Agafia Karpovna Lykova (russian: Агафья Карповна Лыкова; born 17 April 1944) is a Russian
Old Believer
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow be ...
, part of the
Lykov family
The Lykov family (russian: Лыков, translit=Lykov) 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 ...
, who has lived alone in the
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...
for most of her life. As of 2016, she resides in the Western Sayan mountains, in the
Republic of Khakassia
Khakassia (russian: Хакасия; kjh, Хакасия, Хакас Чирі, ''Khakasiya'', ''Khakas Çiri''), officially the Republic of Khakassia (russian: Республика Хакасия, r=Respublika Khakasiya, ; kjh, Хакас Рес ...
. Lykova became a national phenomenon in the early 1980s when
Vasily Peskov
Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov (russian: Васи́лий Миха́йлович Песко́в; 14 March 1930 – 12 August 2013) was a Russian writer, journalist, photographer, traveller and ecologist. He worked in the Russian tabloid newspaper '' ...
published articles about her family and their extreme isolation from the rest of society.
[ Lykova is the sole surviving member of the family and has been mostly self-sufficient since 1988, when her father died.][
]
Early life
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.[Dash, M. (29 January 2013)]
For forty years, this Russian family was cut off from all human contact, unaware of World War II.
''The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
''.
Lykova lives up a remote mountainside in the Abakan Range
Abakan Range (russian: Абаканский хребет) is a mountain range in Southwestern Siberia, located mainly in Khakassia, Russia: It is mostly covered by taiga, up to , followed by mountainous tundra. The range also consists sparse are ...
, away from the nearest town. 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
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
Bible.[Vice. (1 April 2013). .]
In the summer of 1978, a group of four geologists
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...
discovered the family by chance, while circling the area in a helicopter. The scientists reported that Lykova spoke a language "distorted by a lifetime of isolation" that sounded akin to a "slow, blurred cooing". This unusual speech led to the misconception that Lykova was mentally disabled. Later, after observing her skill in hunting, cooking, sewing, reading and construction, this original misconception was revised.[Peskov, V. (1994). ''Lost in the Taiga: One Russian family's 50-year struggle for survival and religious freedom in the Siberian wilderness''. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ] Peskov's book reports that Lykova's vocabulary expanded as she made further contact with the larger world, and he reports many of her uses of "unexpected" words in conversation.
Isolation
In 70 years, Lykova has ventured out of the family settlement six times. The first time was in the 1980s, shortly after Vasily Peskov
Vasily Mikhailovich Peskov (russian: Васи́лий Миха́йлович Песко́в; 14 March 1930 – 12 August 2013) was a Russian writer, journalist, photographer, traveller and ecologist. He worked in the Russian tabloid newspaper '' ...
's articles about the family's isolation turned them into a national phenomenon. The Soviet government paid for her to tour the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
for a month, during which time she saw airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
s, horses
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
, car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
s and money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
for the first time. Since then, she has only left to seek medical treatment, visit distant relatives and to meet other Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
.
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.[Martin, J. (2 April 2013)]
Meet the last Lykov
''Vice Magazine
''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...
''. In 2011 Agafia formally re-joined the Belokrinitskaya branch of the Old Believers during a visit by Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov) coinciding with her 69th birthday. In 2014, she wrote a letter that was published online, requesting anyone to come to her home to be her helper as her "strength is going". She claimed in that letter to have "a lump on erright breast", a possible sign that she has developed cancer.
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
Tashtagol (russian: Таштаго́л; cjs, Таштағол, ''Taştaƣol'') is a town in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, located on the Kondoma River south of Kemerovo, the administrative center of the oblast.
History
It was founded in 1939 as a m ...
, and planned to return to the wilderness once emergency services were able to airlift her home. According to ''The Siberian Times
''The Siberian Times'' is an English-language news website that was originally launched in Novosibirsk, Russia in 2012. According to the editor of the website, Svetlana Skarbo, their aim is to challenge stereotypes about the region which have b ...
'', she did and as of mid-2019 she was still living there. In 2021 it was reported that the oligarch Oleg Deripaska had paid for the construction of a new cabin in the wilderness for her to live in due to the deterioration of her previous dwelling.
Relationships
During her talks with Peskov, Lykova told him she was married to someone during one of her trips outside of the taiga. No further information was offered.
For 18 years, Lykova had a neighbour, Yerofei Sedov (one of the geologists who visited the area). Sedov told ''Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' 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". Sedov died on 3 May 2015, at the age of 77.
See also
* Lykov family
The Lykov family (russian: Лыков, translit=Lykov) 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 ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lykova, Agafia
1944 births
Living people
Russian hermits
Old Believers
People from Khakassia