Sakharov-Bonner: A genius under Lisa's thumb. Elena Bonner and cabbage pie for Andrei Sakharov...and then destruction

Booker Igor 06/02/2019 at 23:50

In the liberal Russian pantheon, the name of Elena Bonner occupies one of the most honorable places. However, its role in the fate of the genius is still not entirely clear. Why one of the leading developers hydrogen bomb, a humanist with left-wing views favored by the Soviet regime, academician Andrei Sakharov became a dissident battering ram directed against the USSR. Search a woman?

There are names related to each other like Father Frost and Snegurochka - it is difficult to imagine them without the other. This is a tandem or a pair. Continuing the topic fairy-tale heroes, let's call the cat Basilio and the fox Alice. The heroine of the Sakharov-Bonner couple, famous in the KGB, received the nickname “Fox”. Academician Andrei Sakharov had two at once - “Ascetic” and “Askold”. The dissident scientist, apparently, did not match Basilio; his character was different, which cannot be said about the cunning “Fox”.

“The burden of love is heavy, even if two people carry it. Now I carry our love with you alone. But for whom and why, I myself cannot say,” Elena Bonner ended her letter with the lines of Omar Khayyam when she celebrated her 85th birthday anniversary. His widow has been bearing the “burden of love” without the academician for almost two decades. Last years lived in the USA, next to her children Tatyana Yankelevich and Alexey Semenov. She lived in comfort, but complained that she wanted to go home. She spoke on behalf of “dissidents, this small group of people,” and added that very few of them “managed to return to professional activity", and they "feel lonely in the West." She did not return - old age and illness did not allow her. "Fox" died in an overseas burrow. Only an urn with ashes will be delivered to the capital's Vostryakovskoye cemetery and buried next to Sakharov.

Elena Georgievna Bonner appeared on White light like Lusik Alikhanova. Father and stepfather are Armenians by nationality. Mother, Ruth Grigorievna Bonner, was the niece of editor and public figure Moisei Leontievich Kleiman. In Paris, where this emigrant died, he took part in meetings of the Palestine Club, the Jewish Debating Club, and the Hebrew Language Union.

In the official biography of Elena Bonner it is written: “After the arrest of her parents, she left for Leningrad. In 1940 she graduated high school and entered the evening department of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of Leningrad pedagogical institute them. A. I. Herzen. She started working while still in high school. In 1941, she volunteered to join the army, completing nursing courses. In October 1941 - the first serious wound and concussion. After recovery, she was sent as a nurse to the military hospital train N122, where she served until May 1945."

According to another version, on July 8, 1941, two weeks after the start of the war, Lucy Bonner was evacuated to the Urals, to a specially created boarding school. Many years later, in 1998, former boarding school residents used their own funds to publish a book of memoirs, “Boarding School. Metlino. War,” in a small edition. It tells about two years of life in the Urals (in 1943, the boarding school students returned to Moscow). The pupils remembered with great sympathy their pioneer leader Lucy, an energetic and pretty girl. But the management was not happy with her, because Bonner was in no hurry to get up in the morning and did not follow the orders of her superiors. After the director of the boarding school found Lucy at night playing cards with the children for money, the pioneer leader was fired.

In her youth, Elena Bonner had an affair with a prominent engineer, Moisei Zlotnik, but the womanizer, confused in his relationships with women, killed his wife and ended up on a bunk. The famous Soviet criminologist and popular publicist Lev Sheinin outlined the vicissitudes of this sensational case in his time in the story “Disappearance.” On its pages the wife-killer's cohabitant appeared under speaking name"Lucy B."

After leaving Metlino, the former pioneer leader got a job as a nurse on a hospital train. During the war, the ardent young lady became the PPZH (field wife) of the train chief Vladimir Dorfman, to whom she was old enough to be his daughter. In 1948, she cohabited for some time with a very middle-aged but wealthy business executive from Sakhalin, Yakov Kisselman. The official visited the capital only on short visits, and Lyusya became friends with her medical school classmate Ivan Semyonov.

“In March 1950, her daughter Tatyana was born. The mother congratulated both Kisselman and Semenov on their happy fatherhood. The next year, Kisselman formalized the relationship with the mother of his “daughter,” and two years later Semenov and Semenov got involved with her by marriage,” it is written in the book N. N. Yakovleva “CIA against the USSR.” - For the next nine years, she was legally married to two spouses at the same time, and Tatyana from a young age had two fathers - “Papa Yakov” and “Papa Ivan.” She learned to distinguish between them - from "Jacob's dad" money, from "Ivan's dad" fatherly attention. The girl turned out to be smart beyond a child and never upset either of the fathers with the message that there was another. One must think, she listened first of all to her mother. Weighty Money transfers from Sakhalin at first they provided for the lives of two “poor students”. In 1955, their son Alyosha was born. Ten years later, Elena Bonner divorced Ivan Vasilyevich Semenov.

At the time of meeting Elena Georgievna, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov had already been a widower for a year. His wife Klavdiya Alekseevna Vikhireva, the mother of his three children Tatyana, Lyubov and Dmitry, died of cancer. In the fall of 1970, in the house of one of the human rights activists, “two loneliness” met, as the song sang. Andrei Dmitrievich noticed her, she seemed to remain indifferent. But, in his words, “this beautiful and business-like woman” was not introduced to him, and Elena Georgievna knew very well the secret academician who published his “dissident” thoughts in France.

The gentleman was introduced to the lady in Kaluga, where both were at the trial of some human rights activists. Sakharov was going with his children to the south and needed an accommodation pet- a cross between a dachshund and a spaniel. As a result, the “nobleman” was settled in Bonner’s rented dacha in Peredelkino. Andrey returned from the resort tanned, but with wax all over his cheek. She immediately rushed to his house to give him an injection. In August 1971, Academician Sakharov, accompanied by a recording by the baroque composer Albinoni, confessed his love to Lucy (as he called her).

"Bonner swore eternal love to the academician and, for starters, threw Tanya, Lyuba and Dima out of the family nest, where she placed her own - Tatyana and Alexei. With change marital status Sakharov, the focus of his interests in life changed. The theorist became involved in politics and began meeting with those who soon received the nickname “human rights activists.” Bonner brought Sakharov together with them, simultaneously ordering her husband to love her instead of their children, for they would be a great help in the ambitious enterprise she had started - to become the leader (or leaders?) of the “dissidents” in the Soviet Union,” stated Nikolai Yakovlev. The author and his sensational story the book is sometimes accused of bias - it was allegedly written in the wake of the fight against the dissident movement in the USSR, almost under the dictation of the KGB.

It is unlikely that anyone will argue that at that time there were only two most famous dissidents - academician Sakharov and writer Solzhenitsyn. In 2002, the second volume of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn’s “Two Hundred Years Together” was published, where on page 448 the following is said: “Sakharov also recklessly joined the flow of the dissident movement after 1968. Among his new concerns and protests there were many individual cases , moreover, the most private ones, and of these, most of all, statements in defense of Jewish “refuseniks.” And when he tried to raise the topic on a broader scale, he innocently told me, not understanding the full blatant meaning, Academician Gelfand answered him: “We are tired of helping this people to solve their problems; and Academician Zeldovich: “I will not sign in favor of the victims for anything - I will retain the opportunity to defend those who suffer for their nationality.” That is, to protect only Jews."

