June 22, 2017

The Full 100


The Full 100
Maria Nikolayevna Ryabtsova, on her 100th birthday, in St. Petersburg. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

On the eve of our visit, the ambulance came for Maria Nikolayevna Ryabtsova: there was something wrong with her neck. The doctor examined her, but found nothing serious. He did an EKG and was surprised: “if only everyone had a heart like yours,” he said.

In the morning, Maria Nikolayevna was active and happy, as usual. Generally speaking, she is not used to being sick: there’s work to be done and she has no time for hospitals. In recent years, just one ailment has been vexing her: she has been going blind. To this day Maria refuses to believe that her sight will not return, and she continues trying to mend her own clothes and to sew on lost buttons.

She moves about her Petersburg apartment swiftly and surely, which is not surprising, given that she has lived here half her life. In the middle of the last century, her husband constructed apartment buildings in this section of the city, and so they were given a two-room apartment in one of the five-story structures.

Today, Maria Nikolayevna lives with her grandson and his wife, who are both very young. Alexander and Natalya help their babushka with everything, but do so tactfully, in order not to insult her or infringe on her independence.

Maria Nikolayevna shares some photos with the author. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

Maria still prefers to do her own shopping and to cook her own dinners. “Why should I take up the young people’s time?” she says, “they have plenty else to do.”

On the day of our visit, Maria Nikolayevna was going shopping. She and Natalya walked for about an hour, at a very good clip, and managed to cover a city block and visit two stores. After their walkabout, they measured her blood pressure: 123 over 68.

“You could fly to outer space,” Natalya certified as she removed the pressure sleeve from her babushka’s arm.

“Well, we’ll fly tomorrow, then,” Maria laughed. The following day, June 14, she had big plans: she was turning 100.

Natalya helps Maria Nikolayevna get ready for her big day. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

The grandkids were entirely consumed by the celebration, but of course the hero of the day also had plenty to worry about. She had to get dressed up in a handsomely pressed skirt and blazer (a row of medals having been affixed to the latter); meet with city representatives and receive their congratulations; answer phone calls and read a letter from President Putin; act a part in our Children of 1917 film and fill our team up with tea; take part in a discussion of “how much juice needs to be purchased for the party”; get her hair done and change into an elegant, bright-green dress; then go visit her grandchildren. And all of this had to be done before the special celebratory dinner, which was being held in a restaurant.

Only the very closest relatives were able to make it to the party. There were just 20 people, but they represented four generations. The most striking and cheerful guests were two of Maria’s nieces– the twins Rosa and Lyusya, venerable 70-year-olds. They sang drinking songs and fired up the competitions, in one of which they were the undisputed leaders. The task was to name the most significant events of the last century, those in the history of the country as well as in the life of the honoree.

To be fair, however, Maria Nikolayevna ought be given her due. In her merry making, she was the equal of anyone at the party.

A special portrait session at the party. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

Around about the middle of the celebrations, at six in the evening, we began to make serious inquiries of her relatives, whether perhaps Maria Nikolayevna might be tired and going home soon. The question was met only with surprise: “What do you mean? She will hang in there until the end!”

We realized that we could not compete with Maria Nikolayevna on this front, as the following morning we had to leave Petersburg at five a.m., to be in Pskov oblast for another 100th birthday party. So we had to leave the party when it was in full swing.

We said our goodbyes to Maria Nikolayevna warmly, as friends. And she, who had all day been smiling and laughing, waved goodbye while quietly wiping away tears.

Maria Nikolayevna's big day. {Video: Yevgeny Mashchenko}
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955