From Smithsonian, the Story of a Russian Family that Lived Apart from All Civilization for 40 Years

If this was not published by Smithsonian Magazine I'd find it hard to believe. In 1978 a six member family, thee Lykovs, was discovered living in a very remote part of southern Siberia, the Abakan, where they had been since 1938. They had no knowledge of World War II or, indeed, anything outside of their lives during that period. Two of the children had never seen anyone but family members.

They had fled into the wilderness in fear of religious prosecution. They were "Old Believers," a sect of very conservative Russian Orthodox who were first persecuted by Tsar Peter the Great, and who had split off from the main line of the church in opposition to reforms, an event known as the "raskol."

The Lykovs repeatedly faced starvation, their metal pots rotted away, their seeds and few crops sometimes eaten away by animals. Their lives were phenomenal acts of endurance in the bitter cold and short summers without any technology, with few clothes all filled with patches. They, of course, had never seen television, did not believe people had been to the moon, were amazed by transparent plastic.

Sadly several of the Lykovs died shortly after they were discovered. Their patriarch, however, lived until 1988, and one daughter still lives today. Go to the story for the full fascinating tale. And, with an update via Kotke, here's a three part YouTtube series (1, 2, 3) of an untranslated Russian documentary on the family.

(N.B. I've noticed several sites refer to the place they were living as "the Taiga". "Taiga," in fact, refers generally to boreal forest all across Russia and Canada.)