The Lykovs hermits: Old Believers who have lived for 40 years in the "Taiga impasse"

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

The history of the Lykovs hermits in the 1970s, it became a real sensation. A group of geologists discovered in the taiga forests a family of Old Believers who had lived in complete isolation for more than 40 years. Serious battles flared up in the Soviet press: some branded the Lykovs for parasitism, others were interested in their unique experience. Expeditions were drawn to the Sayan taiga, ethnographers and journalists wanted to personally meet an unusual family.

The Lykovs are Old Believers, they never had sympathy for the Soviet regime and in the 1920s led a closed life, hoping that collectivization would bypass their estate. Until 1929, they managed not to attract special attention to themselves, but the calm was short-lived: the Bolsheviks appeared, a fishing artel was created. The Lykovs were against it and decided to leave their homes in search of a quiet life in the taiga.

Then the Lykov family consisted of three people - Karp, his wife Akulina and son Savin. Gradually, the Old Believers settled down, built a small house, established their life, planted a vegetable garden, mastered hunting for animals (for this they set traps, since they did not have guns). Life went on as usual, the couple had another son Dmitry and daughters Natalya and Agafya. The mother brought up the children, taught them to read the Psalter, the book, like the old icons, was kept with respect.

Akulina died 30 years later from hunger, but the children who had already matured by that time survived. The Lykovs' settlement was opened in 1979, two years later the famous Soviet journalist Vasily Peskov came to them. He was interested in the life of hermits, their traditions and rituals, speech. Everything was old, unchanged since the 1930s. The World War II took place in the world, progress developed by leaps and bounds, and these people made fire with flint, weaved clothes for themselves, wore shoes made of birch bark and leather even in severe frosts. The information obtained about the life of the Lykovs became the basis for the book "Taiga Dead End".

News about the Old Believers quickly spread throughout the Soviet Union, and dozens of expeditions headed to capture them. As some scientists assumed, it was categorically impossible to allow contact with civilization: sons and a daughter, born in isolation, immediately became infected with viruses from visiting guests. Savin, Dmitry and Natalya died in 1981, Agafya was cured, thanks to the fact that, despite her fear, she took the necessary medications.

The head of the family, Karp Osipovich, lived until 1988, after his death Agafya was left alone, and it became clear that she needed help. Former geologist Erofei Sedov, a disabled man, was left to live with her, he can hardly do anything about the household, but nevertheless chose the path of solitude. Volunteers come to the rescue from time to time, but Agafya has a quarrelsome and wayward character, no one manages to get along with her. To help the hermit, a panic button was installed in her house to call the Ministry of Emergencies. A couple of times Agafya used her, but the reason was banal - she needed help with the housework. Of course, a helicopter flight to a distant land is an expensive pleasure, so this idea was abandoned. Agafya herself did not understand what she did wrong: there is no money in her world, and she does not know its value.

In the world today you can find many people who have abandoned the benefits of civilization for the sake of freedom and tranquility. Photocycle "Hermits of Our Time" talks about such daredevils.