Background
Bonner, Ruth was born in 1900. Daughter of a Jewish revolutionary.
Bonner, Ruth was born in 1900. Daughter of a Jewish revolutionary.
Mother-in-law of Dr Andrei Sakharov. Before 1917, lived with her family in Eastern Siberia. Committed socialist. Joined the Communist Party in the 1920s.
Married an activist of the Armenian Communist Party. After her husband’s arrest and execution in 1937, she too was arrested as a wife of the enemy of the people, and became an inmate of a prison camp in Kazakhstan, working on the excavation of a canal. Released, 1946. Lived near Leningrad.
Later continued her exile in the Gorkii region. In 1954, after her husband’s rehabilitation, returned to Moscow. In 1961 wrote a private letter to Khrushchev warning of the evils of nuclear weapons.
In 1980 was let out of the country for a short visit to the USA. Actively campaigned from abroad for the release of the Sakharovs from their Gorkii exile. Was refused an entry visa to the USSR in 1980. Eventually returned to the USSR in June 1986.