Copyright 1998 ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Kaleidoscope
COUNTRY:
Russia
PERSON: Andrei Sakharov
HEADLINE: Biographies
Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov was a nuclear physicist who became prominent
because of his activism on behalf of peace and human rights issues in the
Soviet Union.
Sakharov was born in Moscow on May 21, 1921. Little is known about his life
until he graduated from Moscow State
University with an honors degree in physics in 1942. He was apparently exempted
from military service because of his brilliance in physics. He received his
doctorate in 1947. His work from 1948 to 1956 played a key role in the Soviet
Union's development of the hydrogen bomb. He was recognized for his work
by being elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences and receiving the Order of
Lenin and the Stalin Prize, as well as three citations as a Hero of Socialist
Labor.
In the 1960s, Sakharov began to question his nation's use of above-ground
testing for nuclear weapons, although he always maintained that world
peace had been contingent on the development of an international nuclear
balance. He also began campaigning for increased scientific freedom. He was
fired from his sensitive post with the government's nuclear research program
after he persuaded the New York Times to publish his work
"Progress, Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom" in which he addressed the issues of
war, environmental pollution, hunger, mass culture, and
"demagogic myths." His criticism of the Soviet government continued and included a condemnation
of the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975,
but in 1980 the Soviet government charged him with carrying out subversive
activities against the
state and sentenced him to internal exile in the eastern city of Gorky. He was
released from exile in 1986 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
After his release, Sakharov returned to scientific research and continued to
campaign for human rights and political reform. He took a seat in the Congress
of
People's Deputies following the onset of political reforms and continued to
campaign in support of reform proposals initiated by Gorbachev.
Sakharov died of a heart attack in Moscow on Dec 14, 1989.
[Sources: Current Biography Yearbook; Facts on File World News
Digest; Newsmakers]
LOAD-DATE: February 18, 1998
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