Word: bonner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Toward the end of the book, Bonner says of the isolation in Gorky: "From there you can't call out, you can't shout loud enough to be heard." The following excerpt shows that, given a voice of sufficient strength and conviction, yes, you can call out, you can indeed be heard...
...Gorbachev had given him orders to handle the situation with Sakharov. So I sat down at my typewriter, and wrote: "In case I am allowed to travel abroad to see my mother, children and grandchildren, and also for treatment, I will not hold press conferences or give interviews. Elena Bonner. Sept. 5, 1985." Andrei's statement said, ". . . If my wife is allowed to travel abroad for treatment and to see her relatives, I plan to concentrate on scientific work and on my private life; however, I retain the right to make statements on social issues in extreme situations...
...Elena Bonner flew to the U.S., by way of Italy, on Dec. 7, 1985. After visiting briefly with her mother, children and grandchildren in Newton, she underwent a sextuple coronary-bypass operation in Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. In her five months in the U.S., Bonner traveled to Chicago, to Los Angeles, to Miami, visiting old friends and appearing at many ceremonies in Sakharov's honor. She also paid a discreet visit to the White House, where National Security Adviser John Poindexter received her. In what little spare time she had, she wrote this book. She liked America...
...that berated and maligned Sakharov. Soon, the magazine Smena published an article by Yakovlev expanding on what he had written in his CIA book. The flood of letters changed direction, and many became openly anti- Semitic (since Sakharov is not Jewish, the letters were obviously aimed at Bonner, whose mother is Jewish). Threats increased, particularly against me. We were threatened at the market in Gorky, on our balcony, out in the street. On Sept. 4, when I was leaving Gorky on the 6:20 a.m. train, two middle-aged women and a man were in the compartment with...
...summoned for more questioning the following day, then put into a van and driven home. When I got out, a man said to me, "Elena Georgievna Bonner? Allow me to introduce myself." "Get away!" I said, thinking someone was trying to meet me in front of all the KGB people with me. "You'll get into trouble...