1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Change is hard. Some 5 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: people accept it begrudgingly, understanding the old ways might need 6 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: a little updating. Others fight for what they've always believed in, 7 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: even if it means losing everything and everyone they know 8 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 1: in the process. Change came to Russia in the mid 9 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,879 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds when the Russian Orthodox Church felt the Greeks 10 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,840 Speaker 1: had more to offer in the ways of liturgical practices. 11 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: For example, there were differences in how many fingers were 12 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: used when signing the cross over one's just on the whole, 13 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: the two churches still believed in the same God, the 14 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: scriptures were all the same. Other than a few minor differences, 15 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: no significant changes would come to the Russian Orthodox Church, 16 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,959 Speaker 1: and while it took some convincing, some members eventually got 17 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: the message. Most but not all. For the group that 18 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: called themselves the Old Believers, any change was unwelcome, no 19 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: matter how small. They wanted nothing to do with the 20 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,759 Speaker 1: Greek Orthodox Church and considered the proposed changes to be blasphemy. 21 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,320 Speaker 1: They lived in the shadows for centuries, evading the Church's 22 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:44,480 Speaker 1: influence and oppression. The Church didn't take kindly to dissenters, 23 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: and many were tortured, imprisoned, and even murdered over the 24 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: years for refusing to go along with the new ways. 25 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: And one old believer named Karp Lankov had seen enough. 26 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: After his brother was killed by Bolsheviks in ninety six, 27 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: Krp took his wife and children away from their home 28 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: to someplace new, someplace where the Church would never find them. 29 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: They fled into the Siberian wilderness, where Carp built a 30 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: home for his family out of nearby trees. They had 31 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:20,799 Speaker 1: no modern conveniences, no phones, no lights, no plumbing. They 32 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: made shoes from tree bark and survived on what nature provided, 33 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: like nuts and berries. When their clothes became too tattered 34 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: from the elements, they fashioned a new wardrobe out of hemp. 35 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: One family surviving on their own through harsh Siberian winters 36 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: sounds impossible, I know, but the like Offs did it. 37 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: And they didn't just survive, they thrived. New children were 38 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: born into the family in the early nineteen forties, and Karp, 39 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,639 Speaker 1: along with his wife, Akulina, taught them all they needed 40 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: to know. They learned how to speak Russian and Old Slavic. 41 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: They were aware of Russian cities and geography, be even 42 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: though they'd never seen anything outside the forest. Like most fundamentalists, 43 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: the like Offs shielded their children from the dangers of 44 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: the modern world, including anyone beyond their home. Their lifestyle 45 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: worked for them for some time until one particular severe 46 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: winter left them with almost no food. Akulina died of 47 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: starvation in nineteen sixty one, after giving her portions of 48 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: food to her children so that they might survive to 49 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: see another day. No one had heard from the family 50 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: for almost forty years. As far as anyone knew, they 51 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: died out with the rest of the sinners who had 52 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: refused to join the New Church. It wasn't until the 53 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 1: late nineteen seventies when a group of geologists looking for 54 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: iron ore came across an unusual site from high up 55 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: in their helicopter. It was a garden, a well kept, 56 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: man made garden in the middle of the wilderness. They 57 00:03:57,880 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: had to know who might have made such a thing 58 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: in a place where life was not expected to survive. 59 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:07,320 Speaker 1: After some searching, the geologists made contact with the remaining 60 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: like Offs, including Karp. None of the family members knew 61 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: about major historical milestones like the moon landing or the 62 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,720 Speaker 1: Cuban missile crisis. They had been cut off for almost 63 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: half a century and had missed so much. The geologist 64 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 1: made several visits to the Lyoffs, and on one trip 65 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: they brought with them a television to illustrate how far 66 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: technology had come. When Carp's son was shown a circular 67 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: saw on another visit, he was amazed by its efficiency, 68 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: but none of it mattered. In the end. The family 69 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,160 Speaker 1: refused to rejoin society, despite the allure of that big, 70 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,839 Speaker 1: glowing box of moving pictures. They were old believers, after all, 71 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: and change wasn't something they cared for. Except for one 72 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 1: the daughter, Agafia. Her brothers and father has passed away 73 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:03,479 Speaker 1: year ago, leaving her the sole remaining like of She 74 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,159 Speaker 1: does accept help now and then, traveling to hospitals for 75 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: medical care and visiting distant relatives, but for the most 76 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: part she's still on her own. I can't imagine most 77 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:18,880 Speaker 1: of us would give up our lives like that to 78 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: live off the grid. No smartphones, no indoor plumbing, no television, 79 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: talk about roughing it, but I'm not convinced what they 80 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: did was so outrageous. A world without twenty four