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A woman purported to be the oldest living person ever at 128 says she hasn't lived a single happy day in her life and her longevity is "a punishment".

The Russian government claims Koku Istambulova is the world's oldest person.

But she has bluntly said her longevity "was God's will" and she "did nothing to make it happen".

While some people chalk it up to a healthy or active lifestyle, "tired" Koku said: "I have no idea how I lived until now."

Due to turn 129 in two weeks, she added: “I have not had a single happy day in my life."

(Image: Seda Magomadova/east2west news)

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The claim was made by the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and is based on Koku's internal passport which shows her date of birth as 1 June 1889.

If correct, Koku - who shuns meat and loathes soups, but loves fermented milk - was already 27 when the last tsar, Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate in March 1917. She was 55 when the Second World War ended in 1945, and 102 when the Soviet Union collapsed a generation ago in 1991.

During the war she recalls “scary” Nazi tanks passing her family home.

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

(Image: Seda Magomadova/east2west news)

Asked how she lived so long, Koku, from a village in Chechnya, told an interviewer: “It was God’s will. I did nothing to make it happen.

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

And she claimed: “I have not had a single happy day in my life. I have always worked hard, digging in the garden. I am tired.

"Long life is not at all God’s gift for me - but a punishment.”

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

She is articulate and able to feed herself and walk, but her eyesight is failing.

(Image: Luiza Tsagueva/east2west news)

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Koku 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. I remember tanks with Germans passing our house. It was scary.

“But I tried not to show this, we were hiding in the house. 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.

(Image: Seda Magomadova/east2west news)

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

She doesn’t speak about her family tragedy but she lost several children, including a son aged six.

She recalled how Muslim restrictions on clothing eased after the end of tsarist times under Soviet rule.

Koku added: “We were brought up with very strict rules and we were very modest in our clothes.

“I remember my granny beat me and reprimanded because my neck was visible.

“And then Soviet times came and women quickly began to wear more open clothes.”

Her favourite place is to sit outside her house in summer on an old bed, shaded by a tree.

She said: “Looking back at my unhappy life, I wish I had died when I was young. I worked all my life.

“I did not have time for rest or entertainment. We were either digging the ground, or planting the watermelons.

“When I was working, my days were running one by one.

“And now I am not living, I am just dragging through.”

Officials say all her documents were lost during the Second Chechen War from 1999 to 2009.

The pension fund, a state body, claims there are 37 people over 110 years of age in Russia yet all these claims, including Koku’s, are impossible to verify because of the lack of reliable birth or early childhood written records.

Most live, like Koku, in the Caucasus which has a history of longevity among its peoples.

Since the death of 117-year-old Nabi Tajima in Japan last month, the oldest documented woman in the world is as Chiyo Miyako, born on 2 May 1901, also from Japan.

The oldest documented human lifespan is Jeanne Calment, from France, who lived 122 years, 164 days before dying in 1997.

As a girl she met Vincent van Gogh.