A hermit living in the Khakass Nature Reserve reported that her food supplies were running out and asked for help, the 360 ​​TV channel reports, citing a Krasnoyarsk documentary filmmaker.

Grishakov said that the woman called him and said that she was “running out of everything, running out of food.” He added that after this phrase the connection was interrupted.

“She still wanted to say something, I’m worried that something happened to her. I wanted to contact doctor Nazarov, who had been observing her for several decades. My friends and I will think about what to do. We need to equip a helicopter or decide something through the Khakass Nature Reserve,” the TV journalist noted.

Previously, Lykova was actively helped by the now former head of Kuzbass, but after his resignation the authorities stopped helping her. The hermit has a satellite phone, and previously with her problems, even minor ones, she called the employees on the emergency line. Due to frequent calls, rescuers began to ignore her.

Agafya Lykova is the only surviving representative of a family of Old Believers hermits. It was found by a group of Soviet geologists in the Western Sayan Mountains in 1978. Then the woman was 37 years old and she lived in the taiga in isolation with her father, sister and two brothers. All of them have already died, and Lykova lives alone in the forest.

The hermit Agafya Lykova, who was left without food, was given a puppy

Siberian hermit Agafya Lykova was visited by the governor of the Kemerovo region Sergei Tsivilev after she reported that her food supplies had run out. Agafya made a call on Monday to Krasnoyarsk documentarian Andrei Grishakov, and he already informed the authorities. After this, Tsivilev decided to personally fly to the hermit by helicopter with a large supply of food and hay.

“I visited Agafya Lykova today. Although she lives in Khakassia, in our region she has long been considered one of their own - from Kuzbass. Agafya Karpovna is a unique person, strong, but we won’t leave her alone, we’ll help! It's cold in the hut - steam is coming out of your mouth, you need to install good windows. We also ran out of food for the goats, they brought it,” wrote Sergei Tsivilev on his VKontakte page.

But the gifts for Agafya did not end there. Along with a supply of food, the governor also brought with him an unusual gift for the hermit - a puppy. As it turned out, she had long dreamed of having a dog.

“So that you don’t get bored alone. Affectionate, it will be more fun together,” Tsivilev explained.

Agafya Lykova is 74 years old. She is a famous Siberian hermit, the only surviving member of the Lykov family of Old Believers, found by geologists in 1978 in the Western Sayan Mountains. Agafya lives on the Lykovs' estate in the forest of the Abakan ridge of the Western Sayan (Khakassia).

In the early 1980s. a series of publications about the family appeared in the Soviet press hermits-Old Believers Lykovs who spent 40 years in voluntary exile in the Sayan taiga, abandoning all the benefits of civilization, in complete isolation from society. After they were discovered by geologists and journalists and travelers began to visit them, three family members died from a viral infection. In 1988, the father of the family also died. Only Agafya Lykova survived, who soon became the most famous hermit in the country. Despite her advanced age and illness, she still refuses to move from the taiga.

Old Believers Karp and Akulina Lykov and their children fled to the taiga from Soviet power in the 1930s. On the bank of a mountain tributary of the Erinat River, they built a hut, hunted, fished, picked mushrooms and berries, and wove clothes on a homemade loom. They left the village of Tishi with two children - Savvin and Natalya, and in secret two more were born - Dmitry and Agafya. In 1961, mother Akulina Lykova died of hunger, and 20 years later Savvin, Natalya and Dmitry died of pneumonia. Obviously, in conditions of isolation from society, immunity was not developed, and all of them became victims of a viral infection. They were offered pills, but only the youngest Agafya agreed to take them. This saved her life. In 1988, at the age of 87, her father died, and she was left alone.

They began writing about the Lykovs back in 1982. Then journalist Vasily Peskov often came to the Old Believers, who subsequently published several articles in Komsomolskaya Pravda and the book “Taiga Dead End”. After this, the Lykovs often found themselves in the center of attention of the press and public, their story thundered throughout the country. In the 2000s, the Lykov settlement was included in the territory of the Khakass Nature Reserve.

