The happy life of Agafya Lykova. Lykov family Grandmother agafya where he lives

Peskov was able to trace the historical, more than three hundred years, path of an Old Believer family from the Volga region to a forest hut in the deserted wilds of Abakan. There was, however, one "blank spot" in the "Taiga dead end". “The dramatic events of the 30s, which broke the fate of people throughout the vast expanse of the country, have also reached secret places,” he wrote. - They were perceived by the Old Believers as a continuation of the previous persecution of "true Christians". Karp Osipovich spoke about those years muffled, indistinct, with apprehension. He made it clear: it was not without blood.

THE INVESTIGATION IS LEAD BY TIGRIUS

Those dramatic events of the 30s were restored by the author of the documentary book "Lykovs" Tigriy Dulkeit, alas, now deceased. His father, Georgy Dzhemsovich, a well-known biologist in Siberia, led the scientific department of the Altai State Reserve for many years. On its territory, the Lykovs and fellow believers lived in the Stalin era.

Tigriy himself also worked in the reserve for a long time after the war. I talked a lot with schismatics, acquaintances of the Lykovs. Twice he had to be a guide in the NKVD detachment, looking for the family of Karp Osipovich. Luckily, there was no blood. In the 2000s, he visited Agafya more than once.

According to Tigriy, the first cousins ​​Severyan and Efim came to Gorny Altai from the Tobolsk province (now the Tyumen region). We stopped to live in the village of Old Believers Karagayka. In the nineties of the XIX century, the son of Yefim Osip moved with his family to the village of Tishi. Exceptionally blessed places. Excellent soils, mixed forests and taiga wilderness, an abundance of fur-bearing animals and deer, roe deer. The rivers teemed with fish. A rider on a horse could easily hide in the tall grass. Hard-working Old Believers settled in such rich places.

The family of Osip Lykov had nine children: Daria, Stepan, Karp, Anna, Evdokim, Nastasya, Alexandra, Feoktista and Khionia. The last four daughters died as children from various diseases.

They lived quietly, because Nicholas II abolished the persecution of the Old Believers. But a revolution broke out, then collectivization. Representatives began to run in and agitate for the collective farms. Most of the Old Believers remained in the village, organized an agricultural artel. Part of the mountains went to Tuva. And the Lykov brothers: Stepan, Karp, Evdokim, together with their father and three more families moved to the upper reaches of Abakan. They cut down the five-walled huts. Hoping to survive the "satanic" times in the wilderness. Their settlement was officially called in the documents "Upper Kerzhak Zaimka".

In 1930, by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Altai State Reserve was created. Zaimka Lykovs was on its territory. And because of this, blood was shed, which Karp Osipovich deafly hinted to Peskov.

“CARRIED OUT” A TERRIBLE DISEASE

But before that, another misfortune struck. In 1933, the Old Believer Nikifor Yaroslavtsev came here from the Swan River. He made his way abroad to Tuva to find a place to live, because he did not want to join the collective farm. The guest complained of a headache, so he spent several days in bed with the Lykovs. Shortly after his departure, the village began to rapidly mow down an unknown ailment. From a terrible headache, people literally climbed the wall, raved, died in terrible agony. No herbs, prayers, conspiracies helped. They did not have time to bury at the castle. Among the first victims were the head of the Lykovsky family Osip Efimovich, the elder brother Stepan. Sleg and Karp.

The Old Believers understood that Nikifor brought a terrible illness from the Swan River. They decided to perform a ritual: to “carry” the disease back. The mission was entrusted to the younger Lykov. A prayer service was served, and before sunrise, Evdokim set off on foot on a dangerous one-fifty-kilometer path through the dense taiga through the Abakan Range. He safely reached the Swan River and near the place where Nikifor lived, "left" the disease.

According to Tigriy Dulkeit, it was a form of meningitis. The most surprising thing is that on the day when Evdokim “suffered” the illness, with the sunrise Karp Osipovich and other sick Kerzhaks felt better and soon recovered. Nobody else died. The deadly disease is gone.

SHOT IN THE BACK

And soon employees of the Altai Reserve appeared at the Kerzhatskaya Zaimka. They gathered all the Old Believers and announced that they could not live here. Any hunting, fishing, and other economic activities are prohibited in the protected area. In the early spring of 1934, the Kerzhaks dispersed in all directions. Karp with his wife Akulina and firstborn Savin went to the Swan River. Evdokim helped his brother with the move and returned to the estate. Aksinya's wife was expecting a child, so the authorities allowed this only family to stay until the fall. Moreover, Lykov decided to enter the guard. An excellent tracker, he knew the surrounding places well. The issue was practically resolved. But there were other contenders for the position of the guard. The authorities received an anonymous denunciation, they say, Lykov is a well-known poacher, he will kill all the animals, and in general, a bad person, after the civil war he helped bandits. (Although at that time he was 15 years old).

The employees of the reserve Rusakov and Khlystunov were immediately sent to the zaimka - "to check the signal." “The management acted thoughtlessly,” Tigriy Dulkeit writes in his book. “I didn’t consult with people who knew the brothers well, I didn’t take into account that Rusakov, always belligerent, was unrestrained, quick-tempered, hot-tempered, didn’t think at all about how everything could end.”

