In the early 1980s. a series of publications about the family appeared in the Soviet press hermits-Old Believers Lykovs who spent 40 years in voluntary exile in the Sayan taiga, abandoning all the benefits of civilization, in complete isolation from society. After they were discovered by geologists and journalists and travelers began to visit them, three family members died from a viral infection. In 1988, the father of the family also died. Only Agafya Lykova survived, who soon became the most famous hermit in the country. Despite her advanced age and illness, she still refuses to move from the taiga.
Old Believers Karp and Akulina Lykov and their children fled to the taiga from Soviet power in the 1930s. On the banks of a mountain tributary of the Erinat River, they built a hut, hunted, fishing, collected mushrooms and berries, weaved clothes on homemade machine. They left the village of Tishi with two children - Savvin and Natalya, and in secret two more were born - Dmitry and Agafya. In 1961, mother Akulina Lykova died of hunger, and 20 years later Savvin, Natalya and Dmitry died of pneumonia. Obviously, in conditions of isolation from society, immunity was not developed, and all of them became victims of a viral infection. They were offered pills, but only the youngest Agafya agreed to take them. This saved her life. In 1988, at the age of 87, her father died, and she was left alone.
They began writing about the Lykovs back in 1982. Then journalist Vasily Peskov often came to the Old Believers, who subsequently published several articles in Komsomolskaya Pravda and the book “Taiga Dead End”. After this, the Lykovs often found themselves in the center of attention of the press and public, their story thundered throughout the country. In the 2000s, the Lykov settlement was included in the territory of the Khakass Nature Reserve.
In 1990, Agafya’s seclusion temporarily ceased for the first time: she took monastic vows in the Old Believer convent, but a few months later she returned to her home in the taiga, explaining this by “ideological differences” with the nuns. She also did not have a good relationship with her relatives - they say that the hermit’s character is difficult and difficult.
In 2014, the hermit turned to people for help, complaining about her weakness and illness. Representatives of the administration, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, journalists and niece Alexandra Martyushev went to see her and tried to persuade her to move. Agafya gratefully accepted the food, firewood and gifts, but refused to leave her home.
At the request of the head of the Russian Old Believer Church, Metropolitan Cornelius, an assistant was sent to the hermit - 18-year-old Alexander Beshtannikov, who came from a family of Old Believers. He helped her with housework until he was drafted into the army. For 17 years, Agafya’s assistant was former geologist Erofei Sedov, who settled next door to her after his retirement. But in May 2015 he died, and the hermit remained in all alone.
In January 2016, Agafya had to interrupt her seclusion and again turn to people for help - her legs hurt badly, and she called a doctor using a satellite phone left for her by the local administration for emergency calls. She was taken from the taiga by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Tashtagol, where she was examined and found out that Agafya had an exacerbation of osteochondrosis. The first measures were taken, but the hermit refused long-term treatment and immediately began to rush back home.
Considering Agafya Lykova’s advanced age and the state of her health, everyone again tried to persuade the hermit to stay among people and move in with relatives, but she flatly refused. After staying in the hospital for just over a week, Agafya returned to the taiga again. She said that it was boring in the hospital - “just sleep, eat and pray, but at home there’s a lot to do.”
In the spring of 2017, employees of the Khakass Nature Reserve, according to tradition, brought food, things, letters from fellow believers to the hermit and helped with housework. Agafya again complained of pain in her legs, but again refused to leave the taiga. At the end of April, she was visited by a Ural priest, Father Vladimir. He said that assistant Georgy lives with Agafya, whom the priest blessed to support the hermit.
The 72-year-old hermit explains her reluctance to move closer to people and civilization by saying that she promised her father never to leave their home in the taiga: “I will not go anywhere again and by the power of this oath I will not leave this land. If it were possible, I would gladly accept fellow believers to live with me and pass on my knowledge and accumulated experience of the Old Believer faith.” Agafya is confident that only away from the temptations of civilization can one lead a truly spiritual life.
They became the most famous hermits in the country: .
