Granted that the US Sun is a celebrity-gossip source, here is an interesting item on a Russian hermit named Leonid, who lives in Siberia, lost his fingers to frostbite, and dreams of living in a real cabin with a few amenities. The article is part of the Sun‘s “Out in the Cold” series, the article title: “I turned my back on society 25 years ago to live as hermit — I’ve lost all my fingers to frostbite but won’t go back.”
The Mirror (UK) offers this headline and byline. Headline : “Hermit woman, 77, who lived like 18th century peasant gets electricity for first time.” Byline: “Hermit Agafya Lykova, 77, lives in a remote timber home 100 miles away from anyone in Siberia and is only now getting a solar panel, which will power up a satellite phone and allow her to connect with people. ” Agafya, who has lived alone in Siberia all of life, also received a new house to replace her old one, placed by volunteers.
The famous Russian Old Believer hermit Agafya Lykova has a new and updated small wooden house replacing the previous house built by her father eighty years ago. The house was paid by a Russian millionaire and air-shipped in parts to the remote mountain site where Agafya live. She was visited by some of the sect’s clergy.
The Moscow Times reports on a Russian billionaire ready to help Agafya Lykova ahead of winter. Text of the article “Famed Siberian Hermit Gets Billionaire’s Help Ahead of Harsh Winter”:
Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska has dispatched essentials and an assistant to a famous Siberian hermit ahead of the harsh winter, the RBC news website reported Wednesday.
Agafya Lykova was born 76 years ago to a family of Old Believers, a traditionalist Orthodox Christian sect, fleeing Stalinist persecutions in the remote Siberian taiga. She has led a largely self-sufficient life away from civilization since the deaths of her family members, with regional officials and other well-wishers sending her occasional supplies — while reportedly keeping her away from news of the coronavirus pandemic to avoid upsetting her.
Deripaska, Russia’s 41st-wealthiest businessman with a net worth of $2.3 billion, helped deliver household items including kitchenware and bedding sets to Lykova by helicopter, RBC cited an unnamed assistant of his as saying.
The outlet reported that Deripaska, 52, has long provided assistance to the Khakassia Nature Reserve near the Mongolian border, where Lykova lives.
According to the Siberian outlet Newslab.ru, Deripaska also helped send the son of Lykova’s deceased friend and neighbor who followed in his father’s footsteps in volunteering to help her.
Nikolai Sedov’s father, Yerofei Sedov, was a member of the Soviet geological team that accidentally discovered the Lykov family in the late 1970s, turning it into a national phenomenon. He died in the taiga near Lykova’s ramshackle hut in 2015 at age 77.
Russia’s Old Believers split from the Orthodox Church in 1666 after protesting against reforms. Old Believer communities fled Tsarist and Soviet persecution deep into the Siberian taiga and elsewhere around the world, including North and South America, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Many have begun to return to Russia in recent years under a new repatriation program that helps compatriots abroad relocate to territories in Russia’s Far East.
A Newsweek item describes a hermit saga in Siberia, not an unfamiliar theme. The item title tells the tale: “Hermit Hides in The Woods For 24 Years, Fleeing Murder He Didn’t Commit.” The article summarizes: “Believing he had killed his wife and daughter in a drunken rage, Nikolai Gromov fled to the dangerous Siberian taiga, avoided wolves, bears and even tigers. But when he finally returned to civilization 24 years later, Gromov, now 72, learned the murder never occurred.”
