Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов|p=ɐnˈdrʲej dmʲiˈtrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet and Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons.
The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor. == Biography == === Early life === Sakharov was born in Moscow on May 21, 1921.
However, despite being an atheist, he did believe in a "guiding principle" that transcends the physical laws. ===Education and career=== Sakharov entered Moscow State University in 1938.
Following evacuation in 1941 during the Great Patriotic War (World War II), he graduated in Aşgabat, in today's Turkmenistan.
In 1943, he married Klavdia Alekseyevna Vikhireva, with whom he raised two daughters and a son.
He returned to Moscow in 1945 to study at the Theoretical Department of FIAN (the Physical Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences).
in 1947. ===Development of thermonuclear devices=== After World War II, he researched cosmic rays.
Sakharov's study group at FIAN in 1948 came up with a second concept in August–September 1948.
The first Soviet atomic device was tested on August 29, 1949.
Proton decay was suggested by Wigner in 1949 and 1952. Proton decay experiments had been performed since 1954 already.
After moving to Sarov in 1950, Sakharov played a key role in the development of the first megaton-range Soviet hydrogen bomb using a design known as Sakharov's Third Idea in Russia and the Teller–Ulam design in the United States.
He later wrote: ===Support for peaceful use of nuclear technology=== In 1950 he proposed an idea for a controlled nuclear fusion reactor, the tokamak, which is still the basis for the majority of work in the area.
Sakharov also proposed the idea of induced gravity as an alternative theory of quantum gravity. ===Turn to activism=== Since the late 1950s Sakharov had become concerned about the moral and political implications of his work.
Sakharov, in association with Tamm, proposed confining extremely hot ionized plasma by torus shaped magnetic fields for controlling thermonuclear fusion that led to the development of the tokamak device. ===Magneto-implosive generators=== In 1951 he invented and tested the first explosively pumped flux compression generators, compressing magnetic fields by explosives.
The resulting helical MK-2 generated 1000 million amperes in 1953. Sakharov then tested a MK-driven "plasma cannon" where a small aluminum ring was vaporized by huge eddy currents into a stable, self-confined toroidal plasmoid and was accelerated to 100 km/s.
Сахарова" ("In memory of Andrei Sakharov"), which features on his Live In "Russia" 2 (Живем в "России" 2) CD. The faction leader of the Ecologists in the PC game Shadow of Chernobyl and its prequel is a scientist named Professor Sakharov. == Honours and awards == Hero of Socialist Labour (three times: 12 August 1953; 20 June 1956; 7 March 1962). Four Orders of Lenin. Lenin Prize (1956). Stalin Prize (1953). In 1980, Sakharov was stripped of all Soviet awards for "anti-Soviet activities".
Proton decay was suggested by Wigner in 1949 and 1952. Proton decay experiments had been performed since 1954 already.
Sakharov's idea was first tested as RDS-37 in 1955.
Сахарова" ("In memory of Andrei Sakharov"), which features on his Live In "Russia" 2 (Живем в "России" 2) CD. The faction leader of the Ecologists in the PC game Shadow of Chernobyl and its prequel is a scientist named Professor Sakharov. == Honours and awards == Hero of Socialist Labour (three times: 12 August 1953; 20 June 1956; 7 March 1962). Four Orders of Lenin. Lenin Prize (1956). Stalin Prize (1953). In 1980, Sakharov was stripped of all Soviet awards for "anti-Soviet activities".
Politically active during the 1960s, Sakharov was against nuclear proliferation.
A larger variation of the same design which Sakharov worked on was the 50 Mt Tsar Bomba of October 1961, which was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated. Sakharov saw "striking parallels" between his fate and those of J.
Сахарова" ("In memory of Andrei Sakharov"), which features on his Live In "Russia" 2 (Живем в "России" 2) CD. The faction leader of the Ecologists in the PC game Shadow of Chernobyl and its prequel is a scientist named Professor Sakharov. == Honours and awards == Hero of Socialist Labour (three times: 12 August 1953; 20 June 1956; 7 March 1962). Four Orders of Lenin. Lenin Prize (1956). Stalin Prize (1953). In 1980, Sakharov was stripped of all Soviet awards for "anti-Soviet activities".
