The oldest woman in the world was Koku Istambulova, from Chechnya.

She and her family were deported along with the entire Chechen nation Kazakhstan and Siberia by Stalin who accused them of Nazi collaboration.

Asked how she lived so long, Koku, from a village in Chechnya, told an interviewer: “It was God’s will.

“I see people going in for sports, eating something special, keeping themselves fit, but I have no idea how I lived until now.”

Relatives say she lost her only surviving daughter Tamara who lived until she was 104.

She was articulate and able to feed herself and walk, but her eyesight was failed.

She said: “I survived through the (Russian) Civil War (after the Bolshevik revolution), the Second World War, the deportation of our nation in 1944 and through two Chechen wars."

“And now I am sure that my life was not a happy one."

“Life in Kazakhstan was the hardest for us."

“When in exile we lived in Siberia too but in Kazakhstan we felt how the Kazakhs hated us."

“Every day I dreamed of going back home."

“Working in my garden helped me to get rid of my sad thoughts but my soul always wanted home.”

Koku Istambulova was buried in her native village of Bratskoye on January 27, grandson, Ilyas Abubakarov, as saying.

If the birth year in her internal passport is accurate, Istambulova was 129 or 130 when she died, making her the oldest person ever on record worldwide.