A hermit from the Yaroslavl highway in five years established a life in his dugout. How a modern hermit lives The hobbit hermit on the Yaroslavl map

Passing the 106th kilometer of the Yaroslavl Highway, many people notice a strange building like a wigwam not far from the road, which is actually not a wigwam at all, but a tipi - the dwelling of nomadic Indians. But where do the Indians come from in Yaroslavl?

It turns out that a certain Yuriy built the building a few years ago, and also dug a dugout nearby, where he lives. Yes, not alone, but with Petruha ...

We went out to see what kind of housing it is. There is no fence, only the gates in the middle of the field are marked with columns - so that it is clear where to go.

Some people in the distance are launching a tolerant kite.

Parking at the entrance and some birdhouses ...

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A red telephone from the 80s is connected to a dugout and works! We call and inform about the phenomenon of ourselves.

In principle, you can immediately guess what the secret is.

We look into the wigwam - no one. Only a hearth made of stones, books and a log with a chair. It's a reading room!

We go a little further and find ourselves in front of a real dugout, some kind of audiobook sounds from the speaker on the roof.

Entrance, inside view. Fire safety observed!

And here is the owner!

Meet Yuri Alekseev, a former lawyer, and now homeless, as he positions himself.
His house burned down a few years ago and this is already the second dugout that he dug out and lives here for his own pleasure - he does housework, reads and receives guests. He does not plan to return to the benefits of civilization - there is too much fuss and unnecessary effort.

For the construction of the dugout, it took a little - a shovel, dry pine trunks, polyethylene, clay and stones.
Water for the household is used rainwater, which Yuri collects (how exactly, she did not specify).
The sleeping mattress was somehow brought by guest workers, the rest was added as they arrived ...

And the photos of the classics fit perfectly into the interior.

A white rabbit lives in a hole, he is also Petruha and an old friend of Yuri.

Attentive and thoughtful.

Edgar the raven also lives here. This one was embarrassed by the guests and pretended to be interested in the traffic going on outside the window along Yaroslavka.

The survival manual came in handy for the first time.

Inside is the same red telephone, through which the owner hears a call from the intercom.

Rope shelf.

Life is quite simple - food is cooked on a gas burner, the most common products are used.
When asked what to bring, Yuri denied for a long time, assuring that nothing was needed. But already if you carry, then peas. Peas, buckwheat and other cereals...
From myself, I would add that tea, coffee, sugar and drinking water also do not interfere. Well, buns by default.

Behind the clay partition there are all amenities. Behind the other wall there is even a bathhouse, but it was dark there and there will be no pictures.

Yuri is a local landmark and guests appear in the house every day - he is a hospitable and sociable host, he will give you tea or coffee, and guests usually bring cookies with them. It will not do without communication - we listened to a wonderful lecture about the absurd, Chekhov and cucumber, and other topics were probably discussed with other guests.

Not without the blessings of civilization - from the solar battery installed on the roof of the hole, a laptop works and Yuri regularly goes online.
He does not like to read news from the big world and says that the world has been going the wrong way for a long time.
However, he does not intend to cut off communication with the outside world, he periodically posts news on the Facebook page of Polyana 106.

About travel:
– Let not I move past everything, but let everything move past me. I'll sit down, and let the whole world go...

The birdhouses on the street turned out to be a book depository. In addition to the crowd of books that are in the dwelling, they are everywhere here.
Do you know what Book Crossing is?

By registering yourself and assigning a special number to the book, you leave it in a pre-arranged place (cafe, park, train station, bus, etc.), where anyone can take and read it. In this way, the book is "liberated", saved from standing on the shelf.

The former owner of the book will always know about the movement of his "pet", receiving an e-mail about whose hands it fell into and how it ended up there. The second side goal is to turn the whole world into a "huge library".

Tea cups for new arrivals.

The role of the table is played by a coil from under the cable.

Tea from a samovar in the fresh air - what could be more beautiful?

By the way, not far from Yurina dugout, several more similar ones have recently appeared - there were followers of a lifestyle without unnecessary things. The territory was called Zurbagan, it is practically a camp of modern hermits.

Guests are guests, but it's time to know the honor. Moscow is still more than a hundred kilometers away, and we will only be at home in 4 hours, having collected all the traffic jams.
Do you have questions for Yuri? Ask, I hope he answers them here. Or drop in for a visit, but be sure to grab a book!

Petruha came out to see us off.

Hand on heart, would you risk being able to live like this?

Here is what the media shot about him two years ago:

The national Indian dwelling - tipi - appeared in the Yaroslavl region. And it's not a museum at all. The owner of the dugout, Yuri, has fully equipped his life here and hides from the noise of big cities. Although guests are always welcome.

A rare driver will not slow down on the 106th kilometer of the Yaroslavl Highway. It's really hard to get past this. A real tipi is a portable Indian dwelling. For its owner, 39-year-old Yuri, this house is not at all temporary, it is permanent. There is simply no other. " These are life circumstances, on which philosophy is then superimposed. Or which provide a basis for the development of philosophy", says Yuri.

