The history of the Lykov family - history in photographs. Visiting the famous hermit Agafya Lykova
The famous hermit Agafya Karpovna Lykova, who lives on a farmstead in the upper reaches of the Erinat River in Western Siberia 300 km from civilization, born in 1945. On April 16 she celebrates her name day (her birthday is not known). Agafya is the only surviving representative of the Lykov family of Old Believers hermits. The family was discovered by geologists on June 15, 1978 in the upper reaches of the Abakan River (Khakassia).
The Lykov family of Old Believers lived in isolation since 1937. There were six people in the family: Karp Osipovich (b. 1899) with his wife Akulina Karpovna and their children: Savin (b. 1926), Natalia (b. 1936), Dimitry (b. 1940) and Agafya (b. 1945).
In 1923, the settlement of the Old Believers was destroyed and several families moved further into the mountains. Around 1937, Lykov, his wife and two children left the community, settled separately in a remote place, but lived openly. In the fall of 1945, a patrol came to their home looking for deserters, which alerted the Lykovs. The family moved to another place, living from that moment on secretly, in complete isolation from the world.
The Lykovs were engaged in farming, fishing and hunting. The fish was salted, stored for the winter, and caught at home fish fat. Having no contact with the outside world, the family lived according to the laws of the Old Believers; the hermits tried to protect the family from influence external environment, especially in relation to faith. Thanks to their mother, the Lykov children were literate. Despite such a long isolation, the Lykovs did not lose track of time and performed home worship.
By the time geologists discovered there were five taiga inhabitants - the head of the family, Karp Osipovich, sons Savvin, Dimitry and daughters Natalya and Agafya (Akulina Karpovna died in 1961). Currently, from that large family, only the youngest, Agafya, remains. In 1981, Savvin, Dimitry and Natalya died one after another, and in 1988 Karp Osipovich passed away.
Publications in central newspapers made the Lykov family widely known. Relatives showed up in the Kuzbass village of Kilinsk, inviting the Lykovs to move in with them, but they refused.
Since 1988, Agafya Lykova has lived alone in the Sayan taiga, on Erinata. Family life it didn't work out for her. She also did not succeed in joining a monastery - discrepancies in religious doctrine with the nuns were discovered. Several years ago, former geologist Erofey Sedov moved to these places and now, like a neighbor, helps the hermit with fishing and hunting. Lykova’s farm is small: goats, a dog, cats and chickens. Agafya Karpovna also keeps a vegetable garden in which she grows potatoes and cabbage.
Relatives living in Kilinsk have been calling Agafya to move in with them for many years. But Agafya, although she began to suffer from loneliness and strength began to leave her due to age and illness, does not want to leave the lease.
Several years ago, Lykova was taken by helicopter to receive treatment in the waters of the Goryachy Klyuch spring; she traveled along the railway see distant relatives, even was treated in a city hospital. She boldly uses measuring instruments hitherto unknown to her (thermometer, watch).
Agafya greets each new day with prayer and goes to bed with it every day.
He dedicated his book to the Lykov family. Taiga dead end» Vasily Peskov – journalist and writer
How did the Lykovs manage to live in complete isolation for almost 40 years?
The Lykovs' refuge is a canyon of the upper reaches of the Abakan River in the Sayan Mountains, next to Tuva. The place is inaccessible, wild - steep mountains, covered with forest, and between them there is a river. They hunted, fished, and collected mushrooms, berries and nuts in the taiga. They planted a garden in which they grew barley, wheat and vegetables. They were engaged in hemp spinning and weaving, providing themselves with clothing. The Lykovs' vegetable garden could become a role model for other modern farms. Located on the mountainside at an angle of 40-50 degrees, it went up 300 meters. Having divided the site into lower, middle and upper, the Lykovs placed crops taking into account their biological characteristics. The fractional sowing allowed them to better preserve the harvest. There were absolutely no crop diseases. To save high yield, potatoes were grown in one place for no more than three years. The Lykovs also established crop rotation. The seeds were prepared especially carefully. Three weeks before planting, potato tubers were laid in a thin layer indoors on stilts. A fire was made under the floor, heating up the boulders. And the stones, giving off heat, heated the seed material evenly and for a long time. The seeds were necessarily checked for germination. They were propagated in a special area. The timing of sowing was strictly approached, taking into account the biological characteristics of different crops. The dates were selected optimal for the local climate. Despite the fact that the Lykovs planted the same variety of potatoes for fifty years, they did not degenerate. The content of starch and dry matter was significantly higher than that of most modern varieties. Neither the tubers nor the plants contained any viral or any other infection. Knowing nothing about nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the Lykovs nevertheless applied fertilizers according to advanced agronomic science: “all sorts of rubbish” from cones, grass and leaves, that is, composts rich in nitrogen, were used for hemp and all spring crops. Under turnips, beets, and potatoes, ash was added - a source of potassium necessary for root vegetables. Hard work, sound mind, knowledge of the taiga allowed the family to provide themselves with everything they needed. Moreover, it was food rich not only in proteins, but also in vitamins.
The cruel irony is that it was not the difficulties of taiga life, but the harsh climate, but contact with civilization that proved disastrous for the Lykovs. All of them, except for Agafya Lykova, died shortly after the first contact with the geologists who found them, having become infected from the aliens with infectious diseases hitherto unknown to them. Strong and consistent in her convictions, Agafya, not wanting to “make peace,” still lives alone in her hut on the banks of a mountain tributary of the Erinat River. Agafya is happy with the gifts and products that hunters and geologists occasionally bring her, but she categorically refuses to accept products that have the “seal of the Antichrist” on them - a computer barcode. Several years ago, Agafya took monastic vows and became a nun.
It should be noted that the Lykovs’ case is not at all unique. This family became widely known to the outside world only because they themselves made contact with people, and, by chance, came to the attention of journalists from central Soviet newspapers. IN Siberian taiga there are secret monasteries, monasteries and secret places where people live who, due to their religious beliefs, have deliberately cut off all contact with the outside world. There are also a large number of remote villages and hamlets, whose residents keep such contacts to a minimum. The collapse of industrial civilization will not be the end of the world for these people.
It should be noted that the Lykovs belonged to the rather moderate Old Believer sense of the “chapels” and were not religious radicals, similar to the sense of the wandering runners, who made complete withdrawal from the world part of their religious doctrine. It’s just that solid Siberian men, even at the dawn of industrialization in Russia, understood where everything was heading and decided not to be slaughtered in the name of who knows whose interests. Let us remember that during that period, while the Lykovs were eking out a living from turnips to cedar cones, bloody waves of collectivization, mass repressions of the 30s, mobilization, war, occupation of part of the territory, restoration of the “national” economy, repressions of the 50s, etc. took place in Russia. the so-called consolidation of collective farms (read - the destruction of small remote villages - of course! After all, everyone should live under the supervision of the authorities). According to some estimates, during this period the population of Russia decreased by 35 - 40%! The Lykovs also did not do without losses, but they lived freely, with dignity, masters of themselves, on a section of taiga measuring 15 square kilometers. This was their World, their Earth, which gave them everything they needed.
In recent years, we have been talking a lot about a possible meeting with inhabitants of other worlds - representatives of alien civilizations that are reaching out to us from Space.
