians combine will ever do. To me this story is about resilience of character, believe in God and unbelievable fear in communist system. Taiga was the only way for them to survive, even after 40 years they were scared of the system.
Posted by outline909 on February 1,2013 | 02:22 PM
I think it is we, who are lost...
Posted by Joe Dallman on February 1,2013 | 11:21 AM
What a compelling and tragic story. It broke my heart to hear that none of the children will have survived to tell the tale to their own children.
Posted by Gem on February 1,2013 | 11:15 AM
I find this story really sad and somewhat ironic. I don't know if Karp actually took his family away because he believed he was saving them, or because he just wanted to save himself. Let's face it, the chances of his wife and children getting killed were slim- just look at the fact that many of their relatives were still living in their village in 1978. By taking them into the wilderness, he doomed his own line. None of his children married or had children, so what was the point? They had to watch their mother starve and were frequently on the brink of starvation themselves. Yes life in Soviet Russia would have been hard, but people still had celebrations, socialized, got married etc.
Posted by Nadia on February 1,2013 | 10:00 AM
my schoolfriend.s father discoverred Agafia family. It is not near Abakan city. it is Siberian Jesus Christ settlement. http://j.mp/TEuvIZ or https://rus24.wordpress.com/
Posted by abakan on February 1,2013 | 09:07 AM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn somewhere recounts a similar incident from Stalinist times. Only in his story, after the family in the forest were discovered by the Soviet authorities, they were arrested and sentenced to terms in the Gulag.
Posted by The Sanity Inspector on February 1,2013 | 09:02 AM
Can anyone find a version of the documentary with English subtitles? A truly fascinating story and I am hungry to know more.
Posted by Cher on February 1,2013 | 08:11 AM
Very interesting read. I am, however, curious as to what became of Agafia. She is mentioned in the article as the lone survivor. Surely the geologists didn't just walk away and never return.
Posted by Melissa Flowers on February 1,2013 | 07:35 AM
Hola, Me encantó esta historia, hay muchas cosas para analizar a nivel sociologo y antropologo. ¿Que es de la vida actual de esta familia y sus descendientes? ¿Hay entrevistas o documentales actuales? Saludos.
Posted by Adrian on February 1,2013 | 06:57 AM
Someone posted that this article showed the wrong in religion, but a form of athiesm forced them into hiding. Not all religion is bad and not all of athiesm is bad. I think while this is sad it shows a remarkable story of survival for such a long period of time.
Posted by Jo on February 1,2013 | 06:37 AM
I think you're all missing the real obvious point here. These folks survived a grueling livelihood in the mountains and wilderness by finding a deeply balanced and heartfelt harmony with God through nature. By developing a love for the creator through an understanding and respect for His creation and by relying faithfully on His provisions to get by. To many of us it appears to be a hard and wretched lifestyle, but to them it was a struggle in peace. Someone mentioned how much love this family must have had for each other. How much love did they have for the creatures around them?!?? The girl asked "what is out here that will hurt me?" A confident inquiry!! She knew that the peaceful and loving bond which had been made between her (and her family) and the rest of her habitat was one in which she had no need to fear her surroundings, even in the dark of night. This family lived decades undefiled by technologies, sciences, theories, laws, education and other functioning of the modern world; they survived because of their spiritual bond to Creator and creation a bond which became shattered by the exposure to modern developments such as television and without a doubt discussions which arose pertaining to medern science. Even the "scientists" who discovered this family seemed to approach them from the angle of superiority in their own minds at least. I'd like to see these scientists survive 4 decades totally off the land in complete harmony with their surroundings without the "advances" of modern science and technology if they are so smart as to be superior to this humble family!!!!! These scientists with their grossly spiritually wicked and dark philosophies, theories, practices and technologies inadvertantly murdered this family of faithful people.
Posted by Derik on February 1,2013 | 05:49 AM
I think you're all missing the real obvious point here. These folks survived a grueling livelihood in the mountains and wilderness by finding a deeply balanced and heartfelt harmony with God through nature. By developing a love for the creator through an understanding and respect for His creation and by relying faithfully on His provisions to get by. To many of us it appears to be a hard and wretched lifestyle, but to them it was a struggle in peace. Someone mentioned how much love this family must have had for each other. How much love did they have for the creatures around them?!?? The girl asked "what is out here that will hurt me?" A confident inquiry!! She knew that the peaceful and loving bond which had been made between her (and her family) and the rest of her habitat was one in which she had no need to fear her surroundings, even in the dark of night. This family lived decades undefiled by technologies, sciences, theories, laws, education and other functioning of the modern world; they survived because of their spiritual bond to Creator and creation a bond which became shattered by the exposure to modern developments such as television and without a doubt discussions which arose pertaining to medern science. Even the "scientists" who discovered this family seemed to approach them from the angle of superiority in their own minds at least. I'd like to see these scientists survive 4 decades totally off the land in complete harmony with their surroundings without the "advances" of modern science and technology if they are so smart as to be superior to this humble family!!!!! These scientists with their grossly spiritually wicked and dark philosophies, theories, practices and technologies inadvertantly murdered this family of faithful people.
Posted by Derik on February 1,2013 | 05:38 AM
Betcha the salt killed the first three. What else would cause kidney failure?
Posted by Hannah on January 31,2013 | 02:11 AM
Mezmerising. My heart's crying for the death of the two daughters and mother from malnutrition. Also ironical to know Dmitry who survived 40 degrees below zero to die of pnemounia from human contact. Persecution can push people to extreme livings which inhabitants of civilized communities can not even dream of. Its a teaching on human endurance and adaptibility and of course pure faith.
Posted by Tanim Laila on January 31,2013 | 01:38 AM
Such an amazing story of family and survival. Thank you for sharing and reminding those of us surrounded by creature comforts that our lives are pretty perfect and we want for nothing.
Posted by Jules on January 31,2013 | 01:20 AM
write your story glenn and then have someone edit it. that is what they're paid for. heck, i'll edit it.
Posted by Erik on January 31,2013 | 10:15 PM
What an amazing story. So sad but also so amazing. A lot of people would not be able to understand because they could never survive without TV, Cell Phones and the comforts of what we people believe we HAVE to have. I live in a house in Toronto, but grew up in the country where our closest neighbor was only seen through binoculars. I loved living in the country and will move there again soon.Having no TV, Internet, Cell Phone would not bother me. We did not watch TV growing up. People from the city would not be able to survive living in the country without these amenites or cars or buses or even having to grow their own food. It really is sad that we all depend on everything being handed to us instead of learning to really survive.
Posted by Dawn on January 31,2013 | 08:27 PM
I don't think there is nothing exceptional in this story. Full village of people in New Guinea, right now in 2013, have never seen a white man before <- This is a good story.
Posted by Jonathan on January 31,2013 | 07:04 PM
I hope these people are given the very best when they meet our God. As a side point, the article is another reason I hate bolsheviks. They were the most murerous animals who have ever ruled except for maybe Ghengkis Khan and that ilk. These murderous beasts (devils if you ask me) murdered the Czar and Lenin, Trotsky, Yagoda, Kaganovich, and the rest of those murderous devils are in HELL. Thank God.
Posted by Elrey Jones on January 31,2013 | 06:57 PM
An extraordinary tale of humankind & perserverance of untold determination.
Posted by james gonzales on January 31,2013 | 06:55 PM
I'm interested to know how the women managed their hygiene every month. That must have been quite diffcult.
