Meeting the demands of reason : the life and thought of Andrei Sakharov

The Soviet physicist, dissident, and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The first Russian to have been so recognized, Sakharov in his Nobel lecture held that humanity had a "sacred endeavor" to create a life worthy of its potential, that "we must make good the demands of reason," by confronting the dangers threatening the world, both then and now: nuclear annihilation, famine, pollution, and the denial of human rights. Meeting the Demands of Reason provides a comprehensive account of Sakharov's life and intellectual development, focusing on his political thought and the effect his ideas had on Soviet society. Jay Bergman places Sakharov's dissidence squarely within the ethical legacy of the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia, inculcated by his father and other family members from an early age. In 1948, one year after receiving his doctoral candidate's degree in physics, Sakharov began work on the Soviet hydrogen bomb and later received both the Stalin and the Lenin prizes for his efforts. Although as a nuclear physicist he had firsthand experience of honors and privileges inaccessible to ordinary citizens, Sakharov became critical of certain policies of the Soviet government in the late 1950s. He never renounced his work on nuclear weaponry, but eventually grew concerned about the environmental consequences of testing and feared unrestrained nuclear proliferation. Bergman shows that these issues led Sakharov to see the connection between his work in science and his responsibilities to the political life of his country. In the late 1960s, Sakharov began to condemn the Soviet system as a whole in the name of universal human rights. By the 1970s, he had become, with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the most recognized Soviet dissident in the West, which afforded him a measure of protection from the authorities. In 1980, however, he was exiled to the closed city of Gorky for protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1986, the new Gorbachev regime allowed him to return to Moscow, where he played a central role as both supporter and critic in the years of perestroika. Two years after Sakharov's death, the Soviet Union collapsed, and in the courageous example of his unyielding commitment to human rights, skillfully recounted by Bergman, Sakharov remains an enduring inspiration for all those who would tell truth to power. Contents 9 Preface and Acknowledgments 11 Note on Transliteration 17 Earliest Infl uences: 1921–1945 19 1 A Childhood of Culture and Ideas 21 2 Expanding Horizons 36 Designing Weapons for the Maintenance of Peace: 1945 – 1956 47 3 Tamm’s Protégé at FIAN 49 4 Arzamas-16—The Secret Installation 64 5 The “Layer Cake” and Other Weapons 79 A Scientist with a Social Conscience: 1956 – 1968 97 6 Radioactive Fallout and Other Matters of Conscience 99 7 Confronting Khrushchev 110 8 The Nuzhdin Affair 123 9 A Dissident at Last 136 Challenging the Soviet Goliath: 1968–1973 151 10 Reflections on Progress, Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom 153 11 An Equal Partner in Politics and Life 171 12 Moral Anchor of a Dissident Movement 175 13 The Regime Reacts 206 “Domestic Enemy Number One”: 1973 – 980 223 14 Orchestrated Vituperation 225 15 Debating Solzhenitsyn 237 16 Détente and Human Rights 249 17 Nobel Laureate 268 18 The Noose Tightens 290 In Exile, Unrepentant: 1980 – 1986 303 19 Arrested but Still Defiant 305 20 Finding Hope in Quantum Physics 328 21 The Soviet Leadership Softens 349 The Conscience of Perestroika: 1986 – 1989 357 22 Return to Moscow 359 23 A Different Kind of Perestroika 380 24 The Congress of People’s Deputies 398 25 Apotheosis Postmortem 417 Conclusion Sakharov’s Legacy 425 Bibliography 439 Index 471