What not about we're talking about. How to negotiate with them? Will our immunity work against unknown diseases? Will diverse cultures converge or collide?
And very close - literally before our eyes - is a living example of such a meeting.
We are talking about the dramatic fate of the Lykov family, who lived for almost 40 years in the Altai taiga in complete isolation - in their own world. Our civilization of the 20th century collapsed on the primitive reality of taiga hermits. And what? We didn't accept them spiritual world. We did not protect them from our diseases. We failed to understand their life principles. And we destroyed their already established civilization, which we did not understand and did not accept.
The first reports of the discovery of a family in an inaccessible region of the Western Sayan Mountains, which had lived without any connection with the outside world for more than forty years, appeared in print in 1980, first in the first newspaper “Socialist Industry”, then in “Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy”. And then, in 1982, a series of articles about this family was published by Komsomolskaya Pravda. They wrote that the family consisted of five people: father - Karp Iosifovich, his two sons - Dmitry and Savvin and two daughters - Natalya and Agafya. Their last name is Lykov.
They wrote that in the thirties they voluntarily left the world on the basis of religious fanaticism. They wrote a lot about them, but with a precisely measured portion of sympathy. “Measured” because even then those who took this story to heart were struck by the arrogant, civilized and condescending attitude of Soviet journalism, which dubbed amazing life Russian family in forest solitude "taiga dead end". Expressing approval of Lykov in particular, Soviet journalists assessed the entire life of the family categorically and unambiguously:
- “life and everyday life are wretched to the extreme, a story about present life and about major events they listened in it like Martians”;
- “the sense of beauty was killed in this wretched life, by nature given to a person. Not a flower in the hut, no decoration in it. No attempt to decorate clothes, things... The Lykovs didn’t know songs”;
- “the younger Lykovs did not have the precious opportunity for humans to communicate with their own kind, did not know love, and could not continue their family line. The culprit is a fanatical dark belief in a force that lies beyond the boundaries of existence, called God. Religion was undoubtedly a support in this suffering life. But she was also the cause of the terrible deadlock.”
Despite the desire not stated in these publications to “cause sympathy,” the Soviet press, assessing the Lykovs’ life as a whole, called it “a complete mistake,” “almost a fossil case in human existence.” As if forgetting that we are still talking about people, Soviet journalists declared the discovery of the Lykov family “the discovery of a living mammoth,” as if hinting that over the years of forest life the Lykovs had fallen so far behind our correct and advanced life that they cannot be considered to civilization in general.
True, even then the attentive reader noticed the discrepancy between the accusatory assessments and the facts cited by the same journalists. They wrote about the “darkness” of the Lykovs’ life, and while they were counting the days, throughout their hermit life they never made a mistake in the calendar; Karp Iosifovich’s wife taught all the children to read and write from the Psalter, which, like other religious books, was carefully preserved in the family; Savvin even knew the Holy Scriptures by heart; and after the launch of the first Earth satellite in 1957, Karp Iosifovich noted: “The stars soon began to walk across the sky.”
Journalists wrote about the Lykovs as fanatics of the faith - and it was not only not customary for the Lykovs to teach others, but even to speak badly about them. (Let us note in parentheses that some of Agafya’s words, to give greater persuasiveness to some journalistic arguments, were invented by the journalists themselves.)
To be fair, it must be said: not everyone shared this given point from the perspective of the party press. There were also those who wrote about the Lykovs differently - with respect for their spiritual strength, for their life feat. They wrote, but very little, because the newspapers did not provide an opportunity to defend the name and honor of the Russian Lykov family from accusations of darkness, ignorance, and fanaticism.
One of these people was the writer Lev Stepanovich Cherepanov, who visited the Lykovs a month after the first report about them. Together with him were Doctor of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology of the Krasnoyarsk Institute for Advanced Medical Studies, Professor I.P. Nazarov and the head physician of the 20th Hospital of Krasnoyarsk V. Golovin. Even then, in October 1980, Cherepanov asked the regional leadership to introduce a complete ban on visits to the Lykovs by random people, suggesting, based on familiarity with the medical literature, that such visits could threaten the life of the Lykovs. And the Lykovs appeared before Lev Cherepanov as completely different people than from the pages of the party press.
People who have met the Lykovs since 1978, says Cherepanov, judged them by their clothes. When they saw that the Lykovs had everything homespun, that their hats were made from musk deer fur, and that their means of struggling for existence were primitive, they hastily concluded that the hermits were far behind us. That is, they began to judge the Lykovs downwards, as people of a lower class compared to themselves. But then it turned out how disgusting they are if they look at us as weak people who need to be looked after. After all, “save” literally means “help.” I then asked Professor Nazarov: “Igor Pavlovich, maybe you are happier than me and have seen this in our lives? When would you come to your boss, and he, leaving the table and shaking your hand, asks how I can be useful to you?
He laughed and said that in our country such a question would be interpreted incorrectly, that is, there would be a suspicion that they wanted to accommodate someone halfway out of some self-interest, and our behavior would be perceived as ingratiating.
From that moment it became clear that we turned out to be people who think differently than the Lykovs. Naturally, it was worth wondering who else they greet like that - with a friendly disposition? It turned out - everyone! Here R. Rozhdestvensky wrote the song “Where the Motherland Begins.” From this, that, the third... - remember her words. But for the Lykovs, the Motherland begins with one’s neighbor. A man came - and the Motherland begins with him. Not from the ABC book, not from the street, not from the house - but from the one who came. Once he came, it means he turned out to be a neighbor. And how can one not render him a feasible service?
This is what immediately divided us. And we understood: yes, indeed, the Lykovs have a semi-natural or even subsistence economy, but their moral potential turned out to be, or rather remained, very high. We lost it. According to the Lykovs, you can see with your own eyes what side results we acquired in the struggle for technical achievements after 1917. After all, the most important thing for us is the highest labor productivity. So we drove productivity. But while taking care of the body, it would be necessary not to forget about the spirit, because the spirit and the body, despite their opposition, must exist in unity. And when the balance between them is disturbed, then an inferior person appears.
Yes, we were better equipped, we had boots with thick soles, sleeping bags, shirts that were not torn by branches, trousers no worse than these shirts, stewed meat, condensed milk, lard - whatever you wanted. But it turned out that the Lykovs were morally superior to us, and this immediately predetermined the entire relationship with the Lykovs. This watershed has passed, regardless of whether we wanted to reckon with it or not.
We were not the first to come to the Lykovs. Many people have met with them since 1978, and when Karp Iosifovich determined by some gestures that I was the eldest in the group of “lay people,” he called me aside and asked: “Would you like to take it as yours, as they say there?” , wife, fur on the collar?” Of course, I immediately objected, which greatly surprised Karp Iosifovich, because he was used to people taking his furs. I told Professor Nazarov about this incident. He, naturally, replied that this should not happen in our relationship. From that moment on, we began to separate ourselves from other visitors. If we came and did something, it was only “for the sake of it.” We didn’t take anything from the Lykovs, and the Lykovs didn’t know how to treat us. Who are we?
Has civilization already shown itself to them differently?
