Lost in the Taiga

I read about this Russian family who fled into the wilderness based off a Smithsonian article I found online. After reading the article I wanted to know more and came across this book. It isn’t the easiest book to find on the shelf but my local library had it. I couldn’t put the book down and wanted to know everything I could about the family which the author is very good at doing. It is very mind capturing and places you in another world, from multiple perspectives! I am waiting for this book to come in stock again because I would like to own a copy. It really puts perspective on our lives in the modern world verses theirs.

This is truly a fascinating story of six "old believers" who found sanctuary for their strange beliefs deep in the Siberian forest. They cut their ties with "civilization" in 1938, lived quite primitively in a remote area of Siberia just north of the juncture of Mongolia and China. They had absolutely no contact with others until they were discovered by miners, using helicopters to survey this inaccessible region in 1982. One of the miners conveyed his findings to the Russian journalist, Vassili Peskov, who has written this book, which is in part a detective story uncovering the lives of the lives of these six, who composed the family Lykov. There are numerous "fundamentalists" among the monotheistic religions, be they Christian, Jewish or Muslim. Not often discussed are the fundamentalists of the Russian Orthodox Church. Peskov explains that there was a major schism in the church in the 16th century, in part due to a "reinterpretation" of the Greek sources by Czar Peter the Great. Beliefs changed, and suddenly it was important if one made the sign of the cross with three fingers or two. Peter also decreed that beards be shaved. The fundamentalist opposed these innovations, as well as the use of tobacco and alcohol, games, and songs. They also opposed much of the authority of the state, including its laws, military service, money and passports. As with other fundamentalists, be they those who are concerned about events on the plains of Karbala, or the ownership of land on the West Bank, the "old believers" are motivated as though Peter the Great was still alive. They followed the dictum of their 16th Century leadership, fleeing and hiding. None seems to have done it better than the family Lykov. As Peskov investigation of the family unfolds, he describes their bare subsistence living since prior to World War II. The family lived in hovels, had no salt, watched as their few iron tools rusted and broke, cultivated potatoes (ironically, one of the forbidden items in the 16th Century), eschewed the use of matches to start fires (the sulfur was also forbidden), relied upon the forest (taiga) to supplement their meager fare, and maintained the various "fetishes" of their fundamentalist beliefs. Naturally they had no health care. A spectra haunted this group, as well as other remote old believers - incest! Peskov never can definitely state this is the reason why the two brothers established separate dwellings six kilometers from the main housing unit, but certainly it is high on the speculation list. Peskov uses the English term "Robinsons" to describe them. In 1961 they were almost overwhelmed by famine, due to snows in June which killed their meager crops. The mother Lykov died shortly thereafter, no doubt weakened by inadequate food. Over the course of Peskov's contact with them, in the `80's, all died except the daughter Agafia. Would she elect to return to "civilization", or maintain her ways as a hermit of the forest? This is an excellent

TERRIFIC BOOK ABOUT THE CRAZINESS OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM AND THE CRAZINESS OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM. A GREAT SURVIVAL STORY OF A FAMILY IN TOTAL ISOLATION DEMONSTRATING THAT SINGLE FAMILY SURVIVAL IS NOT ADEQUATE IN THE LONG RUN.

This story about a journalist who meets with a family that has lived for 50 years all alone in a tiny primitive shack in the Siberian wilderness is fascinating. It appeals to our human fascination with "lost people" or people who have shut themselves away from the world. The descriptions of the family and their lives is an astonishing read. The reader comes off still very puzzled, however, at why they did that. Understandably, even the author did not find the true answer, but after our fascination with the situation is over, we have more questions than are answered. When three of the five family members suddenly die within a month of each other there is little explanation and it takes up only a page of story. I recommend this book, but I should warn that after the story is over, you will have many unanswered questions. The book does not give those of us untutored in Russian history sufficient explanation of the facts of people like this family.