Elena Bonner (Boston Globe)
If I could, I would be attending the memorial service for Elena Bonner, widow of Andrei Sakharov, today at Stanetsky Memorial Chapel in Boston. She died of heart failure on Saturday at the age of 88. She was a friend of Inna’s and Naum’s, an inspiration to me, and one of the loudest voices for human rights the world has ever heard. Here are some excerpts from her obituaries:
Boston Globe, Laura J. Nelson and Michael J. Bailey, June 20, 2011:
“Dr. Bonner, a beacon of freedom in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, an advocate for democracy in Russia in the past decade, and the widow of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Andrei Sakharov.”
“She is known as his wife and partner and widow, but she is not someone who lived in Sakharov’s shadow,’’ said Josh Rubenstein, the Northeast regional director of Amnesty International, who met Dr. Bonner in the 1980s. “She was a force in her own right.’’ Rubenstein added: “She was like a one-woman Amnesty International.’’
“Despite political pressure, Dr. Bonner and Sakharov made a point of supporting political prisoners, traveling to trials in far-flung corners of the Soviet Union to help imprisoned activists.”
“They once went to visit a friend in exile and had to walk many kilometers in the snow through the night to get to his small hut,’’ Rubenstein said. “They went out of their way to show solidarity while the Soviet regime was still in place.’’
New York Times, Alessandra Stanley and Michael Schwritz, June 19, 2011
“Ms. Bonner recalled years later that her background had given her ‘deep respect toward all beliefs, all religions.’ The most deplorable teaching,’ she said, ‘is the superiority of any nation over another.”
“She felt that Russia was backsliding, and she campaigned vigorously to improve justice and the rule of law in Russia and the democratization of the political system,” Edward Kline.
CNN, Ben Brumfield, June 19, 2011:
“She stood side by side with her husband in the fight for political freedom, democracy and human rights in the former Soviet Union, and all over the world. I want to pay tribute to the courage she showed in standing up for fundamental freedoms and human dignity that people worldwide demand,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.”
Washington Post, June 19, 2011:
.. . she carved out her own reputation as a tireless human rights campaigner in the face of relentless hostility from Soviet authorities.”
See this blog for other comments:???http://hro.rightsinrussia.info/hro-org/bonner
(photo from the “Boston Globe”)