The brothers were digging potatoes and did not immediately notice armed men in eerie attire: black breeches and tunics, black pointed helmets on their heads. This form was introduced in the reserve quite recently, the Lykovs did not know about it. Evdokim rushed to the hut. Karp is behind him. After all, the strangers did not introduce themselves, did not announce why they had come. Rusakov raised his rifle. "Don't shoot, they don't seem to understand who we are!" Khlystunov shouted to his partner. But he shot Evdokim in the back. The wound proved fatal. Thus ended the clarification of the circumstances of the dirty slanderous anonymous letter, which Evdokim never found out about.

To shield themselves, the employees drew up a protocol accusing the Lykovs of armed resistance. Karp categorically refused to sign the "false paper". The next morning, he put his brother's body in a hastily hollowed-out domino and buried it next to close relatives who had recently died from an incomprehensible illness. Then he sent Evdokim's family down the Abakan, and he returned to his wife and son. The following year, their daughter Natalya was born.

Many in the reserve knew the Lykovs well and did not believe that Evdokim offered armed resistance. After all, the issue with his work in security was resolved. The murder was reported to the district. The investigation was carried out superficially, no one was tried. Terrible thirties. Shot, so guilty.

In the spring, a group of employees of the reserve visited the abandoned hut of Kerzhaks. It turned out that the bear dug up the grave, ate Lykov's corpse. Around were gnawed bones, the remains of clothing, a half-preserved skull. Employees re-dug the grave, laid dry grass in the domina, laid down everything that was left of Evdokim, and buried it again.

Chekists took the trail

In 1937, NKVD officers unexpectedly raided the Lykovs on the Swan River. They began to ask in detail under what circumstances Yevdokim was shot three years ago. Like, it was decided to look into this story again. Karp was alarmed by the interrogation. The murderers of a brother can slander him during the investigation. They have more faith. He decided to urgently hide away from people. And he took his family to the "deserts" - the upper reaches of the Great Abakan. Mountains, taiga, hundreds of kilometers without housing, and no roads.

Here, in August 1940, observers from the Altai Reserve met Lykov. They knew Karp very well. They offered me a job as a security guard at the Abakan cordon. The conditions are excellent: a large semi-detached house, a bathhouse, barns, state-owned food. They promised to bring a cow, sheep. They said that the brother's killers had already been punished (this was a lie.) The head of the science department of the Dulkeit reserve, the father of the author of the book, also participated in the negotiations. Lykov's wife Akulina Karpovna really wanted to move to the cordon, closer to the people. Children are growing! But Karp was categorically against it. “Let’s perish, how many people have been killed, for what? Evdokim was killed and they will take us out!”

And moved even further into the taiga. The fear of sharing the tragic fate of his brother, who was shot dead in front of his eyes, the very blood that he dully hinted at later to Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov, drove the “runner”. Not faith at all. After all, many Old Believers went to work in the reserve, including some relatives of the Lykovs.

And soon the Great Patriotic War began. The reserve was not up to Carp.

However, the NKVD remembered him.

By the end of the summer of 1941, the Chekists took control of all the taiga settlements. So that deserters do not hide there. The authorities considered it suspicious that Lykov suddenly disappeared. And they began to insist on his eviction from the taiga by any means. The directorate of the reserve was sure that Karp Osipovich, as an Old Believer, would not provide shelter to anyone. But arguing with the authorities was dangerous, especially in wartime. Moreover, Lykov's age is draft, he himself is obliged to go to the front. A detachment of border guards and Chekists went on a raid to search for deserters and withdraw the Lykovs from the taiga. The guide was Danila Molokov, an employee of the Old Believer reserve, an old acquaintance of Karp Osipovich. From the conversations of the Chekists, he realized that they would not especially stand on ceremony with the Lykovs. The head of the family can be decided in the taiga. Fortunately, Karp noticed the detachment from a distance and began to observe. And when Molokov lagged behind with the horses, he called out to him. Danila said that a war had begun with the "German", the NKVD were looking for deserters and Karp. Time of war, easily "slap"!

SHELTER IN ERINAT

Karp Osipovich urgently took his family to the impenetrable jungle of the Erinat River in the upper reaches of Abakan. In the same Taiga dead end, where the hermit Agafya still lives.

After 5 years, a detachment of military topographers accidentally stumbled upon their shelter, losing all the horses and almost all food supplies: 12 people under the command of a senior lieutenant. The owners fed them potatoes and fish for two days. Karp Osipovich learned about the victory over the German. The commander's shoulder straps were especially striking. Indeed, under Soviet rule, royal epaulettes were canceled. Has the king returned? (Stalin introduced officer epaulettes in 1943). He helped the guests with information about the surrounding places. The places of residence of the family were marked on secret maps marked "Lykov's Zaimka".

Then, for two days, Karp and his son Savin led a detachment of cartographers through the pass, showed the shortest path to Lake Teletskoye, the regional center. Upon returning, the cautious Lykov decided to urgently move higher into the mountains. At the "alternate airfield" - elan (glade) surrounded by centuries-old cedar taiga. There had been a covered log house there for two years in case of a sudden relocation. And that moment has passed.

The story of the visit of cartographers, the escape higher into the mountains, Peskov described in "Taiga Dead End".

But neither Vasily Mikhailovich nor Karp Osipovich knew the continuation of the story.

