Hide in primeval forests for years! The Soviet "Robinson" was found to have caused a sensation

Agafia, 74, has lived alone in the primeval forest for 30 years.

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　 40 years ago, Soviet geologists flew by helicopter over Taigalin when they found a vegetable garden in the upper reaches of the Abakan River in a deserted area. Here lives the Rekov family, a member of the old denomination: the father has 4 adult children. After years of isolation, they became household names in the Soviet Union for a brief newspaper report.

　　A few years later, in 1982, Vasiliy Peskov, a reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda, traveled to interview the hermit. He had expected to meet a family of five, but only his father, Karp Lykov, his daughter Agafya Lykova, and three new graves. Two brothers and an older sister died of illness. In 1988, her father Karp also died, leaving Agaphia alone in the forest, and she did not want to change her lifestyle.

　　Destroyed civilizations

　　Some unsuspecting people blamed Peskov, believing that Rekov's family died because of exposure to the outside world they were not used to. Peskov felt very sad, after all he had tried to protect them from the swarming outsiders. Over the years he often visited the Rekov family and offered help, bringing kitchenware, medicine and even goats so that they could drink fresh goat milk.

　Now Peskov is also dead. On his last visits to Agafia, he asked her what she thought of people outside rushing to visit her home. Agafia confessed that she felt that God had arranged for people to come to them. Without these people, they would have died long ago. The Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Agafia as saying: "What our lives used to be like, our clothes were torn and patched, and we were afraid to think of the life we used to eat grass and bark." ”

　　Peskov wrote a series of articles based on his meeting with the Rekov family. Stories of the hermits were so popular that every time an article about the Rekov family appeared in the newspaper, there was a long queue in front of the newsstand. Peskov once told a friend that Brezhnev's wife sent someone to the newsstand every morning to buy her komsomol Pravda and could not wait to track down the story of the "Siberian hermits" every morning.

　　Why hide in the forest

　　At that time, many people in Russia fled or took refuge because of religious beliefs (such things are still reported in the media today). Old Sect adherents were persecuted in Russia until the time of Tsar Nicholas II. After the revolution, however, the Soviet Union treated them in new ways, forcing them to join collective farms or putting them in prison. The Rekov family hid in the depths of the dense forest to escape collectivization, and eventually settled in a nature reserve. In the 1920s, the nature reserve banned them from hunting and fishing.

　　An anonymous letter was sent to the authorities calling Old Sect believers poachers. When the guards of the nature reserve went to check, they accidentally killed Agafia's brother. Investigators have described the incident as the result of armed resistance by believers in the old denomination. In 1937, when the Great Terror was at its worst, the NKVD sent someone to Rekov's house to inquire in detail about what had happened. The whole family realized the danger and rushed into Taigarin, hiding farther and farther away, and often changing places of residence to cover their tracks.

　　"Star" Agafia

　　Agafia, now 74 years old, has lived alone in the primeval forest for 30 years, with her last attempt at contact with the outside world in 1990. She came to live in a small church of the Old Denomination organized by the anti-church. However, because the place did not share Agafia's beliefs, she returned to the place where she had lived before.

　　In 2011, representatives of russia's official Old Denomination Church came to Agafia's house and baptized her according to the rules. The local government also supported Agafia, and interest in the solitary hermit increased year by year, with various film crews, journalists, doctors and volunteers visiting her.

　　In 2015, a British film crew led by director Rebecca Marshall came to Agafia's house to shoot a documentary about her life, "The Forest of My Heart". Agafia believes that living alone is the main way to save her soul, and she doesn't feel lonely. "Every Christian is always surrounded by guardian angels, as well as Jesus Christ and his saints," she said. ”

　　This article is published in the Global Times "Russia Perspective" special issue, the content is provided by the "Russian newspaper".