Painting by Amedo odigliani

Sakharov was a top scientist in the Soviet Union who made significant contributions to Physics and Space Science. He is known both as “Father of the Russian H-Bomb” as well as an outspoken civil right campaigner. He was the founder of Human Rights Committee in Russia. Andrey D. Sakharov was born in Moscow on May 21, 192. His father was in the army and his mother was a scientist. Sakharov could not establish rapport with the Soviet system on the intellectual plane. He opposed its rigidity and had to pay a heavy price for his dissidence. Though he was a staunch critic of Soviet system, he could not be labeled as pro-American as he always opposed the misuse of science for destruction. He married Helena Bonner.

For his anti-establishment views, Sakharov had to live under house arrest for many years at Gorky. Earlier, he had been honored with the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ award thrice as also Nobel Prize for Peace (1975). When the Soviet army intervened in Afghanistan, Sakharov opposed the move, This entailed a lot of hardships for him. In 1980, the Union of Supreme Soviet debarred him from all awards for six years. He was kept confined in Gorky. He was kept away from all scientific research. KGB tormented him. But, Sakharov did not waver from his path. He continued to struggle for human rights and political prisoners. The whole world raised its voice against his imprisonment and demanded his release.

When the winds of ‘Glasnost’ and ‘Perestroika’ blew in the Soviet Union under the liberal and reformist administration of then President, Mikhail S.Gorbachev, Sakharov returned to his mother country, but did not live long. He died on December 15, 1989. His famous book is Sakharov Speaks. He was honored with the ‘Einstein Award’ in 1989.