Yes, and it seems like we are from the same civilization, but we don’t smoke or drink. And in addition, we don’t take sables. And then we worked hard, helping the Lykovs with the housework: sawing stumps down to the ground, chopping firewood, reroofing the house where Savvin and Dmitry lived. And we thought we were doing a very good job. But still, after some time, on our other visit, Agafya, not seeing that I was passing nearby, said to my father: “But the brothers worked better.” My friends were surprised: “How can it be, we were sweating ourselves.” And then we realized: we had forgotten how to work. After the Lykovs came to this conclusion, they already treated us condescendingly.
With the Lykovs, we saw with our own eyes that family is an anvil, and work is not just work “from” to “to”. Their work is a concern. About whom? About your neighbor. A brother's neighbor is a brother, sisters. And so on.
Then, the Lykovs had a piece of land, hence their independence. They met us without fawning or turning up their noses - as equals. Because they didn't have to gain anyone's favor, recognition or praise. Everything they needed, they could take from their piece of land, or from the taiga, or from the river. Many of the tools were made by them themselves. Even if they did not meet any modern aesthetic requirements, they were quite suitable for this or that job.
This is where the difference between the Lykovs and us began to appear. The Lykovs can be imagined as people from 1917, that is, from the pre-revolutionary era. You won’t see people like that anymore - we’ve all leveled out. And the difference between us, representatives of the modern civilization and the pre-revolutionary Lykov civilization, one way or another had to come out, one way or another characterizing both the Lykovs and us. I do not blame the journalists - Yuri Sventitsky, Nikolai Zhuravlev, Vasily Peskov, because, you see, they did not try to tell about the Lykovs truthfully and without bias. Since they considered the Lykovs to be victims of themselves, victims of faith, then these journalists themselves should be recognized as victims of our 70 years. This was our moral: everything that benefits the revolution is right. We didn’t even think about the individual; we were used to judging everyone from class positions. And Yuri Sventitsky immediately “saw through” the Lykovs. He called Karp Iosifovich a deserter, called him a parasite, but there was no evidence. Well, the reader knew nothing about desertion, but what about “parasitism”? How could the Lykovs parasitize away from people, how could they profit at someone else’s expense?
For them it was simply impossible. Nevertheless, no one protested the speech of Yu. Sventitsky in “Socialist Industry” or the speech of N. Zhuravlev in “Krasnoyarsk Worker”. Mostly pensioners responded to my rare articles - they expressed sympathy and did not reason at all. I notice that the reader has completely forgotten how or does not want to reason and think for himself - he only loves everything ready-made.
Lev Stepanovich, so what do we now know for certain about the Lykovs? After all, publications about them were guilty not only of inaccuracies, but also of distortions.
Let's take a piece of their life in Tishi, on the Bolshoi Abakan River, before collectivization. In the 20s, it was a settlement “in one estate”, where the Lykov family lived. When the CHON detachments appeared, the peasants began to worry, and they began to move to the Lykovs. From the Lykovsky repair a small village of 10-12 courtyards grew. Those who moved in with the Lykovs, naturally, told what was happening in the world; they were all looking for salvation from new government. In 1929, a certain Konstantin Kukolnikov appeared in the Lykovo village with instructions to create an artel that was supposed to engage in fishing and hunting.
In the same year, the Lykovs, not wanting to be enrolled in the artel, since they were accustomed to an independent life and had heard enough about what was in store for them, got together and left all together: three brothers - Stepan, Karp Iosifovich and Evdokim, their father, mother and the one who performed service with them, as well as close relatives. Karp Iosifovich was then 28 years old, he was not married. By the way, he never led the community, as they wrote about it, and the Lykovs never belonged to the sect of “runners.” All the Lykovs migrated along the Bolshoi Abakan River and found shelter there. They did not live secretly, but appeared in Tishi to buy threads for knitting nets; together with the Tishin people they set up a hospital on Goryachiy Klyuch. And only a year later Karp Iosifovich went to Altai and brought his wife Akulina Karpovna. And there, in the taiga, one might say, in the Lykovsky upper reaches of the Big Abakan, their children were born.
In 1932, the Altai Nature Reserve was formed, the border of which covered not only Altai, but also part Krasnoyarsk Territory. The Lykovs who settled there ended up in this part. They were presented with demands: they were not allowed to shoot, fish or plow the land. They had to get out of there. In 1935, the Lykovs went to Altai to visit their relatives and lived first on the Tropins’ “vater”, and then in a dugout. Karp Iosifovich visited the Prilavok, which is near the mouth of Soksu. There, in his garden, under Karp Iosifovich, Evdokim was shot by huntsmen. Then the Lykovs moved to Yeri-nat. And from that time on, their journey through torment began. They were frightened off by the border guards, and they went down the Bolshoy Abakan to Shcheki, built a hut there, and soon another one (on Soksa), more distant from the shore, and lived on pasture...
Around them, in particular in Abaza, the mining town closest to the Lykovs, they knew that the Lykovs must be somewhere. It was not only heard that they survived. That the Lykovs were alive became known in 1978, when geologists appeared there. They were selecting sites for landing research parties and came across the “tame” arable lands of the Lykovs.
What you said, Lev Stepanovich, about the high culture of relations and the entire life of the Lykovs is confirmed by the conclusions of those scientific expeditions that visited the Lykovs in the late 80s. Scientists were amazed not only by the truly heroic will and hard work of the Lykovs, but also by their remarkable mind. In 1988, candidates who visited them. agricultural sciences V. Shadursky, associate professor of the Ishim Pedagogical Institute and candidate. agricultural sciences research fellow Research Institute of Potato Farming O. Poletaeva was surprised by many things. It is worth citing some facts that scientists have noticed.
The Lykovs' vegetable garden could become a role model for other modern farms. Located on the mountainside at an angle of 40-50 degrees, it went up 300 meters. Having divided the site into lower, middle and upper, the Lykovs placed crops taking into account their biological characteristics. The fractional sowing allowed them to better preserve the harvest. There were absolutely no crop diseases.
The seeds were prepared especially carefully. Three weeks before planting, potato tubers were laid in a thin layer indoors on stilts. A fire was made under the floor, heating up the boulders. And the stones, giving off heat, heated the seed material evenly and for a long time.
The seeds were necessarily checked for germination. They were propagated in a special area.
The timing of sowing was strictly approached, taking into account the biological characteristics of different crops. The dates were selected optimal for the local climate.
Despite the fact that the Lykovs planted the same variety of potatoes for fifty years, they did not degenerate. The content of starch and dry matter was significantly higher than that of most modern varieties. Neither the tubers nor the plants contained any viral or any other infection.
Knowing nothing about nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the Lykovs nevertheless applied fertilizers according to advanced agronomic science: “all sorts of rubbish” from cones, grass and leaves, that is, composts rich in nitrogen, were used for hemp and all spring crops. Under turnips, beets, and potatoes, ash was added - a source of potassium necessary for root vegetables.
“Hard work, intelligence, knowledge of the laws of the taiga,” the scientists summarized, “allowed the family to provide themselves with everything they needed. Moreover, it was food rich not only in proteins, but also in vitamins.”
