Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov — a Soviet theoretical physicist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, public figure, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov received his primary education at home and only began attending school in the seventh grade. In 1938, after finishing school, he enrolled in the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University (MSU). In 1941 he tried to go to the front, but was rejected for health reasons. In 1942, while evacuated in Ashgabat, he completed his studies and was sent to a military factory in Ulyanovsk.

 

Sakharov built a rapid scientific career: in 1944 he entered graduate school, in 1947 he defended his candidate's dissertation on the topic 'Theory of nuclear transitions of the 0 → 0 type', worked at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), and from 1948 took part in the secret program to create thermonuclear weapons. After defending his doctoral dissertation in 1953 he was granted the title of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, bypassing the intermediate rank of Corresponding Member, thanks to the support of I. V. Kurchatov.

 

However, by the late 1950s–early 1960s Sakharov's views had changed radically. He began to speak out openly against nuclear weapons testing, openly clashed with N. S. Khrushchev over the tests on Novaya Zemlya, took part in drafting the 'Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in Three Environments', was one of the leaders of the human rights movement in the USSR and opposed the rehabilitation of Stalin, signing a related letter to L. I. Brezhnev.

 

In 1980 Sakharov was exiled to Gorky and stripped of all titles and awards. But even in exile he continued his activities, published abroad and repeatedly staged hunger strikes to protest the confiscation of property, searches and KGB surveillance. His return to Moscow in 1986 marked the resumption of his scientific and human rights work. In 1988 he made his first trip abroad, during which he met with leading Western political figures. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov died in Moscow on 14 December 1989 of sudden cardiac arrest.