The famous peacemaker and public figure, publicist and dissident Elena Georgievna Bonner has been a life partner and comrade-in-arms of Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov for almost two decades.
Childhood and youth
Elena was born in 1923 in Turkestan. Her father, an Armenian by nationality, stood at the head of the communists of Armenia, then held responsible party posts in Moscow and Leningrad. In 1937, he was repressed and shot, but years later he was rehabilitated. Following her father, a Jewish mother was arrested as the wife of a traitor to the motherland. The court sentenced her to eight years in the camp. Left without parents, the girl lived with her grandmother in Leningrad.
Young Elena spent all her free time in a literary circle, this activity really captured her. Having received a certificate in 1940, the girl began evening studies at the Herzen Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, she chose the direction of Russian philology.
During the war
From the first days of the war, Bonner joined the ranks of the mobilized Red Army soldiers. At the sanitary "briefing" she helped to take out wounded soldiers from Ladoga. During the air raid, she was shell-shocked, and was treated in hospitals for a long time. In 1943, she returned to service and went through the rest of the war as part of the ambulance train # 122. Elena met the news of the Victory in the Austrian city of Innsbruck with the rank of lieutenant of the medical service. In the summer of 1945, Elena, as part of a sapper battalion, was in the Karelian-Finnish direction. Returning to Leningrad, she did not meet with her grandmother, she did not survive the blockade.
Postwar years
Bonner decided to pursue a medical degree and became a medical student. The girl's harsh statements on the "Doctors' case" cost her expulsion from the university. She was able to recover only after the death of the "leader of the peoples." The graduate devoted several years to medical practice: she worked as a doctor at the site, as a pediatrician in a maternity hospital, and gave lectures to students of a medical school.
The beginning of Bonner's literary biography are considered her first publications in the magazines "Neva", "Youth", in the editions "Literaturnaya Gazeta" and "Medical Worker". In addition, Elena worked a lot on the radio, prepared materials for the "Youth" program. She was a literary editor at a publishing house and participated in the creation of a book about the son of the writer Eduard Bagritsky.
Dissidence
In 1965, Bonner joined the ranks of the CPSU. But the events of the Prague Spring forced her three years later to write a letter of resignation from the party. Her position in life did not coincide with party convictions. In the following years, she often attended dissident trials. At one of these meetings in Kaluga, she met Andrei Sakharov, and in 1972 they got married.
Two years later, Andrei Dmitrievich was awarded the Chino del Duca international literary prize. The award was presented to figures for their contribution to the humanization of society. The spouses donated a significant amount of the prize to the fund for the children of political prisoners. It was Elena's old dream to support this category of people, because she herself experienced what it is like to be a child of “enemies of the people”. In 1975, Bonner represented Academician Sakharov at the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The prestigious award was given to the nuclear physicist "for supporting the principles of peace among people and combating the abuse of power."
Bonner and Sakharov were under the vigilant control of the special services. In 1980, they were sent to the city of Gorky "for slandering the Soviet social and state system". The link lasted seven years. The couple was able to return to the capital only after the beginning of perestroika.
Long-awaited freedom
In 1985, Bonner asked for permission to leave the Soviet Union and was refused. The Soviet government decided that the West could use the dissident for its own purposes. One of the members of the Central Committee called her "a beast in a skirt and a henchman of imperialism."
Returning to the capital in 1987, the couple began active social activities, in particular, the revival of the organizations "Memorial" and "Public Tribune". Elena Georgievna joined the Common Action group, which consisted of active human rights defenders. After the death of her husband, she headed the Academician Sakharov Foundation, and devoted the rest of her life to perpetuating his memory.
In 1994, Elena Bonner worked on the Human Rights Commission under the President of the country. But after the federal troops entered Chechnya, she left it, considering her further cooperation with the presidential administration impossible.
One of the TV channels dedicated to the heroine the documentary They Chose Freedom, which tells about her life and work.
In her personal piggy bank there are many government awards from various countries. She received most of them for her contribution to the cause of peace and the advancement of civil liberties.
Abroad
In 2006, Elena Georgievna left the country. She chose America as a further place of residence, where her children lived. Daughter Tatiana and son Alexey were born in their first marriage. She divorced their father Ivan Semyonov in 1965. Children witnessed endless searches and detentions, they were blackmailed. During the mother's exile in Gorky, they were expelled from educational institutions, and they had no choice but to emigrate to the United States. For a long time, Alexei's bride was not allowed out of the country. Bonner and her husband even had to go on a hunger strike that lasted more than two weeks. Fearing widespread public outcry, the authorities gave the girl permission to leave.
In the last years of her life in a foreign land, Bonner continued her activities, spoke out sharply about the Ossetian conflict and was the first to sign an appeal from the opposition to change the government in Russia. She published her work in the blog of the Internet edition "Grani.ru", where she shared her own thoughts on the changes that Russia needed.
Elena Georgievna died in 2011, she passed away in Boston after a long illness. Her last wish was cremation, then Bonner's ashes were transported to Moscow and buried next to Andrei Sakharov.
