Maria Ogiyenko, a resident of Khabarovsk, Russia, is celebrating her 111th birthday today, according to AmurMedia.ru and Habinfo.ru.
Maria Pakhomovna Ogiyenko (Мария Пахомовна Огиенко) was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia (then Russian Empire), on 29 November 1914. She spent her childhood and youth in the village of Kanelovskaya. Her father passed away during the Russian Civil War (1917–1922), and shortly afterward, her mother also died. From a young age, she began working in agriculture.
Maria, a mother of three, faced severe hardship during World War II after her husband was sent to the front. Alone with her children, she struggled to feed them, and her youngest daughter tragically died of starvation. Under German occupation, food was scarce, but her two surviving daughters continued their schooling by sharing a single pair of boots. Both excelled in their studies.
Believed lost in the war, Maria’s husband unexpectedly returned in 1953, having been captured, branded a traitor, and imprisoned in Yakutia. After his rehabilitation, the family moved to Vorkuta to be near him, where Maria worked in a mine. In 1965, they relocated to Khabarovsk to join their daughter Tamara and settled there permanently.
At the moment, the oldest living person in Russia is 114-year-old Klavdiya Gadyuchkina from Yaroslavl.
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Maria Ogiyenko on her 111th birthday.