It has nothing to do with Indian culture. It was the teepee he built, because it is fast, only a few hours of work and simple - a few wooden poles and a piece of dense fabric. A dugout next door - a winter version - has been building for four months. He has almost two higher educations - a half-educated programmer and an accomplished lawyer. Three years ago, I went to the office every day. Rented an apartment in Moscow. Then there was less work, housing was more modest, the struggle for survival became more acute. " I begin to feel: yes, I do not need this apartment. Why do I need this apartment somewhere out there, it is not clear where, in some corners, in some gray house, it is not clear where. And life begins outside of this, that is, outside of this idea of ​​the physical. That is, it begins at the Bolshoi Theater, at the Conservatory. It starts in the images created by the writers in the books you read.", says Yuri.

The dugout built by him has everything necessary for life: light from the battery, heat from the stove, even its own bathhouse. Yuri does not play musical instruments, but he bought a violin. Speaks to better understand the process of interaction between the musician and the instrument. He, in principle, has a lot of time for everything - for understanding and awareness.

Now he is infatuated with Brodsky. Lines from Brodsky on wooden tablets he placed on a special stand. So he communicates with the world passing by.

Guests often visit him. Foreigners sometimes spend several nights. It's like being in an open-air museum here. There is even a symbolic Christmas tree for the New Year.

Yuri does not take money for stays and excursions, he does not need them here. Products are delivered to him by acquaintances and motorists passing by. Food is prepared exclusively on a fire.

How to call him - a downshifter, a hermit, yes, just a city madman, Yuri himself does not know. He says he expects this from visiting guests. And he also expects dialogue and dispute from them. After all, he is here to know the world and himself. And since visitors are distracting, so let them at least bring some benefit in the birth of truth.

Lilia Popova, Oleg Lapshov. TV Center.

For five years now, on the Yaroslavl Highway, 60 kilometers from Moscow, a 42-year-old hermit, Yuri Alekseev, has been living in a dugout. Once a successful Moscow lawyer, he dropped everything, dug a dugout, got a rabbit and now reads books all day.

As the man admits, he is tired of the gray office life.

My employers were good people. At first they told me: well, if you don’t want to go to the office every day, then go at least three days a week. Then they offered a day, then a few hours. But I thought: why should I sit in this Moscow, pay for rent? So, what is next? Take a mortgage on some cell in a residential area? And is this life?

Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant

Therefore, now Yuri lives in a dugout.

Englishrussia.com
Englishrussia.com

There are solar panels on the roof of the dugout, the generated electricity is stored in batteries. So Yuri always has light and communication with the outside world - there is a computer and the Internet in the dugout.

Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant
Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant

Yuri considers his library to be the main treasure of his dwelling. All of his books are registered in the World BookCrossing Library. People who come to visit Yuri can take something to read from him and leave their books in return.

Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant

From pets - Petrushka rabbit.

Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant

Yuri spends all his free time reading, music, thinking and talking with guests. The hermit does not maintain relations with relatives: they do not come to visit him. Downshifter was married, but admitted that the issues of starting a family and leaving offspring, so that there was someone to give a glass of water before death, did not bother him.

Yuri has a 33-year-old girlfriend, Clara, who continues to lead a life so hated by him in Moscow: she rents a house, pays off a loan, works in the document management department. On weekends, Clara stuffs her bags with groceries and drives to the clearing. It was thanks to her efforts that solar panels, a generator, and a gas cylinder appeared here. She bought insulation for the dugout, a saw, an ax and even a water pump. But she is not ready to move to the dugout forever.

Yaroslavl-room.ru

Numerous guests also come with gifts. Yuri opened a page on the Internet "

Have you ever wondered if you feel comfortable living in your apartment? Could you change urban life not just for rural life, but, say, for the life of a hermit in a dugout?

But 42-year-old Yuri Alekseev could.

About 6 years ago, Yuri, a former Moscow lawyer who graduated with honors from the institute, left the comfort of the city and settled in a dugout at 106 km of the Yaroslavl highway.

Yuri, a native of Stary Oskol, lived, worked, rented an apartment in Moscow, was also married, went abroad to rest. But somehow Yuri realized that he was suffocating from city life. That there is no freedom of thought, harmony in the soul, and then he abandoned everything and chose the life of a hermit.

When my family and I, having left Pereslavl-Zalessky, were returning home, I saw a strange large poster on the road. On it was written - "The Hobbit Hermit".

To be honest, I had already read about this place before, so I decided to park and visit Yuri.

To my question - Do you live here permanently?

Yuri clarifies with a smile. - Here? Do you mean on planet Earth? Yes, constantly, for a long time, several million years. We tried closer to the sun, but it's hot there.

And he takes a globe in his hand, “Look, here it is,” Yuri tells me.

Unfortunately, Yuriy was a little busy, and therefore I did not take his time with my questions. I just asked permission to take a few photos.

