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Russian Old Believer, part of the Lykov family, who has lived alone in the Taiga for most of her life. She currently resides in the Western Sayan mountains, in the Republic of Khakassia. Lykova was born in a hollowed out pine washtub in 1944 to Karp Osipovich Lykov and Akulina Lykova. She was their fourth child, and the second to be born in the Taiga. For the first 35 years of her life, Lykova did not have contact with anyone outside of her immediate family. Information about the outside world came from her father’s stories and the family’s Russian Orthodox Bible. In the summer of 1978, a group of four geologists discovered the family by chance, while circling the area in a helicopter.
In 70 years, Lykova has ventured out of the family settlement six times. The first time was in the 1980s, shortly after Vasily Peskov’s articles about the family’s isolation turned them into a national phenomenon. By and large, Lykova prefers her life in the Taiga to life in the larger towns or cities. She claims that the air and water outside of the Taiga makes her sick. She also said that she finds the busy roads frightening. In January 2016, it was reported that Lykova was airlifted to a hospital due to leg pain. Agafia was treated at a hospital in Tashtagol, and planned to return to the wilderness once emergency services were able to airlift her home.
During her talks with Peskov, Lykova told him she was married to someone during one of her trips outside of the taiga. Sedov told Vice journalists that he came to the Taiga to help Lykova. Due to his old age and disability, however, he heavily relied on Lykova for food and firewood throughout his stay. While the two were generally on friendly terms, there were two occasions where Lykova says that Sedov threatened her and “behaved sinfully”.
For forty years, this Russian family was cut off from all human contact, unaware of World War II. Lost in the Taiga: One Russian family’s 50 year struggle for survival and religious freedom in the Siberian wilderness. Siberian hermit airlifted to hospital over leg pain”. Russian hermit to return to Siberian wilderness after hospital stint”. Friend to reclusive hermit dies leaving Old Believer all alone again in taiga”.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union between 1 and 2 February 1959 under unclear circumstances. After the group’s bodies were discovered, an investigation by Soviet Union authorities determined that six had died from hypothermia while the other three showed signs of physical trauma. Additionally, the body of another team member was missing its tongue and eyes. In 1959, a group was formed for a skiing expedition across the northern Urals in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union. Sverdlovsk Oblast in the early morning hours of 25 January 1959. On 27 January, they began their trek toward Otorten from Vizhai.
Diaries and cameras found around their last campsite made it possible to track the group’s route up to the day preceding the incident. On 31 January, the group arrived at the edge of a highland area and began to prepare for climbing. In a wooded valley they cached surplus food and equipment that would be used for the trip back. Before leaving, Dyatlov had agreed he would send a telegram to their sports club as soon as the group returned to Vizhai. It was expected that this would happen no later than 12 February, but Dyatlov had told Yudin, before his departure from the group, that he expected to be longer. On 26 February, the searchers found the group’s abandoned and badly damaged tent on Kholat Syakhl. The campsite baffled the search party.
