This section contains stories of the fate of hermits. In our time, and by the way, as before, hermits were treated ambiguously. Basically, they were considered flawed and did not understand how you can live like that. But they live, live despite the difficulties and hardships. Sometimes it seems that difficulties do not interfere with them, but on the contrary, they hide behind difficulties from the world, from people.
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Belarusian hermits-farmers
Here is another of the many stories of how people became hermits. During perestroika, Yuri Boyko decided to become a farmer, he wanted to work on the land. Under this case, he put everything, a house, an apartment, but in the end everything 
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Gone into hermits from a hard life
Alexander, Elena and their son Odzhan Naumkin became hermits for a very long time. It so happened that the country fell apart and many lost everything overnight, so these people lost their jobs and all their savings, but they didn’t know how to live on 
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Hermit Alexey Lebedev
The former policeman quit his job, his wife and went to live in nature as a hermit. At first it was difficult to say "Bruce" - that's how Alexei Lebedev was nicknamed for his resemblance to the famous actor, but gradually everything got better. The hermit has his own house, sauna, vegetable garden>
Kursk hermit has been living in the forest for 12 years
The equipped dwelling is located in a deaf more often. A hut, a huge stack of firewood, a fire pit with a grate from a stove, even something like a shower, and bizarre wooden figures around. One resembles the head of a deer with horns, the other is the muzzle of a hare, the third is the profile of a cow 
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10 years hiding in the forest
The killer lived for ten years in a dugout built by himself. The life of this hermit, if I may say so, is interesting, but no matter how it was, he had everything thought out and used in everyday life, and he even invented electricity for radio and light 
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Fate and retreat
Fifty years ago, having left people, 77-year-old Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvyrkov did not think that the modern Kerzhensky Reserve would appear on the site of his hermitage. Formally, Shvyrkov's place of residence does not exist, the former village of Chernozerye no longer exists. 
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live as a hermit
At first, Victor lived in a real badger hole, turned into a dugout. Spent seven whole years inside. But it became dusty and cramped, moved to a new building. The current dwelling is a rectangular building devoid of architectural frills. 
> It turns out that in our age of endless races for money, people dream not only of an apartment, a car, and a new mobile phone. This young couple found new values and incentives in life, nature and peace of mind, that's all you need for happiness, and the rest is all the little things
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> Zhytomer hermits went to live in nature closer to silence, to live as they want. They spend most of their time in cultivation and sleep outdoors during the summer. The head of the family erected a clay hut in which they live
Instruction
You can live in the forest temporarily or settle in it permanently. In any case, first of all, you will need a place to sleep and a shelter to hide from the weather and protect yourself from the wild.
If you came to the forest to work, for example, to harvest firewood, medicinal, berries, for temporary residence you can build a hut from improvised materials or dig a dugout, which is more reliable in terms of shelter from wild animals. For permanent residence, a more durable dwelling will be required. There is a lot of building material in the forest. At the same time completely fell the trees from the roots. Quite enough deadwood from which you can build a reliable hut.
An important issue is food. For short-term work, you can take dry provisions, cereals, tea, sugar, canned food, instant food with you. Provisions will be enough for a certain period of time.
For permanent residence, provisions will have to be obtained. The forest is a storehouse of useful herbs that are quite suitable for eating and have great nutritional value. A forest lily, or saranka, is one that contains a nutritious bulb suitable for eating. Fern almost everywhere, boiled, fried, baked, is suitable for satisfying hunger. Mushrooms, berries, game - all these are the riches of the forest that help the hermit who settled in to survive. Medicinal plants: licorice, elecampane, plantain, pine needles will help restore the lack of vitamins and recharge your batteries. In summer, all food can be consumed fresh, but at the same time, do not forget the preparations for the winter by drying mushrooms, berries and herbs.
In order to be systematically provided with food, you can develop a small area by clearing it of snags and grass, sowing wheat or a small city. To save vegetables, it is enough to dig a cellar or underground in an equipped hut.
note
This way of life can be maintained for a long time, if for some reason there is no desire to communicate with the outside world. Unfortunately, in order to survive in the forest, you need to have excellent health, great physical endurance and be able to do a lot, for example, make a hut, plant a garden, find edible mushrooms and berries, but most importantly, you need to be able to do without doctors, medicines, without TV, the Internet , telephone and other benefits of civilization.
