Russian Siberian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact for 40 Years- Unaware of World War II !

reply to post by NJoyZ


I looked back to wave at Agafia. She was standing by the river break like a statue. She wasn't crying. She nodded: 'Go on, go on.' We went another kilometer and I looked back. She was still standing there.


As it should be.


S&F

Thats amazing. Although if they were unaware of WWII then it had to have been 70+ years, not 40. Still its amazing that they were able to survive that long. Why cant we go back to a society like that? Or at least with very little technology?

Thank you, I really enjoyed reading that and what an extra to have seen pictures.

Wonderful story, I just wonder how life was for them and the inside story of their personal relationships over the many years as well as the dangers they faced, injuries, illness's.

This will make an outstanding movie.

Originally posted by Edgar806
Thats amazing. Although if they were unaware of WWII then it had to have been 70+ years, not 40. Still its amazing that they were able to survive that long. Why cant we go back to a society like that? Or at least with very little technology?

The article states that they retreated into the Taiga in 1936 and were discovered in 1978.

reply to post by NJoyZ


You do know WW2 ended over 60 years ago? This story is not very credible. They died right after their discovery? Probably from culinary boredom. This whole story smells bad

WWII ended over 65 years ago so thats at least 25 years before they went into hiding unless this is an old old story. ok so I am not the only one to point this out. But I saw someone said they were found in the seventies so that makes more sense. Not a very healthy diet lacking many vitamins especially C which is essential for good health. Not a wonder they died.

Hogwash. These people were not living in tune with nature. They were isolated in the wilderness, scrabbling out an almost prehistoric existence? There were no men for the daughters by which to have children. This is NOT living in tune with nature. This is ideological stubbornness.

reply to post by TerryMcGuire


I think that's being a little harsh. Did you miss the part where his brother was shot right in front of him? When someone flees their home due to religious persecution that is "ideological stubbornness"? I guess when faced with great opposition one should just abandon their beliefs and assimilate.

Originally posted by Mugen

She will not leave. But we must leave her, seen through the eyes of Yerofei on the day of her father's funeral: I looked back to wave at Agafia. She was standing by the river break like a statue. She wasn't crying. She nodded: 'Go on, go on.' We went another kilometer and I looked back. She was still standing there Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com... ml#ixzz2JTq2mGkx Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

Has this been made into a movie yet? I want to watch.

Funny you ask that, the first thing that came to mind when I read the thread title was the movie "Blast from the Past". With Brendon Frazier and Christopher Walken. It's a comedy about a family that moves down into pre-made fallout shelter under their home when a Nuclear War is about to break out. They stay down there for like 30+ years unaware that the war never really happened (or only lasted a year or a few?) I forget been years since I seen it.

But unlike this story, they had all the comforts of a regular family in thier shelter, so it's not comparitable at all. I mean the way this Russian family survived is unreal. I'd love to see them make this into a Documentary.

But yea that movie popped into my head after reading just the Title. The lack of knowledge about what was happening in the "real world" is really the only thing that movie and this story have in common. Other than that, Comepletely different.

Anyway, great story. It's always amazes me when I hear about stories or watch programs about people surviving in the open sea for 70+ days on nothing, the human will to survive is just amazing. Or the guy who cut off his own arm to escape that chasm he fell into while walking through some mountains. But this is on an entire different level. Maybe this will to survive has to do with humans knowing death is enevitable, and what it means, no other species or animal knows it will die, and what that means as far as I'm aware? Then again I've seen some anaimals pull off some amazing rescues putting their own lives on the line to save herd members ect. But that could be instinct? Dunno really. Either way amazing story. S+F.

Well, good for them! Looks like they missed Stalin's murder of millions and living under the boot heel of communism. Can't say they "Missed" much of anything!

Originally posted by METACOMET

Originally posted by NJoyZ
Their primary form of entertainment: Telling each other their dreams.

That is very interesting. I wonder what they dreamed about?

Khm... It seems to be just misunderstanding in translation. I'm quite sure it was meant, that they described the images they saw during their recent sleeping. It doesn't mean they dreamed about their plans for future )

You see, plain translators usually name as "dreaming" two quite different russian words: (1) imaginating while you're in sleep and (2) inventing some plans for future. This case seem to apply to the first variant...

The daughters spoke a language distorted by a lifetime of isolation. "When the sisters talked to each other, it sounded like a slow, blurred cooing."

Reminds me of Jodie Foster's brilliant performance in the film "Nell".........

A very interesting case and story, though the whole crazy religious connotations and the reasons why they keept going farther and farther into the wilderness are a bit misguided there over all story and the way they lived and survived is really something. Reminds me a bit of this guy Richard Proenneke though there ways and reasons are completely different, the fact that they were able to live like that and the state of there lifes are really something.

The way there son Dimitri build up strength and endurance to life in that life and run barefoot chasing pray for days sometimes in the Siberian harshness and cold, or the way the language of the girls who were born in the wilderness changed into almost a completely other language that they had between them and I quote "When the sisters talked to each other, it sounded like a slow, blurred cooing."

That and the fact of there demise which happened so fast after they came in contact with others, they lived in there own little bubble world and when that was breached everything seemed to have collapsed fast due to the fact that they could not adapt and change there ways, or there bodies were not adapted to some of the germs that there new friends may have unintentionally brought along as well, to which they were just not used to. Its a tale of how resilient the human body and mind is and can be, but also how if even a little change in there modus operandi happens all that resilience that was build up over years and even generations ends up being a bane, and there downfall when new things are introduced.

