In his times, Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) was Russia’s best-known dissident alongside Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In 1970 the physicist who had contributed significantly to the development of an atom bomb in the Soviet Union co-founded the “Moscow Human Rights Committee”. In the same year he met the paediatrician Jelena Bonner, one year later they were married. Jelena Bonner became her husband’s most crucial support. In 1975 she stood in for him at the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and she visited Western Europe and the USA on his behalf. When Sakharov was exiled to Gorki, Siberia, in 1979, she was his only connection to his Muscovite comrades-in-arms and international journalists. In 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev revoked the married couple’s exile. Today Jelena Bonner lives with her children in the USA. Until recently only the human rights activist side to Sakharov was known; his widow’s memories now bring to light the private person behind the public appearance.