Posted by Muffy on January 31,2013 | 05:16 PM
How I wish the video was available with subtitles! I am a fan of Solzhenitsyn's *Gulag Archipelago*. When he was initially arrested he was a devout communist and atheist. It was in part his exposure to the persecuted "Old Believers" in the Gulag that led to his adoption of Christianity. He saw them as being among the few who were able to maintain a moral center in a situation in which "man was wolf to man," as the saying goes. I am a bit struck by the parallel between the isolated life lived by this family, and the way the Solzhenitsyn family lived in the woods while in Vermont, largely cut off from the world by a barbed wire fortress of their own creation. I have often thought of that as an example of "institutionalization," i.e. when people who are incarcerated or institutionalized internalize aspects of their oppression. But though the Solzhenitsyns in Vermont weren't being persecuted for their religion, I understand that they chose to live in isolation at least in part from a desire for religious and cultural "purity." It seems to me that this family's situation resulted both from extreme religious persecution (that is hard for us to imagine living in the US, despite Holocaust education) and profound cultural conservatism and ideas about what is pure. It also seems obvious to me, though this is an assumption, that there must have been a lot of love in that family or they never would have made it for so long. How resourceful they were, and how independent (Though, in relation to the American political scene, I don't think that many people would want to live that independently. God bless representative government and infrastructure!). To us it seems difficult....I wonder how they thought of their lives, if they were simply stoic in their faith during the hardship, or if they also found beauty in the taiga and in their way of life. Thanks for the article!!
Posted by Melissa on January 31,2013 | 04:31 PM
The person who made the remark about 'incest babies' ought to be ashamed of himself for maligning people he doesn't even know. You must have watched "Deliverance" one time too many. Just because a group is isolated, it doesn't mean they've lost their moral compass!!
Posted by Sabrina Messenger on January 31,2013 | 03:22 PM
WOW. what an amazing story. Realities such as this, always remind me that there are those out there who suffer more that I ever will in my comfortable life. We do have it good here in North America. Whom ever mentioned incest, was utterly disgusting, the article did point out that the two kids were born in the forest before the MOM died. Typical western world thinking. She starved so that her children can live.
Posted by Dee on January 31,2013 | 03:07 PM
IN 1974 I LEFT THE CITY OF ANAHIEM CA. AND BUILT A TEEPE AND LIVED IN IT FOR 2IHALF YEARS.......I WORE NO SHOES, ONLY CUT OFF JEANS. I MARRIED AND INDIAN GIRL, WE GOT ON NATIONAL NEWS. WE THEN MOVED THE TEEPE TO AN UNDISCLOSED PLACE.........THATS WHEN BIGFOOT CAME TO VISIT US. MY WIFE GOT TIRED OF LIVING LIKE AN INDIAN AND WANTED TO LEAVE, I LOVED IT AND FOUND MY TEEPE TO BE THE BEST HOME IVE EVER HAD. WEVE SINSE BEEN DEVORCED AND I NOW LIVE IN A 2 STORY LOG HOME I BUILT MYSELF AND WE,ARE OFF THE GRID IN A REMOTE PLACE. I HAVE PICS OF BIGFOOT PRINTS IN THE SNOW I TOOK HERE, YOU DONT FIND BIGFOOT HE FINDS YOU.....I HOPE TO RIGHT A BOOK BUT MY SPELLING IS BAD......I KNOW THIS ALL SOUNDS CRAZY, BUT SOMTIMES THE TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION....
Posted by GLENN ROWE on January 31,2013 | 02:56 PM
>>"Electric torch" is probably a poor translation of flashlight! A flashlight is called a torch in the UK.
Posted by English Teacher on January 31,2013 | 02:18 PM
"Brave? Certainly. Stupid? Absolutely. To suffer for a nonsense religion is utterly stupid." "Posted by Helen on January 31,2013 | 05:18 AM" It's people who think like you, Helen, that do things that drive people like the Lykov's into hiding.
Posted by Tom Martin on January 31,2013 | 02:16 PM
Some of those commenters could do a little soul searching themselves. The last comment posted by Todd Browning seems to have grasped what this family was all about (from a Christian perspective anyway). "A man lives for howsoever God grants." Dimitry says it all. Everything is in His hands and we can follow his every word or toil for ourselves.
Posted by Aleksandra on January 31,2013 | 01:16 PM
I'm surprised there isn't a McDonald's in the Taiga.
Posted by Trev on January 31,2013 | 01:03 PM
Love this story unfortunately the video is all in russian. It would be nice if someone put in subtitles...
Posted by Sheila Bremaud on January 31,2013 | 12:46 PM
"Electric torch is probably a poor translation of flashlight!" The author of the article is Welsh and in British English a flashlight is referred to as a torch. I always find it odd Americans find that so amusing. Amazing story I wonder how many more people may be living like this in the wild places of the world.
Posted by Alex on January 31,2013 | 11:44 AM
Kind of ironic, the last truely free people on earth living inside the soviet block. I wonder, after their discovery, why the soviets didn't take them into custody? Anyway, I am amazed at the endurance of these folks. Their devotion to God must have been the key to their survival. A truely touching story, and I suppose these folks were more happier than we will ever be. Rest in peace dear ones. We could learn a lot by studying what is known of the lives they led.
Posted by Todd Browning on January 31,2013 | 10:50 AM
That's so interesting. Do they go back each year to check on Agafia? I am amazed she could choose to remain alone out there after the rest of her family had gone. I would imagine it would be so lonely. But on the other hand, it would probably be even harder for her to adapt to life in a new place even if there were other people there.
Posted by Jayne on January 31,2013 | 10:45 AM
"Electric torch" is probably a poor translation of flashlight!
Posted by Ann on January 31,2013 | 10:31 AM
..."each family member had a distinct personality." This is a revelation? God bless Agafia, and grant eternal rest to her family.
Posted by susan on January 31,2013 | 10:26 AM
Amazing story!
Posted by Paul on January 31,2013 | 10:05 AM
Home is anywhere the heart is, no matter the difficulty of circumstances. My guess is that this home is all they knew therefore they could not feel envy. How can one 'want' for what is unknown? The majority of us could not have endured if we were to suddenly be faced with a similiar primitive existence, that's why we are in such awe of the story.
Posted by Marlene on January 31,2013 | 10:01 AM
Based on the wealth of knowledge I have acquired from the likes of Tanfan, Bob Sakimano, and Pulling69 on the Red Cedar Message Board, I'm sure I could have invented electricity and built a house fit for a king in 40 years. Unlike these morAns...
Posted by Kluegs17 on January 31,2013 | 09:18 AM
I am trying to put myself into their situation...I am sure that with my current perception of life, i wouldn't be able to endure all that pain and to see my children starve to death. But in the same time - although i don't know much about hunting and growing crops - i still think that i could build a nicer/safer/warmer wooden cabin and i could also hunt/fish lots of animals for food.
Posted by BG on January 31,2013 | 09:01 AM
Why assume incest? The eldest son was only 13 when the 3rd child was born amd the little girl was only 6. Isn't it more likely that the 2 youngest children came from the husband and wife?
Posted by Christina on January 31,2013 | 07:58 AM
Brave? Certainly. Stupid? Absolutely. To suffer for a nonsense religion is utterly stupid.
Posted by Helen on January 31,2013 | 05:18 AM
I FEEL FOR AGAFIA.....
Posted by rasion mack on January 31,2013 | 05:05 AM
This is just amazing. I'm so very impressed by their determination, skills and ingenuity. It truly goes to prove how much you can accomplish with so little as long as the will is there. The part about the fence around the single rye sprout reminded me of the way people here(Sweden) way back when would build great hedge like fences around what little crop and gardens they had to protect them from deer, boars and the like.
Posted by Dina on January 31,2013 | 04:28 AM
A very moving and inspiring story of human endurance and perseverance. I have shared this with many of my friends.
