After being told by officials that the pothole-covered road through the village of Svedniy Bugalish in the Urals was “fine”, the group took up shovels and wheelbarrows and seemingly put the local authority to shame, Rossiya 24 news channel says.

According to Urals-based Ura.ru website, the group - including a 90-year-old babushka - chipped in 500 roubles ($8.50; £6.50) each for a truckload of gravel and set to work with the help of two men.

Pictures posted by popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda before they started work show the extent of their challenge, with pools of water lying in the road through their village.

The local administration said after an inspection last month that no repairs were necessary, despite increased rain in the area. But it’s not the first time villagers have had to fix roads in the area. Earlier this summer, two young men used stone and cold asphalt to fix their street under similar circumstances, Ura.ru reports.

Response on Russian social media has been scathing, with news aggregator Rambler’s VKontakte page saying “This story is so Russian that it is scary. Theses old ladies are heroes of our modern age.”

On Twitter, they’ve been hailed as “stern babushkas from the Urals”. Many Russians see people from the country’s vast central region as being somewhat tougher and more resilient than elsewhere.