Agafya is the only one left alive big family hermits-Old Believers, found by geologists in 1978 in the Western Sayan Mountains. The Lykov family has lived in isolation since 1937. Long years hermits tried to protect their family from influence external environment, especially in relation to faith.
The primary purpose of the flight to the Khakassian taiga was a traditional flood control measure - an inspection of snow reserves in the upper reaches of the Abakan River. We stopped at Agafya Lykova's for a short time.
A doctor and employees of the Khakassky Nature Reserve, who have known Agafya for a long time and are actively helping her, flew along with the EMERCOM specialists. This time Agafya was brought food, and the rescuers helped with the housework: they brought firewood, water, etc.
Abaza city from above:
Arbaty village:
We made a short stop in Arbaty and another reserve employee sat down with us. He had a parcel for Agafya from Tomsk. No matter how much they scold the Russian Post, parcels and letters, as you can see, reach even such remote places. It is enough to write on the parcel the Abakan address of the directorate of the Khakassky Nature Reserve, and in the “recipient” column - Agafya Lykova (the hermit lives in one of the areas of the reserve).
Most of the way our flight took place in the gorge through which the Abakan River flows. You fly, and on both sides there are mountains covered with dense forest. By the way, there was relatively little snow in the upper reaches of Abakan this year.
We've arrived. The helicopter landing gear went deep loose snow, and the car stood on its belly. The reserve staff were the first to leave. Agafya knows them well, so she treated the other guests with confidence. Rescuers unloaded the supplies they had brought from the helicopter and helped the reserve staff move the cargo from the shore to a hut located on a high bank. Then they took up the firewood. The stored fuel had to be transported from the forest to the house - an elderly woman could no longer do this.
Agafya's neighbor is Erofey Sedov. His small hut is located about fifty meters from Lykova’s house. Erofey lived almost his entire life in Abaza and worked as a geologist. I have known the Lykov family since 1979. He said that in 1988 he even helped bury the head of the family, Karp Lykov. Already in old age, Erofey lost right leg, after that in 1997 he moved to the taiga and since then has lived next door to Agafya.
Erofey has a son who lives in Tashtagol. A couple of times a year, the son flies to visit his father by helicopter with specialists who are exploring this area after Proton launches (the site is located on the territory where the stages of rockets launched from Baikonur fall).
Agafya Lykova's hut:
Notes on front door with a warning for uninvited guests. Agafya writes and speaks in Old Church Slavonic:
While rescuers helped with firewood, Agafya was examined by an emergency doctor. She refuses a detailed examination in Abakan and reluctantly takes the left-over pills; she is more often treated with medicinal herbs.
Icons in Lykova's house. Life inside is quite simple and uncomplicated:
There is beauty, silence and cleanest air. The world of Agafya Lykova is no more than one square kilometer: on one side the stormy Erinat River, on the other - steep mountains and impenetrable forests stretching to the horizon. Only in the northern direction does Agafya move a little away from her hut and reach the meadows, where she cuts grass and branches for her goats.
I still don’t understand how many dogs there are for adoption. Vityulka was sitting on a chain near the house, but it seemed to me that a little further away someone else was barking...
But there are about twenty cats here. They have become so bold in the taiga that, according to Erofey, they even crush snakes.
Cats at the shelter breed quickly and kittens are always offered to all visitors. This time we refused the “patched kitty”)
The barn in which the hermit keeps two goats:
Agafya Karpovna complained that goats did not give milk, and without milk she felt bad. The reserve staff immediately called their colleagues from Kemerovo region, who also plan to visit the hermit in the coming days, and asked them to freeze whole milk. Powdered milk, condensed milk, and other store-bought packaged products, the taiga woman does not accept or eat. She is especially frightened by the image of the barcode.
I expected to see a lot of antique and homemade things on the farm, but I was disappointed. All everyday life has long been equipped in a modern way, all the utensils are also civilized - enamel buckets, pans. Agafya even has a meat grinder in her house, and there is a thermometer outside. The only old things that caught my eye (besides the icons) were a birch bark tueska, a bow saw and a forged axe.
