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Lifelong survivor dies after beach trip

The retiree who moved here from Russia, where she watched World War II unfold, apparently drowned during a family outing.

By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published July 9, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - During the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II, college student Maria Mayanskaya wasted away to a mere 88 pounds while the city's population survived by eating rats and 4 ounces of bread a day.

So when Mayanskaya moved 15 time zones from Vladivostok to New Port Richey last August, she delighted in the weather, the size of the homes and the abundance of the food.

"She was saying it was a paradise," said her grandson, businessman Rod Novichkov, 34, of New Port Richey. Mayanskaya was diabetic, but here she could find ice cream she could eat. "You could not get sugar-free ice cream in Russia," Novichkov said. And she loved the beach, going almost every day with Novichkov's wife Olga and the couple's two daughters.

On Friday, however, something happened, and Mayanskaya, who had survived so much in her 83 years, died after being pulled from the water at Fred H. Howard Park in Tarpon Springs.

Mrs. Novichkov, 37, noticed Mayanskaya floating facedown in the water about 30 feet from shore and dragged her out, Rod Novichkov said.

Lifeguards tended to her and called for an ambulance at about 11:40 a.m., Tarpon Springs police said.

Mayanskaya was taken to Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:12 p.m. Police said that they responded to the hospital's emergency room about a possible drowning but that the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office would determine the official cause of death.

Mayanskaya, who was born in Belarus, was widowed, with her only daughter still living in Russia. She was a retired economist for a military unit in Russia, her grandson said.

Having suffered so many hardships, Mayanskaya often was surprised by the casual waste of American society. She couldn't understand how anyone could pay a $300 electric bill, her grandson said. And she never, ever discarded leftovers. She never forgot those 900 days.

"It was a terrible time," Novichkov said. "People in America don't know what hunger is. ... She would never throw away any food."

[Last modified July 9, 2005, 01:02:12]