Several expeditions of philologists from Kazan University visited the Lykovs, studying phonetics in an isolated “patch.” G. Slesar-va and V. Markelov, knowing that the Lykovs were reluctant to come into contact with “aliens,” in order to gain trust and hear the reading, worked with the Lykovs side by side early in the morning. “And then one day Agafya took a notebook in which “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was copied by hand. Scientists replaced only some of the modernized letters with ancient ones, more familiar to Lykova. She carefully opened the text, silently looked through the pages and began to read melodiously... Now we know not only the pronunciation, but also the intonation of the great text... So “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” turned out to be written down for eternity, perhaps by the last “speaker” on earth ”, as if coming from the times of the “Word...” itself.
The next expedition of Kazan residents noticed a linguistic phenomenon among the Lykovs - the juxtaposition of two dialects in one family: the North Great Russian dialect of Karp Iosifovich and the South Great Russian dialect (akanya) inherent in Agafya. Agafya also remembered the poems about the destruction of the Olonevsky monastery - which was the largest in the Nizhny Novgorod region. “There is no price for authentic evidence of the destruction of a large Old Believer nest,” said A. S. Lebedev, a representative of the Russian Old Believer Church, who visited the Lykovs in 1989. “Taiga Dawn” - he called his essays about the trip to Agafya, emphasizing his complete disagreement with the conclusions of V. Peskov.
Kazan philologists on the fact of Lykovskaya colloquial speech explained the so-called “nasality” in church services. It turns out that it comes from Byzantine traditions.
Lev Stepanovich, it turns out that it was from the moment people came to the Lykovs that the active invasion of our civilization into their habitat began, which simply could not help but cause harm. After all, we have different approaches to life, different types behavior, different attitudes towards everything. Not to mention the fact that the Lykovs never suffered from our diseases and, naturally, were completely defenseless against them.
After the sudden death of three children of Karp Iosifovich, Professor I. Nazarov suggested that the reason for their death was weak immunity. Subsequent blood tests conducted by Professor Nazarov showed that they were immune only to encephalitis. They could not even resist our ordinary diseases. I know that V. Peskov talks about other reasons. But here is the opinion of Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Igor Pavlovich Nazarov.
He says that there is a clear connection between the Lykovs’ so-called “colds” and their contacts with other people. He explains this by the fact that the Lykov children were born and lived without meeting anyone from the outside, and did not acquire specific immunity against various diseases and viruses.
As soon as the Lykovs began visiting geologists, their illnesses took on serious forms. “As soon as I go to the village, I get sick,” Agafya concluded back in 1985. The danger that awaits Agafya due to her weakened immune system is evidenced by the death of her brothers and sisters in 1981.
“We can judge what they died from,” says Nazarov, “only from the stories of Karp Iosifovich and Agafya. V. Peskov concludes from these stories that the reason was hypothermia. Dmitry, who fell ill first, helped Savvin set up a fence (fence) in the icy water, together they dug potatoes out of the snow... Natalya washed them in a stream with ice...
All this is true. But was the situation really so extreme for the Lykovs when they had to work in the snow or in cold water? With us, they easily walked barefoot in the snow for a long time without any health consequences. No, not in the usual cooling of the body main reason their death, but that... shortly before the illness, the family again visited the geologists in the village. When they returned, they all fell ill: cough, runny nose, sore throat, chills. But I had to dig potatoes. And in general, the usual thing for them turned out to be for three fatal disease, because already sick people were exposed to hypothermia.”
And Karp Iosifovich, Professor Nazarov believes, contrary to V. Peskov’s statements, did not die from senile decrepitude, although he was indeed already 87 years old. “Suspecting that a doctor with 30 years of experience could have overlooked the patient’s age, Vasily Mikhailovich leaves out of the brackets of his reasoning the fact that Agafya was the first to fall ill after her next visit to the village. When she returned, she fell ill. The next day Karp Iosifovich fell ill. And a week later he died. Agafya was ill for another month. But before I left, I left her the pills and explained how to take them. Fortunately, she accurately identified herself in this situation. Karp Iosifovich remained true to himself and refused pills.
Now about his decrepitude. Just two years earlier he had broken his leg. I arrived when he was already for a long time did not move and lost heart. Krasnoyarsk traumatologist V. Timoshkov and I applied conservative treatment and applied plaster. But, to be honest, I didn’t expect him to pull through. And a month later, in response to my question about his well-being, Karp Iosifovich took his stick and left the hut. Moreover, he began to work around the house. It was a real miracle. An 85-year-old man has a fused meniscus, at a time when this happens extremely rarely even in young people, and he has to undergo surgery. In a word, the old man still had a huge reserve of vitality..."
V. Peskov also argued that the Lykovs could have been ruined by the “long-term stress” that they experienced due to the fact that the meeting with people allegedly gave rise to many painful questions, disputes and strife in the family. “Talking about this,” says Professor Nazarov, “Vasily Mikhailovich repeats the well-known truth that stress can depress the immune system... But he forgets that stress cannot be long-lasting, and by the time the three Lykovs died, their acquaintance with geologists it has been going on for three years already. There are no facts indicating that this acquaintance produced a revolution in the minds of family members. But there is irrefutable data from Agafya’s blood test, confirming that there was no immunity, so there was nothing to suppress stress.”
Let us note, by the way, that I.P. Nazarov, taking into account the specifics of his patients, prepared Agafya and her father for the first blood test for five years (!), and when he took it, he stayed with the Lykovs for another two days to monitor their condition.
Hard to understand to modern man motives for a concentrated, suffering life, a life of faith. We judge everything hastily, with labels, like judges to everyone. One of the journalists even calculated how little the Lykovs saw in life, having settled in a patch of only 15x15 kilometers in the taiga; that they didn’t even know that Antarctica existed, that the Earth was a ball. By the way, Christ also did not know that the Earth is round and that Antarctica exists, but no one blames him for this, realizing that this is not the knowledge that is vitally necessary for man. But the Lykovs knew better than us what is absolutely necessary in life. Dostoevsky said that only suffering can teach a person something - this is the main law of life on Earth. The Lykovs' life turned out in such a way that they drank this cup in full, accepting the fatal law as their personal destiny.
The eminent journalist reproached the Lykovs for not even knowing that “besides Nikon and Peter I, it turns out that great people Galileo, Columbus, Lenin lived on earth...” He even allowed himself to claim that because of this that “they didn’t know this, the Lykovs had only a grain of their sense of homeland.”
But the Lykovs didn’t have to love the Motherland like a book, in words, as we do, because they were part of the Motherland itself and never separated it, like their faith, from themselves. The homeland was inside the Lykovs, which means it was always with them and them.
Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov writes about some kind of “dead end” in the fate of the taiga hermits the Lykovs. Although how can a person be at a dead end if he lives and does everything according to his conscience? And a person will never meet a dead end if he lives according to his conscience, without looking at anyone, without trying to get along, to please... On the contrary, his personality reveals itself and blossoms. Look at Agafya's face - this is the face of a happy, balanced, spiritualized person who is in harmony with the foundations of his secluded taiga life.