Agafya Lykova turned out to be a very sociable woman, but at the same time she never looked directly into the camera.
There is little connection between the good-natured Erofey and the strict Agafya. They greet each other but rarely speak. They have a conflict based on religion, and Erofey is not ready to follow Agafya’s rules. He himself is a believer, but he does not understand what God can have against canned food in iron cans, why polystyrene foam is a devilish object, and why the fire in the stove must be lit only with a torch, and not with a lighter.
A memorable photo with the reserve staff, rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the helicopter crew. Agafya was very grateful to us for the help and attention we provided.
Within a radius of 250 kilometers there is no one here except Erofey and Agafya. None of them seemed to me to be unhappy people.
Agafya Lykova: “I want to die here. Where should I go? I don't know if there are Christians left anywhere else in this world. Most likely, there aren’t many of them left.”
P.S. I made a short video at Lykova’s farm.
The owner of the property told the specialists who examined the soil and water of the territory after the rocket launch from Baikonur.
The information was also confirmed in the Khakassky Nature Reserve, to which this inaccessible area belongs. There is no direct connection between the residents of Zaimka and the Khakassky Nature Reserve. Therefore, for now there are minimal details - specialists from the reserve have already left for the capture. They will be joined by police from the Tashtyp district, which serves the station. As soon as everyone at the village is examined and the hermit is questioned, the police officers will give some more detailed information.
He lacked communication
But, most likely, there is no crime in the death of the hermit - Erofei Sazontyevich Sedov was nearly 80 years old. Living conditions are taiga.
He worked as a master driller on that expedition of geologists who discovered the Lykov family and then took patronage over it. After his leg was amputated due to developing gangrene, Sedov moved to live with Agafya. This was about twenty years ago. As he admitted to reporters:
I'm used to living in the taiga. I feel at home here...
Erofey’s small hut is located 100 meters from Agafya’s house. Sedov’s home is at the foot of the mountain, Lykova’s is at the top. This distance, inaccessible to Erofey (well, where can he jump along a steep path on his prosthesis?) Agafya easily covered.
Sedov's son, who lives in Tashtagol (Kemerovo region), gave him a radio - the only entertainment on the Lykovs' estate. Sometimes Agafya came to listen last news. What was incomprehensible to her was explained by Erofey.
Erofey’s son occasionally came to see him. Let us remind you that you can only get there by helicopter or by boat on the river.
All visitors were greeted by both. Agafya waved away the brought newspapers, but Erofey was happy. At the same time he asked:
Which newspaper are you from?
From Komsomolskaya Pravda.
This is the best newspaper! I've been reading it since I was young.
As colleagues from other publications said, he met everyone with a declaration of love for their newspaper.
He, of course, lacked communication. And he tried to somehow interest his interlocutors, who were more interested in Agafya’s life and not in his.
Life will show what use the owner of the loan will find for Sedova’s housing. Maybe someone would like to brighten up the life of the taiga hermit, who Lately asks for an assistant.
“The last time I saw my father was in Lent, he looked tired"
We reached the son of Erofey Sedov, Nikolai Erofeyevich. He said that he visited his father “last” (for some reason he deliberately avoided the word “last”) time before Easter.
It was just Holy Week, says Nikolai Sedov. – Father looked very tired. She and Agafya Karpovna kept all fasts. And not like many modern people do, fast for diet. They did everything according to the canons, strictly. But he wasn't sick. They didn’t talk about anything special, just about everyday matters. I was informed of his death five days ago. They said that everything happened on April 20, old style. And according to the new one, May 3rd. As soon as people appeared in the area of the settlement, Agafya Karpovna informed them about it. They have already reported further. I can’t say what happened there; after all, my father was old. Agafya Karpovna buried him herself. She did everything right. The man died, but it’s warm outside. Was it really necessary to wait until they came for the body? This is the duty of any person, when people live at a distance: someone has died, to bury him. As soon as the opportunity arises (the distance, as you understand, is large), I will definitely go to my father’s grave.
