Ludmilla Thorne Alexander Yesenin-Volpin, Alik to those of us in the human-rights movement, has been a dear personal friend and an inspiration to me for more than 25 years. He is a unique human being with a pure soul and a brilliant mind. Alik greatly deserves the Sakharov Prize. Don Weidenberger There is no one more deserving of this award. This is just a small way of the world recognizing Alik's unmatched achievements. Armando Valadares I respectfully support the nomination de Alexander Sergeevich Yesenin-Volpin for the Andrei Sakharov prize because he has been a monument to the human spirit and an inspiration for all that fight for freedom and the respect for human rights. Michael Jacobson With great respect Michael Johnson Alik was my first contact with the dissident movement in Moscow 1967 and I have continued to admire him for his independence of mind, his personal courage and his dedication to the noble cause of human rights. He has devoted his life to this pursuit and yet has never lost his high spirits and sense of humour. A truly great man. Taya Lenkov It is long time deserved. Radek Sikorski I am former deputy minister of defence and deputy minister of foreign affairs of Poland and fully associate myself with this petition. Peter Reddaway Dorogoi Alik, I'm delighted to hear that you have passed handsomely the biblical "three score years and ten", and have now reached the next big marker of FOUR score years. Pozdravlyayu Vas! You'll be glad to learn that once a year for the last 15 years your name and your work have featured prominently in the course on human rights in the USSR that I have given at George Washington University. Yesterday I finished grading the final exams by the 42 students in this year's class, and many of them referred to you at one or another point in their answers. All those who answered the question about legalism named you as the creator and first practitioner of the concept, and then wrote about the concept and its application in the Soviet Union. In addition, three of the 42, when doing the research to write their 12-page research papers about legalism, read Ben Nathans's so far unpublished long article about you and your work, which he kindly sent me some time ago. I hope that Ben has been in touch with you himself. In case you don't know, he is a very talented historian of Russia at the University of Philadelphia, who is writing a major academic study of the main forms of dissent in the USSR. I expect his study to be the most thorough scholarly study to date of the whole complex topic. So your work for human rights may have left a bigger legacy than you realize. I personally believe that your contributions to human freedom have been of inestimable and lasting value, and regret that I have failed to say this to you until this late - but not too late! - date. It would be nice for me if I could visit you the next time I get to Boston. Hearty congratulations again, and every good wish for the future. Leonid Finkelstein I, would like to add my signature to the Petition. Today, on the 30th July, 2004, I inserted a note on Dr. Yesenin-Volpin in the BBC Russian Service Chronology where I compared Yesenin-Volpin with Denis Diderot , the Encyclopedist and leading light of the Age of the Enlightenment. I hope the Petition will be successful. Susan Jo Gardos As Librarian of the Russian Research Center Library at Harvard University, I have known Alik since the 1970s and have become familiar with his work over the years. He certainly deserves the Sakharov Award. Konstantin Azadovski I fully support the Petition for the award of the Andrei Sakharov Prize of the European Parlament, for 2004, to A. Essenin-Volpin. Konstantin Azadovski, President of St.Petersburg PEN-Club organization Pavel Litvinov I cannot think about anybody who did more to formulate and propagate ideas of Human Rights in the Soviet Union and the world than Alexander Yessenin-Volpin. Mykola Horbal, Grigory Gerchak, Vasyl Ovsienko, Mykola Plakhotnyuk, Evgen Svirstyuk, Nadia Svitlychna We are former Soviet political prisoners from Ukraine who believe that the patriarch of the human rights movement in the USSR -- Alexander Yesenin Volpin -- is a worthy recipient of the Andrei Sakharov Prize. He is a true democrat who has always kept close to his heart not only the problems of the Russian people but also those of the other oppressed nations of the Soviet empire. The Sakharov Prize would affirm the special role that Yesenin-Volpin played in the human rights movement. Mykola Horbal -- Imprisoned three times for political reasons; former Deputy to the Rada (Ukrainian legislature). Grigory Gerchak --Former participant in the Ukrainian Liberation Movement, sentenced to death at age 20. After the death of Stalin, his sentence was commuted to 25 years of prison, which he served in full. Vasyl Ovsienko -- Spent many years as a political prisoner in the labor camps of Mordovia and Perm. Mykola Plakhotnyuk --Medical doctor; former political prisoner who was confined in psychiatric hospitals. Evgen Svirstyuk -- Former political prisoner, has a doctor's degree in philosophy; current chairman of the Ukrainian Pen Center. Nadia Svitlychna -- Radio journalist, former political prisoner. Igor Gr. Yackowenko For a long time Yessenin – Volpin’s name was in Russia one of the human rights movement's symbols. The prize will note his indisputable place in a history of spiritual resistance to the communistic system and the struggle for human rights.
|