Sometimes in the print media and on television there are reports about people living in the forest, who fled from the benefits of civilization for completely different reasons. Some were forced by the need and disorder in life to go into the forest, looking for food and housing, others acted for religious reasons, considering an advanced civilization to be the work of the Antichrist. Such hermits are found in different parts of the world, mainly where there are spacious areas overgrown with forest.
Hermits of civilization
In Russia, Siberia has become a haven for hermits. Taiga covers vast areas of land, and therefore such lonely wanderers rarely meet modern people. They settle at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from the villages. Some even occasionally appear in settlements, exchanging game for s alt or other things necessary for survival, but most often they manage on their own.
People living in the forest shun civilization. They like the silence of the forest and naturalnessexistence. They get their food in the forest, hunting animals and birds, fishing, gathering berries and roots. They drink water from clean streams, near which they settle. It is hard for a modern person to imagine how one can survive in the forest all alone. Indeed, hermits are a special kind of people. Not everyone will be able to live in complete isolation, absolutely without communication, without knowing what is happening in the world, without an elementary shower and warm water.
In the article, we will take a closer look at the life of people living in forests, how they survive in such harsh conditions that they were forced to retire from the whole civilized world. You will learn about hermits from different countries living in the Amazon jungle or on the prairies of Australia, learn the story of the Lykov family, who hid from the Soviet authorities in the taiga and did not even know that there was World War II.
History of the Lykov family
When, in front of the head of the Karp family, the Soviet authorities killed his own brother in 1936, he firmly decided to flee from the despots. Having collected belongings, items needed in the forest, separate parts from a loom and a spinning wheel, father, mother and two children set off into the unknown. They belonged to the Old Believers and could not watch how the true faith was oppressed in the country.
Karp Lykov and his wife Akulina have been looking for a suitable place to live since 1937, changing several built houses, and finally settling on the banks of the Abakan River in the Western Sayan Mountains. The son Savin and daughter Natalia were growing up. Already in the taiga, two more were born - the son Dmitry and the youngest daughter Agafya,the photo of which can be seen below in the article.
People lived from hand to mouth in the forest, eating the gifts of nature and the animals 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 examined in amazement a small hut. The pilots did not immediately believe their eyes, because the nearest village was as much as 250 km away.
Having landed not far away, the pilots, along with geologists, armed just in case with weapons 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 wilderness. But what was their surprise when an old man with a tousled and unkempt beard in terrible tatters came out to meet them.
Meet the geologists
After they met, the old man allowed the people who came to enter the house. It was a small dilapidated hut made of logs, damp and half-rotten, with a collapsed ceiling. The only window was the size of a backpack pocket. It was terribly cold and dark in the house, 5 people huddled there in terrible conditions. Karp Akulina's wife died of exhaustion in one of the famine years, having given all the available provisions to the children.
The story of the hermits amazed the team of geologists. The people living in the forest did not even know that there was a war. For the entire time of their seclusion, they did not communicate with a single stranger, although the inhabitants of Khakassia knew about their existence. They grew rye seeds, potatoes and turnips. In famine years they ate grass and tree bark. Grown up son Dmitry learned to hunt and dig trapping holes, which expanded the family's diet.
Interest in the innovations of civilization
The hermits, after meeting with their contemporaries, learned a lot of new things, with fear and at the same time with incredible curiosity, they examined a flashlight and a tape recorder, the TV caused a special delight. Geologists helped the family a lot by delivering them the necessary things and seeds of grain and vegetable crops, but even during serious illnesses they still refused to go to the doctors in the hospital. They believed that as long as God gave them time, they would live for so long. In our time, only Agafya, the youngest daughter of Karp Lykov, has survived. She still lives in the gorge of the Abakan River, a new wooden house was built for her and people constantly help her. But she does not intend to leave her place of habitation and return to civilization.
People living in the forests of Russia
The Lykov hermits are not the only inhabitants of the 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 escape from the hustle and bustle of cities and merge with nature.
What kind of people live in the forest? In fact, they are completely different. Former doctors and successful businessmen, singers and artists. Many settle in communities, contacting and raising children together. They are quite happy and do not want to return to civilization. They refusedtelephones and televisions, cook and clean together, live clean in body and soul, building interpersonal relationships in their own way in their own Utopia. No one specifically holds them back, this is their personal desire. Some, having rested their souls for several years, nevertheless return to ordinary life, but the majority remain in such settlements forever.
