Smithsonian Magazine has a fabulous article about a Russian family found in the woods in Siberia in 1978, after decades of isolation.
The sight that greeted the geologists as they entered the cabin was like something from the middle ages. Jerry-built from whatever materials came to hand, the dwelling was not much more than a burrow—”a low, soot-blackened log kennel that was as cold as a cellar,” with a floor consisting of potato peel and pine-nut shells. Looking around in the dim light, the visitors saw that it consisted of a single room. It was cramped, musty and indescribably filthy, propped up by sagging joists—and, astonishingly, home to a family of five…
Apt. 11d 
As rational a response to Soviet Communism as any, I guess. I wonder if there are families like that in North Korea now?
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As rational a response to Soviet Communism as any, I guess.
Uh, No.
But, if you want to see this sort of thing, not lasting as long, but well into the 20th Century, you should watch the absolutely wonderful movie _Siberiade_. (It also has a great theme song.)
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Amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
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There’s a book-length version of the story, too.
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It wasn’t an irrational response to the hazards of being a member of a religious minority in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. In the 1960s or 1970s, it would be probably have been overkill, although even then, there were all sorts of unpleasant government measures aimed at the religious (for instance, there seems to have been a major anti-religious push in the 1970s with the use of involuntary psychiatric commitment and it was also possible for the authorities to remove children from their parents’ if the parents attempted to raise them in their faith).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_the_Soviet_Union
(I’ve known a number of native Russian Baptists over the years.)
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“It wasn’t an irrational response to the hazards of being
a member of a religious minorityin the Soviet Union in the 1930s.”Fixt.
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