Can you imagine finding a way to survive in complete isolation for literally decades, never interacting with any other human beings outside of the immediate family?
Well, that is exactly what happened with one Russian family that fled from political purges in the former Soviet Union!
So isolated was the family, that the two daughters spoke with an accent that people outside of the family had a very hard time to understand. They had apparently never seen, much less spoken to, any other people outside of the family.
This was not just some relative, or measured isolation. This was complete and total isolation, with the family finding a way to make do deep in the wooded wilderness of Siberia! For decades, they lived like this, under their own power, and so completely separate and oblivious to the world outside, that they were not even aware that World War II had been fought!
All of that changed quickly, when a group of Soviet scientists discovered the family, rather accidentally. They were exploring some terrain on a mountain set deep in the wilderness of Siberia, hundreds of kilometers from any kind of human settlement (other than the base that they had just built, about ten kilometers away), when they saw something that should not be there.
When they took a closer look, it was undeniably a human habitation! It was crude, but definitely a house made by human hands.
They approached, with neither the scientists nor the family knowing quite what to do, and each understandably scared of what came next.
But, in fact, they would get along relatively well, although like the native population in America, the exposure to those outside would have a serious, and negative, health impact on the family.
The family of five were drawn on some level by the signs of modernity among the Soviet scientists, but nonetheless continued to live their traditional lifestyle in the woods, in the same house that they had made, and although they did accept some of the modern gifts the scientists gave them, they maintained their traditional way of life.
One of the daughters even survives to this day!
Very interesting story, and one that I intend to explore a bit more.
Below is a link to the article:
"For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II" by Mike Dash of Smithsonian Magazine, January 28, 2013:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/?no-ist
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