When the Bolsheviks swept into power following the Russian revolution of 1917, many Old Believer communities fled to Siberia to escape religious persecution.

Things were to get even worse during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s when Christianity and other religions were outlawed.

One day a young Karp Lykov was working in the fields when a communist patrol arrived and shot his brother dead. 

It was then he made the decision to flee into the forest with his family.

So on a day in 1936, Karp, his wife Akulina, their nine-year-old son Savin and two-year-old daughter Natalia gathered their meagre possessions and a few seeds and headed off into the wilderness.

Over the years they retreated deeper into the forest, building themselves a series of wooden cabins until they found a secluded spot 6000ft up on a mountain side. It was there they made their home. 

In 1940 son Dmitry was born, followed two years later by daughter Agafia. They would not see another human being for  40 years.