In 1990, Agafya’s seclusion temporarily stopped for the first time: she took monastic vows in an Old Believer convent, but a few months later she returned to her home in the taiga, explaining this by “ideological differences” with the nuns. She also did not have a good relationship with her relatives - they say that the hermit’s character is difficult and difficult.

In 2014, the hermit turned to people for help, complaining about her weakness and illness. Representatives of the administration, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, journalists and niece Alexandra Martyushev went to see her and tried to persuade her to move. Agafya gratefully accepted the food, firewood and gifts, but refused to leave her home.

At the request of the head of the Russian Old Believer Church, Metropolitan Cornelius, an assistant was sent to the hermit - 18-year-old Alexander Beshtannikov, who came from a family of Old Believers. He helped her with housework until he was drafted into the army. For 17 years, Agafya’s assistant was former geologist Erofei Sedov, who settled next door to her after his retirement. But in May 2015 he died, and the hermit was left completely alone.

In January 2016, Agafya had to interrupt her seclusion and again turn to people for help - her legs hurt badly, and she called a doctor using a satellite phone left for her by the local administration for emergency calls. She was taken from the taiga by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Tashtagol, where she was examined and found out that Agafya had an exacerbation of osteochondrosis. The first measures were taken, but the hermit refused long-term treatment and immediately began to rush back home.

Considering Agafya Lykova’s advanced age and the state of her health, everyone again tried to persuade the hermit to stay among people and move in with relatives, but she flatly refused. After staying in the hospital for just over a week, Agafya returned to the taiga again. She said that it was boring in the hospital - “you just sleep, eat and pray, but there’s a lot to do at home.”

In the spring of 2017, employees of the Khakass Nature Reserve, according to tradition, brought food, things, letters from fellow believers to the hermit and helped with housework. Agafya again complained of pain in her legs, but again refused to leave the taiga. At the end of April, she was visited by a Ural priest, Father Vladimir. He said that assistant Georgy lives with Agafya, whom the priest blessed to support the hermit.

The 72-year-old hermit explains her reluctance to move closer to people and civilization by saying that she promised her father never to leave their home in the taiga: “I will not go anywhere again and by the power of this oath I will not leave this land. If it were possible, I would gladly accept fellow believers to live with me and pass on my knowledge and accumulated experience of the Old Believer faith.” Agafya is confident that only away from the temptations of civilization can one lead a truly spiritual life.

They became the most famous hermits in the country: .

Grandmother in charge: why the hermit Agafya Lykova aroused the wrath of the head of Khakassia

A burden for many, a reason for PR, and simply an unremarkable person - the head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, took a sharp swipe at Grandma Agafya, a hermit from the remote Siberian taiga living on the territory of his republic. “360” decided to figure out how the paths of an elderly woman and the head of the region crossed.

The first question on the “direct line” of the head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, was a request from a resident of the Kirov region to help him get to Agafya Lykova. Zimin did not like the appeal at all, but he responded to it in detail: he spoke about his dislike for the hermit and forbade flying to her from neighboring regions.

"It's not fair"

Grandmother Agafya is already a great burden for many. She lives in a protected area, and no one is allowed to go there. My mother, the kingdom of heaven, said: “Son, this is unfair, I’ve worked for the state all my life, but helicopters don’t fly to me.”

- Viktor Zimin, quote from Khakassia News Agency.

From Zimin’s words it follows that he does not like how the Lykov family of hermits once “hid from the war” and did not work a single day for the state. And also that the reserve’s employees actually work for Agafya - for example, they chop firewood for her.

As for helicopters, we are talking about the help provided to the hermit by the Kemerovo region - by personal order of the regional governor Aman Tuleyev, helicopters periodically arrive at her taiga shelter with food supplies, useful household items and even household helpers.