Posted by Ussama Yaqub on January 31,2013 | 04:04 AM
Sorry, Moderator! For Grey Fox: You and your mind? Or a victim of propaganda ... What 200 million :))) I am a descendant of the family Repressed Siberian industrialists, so it tends to "monstrous" legends. – Victims of Repression 20's, 30's, early 50's were from 2.6 to 5.5 million people. These are very strict, articles in Russian – precisely: ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Репрессии_в_СССР And the detailed inf. on demographics of Russia: http://imtw.ru/index.php?showtopic=13334 – Generally, you are confused: the Soviet Union (not Russia), lost in World War II "20 million" people (26.6 million people). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties and (more precisely and in detail) by Google (translated) - http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Потери_во_Второй_мировой_войне http://www.bereg.ru/sprav_info/inform/vov.shtml – How many people were killed by famine in the 20's and 30's in the USA? Do not know, so interesting. For example, through Google (translated) – http://www.demographia.ru/articles_N/index.html?idR=24&idArt=1487 (Links to English themselves "dig") – Stalin (Dzhugashvili) was not a Communist, and oriental tyrant, and the revolution of 1917 did mostly Jews "socialists". – Entry & details – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_People 's_Commissars – Scientific Communism. And what you know about it)) can be taught and Dialectical Materialism and read the "Capital"? As I was taking university disciplines and full course, I dare say that the 60s are modified "social class’s ideas" in the "dialectical evolution". It is interesting to "socialism." Brezhnev was so out of place ... USA and the USSR would do without the cold war. Via: The Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 7, p. 7 8): "Ask, and it shall be given you, seek and you will find"
Posted by Jo* on January 31,2013 | 03:47 AM
sorry, i can't give more info. Have been sick and bedridden for many years.
Posted by helen on January 30,2013 | 02:38 AM
Wow! What a lovely family. They sure have a lot to teach the world. Thank you
Posted by on January 30,2013 | 02:36 AM
Amazing! This is an extremely unique, insightful and well written article. However, although I knew of the Smithsonian, I did not have any idea the quality of materials published. I am pleased to say this article has met and exceeded all my expectations and I could not break away from this article; I was compelled to continue reading on and look forward to the next article I stumble upon by the Smithsonian. Thank you, Mike H (mike.sk.ca)
Posted by Mike Harder on January 30,2013 | 02:01 AM
Did somebody find the hand-build log cabin in googlemaps? It would be very good to see, where is it actually...
Posted by ibax on January 30,2013 | 01:34 AM
amazing story. there may be more people living the same way in any part of the world
Posted by ellen on January 30,2013 | 12:00 AM
What a wonderful story! It shows that humans can persvere and survive even in the harshest conditions. I noticed a few comments about us westerners,something to the efect of being soft and lazy. You really dont know how many here live in much the same way as this family.We are not all Paris Hilton!My dad grew up dirt poor in the Adarondac mountains in up state New Your. He had to hunt and ran a trap line to survive.Lived in a log cabin. Some time when your bored,Google "the Donner party" They were settlers going to Califrnia by wagon and on foot.Thay were snowed in on what is Donners pas. read about how they survived. Many people here lived in isolstion back then. Back to the story,HEMP!! I wonder if any of them smoked it? It may be what kept them sane for all those years!
Posted by Terry on January 30,2013 | 11:57 PM
AMAZING! We should all have such faith and loyalty, Both in Christ and our family.
Posted by Liz Vick on January 30,2013 | 11:04 PM
A long-recognized truth; the more bizarre life is, the more it is to be believed. Every fiber of my being tells me this is truth without compromise and does not answer to anyone.
Posted by Carol Jacobson on January 30,2013 | 10:39 PM
I am just stunned! What can be said about this family's story? The indomitable spirit of man lives on as does man's incomparable faith in a Higher Being, I call God. My heart is bleeding and the burden is heavy.
Posted by Carol Jacobson on January 30,2013 | 10:25 PM
I'm not the only one who is wondering if they died virgins, right?
Posted by John on January 30,2013 | 10:07 PM
funny, this was in 1978 lets not forget, as a child in my elementary years we had just moved into a modern housing complex one of the first in the northwest, this community was pushed into an old countryside where the closest store was about 15 miles away as was the school, high school 30.. near this comunity of about 30 new homes was a ranch and between that a cliver of property where there dwelled an oolder black man and an older white man both living in home made shacks, no running water or electricity, we called them hermits, they never spoke and lived off the land the best they could.. this wasnt so uncommon up into the 70s until strct codes prohibited it and pushed people further out.. also I have an uncle who upon his arrival back from the VietNam war moved out to the Olympic penninsula and hasnt been heard from since by family members only a few articles in the papers, him and a few friends live off the land apparently gathering supplies in Forks wa maybe once a year, still there as far as I know..
Posted by Dean on January 30,2013 | 09:51 PM
For David Oldroyd, British electric torches (battery powered) = US flasglights
Posted by Kay on January 30,2013 | 08:50 PM
(Jaw dropping) It was the TV that killed them by ushering in a future that had no room for their convictions, destroying their world view, crushing their spirit!
Posted by Mildred on January 30,2013 | 08:49 PM
I find this insanely fascinating, but it did make me tear up a bit.
Posted by Villy on January 30,2013 | 08:30 PM
As a journalist, I envy your talents Mike. Another fabulous piece from Smithsonian.
Posted by Brandon Barrett on January 30,2013 | 08:23 PM
Very inspiring story! Would love to read more about them.
Posted by Cheryl on January 30,2013 | 08:08 PM
very moving but I understand all comments, I find this so hard to accept and want to know more. How could the last girl be left behind alone and how will they know when and if she dies???
Posted by diane on January 30,2013 | 07:59 PM
A beautiful story. Humans never cease to amaze me.
Posted by Fernando on January 30,2013 | 07:10 PM
"What happened to the incest babies? That is surely a thing that must have happened. Some kind of crude abortion? Perhaps when starving, they would eat the dead fetus. These people had their disturbing secrets. Posted by bob on January 30,2013 | 09:05 AM" There is a book about the family with more details. The father said once that he was worried about what might happen with his kids during puberty, so he separated them. He lived in the main cabin with his wife and his daughters, his sons lived in another cabin some miles away. He never actually said what he was afraid of, but one can easily imagine he was afraid of incest - so he prevented it. They actually seem to have been very faithful. The book's title was "Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness" and it's by Vasily Peskov.
Posted by Lu on January 30,2013 | 06:48 PM
Amazing....Simply Amazing....
Posted by Erik on January 30,2013 | 06:21 PM
Amazing article. Very well written.
Posted by Marco on January 30,2013 | 06:14 PM
Dear friends! Your attention is a compilation of videos from Russia about Agafya Lykova. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbbq1V4150&feature=endscreen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MR9uuydZFw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeUE--kZFqE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrheo9a2JsA&feature=endscreen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oLHRNiSdPw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wHgeZXX6Ug http://www.1tv.ru/news/sport/201780 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8YaSOQKpMk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0pHodAOMf4&feature=endscreen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu69rc7_tvk&feature=endscreen
Posted by Александр on January 30,2013 | 05:49 PM
Jesus delivered them from evil but brought them isolation, starvation, extreme hardship and ultimately sad deaths. Jesus owes them big time in heaven.
Posted by Ran on January 30,2013 | 05:31 PM
I would like to live as those folks did.
Posted by SDW on January 30,2013 | 05:11 PM
This story is fantastic...I have so many questions...where to begin???
Posted by Kevin on January 30,2013 | 03:38 PM
Sorry, moderator! [Google translated] > For Grey Fox: You and your mind? Or a victim of Goebbels's propaganda ... What 200 million :))) I am a descendant of the family repressed Siberian industrialists, so it tends to "monstrous" legends. You are confused: the Soviet Union (not Russia), lost "20 million" people… in WW II (26.6 million). See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualtiesand precisely by Google (translated) - ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Потери_во_Второй_мировой_войне - Victims of Repression 20's, 30's, early 50's were from 2.6 to 5.5 million people. These are very strict. ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Репрессии_в_СССР - Stalin (Dzhugashvili) was not a Communist, and oriental tyrant; and the revolution of 1917 did, mostly Jews "socialists" and motley…international. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_People 's_Commissars - see the details. - How many people were killed by famine in the 20's and 30's in the USA? Do not know, so interesting. At least through Google (translated) -http://www.demographia.ru/articles_N/index.html?idR=24&idArt=1487 (Links to English - "dig") - Scientific Communism. And what you know about it )) can be taught and Dialectical Materialism; and read the "Capital"? As I was taking university course, and dare say that the 60s are modified "red revolutionary ideas" in the "dialectical evolution". Pick up the difference? ...So: The Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 7, p. 7 8): "Ask, and it shall be given you, seek and you will find"
Posted by Jacob ) on January 30,2013 | 03:26 PM
@raymond: "Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." --Yes how irrational it was for those Christians to not stand still and make it easier for Stalin's thugs to kill them. They truly messed up their lives by not letting themselves be murdered. On a more serious note, this is an amazing story, and the Lykov's have lived incredible, amazingly different and amazingly full lives.