The senior lieutenant, of course, reported to the authorities about the meeting with the hermits, their extreme poverty, poverty, three children (Agafya was just born). Director of the Altai Reserve A.I. Martynov was summoned to the regional party committee and made a suggestion, they say, the Old Believers are hiding in the territory entrusted to him, violating a number of laws. The director offered to relocate the Lykovs to the Abakan cordon, arrange Karp as a security guard, and provide the family with all kinds of help and support. There were proposals not to touch them at all, let them live where and how they want. But the bureau of the regional committee decided to send a detachment of reserve workers and employees of the NKVD to Erinat in order to bring the Lykov family to the people, to arrange it. And Karp Osipovich to be held accountable for non-participation in the war.

In winter, at the risk of their lives, the detachment went to the upper reaches of Abakan. Among the guides were the Old Believer Danila Molokov, already known to us, Roman Kazanin, a relative of Karp Osipovich, and 18-year-old Tigriy Dulkeit. The Chekists hoped that the Old Believers would not run away until spring, they hoped to take them by surprise. But the hut was empty. Dulkeith recalled: “We spent several days at the Lykov estate and its environs, making daily radial exits in different directions, making constant observations from dawn until dark, but we never saw any smoke or light anywhere, did not find any, even old footprints in the snow. It was clear that the Lykovs stoked the stove only at night and, apparently, did not go far from their homes, unless, of course, they were somewhere nearby and did not go down the Abakan to their old place of residence.

On the seventeenth day of the campaign, the detachment returned to the reserve with nothing. What was reported to the regional leadership. The region insisted on continuing the search.

In the summer of 1947, the NKVD cavalry detachment made a secret raid on the Abakan places where Lykov once lived. Dulkeith was the guide. Inquiries from the residents turned up nothing. It turned out that all the Old Believers, who fled to the taiga from collectivization in the 30s, sooner or later returned to the people, they work. But no one has heard of the Lykovs. It's like they died.

“Both then and now, many years later, it was clear that if we found the Lykovs, the head of the family would not be in trouble,” Dulkeit writes in his book. - Lykov would have shared the fate of those who in those days dared to live in a way that was not right. I mean that with the exit from the taiga, he would have been arrested and put on trial. This is the bitter truth."

Gradually, they began to forget about the Lykovs in the reserve. Yes, and the Chekists had other concerns ...

Only in 1978, geologists from a helicopter accidentally found the secret dwelling of hermits on the same elani in the cedar, where Karp took his wife and children in 1946 after the visit of military topographers. In 1982, Vasily Peskov visited the Lykovs, and his Taiga Dead End began to be published in Komsomolskaya Pravda. Other articles and books also appeared, sometimes full of fables and rumors about Siberian Robinsons.

Peskov also visited the Tyumen village of Lykovo, created at the end of the 17th century by the distant ancestors of Karp Osipovich and Agafya. Fleeing from the "antichrist in royal guise", the oppression of the authorities.
After some time, other people settled here. Also Russian, but not Old Believers. As they say, "peace" has come. With "wrong faith". And the Lykovs were not just Old Believers, but "runners" - a very strict sense of schismatics. Their main rule is "You have to run and hide from the world." In the second half of the 19th century, they moved further, to the Yenisei. To the taiga In new places, Karp Osipovich, the head of the famous family of Abakan hermits, was born in 1901. From his parents he knew about the Tyumen past. We wanted to visit the graves of his ancestors, but the Old Believer cemetery had long been plowed up.

Karp Osipovich really said that his ancestors came from near Tyumen. In the Yalutorovsky district they formed a village, then flowed to the Yenisei.

Perhaps the Lykovs came to the Tyumen region from the village of Lykovo in Kerzh. Anton Afanasiev thinks so: https://cheger.livejournal.com/467616.html

But here he speaks about the Olenevsky skete: “It was during these years that the three brothers Stepan left the skete. Karp and Evdokim with their families. The daughter of Karp Osipovich, Agafya Lykova, has survived to this day in distant Erinat. A book by Vasily Peskov "Taiga Dead End" was written about their life and wanderings. Agafya herself was born far from our edges, but from the words of her father Karp she knows our river Kerzhenka , knows the Olenevsky skete."

Here is more about the connection between Kerzhensky Lykov and the Lykovs.

And that's at least a week. Agafya Karpovna hurries doctors: her soul hurts for the house and household. The goat must be milked, the chickens must be fed. After all, within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the taiga lodge of the Lykovs, there is not a single settlement. Around impregnable Altai mountains.

Zimin made his statement after a resident of the Kirov region turned to him with a request to help him get to Lykova, who lives in the remote taiga, in order to accept the Old Believer faith. “For some reason I didn’t like the topic,” Zimin said, explaining that he “doesn’t really like Grandmother Agafya,” although he has nothing against the Old Believers.

RIA Novosti clarifies that Lykova's housing is located on the territory of Khakassia, but the governor of the neighboring Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleev, has been helping the hermit since they first met in 1997.

The head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, has banned aviation flights to the Old Believer hermit Agafya Lykova, who lives all alone in a remote area of ​​\u200b\u200bthis Siberian region - on the territory of the reserve in the Western Sayan Mountains. This is reported by the project of Radio Liberty "Siberia.Realities".

At the time of the discovery of the Lykovs' lodge by scientists, the family consisted of six people: Karp Osipovich (born c. 1899), Akulina Karpovna, children: Savin (born c. 1926), Natalia (b. c. 1936), Dimitri (b. c. . 1940) and Agafya (born 1944).