Originally posted by randomname
and they died right after the were "discovered".

most likely from the thousands of petulances that seem to have emerged after world war 2 and globalization.

Interesting point. There are well documented accounts of concentration camp and POW survivors at the end of WWII dying because they were fed regular, high fat and high protein food that the troops were carrying. This was called "overfeeding casualties" because their systems, used to a starvation/sustinence diet, were not ready for such a drastic change and were "shocked." When you said this, I thought of that.

Originally posted by LightWinged

Originally posted by METACOMET

Originally posted by NJoyZ
Their primary form of entertainment: Telling each other their dreams.

That is very interesting. I wonder what they dreamed about?

Khm... It seems to be just misunderstanding in translation. I'm quite sure it was meant, that they described the images they saw during their recent sleeping. It doesn't mean they dreamed about their plans for future

)

You see, plain translators usually name as "dreaming" two quite different russian words: (1) imaginating while you're in sleep and (2) inventing some plans for future. This case seem to apply to the first variant...

I think that's how most people would have read it. What dreams did they have in subconscious sleep? I'd be curious too - seems to me there might be some higher clarity there without the "clutter" of the modern world. To me, dreams have always been mostly about your mind processing through all of the data of the day, including the portions your conscious mind simply fliters out. Anyhow, i'm pretty sure the poster you're responding to was thinking the same thing. Anyhow, I would venture a few guesses. Anything from:

"I dreamed I coukd fly like an eagle, and I flew to a land where the air is warm and food is plentiful, and the vodka is Triple-filtered!"
To
"da! So I was chasing this 3 meter tall chicken for 3 days through the Forest of Frozen Souls, and when I finally caught up to it, he turns around and shoots me. Shoots me! Then he turned into a clown andjust started juggling giant bbq chicken wings! Weird man!...anyway...it made sense in my dream..."
To
...just good ol fashioned profound vision and understanding.that words can't even explain.

Who knows...but i'm kinda curious too!

Originally posted by karen61560
WWII ended over 65 years ago so thats at least 25 years before they went into hiding unless this is an old old story. ok so I am not the only one to point this out. But I saw someone said they were found in the seventies so that makes more sense. Not a very healthy diet lacking many vitamins especially C which is essential for good health. Not a wonder they died.

edit on 30-1-2013 by karen61560 because: (no reason given)

Doesn't ANYONE read the articles before posting? This question has been brought up about 3 times and was told to you just a few posts back... THEY WENT INTO HIDING IN 1936 and they were found (and the story written) IN 1978!
Nothing wrong with the story, please read before posting.... thanks

Great find. My favorite part is this

Agafia's unusual speech—she had a singsong voice and stretched simple words into polysyllables—convinced some of her visitors she was slow-witted; in fact she was markedly intelligent, and took charge of the difficult task, in a family that possessed no calendars, of keeping track of time. She thought nothing of hard work, either, excavating a new cellar by hand late in the fall and working on by moonlight when the sun had set. Asked by an astonished Peskov whether she was not frightened to be out alone in the wilderness after dark, she replied: "What would there be out here to hurt me?"

and this part:

The family's principal entertainment, the Russian journalist Vasily Peskov noted, "was for everyone to recount their dreams."

and this part:

Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites.

Old Karp would have been a great addition to ATS's archive of the possibility that man landing on the moon was a hoax lol.

reply to post by DirtyD
You are right. It was harsh. Much more harsh than I, a complete outsider, have a right to levy. I was trying to juxtapose the rather idealist reactions of several responders, with a more reasoned evaluation of these people who spent 40 years alone in the wilderness. My reaction to this post was not so much a reaction to the father, who removed his family to a solitary wilderness existence for 40 years, but to those who would hold up this experience as some kind promethian victory for faith and family. A case could made almost as easily that this was a case of child abuse.

But you are right. I was harsh.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by erwalker

 

I think he meant pestilence, maybe?

Originally posted by Hawkmoon1972
reply to post by erwalker

 

I think he probably means "Pestilence"

Ya think. Thanks so much for pointing out the obvious.

Originally posted by newcovenant

You could be completely wrong yourself and the poster might actually know what these words mean and more. I am venturing a guess it was an auto correct typo while attempting to correctly spell "pestilence" and I am surprised that did not occur to you first. I mean ahead of second guessing the mans education. LOL

So rather than merely being ignorant of the difference between petulance and pestilence, you would suggest that randomname just can't be bothered to spend a couple of minutes proofreading his comment prior to posting.

Of course, the above comments could be conceived of as being petulant.

Originally posted by Cinrad
Wow! They sure had it tough. Spending a few years in near starvation and eating thier shoes, berries and bark. Such a monotonous diet. Why did they keep going? I doubt that many people having grown up in today's entitlement nanny state would have the perseverance to survive. LikeI have said before, it will take a strong motivating force to do so, in my opinon only faith and family can be that strong.

You would be surprised what desperate situations can do to an individual. I have a feeling that if civilization was to collapse, in short order a good majority of those :

Originally posted by Cinrad
people having grown up in today's entitlement nanny state

Would become unrecognizable savages, far worse then their barbarian ancestors.

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But it is remarkable that people could survive the absolute harshest environment imaginable.