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A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#11

Post by StavrosK »

betolink wrote: post #8
narrator wrote: post #4

Primitive Technology is really interesting. This guy is super good at it : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA He's trying to get iron smelted right now, but that's really hard. It seems the problem the Lykovs ran into was that their metal items rusted after a while and they couldn't repair them. It's really hard to live without pots, and knives.

I'm a fan of these videos! if I get stranded on an Island my only hope is to have enough battery and this guy's videos on a usb drive =)

"I'm gonna starve to death, but at least I won't get bored!"

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#12

Post by anexprogrammer »

A fascinating story from 2013.

There was an interesting short follow up from the Siberian Times a year after the Smithsonian piece - the last surviving member was seeking help, or maybe just tiring of isolation, in her 70s.

http://www.businessinsider.com/agafya-lykova-asks-for-help-2...

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#13

Post by shmerl »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #5
danielmorozoff wrote: post #3

If anyone is interested, the Lykovs were part of a group of 'Old Believers' (староверы) a sect of the Russian orthodox church. The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges (an attempt to solve the problem of 'Religion is the opium of the people') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

Yep and in an irony of history, they, not the Metropolitan of Moscow, were actually being better at adhering to tradition.

They have a lot of interesting traditions, including meditation techniques not known to "Metropolitan of Moscow".

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#14

Post by T0T0R0 »

narrator wrote: post #4

Primitive Technology is really interesting. This guy is super good at it : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA He's trying to get iron smelted right now, but that's really hard. It seems the problem the Lykovs ran into was that their metal items rusted after a while and they couldn't repair them. It's really hard to live without pots, and knives.

The best part about that guy is the total absence of spoken language.

But, then, the source of the iron is also pretty incredible:

  Then I collected orange iron bacteria from 
  the creek (iron oxide), mixed it with charcoal 
  powder (carbon to reduce oxide to metal) and 
  wood ash (flux to lower the melting point) and 
  formed it into a cylindrical brick. I filled 
  the furnace with charcoal, put the ore brick in 
  and commenced firing. The ore brick melted and 
  produced slag with tiny, 1mm sized specs of iron 
  through it. My intent was not so much to make 
  iron but to show that the furnace can reach a 
  fairly high temperature using this blower.

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#15

Post by Mikeb85 »

danielmorozoff wrote: post #3

If anyone is interested, the Lykovs were part of a group of 'Old Believers' (староверы) a sect of the Russian orthodox church. The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges (an attempt to solve the problem of 'Religion is the opium of the people') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

> The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges

No, it's because all the Orthodox that existed in cities realised the schism was stupid. Most of the 'Old Believers' moved to whatever remote part of Siberia or Alaska long before the communists existed. And those that do still exist, live in a timewarp, and are more akin to a cult than an Orthodox community. Keep in mind the schism happened in 1666 - nearly 3 centuries before the communist revolution.

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#16

Post by Mikeb85 »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #5
danielmorozoff wrote: post #3

If anyone is interested, the Lykovs were part of a group of 'Old Believers' (староверы) a sect of the Russian orthodox church. The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges (an attempt to solve the problem of 'Religion is the opium of the people') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

Yep and in an irony of history, they, not the Metropolitan of Moscow, were actually being better at adhering to tradition.

What tradition do they hold to that has any relevance to Orthodox Christianity? It's not as if the MP (Moscow Patriarchate) is particularly modern - apart from not forcing their lay adherents to abandon modern technology. There are still hermits and monks in the canonical Orthodox Churches - on Mt. Athos, at Valaam, Mt. Sinai, etc... Canonical Orthodox churches still reject most of the shit that the Anglicans and Catholics have accepted. But they cross themselves with 3 fingers instead of 2...

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#17

Post by jshmrsn »

StavrosK wrote: post #11
betolink wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a fan of these videos! if I get stranded on an Island my only hope is to have enough battery and this guy's videos on a usb drive =)

"I'm gonna starve to death, but at least I won't get bored!"

I think the point is that if you have this guy's videos, you would be able to teach yourself how to survive and not starve to death.

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#18

Post by betolink »

jshmrsn wrote: post #17
StavrosK wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm gonna starve to death, but at least I won't get bored!"

I think the point is that if you have this guy's videos, you would be able to teach yourself how to survive and not starve to death.

you got it.

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#19

Post by kornish »

jshmrsn wrote: post #17
StavrosK wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm gonna starve to death, but at least I won't get bored!"

I think the point is that if you have this guy's videos, you would be able to teach yourself how to survive and not starve to death.

I think the joke was that you'd probably starve to death before learning enough to survive from this guy's videos.

Re: A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013)

#20

Post by danielmorozoff »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #15
danielmorozoff wrote: post #3

If anyone is interested, the Lykovs were part of a group of 'Old Believers' (староверы) a sect of the Russian orthodox church. The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges (an attempt to solve the problem of 'Religion is the opium of the people') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

> The primary reason many people who shared their faith fled major cities was because of Communist religious purges No, it's because all the Orthodox that existed in cities realised the schism was stupid. Most of the 'Old Believers' moved to whatever remote part of Siberia or Alaska long before the communists existed. And those that do still exist, live in a timewarp, and are more akin to a cult than an Orthodox comm…

Though the schism happened long before the Lykovs, the communist party led a strong campaign to destroy christian organizations in the early 20s-40s (right around the time the lykovs left).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_(...

Here is another example of a community of old believers in Alaska (1968) with an article in the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/a-17th-c...

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