Residents of the metropolis strive to get out at least on weekends to where air is not exhaust gases, and water is not a turbid liquid of dubious composition. But such places where nature has not yet submitted to man (for example, a forest) are fraught with many dangers, and so that your vacation is not spoiled, you need to remember some important points.
Instruction
Regardless of the purpose for which you are going to the forest, take the trouble to find a place where a human foot has already set foot, and you will not be pioneers. Forest romance in an absolutely wild place can turn into a disaster: you will go astray, wander into a swamp, and remember your name. You are not an experienced forester and not even a resident of a forest village who regularly goes hunting, fishing, and picking mushrooms. You are a resident of the city, and it is better not to boast of muscles and courage, but to go to specially equipped recreation centers, where you will be provided with a safe place.
AT forest, except for bears, elks and mushroom pickers, mosquitoes also live. You may not encounter them that often, but you will surely be eaten alive if you do not take the necessary measures. Firstly, it is better so that the head and neck are closed. Choose clothes with long sleeves and pants that taper down. Such requirements are especially relevant for those who have gathered in the forest for mushrooms. If you went to a specially equipped place where there are no thickets or swamps nearby, then special means that repel mosquitoes and midges may be enough for you. There are products that need to be applied before contact with insects, and there are those that can reduce the reaction to bites and contribute to their speedy healing.
It is up to you to choose the type of holiday. The forest provides many options. Someone wants to ride a boat on a river or lake, someone enjoys walking along forest paths, someone definitely needs fishing, and some consider picking mushrooms and berries the best vacation. Whatever you do, take care of your safety. Do not go into the forest alone and gather such a company that there must be people who can swim, navigate the terrain, understand animal tracks, and so on. Read the literature on the theme of the forest and rest in the forest yourself.
No matter how you relax, remember that the owner here is nature, and you are her guest. You can't make noise in the forest - you risk scaring away the forest animals. If you're a picnic, take the trouble to clean up after yourself, it's not as difficult as it might seem. Never pour or dispose of anything in waterways. If you are going to make a fire, consult with local foresters or more experienced acquaintances where and how it is better, and instead of cutting down a tree, it is better to collect brushwood.
An amazing family lives in the Zhytomyr region in Ukraine, who fled civilization into the forest and builds their downshifting happiness with little or no contact with society. The nearest point of civilization is the small village of Podlesnoye, where the family occasionally visits.
52-year-old Ivan Siryk, his wife Victoria and 12-year-old son Stepan live in an adobe hut covered with straw. It has three rooms. The area of each is about two square meters.
They are connected by a room in the middle of which there is a stove. “We only go into the house in winter, in summer it is empty. We work in workshops. We sleep all year in the hayloft. They made a glass roof over it to see the stars.
I never thought there were so many. You won't see this in the city. Watching birds, bats. The toilet was not made. We go to the forest, it is not far away,” said the father of the family.
Pots of water are heated on the stove. The floor is covered with hay. The house smells like dry grass.
“Moving here was our joint decision,” Victoria said, stroking a piece of cedar wood she wears on a rope around her neck. He believes that he carries a charge of positive energy. - Eight years ago we were successful artists in Moscow. Ivan filmed clips for the theater, made illustrations for books, opened his own workshop for the production of porcelain furniture.
We were invited to the Czech Republic. But I heard on the radio about Dolmens in the Caucasus. Decided to go there with Ivan. And Stepan, who was 8 months old, was taken with them. My son and I sat by the stream while Ivan went to inspect those places. It descends, and I ask if something has changed in it. And he says - we are closing our porcelain workshop, we will stop spoiling our lives, we will live in a new way.
A grate hangs above the stove, on which pumpkin seeds and medicinal herbs are dried.
“We became first vegetarians and then raw foodists. We eat only fresh vegetables and fruits. Subsequently, we want to switch to pranaedenie - air nutrition. Such people already exist.
Everything works fine for them, they go to the toilet. It's just that the bacteria in their bodies produce all the necessary substances from the air. The body of such people is rejuvenated, new organs can be grown. For example, I almost grew two teeth for myself.”
Siryks eat only raw vegetables and fruits. Victoria treats with dried blueberries.
