The Lykovs were a family cut off from all human contact for 40 years in the Siberian wilderness.

The Lykovs were a family cut off from all human contact for 40 years in the Siberian wilderness.

The Lykovs were a family cut off from all human contact for 40 years in the Siberian wilderness. They were completely unaware that World War 2 had occurred.

The Lykov family’s life in the Siberian wilderness was marked by extreme hardship and survival tactics. The family’s diet was primarily vegetarian, as they subsisted on potato patties mixed with ground rye and hemp seeds. They also had a spinning wheel but no loom, so they made their clothes from hemp fiber. The clothes were rough and sack-like, and the Lykovs usually wore them until they fell apart.

In the harsh Siberian winters, the family would stay in the cabin for months, not venturing out until spring. They kept the cabin warm by burning a fire, but they did not have a chimney and so the smoke filled the cabin and slowly seeped out through a small hole in the roof. This made the living conditions in the cabin quite harsh and smoky.

The Lykovs were discovered by a group of geologists in 1978. However, they chose to remain in the wilderness even after their discovery. The family had a deep distrust of the modern world and believed that they were living a purer and more righteous life in the wilderness. 

The last surviving member of the family, Agafia Lykova, still lives in the wilderness today.