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Agafya Lykova’s neighbor Erofey: “She is such a person... long-suffering!”
To capture the Old Believers-hermits Lykovs, they “threw” another parcel - cereals, animal feed, warm clothes. A “present” for winter from the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, he has long been “patronizing” the last of the Lykov family, 69-year-old Agafya, and the same hermit Erofey Sedov, who lives next door. ()
Agafya Lykova thanked people with prayers for the parcel
During the day at the Lykov settlement, where the humanitarian cargo arrived for Agafya, it was -2 °C. Winter in the Western Sayan, in the same " taiga dead end", where the hermit lives, turned out to be warm. Crystal-white snow, impassable taiga hiding the hermit’s hut on the bank of the Yerenat River, and... silence, which was suddenly broken by the roar of helicopter rotors. It was MI-8 of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations who brought Agafya Karpovna a gift “with big land“200 kilograms... The parcel contains feed for livestock, medicine and food supplies. ()
Agafya Lykova: “I have a great and great request to you...”
The other day, the editor of the Krasnoyarsk Worker newspaper, Vladimir Pavlovsky, received a letter with this strange return address: “The Erinat River, a monastery in the name of Holy Mother of God Three-handed." It turned out that it was the famous hermit 68-year-old Agafya Lykova (she lives in Khakassia, the nearest village of Mrassu is 120 km away in impassable taiga) with the “opportunity” she handed over the letter to her long-time friend, who visited her in the taiga more than once. ()
“Agafya Lykova just exclaimed “o-o-o-o” when she saw Vasily Peskova!”
It was Vasily Peskov who told the world about the unique family of Old Believers, the Lykovs, who hid from civilization in the Sayan taiga in 1938. Vasily Mikhailovich first came to Agafya in 1982 and since then he has not forgotten his heroes, he often visited, always with gifts, delicacies, and medicines. His documentary story “Taiga Dead End” about the life of the Khakass “Robinsons” was incredibly popular, was republished, and was translated into several languages. ()
There was a man ready to go to the “taiga dead end” to save Agafya Lykova The words “Taiga dead end” do not need explanation. Few people who read newspapers do not know that we're talking about about the fate of the Lykovs. For the first time about the taiga “find” of geologists “ TVNZ"told in 1982. The interest in the little documentary story was enormous. Of course, we were talking about a family that had lived in isolation from people for more than thirty years. And not somewhere in the south, but in Siberia, in the taiga. Everything was interesting - the circumstances that led to the exceptional “Robinsonade”, hard work, the unity of people in the struggle for existence, resourcefulness and skill and, of course, religious faith, which became the cause of a dead end in life, but also served as a support for people in extraordinary, exceptional circumstances. It was not easy in 1982 to collect information about everything that happened. Something was left unspoken, something the Lykovs simply preferred to remain silent about, not yet fully trusting people from the “world,” something in the confused, inconsistent story was simply difficult to understand. And how to check what you hear? I had to question in detail geologists who already knew the Lykovs well, compare and contrast. It was even more difficult to publish the story. 1982 There was no publicity. How can you tell a youth newspaper about Old Believers hermits without falling into “anti-religious denunciations”? The only right thing was to show the drama of people, to admire their resilience, to evoke a feeling of compassion and mercy. This is how the Lykovs’ story is told ().
After a letter from the hermit asking for help appeared in the press, a 37-year-old man called the reserve and said that he was ready to come to take care of her. Finding an assistant is not so easy; he must also be of the same faith as Agafya, otherwise they definitely will not get along together. Lykova's home is not just a home, but practically a monastery, where she is her own mistress. ()
Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov. Taiga dead end
The words “Taiga dead end” do not need explanation. Few people reading newspapers do not know that we are talking about the fate of the Lykovs. Komsomolskaya Pravda first reported on the taiga “find” of geologists in 1982. The interest in the little documentary story was enormous. Of course, we were talking about a family that had lived in isolation from people for more than thirty years. And not somewhere in the south, but in Siberia, in the taiga. Everything was interesting - the circumstances that led to the exceptional “Robinsonade”, hard work, the unity of people in the struggle for existence, resourcefulness and skill and, of course, religious faith, which became the cause of a dead end in life, but also served as a support for people in extraordinary, exceptional circumstances.