Lykova does not hesitate to ask the authorities for help - she often sends letters with various requests to geologists and travelers. The piquancy of the situation is that the grandmother’s lodge is located on the territory of the Khakassky nature reserve, whose administrative affiliation is obvious, but the hermit sends letters to the head of the neighboring Kemerovo region.

She first met Aman Tuleyev in 1997 during his personal visit to the remote taiga region. They became such friends that Lykova congratulated the governor on the holidays and sent gifts made with her own hands: Old Believer rosaries, a woven belt, and mittens. Tuleyev, as far as we know, did not refuse a single request from his grandmother and not only sends food supplies, but also helps with people.

When her leg joints began to hurt last year, Tuleyev ordered a helicopter to be sent for her and taken for examination to a hospital in one of the cities of Kuzbass. Old Believers Lykova was even given special meals “according to her beliefs,” the press service of the regional administration noted in a statement. At the end of August, the press service reported, the Kemerovo region sent a helicopter with half a ton of cargo - supplies for the winter - to help the hermit. In addition to cereals, fruits and vegetables, they brought candles, batteries and feed for goats, which were also previously delivered on behalf of Tuleyev. 10 students who had helped an elderly woman prepare for winter flew back by helicopter.

RIA Novosti / Mikhail Klimentyev

PR is prohibited

As the head of Khakassia emphasized, visiting the reserve without special permission is prohibited. He considered flights from the neighboring region to be PR, and the hermit herself - not worthy of special treatment. “I don’t really like Grandma Agafya, but I have great respect for the Old Believer faith<…>Grandmother Agafya is not the bearer of any great deeds,” RIA Novosti quotes Zimin.

Every resident of the republic would like to have such free living conditions: supplies, flights, communications, aviation, and sometimes neighbors also promote themselves<…>He forbade it, said, once again the plane will come from there - you have violated the law of the country. You have no right to land there or fly in. And there is no need to shame us.

- Victor Zimin.

Relocating to the city can kill an old woman, Dmitry Zhuravlev, general director of the Institute of Regional Problems, emphasized in a conversation with 360. “The Lykovs lived separately, in a world without 99% of modern diseases; she had no immunity against them. What will you do, inject her with all the vaccines in a row? Then she will die from the injections. Let the old sick woman live out her life in peace. If she wanted, she would have come to the city a long time ago,” the expert explains.

There is no enmity between Kuzbass and Khakassia, but there is competition, which could be the reason for Zimin’s words, Zhuravlev argues: “Zimin likes to compare himself with his neighbors as a plus - he is the kind of leader who does not hesitate to express his personal perception of reality.”

“How can you stop being friends?”

Zhuravlev admitted that the statement by the head of Khakassia could lead to some hostility between the two influential regional politicians. “We must remember that the degree of influence and authority of Tuleyev and Zimin in their regions is almost absolute. Tuleyev was very seriously ill, but they did not let him resign; Zimin is not going to leave, but I suspect that his departure would also change the entire configuration in the region,” the expert adds.

The authorities of the Kemerovo region will help the hermit Agafya Lykova in any case, Interfax reports with reference to the regional press service. “I think we will find a way to continue this good tradition. How can you stop being friends? If the authorities of Khakassia provided systematic assistance, responded to Lykova’s problems and rare requests, then Kuzbass would not have needed to intervene,” the Kuzbass representative emphasized.

The Kemerovo region will continue to help the hermit, former mayor of Kemerovo Valery Ermakov agrees in a conversation with 360. “How can one not help a person in such conditions? Just think, flights will be banned - you can get there by other means of transport, on snowmobiles, or on anything - our guys will still get there,” he expressed his opinion.

RIA Novosti / Dmitry Korobeinikov

Not of this world

Grandmother Agafya is the last representative of an ancient family of Old Believers of the Chapel Concord. At the end of the 1930s, the young family of Old Believers Akulina and Karp Lykov decided to leave the “big world” in order to preserve their usual way of life. In the remote taiga they built a farm, later nicknamed the “Taiga Dead End”.