hour 81 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,919 Speaker 1: news networks and social media sounds like paradise to me. 82 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: Some people get really into certain holidays. You've seen them 83 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 1: around your neighborhood before. The folks who decorate their homes 84 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: at Halloween and Christmas with flights and animatronic characters. They 85 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: wait all year, often preparing months in advance, in order 86 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,280 Speaker 1: to make the most of the short time that they 87 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: have to celebrate. And then there are the holidays we 88 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: enjoy but we don't really think too much about, like 89 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: April Fool's Day, one day a year when no one 90 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: and no thing can be trusted. One historical figure who 91 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:24,840 Speaker 1: loved April fools Day the way many of us love 92 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:29,719 Speaker 1: Halloween and Christmas was Isaac Bickerstaff. Toward the end of 93 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,040 Speaker 1: seventeen oh seven, Isaac had taken issue with the seventeen 94 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:37,280 Speaker 1: o eight edition of Marylandis Almanac. It was periodical, like 95 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:40,679 Speaker 1: most almanacs, filled with facts and figures to help people 96 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,919 Speaker 1: navigate their daily lives in the following year, but it 97 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 1: was one particular sentiment that rubbed Isaac the wrong way. 98 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,600 Speaker 1: The Almanacs writer astrologer John Partridge had made a sarcastic 99 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: remark about the Church of England, referring to it as 100 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,480 Speaker 1: the infallible Church. Isaac was a devout follow were and 101 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: could not let the statement like that stand, so he 102 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: concocted a unique plan of retaliation. He would predict John's 103 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: infallible death over the next year by writing several letters 104 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: and one eulogy about his demise, to be published months apart. 105 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: Leading up to April one, All Fool's Day, Bickerstaff published 106 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: his first letter, the prediction of John Partridge's death by 107 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: raging fever, in January of that year. The second letter, 108 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: written not as Bickerstaff but as a government's employee, came 109 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: out that March to confirm Bickerstaff's prediction. An elegy quickly followed, 110 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: suits more of a poem than a letter, but it 111 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: put the blame of Partridge's death on both Partridge himself 112 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: and anyone who bought his almanacs. The hoax took off 113 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: like a rocket. Mourners gathered outside partridge Is home, crying 114 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: all night and keeping him awake no matter what he said. 115 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 1: They it and believe he hadn't died after all the 116 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: letters had been printed for the public. As a matter 117 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: of fact, an undertaker even came to his house one 118 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: day to arrange the drapes for awake while the stonemason 119 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: started carving his gravestone. By that point, though, John Partridge 120 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: had seen enough and published a letter of his own 121 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,040 Speaker 1: to dispel the silly hoax once and for all. But 122 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,920 Speaker 1: it didn't work. No one believed him, especially after Bickerstaff responded, 123 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: writing they were sure no man alive ever to rid 124 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,440 Speaker 1: such damned stuff as this. I know it was a 125 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: real jerk move. Finally, all fools Day had arrived and 126 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,599 Speaker 1: Isaac Bickerstaff gave up the ghost, so to speak. He 127 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: published one last piece entitled A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, 128 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,839 Speaker 1: in which he came clean about the whole charade. John 129 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: Partridge hadn't died, There had never been a fever. The 130 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: undertaker and the gravestone, and the morning people outside his 131 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: home had all been in vain. John Partridge was alive 132 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: and well and probably pretty angry. Bickerstaff's shenanigans didn't go unnoticed, though, 133 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,560 Speaker 1: the founder of the British literary journal The Tattler, named 134 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:18,679 Speaker 1: Bickerstaff his new editor, which wasn't surprising as Isaac had 135 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: been a contributor to the publication in the past. In fact, 136 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: Bickerstaff went on to publish numerous works throughout his life, 137 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:31,359 Speaker 1: such as essays, pamphlets, periodicals, and even fiction, mostly satire. 138 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:36,959 Speaker 1: Of course, Isaac Bickerstaff made his living from writing satire 139 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: directed at the rich, the irreligious, and other groups he 140 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 1: thought needed taking down a notch. His work is still 141 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: read and taught in classrooms all over the world. He 142 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:51,559 Speaker 1: was prolific, and yet you probably have never heard of him, 143 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 1: at least not as Isaac Bickerstaff. But you certainly know 144 00:09:55,679 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: his essay A Modest Proposal in which he suggests in 145 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: poverty Irish families sell their children to the rich as 146 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:07,360 Speaker 1: a food supply, or his travel journal parody Gould of 147 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: Verse Travels. That's right, Isaac Bickerstaff. The man who convinced 148 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,679 Speaker 1: the world of one man's untimely death was actually none 149 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 1: other and Jonathan Swift. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 150 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 151 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,959 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 152 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:35,680 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me, 153 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make 154 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 155 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all 156 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com. 157 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,160 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.