Zemskikh Nina Vasilievna was born on November 29, 1928 in the Staroyuryevsky district in a large family. When the war began, Nina Vasilievna studied at school. Father and elder sister went to the front from the first days of the war. Younger children up to the age of seven helped the collective farm to collect spikelets in the field, and some older ones weeded rye. They sowed makhorka on the collective farm. Nina Vasilievna and five other girls organized a brigade and worked in the makhorka fields all summer. The norm for each teenager was 0.5 hectares, they worked from early morning until late night, and in the evening they still managed to help their mother around the house, cultivated their own garden. The collective farm provided bread for the workdays earned, but the portions were very small. After graduating from school, she wanted to continue her studies at college, but for family reasons, she did not enter the college immediately. She lived in a hostel, slept on mattresses filled with grass or straw. In the post-war period she worked and studied. She graduated from the Pedagogical Institute and worked at school. She was awarded with jubilee medals and certificates of honour.