Photographer from Kemerovo region volunteers to help hermit Agafya Lykova
KEMEROVO. Jan 20 (Interfax) - Kemerovo photographer Vladimir Nad plans to live in the taiga for a year, helping Siberian hermit Agafya Lykova with household chores, and make a film about her.
A decision on his trip to Lykova will be made in the nearest future, Nad told Interfax.
"The details of the possible trip may become known in early February. However, I personally am ready to go and spent the next year there. The thing is that my great grandmother and my great grandfather on my mother's side are Siberian Old Believers, and for that reason I am very interested in Agafya Lykova and her life," Nad said.
Nad said he has sent his offer to help Lykova in response to her letter, which was published in the newspaper Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy. "In the year in which I plan to live in the taiga, I would like to make a film about Agafya Lykova and make television reports on her life there," he said.
It was reported earlier that Lykova, who leads a reclusive life in the Western Sayan Mountains, Russia's internal republic of Khakasiya, wrote a letter to the newspaper Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, asking for help. She complained that she did not have enough firewood and could not store enough hay because she was very weak, saying she feels ill and is freezing.
According to the letter, which was four pages long and was couriered over to the paper, Lykova is looking for a person to help her about the house.
Lykova is the only surviving member of the family of reclusive Old Believers discovered deep in the taiga by geologist Yerofei Sedov in 1978.
The family had lived in isolation since 1937, hiding for many years from the destructive influences of the external environment, especially religious influences. There were five of them when the family was discovered - the head of the Karp Iosifovich family, the sons Savvin, aged 45, and Dmitry, aged 36, and the daughters Natalya, 42, and Agafya, 34.
Three of the children died in 1981 and Karp Lykov died in 1988.
Agafya continues living a reclusive life in the taiga.
According to the official website of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev and Lykova have been friends since 1997, when the governor first visited her home. People periodically visit Lykova at Tuleyev's request, bring her food, and learn about her life.