The fact that the outstanding academician and famous human rights activist Andrei Sakharov is an ordinary henpecked person in everyday life is admitted with shame by his own children. Relatives, not adopted children. Bonner's daughter, Tatyana, an evening student at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University, married student Yankelevich, but introduced herself to Western journalists as “Tatyana Sakharova, the daughter of an academician.” Her namesake, Tatyana Andreevna Sakharova, tried to stop the impostor, but she snapped: “If you want to avoid misunderstandings between us, change your last name.”

After Sakharov became a laureate Nobel Prize world for 1975 and a substantial amount of foreign currency appeared in his foreign accounts, the “children” Tanya Yankelevich and Alexey Semenov rushed to the West. True son Academician Dmitry Sakharov (also a physicist, like his father) admitted in an interview with Express Newspaper: “When my mother died, we continued to live together for some time - dad, me and my sisters. But after marrying Bonner, my father left us, settling in my stepmother's apartment. Tanya had gotten married by that time, I was barely 15 years old, and 23-year-old Lyuba replaced my parents. Together we ran the house. In his memoirs, my father writes that his older daughters turned me against him. This is not true. It's just that no one ever invited me to the house where dad lived with Bonner. I rarely came there, completely missing my father. And Elena Georgievna did not leave us alone for a minute. Under the stern gaze of my stepmother, I did not dare to talk about my boyhood problems. There was something like a protocol: a joint lunch, routine questions and the same answers."

Remember the magnificent fairy tale "Morozko"? Unlike the Russian fairy tale, the overseas "Morozko" generously rewarded stepmother's children, to the detriment of their own children. The evil stepmother did not send her husband to the forest to take his beautiful daughter, she forced the old man to go on a second hunger strike. No termination nuclear tests, it was not the dissident Andrei Dmitrievich who demanded democratic reforms in the country, but...a visa to travel abroad for the fiancee of Alexei Semenov. By the way, according to the academician’s son, when he arrived in Gorky, where Sakharov was in exile, to persuade his father to abandon the hunger strike that was killing him, he saw Alexei’s bride eating pancakes with black caviar.

“Elena Georgievna knew perfectly well how destructive hunger strikes were for dad, and she perfectly understood that she was pushing him to the grave,” says Dmitry Andreevich Sakharov. After that hunger strike, the academician experienced a cerebral vascular spasm. These confessions of Sakharov’s son were not made to please the KGB - such an organization has not existed for a long time.

And here is an interesting excerpt from a report to the CPSU Central Committee, dated December 9, 1986: “While in Gorky, Sakharov again returned to scientific activity. As a result, in Lately he had new ideas. For example, he expresses his thoughts in the field further development nuclear energy, on issues related to controlled thermonuclear fusion (the Tokamak system), and on a number of other scientific areas.

It is characteristic that in the absence of Bonner, who was in the USA for some time, he became more sociable and willingly entered into conversations with Gorky residents, in which he criticized American program "star wars", commented positively on the peaceful initiatives of the Soviet leadership, and objectively assessed the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

These changes in Sakharov's behavior and lifestyle are still persistently opposed by Bonner. She essentially persuades her husband to give up scientific activities, directs his efforts to produce provocative documents, and forces him to conduct diary entries with the prospect of publishing them abroad."

In 1982, in exile in Gorky, the disgraced academician was visited by the young artist Sergei Bocharov. In an interview with Express Gazeta, this representative of bohemia said: “Sakharov did not see everything in black terms. Andrei Dmitrievich sometimes even praised the USSR government for some successes. Now I don’t remember why exactly. But for every such remark he immediately received "A slap on the bald head from my wife. While I was writing the sketch, Sakharov got it no less than seven times. At the same time, the world's luminary meekly endured the slaps, and it was clear that he was used to them."

Then the portrait painter sketched Bonner’s face with black paint over the image of the academician, but Elena Georgievna, seeing this, began to smear the paint on the canvas with her hand. “I told Bonner that I didn’t want to draw a “stump” who repeated the thoughts of his evil wife, and even suffered beatings from her,” recalls Sergei Bocharov. “And Bonner immediately kicked me out into the street.” A private opinion of a representative of the artistic intelligentsia, and here is the official report from the competent authorities.

On December 23, 1989, American diplomats discussed the reasons for the premature death of Academician Sakharov. Reports about this neatly fell on the table of the workers of the CPSU Central Committee: “Discussing the causes of A. Sakharov’s death, American diplomats express the opinion that it was caused by great emotional and physical overload. This was to a certain extent facilitated by the widow of academician E. Bonner, who fueled the political ambitions of her husband , tried to play on his pride."

Booker Igor 06/02/2019 at 23:50

In the liberal Russian pantheon, the name of Elena Bonner occupies one of the most honorable places. However, its role in the fate of the genius is still not entirely clear. Why one of the leading developers of the hydrogen bomb, a humanist with leftist views favored by the Soviet authorities, academician Andrei Sakharov, became a dissident battering ram directed against the USSR. Search a woman?

There are names related to each other like Father Frost and Snegurochka - it is difficult to imagine them without the other. This is a tandem or a pair. Continuing the theme of fairy-tale characters, let's call the cat Basilio and the fox Alice. The heroine of the Sakharov-Bonner couple, famous in the KGB, received the nickname “Fox”. Academician Andrei Sakharov had two at once - “Ascetic” and “Askold”. The dissident scientist, apparently, did not match Basilio; his character was different, which cannot be said about the cunning “Fox”.

“The burden of love is heavy, even if two people carry it. Now I carry our love with you alone. But for whom and why, I myself cannot say,” Elena Bonner ended her letter with the lines of Omar Khayyam when she celebrated her 85th birthday anniversary. His widow has been bearing the “burden of love” without the academician for almost two decades. In recent years she lived in the USA, next to her children Tatyana Yankelevich and Alexei Semenov. She lived in comfort, but complained that she wanted to go home. She spoke on behalf of “dissidents, this small group of people,” and added that very few of them “managed to return to professional activity,” and they “feel lonely in the West.” She didn’t come back - old age and illness didn’t allow her. "Fox" died in an overseas hole. Only the urn with ashes will be delivered to the capital’s Vostryakovskoye cemetery and buried next to Sakharov.

Elena Georgievna Bonner was born as Lusik Alikhanova. Father and stepfather are Armenians by nationality. Mother, Ruth Grigorievna Bonner, was the niece of editor and public figure Moisei Leontievich Kleiman. In Paris, where this emigrant died, he took part in meetings of the Palestine Club, the Jewish Debating Club, and the Hebrew Language Union.

In the official biography of Elena Bonner it is written: “After the arrest of her parents, she left for Leningrad. In 1940, she graduated from high school and entered the evening department of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute named after A. I. Herzen. She began working while still in high school. school. In 1941, she volunteered to join the army, completing nursing courses. In October 1941, she received her first serious injury and shell shock. After recovery, she was sent as a nurse to the military hospital train N122, where she served until May 1945."

According to another version, on July 8, 1941, two weeks after the start of the war, Lucy Bonner was evacuated to the Urals, to a specially created boarding school. Many years later, in 1998, former boarding school residents used their own funds to publish a book of memoirs, “Boarding School. Metlino. War,” in a small edition. It tells about two years of life in the Urals (in 1943, the boarding school students returned to Moscow). The pupils remembered with great sympathy their pioneer leader Lucy, an energetic and pretty girl. But the management was not happy with her, because Bonner was in no hurry to get up in the morning and did not follow the orders of her superiors. After the director of the boarding school found Lucy at night playing cards with the children for money, the pioneer leader was fired.