“Aman Gumirovich and Agafya Karpovna have a long-standing friendship: they met 20 years ago and did not stop talking. Several times a year, Lykova sends news to the governor through Vladimir Makuta. We provide systematic assistance, not only transfer products. Volunteers have already come to Lykova four times to help with the housework, the hunters protected her house and farm from bears, ”Kommersant-Siberia was told in the press service of the regional administration.

At one time, a wolf strayed to the Lykovs' home. He lived in Agafya's garden for several months and even fed himself potatoes and everything else that the hermit gave him. Agafya does not have the fear of the taiga, forest animals and loneliness that is habitual for city dwellers. If you ask her if it’s not scary to live in such a wilderness alone, she replies:

Where and how does the hermit Agafya Lykova live now? New details.

The Lykovs made contact with civilization in 1978, and three years later the family began to die out. In October 1981, Dimitri Karpovich died, in December - Savin Karpovich, 10 days later Agafya's sister - Natalia. After 7 years, on February 16, 1988, the head of the family, Karp Osipovich, passed away. Only Agafya Karpovna survived.

Far away in the Sayan taiga, the hermit Agafya Lykova, the last representative of her family, has been living for many years. Getting to her lodge is not so easy: you need to walk for several days in the taiga or fly for several hours by helicopter. That is why Agafya Lykova rarely receives guests, but she is always glad to see them.

Terrible truth from Agafya fresh information. Fresh material.

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“Grandma Agafya is not a patriarch of the Old Believer Church and has no status. She lives in a nature reserve where it is generally prohibited. The entire reserve works for her, inspectors chop wood for her, helicopters fly in, - the agency quotes Zimin. “Once again, a plane from the neighbors [from Kuzbass] will fly in for her - and it will be stated that he has no right to either fly in or land there.”

After this story, the Lykov family began to go deeper into the taiga. In the late 30s in K.O. Lykov, taking his wife and children, left the community. For several years no one bothered them. However, in the fall of 1945, an armed police detachment came across the shelter of the Old Believers, searching for fugitive criminals and deserters.

Almost 100 years ago, the Lykov family of Old Believers settled here, which was discovered by geologists in the late 1970s, and since then the fame of the recluses has not left them alone. Agafya saw strangers at the age of 33. From human attention, both then and now, there is a clear practical benefit.

The head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, criticized the Kemerovo authorities for helping the Old Believer hermit Agafya Lykova and “forbade” them to do this, accusing them of spending millions. The administration of the Kemerovo region says that flights to the hermit are tied to "emergency signals" or illegal logging, and the Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleev will continue to help Agafya Lykova.

“How can you stop making friends? If the authorities of Khakassia provided systematic assistance, reacted to the problems and rare requests of Agafya Lykova, then Kuzbass would not need to intervene, ”the press service of the Kemerovo region administration commented on Viktor Zimin’s statement. The press service also added that the head of the Tashtagol region Vladimir Makuta, together with volunteers and journalists, has been flying to Agafya Lykova since 2013. Visits, as a rule, are combined with overflights of the taiga territory of Gornaya Shoria. According to a spokesman for the press service, flights are “tied” to emergency signals when there is information about deforestation or a forest fire.

Who is Lykava Agafya, what is she famous for. All latest information as of 02.02.2018

Blogger Denis Mukimov, who visited the zaimka a year before Sedov’s death, described the relationship between Lykova and Sedova as follows: “There is little that connects the good-natured Yerofey and the strict Agafya. They greet each other but rarely talk. They have there was a conflict on the basis of religion, and Erofey is not ready to follow the rules of Agafia. He himself is a believer, but he does not understand what God can have against canned food in iron cans, why Styrofoam is a devilish object, and why the fire in the stove must be kindled only with a torch, and not with a lighter.

Waiting for the guests, the mistress of the forest shelter spread colored rugs on the floor of the house, baked bread in a Russian oven, and cooked compote from taiga berries. Already saying goodbye, at the helicopter, Agafya handed the metropolitan a branch of willow and invited him to visit the Lykovs' estate next year.

The younger children, who were born in the forest, had never met other people before, the older ones forgot that they had once lived a different life. The meeting with the scientists drove them into a frenzy. At first, they refused any treats - jam, tea, bread, muttering: “We can’t do this!” It turned out that only the head of the family had ever seen and tasted bread here. But gradually connections were established, the savages got used to new acquaintances and learned with interest about technical innovations, the appearance of which they missed. The history of their settlement in the taiga has also become clear.

However, several times a year guests fly to her by helicopter to help prepare for the summer gardening season (Agafya grows all the vegetables herself), mow grass for her goats, and prepare for winter. And with the governor of the Kemerovo region, Lykova has a warm long-term friendship: Aman Tuleev sends parcels to the hermit with the necessary products, things, tools, and, if necessary, helps to undergo the necessary treatment.

Old Believers from the very moment tragic the schism of the Russian Church showed the brightest images of asceticism, confession and Faith. In the middle of the 17th century, the most striking image of standing in appeared to faith the feat of the brethren of the holy Solovetsky Monastery, who refused to accept the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon and suffered for this from the tsarist troops.

