Biography
Anatoliy Pozdnyakov was born in Darasun in the Trans-Baikal Territory and resides now permanently in Chita. He has an older sister; his younger brother died at a young age. His father worked as a driver at a local transport company and was repeatedly on the company's board of honor. His mother raised the children and later worked at a bakery until her retirement.
The Pozdnyakov family kept livestock, so Anatoliy was taught to work from an early age. After his mother's death, he took care of his father, who had lost his eyesight.
From childhood, Anatoliy liked gymnastics and later boxing. After graduating with honors from the Irkutsk Regional College of Physical Culture, he worked for a year as a physical education teacher at his school. He later graduated from the Chita State Medical Institute. His career included work at a sports medicine clinic and a boxing sports school; for about 20 years, Pozdnyakov served as a doctor on an ambulance team in Chita. From 2017, for 4 years, he worked as a physiotherapist in the sports medicine department of the main regional hospital. Anatoliy is now retired.
"Medicine is a field where you can rely only on scientific facts," the believer said. "I was deeply impressed by its reliable facts when I was introduced to Bible truth... I'm also encouraged by our Creator's promises for the future, which give hope."
Anatoly met his wife Lyudmila through mutual friends. She is an accountant and economist. The couple have been married for more than 40 years and raised two sons, both of whom now have families of their own. In 2014, Anatoliy and Lyudmila were baptized together as Jehovah's Witnesses. "We became part of a large, multimillion, close-knit family in which everyone strives to live by Bible standards and principles," the believer recalls. "Over more than a decade of studying the Bible, qualities such as love, peace, patience, kindness, mildness, and self-control have grown even stronger in me."
In 2019, Pozdnyakov was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He is under observation at the regional oncology clinic. In addition, he is receiving treatment from a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's disease. Anatoliy tries to lead a healthy lifestyle, but, according to him, his serious illnesses are taking their toll.