Woman surviving 70 years in the Siberian wilderness

(Next World TV) This is by far one of the most shocking videos we have ever seen on human self sufficiency in the wilderness. In this documentary from 2013, the VICE team introduces us to Agafia Lykov, a woman of 70 who is still living in the shack deep in Siberia where she was born, 160 miles from the closest town. In 1936 her family, who were members of the Russian Old Believers Christian sect, journeyed deep into the Siberian wilderness to escape persecution and protect their way of life.

They lived on the edge of famine, and all of her three siblings died when geologists came to study the area and they were discovered, presumably of infection from contact with other humans. Today, she is the last surviving Lykov, living in near total seclusion.

When this documentary crew came to visit by helicopter, she wanted two things: a goat and a rooster. She doesn’t listen to the radio (“Why should I listen to news of people killing each other?”) and she lived through World War II completely unaware of it, but astonishingly she points to the sky when she sees chemtrails being sprayed and she knows it comes down and does damage!

As an addendum, we recommend this article on the Smithsonian’s website, which gives even more background information on how the family lived. “Famine was an ever-present danger in these circumstances, and in 1961 it snowed in June. The hard frost killed everything growing in their garden, and by spring the family had been reduced to eating shoes and bark. Akulina chose to see her children fed, and that year she died of starvation.

The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in their pea patch. The Lykovs put up a fence around the shoot and guarded it zealously night and day to keep off mice and squirrels. At harvest time, the solitary spike yielded eighteen grains, and from this they painstakingly rebuilt their rye crop”

What a fascinating, haunting tale.

–Bibi Farber

Source: Next World TV