- Title: RUSSIA: 115 YEAR OLD MARIA STRELNIKOVA IS RUSSIA'S OLDEST WOMAN
- Date: 10th April 2005
- Summary: (L!1) VYBURG, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) WIDE OF RIVER AND CHURCH OF VYBURG, A SMALL TOWN CLOSE TO ST. PETERSBURG IN SNOW WIDE OF SNOW-COVERED STREET WIDE OF EXTERIOR APARTMENT BUILDING WHERE RUSSIA'S OLDEST WOMAN LIVES SMV 79-YEAR-OLD ALEXANDRA STRELNIKOVA STROKING HAIR OF HER 115-YEAR-OLD MOTHER MARIA STRELNIKOVA CLOSE UP OF ALEXANDRA'S HANDS HOLDING MARIA'S HAND CLOSE UP FACE OF MARIA STRELNIKOVA WIDE OF MARIA LAYING ON SOFA CLOSE OF IDENTITY DOCUMENT/ PASSPORT OF MARIA STRELNIKOVA CLOSE UP PASSPORT PAGE SHOWING MARIA'S DATE OF BIRTH: 15/03/1890 SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) 79-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER ALEXANDRA STRELNIKOVA SAYING: "First of all, I think it has to do with her genes. Her grandparents also lived for more than hundred years. Also, she always worked a lot. Especially on the farm, as she told us, she had to take care of everything by herself." CLOSE OF BLACK AND WHITE PICTURE OF MARIA WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG CLOSE OF COLOURED PICTURE OF MARIA AS MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) 115-YEAR-OLD MARIA STRELNIKOVA LAYING ON SOFA SAYING: "They took away the cows, all seven, they took everything from us." CLOSE UP HANDS VARIOUS OF 82-YEAR-OLD VALENTINA STRELNIKOVA, OLDEST DAUGHTER OF MARIA, PREPARING FOOD IN KITCHEN CLOSE OF PLATE WITH CORN CHIPS PAN OF VALENTINA PUTTING KETTLE ON STOVE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) 82-YEAR-OLD VALENTINA STRELNIKOVA, OLDEST DAUGHTER OF MARIA, SAYING: "When she is not in pain, she asks us to turn on the TV because she wants to know what is happening and what our Tsar Putin is doing. She gets offended when we don't tell her the news and says that we should not think that because she can not see, she has lost interest in the world and news." SLV ALEXANDRA COMBING /ARRANGING MOTHER'S HAIR CLOSE OF HANDS HOLDING CUP OF WATER SCU MARIA DRINKING SMV ALEXANDRA HOLDING CUP WHILST MOTHER IS DRINKING WIDE OF VIEW FROM THE WINDOW OF APARTMENT BUILDING WIDE SHOT OF LIVING ROOM WITH ALEXANDRA SITTING NEXT TO SOFA WHERE HER MOTHER IS LYING
- Embargoed: 25th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VYBORG, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Topics: People
- Reuters ID: LVA5XH15OPLOU06MGZB66IVCK9I9
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Russia's oldest woman witnessed the Bolshevik revolution and survived a Nazi concentration camp.
At the age of 115, Russia's oldest woman might not be expected to remember many things, but Maria Strelnikova has vivid memories of the early 1930's when the Communists came to power and took her farm.
Her daughters say that moment in the life of their mother has struck her the most. To this day, Strelnikova fears the return of Communist rule.
Bed ridden since she broke her leg in 1987, Strelnikova lives with her 79-year-old daughter Alexandra in a simple one-room apartment in Vyborg, a small town near Russia's second city St. Petersburg. Living on the fifth floor of a building without a lift, Maria has not left her room for the last eighteen years.
Born on March 15, 1890, Strelnikova grew up in a small village on the Volga river in southern Russia. Her parents were hard-working and healthy people and both her grandparents lived to be 100-years-old.
Mother to seven children, Strelnikova had to work hard to makemeet. Her daughter Alexandra says that those early years of hard work on the farm might explain her longevity.
"First of all, I think it has to do with her genes.
Her grandparents also lived for more than hundred years.
Also, she always worked a lot. Especially on the farm, as she told us, she had to take care of everything by herself," said Alexandra Strelnikova.
Owning a small farm and some livestock, Maria's family were considered well-off. But her life took a dramatic turn when after the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks started to collectivise all private property.
One night in 1930, police broke into Maria's farm and took everything, including her seven cows. Branded as 'non-cooperative' by the communist authorities, Maria and her family were then forced to flee from their birthplace and eventually settled in a small village nearby Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
Daughter Alexandera says when her mother reviews her life, this is the event that she always recalls. "They took away the cows, all seven, they took everything from us,"
said Maria with a frail voice.
But her suffering did not end here. During the second World War, in the summer of 1941 the Nazis sent Maria and two of her children to a labour camp near Pskov. After three long years in the camp she was sent to another prison camp in Keningsberg ( now Kaliningrad). When she was finally set free by the Red Army in the beginning of 1945, Maria and her children walked for five weeks, barefoot and through the snow, to get back home.
Of her seven children, four are still alive and have given Maria five grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren. One of Maria's other daughters, her eldest, 82-year-old Valentina, does not live with her mother, but visits her often. She says that although her mother is blind and bed-ridden, she has not lost interest in the world around her.
"When she is not in pain, she asks us to turn on the TV, because she wants to know what is happening and what our Tsar Putin is doing. She gets offended when we don't tell her the news and says that we should not think that because she can not see she has lost interest in the world and news." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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