When Pismenskaya asked how the family came to live in the middle of the Siberian forest, Karp explained that when the Bolsheviks (the Marxist group that evolved into the Communist Party) took over Russia, the Old Believers were forced to move farther and farther away from the cities until the only place beyond their reach was Siberia.
“In 1936, my brother was shot and killed by a Communist patrol. So we left everything behind but the possessions we could carry and retreated into the forest―me, my wife, Akulina, our nine-year-old son Savin, and our daughter Natalia, only two. After living in several parts of the forest, we settled here. Then in 1940, we had our son, Dmitry, and in 1943, our daughter Agafia. Neither of our youngest has ever seen a human being, not a family member, until now.”
sounds like it was not really fun, but they did survive.
probably the dating pool was not large for the daughters.
Read the entire piece, an incredible story, one which has many counterparts across the world.
I used to have that book.
Bkmk
Amazing! Thank you for posting this.
I watched Agafiya’s documentary about 3 years ago. Amazed that she had lived so long, she had a kind of suitor/neighbor there living nearby.
Although there was an implied history of incest in the family.