Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Bichkov left his home and family to avoid having to pay alimony to his ex-wife.
He lived in the forest within Kologrivsky Nature Reserve, building his own camps at a former forestry station, eating animals he could hunt locally.
Bichkov left the forest only in the summertime when he could not easily be tracked back to his camp by footprints in the snow.
At one point Bichkov used animal traps to capture three government officials, threatening their life if they returned to the area.
The group was composed of six police "specialists" (not local to the Kologriv area), some of whom were veterans of the Afghan War, and four park rangers.