Pushing for the end of atmospheric tests, he played a role in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in Moscow. Sakharov was also involved in an event with political consequences in 1964, when the Soviet Academy of Sciences nominated for full membership Nikolai Nuzhdin, a follower of Trofim Lysenko (initiator of the Stalin-supported anti-genetics campaign Lysenkoism).
Pushing for the end of atmospheric tests, he played a role in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in Moscow. Sakharov was also involved in an event with political consequences in 1964, when the Soviet Academy of Sciences nominated for full membership Nikolai Nuzhdin, a follower of Trofim Lysenko (initiator of the Stalin-supported anti-genetics campaign Lysenkoism).
He theorized this could focus 1023 protons per second on a 1 mm2 surface. ===Particle physics and cosmology=== After 1965 Sakharov returned to fundamental science and began working on particle physics and physical cosmology. He tried to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe; in that regard, he was the first to give a theoretical motivation for proton decay.
In a secret detailed letter to the Soviet leadership of July 21, 1967, Sakharov explained the need to "take the Americans at their word" and accept their proposal for a "bilateral rejection by the USA and the Soviet Union of the development of antiballistic missile defense" because an arms race in the new technology would otherwise increase the likelihood of nuclear war.
The letters cover the period from 1968 to 1991 (Brezhnev stagnation).
Klavdia would later die in 1969.
He stood vigil outside closed courtrooms, wrote appeals on behalf of more than 200 individual prisoners, and continued to write essays about the need for democratization. In 1970, Sakharov was among the three founding members of the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR, along with Valery Chalidze and Andrei Tverdokhlebov.
Its work was the subject of many KGB reports and brought Sakharov under increasing pressure from the government. Sakharov married a fellow human rights activist, Yelena Bonner, in 1972. By 1973, Sakharov was meeting regularly with Western correspondents and holding press conferences in his apartment.
He appealed to the US Congress to approve the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment to a trade bill, which coupled trade tariffs to the Kremlin's willingness to allow freer emigration. ===Attacked by Soviet establishment from 1972=== In 1972, Sakharov became the target of sustained pressure from his fellow scientists in the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Soviet press.
Its work was the subject of many KGB reports and brought Sakharov under increasing pressure from the government. Sakharov married a fellow human rights activist, Yelena Bonner, in 1972. By 1973, Sakharov was meeting regularly with Western correspondents and holding press conferences in his apartment.
The writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to his defence. In 1973 and 1974, the Soviet media campaign continued, targeting both Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn.
He appealed to the US Congress to approve the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment to a trade bill, which coupled trade tariffs to the Kremlin's willingness to allow freer emigration. ===Attacked by Soviet establishment from 1972=== In 1972, Sakharov became the target of sustained pressure from his fellow scientists in the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Soviet press.
The writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to his defence. In 1973 and 1974, the Soviet media campaign continued, targeting both Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn.
Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which he faced state persecution; these efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
There is also a street named after him in Haifa. In Nizhny Novgorod, there is a Sakharov Museum in the apartment on the first floor of the 12-storeyed house where the Sakharov family lived for seven years; in 2014 his monument was erected near the house. In Saint Petersburg, his monument stands in Sakharov Square, and there is a Sakharov Park. In 1979, an asteroid, 1979 Sakharov, was named after him. A public square in Vilnius in front of the Press House is named after Sakharov.
Sakharov was banned from conducting any military-related research and returned to FIAN to study fundamental theoretical physics. For 12 years, until his exile to Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) in January 1980, Sakharov assumed the role of a widely recognized and open dissident in Moscow.
Sakharov was named the 1980 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. In May 1984, Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, was detained, and Sakharov began a [strike], demanding permission for his wife to travel to the United States for heart surgery.