“We all eat raw. Because food that is heated over 40 degrees becomes dead. Pour the berries with water and let it brew for a day. Pickled mushrooms are delicious. This is mushrooms. Amanitas grow in our forest, we also collect and eat them.
And these are raw dried mushrooms: chanterelles, grandmas, porcini. They taste like chips. Just don't eat a lot. Because when I ate a half-liter jar of dried. And this is almost a bucket of raw. They swell in the stomach. It felt like I had overeaten.”
Son Stepan goes to school once a month. Studying in the 4th grade.
“I don't like to go to school because the kids tease me about my long hair. I don’t cut it out, because it is a connection with the cosmos. My father taught me everything at home - to draw, to sculpt. I will grow up and be a sculptor,” the boy said.
The eldest son, 22-year-old Timofey, lives in Zhytomyr in an apartment.
Mikhail Sheiman, a 41-year-old Israeli citizen, lives in the Karelian forest.
— Mikhail, why do you live in the forest?
And I don't like the city. I used to work as an economist in Israel and made good money. But the city atmosphere puts pressure on me, the city pumps out energy and money. Calls from all sides: earn and spend! I don't want to dedicate my life to making money. I feel bad in the city. And my children start crying there for no apparent reason.
- But the northern Russian forest is somehow too much ... Really there were no other options?
I have been looking for alternatives for a long time. He lived in a kibbutz in Israel, then in communes in France and Italy, in a Buddhist community in England and at temples in Thailand. But I realized that I had to look for myself in my homeland. And 12 years after emigrating, he returned to Russia. At first I thought about settling in a village or an eco-village, but I have a difficult character: I don’t want to adapt to other people’s rules. I want to live as I see fit, and not as expected.
- What is the philosophy of going into the forest?
The forest feeds and protects. I wanted to create ideal conditions for self-development. Find yourself, find God, be free. I am the "squatter" of this forest, and I don't even know who owns it. This whole sale and purchase of land is pure fraud. I believe that the land belongs to the people, and people can choose their own place of residence. Here is what I chose.
- How did you manage to build a house where there is not even a road?
I was looking for a free place in the wild to take it and not to formalize the rights to this place as a matter of principle. I found a piece of forest on the Karelian Isthmus, away from villages and roads. And he built a log cabin on the river bank without the help of technology. We built together with my wife, and preschool children helped. Instead of a foundation - a stone rock. He sawed logs for the log house himself, and carried boards, furniture, etc. on an inflatable boat along the river ...
- And how do you live here?
You don’t have electricity in principle - only flashlights on batteries. In summer it is already light, but in winter we burn candles, cook food on the stove or on a fire, take water from the river. Products or our forest products - mushrooms, berries, nettles - or we go to the nearest village ten kilometers away. In our free time, and we have a lot of it, we read books. Sometimes we choose to travel. Last year, the whole family hitchhiked to the Solovetsky Islands and Baikal.
- And what about the education of children, medical care, socialization, finally?
My wife and I teach our children ourselves. We have many books; there is a globe, an atlas of the world, encyclopedias, dictionaries... And they read. We don't go to doctors because we don't get sick. And there is enough socialization: sometimes friends will come, sometimes we travel ourselves.
- Where do you get money for such a life?
Ideas about “returning to the roots”, about life in harmony with nature, have always excited the minds of people. They are popular even today, when civilization has spread to almost all corners of the earth and many are tired of it.
The Lykov family of Old Believers went to live in the forests of Khakassia in the 1930s. They lived away from civilization for over 40 years. The Lykovs built a wooden hut near a small mountain river. They obtained food by hunting (with the help of holes and other methods), caught fish, and also found mushrooms, nuts and other wild plants. In addition, the Lykovs had a household plot: they planted turnips, potatoes, peas, hemp, and so on. There was no salt in the diet.
Fire was produced with the help of flint and flint. Hermits sewed dresses from hemp using a loom that they made themselves.
The Lykov farm was discovered by geologists in the late 1970s. Not only Soviet citizens, but also the rest of the world learned about these unusual people. In the Soviet Union, a series of articles and even books were written about them.
In 1981, three people from the Lykov family - Dmitry, Savin and Natalia (they were the children of the founders of the Karp and Akulina Lykov family) - died of pneumonia at the age of 41 to 54 years. The doctors who examined the family believe that their bodies were not ready for viral infections from the outside world. The guests, who came to study the family, infected them with bacteria, which turned out to be fatal for unprepared people.
