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For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of WWII

Smithsonian Magazine published a fascinating story on a family of six, lost in the taiga for 40 years.

During that time, they missed World War II and the moon landing, among other things. This is one of the most amazing stories I’ve read in a long time.

Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites. The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when "the stars began to go quickly across the sky," and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: "People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars."

Read the full story on Smithsonian.