Andrei Sakharov – Biography of Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov was a Nobel Prize winning Russian physicist, popularly known as the “father of the soviet nuclear bomb“He was a great nuclear scientist and influential political activist, ardent and relentless defender of human rights and individual freedoms. He carried out research in controlled nuclear fusion and his work led to the creation of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb. His work on the nuclear program, which he popularized as “The Third Idea“Ultimately, it led him down the path of dissent. After the test of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, Sakharov he began to become more and more disturbed by the probable consequences of his work. After some time, he returned to fundamental science and began to work in cosmology, but continued to oppose political discrimination. Later in his life, he became a notorious defender of human rights and when he denounced the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, the Soviet authorities exiled him to internal exile. Despite this, he remained a tireless advocate for political reform and human rights for the rest of his life. Despite being an atheist, he believed that a non-scientific “guiding principle” governed the universe and human life. He was an extraordinary theoretical physicist and a well-known dissident, but above all, a noble symbol of courage, intelligence and humanity.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov He was born on May 21, 1921 in Moscow, his parents were Dmitri Ivanovich Sakharov, a physics teacher and pianist, and his wife, Yekaterina Alekseyevna Sakharova, a housewife, from whom he received a strong influence of thoughts and personality, as well as from his paternal grandmother, Maria Petrovna.

In 1938, he enrolled at Moscow State University, but during World War II, he was evacuated to Asgabat, part of present-day Turkmenistan, where he graduated in 1942. He then began working in the laboratory of a munitions factory in Ulyanovsk. . In 1945, he returned to Moscow and enrolled in the PN Lebedev Physics Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (FIAN). He completed his doctorate in 1947.

After the war, he began his research on cosmic rays and also played a vital role in the development of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, using a design known in Russia as “Sakharov’s Third Idea“and the Teller-Ulam design from the United States.

Between the ’50s and’ 60s he was involved at the highest level in secret investigations on thermonuclear weapons, working in a secret site. In collaboration with Igor Tamm, he suggested the idea of a controlled nuclear fusion reactor, the tokamak, in the early 1950s.

Also in those years, he began to worry about the moral and political implications of his work and protested against nuclear proliferation.

He returned to fundamental science in the late 1960s and began work on particle physics and cosmology. He also proposed the idea of induced gravity as an alternative theory of quantum gravity. He published his best known political essay, “Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom“in 1968.

In 1970, he became one of the founders of the Human Rights Committee in the USSR due to which he was severely persecuted by the government.

In 1980, he was arrested as a result of his public protests against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and was sent into internal exile in the city of Gorky, where he was detained until 1986.

One of his most important works was the conceptual breakthrough in the development of high-performance atomic weapons. However, he was also a political and humanitarian activist who developed a strong awareness of the dangers of nuclear testing and the irreversible consequences of nuclear war. He also published several prominent articles and Soviet magazines arguing against continued nuclear tests and the arms race.

Andrei Sakharov He received the Stalin Prize in 1953 for his outstanding work in Physics. He received the Cino Del Duca World Prize, an international literary prize, in 1974. In 1975, he was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to abuses of power and his work for human rights. In 1988, he received the “International Humanist Award” from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. In 2003, posthumously he received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Vytis.

The “Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought“named after him, is the highest tribute awarded annually by the European Parliament to individuals and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedom. The”Andrei Sakharov Prize“Awarded by the American Physical Society to acknowledge”the leadership and / or achievements of scientists in the defense of human rights“It is named in his honor.

In his personal life, Sakharov met Klavdia Vikhireva, a laboratory assistant, while working in Ulyanovsk; they were married in July 1943 and had three children, Tanya, Lyuba, and Dmitry. Unfortunately, Klavdia died in 1969. In 1970 he met Yelena G. Bonner, a human rights activist. They were married in 1972 and she became their biggest supporter.

Andrei Sakharov He died of a heart attack on December 14, 1989 at the age of 68.