For which Sakharov received the Nobel Prize. Laureates of the Freedom of Thought Prize

Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov(1921-1989) - Russian physicist and public figure, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953). One of the creators hydrogen bomb(1953) in the USSR. Proceedings on magnetic hydrodynamics, plasma physics, controlled thermonuclear fusion, elementary particles, astrophysics, gravitation. A. Sakharov, together with the Russian theoretical physicist Igor Evgenievich Tamm, proposed the idea of ​​magnetic confinement of high-temperature plasma. Since the late 1950s, he has been actively advocating an end to nuclear weapons testing. Since the late 60s - early 70s, Andrei Dmitrievich has been one of the leaders of the human rights movement.

In Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1968), Sakharov considered the threats to humanity associated with its disunity, the confrontation between socialist and capitalist systems: nuclear war, hunger, ecological and demographic catastrophes, dehumanization of society, racism, nationalism, dictatorial terrorist regimes. In the democratization and demilitarization of society, the establishment of intellectual freedom, social and scientific and technological progress, leading to the convergence of the two systems, Sakharov saw an alternative to the death of mankind. The publication of this work in the West served as a pretext for Sakharov's removal from secret work; after protesting against the entry of troops into Afghanistan, in January 1980, Sakharov was deprived of all state awards (Hero of Socialist Labor (1954, 1956, 1962), Lenin Prize (1956), State Prize of the USSR (1953)) and exiled to the city of Gorky, where he continued human rights activities. Returned from exile in 1986.

In 1989 Andrei Sakharov was elected a people's deputy of the USSR; proposed a draft of the new Constitution of the country. "Memories" (1990). In 1988, the European Parliament established the Andrei Sakharov International Prize for humanitarian work in the field of human rights. Nobel Peace Prize (1975).

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was born May 21, 1921, in Moscow. Russian physicist and public figure, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1975), one of the authors of the first works on the implementation of a thermonuclear reaction (hydrogen bomb) and the problem of controlled thermonuclear fusion.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

Family and school years A.D. Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov came from an intelligent family, in his own words, of a fairly high income. Father, Dmitry Ivanovich Sakharov (1889-1961), the son of a famous lawyer, was a musically gifted person, received a musical and physical and mathematical education. He taught physics at Moscow universities. Professor of Moscow Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin, author of popular books and a problem book in physics.

Mother, Ekaterina Alekseevna, nee Sofiano (1893-1963), of noble origin, was the daughter of a military man. From her, Andrei Dmitrievich inherited not only his appearance, but also some character traits, for example, perseverance, non-contact.

Andrei Dmitrievich's childhood passed in a large, crowded Moscow apartment, "saturated with the traditional family spirit." For the first five years he studied at home. This contributed to the formation of independence and the ability to work, but led to lack of sociability, from which Sakharov suffered almost all his life.

He was deeply influenced by Oleg Kudryavtsev, who studied with him, who introduced a humanitarian principle into Sakharov's worldview and opened up entire branches of knowledge and art for him. In the next five years of study at school, Andrei, under the guidance of his father, studied physics in depth, did many physical experiments.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

University. Evacuation. The first Sakharov invention

In 1938, Sakharov entered the Physics Department of the Moscow state university. First attempt at self scientific work in the second year, she ended unsuccessfully, but Sakharov did not experience disappointment in his abilities. After the start of the war, he, along with the university, was evacuated to Ashgabat; seriously engaged in the study of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. Upon graduation in 1942 with honors from Moscow State University, where he was considered the best student ever to study at the Faculty of Physics, he refused the offer of Professor Anatoly Alexandrovich Vlasov to remain in graduate school.

Having received the specialty "defense metallurgy", he was sent to a military plant, first in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir Region, and then in Ulyanovsk. Working and living conditions were very difficult. However, Sakharov's first invention appeared here - a device for controlling the hardening of armor-piercing cores.

The marriage of Andrei Sakhrov

In 1943 Andrei Dmitrievich married Claudia Alekseevna Vikhireva (1919-1969), a native of Ulyanovsk, a laboratory chemist at the same plant. They had three children - two daughters and a son. Due to the war, and then the birth of children, Klavdia Alekseevna did not complete higher education and after the family moved to Moscow and later to the “object”, she was depressed by the fact that it was difficult for her to find a suitable job. To some extent, this disorder, and possibly also the temperament of their characters, caused the Sakharovs to be somewhat isolated from the families of their colleagues.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

PhD, Fundamental Physics

Returning to Moscow after the war, in 1945 Sakharov entered the graduate school of the Pyotr Nikolayevich Lebedev Physical Institute under the well-known theoretical physicist Igor Evgenievich Tamm to deal with fundamental problems. In his Ph.D. thesis on nonradiative nuclear transitions, presented in 1947, he proposed a new charge parity selection rule and a way to take into account the interaction of an electron and a positron during pair production. At the same time, he came to the conclusion (without publishing his research on this problem) that the small difference in the energies of the two levels of the hydrogen atom is caused by the difference in the interaction of the electron with its own field in the bound and free states. A similar fundamental idea and calculation was published by the theoretical physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1967. The idea proposed by Sakharov and the calculation of the muon catalysis of a nuclear reaction in deuterium saw the light of the day and were published only as a secret report.

Sakharov's work on the hydrogen bomb

Apparently, this report (and, to some extent, the need to improve housing conditions) was the basis for Sakharov's inclusion in 1948 in Tamm's special group to test a specific hydrogen bomb project, on which the group of theoretical physicist Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich worked. Soon, Andrei Sakharov proposed his own bomb project in the form of layers of deuterium and natural uranium around a conventional atomic charge.

I ... have to focus on negative phenomena, since it is precisely about them that government propaganda is silent, and since it is they that represent the greatest harm and danger.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

During the explosion of an atomic charge, ionized uranium significantly increases the density of deuterium, increases the rate of a thermonuclear reaction, and is divided under the action of fast neutrons. This "first idea" - the ionization compression of deuterium - was significantly supplemented by the theoretical physicist Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, the "second idea", which consists in the use of lithium-6 deuteride. Under the influence of slow neutrons, tritium is formed from lithium-6 - a very active thermonuclear fuel.

With these ideas in the spring of 1950, Tamm's group, almost in its entirety, was sent to the "object" - a top-secret nuclear enterprise with a center in the city of Sarov, where it increased markedly due to the influx of young theorists. The intensive work of the group and the entire enterprise ended with the successful testing of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb on August 12, 1953. A month before the test, Sakharov defended his doctoral dissertation, in the same year he was elected an academician, awarded the medal of the Hero of Socialist Labor and the Stalin (State) Prize.

In the future, the group led by Andrei Dmitrievich worked on the implementation of the collective "third idea" - the compression of thermonuclear fuel by radiation from the explosion of an atomic charge. The successful test of such an advanced hydrogen bomb in November 1955 was overshadowed by the deaths of a girl and a soldier, as well as serious injuries to many people who were away from the test site.

Awareness of the danger of nuclear testing

This circumstance, as well as the mass evacuation of residents from the test site in 1953, forced Sakharov to think seriously about the tragic consequences of atomic explosions, about the possible exit of this terrible force out of control. A tangible impetus to such thoughts was an episode at a banquet, when, in response to his toast - "so that bombs explode only over training grounds and never over cities" - he heard the words of a prominent military commander, Marshal Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, the meaning of which was that the task of scientists - “strengthen” the weapon, and they (the military) themselves will be able to “direct” it. It was a biting blow to Sakharov's self-esteem, and at the same time to his hidden pacifism. Success in 1955 brought Sakharov a second medal of the Hero of Socialist Labor and the Lenin Prize.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

Controlled thermonuclear fusion

In parallel with his work on bombs, Andrei Sakharov, together with Tamm, put forward the idea of ​​magnetic plasma confinement (1950) and carried out fundamental calculations for controlled thermonuclear fusion installations. He also owns the idea and calculations for the creation of superstrong magnetic fields by compression of the magnetic flux by a conducting cylindrical shell (1952). In 1961, Sakharov suggested using laser compression to obtain a controlled thermonuclear reaction. These ideas marked the beginning of large-scale research into fusion energy.

