Everyday life of a Siberian hermit

Sometimes it seems that the times of hermits are long gone, and civilization has completely swallowed up modern man. Only the Lykov family comes to mind, but they fled to the taiga from Stalinist repressions in the days when the world was completely different, and man was not so far removed from the earth and nature.

Once Victor, who refuses to give his last name, worked on a barge in the Krasnoyarsk river port, but at the age of 47 he decided that the modern world, mired in vanity and vice, was not for him. Then he dropped everything and retired to the remote Siberian forests to seek solitude and harmony. Here he settled in a small hut on the banks of the Yenisei, which has been serving the hermit as a home for ten years now. He spends his days in daily household chores, reading the Bible and contemplating nature. It feeds on fish, which is rich in the Yenisei, and mushrooms with berries growing in the local forests. He does not intend to return to civilization.

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1. Former boatman Viktor, who refused to give his last name, looks out of the window of his wooden hut in the forest near Krasnoyarsk. © Ilya Naimushin/Reuters

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3. Victor is reading the Bible.

4. Preparing firewood for the fire.

5. Victor prepares fish for salting.

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