O. Mandelstam concluded that “double existence is an absolute fact of our life.” Having heard the story about the Lykovs, the reader has the right to doubt: yes, the fact is very common, but not absolute. And the history of the Lykovs proves this to us. Mandelstam learned this and came to terms with it, we and our civilization know this and come to terms with it, but the Lykovs found out and did not come to terms with it. They didn’t want to live against their conscience, they didn’t want to live double life. But adherence to truth and conscience is true spirituality, which we all seem to worry about out loud. “The Lykovs left to live on their report, they went to the feat of piety,” says Lev Cherepanov, and it’s hard to disagree with him.
We see in the Lykovs traits of genuine Russianness, what has always made Russians Russian and what we all lack now: the desire for truth, the desire for freedom, for the free expression of our spirit. When Agafya was invited to live with relatives in the mountainous Shoria, she said: “There is no desert in Kilensk, there cannot be extensive life there.” And again: “It’s no good to turn back from a good deed.”
What real conclusion can we draw from everything that happened? Having thoughtlessly invaded a reality we did not understand, we destroyed it. Normal contact with the “aliens of the taiga” did not take place - the disastrous results are obvious.
May this serve us all as a cruel lesson for future meetings.
Maybe with real aliens...Izba Lykov. They lived in it for thirty-two years.
In the early 1980s. a series of publications about the family appeared in the Soviet press hermits-Old Believers Lykovs who spent 40 years in voluntary exile in the Sayan taiga, abandoning all the benefits of civilization, in complete isolation from society. After they were discovered by geologists and journalists and travelers began to visit them, three family members died from a viral infection. In 1988, the father of the family also died. Only Agafya Lykova survived, who soon became the most famous hermit in the country. Despite her advanced age and illness, she still refuses to move from the taiga.
Old Believers Karp and Akulina Lykov and their children fled to the taiga from Soviet power in the 1930s. On the banks of a mountain tributary of the Erinat River, they built a hut, hunted, fishing, collected mushrooms and berries, weaved clothes on homemade machine. They left the village of Tishi with two children - Savvin and Natalya, and in secret two more were born - Dmitry and Agafya. In 1961, mother Akulina Lykova died of hunger, and 20 years later Savvin, Natalya and Dmitry died of pneumonia. Obviously, in conditions of isolation from society, immunity was not developed, and all of them became victims of a viral infection. They were offered pills, but only the youngest Agafya agreed to take them. This saved her life. In 1988, at the age of 87, her father died, and she was left alone.
They began writing about the Lykovs back in 1982. Then journalist Vasily Peskov often came to the Old Believers, who subsequently published several articles in Komsomolskaya Pravda and the book “Taiga Dead End”. After this, the Lykovs often found themselves in the center of attention of the press and public, their story thundered throughout the country. In the 2000s, the Lykov settlement was included in the territory of the Khakass Nature Reserve.
In 1990, Agafya’s seclusion temporarily stopped for the first time: she took monastic vows in the Old Believer convent, but a few months later she returned to her home in the taiga, explaining this by “ideological differences” with the nuns. She also did not have a good relationship with her relatives - they say that the hermit’s character is difficult and difficult.
In 2014, the hermit turned to people for help, complaining about her weakness and illness. Representatives of the administration, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, journalists and niece Alexandra Martyushev went to see her and tried to persuade her to move. Agafya gratefully accepted the food, firewood and gifts, but refused to leave her home.
At the request of the head of the Russian Old Believer Church, Metropolitan Cornelius, an assistant was sent to the hermit - 18-year-old Alexander Beshtannikov, who came from a family of Old Believers. He helped her with housework until he was drafted into the army. For 17 years, Agafya’s assistant was former geologist Erofei Sedov, who settled next door to her after his retirement. But in May 2015 he died, and the hermit was left completely alone.
In January 2016, Agafya had to interrupt her seclusion and again turn to people for help - her legs hurt badly, and she called a doctor using the satellite phone left for her by the local administration for emergency calls. She was taken from the taiga by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Tashtagol, where she was examined and found out that Agafya had an exacerbation of osteochondrosis. The first measures were taken, but the hermit refused long-term treatment and immediately began to rush back home.
Considering Agafya Lykova’s advanced age and the state of her health, everyone again tried to persuade the hermit to stay among people and move in with relatives, but she flatly refused. After staying in the hospital for just over a week, Agafya returned to the taiga again. She said that it was boring in the hospital - “just sleep, eat and pray, but at home there’s a lot to do.”
In the spring of 2017, employees of the Khakass Nature Reserve, according to tradition, brought the hermit food, things, letters from fellow believers and helped with housework. Agafya again complained of pain in her legs, but again refused to leave the taiga. At the end of April, she was visited by a Ural priest, Father Vladimir. He said that assistant Georgy lives with Agafya, whom the priest blessed to support the hermit.
The 72-year-old hermit explains her reluctance to move closer to people and civilization by saying that she promised her father never to leave their home in the taiga: “I will not go anywhere again and by the power of this oath I will not leave this land. If it were possible, I would gladly accept fellow believers to live with me and pass on my knowledge and accumulated experience of the Old Believer faith.” Agafya is confident that only away from the temptations of civilization can one lead a truly spiritual life.
They became the most famous hermits in the country: .
“How scary it is for you to live in cities”
Report from Agafya Lykova's camp in the taiga
Vera Kostamo
“It’s not possible,” Agafya would have said if she had heard about our plans to get to her at the end of February along the taiga and the Abakan River. With her melodious manner of speaking, which most likely arose from the constant reading of prayers, the younger Lykova says “it’s not possible” in cases where what is happening does not correspond to her ideas about the world and rationality.
You cannot accept things that have a barcode on them as gifts, you cannot take photographs without permission, and much more is also prohibited. How the most famous hermit in Russia lives today is in a RIA Novosti report.
Extra
Agafya was born into a family of Old Believers who left people and authorities for the taiga in 1938. In the early 1980s, thanks to journalist Vasily Peskov, the entire Union learned about the Lykovs. Now, if they remember, it’s rare. But Agafya is alive.
In recent years, little has changed: he lives where the quarrelsome Erinat and Abakan rivers meet, keeps goats, grows vegetables, and in the fall collects “cedar” cones, as Siberian pine is called here. Praying. For yourself and for the whole world. From the nearest settlement, the village of Matur, to Agafya there are more than two hundred kilometers of taiga, snow and a river that has not completely frozen under the ice.
We have been preparing for a long time for a joint expedition with the Khakassky Nature Reserve. Taiga wouldn't let me in. It was impossible to reach Agafya. In summer, you can get to the Lykovs' village by boat in a couple of days. In winter it is a long trek on snowmobiles and hunting skis.
Rare snow falls - bad. They are swept along the river bed, crowded with snowmobiles, in a snowstorm - the only sign that there are people here. Everything from the city: money, phones, documents were left at the hotel. These things are not needed here. The further we go into the taiga, the more excess we will have to leave in the huts.
Those who live and work in the taiga know Agafya.
-Are you visiting Karpovna? But we didn’t get there, the road was “rotten”, there was a lot of ice, - the guard of one of the private tourist bases does not advise going up the Abakan.
The river bristles with hummocks - this is ice blown downstream by the wind and frozen. The snowmobile goes around them along an invisible curve. In some places through clear water stones are visible. Here and there the river roars, steam rises above the wide gullies.
To push through - that's what they say here. There is no road, it is possible to drive between wide-trunked fir, cedar, birch and bushes. The trail ends with a steep drop and snowmobiles jump.