In 1958, two articles by Sakharov appeared on the harmful effects of radioactivity. nuclear explosions on heredity and, as a result, a decrease in average life expectancy. According to the scientist, each megaton explosion leads to 10 thousand victims in the future. oncological diseases. In the same year, Sakharov unsuccessfully tried to influence the extension of the moratorium declared by the USSR on atomic explosions. The next moratorium was interrupted in 1961 by the testing of a super-powerful 50-megaton hydrogen bomb, more political than military, for the creation of which Sakharov was awarded the third medal of the Hero of Socialist Labor. This controversial activity in the development of weapons and the prohibition of their tests, which led in 1962 to sharp conflicts with colleagues and state authorities, had in 1963 and positive result- Moscow Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in three environments.

Beginning of open public speaking

The interests of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov were not limited to nuclear physics even then. In 1958, he spoke out against Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev's plans to reduce secondary education, and a few years later, together with other scientists, he managed to rid Soviet genetics of the influence of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko.

In 1964, Sakharov successfully spoke at the Academy of Sciences against the election of the biologist N. I. Nuzhdin as an academician, considering him, like Lysenko, responsible for "shameful, difficult pages in the development of Soviet science." In 1966, he signed the letter "25 Celebrities" to the 23rd Congress of the CPSU against the rehabilitation of Stalin. The letter noted that any attempt to revive the Stalinist policy of intolerance towards dissent "would be the greatest disaster" for the Soviet people. Acquaintance in the same year with the public and political figure, historian and publicist Roy Alexandrovich Medvedev and his book about Stalin significantly influenced the evolution of Andrei Dmitrievich's views.

In February 1967, Sakharov sent the first letter to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev in defense of the four dissidents. The response of the authorities was to deprive him of one of the two positions held at the "object".

In June 1968, a large article appeared in the foreign press - Sakharov's manifesto "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom" - about the dangers of thermonuclear destruction, ecological self-poisoning, dehumanization of mankind, the need for convergence between the socialist and capitalist systems, Stalin's crimes and the lack of democracy in the USSR . In his manifesto, Sakharov called for the abolition of censorship, political trials, and against keeping dissidents in psychiatric hospitals.

The reaction of the authorities was not long in coming: Andrei Sakharov was completely suspended from work at the "object" and dismissed from all posts related to military secrets. On August 26, 1968, he met with Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, which revealed the difference in their views on the necessary social transformations.

I am for pluralism of power, for convergence, for the economy mixed type, behind " human face society”, but what it will be called is not so important for me.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

Death of a wife. Return to FIAN. Baryon asymmetry of the world

In March 1969, the wife of Andrei Dmitrievich died, leaving him in a state of despair, which was then replaced by a long spiritual devastation. After a letter from I. E. Tamm (at that time head of the Theoretical Department of the FIAN) to the President of the Academy of Sciences Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh and, apparently, as a result of sanctions from above, Sakharov was enrolled on June 30, 1969 in the department of the institute, where his scientific work began, to the position senior researcher - the lowest that a Soviet academician could hold.

From 1967 to 1980 Andrei Sakharov published more than 15 scientific papers: on the baryon asymmetry of the Universe with the prediction of proton decay (according to Sakharov, this is his best theoretical work, which influenced the formation of scientific opinion in the next decade), about cosmological models of the Universe, about the relationship of gravity with quantum fluctuations of vacuum, about mass formulas for mesons and baryons, etc.

Activation social activities

In the same years, Sakharov's public activity intensified, which was increasingly at odds with the policy of official circles. He initiated appeals for the release of human rights activists Petr Grigorievich Grigorenko and Zh. A. Medvedev from psychiatric hospitals. Together with the physicist V. Turchin and R. A. Medvedev, he wrote the Memorandum on Democratization and Intellectual Freedom. He traveled to Kaluga to take part in the picketing of the courtroom, where the trial of dissidents R. Pimenov and B. Weil was taking place.

In November 1970, together with physicists V. Chalidze and A. Tverdokhlebov, he organized the Human Rights Committee, which was supposed to embody the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1971, together with Academician Mikhail Alexandrovich Leontovich, he actively opposed the use of psychiatry for political purposes and at the same time - for the right to return the Crimean Tatars, freedom of religion, freedom to choose the country of residence, and, in particular, for Jewish and German emigration.

Science establishes the truth, more precisely, strives for more and more complete, accurate and universal knowledge of it. In this sense, she is one. The use of science is ambiguous.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

Second marriage. Further social activities

In 1972, Andrei Sakharov married Elena Georgievna Bonner (born in 1923), whom he met in 1970 at a trial in Kaluga. Becoming true friend and an associate of her husband, she focused Sakharov's activities on protecting the rights of specific people. Program documents were now considered by him as a subject for discussion. Nevertheless, in 1977, Andrei Dmitrievich signed a collective letter to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on amnesty and the abolition of the death penalty, in 1973 he gave an interview to the Swedish radio correspondent U. Stenholm about the nature of the Soviet system and, despite the warning of the Deputy Prosecutor General, held a press -a conference for 11 Western journalists, during which he condemned not only the threat of persecution, but also what he called "détente without democratization." The reaction to these statements was a letter published in the Pravda newspaper by 40 academicians, which provoked a vicious campaign condemning Sakharov's public activities, as well as statements on his side by human rights activists, Western politicians and scientists. AI Solzhenitsyn proposed to award Sakharov the Nobel Peace Prize.

Intensifying the struggle for the right to emigrate, in September 1973, Andrei Sakharov sent a letter to the US Congress in support of the Jackson Amendment. In 1974, during the stay of President Richard Milhouse Nixon in Moscow, he held his first hunger strike and gave a television interview to draw the attention of the world community to the fate of political prisoners. Based on the French humanitarian award received by Sakharov, E. G. Bonner organized a fund to help the children of political prisoners.

In 1975, Sakharov met with the German writer G. Bell, together with him wrote an appeal in defense of political prisoners, in the same year he published in the West the book “On the Country and the World”, in which he developed the ideas of convergence (see the theory of convergence), disarmament, democratization, strategic balance, political and economic reforms.

Scientists...should be able to take a universal, global position - above the selfish interests of "their" state... "their" social system and its ideology - socialism or capitalism - it doesn't matter.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

Nobel Peace Prize

In October 1975, Dmitry Andreevich was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which was received by his wife, who was being treated abroad. Bonner read Sakharov's speech to the audience, which called for "true détente and genuine disarmament", for "general political amnesty in the world" and "liberation of all prisoners of conscience everywhere". The next day, Bonner read her husband's Nobel Lecture, "Peace, Progress, Human Rights," in which Sakharov argued that these three goals were "inextricably linked with one another," demanded "freedom of conscience, the existence of an informed public opinion, pluralism in the education system, freedom of the press and access to sources of information”, and put forward proposals for achieving détente and disarmament.

In April and August 1976, December 1977 and early 1979, Andrei Sakharov and his wife traveled to Omsk, Yakutia, Mordovia and Tashkent to support human rights activists. In 1977 and 1978, the children and grandchildren of Bonner, whom Andrei Dmitrievich considered hostages of his human rights activities, emigrated to the United States.