In her youth, Elena Bonner had an affair with a prominent engineer, Moisei Zlotnik, but the womanizer, confused in his relationships with women, killed his wife and ended up on a bunk. The famous Soviet criminologist and popular publicist Lev Sheinin outlined the vicissitudes of this sensational case in his time in the story “Disappearance.” On its pages, the wife-killer's cohabitant appeared under the telling name "Lucy B.".

After leaving Metlino, the former pioneer leader got a job as a nurse on a hospital train. During the war, the ardent young lady became the PPZH (field wife) of the train chief Vladimir Dorfman, to whom she was old enough to be his daughter. In 1948, she cohabited for some time with a very middle-aged but wealthy business executive from Sakhalin, Yakov Kisselman. The official visited the capital only on short visits, and Lyusya became friends with her medical school classmate Ivan Semyonov.

“In March 1950, her daughter Tatyana was born. The mother congratulated both Kisselman and Semenov on their happy fatherhood. The next year, Kisselman formalized the relationship with the mother of his “daughter,” and two years later Semenov and Semenov got involved with her by marriage,” it is written in the book N. N. Yakovleva “CIA against the USSR.” - For the next nine years, she was legally married to two spouses at the same time, and Tatyana from a young age had two fathers - “Papa Yakov” and “Papa Ivan.” She learned to distinguish between them - from "Father Yakov" money, from "Father Ivan" fatherly attention. The girl turned out to be smart beyond a child and never upset either of the fathers with the message that there was another. One must think that she listened first of all to her mother. Significant money transfers from Sakhalin in the first place They soon ensured the lives of two “poor students.” A son, Alyosha, was born in 1955. Ten years later, Elena Bonner divorced Ivan Vasilyevich Semenov.

At the time of meeting Elena Georgievna, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov had already been a widower for a year. His wife Klavdiya Alekseevna Vikhireva, the mother of his three children Tatyana, Lyubov and Dmitry, died of cancer. In the fall of 1970, in the house of one of the human rights activists, “two loneliness” met, as the song sang. Andrei Dmitrievich noticed her, she seemed to remain indifferent. But, in his words, “this beautiful and business-like woman” was not introduced to him, and Elena Georgievna knew very well the secret academician who published his “dissident” thoughts in France.

The gentleman was introduced to the lady in Kaluga, where both were at the trial of some human rights activists. Sakharov was going with his children to the south and needed to adopt a pet - a cross between a dachshund and a spaniel. As a result, the “nobleman” was settled in Bonner’s rented dacha in Peredelkino. Andrey returned from the resort tanned, but with wax all over his cheek. She immediately rushed to his house to give him an injection. In August 1971, Academician Sakharov, accompanied by a recording by the baroque composer Albinoni, confessed his love to Lucy (as he called her).

“Bonner swore eternal love for the academician and, to begin with, threw Tanya, Lyuba and Dima out of the family nest, where she placed her own - Tatyana and Alexei. With the change in Sakharov’s marital status, the focus of his interests in life changed. The theorist took up politics part-time and began dating those who soon received the nickname “human rights activists.” Bonner brought Sakharov together with them, simultaneously ordering her husband to love her instead of their children, for they would be a great help in her ambitious enterprise - to become the leader (or leaders?) of “dissidents” in the Soviet Union.” , - stated Nikolai Yakovlev. The author and his sensational book are sometimes accused of bias - it was allegedly written in the wake of the fight against the dissident movement in the USSR, almost under the dictation of the KGB.

It is unlikely that anyone will argue that at that time there were only two most famous dissidents - academician Sakharov and writer Solzhenitsyn. In 2002, the second volume of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn’s “Two Hundred Years Together” was published, where on page 448 the following is said: “Sakharov also recklessly joined the flow of the dissident movement after 1968. Among his new concerns and protests there were many individual cases , moreover, the most private ones, and of these, most of all, statements in defense of Jewish “refuseniks.” And when he tried to raise the topic on a broader scale, he innocently told me, not understanding the full blatant meaning, Academician Gelfand answered him: “We are tired of helping this people to solve their problems; and Academician Zeldovich: “I will not sign in favor of the victims for anything - I will retain the opportunity to defend those who suffer for their nationality.” That is, to protect only Jews."

The fact that the outstanding academician and famous human rights activist Andrei Sakharov is an ordinary henpecked person in everyday life is admitted with shame by his own children. Relatives, not adopted children. Bonner's daughter, Tatyana, an evening student at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University, married student Yankelevich, but introduced herself to Western journalists as “Tatyana Sakharova, the daughter of an academician.” Her namesake, Tatyana Andreevna Sakharova, tried to stop the impostor, but she snapped: “If you want to avoid misunderstandings between us, change your last name.”

After Sakharov became the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 1975 and a substantial amount of foreign currency appeared in his foreign accounts, the “children” Tanya Yankelevich and Alexei Semenov rushed to the West. The real son of the academician, Dmitry Sakharov (also a physicist like his father), admitted in an interview with Express Gazeta: “When my mother died, we continued to live together for some time - dad, me and my sisters. But after marrying Bonner, my father left us , settling in her stepmother's apartment. Tanya had gotten married by that time, I was barely 15 years old, and 23-year-old Lyuba replaced my parents. Together we ran the house. In his memoirs, my father writes that my older daughters turned me against him. This not true. It’s just that no one ever invited me to the house where dad lived with Bonner. I rarely came there, completely missing my father. And Elena Georgievna never left us alone for a minute. Under the stern gaze of my stepmother, I didn’t dare talk about their boyish problems. There was something like a protocol: a joint lunch, routine questions and the same answers."

Remember the magnificent fairy tale "Morozko"? Unlike the Russian fairy tale, the overseas "Morozko" generously rewarded stepmother's children, to the detriment of their own children. The evil stepmother did not send her husband to the forest to take his beautiful daughter, she forced the old man to go on a second hunger strike. The dissident Andrei Dmitrievich demanded not an end to nuclear testing, nor democratic reforms in the country, but...a visa to travel abroad for the fiancee of Alexei Semenov. By the way, according to the academician’s son, when he arrived in Gorky, where Sakharov was in exile, to persuade his father to abandon the hunger strike that was killing him, he saw Alexei’s bride eating pancakes with black caviar.

“Elena Georgievna knew perfectly well how destructive hunger strikes were for dad, and she perfectly understood that she was pushing him to the grave,” says Dmitry Andreevich Sakharov. After that hunger strike, the academician experienced a cerebral vascular spasm. These confessions of Sakharov’s son were not made to please the KGB - such an organization has not existed for a long time.

And here is an interesting excerpt from a report to the CPSU Central Committee, dated December 9, 1986: “While in Gorky, Sakharov returned to scientific activity. As a result, he has recently acquired new ideas. For example, he expresses his thoughts in the field of further development of nuclear energy, on issues related to controlled thermonuclear fusion (Tokamak system), and on a number of other scientific areas.

It is characteristic that in the absence of Bonner, who was in the United States for some time, he became more sociable, willingly entered into conversations with Gorky residents, in which he criticized the American “Star Wars” program, positively commented on the peace initiatives of the Soviet leadership, and objectively assessed the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

These changes in Sakharov's behavior and lifestyle are still persistently opposed by Bonner. She essentially persuades her husband to give up scientific activity, directs his efforts to produce provocative documents, and forces him to keep diary entries with the prospect of publishing them abroad.”

In 1982, in exile in Gorky, the disgraced academician was visited by the young artist Sergei Bocharov. In an interview with Express Gazeta, this representative of bohemia said: “Sakharov did not see everything in black terms. Andrei Dmitrievich sometimes even praised the USSR government for some successes. Now I don’t remember why exactly. But for every such remark he immediately received "A slap on the bald head from my wife. While I was writing the sketch, Sakharov got it no less than seven times. At the same time, the world's luminary meekly endured the slaps, and it was clear that he was used to them."