Karp Lykov and his family left for the Sayan taiga in 1938. Here he and his wife built a house and raised children. For 40 years, the family was cut off from the world by the impenetrable taiga, and only in 1978 did they meet with geologists. However, the whole country became aware of the family of Old Believers a little later, in 1982, when Vasily Peskov, a Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist, spoke about them. For three decades, he talked about the Lykovs from the pages of the newspaper. Currently, Agafya is the only survivor from the family. Now she is 72 years old, and on April 23 she will turn 73. The hermit refuses to move closer to civilization.

The governor considered that “it is politically beautiful to stand near this flag”, the whole reserve works for Agafya, inspectors chop wood for her and deliver food - “a charitable cause”, but “every resident of the republic would like such conditions” as provided by Agafya, while refusing to move out of the reserve and thus forcing them to spend millions of rubles on it.

“If everyone who accepts Orthodoxy or Islam gets somewhere, and the republican budget helps everyone, it will be very difficult,” Zimin explained his position on the Direct Line with residents. Agafya, according to the governor, is not a patriarch of the Old Believer church, and lives in a reserve where "no one can be."

Before the onset of winter, everything necessary was brought to Agafya. Even a goat. The Erinat River and the Khakassian taiga are the main breadwinners. You can get here only by helicopter or by river. In winter, high snow, mountains and many bears. More than once, Agafya Karpovna was offered to move into a house with all amenities. But every time the same answer sounds - no.

As the inspectors themselves say, security officers regularly visit Agafya. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen very often. Due to the inaccessibility of the area in winter and early spring, it is possible to get to the lodge only by helicopter, and in summer only by boat along the mountain taiga rivers.

Video news Agafya Lykova in 2018. Detailed data.

Smithsonianmag magazine recalls why they fled from civilization and how they survived the collision with it.

While mankind survived World War II and launched the first space satellites, a family of Russian hermits fought for survival by eating bark and reinventing primitive household tools in the deep taiga, 250 kilometers from the nearest village.

Thirteen million square kilometers of wild Siberian nature seem like an unsuitable place for life: endless forests, rivers, wolves, bears and almost complete desertion. But despite this, in 1978, flying over the taiga in search of a landing site for a team of geologists, a helicopter pilot discovered traces of a human settlement here.

At a height of about 2 meters along the mountainside, not far from the nameless tributary of the Abakan River, wedged between pines and larches, there was a cleared area that served as a vegetable garden. This place has never been explored before, the Soviet archives were silent about the people living here, and the nearest village was more than 250 kilometers from the mountain. It was almost impossible to believe that someone lived there.

Having learned about the pilot's find, a group of scientists sent here to search for iron ore went on reconnaissance - strangers in the taiga could be more dangerous than a wild beast. Having put gifts for potential friends into their backpacks and, just in case, having checked the serviceability of the pistol, the group, led by geologist Galina Pismenskaya, headed to a site 15 kilometers from their camp.

The first meeting was exciting for both sides. When the researchers reached their destination, they saw a well-kept garden with potatoes, onions, turnips and piles of taiga rubbish around a hut blackened from time and rain with a single window the size of a backpack pocket.

Pismenskaya recalled how the owner hesitantly looked out from behind the door - an ancient old man in an old burlap shirt, patched trousers, with an uncombed beard and disheveled hair - and, looking warily at the strangers, agreed to let them into the house.

The hut consisted of one cramped moldy room, low, sooty and cold as a cellar. Its floor was covered with potato peels and pine nut shells, and the ceiling sagged. In such conditions, five people huddled here for 40 years.

In addition to the head of the family, the old man Karp Lykov, his two daughters and two sons lived in the house. 17 years before the meeting with scientists, their mother, Akulina, died here from exhaustion. Although Karp's speech was intelligible, his children were already speaking their language, distorted by life in isolation. “When the sisters spoke to each other, the sounds of their voices resembled slow, muffled coos,” Pismenskaya recalled.

The younger children, born in the forest, have never met other people before, the older ones have forgotten that they once lived a different life. The meeting with the scientists drove them into a frenzy. At first, they refused any treats - jam, tea, bread - muttering: “We can’t do this!”

It turned out that only the head of the family had ever seen and tasted bread here. But gradually connections were established, the savages got used to new acquaintances and learned with interest about technical innovations, the appearance of which they missed. The history of their settlement in the taiga has also become clear.

Karp Lykov was an Old Believer - a member of the fundamentalist Orthodox community, performing religious rites in the form in which they existed until the 17th century. When power was in the hands of the Soviets, the scattered communities of Old Believers, who had fled to Siberia from the persecution that had begun under Peter I, began to move further and further away from civilization.

During the repressions of the 1930s, when Christianity itself was under attack, on the outskirts of an Old Believer village, a Soviet patrol shot his brother in front of Lykov. After that, Karp had no doubts that he needed to run.

In 1936, having collected his belongings and taking some seeds with him, Karp with his wife Akulina and two children - nine-year-old Savin and two-year-old Natalya - went into the forests, building hut after hut, until they settled where the family was found by geologists. In 1940, already in the taiga, Dmitry was born, in 1943 - Agafya. Everything that the children knew about the outside world, countries, cities, animals, other people, they drew from the stories of adults and Bible stories.

