On February 14, Alla Timofeevna Rudenko celebrated her 90th birthday in the city of Kara-Balta — a woman whose life has become a reflection of an entire era, full of trials, labor, and loyalty to song.
Born in distant Sakhalin, she grew up in a large family with nine children. From an early age, she experienced deprivation and responsibility.
“The brightest and happiest memory from my childhood: we are sitting with my mother on the shore of the ocean, everything around is incredibly beautiful, and a white steamboat is rocking on the ocean waves. I still keep this scene in my heart,” recalls the birthday girl.
However, in 1938, her father, the chairman of the collective farm, was declared an enemy of the people and repressed along with the family. They were sent to a timber industry enterprise in the Irkutsk region. “All around were only taiga and mountains, very far from cities. We were settled in wooden barracks, surrounded by a high fence. That’s where we grew up,” says Alla Timofeevna.
After school, the teenagers built a narrow-gauge railway, carried sleepers, and helped the adults. After finishing seven years of school, she began working in a cafeteria, the atmosphere of which she still remembers fondly, comparing it to the film “The Girls.”
In 1953, after studying at a trade school in Novosibirsk, she was entrusted with managing a store in the under-construction Angarsk. She remembers her first working day in detail: waking up at five in the morning, in winter — heating the stove, then opening the store for the workers who needed bread, canned goods, cigarettes, and tea. After six months, she was sent to organize a new trading point. She smiles when she calls marriage the boldest decision of her life. In 1958, she moved to the Kyrgyz SSR with her husband, a native of the Chuy region, to the village of Kosh-Tegirmen in the Kalinin district, which was later included in the city of Kara-Balta.
Her husband got a job at a mining and processing plant, while her career in the new city began with difficulties. Despite her experience and Komsomol activity, finding work was challenging. Eventually, she got a job in the labor supply department (LSD) of the mining and processing plant. “I had to get up at four in the morning to get to the base across the steppe; there were no buses going there,” she recalls.
Alla Rudenko worked in the labor supply system until retirement, balancing work with caring for her family. She and her husband started with a nine-square-meter room, without dishes or furniture, but “the girls from work collected everything they needed for them.”
To ensure a decent living, they kept a small farm, cultivated a garden, and built a shed. “My friends invited me to dances, but I went to take care of the livestock — I really wanted to provide for my family,” she says.
A special place in her life is occupied by the Lenin Culture House in Kara-Balta — the center of cultural life for factory workers. It was here, more than fifty years ago, that she joined the People’s Ensemble and has not parted with the group since. “I have loved singing since childhood. Song means everything to me — strength, spirit, inspiration, the desire to live and work,” admits Rudenko.
The ensemble “Veteran” has repeatedly become a winner of festivals and competitions, and Alla Rudenko is respected and valued in the ensemble as a veteran and mentor.
In 1980, she experienced a heavy loss — her husband passed away at the age of 48. The cause was cancer related to working with radioactive materials during business trips. Despite this blow of fate, she raised two sons and today rejoices in her three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “When I look at my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, my soul fills with love, joy, and pride,” says Alla Timofeevna.
At 90, she still lives actively: every morning — exercises, rehearsals twice a week, and walks around the city. When asked about strict diets, she just laughs: “Well, yes, not eating meat and bread, or having a glass of wine with friends — yeah, right.” She considers the main principle of her life to be the ability to live in harmony with relatives and close ones, to avoid conflicts, and to “give way to the young.”
