Tutunaru Maria

About

Maria Tutunaru was the head of a team (zvenie) in the "Moldova" collective farm in the Strășeni district. She was born in 1938 in the village of Sireți, Strășeni district. After graduating from the 7-year rural school, she began her professional career in 1953 at the local "Tânăra Gardă" collective farm (renamed "Moldova" in 1959) in the village of Sireți, Strășeni district. From 1955, she led a youth (Komsomol) team of viticulturists, which started working on an old and thinned vineyard plantation, producing no more than 60 quintals per hectare. The young viticulturists systematically rejuvenated the grapevines and, at the initiative of the team leader, began to cultivate grapevines on trellises (supports), as private farmers did in their households, for more uniform light exposure. If in 1957 her team obtained a harvest of 120 quintals of grapes per hectare, in 1958 – 130 quintals, in 1959 she managed to obtain 150 quintals per hectare, considerably exceeding the average indicators in the Strășeni district and the Moldavian SSR. By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 7, 1960, in honor of the 50th anniversary of International Women's Day, for outstanding labor achievements and particularly fruitful social activity, Maria Tutunaru was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the gold medal "Hammer and Sickle". In the years that followed, her team continued to maintain a leading position among the region's viticulturists. In 1965, Maria Tutunaru took over the leadership of a complex brigade, which also included a team of mechanizers. Later, she worked in her native village within the consumer cooperative system. She was elected deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR of the 6th convocation (1963–1967). She was a delegate to the XIV Congress of the Komsomol (1962). Distinctions: • Order of Lenin (03/07/1960) • Various medals.