The discovery of the Lykovs almost 40 years later, when a party of geologists stumbled upon them, caused a furor in the Soviet press. The children of the first generation of hermits lived their entire adult lives outside of civilization and communication with other people. His mother had died by that time, and Karp was running the household with his daughters Agafya and Natalya and sons Savvin and Dimitri. Articles, books, scientific papers were written about them, and documentaries were produced.

The collision with the modern world was not in vain - apparently, the Lykovs’ immunity could not withstand the collision with infections brought from outside, and all the offspring of the family, with the exception of Agafya, died of a serious illness (apparently pneumonia) in 1981.

Father Karp lived to a ripe old age and died in 1988. Since then, Agafya has been living alone in the old house of her ancestors - she spent several months in an Old Believer monastery, but soon fled from there home. Since then, she has been living in a “taiga dead end” without a break.

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Siberian hermit Agafya Lykova said that she was running out of food and asked for help. She told a Krasnoyarsk local historian about this in a telephone conversation.

“She still wanted to say something, I’m worried that something happened to her. I wanted to contact doctor Nazarov, who had been observing her for several decades. My friends and I will think about what to do. We need to equip a helicopter or decide something through the Khakass Nature Reserve,” the documentarian told the 360 ​​TV channel.

He recalled that Lykova has had a satellite phone for three years - this was a gift from television journalists from Krasnoyarsk. They asked the hermit to call only in emergencies.

According to Grishakov, the Siberian woman repeatedly contacted employees via the alarm line. “And she tortured the rescuers so much that they cut Agafya out of their lives,” noted the local historian.

According to the editor of the newspaper “Krasnoyarsk Worker” Vladimir Pavlovsky, who contacted the hermit’s longtime acquaintance Nikolai Sedov, Lykova’s situation is not so critical.

“There is no tragedy. The connection is interrupted in cloudy weather, the phone works well only in the sun. There are two batteries, solar charging. There is not enough food. There is not enough hay and feed. Eternal problem. If necessary, they will drop it off before the New Year. Goats eat willow bark and spruce needles well. The most important thing is that the bear hid in a den, and he often disturbed us in the summer and autumn,” explained Pavlovsky.

Meanwhile, in Kuzbass and Krasnoyarsk they launched a fundraiser for Agafya Lykova. 300 kg of hay and feed, 100 kg of flour, 60 kg of cereal, as well as baked milk and honey were delivered to the Mi-8 helicopter. “I bought the necessary things. Nails, candles, threads, needles, food. I took some fruit - she really loves pomegranates and grapes,” added Nikolai Sedov in a conversation with.

Along with food on board, the head of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, flew to the hermit. According to the press service of the regional administration, the helicopter took off at 8:00 Moscow time.

According to a statement from the regional administration, during a meeting with the governor, the hermit spoke in detail about her problems. According to her, the bear prevents her from living in the taiga. She also complained of pain in her arm. The doctor who was on board with Tsivilev examined the woman and left her with some ointments. The governor, in turn, gave the hermit a puppy.

The head of the region examined Lykova’s old books and family heirlooms. The hermit took the official through her garden and also showed her father’s grave. “This is a unique person, so we will never abandon her, and we will help and patronize Agafya Karpovna in every possible way,” the governor said.

Since 1937, Agafya Lykova’s family lived in isolation and tried to protect themselves from the influence of the external environment. Geologists managed to discover the Old Believers in 1978.

At that time, there were five people in the Lykov family. However, a few years later, Agafya’s two brothers and sister died. Subsequently, the hermit lived with her father Karp until he died on February 16, 1988.

Two years later, Lykova began living in an Old Believer convent, where she was tonsured a nun. But a few months later, the hermit began to complain about ill health and ideological differences with the nuns and decided to return home.

Since that moment, Lykova has been living in the taiga without a break. During this time, journalists, writers, travelers, as well as representatives of religious communities came to her. The monastery novices lived with the hermit for some time and helped her with the housework.