In 1979, Sakharov sent a letter to Leonid Brezhnev in defense of the Crimean Tatars and the removal of secrecy from the case of the explosion in the Moscow metro. For 9 years before deportation to the city of Gorky, he received hundreds of letters asking for help, received more than a hundred visitors. In compiling the answers, he was assisted by lawyer S. V. Kalistratova.

No matter how lofty goals the terrorists set as a pretext... - their activities are always criminal, always destructive, throwing humanity back to the times of lawlessness and chaos...

Despite open opposition to the Soviet regime, Sakharov was not formally charged until 1980, when he strongly condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. On January 4, 1980, he gave an interview to The New York Times about the situation in Afghanistan and its correction, and on January 14, an ABC television interview.

Sakharov was deprived of all government awards, including the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and on January 22, without any trial, he was exiled to the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), closed to foreigners, where he was placed under house arrest. At the end of 1981, Sakharov and Bonner went on a hunger strike for the right of E. Alekseeva to travel to the United States to her fiancé, Bonner's son. The departure was allowed by Brezhnev after a conversation with the President of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Alexandrov. However, even those close to Andrei Dmitrievich believed that "personal happiness cannot be bought at the cost of the suffering of a great man."

In June 1983, Andrei Sakharov published in the American journal Foreign Affairs a letter to the famous physicist S. Drell about the danger of thermonuclear war. The reaction to the letter was an article by four academicians in the newspaper Izvestia, portraying Sakharov as a supporter of thermonuclear war and an arms race and sparking a noisy newspaper campaign against him and his wife.

In the summer of 1984, Sakharov held an unsuccessful hunger strike for his wife's right to travel to the United States to meet with her family and receive medical treatment (which was terminated on August 6). The hunger strike was accompanied by forced hospitalization and painful feeding. In the fall, Sakharov announced the motives and details of this hunger strike in a letter to A.P. Aleksandrov, in which he asked for assistance in obtaining permission for his wife's trip, and also announced his withdrawal from the Academy of Sciences in case of refusal.

April - September 1985 - Sakharov's last hunger strike with the same goals; re-hospitalization and force-feeding. Bonner's travel permit was issued only in July 1985 after Sakharov's letter to Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev promising to concentrate on scientific work and stop public appearances if his wife's travel was allowed. In a new letter to Gorbachev on October 22, 1986, Sakharov asks to stop his deportation and exile of his wife, again promising to end his social activities.

On December 16, 1986, M. S. Gorbachev announced to Sakharov by telephone that the exile was over: "Go back and start your patriotic activities." A week later, Sakharov returned to Moscow with Bonner.

Modern international terrorism, which is trying to destroy democratic rule of law states, is largely a product of the ideology, strategy and tactics of totalitarianism, and in some cases, direct support for the secret services of totalitarian states.

Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich

last years of life

In February 1987, Andrei Dmitrievich spoke at the international forum "For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of mankind" with a proposal to consider the reduction in the number of Euro-missiles separately from the problems of SDI, the reduction of the army, and the safety of nuclear power plants. In 1988, he was elected honorary chairman of the Memorial Society, and in March 1989, a people's deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Thinking a lot about the reform of the political structure of the USSR, in November 1989 Sakharov presented a draft of a new constitution, which is based on the protection of individual rights and the right of all peoples to statehood.

Sakharov was a foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of the USA, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and an honorary doctor of many universities in Europe, America and Asia.

Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov passed away December 14, 1989, in Moscow, after a busy day of work at the Congress of People's Deputies. His heart, as shown by the autopsy, was completely worn out. Hundreds of thousands of people came to say goodbye to the great man. The great scientist was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov - quotes

The disunity of humanity threatens it with death... In the face of danger, any action that increases the disunity of mankind, any preaching of the incompatibility of world ideologies and nations is madness, a crime.

Speaking in defense of those who fell victim to lawlessness and cruelty ... I tried to reflect the full measure of my pain, concern, indignation and persistent desire to help the suffering.

I believe that some higher meaning exists both in the universe and in human life too.

I ... have to focus on negative phenomena, since it is precisely about them that government propaganda is silent, and since it is they that represent the greatest harm and danger.

I feel indebted to the brave and moral people who are imprisoned in prisons, camps and psychiatric hospitals for their fight for human rights.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, a world-famous scientist and public figure, was born on May 21, 1921 in Moscow. His parents are Sakharova Ekaterina Alekseevna and Sakharov Dmitry Ivanovich, teacher of physics, author of a number of textbooks and problem books on physics, as well as many popular science books. Subsequently, Dmitry Ivanovich was an assistant professor of the department general physics at the Faculty of Physics of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after Lenin.

In 1938 he entered the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. In 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was called up, but did not pass the medical commission and was evacuated together with Moscow State University to Ashgabat, where in 1942 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Physics. He was asked to remain in the department and continue his education. Andrei Dmitrievich refused this offer and was sent by the People's Commissariat of Armaments to work in Ulyanovsk at a defense plant. During the war, Andrei Dmitrievich made inventions and improvements to control the quality of armor-piercing cartridges. The control method he proposed was included in a textbook called Sakharov's Method. While working as an engineer, A.D. Sakharov was also independently engaged in scientific research and in 1944-1945 completed several scientific papers. In January 1945, he entered the graduate school of the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (FIAN), where Academician I. E. Tamm was his supervisor. He graduated from graduate school, having defended his thesis in November 1947, and until March 1950 he worked as a junior researcher. In July 1948, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, he was involved in the work on the creation of thermonuclear weapons. Andrei Dmitrievich began research on the nuclear problem against his will. Later, having already entered the work, he came to the conclusion that this problem needed to be dealt with. In the United States, similar studies were already being carried out with might and main, and A. D. Sakharov believed that a situation should not be allowed in which the United States would become the monopoly owner of thermonuclear weapons. In this case, the stability of the world would be threatened. The problem of creating Soviet thermonuclear weapons was successfully solved, and A. D. Sakharov played an outstanding role in creating the thermonuclear power of the USSR. He held a number of leadership positions - in recent years, the position of deputy scientific director of a special institute. While working on the creation of thermonuclear weapons, A. D. Sakharov simultaneously put forward and developed, together with his teacher I. E. Tamm, the idea of ​​using thermonuclear energy for peaceful purposes. In 1950, A. D. Sakharov and I. E. Tamm considered the idea of ​​a magnetic thermonuclear reactor, which formed the basis of work in the USSR on controlled thermonuclear fusion.

A.D. Sakharov three times (in 1953, 1956 and 1962) was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, in 1953 he was awarded

State Prize of the USSR, and in 1956 - the Lenin Prize. In 1953 he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was then 32 years old. Few were elected academicians so early. Subsequently, A.D. Sakharov was elected a member of a number of foreign academies. He is also an honorary doctor of many universities.

While working on the creation of hydrogen weapons, A. D. Sakharov, at the same time, realized the great danger that threatens humanity and all life on Earth if this weapon is used. Even the test explosions of nuclear weapons, which were then carried out in the atmosphere, on the surface of the earth and in water, posed a danger to mankind. For example, atmospheric explosions led to contamination of the atmosphere and radioactive fallout at great distances from the test site. In 1957-1963, A. D. Sakharov actively opposed nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in water and on the surface of the earth. He was one of the initiators of the Moscow International Treaty Banning Nuclear Tests in Three Environments. In the early 70s, funds mass media in our country began a massive campaign against A. D. Sakharov. His statements were distorted, slanderous materials were published about him and his wife. Despite this, A. D. Sakharov continued his social activities. In 1975 he wrote the book "About the Country and the World". In the same year he was awarded

Nobel Peace Prize. In the Nobel lecture "Peace, Progress, Human Rights", outlining his views, he noted that "the only guarantee of peace on Earth can only be the observance of human rights in every country." The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to AD Sakharov was accompanied by a new wave of misinformation and slander against him.

