Early Life
Berezhnaya was born in the town of Nevinnomyssk in southern Russia. She has two brothers, Alexei and Ivan. Her parents divorced when she was five due to her father's alcoholism; her mother remarried but eventually divorced again. The family also included three cousins after their parents' deaths.
Berezhnaya began skating at the age of four in Nevinnomyssk. At the age of 8, she began to be coached by Nina Ruchkina, who had arrived from Moscow. When Berezhnaya was 13, her coach asked her to switch from singles to pairs. Ruchkina had decided that her son, Alexander Ruchkin, should be a pair skater despite not being physically suited for the discipline – and she wanted Berezhnaya, as the smallest girl, to be his partner. Although Berezhnaya enjoyed watching pair skating, she was skeptical of the proposed partnership but Ruchkina convinced her mother that the pair would get a chance at CSKA Moscow's skating school. The coaches at CSKA also had doubts about Ruchkin's suitability but accepted the pair. Berezhnaya moved to Moscow, 791 miles to the north, and lived in a dormitory as her mother could not move with her. They made little progress as Ruchkin continued to struggle to lift her.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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