Lykova was actively helped by the ex-head of the Kemerovo region. However, after he left office, the situation changed. “In the 1980-1990s, helicopters were flying around like flies, buzzing over it. And fire protection, and forest protection, and guys from Krasnoyarsk just flew to her, and then everyone suddenly ran out of gas,” noted local historian Andrei Grishakov.

In November 2017, during a direct line with residents of Khakassia, the governor of the region, Viktor Zimin, called the actions of the Kemerovo authorities, who had patronized Lykova for many years, as PR. The fact is that she actually lives on the territory of Khakassia.

“I forbade [flying helicopters to Lykova], said, once again the plane will come from there - you have violated the law of the country. You have no right to land there or fly in. And there is no need to disgrace us, in the part that we... And they [the authorities of the Kemerovo region] are the breadwinners there,” he emphasized.

According to him, spending large amounts of money from the state budget on a hermit is unfair.

“Of course, maybe not all life is measured by money, but it is sometimes measured by justice. Every resident of the republic would like to have such living conditions, free supplies, flights, communications, aviation,” said the head of Khakassia.

In his view, Lykova is a “great burden” for the region. Zimin noted that she was repeatedly offered to move to a city or village. “My mother, may she rest in heaven, was always indignant and said: son, this is unfair, I’ve worked all my life for the state, but helicopters don’t fly to me. And these people never worked for the state for a day, but left and also hid from the war. I don’t really like Grandma Agafya,” the governor concluded.

The next day, the administration of the Kemerovo region announced that they would continue to help Lykova, despite the discontent. “I think we will find a way to continue this good tradition. How can you stop being friends? If the authorities of Khakassia provided systematic assistance and responded to Lykova’s problems and rare requests, then Kuzbass would not have needed to intervene,” explained the regional government.

The Old Believers believe that even photography steals a person’s soul. The video is completely prohibited. But cinematographer, member of the Krasnoyarsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society Andrei Grishakov already has 12 terabytes of footage of the hermit Agafya Lykova. How much is her trust worth? Why does he go to the Old Believer at the first opportunity? And why do officials help the famous recluse?

Andrey Grishakov is a TV presenter, film director, member of the Krasnoyarsk regional department of the Russian Geographical Society. After the writer Vasily Peskov, he is called the main chronicler of the life of Agafya Lykova: for eight years he has been friends with the Old Believer and, at the first call from her, he goes to her distant taiga village.

Andrey Grishakov:“Since childhood, I have read a lot. This is my mother’s merit, she was a teacher of Russian language and literature and instilled in me a love of books. And so, I remember, my paternal grandmother, once again catching me reading a book, did not stop repeating: “Andryusha, Well, go play with the guys already, run around, we’re not some kind of Lykov!”And in some other situations she often mentioned the Lykovs... This was around 1981. That is, at that time in the USSR they already knew about the Lykov family. Apparently, since then I’ve had a desire to figure out what kind of unsociable “Lykovs” were given to me as an example.”

Agafya Lykova is the only surviving representative of a family of Old Believers found by geologists in 1978 in Western Sayan. The Lykov family lived in isolation since 1937; for many years the hermits tried to protect the family from the influence of the external environment, especially with regard to faith.

By the time geologists discovered the taiga inhabitants, there were five: the head of the family, Karp Lykov, sons Savvin (45 years old) and Dimitry (36 years old), and daughters Natalya (42 years old) and Agafya (34 years old), and the mother of the family, Akulina Karpovna, died in the taiga back in 1961 from hunger. In 1981, three of the children died one after another; in 1988, the Lykovs’ father passed away. Today Agafya lives alone in the taiga; volunteer helpers periodically come to her to help with the housework.

The Lykov family became known throughout the world thanks to the story “Taiga Dead End” by journalist and writer Vasily Peskov, released in 1983.

First meeting

From the Lykovs’ place of residence to the nearest populated area there are 250 kilometers of impassable taiga, these are still little-explored lands of Khakassia.

And yet Andrei Grishakov, a resident of the Krasnoyarsk region neighboring Khakassia, did not give up hope of meeting the famous hermit.