It was not easy in 1982 to collect information about everything that happened. Something was left unspoken, something the Lykovs simply preferred to remain silent about, not yet fully trusting people from the “world,” something in the confused, inconsistent story was simply difficult to understand. And how to check what you hear? I had to question in detail geologists who already knew the Lykovs well, compare and contrast.
This is a story of perseverance, survival and immeasurable ability human spirit. Agafya Lykova was born in Siberia, and for all of her 72 years she lived in isolation, far from what most would call "civilization", far from technology, far from people, far from everything.
The world would likely never have known about her and her family if not for a helicopter pilot who accidentally stumbled upon the ramshackle shack that had been the family's home for more than four decades. They lived in a sealed time capsule, unaware that man had landed on the moon, solved the mysteries of DNA, or split the atom. They have never seen television, never used electricity, never seen cars. They didn't even know that the Second World War started and ended.
Agafya Lykova latest news 2018: family history
The head of the Lykov family was an old man named Karp, who belonged to the fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect known as the Old Believers. After the October Revolution in Russia, atheist Bolsheviks came to power. In 1917, the Old Believers were persecuted. The Bolsheviks outlawed Christianity and killed Karp's brother on the outskirts of his village in 1936. Karp quickly responded by gathering his family and abandoning civilization altogether.
He took his wife (Akulina) and two children (Savina and Natalya) deep into Siberian forest, where the family lived in isolation for the next four decades.
At one time in wildlife The Lykov family had two more children (Dmitry and Agafya). None of these children will see a person who was not a member of their own family, before meeting with geologists in 1978.
But giving birth to children in those conditions turned out to be not the most difficult. It was more difficult to survive. They had to use hemp cloth to replace clothing and make galoshes from birch bark to replace shoes. When their kettles rusted, birch bark was the best they could come up with. Since they could not be placed in the fire, cooking became much more difficult.
When a blizzard destroyed the crops in 1961, the family was forced to eat boots and bark. Akulina decided to starve to death so that her children would have more food.
When the geologists finally managed to gain trust, they were able to show them “miracles” modern life. Reporter Vasily Peskov noted: “What surprised Karp most of all was the transparent plastic bag. He said: “Lord, what did they come up with - it’s glass, but it’s wrinkled!”
Agafya Lykova latest news 2018: the only survivor of the family
Considering the difficulties that the family endured in the desert, it is surprising how reluctant they were to accept help from geologists and leave the forest.
Initially, the only gift the family could accept from geologists was salt. In the end, however, they ended up accepting knives, forks, pens, corn, pens, paper and a flashlight.
However, in 1981, three of the family's four children died within days of each other. When Dmitry developed pneumonia, geologists offered to take a helicopter to take him to the hospital. But he did not want to give up his family and told the geologists: “A person lives as God wills.”
Many believe that the children's deaths were caused by geologists exposing them to microbes to which they were not immune. However, writer Vasily Peskov (author of a 1992 book about the Lykov family) claims that this was not the case, and Savin and Natalya suffered from kidney failure.
Agafya Lykova latest news 2018: the life of a hermit
After her father's death in 1988, Agafya became the only living member of the Lykov family.
The government paid her for a one-month tour of native Russia, and for the first time in her life she saw cars, roads, houses and shopping areas. But despite all the efforts of the authorities to convince the hermit of Siberia to stay in modern world, Agafya’s answer was a simple “niyet savebeba” - “no thanks.”
In January 2016, when she was already 71, she was taken to the hospital to be treated for leg problems before returning to the forest that had always been her home. She lives by her religious principles.
Today, Agafya still lives in the “taiga dead end” as a hermit. She became a headache for the administration of Khakassia. The head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, does not understand the hype around Lykova and honestly admits that he does not love her. He says that she costs Khakassia too much, living in the reserve. Lykova is not the patriarch of the Old Believers Church and is not entitled to privileges. She was offered normal living conditions, but she refuses.
