|
INTERVIEW
When we checked out the Thurgood Marshall site from the Seevak competition in 2002, we were impressed by the interview from someone who had known Marshall. We decided that, in order to understand Andrei Sakharov on a more personal basis, we should get an interview. While I was talking about my Seevak topic with my friend who lived in Brookline, he mentioned that Elena Bonner, Andrei Sakharov’s wife, was currently residing there, although he did not know the exact address. When I told my teammates the news, we started a frenzy of internet searches, rifling through the Brookline yellow pages…but to no effect. Just as we began to feel dejected, a new hope manifested itself in an unusual way. Since I was assigned to do research on Sakharov’s wife, fellow activist Elena Bonner, I borrowed her book Alone Toghether, a memoir of the years they spent together in exile in Gorky. On one of the pages in the book was a picture of a forged postcard with the address of Elena Bonner’s family in America. Apparently, twenty years ago, when this book was published, Elena Bonner’s family had a house in Newton. We immediately typed this address into Yahoo! Maps and confirmed it to be real address. Then we wrote to this address, introducing ourselves, the Seevak project and expressing our wish to meet and perhaps have a brief interview with Ms. Bonner. When, after a week, our letter was not returned, we began to look dejected again, showing signs of premature hair-loss and sharp decrease in appetite for junk food. Then, while conscientiously doing her research, Jian found a link to the Sakharov Archives at Brandeis University in Waltham. The archive, located in the library of Brandeis University, is run by Tatianna Yankelevich, the daughter of Elena Bonner and Professor Gribanov, archivist, the expert on both Andrei Sakharov’s life and the history of Russia. We called the Sakharov archives and, after a whole series of telephone tag, Mrs. Yankelevich amiably agreed to an interview with her and Professor Gribanov.
Videos of out Interview :
Movie Clip 1 | 873K | Enter
Movie Clip 1 | 873K | Enter
Flash version with pictures | Flash 6 or higher | Enter
|