“In his old age, he jumped from such heights,” Leonid Alekseevich is indignant as he straightens the fastenings of the sled that were torn after the jump.
Along the shore, the snowmobile walks heavily over the rocks.
- Agafya has a good memory, eight years later she remembered me. She was glad that I was from Altai, all her relatives were from there,” says Leonid. - We arrived - it was just time to dig potatoes. Her brother and her brothers were still clearing the space for vegetables. There is a peculiar climate and conditions there.
The snow swirls behind the Yamaha with fine, prickly dust. Here in the taiga it can be completely different. Tight as a hat on baba, flying like powdered sugar, on a clear sunny day - striped with blue-black shadows.
There are a lot of footprints on it, which gives the impression that there are people somewhere nearby. Round, with a long stripe at the back - traces of deer. Large, dog-like ones are wolf-like. Smaller - a Siberian cat passed by, a sable.
Scary
“Well, suicide bombers, let’s go,” Leonid Alekseevich drives the snowmobile in a wide arc to gain the required speed and jump several tens of meters of ice. We are second and see how the ice is subsiding under the previous car. We passed, we are in a hurry and are chasing the road that has not yet settled. The temperature cannot be determined and ranges from minus thirty to plus two.
Once upon a time, the Lykov family went to the taiga along the same route: Karp, his wife Akulina, son Savin and daughter Natalya. Later Dmitry and Agafya will be born. The closer people came to their holdings, the further the family went deeper into the taiga. The almost rotten crowns of the huts they abandoned still stand along the banks of the Abakan River.
In 1961, Akulina dies of hunger. Agafya will say about her: “Mom is a true Christian, she was a strong believer.”
The youngest Lykova was 17 years old when the hungry year began in the taiga: “Mom couldn’t stand it during Lenten. It was impossible to go fishing - the water was too big. They didn’t make sure there was cattle, they couldn’t hunt. They crushed the bergenia root and lived on a rowan leaf.”
In 1981, all the children die one by one, except Agafya. In 1988, Karp Osipovich “got away.” Agafya is left alone.
Many times Agafya Karpovna will be offered to move closer to people. To which she will answer with her invariable “not possible.” And he will tell us: “How scary it is for you to live in cities.” And from here, from the Siberian forests with their simple rules, it really seems scary.
Another world
In the pocket of the jacket there is a letter for Agafya from Bolivia, in one place the envelope is wet and the word “Amen” is visible. Stamps with bright pictures look against the backdrop of mountains, trees supporting the washed-out sky, and ice - as if from another world.
This same monochrome world has its own intonation. Your own rhythm. The backs of the mountains are covered with forest, behind them are char - peaks without vegetation. Sliding down, closer to the river, is a scattering of stones - kuruma. Everything sounds different.
In two days we travel a little more than 170 kilometers and reach open water. The further path can only be continued on skis. We leave things, backpacks, and warm equipment in one of the transition huts, with snowmobiles nearby.
Riding on skis lined with horse skin (skin from the shin of an animal - editor's note) is a meditative activity. “Crunch-crunch” - the snow crunches, right-left - the legs move. And silence. Only occasionally does a hazel grouse whistle, the water rustles in the riffles, the forest crackles.
Agafya
We notice Agafya right away, she walks along a frozen river with a bundle of firewood, then climbs 70 steps of a homemade staircase up to her house. After 40 kilometers of skiing, deserted people, this short woman minding her own business seems unreal. It is difficult to guess how old Agafya is. She herself says that she will be 73 in April. While still on the road, Sergei will say that she, like a child, believes everything. People are initially kind to her.
But with whom to communicate, Agafya decides herself: there were cases when a woman simply went into the taiga until the unpleasant guests left. And her character is difficult.
- Karpovna, hello! — Sergei visits Agafya often; the last time in January he skied for ten hours to visit her.
Agafya smiles and looks at us one by one. For her, the appearance of people at this time of year is a surprise. In winter, only helicopters fly to the village.
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The only surviving representative of the family of Old Believers, found by geologists in 1978 in the Western Sayan Mountains, Agafya Lykova showed her life to correspondents of MIA Rossiya Segodnya. Her loved ones had lived in isolation since 1937. For many years, hermits tried to protect their families from the influence of the external environment, especially with regard to faith. Now Agafya Lykova lives alone in the taiga.
She leans on two human-sized bales of hay recently dropped from the air for her goats. Later I will ask Agafya what will happen if people stop helping.
“There will be trouble,” the woman will calmly answer.
Several houses were built on the Lykovs' estate. Closer to the river is a small hut where the former geologist Erofei Sedov lived. Above, connected by one canopy roof, are two houses: one for Agafya, the second for her assistant Guria. We learned before the expedition that there was another person living on the village. For several years now, the Old Believer Church has been sending assistants to Agafya, but it’s hard to live here even for two people.
Letter
Agafya sits down on the bench and hurries to open the letter.
— How did they find you, that they are writing from Bolivia? - I ask.
- Yes, everyone knows that it’s been forty years since we were found. When people came, I was 34 years old. They were such good people. The first thing we got scared was when we arrived. We already knew that people saw the arable land from a helicopter, two weeks passed, and they came.
On the second of June we said our prayers, and I just saw someone running under the windows. She told everyone: “Our business is no good.”
- Is it sable or not sable? Something unfamiliar, and these were dogs. I haven't seen them. Tyatya would have known right away. They brought canned food and bread, but we refused it. The next morning they came and brought fishing hooks and table salt - we didn’t eat anything,” Agafya recalls.
This is how the Lykovs met geologists and walked about 16 kilometers to visit them.
“The whole family went overnight and they set up a tent for us with an iron stove. We prayed openly. We will bring them potatoes and nuts, and they will give us shovels, axes, nails, material - red satin. We made shirts and sundresses from it, it was beautiful.
Agafya in photographs recent years dressed identically: two scarves, a cotton dress, a black spade - that’s what she calls her coat. She smoothes out a dress with her hand that she sewed on her hands three years ago:
— The fabric is called “cucumber.”
“Today I want to sew something new for Easter; the fabric is so beautiful.” Previously, we lived on our own: we spun and weaved. Sister Natalya taught me a lot; she was my godmother.
Agafya remembers well the names and details of what happened to her. The conversation easily moves from events ten to twenty years ago to the present. Once again he takes out the letter.
“They’ve been writing letters for three years now, but what about coming?”
Agafya is waiting married couple to visit, last year I even planted more potatoes, but no one came. Photos of palm trees and turquoise water fall out of the envelope. Agafya asks to read what is written on the back. “The country of Peru, the ocean, there are sea animals here, both great and small. I do not eat anything from this according to the Father’s commandment.”
Agafya bread
“You come to Agafya, and she immediately shares everything she has.” If autumn brings vegetables, summer brings fish, now I’ve given potatoes for dinner,” says Sergei.