Andrey Grishakov:“I followed rare reports about her, but there were often no answers to the questions that interested me. It was 2010. Colleagues from one of the TV channels called and offered to fly to Agafya Lykova with them. I got ready, charged the camera batteries, invited me on a trip Nikolai Proletsky. I had been seriously preparing for a meeting with Agafya for a couple of years and knew that Nikolai Petrovich was a great friend of the Lykov family and Nikolai Petrovich had been flying to them with a camera for about two hours. We flew over the Western Sayan mountains. , landed between two mountain rivers and... there among the lush coastal greenery - the figure of a woman in dark clothes... After a long separation, I began to film the meeting of old friends, Nikolai briefly told her about the children, grandchildren, she told him about the weather, about the bears , about the neighbor Erofey, they say, they quarreled with him again..."

Nikolai turned in my direction, introduced me, I remember it word for word: “Here, Agasha, Andrei Grishakov, a kind man, wants to leave a memory about you, make a movie about how you live here!” She smiled, but said: “No, you can’t film me, you can’t!” She turned away and pulled the scarf over her face. But after an hour she allowed me to point the lens in her direction...

Since then, I have known each other for eight years and consider myself a friend of the same Agafya Lykova, whom I heard about in my distant childhood. I try to visit Agafya almost every year, most often in the spring and autumn. Planting and digging up potatoes - they occupy almost the entire area of ​​the Old Believer’s garden. She plants it with a large supply. Apparently, the memory of the hungry times that the family experienced in the 60s and 70s of the last century is taking its toll."

Such a strange friendship

Andrey is 42 years old, Agafya Karpovna is 74 years old. Between them there is an abyss of historical eras. The director is from the 21st century, the technical century, and the hermit is from the schismatic Rus' of the 17th century. As Grishakov admits, sometimes it seems to him that he is communicating not with his grandmother, but with a little girl.

“We walk along the path. Agafya is in front, I am behind her with the camera on. She suddenly turns around and in her melodious, prayerful manner says: “Andre-ee-ee! Look at the lady who flew!" She is sincerely surprised by the world around her, like a little girl. And this is something worth learning from her, or rather, we have already lost this," says Grishakov.

The longest trip Andrei Grishakov took to see Agafya Lykova was three weeks. Together with her, he made a fence for fishing several times. Every autumn, the hermit completely blocks off the Erinat River: she places poles and sticks there, and stretches a net so that she can catch and then salt and dry fish for the long winter. Alone, Agafya fences such dams for a week; together, you can do it in three days.

Every autumn, the director helps collect cedar cones and repair storage sheds - places to store food. They are regularly destroyed by bears or ravaged by martens. He also initiated the installation of a satellite phone for her in 2016. In addition to help from the inspectors of the Khakass nature reserve, Andrey also tries to organize the delivery of food, medicine and, most importantly, communication with the outside world. A lot is on him now. The old believer hermit, like a rock star, has her enemies and admirers. Some see in her nothing more than a “pensioner asking for help,” others dream of being at least somehow involved in the fate of this unique woman, thanking her for her example of perseverance and courage. Agafya does not remain in debt and writes notes of gratitude in Old Church Slavonic.

“A low bow from Agafya to Evgenia Nikolaevna and Viktor Andreevich. May Christ bless you for your gifts.

From Adam the year seven thousand five hundred and eighteen.

Erinat River."

Sometimes those who call themselves Old Believers, neophyte Christians, defrocked people and simply soul seekers come to her. However, realizing how many hardships there are, they leave as suddenly as they came.

Andrei became the closest person to her: she gave him several family heirlooms and at night she shares her most intimate things. And three years ago I gave her a souvenir for her daughter – a hand-woven berry container.

And here is a unique letter that Agafya wrote to her old friends, those who have always, since the 80s of the twentieth century, been there in difficult times.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Low bow to Igor Pavlovich, Nikolai Petrovich, Elvira Viktorovna. I wish you health from the Lord God. Above all, spiritual salvation and all well-being.

