"Russian Tarzan", who lived for 60 years among Australian aborigines

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The man who could often be seen walking on a highway in Australia with a naked torso and a sack over his shoulder is a bushman with a Russian name Mikhail. He was 88 years old. 60 of them he lived far from civilization and survives by killing wild boars and crocodiles with his bare hands. On August 21, he died in a nursing home in the city of Babinda, where he spent his last days of life.

Mikhail Fomenko was born in Soviet Georgia in 1931. His mother is a Georgian princess Elizabeth Machabeli, and his father is an athlete-champion Daniil Fomenko. In the late 1930s, the family fled from the USSR to Japan, and when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, they fled from the Land of the Rising Sun to Sydney.

It was difficult for Mikhail to adapt in Australia - at school he was the only foreigner. However, this did not prevent a perfectly developed physically guy from winning medals in decathlon competitions. He was even on the list of candidates for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

When Mikhail was 25 years old, he decided to leave society and fled to the far north of Australia to the aborigines. It turned out that a young man can kill wild boars and crocodiles with his bare hands, thanks to which he survived.

After some time, Mikhail knocked out his canoe, and one, guided only by the stars, over the Torres Strait overcame 600 km, reaching the shores of New Guinea. In 1959, he was found by local residents - sick and half-starved. His father took Mikhail back to Australia, but barely recovered, he broke free again.

Mikhail's mother has repeatedly turned to the police with a request to return her son. In 1964, a guy in a loincloth was arrested for indecent behavior and vagrancy, and later declared insane, sent to a mental hospital and treated with electric shock. He spent 4 years in the hospital. In 1969 he was discharged from the clinic, and instead of living in civilization, he immediately returned to the wild. He dropped into his parents' house only in 1988 to attend his mother's funeral.

"Russian Tarzan", such a nickname Mikhail received in Australia, visited people once every 2 weeks, running about 25 km. He traveled this distance to receive social benefits and buy flour, Coca-Cola, chocolate and powdered milk.

Among Australian aborigines, Mikhail Fomenko lived until 2012. One day on the way to his sister, who lives in Sydney, he fell ill. After that, he became a resident of one of the nursing homes. The nurses say that he does not communicate with anyone, but, apparently, is pleased and happy that he is in this institution.

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