In 1979, immediately after the entry of troops into Afghanistan, A. D. Sakharov

issued a statement against the move, saying it was a tragic mistake. Shortly thereafter, he was stripped of all government awards and on January 22 of the same year he was exiled without trial to the city of Gorky. He spent 7 years in exile without a few days. Access to it during these years was reduced to a minimum; it was isolated from the Soviet and world public. During his exile in Gorky, A. D. Sakharov held three hunger strikes, physical measures were applied to him, and during the hunger strikes he was even isolated from his wife. Despite the colossal difficulties, A. D. Sakharov continued his scientific research and social activities in Gorky. He writes statements in defense of political prisoners in the USSR, articles on the problems of disarmament, on international relations.

In December 1986, A. D. Sakharov returned to Moscow. He speaks at the international forum "For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of mankind", where he proposes a number of disarmament measures aimed at moving forward negotiations with the United States (these proposals were implemented, which made it possible to conclude an agreement with the United States on the destruction of intermediate and shorter range missiles) . He also proposes concrete steps to reduce the army in the USSR and effective measures to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants. Then A. D. Sakharov worked at the Physical Institute. P.N. Lebedev of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR as chief researcher. He was elected a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, continues to actively participate in public life. In the autumn of 1988, A. D. Sakharov was informed from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that the question of returning to him government awards, which he had been deprived of in 1980, was being considered. HELL. Sakharov refused this until the release and full rehabilitation of all those who were convicted for their

beliefs in the 70s and 80s. He was elected honorary chairman of the public council of the All-Union Society "Memorial".

His social activities were aimed at ensuring that perestroika was carried out actively and consistently, without delay, and that it would become irreversible. In 1989, after an election campaign of unprecedented duration and intensity, A. D. Sakharov became a People's Deputy of the USSR from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was one of the founders and co-chairs of the largest parliamentary group - the inter-regional deputy group, which unites the most active, progressive-minded deputies. It can be said without exaggeration that as a result of his parliamentary activity, he became one of the main political figures in our country. In the last months of his life, he prepared a draft of a new Constitution of the USSR, based on the principles of democracy, respect for human rights, and the sovereignty of nations and peoples. A.D.

Sakharov is the author of many bold political ideas, often ahead of their time, and then gaining more and more recognition. Sakharov died on December 14, 1990, after a busy day at the Congress of People's Deputies. Hundreds of thousands of people came to say goodbye to the great man.

The first meetings of A.I. Solzhenitsyn and A.D. Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn met for the first time on August 26, 1968, a few days after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries.

Academician, three times Hero of Socialist Labor and the “father of the hydrogen bomb” A.D. Sakharov only recently, in May 1968, acted as a dissident, publishing his first large memorandum “Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom” calling for the development of democracy and pluralism. This performance quickly brought Sakharov fame - in the Soviet Union and in the West. But he still had almost no connections, not only with dissident groups, but even with writers and scientists outside the large but closed group of atomic scientists.

Solzhenitsyn, on the other hand, gained world fame much earlier, at the end of 1962, after the publication in Novy Mir of the famous story One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the first truthful book about the Stalinist camps published in the USSR. This publication was part of the “de-Stalinization” policy pursued after the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, and at meetings of party leaders with cultural figures, not only Nikita Khrushchev, but also Mikhail Suslov shook Solzhenitsyn’s hand and warmly welcomed the appearance of “Ivan Denisovich.” Solzhenitsyn entered the path of open opposition to the regime only in May 1967, promulgating “ Open letter IV Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers" with a protest against censorship and political persecution of Soviet writers. At the same time, Solzhenitsyn's great novel In the First Circle was sent to the West for translation and publication. Solzhenitsyn, unlike Sakharov, had many friends and acquaintances among writers, but he kept to himself and avoided any dissident circles.

The occupation of Czechoslovakia was a great shock not only for dissidents, and now, at the end of August 1968, both Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, not wanting to remain silent, decided to somehow unite their efforts. The idea of ​​a meaningful protest that could be supported by a few dozen of the then most famous figures of the intelligentsia, as they say, was in the air.

An unexpectedly very emotional and deep text was offered by film director Mikhail Ilyich Romm. Sakharov was ready to join him, but did not want his signature to come first. Late in the evening of August 23, Academician Igor Tamm signed this document, and several other scientists followed his example. Sakharov wanted to go to Tvardovsky, but, as it turned out, Alexander Trifonovich did not appear these days even at the editorial office of Novy Mir, did not meet with anyone, and then Andrei Dmitrievich asked his friends about Solzhenitsyn, who, as it turned out, was looking for meetings.

Solzhenitsyn arrived in Moscow from Ryazan on the evening of August 24 to get acquainted with the situation and support the general protest. He devoted the next day to meetings with various people, and on August 26, observing all the rules of secrecy, he met and had a long one-on-one conversation with Sakharov. Of course, this meeting could not be completely hidden from the KGB:

Sakharov at that time was not only a secret, but also a protected scientist, back in the early 1960s he resolutely refused open protection, but he could not prevent covert escort. However, apparently, the "authorities" learned little about the content and nature of the conversation, and only much later did both Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov write about this important meeting in their memoirs.

“I met Sakharov for the first time at the end of August 1968,” Solzhenitsyn recalled, “shortly after our occupation of Czechoslovakia and after the publication of his memorandum. Sakharov had not yet been released from the position of a top-secret and specially protected person. From the first sight and from the very first words, he makes a charming impression: tall, perfect openness, a bright, soft smile, a bright look, a warm-throated voice. Despite the stuffiness, he was old-fashioned and caring in a tightened tie, a tight collar, in a jacket, only unbuttoned during the conversation - from his old Moscow intellectual family, obviously inherited. We sat with him for four hours in the evening, already quite late for me, so I did not think well and did not speak in the best way. The first sensation was also unusual - here, touch it, in the bluish jacket sleeve - lies the hand that gave the world a hydrogen bomb. I was probably not polite enough and too persistent in criticism, although I figured it out later: I did not thank, did not congratulate, but criticized, refuted, disputed his memorandum. And it was in this bad two-hour criticism of mine that he conquered me! - he was not offended by anything, although there were occasions, he did not persistently object, he explained, smiled weakly perplexedly - and he was not offended even once, not at all - a sign of a big, generous soul. Then we tried on whether we could somehow speak at the expense of Czechoslovakia - but we did not find anyone to gather for a strong performance: all the eminent ones refused.

And here is what Sakharov wrote: “We met at the apartment of one of my friends. Solzhenitsyn, with lively blue eyes and a reddish beard, a temperamental speech of an unusually high timbre of voice, contrasting with calculated, precise movements, he seemed to be a living lump of concentrated and purposeful energy. I basically listened attentively, and he spoke passionately and without any hesitation in his assessments and conclusions. He sharply formulated what he did not agree with me about. There is no talk of convergence. The West is not interested in our democratization, it is confused with its purely material progress and permissiveness, but socialism can finally destroy it. Our leaders are soulless automatons, they have seized their power and blessings with their teeth, and without a fist they will not open their teeth. I downplay Stalin's crimes and needlessly separate Lenin from him. It is wrong to dream of a multi-party system, a non-party system is needed, because any party is violence against the convictions of its members for the sake of the interests of the bosses. Scientists and engineers are a huge force, but there must be a spiritual goal at the core, without it, any scientific adjustment is self-deception, a way to suffocate in the smoke and burning of cities. I said that there was a lot of truth in his remarks, but my article reflected my beliefs. The main thing is to point out the dangers and a possible way to eliminate them. I count on the good will of the people. I do not expect a response to my article now, but I think that it will influence minds.