Then the portrait painter sketched Bonner’s face with black paint over the image of the academician, but Elena Georgievna, seeing this, began to smear the paint on the canvas with her hand. “I told Bonner that I didn’t want to draw a “stump” who repeated the thoughts of his evil wife, and even suffered beatings from her,” recalls Sergei Bocharov. “And Bonner immediately kicked me out into the street.” A private opinion of a representative of the artistic intelligentsia, and here is the official report from the competent authorities.

On December 23, 1989, American diplomats discussed the reasons for the premature death of Academician Sakharov. Reports about this neatly fell on the table of the workers of the CPSU Central Committee: “Discussing the causes of A. Sakharov’s death, American diplomats express the opinion that it was caused by great emotional and physical overload. This was to a certain extent facilitated by the widow of academician E. Bonner, who fueled the political ambitions of her husband , tried to play on his pride."

* Why was Dmitry Sakharov ashamed of his father?

* Why did Mrs. Bonner refuse to look at the unknown portrait of Andrei Dmitrievich, recently exhibited in New York? * How did Elena Bonner manage to cheat the most cunning oligarch Boris Berezovsky? * Why do the academician’s associates not respect Sakharov’s second wife? * Why does the scientist’s granddaughter Polina Sakharova know nothing about her famous grandfather?

The answers to these questions are the finishing touches to the portrait of Andrei Sakharov, an outstanding scientist, human rights activist and, in many ways, a controversial person. On the eve of a round historical date, and on August 12 - 50 years since the test of the first hydrogen bomb, the creator of which Sakharov is considered to be, we found the son of the famous academician. 46-year-old Dmitry is a physicist by training, like his father. This is his first interview for the Russian press.

Do you need the son of Academician Sakharov? He lives in the USA, in Boston. And his name is Alexey Semenov, - Dmitry Sakharov joked bitterly when we agreed to meet by phone.- In fact, Alexey is the son of Elena Bonner. This woman became the second wife of Andrei Sakharov after the death of my mother, Claudia Alekseevna Vikhireva. For almost 30 years, Alexey Semenov gave interviews as “the son of Academician Sakharov,” and foreign radio stations shouted in every possible way in his defense. And with my father alive, I felt like an orphan and dreamed that dad would spend at least a tenth of the time with me that he devoted to my stepmother’s offspring.

Evil stepmother

Dmitry re-read Andrei Sakharov's memoirs many times. I tried to understand why this happened, that loving father suddenly moved away from him and his sisters, marrying Elena Bonner. I even counted how many times Sakharov mentioned in his books about his own children and the children of his second wife. The comparison was not in favor of Dmitry and his older sisters - Tatyana and Lyuba Sakharov. The academician wrote about them casually, and dedicated dozens of pages in his memoirs to Tatyana and Alexei Semenov. And this is not surprising.

When my mother died, we continued to live together for some time - dad, me and my sisters. But after marrying Bonner, my father left us, settling in his stepmother’s apartment, - says Dmitry.- Tanya had gotten married by that time, I was barely 15 years old, and 23-year-old Lyuba replaced my parents. It was just the two of us who ran the place. In his memoirs, my father writes that his older daughters turned me against him. It is not true. It’s just that no one ever invited me to the house where dad lived with Bonner. I rarely came there, completely missing my father. And Elena Georgievna did not leave us alone for a minute. Under the stern gaze of my stepmother, I did not dare to talk about my boyhood problems. There was something like a protocol: a joint lunch, routine questions and the same answers.

- Sakharov wrote that he supported you by giving you 150 rubles a month.- This is true, but something else is interesting here: my father never gave the money to me or my sister. We received postal orders. Most likely, Bonner advised him to send money by mail. It seems that she had provided this form of help in case I suddenly began to say that my father was not helping me. But he stopped sending these alimony payments as soon as I turned 18 years old. And here you can’t find fault with anything: everything is according to the law. Dmitry did not even think of being offended by his father. He understood that his father was an outstanding scientist, was proud of him and, having matured, tried not to attach importance to the oddities in their relationship with him. But one day he still felt embarrassed for his famous parent. During Gorky's exile, Sakharov went on his second hunger strike. He demanded that the Soviet government issue permission to travel abroad to Bonner's son's fiancée, Lisa.

In those days, I came to Gorky, hoping to convince my father to stop the senseless self-torture,” says Dmitry. - By the way, I found Lisa at lunch! As I remember now, she ate pancakes with black caviar. Imagine how sorry I felt for my father, offended for him and even uncomfortable. He, an academician, a world-famous scientist, organizes a noisy protest, risks his health - and for what? It’s understandable if he tried to stop testing in this way nuclear weapons or would demand democratic changes... But he just wanted Lisa to be allowed to go to America to Alexei Semyonov. But Bonner’s son might not have rushed abroad if he really loved the girl so much. Sakharov had a severe heartache, and there was a huge risk that his body would not withstand the nervous and physical activity. Later I tried to talk to my father about this topic. He answered in monosyllables: it was necessary. But who? Of course, Elena Bonner, she was the one who egged him on. He loved her recklessly, like a child, and was ready to do anything for her, even death. Bonner understood how powerful her influence was and took advantage of it. I still believe that these shows greatly undermined my father’s health. Elena Georgievna knew perfectly well how destructive hunger strikes were for dad, and she perfectly understood that she was pushing him to the grave.

The hunger strike really was not in vain for Sakharov: immediately after this action, the academician suffered from a cerebral vascular spasm. Henpecked academician

When Bonner’s children, son-in-law and daughter-in-law fled over the hill one after another, Dmitry also wanted to emigrate. But his father and stepmother unanimously said that they would not give him permission to leave the Union.

- Why did you want to escape from the USSR, was your life really in danger?

No. I, like Tatyana Semenova and Alexei, dreamed of a well-fed life in the West. But it seems that the stepmother was afraid that I might become a competitor to her son and daughter, and - most importantly - she was afraid that the truth about Sakharov’s real children would be revealed. Indeed, in this case, her offspring could receive fewer benefits from foreign human rights organizations. And the father blindly followed his wife’s lead. Deprived of his father's money, Dima earned his living himself. While still a student, he got married and had a son, Nikolai. My wife also studied at the university. The young family often had to go hungry, but not for political reasons, like an academician - the scholarship was not enough even for food. Somehow, in despair, Dmitry Once again I borrowed 25 rubles from a neighbor. I bought food for three rubles, and for 22 rubles I bought an electric sharpener and began to go around the apartments of citizens, offering to sharpen knives, scissors and meat grinders.“I didn’t want to turn to my father for help,” says Dmitry. - Yes, and he would probably refuse me. I didn’t go to him asking for support even later, when I broke my leg. I got out as best I could, my friends didn’t let me go to waste.

Dmitry and his sisters gradually got used to solving their troubles and problems on their own. Even on holy days for their family - the anniversary of their mother's death - they managed without their father.- I suspect that father has never visited our mother’s grave since he married Elena Georgievna. I couldn't understand this. After all, it seemed to me that dad loved mom very much during her life. I don’t know what happened to him when he started living with Bonner. It was as if he had become covered in a shell. When Lyuba’s first child died during childbirth, her father did not even find time to come to her and expressed his condolences over the phone. I suspect Bonner was jealous of his old life and he didn't want to upset her.

