Varya Akulova - The 'STRONGEST GIRL In The World'

Varya Akulova (born 1992), is a name most never heard of yet she's the female referred to as "The Strongest Girl In The World", who holds two Guinness records and was capable of lifting over four times her own body weight in 2006.

In 2000, she weighed 40 kg and could lift 220 pounds (100 kg). She has been in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Akulova, while living with her parents, Yuriy Akulov and Larisa Akulova, in Kryvyi Rih, performed in an acrobatic act with them in a circus.

Her father Uri, who says that by the age of 12 his daughter was stronger then him, thinks his side of the family have a rare strength gene that few others have.

Varya's great-grandfather managed the astonishing feat of carrying 2,600lbs (1,200kg) on his back in 1910 and her mother Larisa is also stronger than most women.

Born in the Ukrainian mining town of Krivoy Rog,

Varya Akulova showed remarkable physical abilities from a very young age. When she was just one year old, Varya could do a handstand, at one and a half she did flips, at three years of age she started performing acrobatic routines with her parents, and by age four she was already doing power lifting exercises with massive weights. When Varya’s mother, Larisa, became pregnant, her father, Yuri, started making plans about performing in the circus with his yet-unborn strong son, but when his wife gave birth to a girl, he knew his dreams would never materialize. But as the days went by, Yuri began to realize that with the right training, his daughter could become as strong as a man.

The girl had stronger arms and legs than most babies her age, and soon he became certain Varya had inherited the Akulovs’ legendary strength. Historically, his ancestors served at the court of Catherine II and became known for their amazing abilities and toughness during the Russian – Turkish wars. And as the years passed, it became clear Varya was truly an Akulov, able to lift massive weights when other girls her age were busy playing with dolls.

Although Yuri’s training methods sparked concerns about Varya’s normal growth and bone development, the doctors who performed a series of tests when she was five years old found she was in great physical shape and had an increased immunity.

The HOLODOMOR aka The 1933 Ukrainian Famine Genocide

In the early 1930’s, the Soviet Union created a policy in an attempt to increase the food supply. Stalin was convinced an agricultural collectivization that forces farmers to give up their private land, equipment and livestock, and join state owned, factory-like collective farms would not only feed the industrial workers in the cities but could also provide a substantial amount of grain to be sold abroad, with the money used to finance his industrialization plans. The policy turned out to be devastating as it helped spawn one of the biggest famines in history.

The most affected areas included Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan, the South Urals, and West Siberia. The famine was extremely bad in Ukraine, and became known as the Holodomor, which many historians felt was an actual genocide, carried out by Joseph Stalin and comparable to the Holocaust.

Holodomor - Death by starvation

The Holodomor (translated: death by starvation) refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people starved to death as a result of the economic and trade policies instituted by the government of Joseph Stalin. The famine was a part of wider Soviet famine of 1932–1933. There were no natural causes for starvation and in fact, Ukraine - unlike other Soviet Republics - enjoyed a bumper wheat crop in 1932. The Holodomor is considered one of the greatest calamities to affect the Ukrainian nation in modern history. Millions of inhabitants of Ukraine died of starvation in an unprecedented peacetime catastrophe. Estimates on the total number of casualties within Soviet Ukraine range mostly from 2.6 million to 10 million.
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