Posted by Paul on January 30,2013 | 03:12 PM
Amazing!
Posted by tom on January 30,2013 | 02:59 PM
A touching story.
Posted by David Oldroyd on January 30,2013 | 02:50 PM
-This is so hard to believe -- I have so many questions I wish I could ask Karp: Why would they accept a gift of an electric torch if they didn't have electricity? Perhaps I am taking it too literally. Did they really build a fence around a solitary rye shoot? And how is it that the girls could talk when at first they seemed to only "coo" slowly? I want to believe it all but it is so fantastic. I hope I am not just too doubtful to believe. I will find more about this incredible family, I'm sure. Posted by Lynette Harrison on January 29,2013 | 08:47 PM- @Lynette, Many countries refer to flashlights as electric torches. They didn't need electricity, just batteries or potentially it was a hand crank model. If that rye shoot was your only chance at survival, you too would keep watch and do everything possible to protect it. In terms of the "coo", the author was stating how it sounded to him. I assume it would be similar to the language that many twins develop. To anyone listening, it sounds like gibberish but to the ones speaking, it is a full, complex language.
Posted by Tirzah on January 30,2013 | 02:06 PM
I'm inspired of their strength and confidence. My ancestries escaped from central Russia to Siberia in the beginning of 20 century because of being old believers. But they couldn't withstand soviet power, they suffered a lot, so they lost their religion and way of life. I admire these people, they are an example of infinite human strength and will.
Posted by Anastasia on January 30,2013 | 01:20 PM
"What happened to the incest babies? That is surely a thing that must have happened. Some kind of crude abortion? Perhaps when starving, they would eat the dead fetus. These people had their disturbing secrets. Posted by bob on January 30,2013 | 09:05 AM" Bob, pray tell what led you to this conclusion? I saw no mention of such in the article. Are you basing this on the assumption that you, if placed in a similar situation, would have an incestual relationship with your sister(s)? Bob, I find this a very indicative commentary on our current culture that is absorbed with sex at every turn, and is unable to see a story of a religious family and their survival as just that.
Posted by Charlie on January 30,2013 | 01:11 PM
Mike, that's famous. Great, great thank you for published work. Truthfully, so stirringly. [Google translated] > Addition. 1. Forest Siberia is not that extensive, but rather a steppe, forest areas are located along the river banks. And for "level Tobolsk" begin swamps and tundra. http://www.ecosystema.ru/08nature/world/geoussr/3-1-2.htm#42tai (or are looking ' Vikipedia) 2. Weapons were supposed to geologists the instructions for protection from wolves and bears, but "out of the instruction" had in mind the protection of the "two-legged beasts" (for example, hiding criminals. in the USSR, there were no very much, but have been).
Posted by Jacob on January 30,2013 | 01:06 PM
There is something inherently attractive about this story. I am drawn into the details of how those things we take for granted every day would have been a struggle for this brave family. From our perspective the story seems sad, yet if the Lykovs were asked, they'd probably disagree. They seemed to have accepted their isolation. I cannot pretend to know, or judge them. They survived where many would not. If I were to walk in their shoes for only one year I might be able to get a glimpse of their incredible struggle. I am awed by this story. It is inspirational. Setting politics and religion aside, it is a celebration of human endurance.
Posted by Des Mullin on January 30,2013 | 12:41 PM
i live in Russia since over 20 years but THAT story had me amazed to no end. how one can endure and just for ones believe is incredible.
Posted by Benedikt on January 30,2013 | 12:30 PM
@raymond What is sad about this? These people probably lived happier/more fulfilling lives than most.
Posted by andrew on January 30,2013 | 12:29 PM
"They were free. The last free people on earth." a) no, there's plenty of untouched tribes; b) they had to eat their own shoes; c) it's already stated that one of the family was the religious enforcer. But, you know, as long as we don't consider the position of the women being told what to do in a place so far away from habitation that they can't leave we can call them free.
Posted by jaduncan on January 30,2013 | 12:18 PM
bob, I hope that I am not the only reader who is insulted that you assume incest, abortion & cannibalism would have occurred amongst this family. Regardless of how offended you are by their unusual & devout faith...incest, abortion & cannibalism are more commonly found in today's culture thanks to "sexual liberation", on-demand child killing (abortion), & the used of aborted fetal parts by pharmaceutical & food companies. Your assumption is far more disturbing than any perceived secrets you seem to be so sure of. Few of us would have the psychological or physical strength to live such a life for even a month, let alone 40+ years. Blessed repose & eternal memory for the departed members of the Lykov family, & may God protect Agafia for the remainder of her days on earth.
Posted by Patricia on January 30,2013 | 12:07 PM
Who are these "people" that find only the ugly bizarre things but miss the beauty of humanity in this story? I'm truly glad people are so miserable and pathetic that they can only find religion to blame for this. It's exactly what people who think that way deserve. By the way, thanks to all the people who pointed out that religious persecution caused this in the first place. Take note America.
Posted by Gideon on January 30,2013 | 11:54 AM
What a read. Very moving. On a sadder note, good thing they were not discovered in Canada or the U.S. They would have been thrown in jail for the hemp seeds.
Posted by Dale Hunt on January 30,2013 | 11:50 AM
An absolutely fascinating story.
Posted by M & K on January 30,2013 | 11:45 AM
Beautiful story. Even more beautifully written.
Posted by Lacey on January 30,2013 | 11:44 AM
@ Jdub ... You said it all, and it's the TRUTH !!!
Posted by Joe3 on January 30,2013 | 11:40 AM
****"What happened to the incest babies? That is surely a thing that must have happened."****** There are many people in this world who are able to live by their convictions, as is clearly evidenced by this family who forsook modern conveniences to preserve their lives for over forty years. If Dmitry's religious convictions prevented him from lifesaving treatment, it is entirely possible that they were able to refrain from incestuous activity. In spite of reasonable inferential evidence to the contrary, your imputation of "dark secrets" speaks more about you than anything else.
Posted by GMay on January 30,2013 | 11:40 AM
Fantastic article. Really enthralling! Too bad people have to come in here and muck up the comment section with religious/anti-religious bickering.
Posted by Katie on January 30,2013 | 11:18 AM
I met family like that in Yakutia in 1963. I worked as an ambulance paramedic in the remote district. Once I was called to a tiny village to help with the premature birth. On hte way back my driver asked if I would mind if we visited an old couple living all alone in the woods. They were slightly better off, not totally cut off from the civilization)) They were Russian by birth, and never learned Yakutian language even though they had lived there since 1914.. I was told that they escaped from their village in European part of Russia when "the lord" wanted to exercise "the first night right". They were young and in love, so they ran! And ran... Never had children.
Posted by Irene on January 30,2013 | 11:15 AM
Truly a great piece of reporting -- I have only one quibble and that is the poor quality of the photographs -- abviously 2nd or 3 rd generation prints. Are the originals avilable and are they any better ?
Posted by Bookinhand on January 30,2013 | 11:15 AM
The demise of the family members may have had something to do with the touch of modernity, after all: introduction of salt, possibly chocolate and alcohol after 40 years are all factors for a kidney failure, rather than harsh diet...
Posted by Maja on January 30,2013 | 10:27 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." No sadder than dying with everyone else in Stalin's famines.