In terms of protesting against the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the meeting ended inconclusively; it was not possible to prepare any common document; strong pressure was exerted on Igor Tamm, and he withdrew his signature. After that, everything fell apart. But the controversy that had begun continued.

A little later, Solzhenitsyn put his remarks on the memorandum "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom" in writing and handed them over personally to Sakharov, but did not let him into samizdat. It was a lengthy "letter, spanning more than twenty pages, and beginning with the highest praise for Sakharov, whose fearless and honest speech is "a major event in modern history." Solzhenitsyn did not like, however, that Sakharov in his treatise condemned only Stalinism, and not all communist ideology, for "although Stalin was very mediocre, but very consistent and faithful continuer of the spirit of Lenin's teachings. " There is no, according to Solzhenitsyn, and there is no "world progressive community" to which Sakharov addressed. There is and cannot be "moral socialism ": "Sakharov is even excessive in exalting socialism." All this is "hypnosis of a whole generation." Sakharov misses the importance in our country of "living national forces and the vitality of the national spirit", and reduces everything to scientific and technological progress. The hopes for convergence are absurd : this prospect is “rather bleak: two societies suffering from vices, gradually approaching and turning one into the other, what can they give? -- a society that is immoral in a cross way. Intellectual freedom will not save Russia either, just as it did not save the West, which "choked on all kinds of freedoms and appears today in weakness of will, in darkness about the future, with a torn and lowered soul." Criticizing Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn, however, offered nothing. “They will reproach,” he wrote at the end of his letter, “that in criticizing the useful article of Academician Sakharov, we ourselves did not seem to offer anything constructive. If so, we will consider these lines not a frivolous end, but only a convenient beginning of a conversation.

But Sakharov did not respond to Solzhenitsyn in the same way as to some other well-known dissidents and public figures of the West, who decided to express their comments and wishes to the author in writing. memorandum. In 1969, a serious illness, and then the death of the first wife of the scientist, Claudia Alekseevna, unsettled him for a long time. He hardly dated anyone.

Sakharov returned to both scientific and social activities at the beginning of 1970, he actively participated in many actions of the human rights movement, and met many of its leaders. At the beginning of May of that year, a new, very lengthy meeting with Solzhenitsyn also took place.

This time, Sakharov's new large memorandum, a letter to the leaders of the Soviet Union L.I. Brezhnev, A.N. Kosygin and N.V. Podgorny, devoted to the problems of the democratization of Soviet society, became the subject of discussion. Solzhenitsyn, according to Sakharov, gave this document a "much more positive and unconditional" assessment than "Reflections"; "He rejoiced that I had firmly embarked on the path of opposition." However, Solzhenitsyn resolutely refused to participate in campaigns to protect people subjected to political repression. “I asked him,” Sakharov recalled, “if anything could be done to help Grigorenko and Marchenko. Solzhenitsyn snapped: “No! These people went to the ram, they chose their fate themselves, it is impossible to save them. Any attempt can harm both them and others.” I was seized with a cold from this position, which is so contrary to direct feeling.

Nevertheless, already in June 1970, both Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn, independently of each other, publicly and resolutely protested against the forced psychiatric hospitalization of Zhores Medvedev, whom both of them had known since the autumn of 1964. It was a short but very intense and successful public campaign.

In the autumn of 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the fourth for Russian literature after Ivan Bunin, Boris Pasternak and Mikhail Sholokhov. Solzhenitsyn was inspired, but at the same time extremely concerned about the scale of the newspaper and political campaign launched against him, which extremely complicated his life and everyday contacts. He decided to cancel his trip to Stockholm for the award ceremony and for some time did not know how to behave and what to do. His fame in the world grew, but Solzhenitsyn himself later called 1971 "the passage of an eclipse, an eclipse of determination and action"5. He refused to sign a letter compiled by Sakharov to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the abolition of the death penalty in our country, stating that participation in such collective actions would interfere with the fulfillment of those tasks for which he felt responsible. After that, Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn did not meet or talk to each other for more than a year.

Sakharov, Andrei Dmitrievich - the creator of the Soviet hydrogen weapon. Human rights activist, dissident, active political figure. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, physicist. In 1975 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Biography

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was born on May 21, 1921 in Moscow. His father, Dmitry Ivanovich Sakharov, taught physics, created one of the most famous textbooks in the country on this science. Mother, Ekaterina Alekseevna Sakharova, was a housewife.

Andrew studied at home. Only from the seventh grade began to study at school. At first he attended a mathematical circle, and then abandoned it, declaring his love for physics.

In 1938, after graduating from school, Andrei became a student at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. Since the beginning of the war, he has volunteered in military academy, but they do not accept him there - poor health. After that, Sakharov, along with other evacuees, goes to Ashgabat, where he graduates from the university.

In 1942, after graduating from university, Sakharov was assigned to the People's Commissariat for Armaments. From there - to Ulyanovsk, to the cartridge factory. Here he showed himself as a talented inventor: he improved the production of armor-piercing cores and made several other improvements.

In 1943-1944, in parallel with his work at the plant, Sakharov prepared several scientific papers on his own. Andrei sent them to the Physics Institute. Lebedev, and in early 1945 an invitation to graduate school came from there. In 1947, Sakharov became a candidate of sciences.

In 1948, Sakharov began working in a group of scientists who were engaged in the creation of a thermonuclear bomb. In 1951 Andrei Dmitrievich worked on a controlled thermonuclear reaction. At the same time, he taught courses in the theory of relativity, nuclear physics and electricity at MPEI.

In 1953 he became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences. Then he was elected a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1955, he became one of the co-authors of the famous "Letter of Three Hundred", in which Soviet scientists criticized the activities of Academician T. D. Lysenko.

Around the same time, Sakharov began to advocate curtailing the arms race. In this regard, he began to have serious disagreements with Khrushchev.

In 1966, already during the period of Brezhnev's power, the scientist actively opposed the rehabilitation of Stalin.

By the end of the 1960s, Sakharov was already one of the most famous Soviet human rights activists. In 1970, during one of the trials of dissidents, he met Elena Bonner, whom he married two years later.

In 1975, Sakharov received the Nobel Peace Prize. In the Soviet press, pressure on the scientist is growing, and criticism of political activity is becoming more frequent. In 1977 Andrei Dmitrievich demanded the abolition of the death penalty.

In 1979 he protested against the entry Soviet troops to Afghanistan. All these actions only increased the hostility of the Soviet leadership towards Sakharov.

In 1980, Sakharov and his wife were detained and sent to Gorky. There was no trial, no investigation. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR takes away the title of three times Hero of Socialist Labor from the academic title. Soon the titles of the laureate of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes are removed.

In 1981, Andrei Dmitrievich began hunger strikes. He did three in total. The campaign in support of Sakharov is intensifying in the West, but the leadership of the USSR does not react to it in any way. The scientist is released from exile only with the beginning of perestroika.

In 1986, the Sakharovs returned to Moscow. In 1988, the scientist was released abroad. Meetings were held with George Bush, R. Reagan, M. Thatcher, F. Mitterrand.

In 1989, Sakharov became a People's Deputy of the USSR. He took part in the work on the draft of a new constitution, defending the principles of protecting the rights of the individual.

On December 14, 1989, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov died in his Moscow apartment from a heart attack.

The main achievements of Sakharov

• "Father" of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. He was directly involved in the creation of the "nuclear shield" of the USSR.
• He became one of the most famous human rights activists of the 20th century, actively opposing the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union.
• He made a significant contribution to the formation of a new system of international security.
• Significantly advanced research on controlled thermonuclear fusion.
• He explained the baryon asymmetry of the Universe in the classic work JETP Letters.

