Maria’s father Manzh was a secondary school teacher and worked in the villages of Iki-Manlan and Zurgan. He was a respected man, and even today his former pupils remember him as a kind person. Influenced by her father, Maria wanted to become a teacher when she grew up. Maria went to school in Siberia when Kalmyks were sent into exile. She was the only Kalmyk child in her class. She had to walk 9 kilometers each day to get to her school. Her family returned to Kalmykia in 1963. Since there were no pedagogical institutes in Kalmykia, Maria went to study pedagogy in the city of Cherkesk. After finishing institute, she taught in a secondary school in the village of Maly Derbet in Kalmykia.