As a result, only the youngest of the family, Agafya Lykova, born in 1945, survived. Since she is an Old Believer, the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church officially accepted her into its fold in 2011.
VICTOR ANTIPIN
Viktor Antipin (Martsinkevich) was born in Smolensk in the family of an official and a library worker. Victor received two higher educations, one of which is geological. He dreamed of living in the taiga and gradually came to the idea that a person should return to the roots, live in a wild environment, not to be torn away from nature.
In this regard, Viktor Martsinkevich went to Siberia, he traveled along the Lena River and in one of the villages stopped for the night with Anna Antipina. As a result, Victor stayed with Anna, and soon she became pregnant. Victor offered to go to the forest together to live away from civilization. At the same time, he took the surname of his wife, since his own surname indicated his non-Russian origin and was less suitable for the image of a real taiga dweller.
In 1983, they went into the taiga and moved away from civilization by about 200 kilometers. Two born children died due to lack of medicines. Later another child was born. The girl, who was born in 1986, suffered from malnutrition (the mother did not have milk due to hunger).
After some time, Victor, his wife and daughter went to the area of the Biryusa River, where there were more opportunities for food. Victor decided to go to work at a logging company. The enterprise gave Antipins a small plot in the forest and a small hut for spending the night. However, the business closed after a few months. Three more children appeared in the family, and Viktor had to be hired for temporary work in neighboring settlements.
Like the Lykovs, the Antipins were engaged in hunting, setting traps for various forest animals and birds. Clothing was also made independently. In addition, parents were engaged in homeschooling children - they taught them to write, read, draw, etc.
However, the problems of the family only intensified over time, and in the early 2000s, Anna decided to leave the forest. She asked for help from the local chief, and he took Anna and the children out of the taiga. Victor stayed in his hut and starved to death a few months later.
FILIPPYCH
The hermit Vladimir Filippovich Emenka was born in Komi in the village of Datta. Filippych, as he is called now, from childhood was adapted to the conditions of the taiga, he knew how to hunt and make a fire.
As a teenager, Vladimir worked on a fish farm. Then he served in the Soviet army and returned to his native village, got married. But Vladimir Filippovich's family life did not work out, and the couple divorced.
Then Filippych moved closer to the Uda River, those places were rich in wild animals. He hunted sables, wolves and other animals. Deciding to become a hermit, Filippych went into the forest, to the region of the Taga River, closer to his native village. The hermit continues to hunt, he gets fur-bearing animals and does not use a gun so as not to damage the skin.
Filippych rarely leaves the taiga, but sometimes local hunters come to him and bring him magazines and books, because he loves to read in his free time.
ZHYTOMYR HERMITS
Zhytomyr hermits are a family of three: Ivan Siryk, his wife Victoria and their son Stepan. They lived in Moscow. Ivan was a successful graphic designer, he even created his own business. Once the couple and their son visited a dolmen in the Caucasus. There, according to them, the spirits of their ancestors shared their wisdom with Ivan: they advised him to quit everything and exist as hermits.
They live not very far from civilization, a few kilometers from the village of Podlesne (Zhytomyr region). In the forest they built a small house, divided it into three rooms. The floor of this dwelling is covered with straw, there is a heating stove. The house is intended for living in the cold season, in summer the family sleeps on the straw in the "workshops" covered with a glass roof in order to view the night sky.
Siryks do not hunt, they eat only plant foods. Their son Stepan goes to school, but very rarely, no more than once a month. He is mainly educated at home.
SAMARA HERMITS
Samara hermits are not a family, but a whole group of citizens. They went into the forest for religious reasons. Father Konstantin, a former Orthodox priest, persuaded people to this way of life.
Together with a group of his students from the Samara region, Konstantin moved to the area of Lake Bellin-Khol (Tyva). Moreover, to get to this place, I had to hire an expensive helicopter.
People settled in fishermen's houses, which no one used for a long time, then built more comfortable wooden houses. According to eyewitnesses and relatives of hermits, life in this settlement was organized quite well, people did not suffer and did not die. Nevertheless, in the late 2000s, Russian rescue services, having learned about what was happening, evacuated people from the lake and took them back to Samara.