Slaps on the bald head

During Gorky's exile in 1982, the then young artist Sergei Bocharov came to visit Andrei Sakharov. He dreamed of painting a portrait of the disgraced scientist and human rights activist. I worked for four hours. To pass the time, we talked. Elena Georgievna also supported the conversation. Of course, there was some discussion weaknesses Soviet reality.

Sakharov did not see everything in black terms, - Bocharov admitted in an interview with Express Gazeta.- Andrei Dmitrievich sometimes even praised the USSR government for some successes. Now I don’t remember why exactly. But for every such remark he immediately received a slap on the bald head from his wife. While I was writing the sketch, Sakharov got hit no less than seven times. At the same time, the world's luminary meekly endured the cracks, and it was clear that he was used to them.

Then it dawned on the artist: he should paint not Sakharov, but Bonner, because it is she who controls the scientist. Bocharov began to paint her portrait with black paint directly on top of the academician’s image. Bonner was curious about how the artist was doing and looked at the canvas. And when she saw herself, she became furious and rushed to smear the oil paints with her hand.“I told Bonner that I didn’t want to draw a “hemp” who repeats the thoughts of his evil wife, and even suffers beatings from her,” recalls Sergei Bocharov. - And Bonner immediately kicked me out into the street. And last week an exhibition of Bocharov’s paintings took place in New York. The artist also brought to the USA that same unfinished sketch of Sakharov from 20 years ago.- I specially invited Elena Georgievna to the exhibition. But, apparently, she was informed about my surprise, and she did not come to see the paintings, citing illness, - says Bocharov.

Stolen inheritance

Elena Bonner’s reverent attitude towards money is legendary. Dmitry was told about one such case by people who knew Sakharov’s widow closely.

Elena Georgievna has a grandson, Matvey. This is the son of her eldest daughter. Loving grandmother Shocked the whole family when she gave Mota a tea set for her wedding. The day before, she found it in one of the Boston garbage dumps. The cups and saucers, however, were without scratches, because strange Americans sometimes throw away not only old things, but also those that they simply no longer like. Bonner's prudence was clearly demonstrated when it came time to distribute the inheritance of her deceased husband.

The will was drawn up with the active participation of the stepmother, - says Dmitry.- Therefore, it is not surprising that the right to dispose of her father’s literary inheritance went to Bonner, and in the event of her death, to her daughter Tatyana. My sisters and I were given part of the dacha in Zhukovka. I won’t name the monetary amounts, but the share of the stepmother’s children was larger. Elena Georgievna herself sold the dacha and gave us cash. But she handled Berezovsky’s money in the most masterly way! Two years ago, the Sakharov Museum in Moscow was on the verge of closure - there was no money for its maintenance and salaries for employees. Then the oligarch tossed three million dollars from his master’s shoulder. Bonner immediately ordered that this money be sent to the Sakharov Foundation account in the USA, and not in Russia! And this foreign organization is actively involved not so much in charity as in commerce. Now millions are spinning in accounts in the USA, and my father’s museum still drags out a miserable existence, - Dmitry assures.- What the Sakharov Foundation does in Boston is a big mystery to me. Occasionally he reminds himself of himself with performances in Western press, some sluggish actions are being carried out. Bonner herself is in charge of the fund.

Instead of an afterword

Dmitry lives in the center of Moscow in a good-quality Stalin apartment. He never became a professional physicist. According to him, he is now engaged in a “small private business.” He never spoke to Elena Bonner after his father’s death. During rare visits to Russia, the widow does not try to contact him. The year before, Dmitry was invited to celebrate the 80th birthday of Andrei Sakharov in the former Arzamas-16 (now the city of Sarov). My father’s colleagues did not invite Bonner to the celebrations.

Andrei Sakharov’s employees don’t like to remember Elena Georgievna, says Dmitry. - They believe that if not for her, then perhaps Sakharov could have returned to science. During our conversation, I probably looked around not very decently, trying to find on the walls, in the cabinets, on the shelves at least one small photograph of the “father” of the hydrogen bomb. But I found on the bookshelf only a single photograph from family archive- An old man holds a little boy in his arms.- This boy is me. And the old man is the father of my mother, Claudia Vikhireva,” explains Dmitry. - This photo is dear to me. - Is there at least one portrait of Andrei Sakharov in your house?“There is no icon,” the academician’s son grinned. Maybe that’s why Polina, Dmitry’s 6-year-old daughter, didn’t even remember her grandfather’s name. And he doesn’t even know what he was doing.

Olga KHODAEVA

There is still no monument to Andrei Sakharov in Moscow, although 10 years ago the capital’s government proposed installing it on Tverskoy Boulevard. But for some reasons of her own, incomprehensible to the Slavic mind, Elena Bonner always speaks out categorically against it.

Photo from the family album of Dmitry Sakharov, the Magnum Photos agency and the Sakharov Archive

Initially her name was Lusik Alikhanova. Father, Armenian Alikhanyan Gevork Sarkisovich, Comintern worker, was shot on February 13, 1938. Mother, Jewish Bonner Ruf Grigorievna, also a communist, was arrested on December 10, 1937, and on March 22, 1938, sentenced to 8 years of exile. Bonner's parents were rehabilitated in 1954.

After the arrest of both parents in 1937, she moved to Leningrad. In 1940, she graduated from school and entered the evening department of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute. A. I. Herzen.

During the Great Patriotic War served as a volunteer nurse in the Red Army and was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, after which she worked first as an ordinary nurse, and later from 1943 as a senior nurse on military hospital train No. 122. In 1971 she was recognized as a disabled person of the Great Patriotic War of the second group.

From 1947 to 1953, Bonner studied at the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute. After studying, she worked first as a local doctor, then as a pediatrician in a maternity hospital, and taught children's diseases. Excellent health worker of the USSR.

Bonner has two children - daughter Tatyana (1950) and son Alexey (1956). Divorced from their father, Semenov Ivan Vasilyevich, since 1965.

In 1965, after the XXII Party Congress, she joined the CPSU (candidate since 1964). However, after the events of 1968, she considered her position wrong and in 1972 left the CPSU due to her convictions.

In 1972 she married academician Sakharov. She represented him in 1975 at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo. Together with Sakharov she was exiled to the city of Gorky.

Since Elena Bonner's active participation in human rights activities, she has been subjected to numerous searches and detentions, and she has often been blackmailed. The daughter and son were expelled from universities and were forced to emigrate in the late seventies. Alekseeva's son's fiancée was denied permission to go to see him, which became the reason for the first hunger strike of the Sakharov spouses in Gorky (November 22 - December 9, 1981). The hunger strike was a success: E. Alekseeva was released to the USA.

Best of the day

Elena Bonner was published in the magazines “Neva”, “Youth”, in the “Literary Gazette”, in the newspaper “Medical Worker”, participated in the collection “Actors who died on the fronts of the Patriotic War”, was one of the compilers of the book “Vsevolod Bagritsky, diaries, letters , poetry".

In 1972, she left the CPSU (the impetus was the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968). Founder of the Fund for Assistance to Children of Political Prisoners (1974). One of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group. She actively opposed the prosecution of dissidents, disseminated information about true reasons lawsuits.

In August 1984 Gorkovsky regional court found guilty under Art. 190-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, “since it systematically distributed orally deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social order, and also produced works of the same content in written form.” By court verdict she was exiled to Gorky for 5 years.

Upon returning to Moscow in 1987, together with A.D. Sakharov, he took a direct part in the birth of such public associations and clubs such as “Memorial”, “Moscow Tribune”, since 1997 has been a member of the Initiative Group “ General action”, created by participants in the democratic movement of the 60-70s and representatives of active human rights organizations.

