Human Rights Activist Honored at Welch Healthcare and Retirement Group's Nursing Center in Brighton, Massachusetts
Brighton MA (PRWEB) July 21, 2014 -- Brighton House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Brighton, Massachusetts, recently honored resident and human rights activist Alexander Yessenin-Volpin on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Friends and members of the Brighton Russian-speaking community gathered to read poetry and celebrate Yessenin-Volpin, a prominent Russian-American poet, mathematician and a leader of the Soviet human rights movement. “It’s an honor and privilege to have Mr. Yessenin-Volpin as a resident at Brighton House’s Russian Unit,” says Jenya Krein, Russian program director at Brighton House. “His story provides a unique perspective on Russian history for both our residents and staff,” adds Krein.
Yesenin-Volpin was born in Leningrad, Russia in 1924. He is the son of the late Russian poet Sergey Yessenin, one of Russia’s most distinguished literary figures. At the age of nine, he and his mother moved to Moscow, where he eventually graduated from Moscow State University. In 1949 Yesenin-Volpin was charged with writing anti-Soviet poems and arrested as a dissident. During his lifetime, he was arrested and sent to psychiatric prisons three times—under Stalin (1949), Khrushchev (1959), and Brezhnev (1968).
A firm believer in a “legalist” strategy of dissent – the strict observance of the law – Yesenin-Volpin was the first dissident in Russian history to assert a peaceful, nonviolent, law-based human rights movement. In 1965 he organized and held Moscow’s first opposition rally in four decades. Several dozen people gathered at the Pushkinskaya Square in the center of Moscow to demand glasnost—transparency in all government institutions and activities — during the trial of two recently arrested writers, Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel. Yesenin-Volpin, carrying a sign with the slogan “Respect the Constitution,” was arrested along with other protesters.
In 1972, after spending 14 years incarcerated or in exile for his beliefs, Yessenin-Volpin immigrated to the United States. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto and taught at Boston University for a period of time. Mr. Yessenin-Volpin currently resides at Brighton House Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Brighton.
Brighton House, a Welch Healthcare and Retirement Group nursing center, strategically located in the heart of Allston-Brighton’s Russian-speaking community, is a 78-bed high-level rehabilitative, medical, and skilled nursing center providing quality care on a short- or long-term basis.
Welch Healthcare and Retirement Group is a family-owned senior services company, with headquarters in Norwell, MA. The company, led by third - and fourth-generation family members is committed to the provision of unsurpassed senior care and is a leading provider of independent, assisted living, assisted living memory care communities as well as nursing centers for short-term rehabilitation, long-term skilled nursing care, and home care services throughout southeastern, Massachusetts. For more information on Brighton House call 617-731-0515 or visit online at: http://www.welchhrg.com.
Brian, Cosgrove, Welch Healthcare and Retirement Group, +1 (781) 878-6700 Ext: 272, [email protected]
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