But life in the taiga was also not easy. For many kilometers there was not a soul around, and for decades the Lykovs learned to make do with what was at their disposal: instead of shoes, they sewed galoshes from birch bark; they patched up clothes until they decayed from old age, and sewed new ones from hemp burlap.

The little that the family took with them during the escape - a primitive spinning wheel, parts of a loom, two teapots - eventually fell into disrepair. When both teapots rusted, they were replaced with a birch bark vessel, and cooking became even more difficult. By the time of the meeting with the geologists, the family's diet consisted mainly of potato cakes with ground rye and hemp seeds.

The fugitives were constantly starving. They began to use meat and fur only in the late 1950s, when Dmitry matured and learned to dig trapping holes, pursue prey for a long time in the mountains and became so hardy that he could hunt barefoot all year round and sleep in 40-degree frost.

In famine years, when crops were destroyed by animals or frosts, family members ate leaves, roots, grass, bark, and potato sprouts. This is how 1961 was remembered, when snow fell in June, and Akulina, Karp's wife, who gave all the food to the children, died.

The rest of the family was saved by chance. Having found a grain of rye that had accidentally sprouted in the garden, the family built a fence around it and guarded it for days. The spikelet brought 18 grains, of which rye crops were restored for several years.

Scientists were amazed by the curiosity and abilities of people who have been in information isolation for so long. Due to the fact that the youngest in the family, Agafya, spoke in a singsong voice and stretched simple words into polysyllabic ones, some of the Lykovs' guests at first decided that she was mentally retarded - and they were greatly mistaken. In a family where calendars and clocks did not exist, she was responsible for one of the most difficult tasks - for many years she kept track of time.

Old Karp, in his 80s, reacted with interest to all technical innovations: he enthusiastically accepted the news about the launch of satellites, saying that he noticed a change back in the 1950s, when “the stars began to soon walk across the sky”, and was delighted with the transparent cellophane packaging: “Lord, what did they think: glass, but it is crumpled!”

But the most progressive member of the family and the favorite of geologists was Dmitry, an expert in the taiga, who managed to build a stove in the hut and weave birch bark boxes in which the family kept food. For many years, day after day, he himself planed logs from logs, for a long time he watched with interest the fast work of a circular saw and a lathe, which he saw in the camp of geologists.

Having been cut off from modernity for decades at the behest of the head of the family and circumstances, the Lykovs finally began to join progress. At first, they accepted only salt from geologists, which was not in their diet for all 40 years of life in the taiga. Gradually they agreed to take forks, knives, hooks, grain, a pen, paper, and an electric flashlight.

They accepted every innovation reluctantly, but the TV - the "sinful business" that they encountered in the camp of geologists - turned out to be an irresistible temptation for them.

Journalist Vasily Peskov, who managed to spend a lot of time next to the Lykovs, recalled how the family was drawn to the screen during their rare visits to the camp: “Karp Osipovich sits right in front of the screen. Agafya looks, sticking her head out from behind the door. She seeks to atone for sin right away - she whispers, crosses herself and sticks her head out again. The old man prays afterwards, diligently and for everything at once.”

It seemed that acquaintance with geologists and their useful gifts in the household gave the family a chance to survive. As often happens in life, everything turned out exactly the opposite: in the fall of 1981, three of Karp's four children died. The elders, Savin and Natalya, died due to kidney failure resulting from many years of a harsh diet.

At the same time, Dmitry died of pneumonia - it is likely that he picked up the infection from geologists. On the eve of his death, Dmitry refused their offer to transport him to the hospital: “We can’t do this,” he whispered before his death. “As long as God gives, I will live for so long.”

Geologists tried to convince the surviving Karp and Agafya to return to their relatives who lived in the villages. In response, the Lykovs only rebuilt the old hut, but refused to leave their native place.

In 1988, Karp passed away. Having buried her father on a mountain slope, Agafya returned to the hut. The Lord will give, and she will live, she said then to the geologists who helped her. And so it happened: the last child of the taiga, a quarter of a century later, to this day she continues to live alone on a mountain above Abakan.

Agafya Lykova now lives alone in the zaimka - her neighbor Yerofey Sedov has died. This was told by the hostess of the zaimka to specialists who examined the soil and water of the territory after the launch of the rocket from Baikonur.

The information was also confirmed in the Khakassky nature reserve, to which this hard-to-reach area belongs. There is no direct connection between the inhabitants of the zaimka and the Khakassky nature reserve. Therefore, while the details are at least - specialists of the reserve have already left for the zaimka. They will be joined by the police officers of the Tashtyp district, which serves the station. As soon as everyone at the lodge is examined, the hermit is questioned, the police will already give some more detailed information.

He lacked communication

But, most likely, there is no crime in the death of a hermit - Erofei Sazontievich Sedov was under 80 years old. Living conditions - taiga.

He worked as a master driller in the expedition of geologists who discovered the Lykov family, and then took patronage over it. After his leg was taken away due to developed gangrene, Sedov moved to Agafya's estate. It was about twenty years ago. As he confessed to reporters:

I'm used to living in the taiga. I feel at home here...

The small hut of Yerofey is located 100 meters from Agafya's house. Sedov's housing is at the foot of the mountain, at Lykova's - at the top. This distance, inaccessible to Yerofey (well, where will he jump on his prosthesis along a steep path?) Agafya easily overcame.

