"We announce with deep sorrow that our mother Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner died today, on June 18 at 13:55 (17:55 GMT). According to her will, her body will be cremated and the cinerary urn will be buried at the Vostryakovo cemetery in Moscow next to her husband, mother and brother," Yankelevich said in a statement....
Her spouse, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов) died in 1989. He was a Nobel Peace Prize winnter, a Russian dissent and human rights activist as well as a nuclear physicist. Their names and message was important in Russia.
Andrei Sakharov Autobiography (click here)
I was born on 21 May 1921. My father was a well-known teacher of physics and the author of textbooks, exercise books and works of popular science. I grew up in a large communal apartment where most of the rooms were occupied by my family and relations and only a few by outsiders. The house was pervaded by a strong traditional family spirit - a vital enthusiasm for work and respect for professional competence. Within the family we provided one another with mutual support, just as we shared a love of literature and science.
My father played the piano remarkably well, in particular Chopin, Grieg, Beethoven and Scriabin. During the civil war he earned a living by playing the accompaniment to silent films at the cinema....
I know all the arguments, "How could anyone that was a nuclear physicist ever be a human rights advocate, etc., etc., etc." Espeically given the fact he was a Russian.
Becasue men and women develop their point of view over time. When they achieve their pinnacle of success and have the ability to look back over their life and find a sense of injustice within their achievement, when they look across the spectrum of their achievements and realize others are not within their grasp to have the same quality of life or freedoms, their conscience won't leave them alone. A man with a character enough to grow in stature in what was then the Soviet Union wasn't interested in owning luxury beyond his family's comfort. He wasn't interested in a house in the county, one in the city, and one at the beach. He was interested in the world 'outside himself' and not narcisstic values of luxury and self emulation.