No Russian equivalent of the KGB archive is available. == Legacy and remembrance == === Places === In Moscow, there is Academician Sakharov Avenue and Sakharov Center. During the 1980s, the block of 16th Street NW between L and M streets, in front of the Russian ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C.
was renamed "Andrei Sakharov Plaza" as a form of protest against his 1980 arrest and detention. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, Sakharov Square, located in the heart of the city, is named after him. The Sakharov Gardens (est.
Сахарова" ("In memory of Andrei Sakharov"), which features on his Live In "Russia" 2 (Живем в "России" 2) CD. The faction leader of the Ecologists in the PC game Shadow of Chernobyl and its prequel is a scientist named Professor Sakharov. == Honours and awards == Hero of Socialist Labour (three times: 12 August 1953; 20 June 1956; 7 March 1962). Four Orders of Lenin. Lenin Prize (1956). Stalin Prize (1953). In 1980, Sakharov was stripped of all Soviet awards for "anti-Soviet activities".
The novel was published in 1982, when Sakharov was in exile in Nizhny Novgorod, and was dedicated both to Sakharov and to Alexei Leonov. Russian singer Alexander Gradsky wrote and performed the song "Памяти А.
Sakharov was named the 1980 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. In May 1984, Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, was detained, and Sakharov began a [strike], demanding permission for his wife to travel to the United States for heart surgery.
In August 1984, Bonner was sentenced by a court to five years of exile in Gorky. In April 1985, Sakharov started a new hunger strike for his wife to travel abroad for medical treatment.
The corner is just down the block from the Russian (then Soviet) Mission to the United Nations and was the scene of repeated anti-Soviet demonstrations. === Media === In the 1984 made-for-TV film Sakharov starring Jason Robards. In the television series The Next Generation, one of the Enterprise-D's Shuttlecraft is named after Sakharov, and is featured prominently in several episodes.
In August 1984, Bonner was sentenced by a court to five years of exile in Gorky. In April 1985, Sakharov started a new hunger strike for his wife to travel abroad for medical treatment.
He remained in the hospital until October 1985, when his wife was allowed to travel to the United States.
In November the head of the KGB reported to Gorbachev on Sakharov's encouragement and support for the coal miners' strike in Vorkuta. In December 1988, Sakharov visited Armenia and Azerbaijan on a fact-finding mission.
He was interred in the Vostryakovskoye Cemetery in Moscow. == Influence == === Memorial prizes === The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was established in 1988 by the European Parliament in his honour, and is the highest tribute to human rights endeavours awarded by the European Union.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов|p=ɐnˈdrʲej dmʲiˈtrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet and Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons.
In March 1989, Sakharov was elected to the new parliament, the All-Union Congress of People's Deputies and co-led the democratic opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group.
He concluded, "For Azerbaijan the issue of Karabakh is a matter of ambition, for the Armenians of Karabakh, it is a matter of life and death". ===Death=== Soon after 21:00 on 14 December 1989, Sakharov went to his study to take a nap before preparing an important speech he was to deliver the next day in the Congress.
The letters cover the period from 1968 to 1991 (Brezhnev stagnation).
The 2015 winner was Yelena Kostyuchenko. === Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center === The Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center, established at Brandeis University in 1993, are now housed at Harvard University. The documents from that archive were published by the Yale University Press in 2005.
The 2015 winner was Yelena Kostyuchenko. === Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center === The Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center, established at Brandeis University in 1993, are now housed at Harvard University. The documents from that archive were published by the Yale University Press in 2005.
There is also a street named after him in Haifa. In Nizhny Novgorod, there is a Sakharov Museum in the apartment on the first floor of the 12-storeyed house where the Sakharov family lived for seven years; in 2014 his monument was erected near the house. In Saint Petersburg, his monument stands in Sakharov Square, and there is a Sakharov Park. In 1979, an asteroid, 1979 Sakharov, was named after him. A public square in Vilnius in front of the Press House is named after Sakharov.
The 2015 winner was Yelena Kostyuchenko. === Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center === The Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center, established at Brandeis University in 1993, are now housed at Harvard University. The documents from that archive were published by the Yale University Press in 2005.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05