We will consider the well-known cases of meeting with such hermits in our time, how people lived in the forest, what prompted them to take such a desperate step, how they alone or with their families survive in the harsh conditions of complete isolation, the absence of the necessary and familiar to us things and tools.
Special Forces soldier in the Amur Region
Viktor, a former commando, was found in the forest by mushroom pickers. His hut is located 110 km from the nearest settlement. Leaving for the taiga is his conscious and deliberate decision. He did not hide from anyone, did not hide, he simply decided that life in silence and solitude was more to his liking. 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 used to the taiga and become a successful hunter. What kind of people live in mixed forests? Basically able to survive in any environment.
In order not to freeze in winter, Victor 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 the caught game and fur for s alt, the necessary products, tools, and returnsback to yourself.
Meeting in the taiga
What is the name of the person who lives in the forest? Usually they are called hermits, because they independently made such a choice in life. But this is not always caused by the 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 was 40. Each has his own tragic story.
Regina was left an orphan at the age of 12 and worked part-time at the state farm, picking berries in the forest. Over time, all the inhabitants of the village dispersed, and she was left all 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 I read an ad about good earnings in Siberia, I went into the unknown thousands of kilometers from my home. In the wilderness, complete disappointment awaited him, he was left without shelter and means of subsistence. If not for the meeting with Regina, it is not known what would have awaited him in the future, since he had no money to return home.
Since then, the couple has been living together, raising two children. They do not see much difference between their way of existence and life in the Siberian villages, except that 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 run around naked in the warm season.
Children of hermits
Could it becalmly listen to stories about how a person who lived in the forest earned his own food and hid from the cold, but hermits multiply, and children suffer the most through the fault of their parents. They do not receive proper development and proper nutrition, suffer from dementia. No one is raising them, children grow up like the famous Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling's story in the mud and cold.
They will never join society, never return to civilization. Parents, because of their convictions 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 lack of food and vitamins necessary for the body. The lumberjacks 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 illness right in the ambulance, while others - completely feral, growled at adults and hid under the bench.
Where people live in the forest
The living conditions of hermits are poor. Some build their own houses from waste material found in the forest. Others collect large branches or thin tree trunks and build a small hut out of them. Naturally, they don’t have the skills to professionally build housing, so houses often turn out damp and cold.
There are hermits who make houses from an ordinary tent, additionally falling asleep on top of hay. The stove is built of clay and is not always correct, the smoke gets inside.
Those who left often settlecivilization people in caves, among stones. This protects them from predatory animals, but it is always dark and cold there. Spruce branches and hand-harvested hay serve as a bed.
A lone resident in the Amazon jungle
Not so long ago, a lone resident of Brazil, who is hiding in the deep wilds of the jungle, fell under the scope of the camera. It is believed that this is the last surviving representative of the local tribe, destroyed during the seizure of territories for deforestation. He lived in total 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, as he looks quite he althy. Unlike the hermits of Russia, the Brazilian savage does not need to take care of warming up the room for life, as it is always warm there, although it is damp.
Hiroo Onoda
The story of a Japanese intelligence officer during the Second World War stirred up the entire civilized world. The soldier of the Japanese army continued to fight off the Americans for many years in a row, believing that the Second World War was still ongoing. He was sent to the Philippine island of Lubang shortly before the signing of the peace treaty of surrender. A serviceable warrior received an order to defend himself and, together with several soldiers, hid in the jungle.
Despite the fact that the authorities from the plane dropped the order to surrender to his team, he decided that this was a provocation by the Americans. One member of the group surrendered to the authorities in 1950. In 1954, another member of the team, Corporal Seichi, was killed in a shootout. Shimada. Another Corporal Seiichi Yokoi was accidentally discovered in 1972 and realized that the group was still active.
For 30 years Onoda hid in the forests, although he knew perfectly well about the events in Japan, about the Olympics held there, about the rapid growth of industry and the rise in living standards. He refused to believe it and thought that the Japanese government was US puppets. The Japanese command decided on the return of the campaigner by sending his former commander, dressed in military uniform, to him in the forest with the order of the commander in chief. Only then did Onoda surrender his weapons and return to Japan.
Now you know what people who live in the forest are called, the reasons why they ended up there, and how they managed to survive in difficult conditions.