Let me tell you about myself: while, thank God, we are alive, our health is not very good. I received your letters. May Christ bless you with a kind word and a good wish. All the best to you too.

Spring is cold now. The weather was windy, there were strong snows and rains after the winds. The great flood passed unusually; a lot of the largest forest was washed away into the river. There are no different helpers, the weather is cold, the weather is cold. We won't start planting. We go with Andrei Grishakov to dig arable land in the rain.

We need medicines and ointments. The wounds are healing. Now there are three little goats: two goats and a hen. Big bow to your children. I would really like to see you, I remember how you came to us. All the best. Goodbye.

From Adam the year seven thousand five hundred and twenty-two."

It must be said that the hermit always has the biggest problems with goats. In the taiga, small islands with grass are located in the lowlands of the river, where the hay practically does not dry, and the strength to mow is no longer the same. And yet she does not give up: you can talk to goats, and you won’t be so lonely in the snowy taiga, and milk is both food and medicine.

Video from Andrey Grishakov’s archive:

“Pass us above all sorrows and lordly anger and lordly love...”

On November 11, Governor of the Kemerovo Region Sergei Tsivilev visited the estate of the most famous Russian hermit Agafya Lykova.

The reason for the visit was Andrei Grishakov’s publication on his Facebook page about the alarm call from the hermit.

Governor Tsivilev brought the hermit a large supply of food and hay and gave her a puppy. This is his first acquaintance with the former all-Union celebrity. The woman has a long-standing friendship with the old head of the region, Aman Tuleyev. He visited Lykova’s farm more than once, bringing her supplies and giving her gifts.

However, the help of the authorities and various volunteers to Agafya Lykova regularly splits society into parts. And if some are sure that the Old Believer woman is a cultural phenomenon, then others believe that she is no different from other elderly people who vegetate in poverty. But their governors don’t visit them and don’t bring food.

But the most noticeable conflict arose in 2017 with the authorities of the Kemerovo region and the Republic of Khakassia. Then the head of Khakassia, Viktor Zimin, answering questions from TV viewers, admitted that he did not like the hermit Agafya Lykova because she was expensive for the local treasury. The governor urged people not to go there, since the area where Agafya lives is a nature reserve. Moreover, he strongly recommended that the authorities of the Kemerovo region not fly to the hermit. But the Kuzbass authorities said that they would continue to help Agafya Lykova, as they had done for many years in a row.

She did not know that the hermit was at the center of a scandal. And she even wrote letters to Zimin asking for help. As we already understood - unrequited. Copies of the hermit’s letters are also kept in the director’s archive.

In 2017, under the pretext of “earning money from Agafya,” the Khakass authorities wanted to launch a route for extreme tourists that would lead through the taiga to the Old Believer’s house. Fortunately, the plans fell through. The taiga remains as reserved, and people don’t take pictures with the hermit like they do with a monkey.

Grishakov believes that the ideal solution for everyone would be to give the Lykovs’ seizure an official status. Then, along with the lines in the budget “Roads”, “Bridges” and so on, the line “Agafya Lykova” would appear, and spending on maintaining the life of the hermit could be justified.

And here’s how her old friend, photographer, commented on the situation regarding Lykova Nikolai Proletsky:

“In our country, nature reserves and open-air museums are being created, financed and protected by the state. We protect the flora and fauna, feed the animals, help them survive in difficult conditions. During fire-dangerous periods, we spend a lot of money on the prevention and extinguishing of forest fires. The Lykovs’ ancestors, who were born and raised in this very taiga, retained their religious (Old Believers) beliefs, Agafya is the last. And in all centuries, people like them were persecuted by both the authorities and ordinary people. Agafya Lykova lives in the center of the reserve. she is part of the nature that surrounds her, the Lykovs are a piece of history, which at one time they did not want to study and consider. During life, one must help, and not erect expensive monuments after death. In the state, a person of any religion, of any beliefs, of any kind should come first. age, whether poor, sick, old - he is a person, part of the state. Do not judge, and you yourself will not be judged.”