Important dates in Sakharov's biography

• May 21, 1921 - birth in Moscow.
• 1938 - entered the Moscow University, Faculty of Physics.
• 1941 - an unsuccessful attempt to enter the military academy. Evacuation to Ashgabat.
• 1942 - graduation from the university. Work at the Ulyanovsk Cartridge Plant.
• 1943 - married Claudia Vikhireva, who died of cancer in 1969.
• 1945 - enrollment in the graduate school of FIAN.
• 1947 - PhD thesis defense.
• 1948 - the beginning of work on the creation of thermonuclear weapons.
• 1953 - doctoral defense.
• 1970 - acquaintance with Elena Bonner, whom he married two years later.
• 1975 - received the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1980 - exile in Gorky.
• 1986 - return to Moscow.
• 1988 - the first foreign trip and meeting with the leaders of world powers.
• 1989 - Election as a people's deputy of the USSR.
• December 14, 1989 - Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov died of a heart attack. The body was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery.

• He did not like mathematics, at school he left a mathematical circle, which became simply uninteresting to him.
• At the exam in the theory of relativity at the university, he received a triple, which was then corrected.
• He was the author of the idea of ​​placing heavy-duty warheads along the American coast to create a giant tsunami. The idea was not approved by the sailors and Khrushchev.
• He predicted the creation and widespread introduction of the Internet.

Andrei Sakharov is hailed as a cult figure by his supporters. Creator of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. The measure of morality. Freedom fighter. And many others. A symbol of something bright and good. Even selfless. But who was he really?

An avenue in Moscow bears his name, on which he never lived. And a nearby museum, where people who receive grants from Russia's geopolitical rivals usually gather for their events.

In the late 1980s, when Gorbachev brought him back from Gorky to Moscow, there were people who expected either political or moral revelations from Sakharov.

Andrei Sakharov. © RIA Novosti / Igor Zarembo

True, after he took the rostrum of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, many were clearly disappointed: poor diction, slurred speech, empty thoughts.

And there was also a clear unethicalness of the statements: many then, under the influence of “perestroika propaganda”, were negatively disposed against the participation of Soviet troops in the war in Afghanistan and were traumatized by rumors about closed coffins coming from there, but they were also jarred by the words of this man, who called the Soviet soldiers who fought there “occupiers ".

Whether he was the creator of the hydrogen bomb in fact is for the physicists to judge. Officially, he was a member of the group that worked on it. True, his colleagues in the specialty are somehow evasive about his contribution, vaguely asserting that "he, of course, was a competent physicist." And sometimes it was said that his part of the contribution to the development of the bomb echoed too much with the contents of a letter from some obscure provincial colleague.

Others also say that Igor Kurchatov signed his submission for election to the Academy of Sciences in order to solve his housing problem.

Some, in response to a question about his role in creating the bomb, suggest thinking about why the person proclaimed to be its creator did not create anything in science equal to this invention. Not even in military affairs, but in peaceful nuclear physics.

But these are matters of corporate recognition. And here to understand the physicists. He himself became more interested in politics. And appeals to morality.

For example, when he was once told that in the struggle for the happiness of people and the future of mankind, there are no sacrifices, he was indignant and said: “I am convinced that such arithmetic is fundamentally wrong. We, each of us, in every deed, both "small" and "large", must proceed from concrete moral criteria, and not from the abstract arithmetic of history. Moral criteria categorically dictate to us - do not kill.

And in the draft Constitution he composed, he pathetically wrote: "All people have the right to life, freedom and happiness." Whether the people of the country, in whose destruction he took part, have become freer and happier, everyone can judge for himself.

In 1953 he was made an academician at the age of 32.

By the end of the 1950s, he would propose to stop new developments in the field of weapons and simply place heavy-duty explosive devices of 100 megatons each along the US coast. And if necessary, blow up the entire American continent.

What would happen to the people living there and to all the other continents, he did not particularly care: the idea was bold and beautiful.

Roy Medvedev would later write: “He lived too long in some extremely isolated world, where they knew little about the events in the country, about the lives of people from other strata of society, and about the history of the country in which and for which they worked.”

Even the extravagant Khrushchev was not inspired by Sakharov's idea to blow everyone up. And their relationship began to deteriorate.

The last meeting of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, attended by Andrei Sakharov. © RIA Novosti

And when the question of new tests arose, they dispersed. Khrushchev believed that it was necessary to study the possibilities and consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. Sakharov believed that this was unnecessary: ​​and so with the available ones, everything can be blown up, without really thinking about the consequences. And when the first invited him not to put forward his exotic ideas, but to do science, albeit not military, the academician decided to fight for "human rights."

Once he began to deal with the problems of the peaceful use of thermonuclear energy, but rather quickly moved away from the topic: it took a long time to work, and no quick result was expected.

Yes, he will win the Nobel Prize. But not for scientific discoveries - the Peace Prize. Like Gorbachev, for the fight against his country. And after Keldysh and Khariton, Simonov and Sholokhov and dozens of other iconic figures, scientists and writers come out with a public condemnation of Sakharov.

Sakharov will often swear in the name of morality and appeal to the commandment: "Thou shalt not kill." But in 1973 he would write a welcome letter to General Pinochet, calling his coup and execution the beginning of an era of happiness and prosperity in Chile. The academician has always believed that people have the right to life, freedom and happiness.

His human rights followers don't like to talk about it. Just as they deny in every possible way that at the end of the 70s he wrote a letter to the US President calling for a preventive terrifying nuclear strike in order to force the observance of “human rights” in the USSR.

In 1979, he published a letter condemning the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan on the pages of leading Western publications. Before that, he had not published such letters either condemning the American war in Vietnam or Israel's Middle East wars. And he will not condemn either the war between England and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, or the American invasion of Granada or Panama.

As a true intellectual and humanist, he could only condemn his own country. Obviously, believing that the condemnation of other countries is the business of their intellectuals and humanists.

In general, as the mathematician Yaglom, who knew him in his school years, recalled, even when solving the problem, Sakharov “could not explain how he came to the solution, he explained it very somehow abstrusely, and it was difficult to understand him.”

And Academician Khariton, giving a posthumous interview after Sakharov’s funeral, in which, of course, the rule “either good or nothing” was in effect, was nevertheless forced to say that Sakharov “could not even imagine that someone would understand something better than him. Somehow one of our colleagues found a solution to a gas-dynamic problem that Andrei Dmitrievich could not find. For him, this was so unexpected and unusual that he began to look with exceptional energy for flaws in the proposed solution. And only after some time, not finding them, I was forced to admit that the decision was correct.

And even then, in 1989, in conditions of hysteria, when it was simply dangerous to say anything in condemnation of Sakharov or in defense of Soviet society, Khariton would say, assessing his political activity: injustice, I treat with great respect. My skepticism relates to his ideas concerning economic issues. The fact is that I did not agree with some of the provisions that Andrei Dmitrievich developed, in particular, concerning the characteristics of socialism and capitalism.

Gorbachev brought him back from Gorky, and Sakharov became a deputy of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR from the Academy of Sciences. However, at the first vote voters will fail it. The media supervised by Alexander Yakovlev will throw a tantrum, and Gorbachev will cancel the election results, instructing him to hold a second vote - with an expansion of the circle of voters and a tough installation: "We must elect."

Sakharov will be made a deputy in violation of the electoral norm: Gorbachev recruited supporters for the congress. But having become a deputy, Sakharov will immediately turn away from his patron and become one of the leaders of the opposition to him, the “Interregional Deputy Group”, co-chaired by Boris Yeltsin, Gavriil Popov, Yuri Afanasiev.

