Madman or wise sage: The Siberian who collects everything

Nikolai lives in a village on the shores of Lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world. He has appeared in the Irkutsk record books three times.

Nikolai is a passionate collector. He has 2,000 pens, a 50-meter model of Lake Baikal made of plastic bottles and a collection of cassette tapes. In total he has collected 10,000 items.

Hand-made pens.

Pens dedicated to Lake Baikal.

A toothbrush-pen, a comb-pen, a lipstick-pen, a syringe-pen, a nail-pen, a sword-pen and a thermometer-pen.

Nikolai started collecting things when he was 15, so he has a massive collection of everything. When asked why he has so much stuff, he answers, “I can’t throw it out.”

Opulently decorated lighters for women.

There are 8,000 bottle caps in Nikolai’s collection. They are organized according to color.

Nikolai asked his neighbors to help him clean the shores of Baikal Lake. When he did not receive any help, Nikolai decided to get to work on his own and gathered 1,000 plastic bottles in just two days. Lids from those bottles became a part of the collection.

Nikolai has written down the first name, last name, date and hometown of everyone that has visited his home and had tea with him since 1976.

A bear’s paw and a can from which the bear ate.