Elena Georgievna heads the Foundation named after. A. D. Sakharova, devotes a lot of time peacekeeping activities aimed at ending the war in Chechnya. Chairman of the non-governmental international organization « Public Commission to perpetuate the memory of Andrei Sakharov - the Sakharov Foundation."

Elena Georgievna was a member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of Russia from its founding until December 28, 1994. She left the commission, not considering it possible for herself to cooperate with the presidential administration that unleashed the Russian-Chechen war.

Elena Bonner - one of the heroines documentary film“They chose freedom” (TV company RTVI, 2005).

Five years ago, in the summer of 2011, the legendary dissident Elena (Lusik) BONNER, the wife of the great scientist Andrei Sakharov, passed away. Her father and stepfather were Armenians - Levon Kocharov and Gevork Alikhanov, she never hid her Armenian-Jewish origin.

We offer an excerpt from Zoriy Balayan’s books “Lessons of Spitak” and “Karabakh Diary”, in which he recalls the spouses’ stay in Armenia, their attitude to the Karabakh conflict, as well as excerpts from the scientist’s book of memoirs “Gorky, Moscow, then everywhere”. Elena Georgievna and Andrei Dmitrievich lived together for 18 years - they were inseparable. An inseparable couple of courageous and honest people...

Zoriy Balayan

HELICOPTER FLYING TO SPITAK

Five days before the earthquake, I published a full-page essay about Academician A.D. Sakharov in the Grakan Tert newspaper. I first met the “father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb” in 1970. I came to Sakharov from Kamchatka, where I then worked as a doctor. Of course, I’m not going to retell the contents of the essay, but I haven’t mentioned everything about it either. I met with the academician more than once. He was already at new apartment in the summer of eighty-eight. Called many times. He called me, his wife E.G. Bonner called. The time was more than hot. He kept promising that he would come to Yerevan. But then he firmly said that it would not be possible before the New Year. A trip abroad is planned. And suddenly a call from Galina Starovoytova from Moscow: “Together with Sakharov we are flying to Baku. From there we intend to come not only to Yerevan, but also to Karabakh.”

I traveled with the academician for three days. I also visited Karabakh. We flew into a disaster zone. I led the evening meetings of Sakharov and his associates with refugees from Azerbaijan in Yerevan and Stepanakert. But now I would like to briefly talk only about the trip to Spitak.

At ten in the morning the Yak-40 took off from Stepanakert and headed for Leninakan. Cars sent from the Academy of Sciences of the Republic were already waiting for us there. We were supposed to take cars from Leninakan to Spitak, visit several villages and return to Yerevan in the evening. As it happened, I was responsible for the route. I clearly understood one thing: “Nosebleed - the next day Sakharov should be in Moscow. He has an important meeting there in the evening.” Thirty minutes later, the pilots invited me into the cockpit and conveyed, frankly speaking, bad news: “Leninakan does not accept. The pass is closed.”

This is bad,” Andrei Dmitrievich said when I informed him and his companions about the closed pass. Galya, who had appointments in Moscow, was also worried.

The fact is that there is no way for me to return without visiting the area affected by the earthquake. And they are waiting for me in Moscow tomorrow.

“We’ll figure something out,” I repeated.

Behind long years While in Kamchatka, I learned to predict the weather by the smell of the air. And from the fresh smell of snow that dusted the Erebuni airport, I knew that a snowstorm would arrive in the evening. But the evening is still far away. Sakharov and the five, as they say, accompanying persons were cowering lonely near the Yak-40. No one, of course, met us except the head of the Erebuni transportation department. For those who were supposed to meet were already in Leninakan. Suddenly I noticed a group of people fiddling around a helicopter a hundred meters away from us.

Eureka! - I shouted.

Have you come up with something yet? - the academician asked, not without irony.

Andrey Dmitrievich! Ask me: “What kind of helicopter is that there? Where is he going?”

What kind of helicopter is that there? Where is he going? - the academician supported the game, shivering from the cold wind.

This helicopter is flying to Spitak. He is carrying cargo to two villages. Food. Manufactured goods. And he will return to Yerevan without delay. If you don't believe me, let's go ask.

The crowd headed towards the helicopter, which, apparently, was about to take off. We reached the young pilot giving commands to the loaders, a person close to me, if not a friend. Stepa Nikoghosyan. I asked Andrei Dmitrievich to repeat the question that he asked me just now. Imagine his surprise when Stepan repeated “my” answer word for word.

“We agreed,” said the academician.

We agreed, - Elena Georgievna and Galya supported him.

They didn’t agree, but calculated. Leninakan is closed. This means that there is only one route left - the route running between the four-domed Mount Aragats and the single-domed Ara. This route leads to Spitak. Once the helicopter takes the cargo, it means they are transporting it to the nearest villages, because everyone and everything is transported to Spitak mainly by cars and even by railway. Something else is much more important here. How can we become passengers? Not according to the instructions.

You promised to come up with something?

I've already thought of it. We will now compile the list in duplicate. We will leave one with the head of the transportation department, having previously shown him our tickets to Leninakan, and we will leave the other list, as expected, on board. We will not disrupt the route. We will even help the pilots in some ways. At least we'll help you unload.

What is all this called? - asked Bonner.

All this is called perestro

yika. Does the ship's commander agree with me? - I asked.

I agree,” said the commander.

I agree,” repeated co-pilot Samvel Manvelyan.

“I agree,” flight mechanic Ashot Babayan repeated to his comrades.

Soon we settled down among the boxes and bags. And after a loud “From the screw!” rose into the air.

There was no one near the helicopter when the usual “From the propeller” was heard. The propellers slowly picked up speed. The wind from them scattered empty boxes, papers, and snow dust across the field. I remembered a young mother of ten children. The words of her curse rang in her ears. And he lost consciousness. This is the first time this has happened to me. Then they told me that Elena Georgievna brought me to my senses.

I felt bad. What is it? After all, it turns out that the people who are to blame are the ones who kind heart provide assistance. Those who have lost relatives and friends are to blame. Left homeless. Those who decided to stay in the village, although they were offered to leave for a while, settle in boarding houses, in rest homes, while the village was restored. But they remained. And suddenly this. Academician Sakharov reassured me. He justified them in his own way: “Then they will share among themselves what they took home. It was not so much the elements that made them angry as disorganization. And disorganization is much worse than looting.”

I understand that it’s hard for everyone: the state, the people, the living and the dead. Burying tens of thousands of dead is something you have to go through. Sending one hundred and fifty thousand schoolchildren and their parents outside the republic - this must be organized. Sheltering six hundred thousand left homeless is not easy. But one gets the impression that in fifty-eight completely destroyed villages there are no people left at all, that in three hundred and forty-two dilapidated villages, residents quietly spend the night in dilapidated houses. At first they didn’t remember them. The most amazing thing is that help is actually provided. The help is real. Only Sakharov is right, there is not enough organization. One at a time, just one smart person for each village - and everything would be in order. Not many people remained in the villages. You can make a list. You need to know specifically what not only the village as a whole needs, but also specifically this or that family, this or that person. You can order everything you need. Fortunately, everything you need is available in warehouses in Yerevan and dozens of other cities. If there were clear organization, you see, and there would be less talk around the problem of distribution.

The helicopter landed in a small open area of ​​Spitak, framed by ruins. The vacant lot apparently served as a sports ground for the school until the seventh of December. There, probably ninety-seven days before the earthquake, on the first of September, first-graders were lined up for their first line. Yes, there was a school next to the vacant lot. In the ruins we counted more than a hundred school bags. Pioneer ties, books, notebooks. Andrei Dmitrievich bent down and picked up a thin blue notebook. With trembling hands he began to leaf through it. Math notebook. Words and numbers are written in uneven handwriting and the rating is “5” in red ink. The academician wiped away his tears with a handkerchief, after raising his glasses.

