Russian Embassy Wishes Happy Birthday to WWII Veteran

On 6 December 2018 young diplomats of the Russian Embassy visited Ms Tsipra Maiburd (Budnitskaya) on the occasion of her 95^th Anniversary. Ms Maiburd is one of the two Soviet/Russian WWII veterans living today in South Africa. The veteran shared the story of her eventful and interesting life.

When the war broke out, the 16-years-old Tsipra was among those medical students who volunteered to work in the surgical department of the Sklifosovsky Emergency Institute, the principal trauma and emergency hospital in the centre of Moscow. She had been working there as a nurse for five years, and then moved to Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), where she continued caring for the seriously wounded. Later she followed her husband, a spacecraft engineer, to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where she specialized in cosmonauts’ health checks. Ms Maiburd is particularly proud to have checked the health of the first man in space Yury Gagarin. A devoted medical practitioner, she dedicated most of her life to treating children and was even awarded the title of Honoured pediatrician of Russia.

Ms Maiburd’s room is decorated with numerous pictures depicting her husband, children and grandchildren. She admitted that although she loves South Africa, she sometimes misses communication in Russian – that is why she appreciated the conversation with young Russian diplomats more than any other Birthday present.