But even without a special status, Grishakov is sure that the hermit will be helped as long as she is alive.

Documentary series

Who is the hermit Agafya Lykova? This is at least thirty-three taboos. You can’t touch her, you can’t eat from the same dishes with her, she can’t have a passport and get married. Everything that Andrey filmed will have to be “pulled out” by sound. How else are you going to record a hermit if you can’t hang a lavalier microphone on her either? However, very soon Agafya Lykova got used to the camera and stopped paying attention to it.

Video from Andrey Grishakov’s archive:

Agafya has a different calendar, and she believes that the dead are in the best of all possible worlds. She does not regret that she did not create her own family and the Lykov family will end with her: “Daddy didn’t give his blessing to get married.” That’s why today she is the “bride of Christ” and is absolutely happy about it. And yet, sometimes human sentimentality creeps in, to which older people are prone. So, she bequeathed family heirlooms to Andrey: things made in isolation from the world even before the advent of geologists.

Video from Andrey Grishakov’s archive:

One day, after four years of dating, Agafya showed the director the most secret places of the Lykov family: their family’s old home “in Shcheki” and the almost decayed hut “in the North”. There they were hiding, and next to these huts, geologists from a helicopter discovered patches of Lykovo arable land. It was from here that the Lykovs’ acquaintance with the big world began.

Andrey Grishakov:

“Andrey, help me do this, this is the most important thing for me!” “Agafya once asked me to go with her and put crosses on the graves of all her deceased relatives. In the fall of 2014, we went on a three-day trip. A hike through the places where the most famous Old Believers of the Soviet Union lived, to where they were discovered in 1978. I considered this almost the most important episode for the future series of films about Agafya. We agreed that I wouldn’t help much, I’d only film. By the way, she reacted with understanding to this turn and later, when she was cutting down young cedars, making crosses, when she was picking them up and carrying them to the graves, she never looked in my direction with reproach... There, in the mountains, there were curious bears, there was morning frost and such universal joy for Agafya when she placed the last cedar cross on the grave of her elder brother. If Agafya and I had not gone to those places, if not for these fresh crosses, then the memory of the Lykovs’ burial places would have disappeared forever. After all, trees were already growing on the site of the burial mounds.”

Video from Andrey Grishakov’s archive:

The hermit’s health, which she complained about in her letter, is indeed very poor. In 2016, Agafya Karpovna agreed to be taken to the Tashtagol hospital. This is the southernmost city of the Kemerovo region, from where helicopters traditionally fly to it with help. Not everyone in this medical institution realized who she was, why she didn’t drink kefir at night and cook in a smoked pot. Andrey managed not only to record these conflicting moments, but also to connect Agafya with another of her friends and doctors, Igor Nazarov from Krasnoyarsk. Right in Lykova’s hospital room, Andrei dialed Igor Pavlovich’s phone number.

Video from Andrey Grishakov’s archive:

Over eight years, Andrei Grishakov has accumulated more than 12 terabytes of video. He learned to be the hermit's unobtrusive chronicler. The director wants to make a big documentary series out of this, consisting of different blocks, for example: “Agafya and Vera”, “Agafya and Nature”, “Agafya and the Governors”, “Agafya and Her Guests”... But every time it seems that something I didn’t ask, didn’t discuss, didn’t capture it.

P.S.Andrey Grishakov:“Personally, Agafya Lykova taught me patience. Now it is very difficult to make me lose my temper. I am calm. I became convinced, communicating with her, that without self-irony, without a smile, it is very difficult on this earth. And this was and remains in the Russian soul and character. This “All the strong grandmothers with whom I had to communicate had it. “Grandmother” for me is not just an old woman, it is Mother, it is the Motherland, it is Truth, and in the case of Agafya Lykova, it is also Ancient Rus'.”

Natalya Mozilova with the assistance of Andrey Grishakov