One of the most interesting things I've come across for a long time.
The vastness of Russia-Siberia is staggering, and as it says at the end of the documentary-perhaps there are other deeply isolated groups out there still.Or never to be found. Agafiya was asked if perhaps it would've been better if the geologists had never found them? She seemed uncertain, hesitant, "yes but they did and we had run out of things anyway" This is what interests me: How could they have survived so long and without contact from 1936-78? They didn't even know there had been a 2nd World War.. How could they have transported enough seed potatoes&other crops,cloth,digging implements etc etc? They appeared to have only one blunt saw&axe in 78, most pots gone, no shoes. I don't doubt that they had endured genuine hardships but I'm suspicious, I think there must have been more of them, a larger group with more tools&artefacts who simply perished. The surviving family probably were at the end when found.
Consider the inhospitality of the Taiga, extreme long harsh winters, trying to do gardening, digging without tools, horses to plough? No knives, axes, saws? No fishing? No dogs, cats or livestock? No guns to hunt or keep the bears&wolves off? No way of cleaning anything, no materials to make heat retaining stoves? They had this 400 year old scripture and other books so again I suspect they were actually a fragment/remnant of some bigger community that slowly became extinct as their last supplies failed.
I certainly don't doubt their courage and serenity, impressed with their endurance. I'm sure the basics of their story is true but I feel there must be other so far hidden aspects (not fraudulent) that help explain this long isolation. Their desire&need to isolate themselves may actually hide other facts, there were more of them and it was more systematic, or the real reasons for their vanishing into the vastness. how long did it take them to get there for instance?
Finally, their relative health before contact with the outer world is also impressive but perhaps not surprising!