Sedov's son, who lives in Tashtagol (Kemerovo region), presented him with a radio receiver - the only entertainment in the Lykovs' estate. Sometimes Agafya came to listen to the latest news. Erofey explained what she did not understand.

From time to time his son came to Yerofey. Recall that you can get there only by helicopter or by boat on the river.

All visitors were greeted by both. Agafya brushed aside the newspapers she brought, but Yerofey rejoiced. At the same time, he asked:

What newspaper are you from?

From Komsomolskaya Pravda.

This is the best newspaper ever! I have been reading it since I was young.

As colleagues from other publications said, he met everyone with a declaration of love to their newspaper.

He, of course, lacked communication. And he tried to interest his interlocutors in something, who were more interested in Agafya's life, and not him.

Life will show what use the landlady of Sedova will find for housing. Maybe someone will wish to brighten up the life of a taiga hermit who has recently been asking for an assistant.

“The last time I saw my father was in Lent, he looked tired”

We got through to the son of Erofei Sedov, Nikolai Erofeevich. He said that his father had an “extreme” (for some reason he deliberately avoided the word “last”) time before Easter.

It was just a passionate week, - says Nikolai Sedov. The father looked very tired. He and Agafya Karpovna kept all the fasts. And not like many modern people do, fasting for a diet. They did everything according to the canons, strictly. But he didn't get sick. They didn’t talk about anything special, just about the affairs of life. I was informed of his death five days ago. They said that everything happened on April 20, according to the old style. And according to the new, therefore, May 3. As soon as people appeared in the settlement area, Agafya Karpovna informed them about it. They have already reported further. I can’t say what happened there, my father was still advanced in age. Agafya Karpovna buried him herself. She did everything right. The man died, and it's warm outside. Was it really necessary to wait for the body to arrive? It is the duty of any person when people live at a distance: someone died, to bury him. As soon as the opportunity arises (the distance, as you understand, is large), I will definitely go to my father's grave.

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Neighbor Agafya Lykova Yerofey: “She is such a person ... long-suffering!”

At the capture of the Old Believers-hermits, the Lykovs, they "threw" another package - cereals, animal feed, warm clothes. "Present" for the winter from the governor of the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev, he has long been "patronizing" the last of the Lykov family, 69-year-old Agafya, and the same hermit Yerofey Sedov living next door. ()

Agafya Lykova thanked people with prayers for the parcel

In the afternoon at the Lykovs' lodge, where the humanitarian cargo for Agafya arrived, it was -2 °C. Winter in the Western Sayan, in the very "taiga dead end" where the hermit lives, turned out to be warm. Crystal-white snow, impenetrable taiga hiding a hermit's hut on the bank of the Erenat River, and… silence, which was suddenly broken by the rumble of helicopter propellers. This is the MI-8 of the EMERCOM of Russia who brought Agafya Karpovna a gift “from the mainland” of 200 kilograms ... The parcel contains feed for livestock, medicines and provisions. ()

Agafya Lykova: “A big and great petition to you ...”

The other day, Vladimir Pavlovsky, editor of the Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy newspaper, received a letter with such a strange return address: “The Erinat River, a monastery in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos of Three Hands.” It turned out that this is the famous hermit 68-year-old Agafya Lykova (she lives in Khakassia, the nearest village of Mrassu is 120 km from the impassable taiga) with an "opportunity" handed over a letter to her long-time friend, who came to her more than once in the taiga. ()

“Agafya Lykova only exclaimed “oh-oh-oh-oh” when she saw Vasily Peskov!”

It was Vasily Peskov who told the world about the unique family of Old Believers, the Lykovs, who hid from civilization in the Sayan taiga in 1938. For the first time, Vasily Mikhailovich came to Agafya in 1982 and since then he has not forgotten his heroes, he often visited, always with gifts, delicacies, and medicines. His documentary Taiga Dead End about the life of the Khakass "Robinsons" enjoyed crazy popularity, was republished, and was translated into several languages. ()

There was a man who was ready to go to the "taiga dead end" to save Agafya Lykova The words "Taiga dead end" need no explanation. Few people who read newspapers do not know that we are talking about the fate of the Lykovs. For the first time, Komsomolskaya Pravda spoke about the taiga “find” of geologists in 1982. Interest in a small documentary story was huge. Still, it was about a family that had lived in isolation from people for more than thirty years. And not somewhere in the south, but in Siberia, in the taiga. Everything was interesting - the circumstances that led to the exceptional “Robinsonade”, diligence, the solidarity of people in the struggle for existence, resourcefulness and skill, and, of course, religious faith, which caused a dead end in life, but also served as a support for people in extraordinary, exceptional circumstances. It was not easy in 1982 to collect information about everything that happened. Something was not agreed, the Lykovs simply preferred to remain silent about something, still not fully trusting people from the “world”, something in the confused inconsistent story was simply difficult to understand. And how can you verify what you hear? I had to ask in detail the geologists, who already knew the Lykovs well, to compare, compare. It was even more difficult to publish the narrative. 1982 There was no voice. How to tell in a youth newspaper about the hermits of the Old Believers, without falling into "anti-religious revelations"? The only true thing was, by showing the drama of people, to admire their resilience, to evoke a feeling of compassion and mercy. So the story of the Lykovs is set out ().

