Andrei Sharashkin has faced wolves, bears, thieves, and countless friendly locals while walking (and sometimes hitchhiking) alone across almost 30,000 kilometers of Russian territory.
Over the past three years, Sharashkin has seen nearly 2,000 cities, villages, and towns across Russia.
The 55-year old, who was born in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic but settled in the Russian city of Tyumen, says he is undertaking the epic journey in order to write a book about Russia's disappearing villages in its underpopulated rural regions.
Since his backpack and journals full of notes were stolen, the former history teacher began uploading observations and mobile-phone photos to an increasingly popular blog called Walking In Russia. His followers donate money to help him with supplies.
The long-distance hiker says he walks around 30-35 kilometers every day, though he admits to hitchhiking on some parts of his journey.
The adventurer lives in a tent through the warmer months, but in winter either stays with locals who know he is coming or in a hotel.
Sharashkin says he has wanted to undertake the journey since 2002, but it only became possible after he got divorced.
"In order to see Russia and understand its history, you need to walk through it," Sharashkin says.
The hiker told Russian media he decided to begin the epic journey on foot after driving with his brother on Russia's highways and realizing they had "missed" a lot. "Our nature, the world around us -- they are so beautiful that my head was swiveling around 360 degrees. But you can't get out of the car, you can't take a photo."
Through the tens of thousands of kilometers, which he walks mostly along roadsides, Sharashkin says he has encountered one bear, in October 2019, which he shooed off by lighting flares. The run-in ended with Sharashkin catching a ride to get out of the area, but the car he was traveling in ended up crashing.
The hiker had a far more dangerous experience with a pack of wolves on the lonely steppes of Kalmykia in November 2018. "I had pitched my tent, then sensed that someone was looking at me," he told RFE/RL.
"Ten meters away, eight wolves are sitting and watching me. Of course I was scared. My heart dropped. I just sat down and started talking to them with a knife in one hand and an ax in the other. I don't remember what I was saying or how long it lasted, maybe five, six, seven minutes. Eventually they got up and left. Apparently they were bored by me. I was shaking for about 15 minutes afterward, I broke two cigarettes trying to light them. The wolves were probably not hungry, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here today."
Sharashkin says his interactions with locals have been overwhelmingly positive, but he has been struck by the condition of the country's rural regions, telling RFE/RL that "devastation is everywhere."
"Many villages are dying, many have already died," the hiker says. "I went through villages where only one or two people remained and there are such villages everywhere, in every region, in every republic. At least where I've been. This is sad."
Sharashkin is currently en route to St. Petersburg and from there he plans to walk east through central Russia and return home to Tyumen, where he will write a book on his travels. He plans to start another foot journey soon afterward.
"I haven't yet walked all of Russia; I still haven't seen the Yakutsk, Magadan, Chukotka, Sakhalin, or Kamchatka regions. I have [also] not covered the entire North Caucasus. I still have a lot of work to do," he says.
