Born on June 14, 1917, in northern Moscow, Ryabtseva witnessed the Civil War between the Bolsheviks and the “Whites” who opposed the revolution, and World War II, during which two of her four children died. The Bolsheviks confiscated their livestock as part of their campaign to force peasants to join collective farms. We joined the kolkhoz.”During World War II, in which more than 20 million Soviet citizens died, Ryabtseva worked as a nurse in a hospital in Rostov Veliky around 200 kilometres north of Moscow. She says that she isn’t interested in politics and has no intention of celebrating the anniversary of the 1917 Revolution on November 7. “I think that I would have had the same life, with or without the revolution.

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 24, 2017 18:00 UTC