Lykov Family: Alone In The Wilderness For 42 Years

The Lykov family left their village in Russia in 1936 to escape religious persecution, then spent more than four decades living deep in the Siberian taiga.

In 1978, a helicopter pilot flying a group of geologists over the forests of Siberia spotted something unusual: a clearing several thousand feet up a mountainside.

The clearing appeared to have long furrows, which seemed to indicate that people were living there. This mountain, however, was more than 150 miles from the nearest known human settlement. Furthermore, Soviet authorities had no records of anyone living in the district.

When the geologists onboard learned of the pilot’s sighting, they decided to investigate.

After going up the mountain, they discovered a log cabin beside a stream. The cabin consisted of a single room that