5 most famous mothers of large families of the USSR: From Madonna to terrorist

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Families with many children are still admired today. Some with one or two children cope with work, and if the kids are three, five or even more than ten? In the Soviet Union, such families enjoyed certain privileges, and mothers received honorary titles and state awards. But such families were not always happy. Some mothers went down in history by raising worthy children, while others left their mark by committing a terrorist act.

Anna Aleksakhina

Anna Rvacheva (married Aleksakhina) was born in the Ryazan province in 1886 and went down in history forever as the owner of the very first Mother Heroine Order. This award was established in 1944 and was awarded to those women who gave birth to and raised ten children. Anna Savelievna raised 12 children, ten sons and two daughters. Four sons died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, two more died from their wounds after Victory Day.

The Order "Mother Heroine" was presented to Anna Savelyevna in the Kremlin by Mikhail Kalinin himself, and the most surprising thing was that the owner of the Order No. 1 had never been a party member. At first, this raised doubts among officials, but after that it was decided not to change the candidacy for the award. In 1955, Anna Aleksakhina died of cancer.

Alexandra Derevskaya

This woman will forever remain in history as a shining example of unparalleled love for children. Alexandra Avramovna was called “Romenskaya Madonna” for a reason, because during her life she became a mother for 65 children, 48 of whom she raised to adulthood. The rest she simply did not have time to release into adulthood, having died at the age of 57.

Even the very first child of Alexandra Avramovna was adopted: she became a mother for the son of her widower husband and actually saved little Mitya, who was suffering from a whole bunch of diseases. Then Alexandra and Yemelyan Derevsky had an adopted daughter, followed by another son and again a daughter. During the Great Patriotic War, Alexandra Derevskaya worked as the director of an orphanage and adopted 15 more children over the years. And then she continued to save children, moving to Romny, Sumy region.

Some sources contain information that at some point the husband of the Romny Madonna could not stand the load and left the family. Alexandra Avramovna never complained and was happy surrounded by children. True, when she began to get sick, some of the children were taken away from her, fearing that she would not be able to cope. But all those who felt the love of this amazing woman felt gratitude for the rest of their lives.

Epistinia Stepanova

Epistinia Fedorovna lived with her husband Mikhail Ivanovich in the Krasnodar Territory. She gave birth to fifteen children, of whom ten survived, nine sons and one daughter. During the Great Patriotic War, all the sons went to the front, eight of whom died, one died of his wounds after the end of the war.

Epistinia Fedorovna was called a soldier's mother, outstanding military leaders wrote letters to her with gratitude for the upbringing of worthy sons of the fatherland. The mother-heroine lived out her days in the family of her youngest daughter in Rostov-on-Don. Epistinia Feodorovna in 2010 had 44 grandsons and great-grandsons.

Lena Nikitina

Together with her husband Boris Pavlovich Nikitin, Lena Alekseevna raised seven children. This family became famous thanks to the declared principles and methods of upbringing. The couple became the authors of books in which they shared their experience in raising children in great detail. It is worth noting that all the Nikitins' children studied at school "ahead of the curve," however, this created some discomfort for the Nikitins junior, since they were younger than their classmates. Lena and Boris Nikitin used a "radical hardening system" that, in their opinion, allowed children to avoid colds.

Lena Alekseevna graduated from the Pedagogical Institute, but she did not work in her specialty for long, but she served in the library for more than 30 years, preferring to devote all her free time to the development and upbringing of her own children.

Ninel Ovechkina

This woman actually sacrificed her own life and the lives of her eleven children to ambition. The whole Ovechkin family was very musical, children learned music from an early age, subsequently the family ensemble "Seven Simeons" was created, which included all the sons. The head of the family, unfortunately, did not take much part in the upbringing of children, due to the irrepressible craving for the consumption of alcoholic beverages. But Ninel Ovechkina tirelessly took care of children.

Ensemble "Seven Simeons" enjoyed success, it was welcomed in different cities and even sent to foreign tours. But Ninel Ovechkina was not enough. She intended to go abroad with her children, where, in her opinion, the talents of the children could bring a very solid income. As you know, on March 8, 1988, the family attempted to hijack an airplane. As a result, three passengers and a flight attendant were killed. Ninel ordered one of her sons to kill her and the rest of the brothers on the plane, and then commit suicide.

In March 1988, the Ovechkin family with many children, which created the Seven Simeon jazz ensemble, decided to look for a better life abroad. They hijacked a plane flying from Irkutsk via Kurgan to Leningrad. As a result, five criminals, three passengers and a flight attendant were killed, and another 15 people were injured. After the terrorist attack, seven Ovechkin remained alive, including Lyudmila, who did not know anything about the impending hijacking of the plane.