Category: Russia

The Itar-Tass news agency reports on discovery of a “wild child” (now 20 years old) identified in Siberia. The Sept. 2013 article is titled: “Hermit found in Altai Krai, Siberia: 20-year-old lived all his life in forest.” The hut image below is presumably one of the dwellings mentioned in the article. The text of the article is printed below.

Citizens of a resort town Belokurikha found a young man living in the forest who apparently lived there from his birth and never had contact with the outside world, said the city’s Prosecutor Roman Fomin

The prosecution have looked into the citizens’ report. It was determined that the young man, whose name has not been made public, “was born in 1993 without obstetric care near Kaytanak village located in Ust-Koksinsk region of Altai Republic. He was not educated, he was no social skills or any idea of the world outside of the forest,” the prosecutor explained.

Young man’s parents are also hermits. Since 1997 they have moved into a mud hut located in the forest approximately three kilometers from Ulyanovsk village of Altai Krai. In spring of 2013 they have moved, leaving their son fend for himself.

Fomin emphasized that the young hermit “has no official papers proving his birth; this prevents him from receiving identification documents in order to benefiting from rights and support guaranteed by the government.”

The prosecution has contacted the court in order to establish his birth; social protection services were contacted as well.

URL: http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c467/871756.html

Russian photographer and naturalist Igor Shpilenok, with two nature reserve inspectors, visited 69-year old Agafya Lykov recently. The Siberian Times profiles the visit in an August 15 article titled “The woman who time forgot – Remarkable new pictures of the hermit Agafya Lykova.” Includes several Shpilenok photos.

They had spent just 20 hours with this remarkable Siberian woman, before leaving her once again to the solitude into which she was born.

“This short time provided fodder for many reflections on the distant and recent past, the meaning of life, the power of the human spirit, faith,” Igor wrote in his blog. “No, I do not feel that Agafia Karpovna’s life is a dead end in the taiga.”

URL: http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/the-woman-who-time-forgotremarkable-new-pictures-of-hermit-agafya-lykova/; also in Russian on Shpilenok’s blog.

The Lykov family of Russian Old Believers survived in isolation in the Siberian taiga for over 40 years before contact with the outer world in the late 1970’s. A Smithsonian article titled “For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II ” presents a fine summary of their life in obscurity and thereafter, with photographs and bibliographical references.

URL: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html

Personal note: The 1992 book by Vasily Peskov titled Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family’s Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness was one of the first books reviewed when Hermitary launched in 2002: http://www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/taiga.html

An up-to-date video (1:46) and text report titled “Modern hermits: Russian Old believers restore settlement in West Siberia” on the present status of Russia’s Old believers. From the report:

3,500 kilometers from Moscow, the Altay Region lies in the magnificent Altay Mountains, the land where Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan come together. It’s a destination off the beaten track, where some explore the wilderness, and others search for a remedy or a new life.Russian Altay became the place where old belief meets natural spirituality. In abandoned village of Anamas Old Believers, or Russian ‘starovery’, restore a settlement, founded over a hundred years ago.Alexandr and Daria Popovy became the first to stay in the village of Anamas. They have five children. The oldest is 15, while the youngest is just several months old. They start their life from scratch: there are no facilities in an abandoned settlement; the closest school is 10 kilometers away. Popovy started their vegetable garden and mastered bee keeping. For centuries the Altay Mountains were home to hermits and shamans. But now there are only few families left.

URL: http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/472067.html