Lykovy family is a family of old believers which lived absolutely reserved high in the mountains, in thick Sayan taiga. They left their house in 1930ies and were accidentally found by geologists in 1978. Lykovy were not familiar with a modern civilization, so this story got a big response in soviet mass media of that time.

A group of geologists accidentally came across a family which lived in a small house. People were shocked and stared at each other like if they were aliens from another planet. But later they learned to trust each other and started to cooperate. However first contacts of Lykovy family with modern people brought nothing good to them. Specialists say that modern civilization caused such a big stress for the family that their immune system was misbalanced.

In 1982 there was a series of publications which made the family famous all over the world. People were carefully reading the stories about the recluses who learned to live in a new civilization. The head of the family Karp Lykov said about polyethylene bag: "Glass that bends".

There were 6 members of the family: father - Karp Osipovich, mother - Akulina, two sons - Dmitry and Savin, and two daughters - Natalia and Agafya. But nowadays only Agafya is alive. Although she lives absolutely alone she still goes fishing, grows plants. But she also got some knowledge about new life. She flew on a helicopter, used a railroad to see her relatives and even visited a city hospital. She freely uses measurement devices: clock and thermometer.

Agafya Lykova is no longer so popular as she was, but the governor of Kemerovo region Aman Tuleev personally looks after Agafya's life in taiga. Agafya writes letters to him in which she mentions all her requests.

Agafya Lykova lives on the territory of the Khakasian state nature reserve which was called in the name of her family - "Lykovy territory".