Sometimes in print media and on television there are reports about people living in the forest who have fled from the benefits of civilization for completely different reasons. Some were forced by need and disorder in life to go into the woods, seeking food and shelter, while others acted for religious reasons, considering a developed civilization a matter of the Antichrist. Such hermits are found in different parts of the world, mainly where there are spacious territories overgrown with forest.
Hermits of civilization
In Russia, Siberia became a haven of hermits. Taiga covers vast areas of the earth, and therefore such lonely wanderers rarely meet modern people. They settle hundreds of kilometers from the villages. Some even occasionally appear in settlements, exchanging game for salt or other things necessary for survival, but most often they do it on their own.
People living in the forest shy away from civilization. They like the silence of the forest and the naturalness of existence. They get their own food in the forest, hunting animals and birds, fishing, picking berries and roots. They drink water from clean streams, near which they settle. It is difficult for a modern person to imagine how one can survive in the forest all alone. Indeed, hermits are people of a special kind. Not everyone will be able to live in complete isolation, absolutely without communication, not knowing what is happening in the world, without an elementary soul and warm water.
In the article, we will examine in more detail the life of people living in forests, how they survive in such harsh conditions that they are forced to retire from the entire civilized world. You will learn about the hermits of different countries living in the jungle of the Amazon or on the prairies of Australia, you will learn the history of the Lykov family, who hid from the Soviet regime in the taiga and did not even know that there was World War II.
Lykov family history
When in front of the head of the Karp family, the Soviet authorities killed his own brother in 1936, he firmly decided to flee the despots. Gathering belongings, items necessary in the forest, separate parts from the loom and spinning wheel, the father, mother and two children went into the unknown. They belonged to the Old Believers and could not watch how the true faith in the country was oppressed.
Karp Lykov and his wife Akulina since 1937 have been looking for a suitable place to stay, having replaced several houses built, and finally settled on the banks of the Abakan River in the Western Sayan Mountains. Growing up son Savin and daughter Natalya. Already in the taiga, two more were born - the son Dmitry and the youngest daughter Agafya, a photograph of which can be seen below in the article.
People lived in the woods starving, eating the gifts of nature and animals that they could catch.
Unexpected find
The Lykov family was discovered only in 1978 by pilots of an airplane carrying geologists to Siberia. Flying over the gorge of the Abakan River, they in amazement examined a small hut. The pilots did not immediately believe their eyes, because there were as much as 250 km to the nearest village.
Landing nearby, the pilots, together with geologists, armed with weapons in case of emergency and taking gifts, went to visit people living in the forest. It was scary, because any surprises could await them. Any criminal could hide in such a wilderness. But what was their surprise when an old man came out to meet them with a disheveled and unkempt beard in terrible rags.
Meet geologists
After meeting the old man still allowed the people who came to enter the house. It was a small, decrepit log hut, damp and half-rotten, with a sunken ceiling. The only window was the size of a backpack pocket. The house was terribly cold and dark, there were 5 people huddled in terrible conditions. Karp Akulin's wife died of exhaustion in one of her hungry years, giving all available provisions to the children.
The story of the hermits hit the team of geologists. People living in the forest did not even know that there was a war. During the entire period of seclusion, they did not communicate with any stranger, although the residents of Khakassia knew about their existence. Rye seeds, potatoes and turnips were grown. In the famine, they ate grass and tree bark. The grown-up son Dmitry learned to hunt and dig hunting pits, which expanded the family's diet.
Interest in the innovations of civilization
The hermits, after meeting contemporaries, learned a lot of new things, with fear and at the same time with incredible curiosity examined the flashlight and tape recorder, the TV was especially delighted. Geologists helped the family a lot by delivering the necessary things and seeds of grains and vegetables to them, but even during severe illnesses they still refused to go to the doctors to the hospital. It was believed that how much God gave them time, so much they will live. In our time, only Agafia, the youngest daughter of Karp Lykov, survived. She still lives in the gorge of the Abakan River, a new wooden house has been built for her and people are constantly helping. But she does not intend to move out of her place and return to civilization.
People living in the forests of Russia
Hermit Lykovs are not the only inhabitants of forests in Russia. Hundreds and even thousands of Russians settle in the vast areas of the Siberian taiga. Some hide for ideological reasons, others for religious reasons, others are tired of the endless pursuit of money, the routine of everyday monotonous life. They seek solitude and peace in the silence of the forest, feel the need to hide from the bustle of cities and merge with nature.