Posted by Wendy on January 30,2013 | 10:09 AM
It reminds me a little of the story of "Ishi," last of his people (in the mountains of California). As sad as these people were, they were living "sustainably" although not as a village.
Posted by Mark on January 30,2013 | 10:03 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought..." What are you talking about? There were early persecutions by a busybody tsar, and later persecutions by joyless Bolsheviks who actually killed one of the family. All of this was done for reasons the perpetrators no doubt thought were eminently rational. That's what made the total mess of these people's lives.
Posted by ChurchSox on January 30,2013 | 10:02 AM
We look to South America for isolated tribes and here is one in Russia. The survivalists have a lot to learn from them. This article is beautiful and sensitive.
Posted by Shelby on January 30,2013 | 09:56 AM
" Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Posted by raymond on January 29,2013 | 02:22 PM" So, when discussing an article about a Christian family trying to avoid Communist persecution, your reaction is to talk about the irrationalism of religion? Haven't you got any self-awareness at all? "Rational," atheist Communism, aka Scientific Socialism, killed 200 million people in the last century, including Mr. Lykov's brother. That is why he fled into the wilderness in the first place. Had he not done so, it is likely that he would have been shot or sent to the gulags - quite a number of Old Believers ended up there, I believe. At least his "irrationalism" prolonged his and his family's life for forty years - your fellow atheists, all "rational" to the core, would have killed him for no other reason that he didn't happen to agree with their opinions!
Posted by Grey Fox on January 30,2013 | 09:33 AM
Err, Raymond, surely militant atheism also had something to do with their misfortunes? But of course it's easier to blame the monolith that is all religious sentiment expressed throughout the whole of history.
Posted by Addison on January 30,2013 | 09:32 AM
A História tem lances enmpolgantes. A Arqueologia é o braço forte na aplicação da interdisciplinidade. Não se pode mais pensar em termos isolados. É preciso revisar certos conceitos aristotélico.A separação causou algum prejuízo. Vemos a tecnologia sendo usada para interação. Até em nosso País os satélites são usados para descobrirem novos caminho para os etudiosos. A extensão da Rússia e os problemas climáticos fazem com que não haja integração total da população. O que acontece numa descoberta assim! Todos os nossos cionceitos sobre a História, pensamento, arte e ação política seriam revelados. Vivemos procurando saber qual é a história por da História.Há muito questionamentos,pois o que contaram quando crianças pouco a pouco vemos que não é bem assim. O que podemos fazer para umainteração global entre as pessoas? Esperar que venham a nós? Por que não se respeita as diferenças, mesmo sem aceitá-las? Momento de reflexão e questionamento. O que eu posso contribuir para não deixar que pessoas como essas isolem-se? Atualmente, com os critérios estatísticos as pessoas podem morrer e ninguém sentirá saudade. São abandonadas. Ninguém se interessa em saber se estão ou não vivos. No máximo entram na conta dos desaparecidos. Está faltando na Terra auilo que se chama amor, sentimento que Deus revelou; "Um filho poe ser abandonado pela mãe, mas Deus nunca esquece de ninguém"(citação oral).
Posted by Jaime Reis Rosa on January 30,2013 | 09:29 AM
Raymond, who are the irrational people? Those that fled to protect their families? Or those atheists who were to kill them?
Posted by Gunnarr on January 30,2013 | 09:22 AM
They were free. The last free people on earth. They didn't need government to give them stuff, then didn't need the TSA or Social Security. They made it without the police or dep't of education. Everyone reading this is a debt-enslaved robot encircled within a police state. You will never know the freedom of their life as you go to work worrying about your credit score or debt limit! You deserve the world you created so: know your place, shut your face, back to work, robot-debt-enslaved! Oh, and pay MORE social security tax because you have no choice anyhow.......slave.
Posted by Jdub on January 30,2013 | 09:13 AM
I also find this to be a very sad story as, due to the fringe religious beliefs of the parents, these children endured serious hardships but even worse, were deprived of being part of a wider community and the chance to forge links outside their family group, marry, or even have children of their own. There's a lesson here also in how this particular family lineage died out leaving no ancestors. Amazing they were able to survive for so long in such a harsh environment and in complete isolation!
Posted by Joe on January 30,2013 | 09:11 AM
What happened to the incest babies? That is surely a thing that must have happened. Some kind of crude abortion? Perhaps when starving, they would eat the dead fetus. These people had their disturbing secrets.
Posted by bob on January 30,2013 | 09:05 AM
For the comment about religion messing up peoples lives, please reread the part about how they were being executed by atheist Communists. Perhaps you think the atheist Communists were more rational since they went about murdering people simply for being Christian?
Posted by lorraine sabol on January 30,2013 | 08:54 AM
AWESOME.................
Posted by PHILIP DEED on January 30,2013 | 08:50 AM
Really? Is that what you understood from the story? That religion overpowers rational thought? The only murderer in the story is the atheist communists, the only oppressor was Peter the Great against believers. Read again, and ask someone to explain you the story before you use it to attack religion. So, desire resist what you are thought and brain washed to be essential is irrational? You have chosen to be a consumer, you work and spend whatever you make on unnecessary stuff, you have chosen to be a slave bedazzled with shiny fake stuff, and they have chosen to be human, in its simplest and purest form.
Posted by ahmet sevki on January 30,2013 | 08:38 AM
Wonderfully written article.
Posted by Dave on January 30,2013 | 08:30 AM
As simplistic as it can ever get. Touching! What an unbelievable story of resilience and togetherness. The love of family and true belief in something. I enjoyed reading this immensely.
Posted by Uche on January 30,2013 | 08:25 AM
@raymond Don't be ridiculous. They left because they were being PERSECUTED not because of their religion you fool, they lived life a way that made sense to them, they chose it. They could have left at any time. You know what can also completely overpower rational thought? Arrogance.
Posted by James on January 30,2013 | 08:24 AM
@Raymond. And once again consumerism and civilization shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story.
Posted by austin on January 30,2013 | 08:15 AM
What a sad but beautiful story. Congratulations to the author for this superbly written piece.
Posted by P. T. on January 30,2013 | 08:08 AM
What an amazin story. Really interesting to read. I bet there is other stories like this
Posted by susan thompson on January 30,2013 | 08:03 AM
Fantastic article! Deeply touching. Unable to understand the emotions that it evokes...
Posted by Sarveswaran M on January 30,2013 | 07:27 AM
Sorry Raymond but it was the justifiable fear of communism that forced that family into the wilderness. And it was the communists who killed Lykov's brother and millions of others before him that deserve your scorn, not Christianity.
Posted by Vincenzo on January 30,2013 | 07:18 AM
Keep your atheist agenda to yourself Raymond. Can you honestly say the world would be a worse place if everyone lived like this?
Posted by Will on January 30,2013 | 07:15 AM
Raymond are you looking at the same story? These people were happy? they knew what they had? They had a chance to move away they decided against it, yes for their faith. But who are you to say it made a mess of their lives. THey acomplished so much in a narutal environment. Could you do that? Could you make a life like they did? Would you even try and live without most of the mod-cons you have? Or are you too busy blaming religion for a story when there is no blame to be had?
Posted by Bigbot on January 30,2013 | 07:13 AM
For anyone who is interested, here is a Russian news story about the lone remaining woman in the family. You might not understand anything, but you can see how she lives. http://www.1tv.ru/news/social/201771
Posted by Christopher on January 30,2013 | 07:06 AM
A very sad and inspiring story. I really appreciate the last sruvivor Agafia who keeps herself away from the rescue even after she has to live all alone in that forest. Truly Brave and Inspiring..
Posted by Admirer on January 30,2013 | 06:48 AM
Wow Raymond, religion make a total mess of peoples lives? Did you not read the part about the atheist persecuting them and driving them away from civilisation? Shot the old man's brother?
Posted by Bob on January 30,2013 | 06:47 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. They fled because they were persecuted moron.
