40 years old Russian family was cut off from all contact with people

40 years old Russian family was cut off from all contact with people and did not even know about the Second World War.




In 1978, Soviet geologists in the wilds of Siberia have discovered a family of six. Six members of the family Lykov lived away from people more than 40 years, they were completely isolated and there were more than 250 kilometers from the nearest town.
Siberian summer is very short. In May, more full of snow, and in September the first frosts come. This forest is the last of the great forests of the earth. That's more than 13 million square kilometers of forests, where even now the man on every corner lurk new discoveries.

Siberia has always been seen as a source of minerals and is constantly being geological prospecting work. That was the summer of 1978.

The helicopter was searching for a safe place to land geologists. It was next to a nameless tributary the Abakan River, near the Mongolian border. In this wilderness land the helicopter is simply nowhere, but, looking at the windshield, the pilot saw what he had not expected to see. Before it was cleared, and obviously a man rectangular field. Confused helicopter crew made several flights over the place before they realized that next to the meadow is something very similar to human habitation.



Karp Lykov and his daughter Agatha, wore clothes that gave them Soviet geologists.

It was a startling discovery. No information that there may be people was not there. To put the helicopter into the clearing was dangerous because I do not know who lived here. Geologists have landed 15 kilometers away from the clearing. Under the direction of Galina Pismenskoy, keep your fingers on the trigger of their guns and rifles, they began to approach the glade.



Lykovs lived in the log cabin, which was covered by a palm-sized box

Approaching the house, they noticed footprints barn with reserves of potatoes, bridge over a stream, sawdust and obvious traces of human activity. Their arrival was seen ...

When they came to the house and knocked on his door opened grandfather.

And someone from the group is prostetski said, "Hi, Grandpa! We have come to visit! »

The old man did not answer immediately: "Well, if you have got this far, you are going through ...»

Inside was a single room. The only dim light illuminated the room. It was cramped, musty smell was, it was dirty, and around sticking sticks propping up the roof. It was hard to imagine that here lived such a big family.



Agatha Lykov (left) with her sister Natalia.

A minute silence was suddenly broken sobs and lamentations. Only then did the geologists saw the silhouettes of two women. One of them was in hysterics, and prayed, and distinctly heard: "This is for our sins, our sins ..." On the other woman, kneeling, light fell from the window and could see her frightened eyes.

Scientists hurriedly left the house, moved a few meters, is located in a clearing, and began to eat. About half an hour later the door creaked open, and geologists saw the old man and his two daughters. They were openly curious. Carefully, they came and sat beside him. When Pismenskaya asked: "Have you ever eaten the bread?" The old man replied, "I am, yes, but they have never seen him ...." At least the old man had established contacts. Daughters also spoke the language of his distorted life in isolation and in the beginning they were impossible to understand.

Gradually geologists know their history

The old man called Karp Lykov, and he was an Old Believer, and once he was a member of the Russian Orthodox fundamentalist sect. Old Believers were persecuted from the time of Peter the Great, and Lykov talked about it as if it happened only yesterday. For him, Peter was a personal enemy and "the devil in human form." He complained about the beginning of the 20th century, life without realizing that so much time has passed and things have changed.

As the Bolsheviks came to power, life Lykov became worse. During the Soviet era, the Old Believers fled to Siberia. During the purges of the 1930s, the Communist patrol shot and killed his brother Lykov on the outskirts of his village. Carp family fled.

That was in 1936. Rescued four Lykovs: Carp, his wife Akulina; Savin son, 9 years old, and Natalia, the daughter, who was only 2 years. They fled into the forest, taking the seeds. They settled in this place. Some time passed and two more children were born, Dimitri in 1940 and Agatha in 1943. They have never seen people. All that Agatha and Dmitri knew about the outside world, they have learned from their parents' stories.

But Lykov children know that there is a place called "The City", in which people lived in crowded high-rise buildings. They know that there are countries other than Russia. But these concepts were more abstract. They read only the Bible and the church books that caught his mother with him. Akulina could read and taught their children to read and write, using sharpened birch branches, which is immersed in the juice of honeysuckle. When Agafia showed a picture of a horse, she recognized him and shouted: "Look, Dad. A horse! »



Dmitry (left) and Savin

Geologists surprised their resourcefulness, they made overshoes made of birch bark, and clothes were made of hemp which is grown. They even had a machine for yarn, which they made themselves. The diet they consisted mainly of potatoes with hemp seeds. And the circle was pine nuts that fell directly on the roof of their house.

However Lykovs lived constantly on the verge of starvation. In 1950 Dmitry reached maturity and have appeared meat. With no weapons, they could hunt only making pit-traps, but most of the meat was extracted into submission. Dmitry grew remarkably resilient, he could hunt in the winter barefoot, sometimes returning home after a few days, spending the night outside in the 40 degree cold, and thus brought the young elk on his shoulders. But in reality, the meat was a rare delicacy. Wild animals destroy their crops of carrots, and Agatha remembered the end of 1950 as a "famine».

Roots, grass, mushrooms, potato leaves, bark, mountain ash ... We ate everything, m all the time feeling hungry. They are constantly thinking about how to change the place, but remained ...

In 1961, it began to snow in June. Severe frost killed all that grew in the garden. That year Akulina died of starvation. The remaining family members survived, fortunately the seeds sprouted. Lykovs put a fence around the field and protected crops day and night.



The family next to the geologist

When the Soviet geologists met with the family Lykov, they realized that they had underestimated their abilities and intelligence. Each family member was a separate person. Old Carp have always been delighted with the latest innovations. He marveled at the fact that people have been able to set foot on the moon, and always believed that geologists are telling the truth.

But most of them struck by cellophane, at first they thought it was the geologists crumple glass.

Younger despite his isolation had a good sense of humor and is constantly mocked him. Geologists have acquainted them with the calendar and clock, which Lykovs very amazed



The saddest fact of history Lykov was the rapidity with which the family began to decline after they established a connection to the world. In the autumn of 1981, three of the four children died within a few days of each other. Their death - the result of exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity. Savin and Natalia suffering from kidney failure, most likely as a result of severe diet that their bodies are also relaxed. And Dmitry died from pneumonia, which may have appeared because of the virus from their new friends.

His death shocked the geologists who were desperate to save him. They offered to evacuate Dmitry and treated in hospital, but refused Dmitry ...

When all three of them buried, geologists have tried to persuade Agafia and Karp's return to the world, but they refused ...

Karp Lykov died in his sleep February 16, 1988, 27 years after his wife, Akulina. Agatha was buried on the slopes with the help of geologists, and then turned and went into his house. A quarter-century later, yes, and now, this child of the taiga lives alone in the mountains.

Geologists have even made a recording.

"It will not go away. But we must leave it:

I looked back at Agafya. She stood on the bank of the river, like a statue. She did not cry. She nodded and said, "Go, go." We walked another kilometer, I looked back ... She was still standing there »

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