What kind of people live in the forest? In fact, completely different. Former doctors and successful businessmen, singers and artists. Many live in communities, contacting and raising children together. They are quite happy and do not want to return to civilization. They abandoned telephones and televisions, cook and clean together, live cleanly in body and soul, building their own interpersonal relationships in their own Utopia. Nobody specifically holds them, this is their personal desire. Some, having rested their souls for several years, nevertheless return to normal life, but most remain in such settlements forever.
We will consider the well-known cases of meeting with such hermits in our time, as people lived in the forest, which prompted them to such a desperate step, as they alone or in families survive in harsh conditions of complete isolation, the absence of necessary and familiar things and tools for us.
Special Forces soldier in the Amur region
Victor, a former commando, was discovered by mushroom pickers in the forest. His hut is 110 km from the nearest settlement. Going into the taiga is his conscious and deliberate decision. He didn’t hide from anyone, didn’t hide, just decided that life in silence and solitude was more to his taste. He built himself a small house and is engaged in hunting, which he loved from early childhood. The experience of many years of service helped the man quickly get comfortable in the taiga and be a successful hunter. What kind of people live in mixed forests? Mostly able to survive in any environment.
In order not to freeze in winter, Viktor dug a dugout in which the same temperature is always maintained. Despite the desire to retire, the hermit sometimes returns to his native village, where he is still remembered and known, exchanges caught game and fur for salt, the necessary products, tools, and returns back to his place.
Meeting in the taiga
What is the name of a person living in the forest? Usually they are called hermits, because they independently made such a choice in life. But this is not always caused by a desire for loneliness. Some were forced to survive in the forest, because they had no other choice, over time they got used to and adapted to forest life and stayed there forever. An example is the life of Alexander Gordienko and Regina Kuleshaite, who met already in the taiga when the girl was 27 years old and the man 40. Each has its own tragic story.
Regina was left an orphan at the age of 12 and earned money at the state farm, picking berries in the forest. Over time, all the villagers parted, and she was left completely alone. In order to somehow survive, the girl settled in a hut found in the taiga.
Alexander lived quite normally in the suburbs and worked as a driver. But once having read an announcement about good earnings in Siberia, he went into the unknown thousands of kilometers from his home. In the wilderness he was waiting for complete disappointment, he was left homeless and living. If it were not for the meeting with Regina, it is not known what would await him in the future, since he did not have the means to return home.
Since then, the couple lives together, raising two children. They don’t see much difference between their way of life and life in Siberian villages, unless they have no light. In the hut they have a table and stools, metal utensils and even an old transistor. Although there are not enough clothes, and children in the warm season run naked.
Hermit children
One could calmly listen to stories about how a man who lived in the forest, earned his livelihood and hid from the cold, but hermits multiply, and children suffer most through the fault of their parents. They do not receive proper development and nutrition, suffer from dementia. Nobody is engaged in their upbringing, children grow up like the famous Mowgli from the story of Rudyard Kipling in mud and cold.
They will never merge into society, never return to civilization. Parents, because of their beliefs and weakness of spirit, inability to adapt and survive in the modern world, deprive their children of elementary medical supervision, and many die in the first years of life from a lack of nutrition and vitamins necessary for the body. Loggers were worried about the situation with the children of one family, trying to pick them up and take them to the hospital. But the child died of the disease right in the ambulance, while others - completely run wild, growled at adults and hid under the bench.
Where do people live in the forest
The living conditions of the hermits wish for the best. Some build houses for themselves from the waste material found in the forest. Others collect large branches or thin tree trunks and put a small hut out of them. Naturally, they naturally do not have the skills to professionally build housing, so houses often turn out damp and cold.
There are hermits who make houses out of an ordinary tent, falling asleep additionally on top of the hay. The stove is built from clay and not always right, smoke enters.
Often people who have left civilization settle in caves, among stones. This protects them from predatory animals, but it is always dark and cold there. The bed is served by branches of spruce and hay, collected by hand.
Lonely resident in the jungle of the amazon
Not so long ago, a lone resident of Brazil, who is hiding in the deep jungle wilds, fell under the camera’s sight. It is believed that this is the last surviving representative of a local tribe destroyed during the seizure of territories for deforestation. He lived in complete isolation for over 15 years.
For life, a small hut made of palm leaves is enough for him, he eats the fruits of the forest and, according to eyewitnesses, has excellent immunity, since he looks quite healthy. Unlike the hermits of Russia, the Brazilian savage does not need to worry about warming up the living room, since it is always warm, although damp.
