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RumiDude 
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 11:11 am |
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For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history....01.html
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“This is my Indian summer ... I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.”
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| Post Number: 4
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JimInMD
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 11:13 am |
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dang...
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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| Post Number: 5
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RebeccaD
Double Arch, Arches N.P.
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 11:14 am |
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Maybe you have to subscribe?
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Bits of writerly thoughts and random short fiction found at
The Ninja Librarian Blog
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| Post Number: 6
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JimInMD
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 11:23 am |
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Sorry, no matter how I tweak the link it won't embed. From smithsonian.com, it's under the history and acrchaeology tab. It's a Russian family that fled to Siberia and stayed there until being found in the 70's.
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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| Post Number: 7
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hikerjer
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 11:54 am |
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Pretty incredible. I really don't know if it's good or bad. But at least they survived the Soviet era. Most Old Believers did not as they ended up dead or in the the Gulag. Kind of a testimonial to the human spirit and their faith, I'd say.
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"Too often I have met men who boast only of how many miles they've traveled and not of what they've seen." - Louis L'Amour
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| Post Number: 9
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TravisNWood
W Y O M I N G
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 12:00 pm |
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Yeah, those folks had incredible endurance, but the entire article tends to quash any romantic notions of what it's like to live in the wilderness without modern conveniences and communication with the outside world.
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Location — Wyoming
Webpages — Cloud Peak Wilderness Maps — Rocky Mountain Wildlife
Photos — Bighorn Mountains — Wyoming Steppes
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| Post Number: 10
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JimInMD
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 12:30 pm |
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(GoBlueHiker @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:13 pm)
QUOTE
(TravisNWood @ Jan. 31 2013, 10:00 am)
QUOTE Yeah, those folks had incredible endurance, but the entire article tends to quash any romantic notions of what it's like to live in the wilderness without modern conveniences and communication with the outside world. It does do that, for sure.
It would be interesting if they showed the documentry on NatGeo right before an episode of "Preppers".
I have to respect the skill that kept these folks alive with no medicine and no new synthetic materials for 4 decades. It also makes me want to see that part of the world.
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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| Post Number: 12
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Ben2World
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 12:41 pm |
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Incredible? To us, sure. But many lived off the land as a matter of course all around the world -- including deserts and tundra -- until fairly recently in our human history.
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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| Post Number: 13
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Ben2World
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 1:03 pm |
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(fifeplayer @ Jan. 31 2013, 9:54 am)
QUOTE
(Ben2World @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:41 pm)
QUOTE Incredible? To us, sure. But many lived off the land as a matter of course all around the world -- including deserts and tundra -- until fairly recently in our human history. Yes, but in that time period people lived in communities whose skills/knowledge were honed by generations of experience. This small family walked off the map with no prior notice or preparation other than what daily life afforded them. I'm awed.
Well, yes and no. The couple started off living within a community -- but it wasn't in Moscow -- it was already a community 'at the fringe' -- so very likely, most of what they needed, they made themselves. From there, it wouldn't be too hard to improvise the rest -- or do without.
I imagine something akin to Daniel Boone. He too lived in a community, but acquired the skills to live off the land. With help, one can build an entire log cabin. With just a small family, the couple built a one room "burrow" instead -- but everything else, they knew enough and had enough to survive.
Not saying that I could do the above, but saying that we today are also much more removed from our natural environment. Conversely, of course, that family -- or now the sole survivor would be equally in awe and would have just as much difficulty trying to survive in our society. Imagine helping her setting up a bank account and teaching her about online access -- and warning her to guard against internet phishing...
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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retired reddog
"I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." Robert Frost
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 1:03 pm |
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Incredible story!
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Good night Chesty, where ever you are!-(It's a Marine thing.)
“The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle!”
General John Pershing, United States Army
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hiking_tiger
sekk, plyndre, og deretter brenne
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 1:06 pm |
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(Ben2World @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:03 pm)
QUOTE
(fifeplayer @ Jan. 31 2013, 9:54 am)
QUOTE
(Ben2World @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:41 pm)
QUOTE Incredible? To us, sure. But many lived off the land as a matter of course all around the world -- including deserts and tundra -- until fairly recently in our human history. Yes, but in that time period people lived in communities whose skills/knowledge were honed by generations of experience. This small family walked off the map with no prior notice or preparation other than what daily life afforded them. I'm awed. Well, yes and no. The couple started off living within a community -- but it wasn't in Moscow -- it was already a community 'at the fringe' -- so very likely, most of what they needed, they made themselves. From there, it wouldn't be too hard to improvise the rest -- or do without. I imagine something akin to Daniel Boone. He too lived in a community, but acquired the skills to live off the land. With help, one can build an entire log cabin. With just a small family, they built a one room "burrow" instead -- but everything else, they knew enough and had enough to survive. Not saying that I could do the above, but saying that we today are also much more removed from our natural environment.
Boone probably had some tools. It seemed to me, as I read the article, that they left with whatever they had in their pockets.
