Aleksei Shapoval is something of hero in Russia, a country facing a future with an acute shortage of people.

The retired steelworker celebrated the arrival of his 101st grandchild this week, a girl named Tatiana, in the village where he lives with most of his huge family.

Mr Shapoval now has 50 granddaughters and 51 grandsons from his 11 sons and two daughters in what is believed to be a record for Russia. They range in age from 26 years to three days.

“I’m very happy. I love them all and they are all wonderful. I know all of their names and which of my children they belong to,” Mr Shapoval, 72, said yesterday from his home in Bungar, near the city of Novokuznetsk, in western Siberia.

“I keep a little book where I have written all their names and birthdays, and I look at it every month to see who’s next. I usually give them little presents of chocolate, but if they want ice-cream I’ll buy ice-cream.”

Mr Shapoval’s oldest child, Pavel, 50, has nine children and his youngest, Matvei, 31, has four. Maxim, his sixth son, aged 43, tops the family league, having produced 14 children with his 42-year-old wife, Vera.

Asked if any of his children had failed to produce offspring, he replied swiftly: “Yes, Yakov. He has only two.”

Mr Shapoval’s first wife, Claudia, who bore his 13 children in 19 years, died of a stroke in 1996. He married his present wife, Valentina, five years ago.

Most of the family remains in Bungur, where locals have dubbed one street Shapoval Street because so many of Mr Shapoval’s children and grandchildren live there with him.

The Shapovals are devout Baptists and the local church hall is the only place big enough to hold family celebrations. The most recent gathering was two years ago to celebrate Mr Shapoval’s 70th birthday.

“We consider every child to be a gift from God, which is why nobody in our family has ever considered abortion,” Mr Shapoval said. “It’s God’s will that we have been able to have so many children.”

Russia is in desperate need of divine assistance to reverse a demographic decline that threatens severe economic and political consequences. Its population has dropped by six million since 1992 and, on current trends, the total of 142 million is predicted to shrink 30 per cent by the middle of the century.

Russia’s working population is expected to fall by ten million by 2015, through retirement and a life expectancy for men that has fallen to 59 years. President Putin has sought to tackle the crisis by introducing a scheme this year to offer women 250,000 roubles (£5,000) if they have a second child, with more for subsequent deliveries.

“We were having children long before they thought of this idea, but life in Russia is getting better now,” Mr Shapoval said.

His thoughts are fixed on a new family milestone in the autumn, when he expects to become a great-grandfather for the first time.

“My second grandchild, who is also called Tatiana, got married in December and is pregnant now. So I’m just waiting to become a great-grandfather.”

Family types

— Elizabeth Bolden, born in 1890, died the world's oldest woman in 2006. Her 567 descendants included 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren

— Creationist Henry M. Morris calculates that at the time of Adam’s death at the age of 930 he could have had 2.8 million descendants

Source: The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Times archives

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