Posted by mondo on January 30,2013 | 06:41 AM
This is an example of how religion can damage your life and mind.
Posted by Peter on January 30,2013 | 06:40 AM
2 raymond: Once again the so-called progress and civilization shows it's ability to completely overpower every deep and honest movement of the soul and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Go enjoy your ChickenMcNuggets and Coca-Cola, and don't forget to upload the photo of your meals to Instagram.
Posted by dnomyar on January 30,2013 | 06:36 AM
Living in Alaska for nigh 38 years, I could relate to this story so much, having perhaps similar wilderness here! I too could not stop reading till the last word. Such losses of a family's isolation and subsequent decimation saddens all who passes these pages...
Posted by Alaska Flyer on January 30,2013 | 06:36 AM
@Raymond In what ways did you find this family irrational? They lived through their faith and yes had to hide from atheists who were killing their other family members just for believing. They clung to one another and to them had what seems like a full life in their eyes. I guess since it is not the life you want to live then it was a "total mess".
Posted by Jerry on January 30,2013 | 06:08 AM
Religion? Hell yes let's blame religion. A crazed, vicious religion called 'Communism' caused the death of Lykov's brother. Lykov and his family escaped into the Siberian wilderness during the Great Terror to avoid becoming a few more of Stalin's statistics. The Lykovs survived the ultimate expression of Left-Wing 'religion' - democidal mass-murder. Good for them!
Posted by Toby on January 30,2013 | 06:02 AM
About 40 million people live in siberia, not "a few thousand"
Posted by Ben on January 30,2013 | 05:02 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." As they fled into the taiga because of Stalin's purges its more likely their deep religious conviction that gave them the group cohesion to survive. Remember Stalin the godless communist? You know the one who may have killed 20,000,000 people (and lets not mention the other godless communist Mao who may have killed 60,000,000).
Posted by BrokenSymmetry on January 30,2013 | 05:01 AM
I guess in your mind, "raymond," staying and being tortured and killed by Peter's men and the Bolsheviks is "rational thought."
Posted by zakkO on January 30,2013 | 04:47 AM
Many thanks for the story. You do not often read nowadays anything but terrible news or conflicts. I did not know that my country were those stories. Written very nicely. Thank you again! Best regards, Ruslan
Posted by Ruslan Russia on January 30,2013 | 04:44 AM
http://www.1tv.ru/news/sport/201780 Agafia now (in Russian)
Posted by Roman on January 30,2013 | 04:37 AM
This is the most fantastic news article that I have ever read! Keep up the great work! And thank you for taking the time to write this!
Posted by Jeremy on January 30,2013 | 04:32 AM
@raymond, why is it sad? They seemed relatively content to me, even if they lived a life that would be considered harsh by our standards.
Posted by hmm on January 30,2013 | 04:23 AM
Anybody have a subtitled version of the "Lost in the Taiga"-youtube movie?
Posted by Fredrik on January 30,2013 | 04:17 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." They were chased into the forests by secularists. Their religious life was fine before then. Quit trying to impose your worldview on places where it doesn't belong.
Posted by nadavegan on January 30,2013 | 03:09 AM
Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Posted by raymond on January 29,2013 What a very silly comment by Raymond, what a false conclusion based on the given evidence. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. The critical word here is "after", i.e. when exposed to the likes of Raymond and Co. It was their religiously defined code which had sustained them and kept them functioning as a family. Now it was destroyed and as night follows day, so was the family.
Posted by James Higham on January 30,2013 | 03:04 AM
It is not religion that drove them to take refuge but the persecution of those beliefs by those too ignorant to try and accept something that they might not believe. To try to blame it solely on a religion that you may or may not believe in the merit of is oversimplifying matters instead of recognizing their actions for the political statement they were.
Posted by Sue on January 29,2013 | 02:58 AM
It's amazing that they could survive in that harsh environment. I was sad when the mother starved, but saved her children. Maternal instinct and it's deepest love.
Posted by Dorie on January 29,2013 | 02:48 AM
A great story that brought so many thoughts to my mind regarding human nature and the ability to persevere.
Posted by nathaniel on January 29,2013 | 02:37 AM
This is an amazing but also very sad story. An old woman living alone in the forest with everybody she knew gone. That seems very sad to me.
Posted by JoeZ on January 29,2013 | 02:30 AM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." the religion of communism / socialism drove the family to flee into the forest in fear of their lives. fact.
Posted by joe on January 29,2013 | 02:21 AM
>>Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story.<< Out of the entire story, you concluded this? Religion is mentioned here very casually. This is more a story of human ability to adapt, and survive. A cynic is a person who knows the price of all things, but value to none.
Posted by on January 29,2013 | 02:14 AM
Sad that a nation of atheists ran these poor people into the wilderness, all because they believed something different.
Posted by Harland on January 29,2013 | 01:48 AM
That story is enormous!
Posted by Awesome on January 29,2013 | 01:24 AM
@raymond So I guess the rational thought here is that religion destroys lives and must be eradicated? How ironic. Their religion was persecuted by atheists. The mess here started with intolerance, not religion.
Posted by jeff on January 29,2013 | 12:57 AM
You American Preppers should take lessons from this.
Posted by Gabz on January 29,2013 | 12:51 AM
he whispered just before he died. "A man lives for howsoever God grants." Fantastic. This particular statement brought tears.
Posted by amol on January 29,2013 | 12:38 AM
Raymond, they were just saving their lives, commies had murdered Karp Lykov's brother and millions more. Of course the Lykovs' behaviour was entirely rational, and religion may have helped them survive.
Posted by Tony on January 29,2013 | 12:10 AM
Can't help but feel a deep sense of admiration to this family, esp, the sole living survivor. They stay true to their faith. Religion is not important, it is the faith that counts most. They are not tempted by the modernities offered to them. Another admirable trait is their unconditional love and commitment to their family. Thank you for sharing their story ... Truly inspiring.
Posted by Cheryl hernandez on January 29,2013 | 12:00 AM
raymond: "Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." I don't understand your comment. You did grasp, I hope, that if the young Lykovs had moved back to the cities, they'd have likely soon died of disease, since they never built up the proper immunities to cope with urban social contact. The family was correct in their hesitance to move. Or is your point that this was all Karp Lykov's fault for being a member of a persecuted religious minority in the first place? Or did you just miss the point?
Posted by JCabell on January 29,2013 | 11:59 PM
WOW. That's all I can say. Amazing. I've often wanted to live outside the city, but this is a bit farther than I'd imagined!
Posted by Tyger on January 29,2013 | 11:49 PM
absolutely incredible. this should be required reading to educate people to religious extremism. an entire family wasted away, for what?
Posted by george eaton on January 29,2013 | 11:47 PM
I don't think its religion. Its the beliefs that allowed them to survive in the wild for so long. Once human beings spend 40 years living a single life, it is very difficult to adjust to any change.. it is human nature, and nothing to do with religion destroying rational thought. For example, nothing in their religion prohibited them from going back to the village and living with others of their faith. It was their own fear of leaving their home in the taiga and their own love of that place which prompted them.
Posted by on January 29,2013 | 11:45 PM
Amazing to see that the first comment came from a religion hater. Religion overpower rational thought? Ha! Try living during the times when your community is being persecuted by the modernists and commies just because of your faith. Try to live the life of Karp Lykov and comment again here.
Posted by Ishmael Ahab on January 29,2013 | 11:31 PM
Wow, an inspiring, heartwarming story. How amazing that they survived all that time out there alone. Incredible.
Posted by Jam on January 29,2013 | 11:19 PM
An amazing story of faith and survival
Posted by Sarmistha Sanyal on January 29,2013 | 11:17 PM
Raymond Why don't you worry about your own grammar instead of making war on someones religion? These people lived in solitary by choice. They hurt no one. Instead of enjoying the story and imagining their trials, you mock. How miserable are you? Live and let live. Allow people some liberty and freedom - you black hole of misery!
