according to russian authorities bichkov came from a family of criminals who had been sent to kostroma oblast in the 1940s. bichkov worked in the forestry industry until his disappearance. following the dissolution of the soviet union, bichkov left his home and family to avoid having to pay alimony payments to his ex-wife. in 1997 he was presumed dead, and declared as such by his family. he lived in the forest within a nature reserve, near kologriv, building his own camps at a former forestry station, eating animals he could hunt locally. bichkov only left the forest in the summertime when he could not easily be tracked back to his camp by footprints in the snow.