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Vice did a fun piece on this family a few years back that - on location - captures the environment they survived in ->

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68



Thanks for sharing. Just watched it very interesting.

It was nostalgic seeing the old prayer book in Slavonic, with pages almost brown from being leafed through and used daily. I remembered by grandfather's books, they used to be like that. He tried to teach me some Slavonic, remember at least knowing the alphabet enough to read the words.

Then I like how Agafia explains what it is like to listen to the news about the outside world. The man who came to live next "door" (their relationship seems ...complicated) has a radio, and they listen to it sometimes. She mentions the impression she gets about the outside world from it, just terrible things: people killing each other, mining accidents, terrorist acts. It is as if aliens captured some of our broadcasts and tried to infer what we are like. Not that we are doing stellar job, but the news would make it seem like we are failing even more.

The other interesting comment was from the park ranger how wilderness cleanses people. Nobody is out that far stealing or committing crimes. That far out people are happy to see each other, help each other, hunters in their cabins leave food, matches and firewood.

Had to laugh of course, at her using the mangled test missile crashed nearby to scare the bears away, by hitting it with a stick. It is hard to fathom a more complete mix of Russian stereotypes in one single image: feisty old woman with a stick, wearing a head scarf, bears, soviet military artifact, and Siberia.


(can't edit post so I'll reply to it instead)

It looks like Yerofei the man next door has died last year and so Agafia is all alone again.

http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0230-friend-to-r...


The article claims "Over the years Yerofey Sedov looked out for 71-year-old Agafya", but it fails to mention that Agafia did not find him helpful and that he did a 'sinful act' and blackmailed her. https://youtu.be/tt2AYafET68?t=1141




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