[1][2] As a teenager in the 1960s, Megre occasionally visited a monk called Father Feodorit at the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery, in Sergiev Posad, north-east of Moscow.

[3] Megre left home at age 16 and moved to Novosibirsk, where he worked as a photographer, camera operator and film director in several commercial co-operatives.

[1][4] Megre's experiences on the Ob River voyages form the central narrative of his best-selling series of books, The Ringing Cedars of Russia (Russian: Звенящие Кедры России tr.

[5] The primary concern of the series is the correct approach to planning, conceiving and raising children, which should all occur at the same location: a family homestead, or self-sufficient plot of land surrounded by a hedge with a water source, dwelling, woods, a meadow, vegetable gardens, berries, herbs, mushrooms, a greenhouse, sauna and beehives.

[1] The central idea of the Ringing Cedars of Russia series is to create a garden and ancestral dwelling on a plot of land at least one hectare in size, known as a "kin's homestead" (Russian: родовое поместье, rodovoye pomest'ye) where nature/generation (Rod) is appropriately cultivated.

[18] The books have become the basis for a Russian "back-to-the-land" movement based on permanently sustainable, self-reliant, and self-sufficient simple living, providing both physical subsistence and spiritual fulfilment.