Anyone driving along the highway can call on a hermit to visit. The Russian Hobbit, as the Western press dubbed him, is very hospitable. He has his Youtube the channel on which he posts his life story. By the way, here is the business card given to me by Yuri.

He built his dugout for 2 months, and has been living in it for 4 years already, before that he had a straw house, which burned down due to careless handling of the stove.

On the roof of the dugout, solar panels with batteries are installed, which allow him to use electrical appliances.

Yury eats mainly peas, which he seasons with soy sauce and oil, says that this is a very nutritious product. But sometimes he accepts other food as a gift from all passing guests.

He does not refuse small financial assistance, which he uses mainly to pay the bill for the Internet and mobile communications.

Yuri good-naturedly allowed me to take a few photos for memory, but his girlfriend Clara was shy and asked her not to take pictures. Clara works in Moscow just like Yuri used to, in a stuffy office. Until she finds the strength to leave the comfort of urban living and move to a permanent place of residence in a dugout. She visits the hermit on weekends, brings food. By the way, at that moment when I drove into the dugout, the girl was going to return to Moscow.

This is the intercom you need to call if you decide to visit the hermit.

And here is the entrance to the dugout itself.

To get inside, you have to bend down.

And this is how it is inside.

And of course, where without a pet. Dog? No! Cat? - Not!

Rabbit! Named Petrushka.

There is a heap on the roof, either antennas, or just some long sticks.

And this is instead of a fence.

Hammock for rest.

There are a lot of books everywhere.

For several years now, Yuri Alekseev has been living in a dugout near the highway.
Yuri built his dugout in two months, and has been living in it for several years.

Now many articles have already been written about Yuri Alekseev (that’s the name of the “hermit hobbit”) in various publics, and most of them begin with a story about how Yuri, being a successful Moscow lawyer, quit his highly paid job and moved to a dugout, refusing material wealth . There is indeed some truth in this story, but the journalists are a little cunning.

The library is Yuri's main pride.
Yuri registers all his books in the bookcrossing system.

In fact, Yuri can hardly be called a hermit and an ascetic - he has so many guests that they often collide with each other at the door or go one after another. So that regular guests would not be so annoying, Yuri even adapted a kind of intercom - a telephone at the beginning of the path, by which guests should report who they are and for what purpose they came to him. And so that those wishing to take part in bookcrossing would not disturb Yuri once again, he took his library to a separate shed.

Hobbit hermit.
Yuri's house has electricity provided by a generator.

Yuri's asceticism is also peculiar, or one might even say hipster. His dwelling really looks more like a hobbit mink: almost everything is made of wood, a lot of carpets, rugs, bedspreads, even the door is deliberately round to make the association with hobbits even more complete. But at the same time, there is a music column above the entrance to the dugout (you can hear Yuri’s audio recordings in which he recites classical works of Russian literature from it), there are solar panels on the roof, and inside you can see a computer, a synthesizer, an audio system, a tablet, a laptop, a telephone and quite stable lighting.

The road leading to Yuri's dwelling.
The road to Yuri's dwelling.

Together with Yuri lives a white rabbit named Petrushka. He also sometimes becomes a member of the Moscow Region hobbit video. Yuri even calls his channel - "Channel of the Hobbit Hermit and Petrushka."

Rabbit Parsley.
Yuri regularly shoots videos and puts them on his Youtube channel.

Seven years ago, Yuri Alekseev really moved from Moscow to the Yaroslavl highway. Then he worked as a lawyer, now - a blogger. Yuri considers his blogging to be quite a serious job, and, admittedly, he succeeds in it: now there are more than 125,000 subscribers on his Youtube channel.

Yuri constantly receives guests in his dugout.
Yuri believes that now his life is much better than the one he had in Moscow.

“If earlier power and the parameter of success were measured in money, now they are measured by subscribers in social networks,” says Yuri Alekseev. - “Just imagine, I worked in an office, everything was boring and monotonous. And now I have a colossal project here - 100,000 subscribers!”

Yuri almost never leaves his home, preferring that he does not go to people, but they go to him.
Yuri often hosts journalists.

Almost every day, Yuri uploads a new video - sometimes about his life, sometimes writes down his reasoning, he has quite a few videos in which he reads Chekhov, Pushkin, Turgenev and other classics aloud. Sometimes he asks his subscribers to become sponsors of his channel and transfer money to him. When journalists contact him and ask for an interview, he may also ask them to bring certain foods or medicines.

Yuri against the backdrop of a canopy with a library.
Intercom on the street.
Intercom in the dugout.

“There is nothing outstanding in me,” says Yuri. - I do not like to exist in the city, to fight for survival in the metropolis. I do not associate myself with a hermit or a downshifter - I just chose this lifestyle. Life is arranged, there is no need to work, there is no need to pay for an apartment either, there is enough communication with people - everything is fine. Fate itself will help me find a way out of any situation.