Video: 118 years without pills: how a Russian long-liver survived four husbands and almost all the rulers of the twentieth century
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
131 years ago, on June 6, 1886, the Russian long-liver Pelageya Zakurdaeva … In the 118 years allotted to her, she outlived two emperors, all the rulers of the USSR and found two presidents. She got married four times, the last three when she was already over 50. She had a chance to bury all her husbands and many of her loved ones. According to her, in her entire life she drank only 2 tablets, and considered snuff the best remedy for headaches.
Pelageya Osipovna Lavkina was born into a prosperous peasant family in the village of Novaya Barda in Altai. On her birthday, the country celebrated the 87th birthday of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, and on her 113th birthday, she celebrated the 200th anniversary of the poet. However, the works of Pushkin, with whom she was born on the same day, Pelageya did not know - she did not go to school and could neither read nor write. Since childhood, she has been doing housework with her sister and three brothers. She had a very strict mother who made her spin from morning to night.
At the age of 17, Pelageya married a fellow villager Grigory, but lived with him for only one year - her husband died during the war. What kind of war we are talking about, the long-liver herself in her old age no longer remembered. Obviously, this was the Russo-Japanese War. After that, all the most difficult years of her life - two revolutions, the Civil War and the time of Stalinist repressions - she had a chance to spend alone. Only after 50 years did she meet the widower Afanasy Zakurdaev, whom she married. Pelageya did not have her own children, but three adopted children became relatives for her.
Married to Afanasy Zakurdaev, Pelageya lived for 30 years and later recalled these years as the happiest time in her life. After her husband's death, she moved to Tashkent at the invitation of one of his granddaughters. And there, the woman who exchanged her eighties married for the third time - to the Belarusian Sergei Romanovich, with whom she lived for 4 years, until his death. And the most amazing thing is that this marriage was not the last for her. For the fourth time, Pelageya married the German Karl, who died 8 months later in a car accident.
A year before her centenary, Pelageya moved to her niece in the city of Zarinsk in her native Altai Territory. There she spent the last 20 years of her life. Until the end of her days, she did not lose her sober thinking and efficiency - only her memory often failed. When she was 116 years old, journalists from one of the TV channels came to wish her a Happy New Year. She willingly communicated with them and even joked in response to a question about her several marriages: "The first husband is from God, the second is from people, and the third is from the devil!"
The long-liver did not recognize medicines, she never smoked, but she considered snuff the best remedy for headaches. Until the end of days, on holidays, she allowed herself to drink a glass of vodka, in which she did not see any harm. In all her life, she underwent only one operation - the removal of appendicitis. According to her niece, the main secret of Pelageya Zakurdaeva's longevity is that “I was never afraid of work, all my life I worked in the field and on the farm, until the last day I was busy around the house”.
Pelageya Osipovna died on March 13, 2005 from the flu, several months before her 119th birthday. At that time, the woman was recognized as the oldest resident of Russia. This fact was documented during the All-Russian Population Census, moreover, then it turned out that the largest number of long-livers of the region lives in the city of Zarinsk in Altai - 808 people over 80 years old.
There are many legends about Russian centenarians: sensational story about a 107-year-old soldier - myth or reality? A the oldest person on the planet is an Indonesian, which celebrated its 146th anniversary this year.
Recommended:
The strangest union of the twentieth century: 50 years of enlightened love between the Nobel laureate Sartre and the feminist de Beauvoir
They met in their student years and went through life hand in hand for more than half a century, but in the eyes of those around them, this union was too strange. The Nobel laureate and ideologue of feminism was united by a love for philosophy and for each other, but in their relationship many of the usual signs of marriage were missing. One can endlessly argue about whether such love had a right to exist, but for Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the answer was obvious and unambiguous
Are there really different rulers hiding under the name of Ivan the Terrible: Four "faces" of the first Russian tsar
In 1533, on December 6, Muscovites were in bewilderment and superstitious fear. In the Archangel Cathedral, an uninterrupted memorial service was served, psalms were sung for the deceased Grand Duke Vasily III on December 4. At the same time, in the neighboring Assumption Cathedral, Metropolitan Daniel crowned the grand reign of the young prince John. The lament for the repose of the soul of the deceased Grand Duke, the joyful chime of bells, the voices of the singers proclaiming "many years" to baby John, gave rise to whispering among the people about the ascent to the princely throne
How Napoleon Bonaparte tried to become a Russian ensign and other foreign rulers who served in the Russian army
For a long time, officers from all over Europe entered the Russian service. The vector of accepting foreigners into his own army was set by Peter the Great, although overseas volunteers in Russia were also favored before him. Catherine II actively continued the Petrine policy, striving to provide the imperial army with the most qualified and effective personnel. Foreign volunteers have made a significant contribution to the formation of the defense capability of Russia, the development of the economy and industry. And among them were not only talented
Rodion Nakhapetov and Natalya Shlyapnikoff: Almost a quarter-century-long office romance
When he left for America, they envied him. When he divorced his first wife Vera Glagoleva, he was condemned and called a traitor. At that time, Rodion Nakhapetov's life changed dramatically, and he himself had to make a difficult choice between the past and the future. He tried to be honest with himself first of all. And now, after a quarter of a century, he realizes that then he made the right choice
Pills filled with the sun. Conceptual Sunlight Pills from Sunset Laboratories
From the lack of sun and heat, especially in the frosty winter and gray slushy autumn, people become lethargic, sad, irritated, dissatisfied with themselves and everyone around them. Some people think tanning sessions can fix this situation, but the French pharmaceutical company Sunset Laboratories has taken a different path and released amazing sun pills called Sunlight Pills. How much sun do you need this afternoon?