Posted by on January 29,2013 | 11:04 PM
I can barely wrap my mind around this. Truly extraordinary. As for you "raymond", your one-dimensionality is what is truly sad.
Posted by Darryl on January 29,2013 | 10:48 PM
And raymond takes the award for most ignorant comment I've read this year. Did you catch the part where they fled because an atheist shot the man's brother because of what they believed? Not to turn this into a religion vs. atheism thing, but you can't seriously use this extreme case as an argument for the evils of religion.
Posted by Steve on January 29,2013 | 10:48 PM
So, how were they able to replace clothes? Where did they get their much needed protein without a steady supply of meat? Ohh, they answered that. What was that again? What is this hemp stuff they mention? I wonder if they could have survived without this MYSTERIOUS plant. Hmm.
Posted by ahmad itani on January 29,2013 | 10:46 PM
amazing
Posted by gavin couzens on January 29,2013 | 10:40 PM
Raymond -- persecution of their religion made of mess of these peoples' lives. Good old Stalin the atheist was the one who sent them scrambling into the hills. Luckily, they escaped being part of the millions of Russians he killed.
Posted by Liz on January 29,2013 | 10:21 PM
Fascinating!
Posted by Susanne Newton on January 29,2013 | 10:17 PM
@raymond: I'm thinking the Bolsheviks messed up an awful lot more lives than religion here, including the systematic killing of most of Russia's intellectuals. All things considered, the Lykovs fared better than tens of millions of Soviet citizens.
Posted by Tobias on January 29,2013 | 10:12 PM
Amazing what strength faith gives people to carry on. They certainly lived longer, fuller lives than their brethren who remained among the atheistic communists and Nazis.
Posted by Jim on January 29,2013 | 09:56 PM
A very strong family.self dependant.now I can see more into my fathers coming to america.
Posted by paul t dacko on January 29,2013 | 09:46 PM
This certainly isn't about "how easy we have it" or anything of the sort. It's tragedy lies in their refusal for anything better because of their utter ignorance. What we should be grateful for is our capacity to think, which this family completely lacked. Though I'm sure they were as "intelligent" as the article described them (they'd have to be in order to survive for so long), the mere fact that they CHOSE to live this way is stupid and dangerous.
Posted by Jsant on January 29,2013 | 09:45 PM
This was intensely extraordinary and powerfully told! I will never come close to knowing what it feels like to have my family's life saved by a single grain of sprouted rye.
Posted by Jackalope on January 29,2013 | 09:32 PM
raymond, it seems to me that what messed up their lives was not religion, but persecution. And that is, indeed, sad.
Posted by Lisa on January 29,2013 | 09:27 PM
Totally enthralling story. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
Posted by Mir on January 29,2013 | 09:21 PM
They should make a movie about this family!!
Posted by DM on January 29,2013 | 09:08 PM
Raymond, according to the article, it was the atheists who made the mess.
Posted by Roland on January 29,2013 | 09:07 PM
No, Raymond... I would say, once again the irrational intolerance of religion and religious persons that ultimately drives them to take extreme measures. A truly remarkable and inspiring story.
Posted by John palmer on January 29,2013 | 08:59 PM
A fascinating and tragic commentary on a familys' lifestyle in isolation.
Posted by Dale Strike on January 29,2013 | 08:58 PM
This is so hard to believe -- I have so many questions I wish I could ask Karp: Why would they accept a gift of an electric torch if they didn't have electricity? Perhaps I am taking it too literally. Did they really build a fence around a solitary rye shoot? And how is it that the girls could talk when at first they seemed to only "coo" slowly? I want to believe it all but it is so fantastic. I hope I am not just too doubtful to believe. I will find more about this incredible family, I'm sure.
Posted by Lynette Harrison on January 29,2013 | 08:47 PM
I am curious to hear the Lykovs' family dialect. Fortunately, entering "Agafia Lykov" into youtube yields some hits.
Posted by Matthew on January 29,2013 | 08:41 PM
The One Who spoke and 7 septillion suns turned on also said, "Man does not live by bread alone." Obviously this family was a lot smarter and more blessed than some of the folk posting comments here! This life is the blink of an eye out of millions of billions of years. The only thing that counts here is your understanding of 11 [ELEVEN ! ] words. 1-4 In the beginning God 5-11 Who do you say that I am? In a billion years the only thing that will matter is what you do with those 11 words!
Posted by Harold on January 29,2013 | 08:35 PM
Raymond, if religion hadn't been there, something else would have. Being a theist, agnostic, or atheist would not have made a difference. So please, do control your ignorance.
Posted by Masy on January 29,2013 | 08:28 PM
Raymond, I disagree with your comment. I am not a religious person myself but it stuns me to see how many other non-religious people can be fooled into the notion of permanence. In fact, the father and daughter lived to quite an astounding age given their very hard lifestyle. And who are we to judge what sort of life is rational, and what isn't? Those of us who live in "modern" society, where we're surrounded by electronics and processed food and a million distractions, also tend to lack an appreciation for the passing of time and the earth itself. Their lives weren't a mess, it just might appear that way given the broad family history we are given in this story. I bet if you were to write a chronicle of any family, it would look like a mess - addictions, depression, accidents, fighting, and so on. Every person lives in his or her own unique manner, and this family wasn't harming anyone... they were just living close to the earth, and close to their idea of God. Nobody "knows any better", we are all conditioned to believe we are living the "right way" by our own upbringing.
Posted by Megan on January 29,2013 | 08:14 PM
I want to know what happened to Agafia :(
Posted by Hmmm on January 29,2013 | 08:13 PM
Wow. This was the most interesting thing I've read all week. Thanks!!
Posted by Isabel on January 29,2013 | 08:11 PM
Who else but Russians could live & suffer like this?!!
Posted by Larissa on January 29,2013 | 08:06 PM
Once again the required ideological conformity inherent in statism shows it's ability to completely isolate those simply choosing to live as they wish and make a total mess of peoples lives.
Posted by John on January 29,2013 | 07:59 PM
Thank you so much for this..As another poster said..i hung on every word. I would love to meet her .
Posted by kristy bartholomew on January 29,2013 | 07:57 PM
Religion may be partly to blame for this story and while that's certainly partly true, this is really a story of the horrors of oppression and the lengths people sometimes have to go to escape it. If the Lykov's were in a country that had valued freedom they would not have to hide in the most isolated place they could find.
Posted by Chris on January 29,2013 | 07:51 PM
Raymond, once again we see how atheistic regimes persecute those how disagree with them. The Communists in the USSR and China and the Nazis killed millions upon millions. That is the truly sad story.
Posted by clyde on January 29,2013 | 07:31 PM
Wow. Very interesting.
Posted by J on January 29,2013 | 07:29 PM
Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Posted by raymond on January 29,2013 | 02:22 PM And the Soviets who shot his brother in cold blood?
Posted by galloglass on January 29,2013 | 07:21 PM
Raymond,a moron,ought to learn to employ some of that rational thought in assessing human behavior: Whatever your view of religion, you have to see that it was the unifying force of religion that helped this family to survive for such a long time. Great job of reporting, Mike Dash!
Posted by Jerzy Kolodziej on January 29,2013 | 07:19 PM
Once again faith shows it's ability to overcome insurmountable hardship.
Posted by Sammidog on January 29,2013 | 07:15 PM
It is simply amazing how these people were able to live there for so long, and how they were better for it. A girl who wasn't afraid of the dark forest, a boy who could sleep out in near freezing weather and bring back a full grown deer, all by himself. A mother who could teach her children to read and write, all from a single book. The ingenuity of people never ceases to amaze me. It also is a testament to the cruelty of man. It seems, to me, that their faith was a central and strengthening force behind their survival. A truly amazing story. "A man lives for howsoever God grants." That line is going to stick with me for a while.
Posted by Brian on January 29,2013 | 07:03 PM
And cue next years oscar nominated best picture. The pivotal moment being, the lumber mill and "Fine!". Amazing story.
