The story of Masha Mikhalitsyna, who was kept in a chest by her mother for 12 years

Maternal instinct is a wonderful feeling given to women by nature. Unfortunately, not everyone has it, and because of this, terrible things often happen. The tragic story of Russian woman Masha Mikhalitsina is just such a case. The girl lived in a chest until she was 12 years old because her own mother did not need her. These years were continuous torture for the child, which forever crippled her body and soul.

Masha’s mother, Lyubov Mikhalitsyna, lived in the village of Aleksandrovskoye in the Kirov region. She worked as a milkmaid on a collective farm and was an unsociable woman who drank. Love often went on a drinking binge and did not go to work. But it was the 1970s, and the farm management turned a blind eye to the addiction that was common among rural residents.

No one knew that Lyubov became pregnant. The woman carefully hid her situation and when she gave birth to a girl in 1977, no one even knew about it. Mikhalitsyna gave birth at home, without turning to doctors for help. Oddly enough, even her neighbors never heard the child's cry and remained in the dark.

The birth of a child did not make Love a mother - that same wonderful instinct never woke up in her. The milkmaid emptied an old 1.5-meter chest of things and turned it into a baby's cradle, only with a lid. The child did not leave the wooden box and lived in it for 12 long years. The girl slept, was awake and played in the chest, and even went to the toilet under herself.

The girl's diet was not varied. The mother fed her daughter bread and milk. Sometimes Lyubov would pick up some scraps left over from lunch at the farm and take them home. She told her colleagues that she feeds them to dogs. But that was not the case. Someone's half-eaten food became a real delicacy for the girl.

Perhaps the life of the little prisoner would have ended in the chest, and the world would never have known about her. But Lyubov Mikhalitsyna died unexpectedly, and her terrible secret was revealed. When the drinking milkmaid did not show up for work, no one was alarmed. Such absenteeism was the norm for Mikhalitsyna. But when she did not come out on the second day, the farm became worried.

After work, several of Mikhalitsyna’s colleagues went to her home. The door to the house was not locked, and the first thing they saw was the body of the owner on the floor. Most likely, the woman died suddenly from a heart attack. She repeatedly complained of chest pain, which was not strange given her lifestyle.

The women heard some rustling from the corner where the old chest stood. They thought it was a rat, but decided to check just in case. They screamed when they saw a strange, dirty creature that vaguely resembled a child. His limbs were deformed, his hair was matted, and his face and body were covered in a thick layer of dirt. This something was dressed in terrible rags.

The creature made inarticulate sounds, among which obscene expressions could be discerned. The women immediately called the chairman of the collective farm and the district police officer. They say that the chairman, a strong, blooming man, looked into the chest and fainted. Upon closer examination, it turned out that the chest was not a monster, but Mikhalitsyna’s 12-year-old daughter. Despite her adolescence, the girl’s height did not exceed 60 cm.

The child was sent to a psychoneurological clinic. There she was washed, changed and fed. Since the girl did not speak, it was not possible to find out if she had a name. The hospital staff gave her the name Masha. The child's vocabulary was limited to a few dirty curses, but she pronounced them slurred. Masha did not know how to take care of herself, never used cutlery and had no idea about the rules of hygiene.

Masha was afraid of people and tried to crawl into a dark corner and hide. Her lower limbs were undeveloped and she could not walk. The girl only recognized bread and milk as foods. The examination showed that the child has a severe form of mental retardation and many chronic diseases of internal organs. Masha had the intelligence of a two-year-old child.

At first, doctors decided that Masha Mikhalitsyna was suffering from congenital diseases. Since her mother drank, it was logical. But later it turned out that the child did not have any genetic problems. Her legs had atrophied due to constant sitting in the chest. For the same reason, the girl was the size of a one-year-old child.

Masha spent several months in the hospital, and then she was transferred to a boarding school for disabled children. There, speech therapists, speech pathologists, and psychiatrists began working with her and achieved significant success. The girl stopped being afraid of everyone, learned to write simple sentences, and even made friends with other children.

Now Maria Mikhalitsyna is already well over 40. She is only 1 meter tall, and she gets around in a wheelchair. The woman communicates freely with people and likes to give interviews to journalists. In the nursing home where she lives, she was nicknamed “The Chest Girl.” Maria has several friends to whom she travels to other wards in her chair. She loves music and watching TV.

Mikhalitsyna has absolutely no memory of her terrible life in the chest. Apparently, some kind of defensive reaction worked and 12 years were erased from memory. Despite her difficult fate, Maria is a very cheerful and friendly person. She always smiles and every new day is a holiday for her.

No less tragic was the fate of a girl from Siberia, Dusya Merzlyakova, who was kept on a chain by her parents.