Lykov family


The Lykov family is a Russian family of Old Believers. The family of six spent 42 years in partial isolation from human society in an otherwise uninhabited upland of Abakan Range, in Tashtypsky District of Khakassia. Since 1988, only one daughter, Agafia, survives. In a 2019 interview, Agafia explained how locals were in contact with the family through the years and in the 1950s there was a newspaper article about their family.
Their story became well known following the 1994 publication of Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness by journalist Vasily Peskov.

History

In 1936, their religion was under threat. After Karp Lykov's brother was killed by a Bolshevik patrol, Karp and Akulina Lykov with their two children, Savin and Natalia, fled their hometown of Lykovo eastward. Two more children, Dmitry and Agafia, were born during the isolation. They ended up in a dwelling in the taiga, near the Yerinat River, from any settlement. In 1978 their location was discovered by a helicopter pilot, who was flying a geological group into the region. The geologists made contact with the family, but the Lykovs decided not to leave the place.
Akulina died of hunger in 1961, having sacrificed herself so that her children might survive. Three of the children died in 1981. Savin and Natalia suffered from kidney failure, most likely a result of their harsh diet. Dmitry died of pneumonia. Karp died in 1988. He is survived by his daughter Agafia Lykova, who has over the years accumulated a cattle of goats and chickens as well as building for herself a decent hut. For about ten years, Agafia lived with one of the geologists, Yerofei Sedov. She has remarked to VICE News on his uselessness and how she must supply him with water. Yerofei died on May 3, 2015.
In that same year, she received a helper, 53-year-old Georgy Danilov from Orenburg, who came to her residence answering an open letter she had written requesting such. In 2016, she was airlifted out to a hospital in Tashtagol, Russia, from her remote location near Kazakhstan's and Mongolia's borders. Her condition is related to cartilage deterioration in her lower extremities. Agafia was treated at a hospital in Tashtagol, and has since returned to the wilderness, where she still lives as of 2019.

Family members

Parents:
Children:
The story of the Lykov family was told by the journalist Vasily Peskov in his book Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness. Peskov had written a series of reports on the family in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in 1982. The book became a bestseller in France, and the film rights were acquired by director Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Far Out: Agafia's Taiga Life is a documentary film about Agafia Lykova at the age of 70.
Agafia is a documentary film about Agafia Lykova, produced by RT. It chronicles the history of Old Believers in Russia, the difficulties experienced by the documentary crew in travelling to Agafia's residence, the history of the Lykov family, animosity between Agafia and Yerofei Sedov, and Agafia's life in the taiga.