The entire reserve works for her, inspectors chop wood for her, helicopters fly in. This is prohibited in the reserve.
Grandma Agafya, by the way, is not shy about asking for help. And the governor of the neighboring Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, does not deny her anything, Wordyou reports. We met her in 1997. Aman Tuleyev was imbued with her story and the strength of her faith.
Traditionally, he helped prepare for this winter. For ten days a detachment of students worked on the farm. During this time, they chopped firewood, cut and dried hay, and repaired sheds.
Tuliev gave 150 kg of feed for chickens, 100 kg of feed for goats, 50 kg of wheat, 50 kg of other cereals (including rice, buckwheat, millet), 150 kg of baking flour, oranges, watermelon, as well as candles, batteries and clay for coating the stove. And the summer residents of Tashtagol donated vegetables.
On March 8, Mr. Tuleyev gave Agafya a bouquet of roses and a scarf.
In 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a family of six in the Siberian wilderness. Six members of the Lykov family lived away from people for more than 40 years, they were completely isolated and were more than 250 kilometers from the nearest city.
The Siberian summer is very short. There is still plenty of snow in May, and in September the first frosts arrive. This forest is the last of the greatest forests on Earth. This is more than 13 million square kilometers of forests, where even now new discoveries await people at every corner.
Siberia has always been considered as a source of minerals and geological exploration work is constantly being carried out here. This was the case in the summer of 1978.
The helicopter was looking for a safe place to land geologists. It was next to an unnamed tributary of the Abakan River, near the Mongolian border. In such a wilderness there is simply nowhere to land a helicopter, but, peering through the windshield, the pilot saw something he never expected to see. In front of him was a rectangular clearing, clearly cleared by man. The confused helicopter crew made several passes over this place before they realized that next to the clearing there was something very similar to human habitation.
Karp Lykov and his daughter Agafya wore clothes that were given to them by Soviet geologists.
It was an amazing discovery. There was no information anywhere that there might be people here. It was dangerous to land a helicopter in a clearing, because... it is unknown who lived here. Geologists landed 15 kilometers from the clearing. Under the leadership of Galina Pismenskaya, with their fingers on the trigger of their pistols and rifles, they began to approach the clearing.
The Lykovs lived in this log cabin, which was lit by one palm-sized window
Approaching the house, they noticed footprints, a barn with supplies of potatoes, a bridge over a stream, sawdust and obvious footprints human activity. Their arrival was noticed...
When they approached the house and knocked, the grandfather opened the door.
And someone from the group said simply: “Hello, grandfather! We have come to visit!”
The old man did not answer right away: “Well, since you have climbed so far, then go through...”
There was one room inside. This single room was illuminated by dim light. It was cramped, there was a musty smell, it was dirty, and there were sticks sticking out all around propping up the roof. It was hard to imagine that such a large family lived here.
Agafya Lykova (left) with her sister Natalya
A minute later the silence was suddenly broken by sobs and lamentations. Only then did geologists see the silhouettes of two women. One of them was hysterical and praying, and one could clearly hear: “This is for our sins, our sins...” The light from the window fell on another woman, kneeling, and her frightened eyes were visible.
The scientists hurriedly left the house, walked a few meters away, settled in a clearing and began to eat. About half an hour later the door creaked open, and the geologists saw an old man and his two daughters. They were frankly curious. Carefully, they approached and sat down next to each other. To Pismenskaya’s question: “Have you ever eaten bread?” the old man replied: “I do, but they have never seen him...”. At least contact was established with the old man. His daughters spoke a language distorted by life in isolation and at first it was impossible to understand them.
Gradually, geologists learned their history
The old man's name was Karp Lykov, and he was an Old Believer, also once a member of the fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect. The Old Believers had been persecuted since the time of Peter the Great, and Lykov spoke about it as if it had happened just yesterday. For him, Peter was a personal enemy and "the devil in human form." He complained about life at the beginning of the 20th century, not realizing that so much time had passed and much had changed.