Agafya’s bread turns out to be heavy, dense and real: “If you make the dough thick, it will rise;
I was lucky enough to visit the Lykov farm more than once. For many years we have been sending expeditions there and organizing events to help Agafya Karpovna. And, of course, we very much value the reader’s attention to the publications dedicated to her. I received another touching message the other day from Norway: “Good afternoon! Jan Richard writes to you, who is impressed by the life of Agafya Lykova. I want to make a book about her. I’ve been dreaming of going for several years, but it’s probably too far. I can get to Abakan, but I can’t afford to order a helicopter further! Maybe representatives of the reserve fly there and it’s possible to join them? Maybe it's not so expensive? As I understand it, she plans to spend this winter in the taiga too? I have prepared a package with chocolate..."
According to Zimin, his mother was “always indignant” at the injustice that the state shows by taking care of Agafya and sending her helicopters, while her family, as the governor noted, did not work a day and hid from the war.
But the most progressive member of the family and the favorite of geologists turned out to be Dmitry, an expert on the taiga, who managed to build a stove in the hut and weave birch bark boxes in which the family stored food. For many years, day after day, he independently planed boards from logs, he spent a long time watching with interest the fast work of a circular saw and a lathe, which he saw in the geologists’ camp.
How does the 73-year-old owner of the village feel, “registered” at the mouth of the Erinata, where the Western Sayan merges with the Altai Mountains? What worries does he live with? Eyewitnesses testify.
Political scientist Sergei Komaritsyn considers Viktor Zimin’s statement irrational. “Such a statement to Zimin, who announced his desire to run for a new gubernatorial term, will not add any political bonuses,” said Mr. Komaritsyn. Viktor Zimin's powers expire on next year. Previously, the head of Khakassia spoke extremely positively about Aman Tuleyev. During the same direct line, the head of Khakassia also criticized the heads of Khakassian municipalities. “Cook the stew and sell it at the market,” said Mr. Zimin. - Concentrate the grandmothers. You live in the taiga, pick the berries and sell them.”
Many chapels kept the so-called Reserve Gifts, i.e. bread and wine blessed by the priest during the Liturgy. Such Spare Gifts were usually hidden in various hiding places, built into books or icons. Since quantity Since the shrine was limited, and the Gifts themselves, after disappearing from the chapel priests, were not replenished in any way, these Old Believers received communion extremely rarely - once or twice in their lives, as a rule, before their death.
Far away in the Sayan taiga, the hermit Agafya Lykova has been living for many years - the last representative of her family. Getting to her place is not so easy: you need to walk for several days through the taiga or fly for several hours by helicopter. That’s why Agafya Lykova doesn’t receive guests often, but she’s always happy to see them.
The Lykovs made contact with civilization in 1978, and three years later the family began to die out. In October 1981, Dimitry Karpovich died, in December - Savin Karpovich, 10 days later Agafya's sister - Natalia. After 7 years, February 16, 1988, the head has passed away family Karp Osipovich. Only Agafya Karpovna remained alive.
According to the head of the region, millions are spent on creating conditions for the hermit. He did not provide specific amounts. RIA Novosti writes that Zimin has already banned flights to the reserve.
But to prove this, it is not enough to refer to the example of ancestors who now lived in the increasingly distant 19th and 20th centuries. The Old Believers must already today, now generate new ideas, set an example of living faith and active participation in the life of the country. As for the unique experience of Agafya Lykova and other Old Believers hiding from the temptations of this world in the forests and clefts of the earth, it will never be superfluous.
Where and how does the hermit Agafya Lykova live now? latest information. Fresh material as of 02/02/2018
However, Agafya stayed in the chapel monastery for only a short time. Significant differences of religious views with the nuns had an effect on the chapel agreement. Nevertheless, during her stay in the monastery, Agafya went through the rite of “covering”. This is what the chapels call tonsure as a monk. Subsequently Agafya also had her own novices, for example, Muscovite Nadezhda Usik, who spent 5 years in the Lykov monastery.
Nevertheless, Agafya not only did not succumb to these persuasion, but became even more convinced that she was right. That's how the Lykovs are - once they've made a decision, they don't go backwards. Talking about disputes with the Bespopovites, Agafya says:
The Lykov family, like many thousands of other families of Old Believers, moved to remote areas of the country mainly due to unprecedentedly long persecution by the state and the official church. These persecutions, which began in the second half of the 17th century, continued until the early 90s of the twentieth century.
At one time, a wolf wandered off to capture the Lykovs. He lived in Agafya's garden for several months and even fed himself with potatoes and everything else that the hermit gave him. Agafya does not have the usual city dwellers’ fear of the taiga, forest animals and loneliness. If you ask her if it’s scary to live alone in such a wilderness, she answers:
Once the women went to the taiga for a long time to collect pine cones. Suddenly, not far from where they were staying, a strong crunching sound was heard - a bear was walking nearby in the forest. The beast walked and sniffed around all day, despite the fire and blows to metal utensils. Agafya, having prayed the canons to the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker by heart, ended them with the words: “Well, don’t you hear the Lord, or something, it’s time for you to leave already.” As a result, the danger passed.
“How can you forbid friendship? If the authorities of Khakassia provided systemic assistance, reacted to the problems and rare requests of Agafya Lykova, then Kuzbass would not have needed to intervene,” commented the administration’s press service on Viktor Zimin’s statement Kemerovo region. 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 are usually combined with overflights of the taiga territory of Mountain Shoria. According to the press service representative, flights are “linked” to emergency signals, when information appears about deforestation or a forest fire.
The terrible truth from Agafya, fresh information. Fresh material as of 02/02/2018
They are objected to: history knows not only the fleeing and hiding Old Believers, but also the advancing enlightened, passionate ones. This is the Old Believers of industrialists and philanthropists, writers and philanthropists, collectors and discoverers. Undoubtedly, this is all true!
Despite the fact that Peskov came to the forest farm for four years in a row and spent many days and hours visiting the Lykovs, he was never able to correctly identify their religious affiliation. In his essays, he mistakenly indicated that the Lykovs belonged to the wandering sense, although in fact they belonged to the chapel consensus (the groups of Old Believer communities united by a similar faith were called groups of Old Believer communities - editor's note).
Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Orthodox community that practiced religious rites as they existed until the 17th century. When power fell into the hands of the Soviets, scattered communities of Old Believers, who had fled to Siberia from persecution that began under Peter I, began to move further and further 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 and killed his brother in front of Lykov. After this, Karp had no doubt that he needed to escape. In 1936, having collected their belongings and taking with them some seeds, 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 geologists found the family. In 1940, already in the taiga, Dmitry was born, in 1943 - Agafya. Everything that children knew about the outside world, countries, cities, animals, and other people, they learned from the stories of adults and biblical stories.
Old man Karp, at the age of 80, reacted with interest to all technical innovations: he enthusiastically received the news about the launch of satellites, saying that he noticed a change back in the 1950s, when “the stars began to quickly walk across the sky,” and was delighted with the transparent cellophane packaging: “Lord, what did they come up with: glass, but it wrinkles!”
This is the fifth year that students and I have been helping her harvest. At first, our volunteer landings by catamarans and boats traveled from Abaza for more than a week, and last August the Kemerovo residents were dropped off by helicopter from Tashtagol. In ten days, the guys cut firewood, cut five haystacks, and completed a flock of chickens. AND New film removed. The first one, without any advertising, received more than 100 thousand views on the Internet.
