Agafya Lykova, 73, is the last survivor of a devout family who opted out of Stalin’s repressions in 1936 and fled into the forests where they existed undetected for more than 40 years
A governor loyal to Vladimir Putin is seeking to force against her will one of the world’s most remarkable hermits to abandon the only home she knows in the Siberian wilderness to come and live in a town.
Agafya Lykova, 73, is the last survivor of a devout family who opted out of Stalin’s repressions in 1936 and fled into the forests where they existed undetected for more than 40 years until their hideaway was spotted from the air.
Her mother died long ago in a winter of extreme cold when they were forced to eat their leather shoes to survive.
The other members of her family perished soon after a Soviet team was sent to find them in 1978 – but she remains all alone in remote and mountainous taiga in Russia’s Khakassia republic, where she is some 120 miles from the nearest town.
With a few exceptions, she lives like a Russian peasant from the tsarist era and eschews modern comforts.
But now the local governor Viktor Zimin – a close Putin ally – is seeking to force her from her home, claiming it is increasingly expensive to help provide supplies for her as she gets older.
The controversial politician has now banned helicopter flights to assist her when she needs food beyond what she grows herself, or to cut logs for her.
Agafya is pictured inside her family’s cabin in 1983 with her father Karl, left. They were regularly visited by scientists
Agafya’s(pictured) mother died long ago in a winter of extreme cold when they were forced to eat their leather shoes to survive
With a few exceptions, she lives like a Russian peasant from the tsarist era and eschews modern comforts
Lykova’s cabin, pictured in an undated file photo. This is regularly visited by scientists wanting to record her dialect and hear her knowledge of history
It means she will not be able to summon help when she is threatened by encroaching brown bears.
Zimin’s aim is to force her to live in a village or town and abandon the wooden shack built by her father and brothers, but Agafya – an Old Believer, from a deeply religious sect that retreated to Siberia after a 17th century schism in the Orthodox Church – is steadfastly refusing to budge.
Lykova and priest Valdimir Goshkoderya
The main help to Agafya in recent years has come not from Zimin but from the governor of a neighbouring region Kemerovo, Aman Tuleyev, also 73, who regards her as a friend.
But Zimin warned him via a radio phone-in: ‘One more flight to land there, and that’s it, you have violated the country’s law.
‘You have no right to fly there and no right to land there. And don’t shame us, posing like you are her sole suppliers.’
He also appeared to mock the hermit’s faith saying: ‘As for babushka (granny) Agafya, she doesn’t carry any great deeds linked to religion.’
Zimin complained the hermit ‘has had multiple offers to relocate from the territory of the nature reserve, but she did not agree’.
It now cost millions of roubles and the time of nature park rangers to look after her because as she ages she can no longer live a self-sufficient life in her families hideout from Stalin.
Lykova and Vladimir Makuta, head of Tashtagolskyi district, who is seen bringing her gifts
The main help to Agafya in recent years has come not from Zimin but from the governor of a neighbouring region Kemerovo, Aman Tuleyev, also 73,(right) who regards her as a friend
‘Perhaps you can’t measure life by money. But what if every citizen could have such life free of charge, with food and other supplies delivered….?’
Tuleyev hit back that he ‘cherished’ his ‘long friendship’ with Agafya and would not stop seeking to help her.
‘It’s not just food and presents, but volunteers came to visit her and helped with errands,’ his aide said, according to The Siberian Times.
‘Rangers protected her from bears. You can’t ban friendship.’
Her father Karl(pictured) took the decision to flee in 1936 after a communist patrol arrived at the fields where he was working and shot dead his brother
Pictured is a marker showing the site of Karl’s grave, which lies beneath several inches of snow in the forest
It now cost millions of roubles and the time of nature park rangers to look after her because as she ages she can no longer live a self-sufficient life in her families hideout from Stalin
In one concession to modernity, she has been issued a satellite phone and can summon assistance in emergencies in a region where temperatures can fall to minus 45C in winter.
Siberian TV presenter Andrey Grishakov – who has visited Agafya – said: ‘She is not the kind of person who would agree to leave her place and move to the “big land”. She is scared of everything modern.’
Because she comes from a sect that even if the Romanov era cut themselves off from society ‘she is a gold mine of knowledge, experience and culture of Russia as it was five, six centuries ago.
‘Scientists study her dialect, record her vocabulary and make notes of her habits. I have no doubt that we should be helping her.’
Her father Karl took the decision to flee in 1936 after a communist patrol arrived at the fields where he was working and shot dead his brother.
In one concession to modernity, she has been issued a satellite phone and can summon assistance in emergencies in a region where temperatures can fall to minus 45C in winter
Siberian TV presenter Andrey Grishakov – who has visited Agafya – said: ‘She is not the kind of person who would agree to leave her place and move to the “big land”‘
But now the local governor Viktor Zimin(pic) – a close Putin ally – is seeking to force her from her home, claiming it is increasingly expensive to help provide supplies for her as she gets older