As the Bolsheviks came to power, the Lykovs’ life became even worse. Under Soviet rule, Old Believers fled to Siberia. During the purges of the 1930s, a Communist patrol shot and killed Lykov's brother on the outskirts of his home village. Karp's family fled.
This was in 1936. Four Lykovs survived: Karp, his wife Akulina; son Savin, 9 years old, and Natalya, daughter, who was only 2 years old. They fled to the taiga, taking only the seeds. They settled in this very place. A little time passed and two more children were born, Dmitry in 1940 and Agafya in 1943. They were the ones who had never seen people. Everything that Agafya and Dmitry knew about outside world, they learned from their parents' stories.
But Lykov’s children knew that there were places called “cities” in which people lived in cramped conditions in high-rise buildings. They knew that there were countries other than Russia. But these concepts were rather abstract. They read only the Bible and church books, which their mother took with them. Akulina knew how to read and taught her children to read and write using sharpened birch branches, which she immersed in honeysuckle sap. When Agafya was shown a picture of a horse, she recognized him and shouted: “Look, dad. Horse!”
Dmitry (left) and Savin
Geologists were surprised at their resourcefulness; they made galoshes from birch bark, and sewed clothes from hemp, which they grew. They even had a yarn loom that they made themselves. Their diet consisted mainly of potatoes with hemp seeds. And there were pine nuts all around, which fell right onto the roof of their house.
Nevertheless, the Lykovs lived constantly on the verge of starvation. In the 1950s, Dmitry reached maturity and they began to have meat. Having no weapons, they could only hunt by making pit traps, but mostly they obtained meat by starvation. Dmitry grew up to be surprisingly resilient; he could hunt barefoot in winter, sometimes returning home after spending the night outside in 40-degree frost for several days, and at the same time bringing a young elk on his shoulders. But in reality, meat was a rare delicacy. Wild animals destroyed their carrot crops, and Agafya remembered the late 1950s as a “time of famine.”
Roots, grass, mushrooms, potato tops, bark, rowan... They ate everything, and felt hungry all the time. They constantly thought about changing places, but remained...
In 1961, it snowed in June. Severe frost killed everything that grew in the garden. It was this year that Akulina died of hunger. The rest of the family escaped, fortunately the seeds sprouted. The Lykovs erected a fence around the clearing and guarded the crops day and night.
Family next to a geologist
When Soviet geologists met the Lykov family, they realized that they had underestimated their abilities and intelligence. Each family member was a separate person. Old Karp was always delighted with the latest innovations. He was amazed that people had already been able to set foot on the moon, and always believed that geologists were telling the truth.
But what struck them most was the cellophane; at first they thought it was geologists crushing the glass.
The younger ones, for all their isolation, had a good sense of humor and were constantly making fun of themselves. Geologists introduced them to the calendar and clocks, which the Lykovs were very amazed at.
The saddest fact of the Lykovs' story was the speed with which the family began to shrink after they established contact with the world. In the fall of 1981, three of the four children died within days of each other. Their death is the result of exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity. Savin and Natalya suffered from kidney failure, most likely as a result of their harsh diet, which also weakened their bodies. And Dmitry died of pneumonia, which may have been caused by a virus from his new friends.
His death shocked geologists who desperately tried to save him. They offered to evacuate Dmitry and treat him in a hospital, but Dmitry refused...
When all three were buried, geologists tried to persuade Agafya and Karp to return to the world, but they refused...
Karp Lykov died in his sleep on February 16, 1988, 27 years after his wife, Akulina. Agafya buried him on the mountain slopes with the help of geologists, and then turned around and went to her house. A quarter of a century later, yes, and currently, this child of the taiga lives alone, high in the mountains.
Geologists even took notes.
"She won't leave. But we must leave her:
I looked at Agafya again. She stood on the river bank like a statue. She didn't cry. She nodded and said, “Go, go.” We walked another kilometer, I looked back... She was still standing there."
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