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in: Female supercentenarians, Russian supercentenarians, 1913 births, Validated supercentenarians

Valentina Vorobyova

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Valentina Vorobyova
Valentina Vorobyova
Sysoevna at the age of 110
Birth: 23 February 1913
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Empire (present-day Russia)
Age: 111 years, 329 days
Country: RussiaRUS
Validated

Valentina Sysoevna Vorobyova (Russian: Валентина Сысоевна Воробьёва; born 23 February 1913) is a Russian supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). She is currently the second-oldest known living person in Russia, after Klavdiya Gadyuchkina.

Biography[]

Valentina Vorobyova was born in the village of Chernoistochinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Empire (present-day Russia), on 23 February 1913.

She was born into a peasant family with many children, in which they ran a farm, kept livestock and worked on arable land. The father was engaged in soap making, and the children helped him. The finished soap was packaged in paper and delivered to the store. The woman worked on the collective farm for only 3 years, but she learned to sew. At the age of 18 she got married with Alexander and gave birth to three children, Galina, Boris and Vera. During the war, her husband fought, and on her woman’s shoulders were small children, a house, a garden, and livestock. Valentina took on any job: throwing hay, working in the fields, going to the village of Visim to grind flour. He remembers that during the war they baked a lot of bread, they put out dough every day, since there was no yeast.

The woman sewed a lot and she was good at it. She was even invited to the “Novaya Zarya” (eng: New Dawn) collective farm to sew sheepskin coats, but she refused. The house is full of livestock: cows, sheep, lambs, pigs, horses. Her children always helped her with the housework. During the war, they dug up the garden, planted turnips, chopped them up and fed them to livestock.

Despite the disability of her husband, who returned from the war, they managed to raise three children, giving them an education. The couple have been married for more than 30 years.

Valentina Sysoevna survived the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, two world wars, "Perestroika" and many other notable events happened during her life.

Valentina completed two classes of education at home, and the third at school. And she didn’t study further, she had to take care of the cattle.

The husband worked at a mine in the village of Uralets, lived in a barracks, he was not at home for a long time, Valentina Sysoevna had to manage the house alone. After marriage, she didn’t work anywhere; her father-in-law didn’t let her: “You won’t go sewing for a day. We need to work at home!”

The centenarian herself said that at 102 years old she could still dig potatoes.

At the age of 104, she said she doesn’t know exactly what is the reason for her longevity, but her relatives talk mainly about kindness and optimism: "Everyone asks: “What is the secret to longevity?” I don’t know, I don’t think about it, I live, and thank God! Relatives say that this secret lies in respect for elders, kindness and hard work."

She reportedly has three children, five grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, 17 great-great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-great-grandchildren.

On her 110th birthday, the administration of the village of Chernoistochinsk gave her a gift - a car of birch firewood. And the local school volunteers couldn’t pass by: they helped the grandmother stack firewood in the woodpile.

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References[]

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