The time will come, and we will bite our elbows,” said Elena Georgievna. - It was like that after the war. Here a group of students from Yerevan should collect all these things and systematize them. Then it will be needed for the museum. We need to think now about the lessons of Spitak for future generations.

A man about thirty approached us. We started talking. They learned that his son died in this very school. Almost all the children died, he said. He invited him to his tent, where the surviving family members settled down. We were, as they say here, on the other side of the bridge that divides Spitak into two parts. There are many private houses here. And many children died in schools and preschool institutions. A small man was walking towards us, and seeing whom our companion said: “In front of this man, I am silent. His three children and wife died. And now you can often see him walking from his destroyed home to the destroyed school. Along the same road that our children walked.”

Sakharov took off his glasses again. He wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

“WHY DO YOU HATE THE AZERBAIJANI PEOPLE, ELENA GEORGIEVNA?”

Twenty-first May 1991. Birthday of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. Seventy years. Delegations from all continents came to Moscow for the First International Sakharov Congress. introduction said Elena Bonner. On the presidium, in addition to world-famous scientists and public figures from abroad - USSR President M. Gorbachev. In the evening I went to Elena Georgievna on Chkalova Street. I drove and remembered her words spoken in a packed hall. I didn't know then that they were given to the world in live. She spoke about atrocities in Getashen and Martunashen, about fires in the Hadrut region and the Berdadzor subdistrict. About the deportation of twenty-four Armenian villages. In a word, about massive violations of human rights and, first of all, about the right to life. Her word thundered like a bomb, especially considering that it sounded in broad daylight to the whole world.

Elena Georgievna looked tired. There were a lot of people at home. Diverse, multilingual. Steam from coffee, smoke from cigarettes, hum, hubbub. Seizing the moment, I told Elena Georgievna, whom I, like her other friends and close acquaintances, simply call Lyusya, that I had to return home tomorrow, because the situation there was becoming completely critical.

It is not Azerbaijan that is fighting with us, but Soviet army.

Don’t you understand that starting tomorrow there will be section meetings? And you are included in the commission on mass violations of human rights, headed by Baroness Caroline Cox. And you should perform there.

Yes, understand, Lucy, all this is not so important for us now. When Armenia and Azerbaijan fight, it is war. But when the Soviet army with military generals, combat helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, and regular units fights with us, this is already the result of our criminal policy.

Politics are made in Moscow. I must disappoint you.

Everything is much more complicated than you think. Today during the break, before the concert began, I gave tea to the presidium, including Gorbachev and Raisa Maksimovna. The President's face was purple. I understood that the reason for this was my words about the latest events in Karabakh. During tea, I told the story that you told me on the phone the day before. About the fate of a mother of three children, and even nine months pregnant. And she kept looking at the faces of Gorbachev and Raisa Maksimovna. When I said that in front of a pregnant woman, three children and Soviet soldiers Azerbaijani riot police brutally killed her husband Anushavan Grigoryan, and then for four days they did not allow him to be buried; Gorbachev’s face changed. But his wife continued to drink tea. She took a bite of the cake and calmly asked: “Why do you hate the Azerbaijani people, Elena Georgievna?” This is the reaction to human tragedy.

I choked in surprise. I reminded them of our trip with Andryusha to Baku, where Vezirov said that land is not given without blood. In short, tomorrow morning let's go straight from the hotel to the Hammer Center. The Cox Commission will meet there.

Andrey SAKHAROV

“THE LAND IS NOT GIVEN AS A GIVEAWAY. IT WILL BE CONQUERED”

In Moscow, a group of scientists came to us, having in their hands a project for resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. This, of course, is a strong word, but they really had interesting, although far from indisputable, ideas. They are three employees of the Institute of Oriental Studies (Andrey Zubov and two others, whose names I don’t remember). Along with them came Galina Starovoitova, an employee of the Institute of Ethnography, who has long been interested in interethnic problems. Zubov, unfolding the map, outlined the essence of the plan.

First stage: holding a referendum in the regions of Azerbaijan with high percentage Armenian population and in areas of Armenia with a high percentage of Azerbaijani population. The subject of the referendum: whether your district (in some cases the village council) should move to another republic or remain within the boundaries of this republic. The authors of the project assumed that approximately equal territories with approximately equal populations would have to come under the control of Armenia from Azerbaijan and under the control of Azerbaijan from Armenia. They also assumed that the very announcement of this project and the discussion of its details would turn people’s minds from confrontation to dialogue and that in the future conditions would be created for calmer interethnic relations. At the same time, they considered it necessary to be present in troubled areas at intermediate stages special troops to prevent outbreaks of violence. According to their estimates, the Nagorno-Karabakh region, with the exception of the Shusha region, populated by Azerbaijanis, and the Shaumyan region, populated predominantly by Armenians, should be transferred from Azerbaijan to Armenia. I found the project interesting and worthy of discussion. The next day I called A.N. Yakovlev, said that they had brought me a project, and asked for a meeting to discuss it. The meeting took place a few hours later that day in Yakovlev’s office. The evening before, I prepared a short summary of the rather plump and scientific text of the project of three authors. It was my resume that I first gave to Yakovlev to read. He said that the document is interesting as material for discussion, but of course, given the current extremely tense national relations, it is completely unrealizable. “It would be useful for you to go to Baku and Yerevan, to look at the situation on the ground...” At this time the phone rang. Yakovlev picked up the phone and asked me to go to the secretary. After 10-15 minutes, he asked me to return to the office and said that he had spoken with Mikhail Sergeevich - he, like him, believes that any territorial changes are now impossible. Mikhail Sergeevich, independently of him, expressed the idea that it would be useful if I went to Baku and Yerevan. I said that I would like to have my wife as a member of the delegation, I will agree on the remaining names. If business trips are arranged for us, we could leave very quickly.

The group that was about to travel to Azerbaijan and Armenia included Andrei Zubov, Galina Starovoitova and Leonid Batkin from “Tribuna”, Lyusya and me. The meeting with Yakovlev took place on Monday. On Tuesday we arranged our business trips and received tickets at the Central Committee ticket office and in the evening of the same day (or maybe the next?) we flew to Baku.

