Tuesday, January 29, 2013

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | Past Imperfect

Incredible story.

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | Past Imperfect:

As the intruders scrambled up the mountain, heading for the spot pinpointed by their pilots, they began to come across signs of human activity: a rough path, a staff, a log laid across a stream, and finally a small shed filled with birch-bark containers of cut-up dried potatoes. Then, Pismenskaya said,

beside a stream there was a dwelling. Blackened by time and rain, the hut was piled up on all sides with taiga rubbish—bark, poles, planks. If it hadn’t been for a window the size of my backpack pocket, it would have been hard to believe that people lived there. But they did, no doubt about it…. Our arrival had been noticed, as we could see.