Posted by PokingBears on January 29,2013 | 06:55 PM
@ Raymond, how does this show religion's ability to "completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives" (sic)? It seems to show that extreme secularism is what drove them to the mountains, and had the Russian government not attempted to destroy the Orthodox Church, this would not have been a problem. In fact, it seems to show the resilience of faith. That they could continually be resourceful and sustain their lives in the face of hardship. Rather than think this story 'sad', I think it an uplifting one, even if it is in the realm of the bizarre (can you imagine living through a major world war and never having knowledge of it?) Here is a family that put their faith in God rather than princes, and they survived. What is it to your if they live on a mountain top rather than in the plush life of modern amenities. I can tell you this, they probably know true charity far better than you or I ever will, because they have experienced true poverty.
Posted by on January 29,2013 | 06:41 PM
Russians are hardcore.
Posted by mkb` on January 29,2013 | 06:35 PM
I wish people would not rush to make pronouncements like "Once again ,religion..." the Lykov's fled into the Taiga because of religious oppression from the Soviets. They were fundamentalist true, but from what I read of the story, I feel they stayed because the forest was their home, they were a family together in the forest. It was an incredibly tough environment to exist in, but they managed somehow. People used to live in forests with less than the Lykov's had, a time when the only things that held them together was their faith and their loyalty to each other, as wrong as it may seem now to cosy know-it all's.
Posted by Kieran on January 29,2013 | 06:31 PM
@Raymond Did you even read the story? He was a believer who saw his brother shot by ATHEISTS, and so he fled into the forest. And you have the gall to claim that religion makes a mess of people's lives. Just WOW. Evil makes a mess of people's lives. And that can come in many different guises.
Posted by Jordan Smith on January 29,2013 | 06:28 PM
were they getting married for reproduction or not and if yes where were they getting their sposes?
Posted by kamara on January 29,2013 | 05:54 PM
'Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story.' Maybe you missed this part of the story 'Under the Soviets, isolated Old Believer communities that had fled to Siberia to escape persecution began to retreat ever further from civilization. During the purges of the 1930s, with Christianity itself under assault, a Communist patrol had shot Lykov's brother on the outskirts of their village while Lykov knelt working beside him. He had responded by scooping up his family and bolting into forest.'
Posted by rmark on January 29,2013 | 05:52 PM
Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Posted by raymond on January 29,2013 | 02:22 PM I concur.
Posted by Melissa in NorCal on January 29,2013 | 05:33 PM
Raymond doesn't get this at all. There is nothing sad about this other than their final passing. They escaped persecution by the atheist/secular state, and they lived long, happy lives on what most of us would call far too little to even survive.
Posted by Jody on January 29,2013 | 05:26 PM
Isn't it something how Raymond would go straight to demonizing religion, completely ignoring the fact that it was the persecution against religion that drove them so deep into the wilderness for so long. Not to mention it was their faith that sustained them for all of those decades. Inspiring!
Posted by Matt on January 29,2013 | 05:26 PM
Once again, faith and freedom show their ability to carry people through the most difficult hardships. A truly inspiring story.
Posted by Cave Horse on January 29,2013 | 05:26 PM
I wonder if anyone has had any contact recently. Any updates to this story?
Posted by Jim on January 29,2013 | 05:06 PM
Amazing! The next time some well-to-do American resident say that he will "Go Galt", share this story with them. True self-reliance is harsh. Life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (T. Hobbes)
Posted by Vincent on January 29,2013 | 05:00 PM
In other news, it's 2013 and photos on the Web no longer need to be the size of postage stamps.
Posted by Noah Fect on January 29,2013 | 04:12 PM
@raymond These people were fine until they were persecuted for their religion. It was the government that made a mess of their lives.
Posted by Jake on January 29,2013 | 04:06 PM
great and interesting story.... except your headline mentions World War 2 and your article didn't... I was waiting to read about the connection.... why not title it "For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of Quantum Physics"? or "For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of Any Historical Event After 1936 that I Did Not Mention in This Article"? Honestly, "For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact" would've made an equally compelling and more accurate headline...
Posted by great story bad headline on January 29,2013 | 04:00 PM
I don't think this is a tale of religion overpowering rational thought. This is how they lived! Many people live their lives this way, and they are happy to do so. Why must everyone Westernize themselves? It is very ethnocentric to say that they allowed religion to 'make a mess of their lives.'
Posted by chale on January 29,2013 | 03:56 PM
@raymond... they were persecuted for their religion and had to flee (the fathers own brother was shot right in front of him). did it keep them isolated? probably, but who's to say it wasn't the fear of being executed and who were they hurting in the end? religion wasn't the problem, it was people who couldn't accept someone else's religion. to the point where they were rounded up and executed.
Posted by just some guy on January 29,2013 | 03:56 PM
Absolutely gripping. Although not to sound like a twit but as soon as I saw the title I thought to myself "these people must have little to no immune system." Still, good read.
Posted by Tim on January 29,2013 | 03:56 PM
What an amazing movie this would make.
Posted by Gary on January 29,2013 | 03:53 PM
Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story. Posted by raymond ----- Athiest evangelists are as annoying as any other kind. Stow it.
Posted by KL on January 29,2013 | 03:48 PM
I remember reading that story when they first found the family in 1978. Always wondered what became of them.
Posted by JT on January 29,2013 | 03:45 PM
Raymond,I guess you missed the part where the Christians were persecuted by atheists and forced into the forest?
Posted by Ben on January 29,2013 | 03:23 PM
Wow
Posted by Sandy J on January 29,2013 | 03:10 PM
Identifying this article as a matter of 'religion ruins everything' is intellectually lazy and demonstrates a fundamental inability to grasp the complexity of human relationships, philosophies, and values. Very beautiful, insightful reportage about a fascinating subject.
Posted by Leah Berk on January 29,2013 | 03:07 PM
"Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story." I think you missed the part of the article that stresses how they were driven away from civilization because of religious persecution .
Posted by MrGrumpy on January 29,2013 | 03:02 PM
Thanks to Mike for bringing us this incredible story of an incredible family! It is interesting to wonder why Agafia has chosen to stay by herself in the harsh tiaga so far removed from civilization. It is natural for her since it is the only thing she has ever known. It makes me realize that we humans are far more adaptable than we can at first imagine.
Posted by Kathy on January 29,2013 | 03:01 PM
The family's principal entertainment, the Russian journalist Vasily Peskov noted, "was for everyone to recount their dreams." They had nothing, but they were dreaming. They had everything.
Posted by Pheidias Bourlas on January 29,2013 | 02:55 PM
Once again religion shows it's ability to completely overpower rational thought and make a total mess of peoples lives. A truly sad story.
Posted by raymond on January 29,2013 | 02:22 PM
Amazing! This STORY IS BOTH HEART-WRENCHING AND INSPIRING. IT SHOWS THE RESILIENCE AND LOVE OF A FAMILY THAT HAD NO ONE BUT EACH OTHER.
Posted by Margaret Kraus on January 29,2013 | 02:15 PM
amazing
Posted by J Hill on January 29,2013 | 02:09 PM
Beautifully written. I hung onto every word.
Posted by Julita on January 29,2013 | 01:54 PM
This is an amazing article and I would love to read more about this family and how they survived for so long. It does make you realise how easy our live are compared to some others out there.
Posted by Rob Lundy on January 29,2013 | 01:39 PM
Really interesting and a lot more heartbreaking than I thought it would be. Thanks to John Green for sending this my way. DFTBA
Posted by Missi on January 29,2013 | 01:37 PM
Impossible! How does one live without an Internet connection, an iPhone or a Television?
Posted by Anonymous on January 29,2013 | 01:31 PM
I read this down to the last word, rubbed my hand against the grain of the page and can only say one word, "fine".
Posted by Christopher on January 29,2013 | 01:04 PM
An incredible story ! And we have the nerve to complain about conditions in our " excess of everything " daily lives.
Posted by Claire Dion on January 29,2013 | 11:31 AM