But, what the last two do not admit today, and Sakharov began to burden them more and more with his unintelligible speeches from the podium, discrediting their manner of speaking and claiming to be absolutely right.

It is difficult to say what happened there, on December 14, 1989, at a meeting of this “group”, but in the evening of the same day Sakharov died of a heart attack. And it's strange - it became much more useful and profitable for the dead comrades-in-arms than for the living.

And a month before that, Sakharov would present his draft of a new Constitution, where he would proclaim the right of all peoples to statehood, that is, to proclaim their own states and to destroy the Soviet Union.

Andrey Sakharov with Elena Bonner. © RIA Novosti

It is generally accepted that his new wife, Elena Bonner, had the main influence on his departure from scientific work and the transition to the struggle against his country. This is not entirely true: Sakharov met her in 1970 at the trial of a group of "dissidents" in Kaluga. He already then wrote "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom", the main idea of ​​which contained a call for the country's rejection of its socio-economic structure and the transition to Western-style development. And then he regularly went to such trials.

But the truth is that it was after this acquaintance (they officially married two years later) that he almost completely focused on "dissident activities."

As he himself writes in his diary about the role of the new wife: “Lucy told me (the academician) a lot that I otherwise would not have understood and would not have done. She is a great organizer, she is my think tank.” She prompted so much and so strongly that he not only adopted her children, but also almost forgot about his own. How bitterly his own son Dmitry would later joke: “Do you need the son of Academician Sakharov? He lives in the USA, in Boston. And his name is Alexei Semyonov. For almost 30 years, Alexei Semyonov gave interviews as “the son of Academician Sakharov,” foreign radio stations voiced in every way in his defense. And when my father was alive, I felt like an orphan and dreamed that dad would spend with me at least a tenth of the time that he devoted to the offspring of my stepmother.

The son recalled that once he felt especially embarrassed for his father. He, already living in Gorky, once again went on a hunger strike, demanding that the bride of his son Bonner, who had already remained in the United States without any permission, be allowed to go there. Dmitry came to his father. He tried to persuade him not to risk his health on this matter: “It is clear that if he thus sought to stop nuclear weapons testing or would demand democratic reforms ... But he just wanted Lisa to be allowed into America to Alexei Semyonov. But Bonner’s son might not have draped abroad if he really loved the girl so much. ”After marrying Bonner, Sakharov would move in with her, leaving his fifteen-year-old son to live with his 22-year-old sister, considered that they were already adults, and without his attention they could get by. Until the age of 18, he helped his son with money, after that he stopped. Everything is according to the law.

The father was indeed self-tortured. Sakharov had a severe heart ache, and there was a huge risk that his body could not withstand the nervous and physical stress. But the bride of his stepson, because of which he was starving ... “By the way, I found Lisa at dinner! As I remember now, she ate pancakes with black caviar, ”recalls her son. But the emigration of Dmitry Sakharov and Bonner strongly opposed: “The stepmother was afraid that I could become a competitor to her son and daughter, and - most importantly - she was afraid that the truth about Sakharov's real children would be revealed. Indeed, in this case, her offspring could get less benefits from foreign human rights organizations.”

In 1982, a young artist Sergei Bocharov, fascinated by the legend of the "freedom fighter", came to Sakharov in Gorky - he wanted to paint a portrait of the "people's defender". Only he will see something completely different from the legend: “Andrey Dmitrievich sometimes even praised the government of the USSR for some successes. Now I don't remember why. But for each such remark, he immediately received a slap in the face on his bald head from his wife. While I was writing the sketch, Sakharov got at least seven times. At the same time, the world luminary meekly endured cracks, and it was clear that he was used to them.

And the artist, having understood who really makes decisions and dictates to the “celebrities”, what to say and what to do, instead of his portrait, he painted a portrait of Bonner. She became furious and rushed to destroy the sketch: “I told Bonner that I don’t want to draw a “stump”, which repeats the thoughts of an evil wife and even suffers beatings from her. And Bonner immediately kicked me out on the street.

Those who made and are making him their banner declare him a "great humanist."

Andrei Sakharov with Elena Bonner, her daughter and grandchildren. Photo ITAR-TASS

Him, who first called on the USSR to blow up the American continent, then called on the United States to launch a nuclear strike on the USSR in the name of "human rights."

Him, who greeted Pinochet and declared the soldiers of his country to be occupiers.

Him, in fact, who abandoned his own children and was ruled by their stepmother, who dutifully took down slaps from her when trying to praise his country. Who did not know his country, nor its people, nor its history, and who endured everything from his wife who turned him into her political instrument.

Of course, anyone who wants to can read it further. But at least you need to tell the truth about him to the end. Who is he. Who was he. What destroyed. And what actually has to do with humanism and morality. And at least admit that the citizens of the country he hates have no obligation, no need to talk about him with reverence.

Sergei CHERNYAKHOVSKY

In recent years, the Nobel Peace Prize has been a subject of heated debate. Many are convinced that people and organizations that denigrate this high award have recently become its laureates. The talk of the town was the award in 2009 of the award to US President Barack Obama, who in subsequent years devoted more time to inciting new armed conflicts than to the cause of peace.

However, this Nobel Prize has always caused controversy because of its politicization and momentary nature. The names of most of its laureates will say little to future generations or raise serious questions.

To this day, disputes do not subside, how justified was the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 to the first and last Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

But in national history there was another Nobel Peace Prize winner who received it 15 years earlier - the Soviet physicist and human rights activist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. And this award, like the personality of the laureate, looks no less controversial.

“My dad made me a physicist”

The young Andryusha Sakharov, born in 1921, has trouble finding an answer to the question "Who to be?" did not have. The answer to this question was given by his father, Dmitry Ivanovich Sakharov, teacher of physics, popularizer of science, author of a textbook, according to which several generations studied.

As Sakharov Jr. himself said, “My father made me a physicist, otherwise God knows where I would have been taken!”.

Andrei Sakharov received his primary education at home, and when he came to school in the seventh grade, he was already clearly moving along the scientific path. After graduating from school in 1938, he entered the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, and in 1944, he entered the graduate school of the Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, where he became his supervisor future Nobel laureate Igor Tamm.

Already at that time, Andrei Sakharov was considered one of the most promising physicists in the country, and it is not surprising that he soon became one of those who were instructed to create the country's "nuclear shield".

Academician Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov at his dacha in Zhukovka. 1972 Photo: RIA Novosti

Since 1948, Sakharov worked for twenty years on the creation of Soviet thermonuclear weapons, in particular, he designed the first Soviet hydrogen bomb.

How successful Sakharov was on this path is evidenced by the three stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor, the Order of Lenin, one Stalin and one Lenin Prize, numerous scientific regalia and other benefits that the Soviet state generously showered him with.

From nuclear tsunami to fight for peace

The enthusiasm of the young Sakharov amazed even the military. So, his ideas about using super-powerful nuclear charges to carry out underwater explosions that cause a giant tsunami that can wash away all the cities on the US coast seemed excessive even to unsentimental Soviet generals and admirals.

However, in the 1960s, what happens to Sakharov is what happened to many other atomic physicists both in the USSR and in the USA - he comes to the conclusion that his activities are immoral and blasphemous, and decides to devote himself to the struggle for peace, disarmament and a just world order.

In the mid-1960s, Sakharov's social activities began to crowd out his scientific work. He writes letters against "Lysenkoism", against the rehabilitation of Stalinism, in defense of writers and public figures who came into conflict with the Soviet government due to political differences.

Adept of the planned economy

In 1968, Andrei Sakharov wrote a keynote article Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom. In it he considered global problems, threatening humanity, and put forward the thesis of "the convergence of the socialist and capitalist systems, accompanied by democratization, demilitarization, social and scientific and technological progress, as the only alternative to the death of mankind."