After a letter from the hermit with a request for help appeared in the press, a 37-year-old man called the reserve and said that he was ready to come to the zaimka. It’s not so easy to find an assistant, he must also be of the same faith with Agafya, otherwise they definitely won’t get along together. Zaimka Lykova is not just a castle, but practically a monastery, where she is her own mistress. ()

Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov. Taiga dead end

The words "Taiga dead end" need no explanation. Few people who read newspapers do not know that we are talking about the fate of the Lykovs. For the first time, Komsomolskaya Pravda spoke about the taiga “find” of geologists in 1982. Interest in a small documentary story was huge. Still, it was about a family that had lived in isolation from people for more than thirty years. And not somewhere in the south, but in Siberia, in the taiga. Everything was interesting - the circumstances that led to the exceptional “Robinsonade”, diligence, the solidarity of people in the struggle for existence, resourcefulness and skill, and, of course, religious faith, which caused a dead end in life, but also served as a support for people in extraordinary, exceptional circumstances.

It was not easy in 1982 to collect information about everything that happened. Something was not agreed, the Lykovs simply preferred to remain silent about something, still not fully trusting people from the “world”, something in the confused inconsistent story was simply difficult to understand. And how can you verify what you hear? I had to ask in detail the geologists, who already knew the Lykovs well, to compare, compare.

The Lykovs are a Russian family of Old Believers; fled from the repressions of the 30s of the 20th century to the taiga and until 1978 lived in almost absolute isolation from the outside world.

The Old Believers began to conflict with the Russian authorities quite a long time ago - Peter I made life difficult for this religious movement. The revolution of 1917 forced many Old Believers to flee to Siberia; the rest bitterly regretted their decision already in the 30s. The death of his brother prompted Karp Lykov, who was still young, to flee from this world; brother died from a Bolshevik bullet. In 1936, Karp, his wife Akulina and their children - 9-year-old Savin and 2-year-old Natalya - went on a trip. It went on for a long time; for several years, the Lykovs changed several wooden huts, until they finally reached a really secluded place. Here the family settled; Dmitry Lykov was born here in 1940, and two years later his sister Agafya was born. The measured course of the life of the Lykovs did not violate anything - until 1978.

Guests from the outside world stumbled upon the Lykovs almost by accident - a geological expedition explored the vicinity of the Bolshoy Abakan River. The pilot of the helicopter accidentally noticed traces of human activity from the air - in places where people could not even theoretically be. Surprised by the discovery, geologists decided to find out who exactly lives here.

Of course, it was not easy to survive in the harsh Siberian taiga. The Lykovs had few things with them - they brought with them several pots, a primitive spinning wheel, a loom and, of course, their own clothes. Clothes, of course, quickly fell into disrepair; it had to be repaired with improvised means - with the help of a coarse cloth woven by hand from hemp fibers. With time

rust destroyed the pots; from that moment on, the hermits had to change their diet quite radically and switch to a strict diet of potato cutlets, ground rye and hemp seeds. The Lykovs suffered from constant hunger and ate everything they could get - roots, grass and bark.

In 1961, severe frosts destroyed all the little that grew in the Lykovs' garden; the hermits had to start eating their own leather shoes. In the same year, Akulina died; she voluntarily starved herself to death in order to leave more food for her husband and children.

Fortunately, after the thaw, the Lykovs discovered that one sprout of rye survived the frost. The Lykovs took care of this sprout, carefully protecting it from rodents and birds. The sprout survived - and gave 18 seeds, which became the beginning for new plantings.

Dmitry, who had never seen the world outside his native forests, eventually became a great hunter; he could spend whole days disappearing in the forest, tracking down and catching animals.

Over time, however, it was possible to establish life. Hunting and well-placed traps on animal paths brought valuable meat to the Lykovs; hermits and part of the caught fish were harvested for future use. Usually, the Lykovs ate fish raw or baked on a fire. Of course, a large part of their diet was forest resources - mushrooms, berries and pine nuts. Something - mainly rye, hemp and some vegetables - the Lykovs grew in the garden. Over time, the hermits learned to process the skins; from the resulting skin they made shoes - in winter it was frankly difficult to move barefoot in the taiga

The meeting of the Lykovs with geologists turned out to be a real shock for both sides; geologists for a long time could not believe that such a micro-colony could exist so far from civilization, and the Lykovs had practically lost the habit of communicating with other people. Over time, contact was established - first, the hermits began to take salt from guests (which was categorically lacking in their everyday life), then - iron tools. After some time, the Lykovs began to get out to the nearest settlements; TV made a particularly strong impression on them from the whole Soviet way of life.

Alas, the discovery by the big world brought the Lykovs not only benefits - in 1981 Savin, Natalya and Dmitry died. Natalya and Dmitry were killed by kidney problems, Dmitry died of pneumonia. There is reason to believe that it was contact with the outside world that became the real cause of death - the young Lykovs completely lacked immunity to a number of modern diseases and new acquaintances, willy-nilly, infected the hermits with deadly viruses for them. Geologists offered Dmitry help - a helicopter could well deliver him to the clinic; alas, the dogmas of the Old Believers categorically forbade such a thing - the Lykovs were absolutely sure that human life is in the hands of God and a person should not resist his will. The geologists failed to convince both Karp and Agafya to leave the forests and move to relatives who survived these 40 years in the outside world.

Karp Lykov died on February 16, 1988; he died in his sleep. Agafya Lykova still lives in the family home