Karp Lykov and his family went to 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 impenetrable taiga, and only in 1978 did they meet geologists. However, the whole country became aware of the family of Old Believers a little later, in 1982, when a journalist spoke about them “ Komsomolskaya Pravda» Vasily Peskov. For three decades, he talked about the Lykovs from the pages of the newspaper. Currently, only Agafya remains alive from the family. She is now 72 years old, and on April 23 she will turn 73. The hermit refuses to move closer to civilization.
In addition to their own household affairs, they carefully monitored the calendar and maintained a complex schedule of home services. Savin Karpovich Lykov, who was responsible for church calendar, calculated the calendar and Easter in the most accurate way (apparently, according to the vrutseleto system, that is, using the fingers of the hand). Thanks to this, the Lykovs not only did not lose track of time, but also followed all the instructions of the church charter regarding holidays and days of fasting. Prayer Rule It was performed strictly according to old printed books that were in the family.
Who is Lykava Agafya and what is she famous for? Recent events.
Agafya Lykova is the only surviving representative of a family of Old Believers found by geologists in 1978 in the Western Sayan Mountains. The Lykov family lived in isolation since 1937. long years hermits tried to protect the family from the influence of the external environment, especially in relation to faith. By the time geologists discovered there were five taiga inhabitants: the head of the family, Karp Lykov, sons Savvin (45 years old), Dimitry (36 years old), and daughters Natalya (42 years old) and Agafya (34 years old). In 1981, three of the children died one after another - Savvin, Dimitry and Natalya, and in 1988 the Lykovs’ father passed away. Currently, Agafya Lykova lives alone in the taiga.
I will not go anywhere again and by virtue of this oath I will not leave this land. If it were possible, I would gladly accept fellow believers to live with me and pass on my knowledge and accumulated experience of the Old Believer faith,” says Agafya.
Video news Agafya Lykova in 2018. Everything that is known at the moment.
Agafya was born into a family of Old Believers who left people and authorities for the taiga in 1938. In the early 1980s, thanks to journalist Vasily Peskov, the entire Union learned about the Lykovs. Now, if they remember, it’s rare. But Agafya is alive.
In 1961, Akulina dies of hunger. Agafya will say about her: “Mom is a true Christian, she was a strong believer.”
Based on material collected for the site:
The youngest Lykova was 17 years old when the hungry year began in the taiga: “Mom couldn’t stand it during Lenten. Fishing was no longer possible - the water was too big. They didn’t make sure there was cattle, they couldn’t hunt. They crushed the bergenia root and lived on a rowan leaf.”
Agafya decides herself with whom to communicate: there were cases when a woman simply went into the taiga until the unpleasant guests left. And her character is difficult.
In photographs of recent years, Agafya is dressed identically: two scarves, a cotton dress, a black shovel - that’s what she calls her coat. Smoothes out a dress with her hand - she sewed it on her hands three years ago:
The fabric is called cucumber.
Now for Easter I want to sew something new, the fabric is so beautiful. Previously, we lived on our own: we spun and weaved. Sister Natalya taught me a lot; she was my godmother.
Agafya remembers well the names and details of what happened to her. The conversation easily moves from events ten to twenty years ago to the present. Once again he takes out the letter.
They’ve been writing letters for three years now, but what about coming?
Agafya is waiting for a married couple to visit; last year she even planted more potatoes, but no one came. Photos of palm trees and turquoise water fall out of the envelope. Agafya asks to read what is written on the back. “The country of Peru, the ocean, there are sea animals here, both great and small. I do not eat anything from this according to the Father’s commandment.”
Agafya Lykova received New Year's gifts
Old Believer hermit Agafya Lykova and her assistant monk Gury were given New Year's gifts.
Group of government representatives nature reserve"Khakassky", which included the adviser to the rector of the Moscow university University of Technology(MIREA), on December 20 I visited the taiga farm of Agafya Lykova. The trip to the hermit was planned - specialists, at the request of Roscosmos, monitored the situation in the area of the protected area after the recent launch spaceship from Baikonur.
The route for launching spacecraft into low-Earth orbit passes, among other things, over inaccessible territories Khakassia. It turned out that the space launch did not disturb the hermits.
In addition, members of the expedition delivered half a bag of freshly frozen and ungutted fish to the Taiga Dead End - in certain days It is allowed to be eaten during fasting. It is noted that all gifts were accepted “ with humility and gratitude».
Tuleyev spoke about his first meeting with the hermit Agafya Lykova
“It was by accident - in 1997 I flew around the region and didn’t even understand what it was. Eternally wild taiga, windfall, impassable dead wood. On the one hand it's simple sheer cliff there is a river running, there is a hut - and a woman lives. She's so fragile. And what surprises her is that she is such a deeply religious person, such real faith in her that it somehow becomes ashamed. She lives in nature, she even has an unusual voice,” said Tuleyev.
“Well, you come up, she either says hello to you, or move on. And so we went down in a helicopter, I’m standing there crumpled - I’m serious! After a short time passes, she comes up and gives me a handful of pine nuts. So, that’s it, you’re to my liking,” he said.
“It happens that we met and she fell into my soul. At first glance, the relationship began,” Tuleyev added.
He said that he often corresponds with Agafya Lykova, she sends him gifts.
“She writes letters to me, she knits a lot of socks from goat’s down, she gave me an embroidered shirt. By the way, I wore it once - it’s comfortable! And she did it herself. Apparently, if you feel good about the product you are giving as a gift, this will be passed on to the person. The village is very comfortable, as if it should be so. In general, these feelings are good, normal, kind, and I really admire her,” he said.
Tuleyev gave the hermit Agafya Lykova a bouquet of roses and a scarf on March 8
The governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, congratulated the taiga hermit Agafya Lykova on Women's Day on March 8 with a bouquet of scarlet roses and an elegant scarf, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday in the regional administration.
According to authorities, on Tuesday a group of volunteers from the Moscow Technological University went to Lykova’s home for the sixth time. On behalf of Tuleyev, the expedition was accompanied to the capture by the head of the Tashtagol region, Vladimir Makuta.
On behalf of Tuleyev, the expedition was accompanied to the capture by the head of the Tashtagol region, Vladimir Makuta.
According to him, Aman Tuleyev was recently conveyed the request of Agafya and her assistant, monk Guria, who is with her with the blessing of the Patriarch of the Old Believer Church, Cornelius. They asked Tuleyev to help with hay and feed for goats, bring wheat, cereals (millet, buckwheat, rice, barley), flour, frying pan, ladle, cable, chains, rope and swivels, mousetraps, flashlights, batteries, salt, brooms and broom , tops, glass jars, fruits.
“Makuta gave Agafya Karpovna from Aman Tuleyev congratulations on the spring holiday, a bouquet of roses, an elegant scarf and all the things she needed in the household. The hermit thanked the governor and said that she always prays for him and all residents of the Kemerovo region. Lykova also said that everything was fine with her household and praised Guria for his hard work and loyalty to the canons,” the regional administration said.
As the department explained, the purpose of the volunteers’ trip is to help with housework, and at the same time a new experience of communicating with a woman who sets an example of spiritual integrity, loyalty to the traditions of her ancestors, and remains a unique bearer of Old Slavic culture. Volunteers managed to find funds to charter a helicopter and get to the village. They will stay with the hermits until Saturday.