Already in this article, Sakharov's main shortcoming appeared as public figure- his ideas and thoughts looked extremely divorced from reality, from the realities of real life.

At the same time, for those who know about Sakharov’s activities only by hearsay, some of the postulates of this article may be very surprising: for example, the academician believed that a socialist society in socio-cultural terms is one step higher than capitalism, and a planned economy surpasses the market in its potential.

Of course, the article also contained criticism of the Soviet system - the only system that, in fact, Sakharov knew personally.

Thrice Hero of Socialist Labor, an atomic scientist who scolds the Soviet regime - in the West they seized on the person of Sakharov immediately and firmly. He promised to be an excellent weapon in anti-Soviet propaganda.

On the other hand, the Soviet state security agencies took the public academic "on a pencil" as a potentially dangerous person.

Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR (May - June 1989). exhibition fund. Photo: RIA Novosti / Sergey Guneev

The retinue plays the king

It is quite likely that Sakharov, who is known today, would not have existed if two fatal circumstances had not happened - the death of the academician's first wife and his acquaintance with dissident Elena Bonner.

In order not to be unfounded, we will quote from the diary of the academician himself: “Lyusya (Bonner — ed.) told me (the academician) a lot that I otherwise would not have understood and would not have done. She is a great organizer, she is my think tank.”

The “organizer” and “think tank”, who married Sakharov in 1972, finally turned the academician from science towards human rights activities.

Bonner's influence on Sakharov is getting stronger. If in the early years of his public activity he criticizes only certain shortcomings of the Soviet system, then the further he goes on, the more he begins to oppose the gloomy totalitarianism of the socialist camp to the pure democracy of the capitalist world.

The sharper Sakharov spoke, the more attention he received from both the Western and Soviet press. But if in the West the Soviet academician was presented as a fighter against the horrors of the Soviet regime, then in the USSR - as a real scoundrel, pouring mud on the Motherland, which gave him everything.

Both sides mixed up a vigorous cocktail of grains of truth and a stream of propaganda.

Be that as it may, Academician Sakharov becomes a person known to the whole world.

In the beginning there was Sakharov...

The authorities did not resort to punitive measures against Sakharov - it was mainly his associates in the dissident movement who got it. The academician was closely monitored by the KGB, he was strongly advised not to irritate the top Soviet leaders.

The enraged academician, however, did not listen, giving regular press conferences for Western journalists working in the USSR.

The fact that the academician spoke at these press conferences is not very fond of recalling today. This is explained simply - when Sakharov left the conversations on the topic "for all the good against all the bad" for discussion current events, his estimates were extremely controversial. And over the years it turned out to be wrong.

When in January 1977, Armenian nationalists staged a terrorist attack in the Moscow metro, Sakharov said: “I cannot get rid of the feeling that the explosion in the Moscow metro and the tragic loss of life is the new and most dangerous provocation of the repressive authorities in recent years. It was this feeling and the fears associated with it that this provocation could lead to changes in the entire internal climate of the country that prompted the writing of this article. I would be very happy if my thoughts turned out to be wrong ... "

Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (right) at a sanctioned rally in Luzhniki during the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. Photo: RIA Novosti / Igor Mikhalev

Does this remind you of anything, dear readers? Twenty years later, on the same basis, the version about the involvement of the Russian special services in the explosions in Moscow, and then about the involvement of the Belarusian special services in the explosions in Minsk, will be built.

For his statement, Sakharov received a call to the prosecutor's office, where he was issued an official warning: “Citizen Sakharov A.D. is warned that he made a deliberately false slanderous statement, which claims that the explosion in the Moscow metro is a provocation of the authorities aimed at against the so-called dissidents. Gr. Sakharov is warned that if his criminal actions continue and repeat, he will be held liable in accordance with the laws in force in the country.”

Sakharov refused to sign the notice of warning, saying: “I refuse to sign this document. First of all, I must clarify what you said about my last statement. It does not directly accuse the KGB of organizing an explosion in the Moscow metro, but I express certain concerns (feelings, as I have written). I express in it also the hope that this was not a crime sanctioned from above. But I am aware of the acute nature of my statement and do not repent of it. In acute situations, it is necessary acute remedies. If, as a result of my statement, an objective investigation is carried out and the true culprits are found, and the innocent do not suffer, if the provocation against dissidents is not carried out, I will feel great satisfaction.”

People's Deputy of the USSR Academician Andrei Sakharov (left) with his wife Elena Bonner (right). 1989 Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko

Prize and tea with cake

But back to the early 1970s. By 1975, Andrei Sakharov had turned from a secret atomic scientist into a world-famous person who was nominated by various public groups in the West for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sakharov was also an extremely convenient figure for the Nobel Committee - a famous nuclear physicist who repented of creating what brought him fame and honor, and who fought for peace and freedom, regardless of personal benefits. Such a portrait fit perfectly into the essence of the award, conceived Alfred Nobel. Of course, Western politicians contributed in every way to this decision, for whom such a laureate was great helper in the ideological struggle against the USSR.

The Soviet Union, of course, was not too happy, but had no real levers of influence on the Nobel Committee. In addition, the detente of the 1970s was still in the yard, Moscow received the right to host the Olympics, and the Soviet leaders were not going to seriously quarrel with the West over Sakharov.

On the day when the Sakharov Prize was announced in Oslo, his wife Elena Bonner was in Italy, where she was treating her eyesight. The dissident academic himself at that moment was with friends in the human rights movement - he was drinking tea with an apple pie. Soon, Sakharov's associates, as well as Western journalists, also pulled up there. This warm company marked the awarding of the award to the academician.

Untimely Thoughts

Sakharov did not go to the presentation of the Prize itself, but the intrigues of the KGB, by and large, have nothing to do with it. The academician was "not allowed to travel abroad" due to the fact that he was the bearer of too many defense secrets. By the way, according to Elena Bonner, Sakharov himself admitted this and did not particularly grumble.

The award for Sakharov was received by his wife, who safely traveled from Italy to Norway with the text of Sakharov's traditional "Nobel lecture" in her pocket, which she read out in Oslo.

In this lecture, in addition to the expected criticism of the Soviet regime, in some ways fair, in some ways not, extremely topical words are found:

“In striving to protect the rights of people, we must act, in my opinion, first of all as defenders of the innocent victims of the regimes existing in different countries, without demanding the crushing and total condemnation of these regimes. We need reforms, not revolutions. We need a flexible, pluralistic and tolerant society that embodies the spirit of search, discussion and free, non-dogmatic use of the achievements of all social systems.

Neither Libya, nor Syria, nor Kyiv's "Euromaidan" fit in any way into these naive ideas of Sakharov... Perhaps, today an academician would not be awarded a prize for such speeches.

Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (center) during his return from Gorky to Moscow. 1986 Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin

When patience ran out

After receiving the award, Elena Bonner safely returned to her husband in the USSR, where the couple began to fight the Soviet system with even greater energy.

I am not inclined to consider the authorities of the Soviet Union prone to humanism, but the fact is that tough measures were applied to Sakharov only in 1980, when he openly opposed the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

Probably, the annoying academician could have been expelled from the USSR earlier, like Solzhenitsyn and Rostropovich, but everything again rested on “nuclear secrets” - he knew too much.

But in 1980, the detente ordered a long life, the opposing sides again switched to tough rhetoric, and in these conditions they no longer stood on ceremony with Sakharov - depriving him of the Hero's stars, orders and other regalia, he was sent into exile in Gorky.

For these sufferings, the Nobel Committee would gladly give Sakharov another peace prize, but, according to the status, the award is awarded only once ...