Moldovan Mowgli voluntarily lived in the forest for 18 years, and now a whole battalion of brides has arranged a "hunt" for him

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

In the Moldovan city of Balti, there is an unusual inhabitant. It's hard to call this guy a city dweller. Sergei Voinitsky lived alone in the forest for 18 years. The locals christened him Mowgli. When the journalists filmed a story about him, the guy was helped to return to society, given an apartment, and crowds of brides loomed on the horizon.

Sergei had a rather large family, but his alcoholic parents died, and seven children were left unnecessary to anyone. At first, the neighbors fed them, appealed to all local authorities to take the children to orphanages, but they were told that there were no places. Four of the kids died, two were nevertheless placed in a boarding school, and 7-year-old Seryozha was left alone. When the rickety house collapsed completely, the boy found himself on the street. Not finding help from people, at the age of 10, Sergei went into the forest.

While it was summer, the boy tolerated his stay in the forest normally: he picked berries, mushrooms, learned to cook food over a fire. When winter came, it got harder. Sergei built himself a hut, wrapped it with oilcloth, and pulled blankets inside. Sometimes he went out to people, begged or worked part-time in the cemetery, digging graves. But for the most part, the guy sat in the woods. Sergei says that he likes it there - it is always quiet, there is no fuss. Some residents of Balti and even their own uncle knew that “Mowgli” lived in the forest, but they didn't care.

18 years later, Sergei was found unconscious in the cemetery in winter. People called an ambulance, which took the guy to the hospital. Due to frostbite, several of his toes were amputated. When they began to figure out who he was, it turned out that Sergei did not have any documents at all. Caring residents of the city helped Voinitsky to obtain a passport. He was patronized by a former neighbor Elena Brynza.

The guy gradually gets used to living in civilization, he learns to read and write, communicate with people. Aunt Lena, as Sergei calls his neighbor, helped him to wash himself, to bring himself into a decent look.

When the broadcast about the Moldovan Mowgli was filmed, the mayor of Balti, Renato Usatii, immediately after the elections allocated the guy an apartment, helped him get a job at a municipal enterprise. At first, Sergei could not get enough of hot water and a gas stove.

While the guy was getting used to the new conditions, hundreds of calls from potential brides began to arrive at the editorial office of the television studio that filmed the program about Mowgli. Each said, they say, how she was imbued with the misfortune of an abandoned guy and wants to brighten up his loneliness. Elena Brynza says that she had to literally save Sergei Voinitsky from the most persistent "brides". One forced him to register her in the apartment, the other turned out to be already pregnant, the third simply had nowhere to live, and then there was a "suitable option" in the person of a 28-year-old boy. There were even calls from five sisters, and all five wanted to marry Sergei.

In the meantime, Moldovan Mowgli is getting used to social realities anew and learning to live next to people. Well, for some children who found themselves in the wild at a young age, socialization became impossible. The fate of Mowgli, who grew up among the animals, is not to be envied.