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“Sometimes you have to be ready to receive the information before it can take hold.” – C. Schwarz
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” – Attributed to the Buddhism tradition…
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| Post Number: 17
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Ben2World
Group: Members
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 1:07 pm |
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(hiking_tiger @ Jan. 31 2013, 10:06 am)
QUOTE
(Ben2World @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:03 pm)
QUOTE
(fifeplayer @ Jan. 31 2013, 9:54 am)
QUOTE
(Ben2World @ Jan. 31 2013, 12:41 pm)
QUOTE Incredible? To us, sure. But many lived off the land as a matter of course all around the world -- including deserts and tundra -- until fairly recently in our human history. Yes, but in that time period people lived in communities whose skills/knowledge were honed by generations of experience. This small family walked off the map with no prior notice or preparation other than what daily life afforded them. I'm awed. Well, yes and no. The couple started off living within a community -- but it wasn't in Moscow -- it was already a community 'at the fringe' -- so very likely, most of what they needed, they made themselves. From there, it wouldn't be too hard to improvise the rest -- or do without. I imagine something akin to Daniel Boone. He too lived in a community, but acquired the skills to live off the land. With help, one can build an entire log cabin. With just a small family, they built a one room "burrow" instead -- but everything else, they knew enough and had enough to survive. Not saying that I could do the above, but saying that we today are also much more removed from our natural environment. Boone probably had some tools. It seemed to me, as I read the article, that they left with whatever they had in their pockets.
Yeah... they had nothing to hunt with -- so they improvised and built traps instead. An axe would have been real nice, but bottom line was their mentality, some basic skill sets, and the human knack for improvisation.
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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paula53
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 1:17 pm |
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They did'nt hunt meat until the late 1950's or early 60's. they lived off of pinenuts and whatever they could find in the forest. They grew their own rye. They lived as if it were the dark ages all over again.
A triumph of the will, with freedom of religion driving their extreme isolation in that frozen part of the world.
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TravisNWood
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 2:46 pm |
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Daniel Boone did not live 40 years in isolation from other communities — or anything close to it.
He most certainly had access to "tools," because he was an active trader when it profited him — again placing him in contact on a regular basis with small communities of settlers — and, at times, Natives. If he wanted a new ax or knife, he knew where to get it.
During much of the time when Boone was by myth "off in the wilderness," he actually was serving in official capacities in the various communities in which he lived — very much in tune, as a trader, with the course of settlement and with the Native societies around him.
And even into his elderly years, Boone traveled widely. Over time that was from North Carolina to west of the Missouri River. He did not just camp for decades with a small family in a small area out of touch with other people.
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Location — Wyoming
Webpages — Cloud Peak Wilderness Maps — Rocky Mountain Wildlife
Photos — Bighorn Mountains — Wyoming Steppes
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Ben2World
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 3:18 pm |
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So now, that Russian family needed to be just like Daniel Boone (or vice versa) -- in order to make a point that some folks are much better prepared than pure city folks living in Moscow or New York City or wherever to survive in the wilds??
My own view, I am indeed impressed by that family's perseverance and ability to survive. But an even greater impression is the incredible fear that Stalin impressed on that poor family -- and other Russians as well -- that they didn't dare re-enter civilization, ever!
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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RumiDude
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 3:47 pm |
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They did well under the circumstances but their plight also highlights the fact that individuals and small families like this need interaction with other individuals and families in order to better provide for the present and future. 40 years is a blip compared to the 100,000 years since modern humans left Africa and began to populate the globe. It is even a smaller blip compared to the aproximate emergence of the genus homo aproximately 3 million years ago. The evidence indicates humans began trading with neighboring groups very early on and that this trading/sharing enabled them to prosper. This group came very close to not surviving several times.
Eventually that axe and saw gets dull. Even Dick Proeneke used a modern rifle to hunt which required modern amunition, which required a supply flight in to his cabin. Actually living in complete isolation is very tenuous as this family's odyssey demonstrates.
Rumi
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“This is my Indian summer ... I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.”
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JimInMD
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 6:40 pm |
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It does make me wonder if there are more of them out there.
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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Ron.
don't surround yourself with your self
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 6:53 pm |
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IMHO we lose an essential part of what it means to be human when we are cut off from a larger social group.
I used to dream of disappearing into the woods not unlike the old mountainmen or even Dick Proeneke.
Now I'm content living in society at large and on occasion I get to introduce newbies from my slice of society to the joys of backpacking. I truly do love the silence and healing of the woods and wilderness; but no longer do I dream of being a solitary rock or island.
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And be kind toward one another
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buddero
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 7:27 pm |
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An astonishing achievement. Part of the perspective of the situation was the incredible brutality of the purges, etc. going on at the time in the Soviet Union. 20,000,000 killed (the usual estimate) and who could even imagine what else.
I think also of the emotional impoverishment of the children in never being able to fall in love - never being able to make love.
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Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Journal and links to refugees, backpacking, travel in Asia, photos, honky-tonk angels, other beautiful things...
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wycanislatrans
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2013, 9:14 pm |
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Impressive, make me feel like I live with a society of whiners.
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mtngrl
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Posted on: Feb. 01 2013, 10:20 am |
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Rminds me of those Japanese soldiers that came out of the jungles, years after the war was over. This planet, and its humans, amaze me.
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“He who knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man” -- from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Lamebeaver
trail? I don't need no stinkin trail!
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Posted on: Feb. 01 2013, 11:26 am |
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Wow.
Now that's faith!
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Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