We were placed as almost the only guests in a large, clearly privileged hotel. We had dinner in the newly decorated, sparkling golden hall (subsequent meals also took place there, all free of charge - at the expense of the academy). The next day - a meeting with representatives of the academy, the scientific community and the intelligentsia. She made a depressing impression on us. Academicians and writers spoke one after another, speaking volubly, sometimes sentimentally, sometimes aggressively - about the friendship of peoples and its value, about the fact that there is no problem of Nagorno-Karabakh, but there is an original Azerbaijani territory, the problem was invented by Aganbegyan and Balayan and picked up by extremists, now , after the July meeting of the Presidium Supreme Council, all past mistakes have been corrected and for complete peace of mind you just need to imprison Poghosyan (the new first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU of Nagorno-Karabakh). Those gathered did not want to listen to Batkin and Zubov talking about the referendum project, they interrupted. Academician Buniyatov behaved especially aggressively both in his own speech and during the speeches of Batkin and Zubov. (Buniyatov is a historian, war participant, Hero of the Soviet Union, known for his anti-Armenian nationalist speeches; after the meeting, he published an article with sharp attacks on Lyusya and me.) Buniyatov, speaking about the Sumgayit events, tried to portray them as a provocation of Armenian extremists and shadow economy businessmen in order to aggravate the situation. At the same time, he demagogically played up the participation in the Sumgait atrocities of some person with an Armenian surname. During Batkin’s speech, Buniyatov interrupted him in a sharply insulting, dismissive manner. I objected to him, pointing out that we are all equal members of the delegation sent by the Central Committee to discuss and study the situation. Lucy energetically supported me. Buniyatov attacked her and Starovoitova, shouting that “you were brought here to record, so sit and write without interfering in the conversation.” Lucy couldn’t stand it and answered him even more sharply, something like “Shut up - I’ve pulled hundreds of people like you out from under the fire.” Buniyatov turned pale. He was publicly insulted by a woman. I don't know what options or responsibilities you have to act in this case. eastern men. Buniyatov turned sharply and, without saying a word, left the hall. Then, in the smoking room, he told Lucy with some respect: “Even though you are an Armenian, you must understand that you are still wrong.” Of course, there could be no sympathetic attitude towards the project of Zubov and others in this audience, no attitude at all, the existence of the problem was simply denied.

On the same day there was an equally tense meeting with Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia. We were led into a large hall where several hundred Azerbaijanis were sitting - peasant-looking men and women. The speakers were, of course, specially selected people. They told, one after another, about the horrors and cruelties they were subjected to during the expulsion, about the beatings of adults and children, the burning of houses, and the loss of property. Some performed completely hysterically, whipping up dangerous hysteria in the audience. I remember a young woman who screamed as the Armenians cut children into pieces, and ended with a triumphant cry: “Allah has punished them” (about the earthquake! We knew that the news of the earthquake caused a surge of joy among many in Azerbaijan; a folk festival supposedly even took place on Absheron with fireworks).

In the evening, two Azerbaijanis came to our hotel, whom they described to us as representatives of the progressive wing of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia, who did not have the opportunity to speak at the morning meeting, and future major party leaders of the republic. Personal position of our guests on acute national problems differed somewhat from Buniyatov’s position, but not as radically as we would like. In any case, they considered Nagorno-Karabakh the original Azerbaijani land and spoke with admiration about the girls throwing themselves under tanks shouting: “We will die, but we will not give up Karabakh!” The next day we were given a meeting with the first secretary of the Republican Committee of the CPSU Vezirov. Most Vezirov spoke at the meeting. It was a kind of performance in oriental style. Vezirov acted, played with his voice and facial expressions, and gesticulated. The essence of his speech boiled down to what efforts he was making to strengthen interethnic relations and what successes had been achieved in the short time that he had been in office. The majority of refugees - Armenians and Azerbaijanis - already want to go back. (This was completely contrary to what we heard from the Azerbaijanis and, soon, from the Armenians. In fact, the problems of the unacceptable forced return of refugees, their employment and housing continue to be very acute to this day - written in July 1989)

Vezirov ordered to provide us with plane tickets, and soon we arrived in Yerevan. Formally, we had a program there similar to the Azerbaijani one - an academy, refugees, a first secretary. But in reality, all life in Yerevan passed under the sign of the terrible disaster that had happened. Already at the hotel, all business travelers were directly or indirectly connected with the earthquake. Ryzhkov had just left the day before - he headed the government commission and left behind a good memory. Yet, as we soon realized, in initial period After the earthquake, many organizational and other mistakes were made, which were very costly. Of course, Ryzhkov is not the only one to blame for this. One of the problems that I needed to get into to some extent: what to do with the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant? The fear of a nuclear power plant accident greatly increased this stress, and it was absolutely necessary to eliminate it. In the hotel lobby we met Keilis-Boroka, whom I already knew from discussions about the possibility of causing an earthquake at the right moment using an underground nuclear explosion(2 months before this I went to a conference in Leningrad where this issue was discussed). Keilis-Borok was in a hurry for some business, but still briefly explained to me the seismological situation both in the north of Armenia, where there is one latitudinal fault, at the intersection of which Spitak is located with another longitudinal fault, and in the south, where another latitudinal fault passes nearby from the nuclear power plant and Yerevan. Honestly, you have to be crazy to build a nuclear power plant in such a place! But this is far from the only madness of the department responsible for Chernobyl. The issue of construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant has still not been resolved. In the office of the President of the Armenian Academy of Sciences Ambartsumyan, I continued the conversation about nuclear power plants with the participation of Velikhov and Academician Laverov. Lucy was present during the conversation. Velikhov said: “When the nuclear power plant is shut down, the decisive role will pass to the power plant in Hrazdan. But there is also a seismic area there, and an earthquake is possible with the failure of the station.” Lucy asked: “How long will it take to restart the shutdown nuclear power plant reactors in this case?” Velikhov and Laverov looked at her as if she were crazy. Meanwhile, her question was not meaningless. In acute situations, the boundaries of what is permitted are reconsidered - Lucy knew this from her military experience.

At this time, we - Zubov, Lyusya and I - met with refugees. Their stories were terrible. I especially remember the story of a Russian woman, whose husband is Armenian, about the events in Sumgait. The problems of refugees were similar to the problems of Azerbaijanis. The next day I met with the first secretary of the Armenian Central Committee S. Harutyunyan. He did not discuss the project. The conversation was about refugees, about the fact that some were supposedly ready to return (I denied this), about the difficulties of organizing their life in the republic after the earthquake. I raised the issue of nuclear power plants. I also (either returning to Moscow, or, conversely, before the trip - I don’t remember) called Academician A.P. Alexandrov and asked when deciding on the issue of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant to take into account my opinion on the need to stop it. At the conversation with Harutyunyan it was only me, without Lucy and others. Around 12 noon, all five of us flew to Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh), Yuri Rost (photojournalist) also joined us Literary newspaper”, with which we have established a good relationship) and Zoriy Balayan (journalist, one of the initiators of raising the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh).

In Stepanakert, we were met at the plane's ramp by Genrikh Poghosyan, the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU (it was the Azerbaijani academicians who wanted to arrest him), a man of average height, with a very lively dark face. He took us by car to the regional committee building, where we met with Arkady Ivanovich Volsky, at that time the representative of the CPSU Central Committee for the NKAO (after January - chairman of the Special Administration Committee). Volsky spoke briefly about the situation in NKAO. He said: “In the 20s, two big mistakes were made - the creation of Nakhchivan and Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous national regions and their subordination to Azerbaijan.

Before leaving for Shusha, Volsky asked me and Lyusya if we would refuse this trip: “It’s restless there.” Of course, we didn't refuse. Volsky got into the same car with us, the three of us sat in the back seat, and next to the driver was an armed guard. Batkin and Zubov went in another car, also with guards; Volsky did not take Starovoitova and Balayan as too “odious”. When we were leaving, a group of excited Azerbaijanis was crowding near the district committee building. Volsky got out of the car, said a few words and, apparently, managed to calm the people down. During the meeting itself, Volsky skillfully directed the conversation and restrained passions, sometimes reminding the Azerbaijanis that they were not without sin (for example, he recalled how women beat one Armenian woman with sticks, but this matter was not given progress; there was more scary tale how boys 10-12 years old were tortured electric shock in the hospital of his peer of a different nationality and how he jumped out the window). At the beginning of the meeting, Lucy said: “I want there to be no ambiguity, to say who I am. I am the wife of Academician Sakharov. My mother is Jewish, my father is Armenian” (noise in the hall; then one Azerbaijani woman said to Lyusya: “You are a brave woman”).