Editing Andrei Sakharov (section)

== Biography ==
=== Family background and early life ===

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was born in Moscow on 21 May 1921, to a [[Russians|Russian]] family. His father, Dmitri Ivanovich Sakharov, was a physics professor at the [[Second Moscow State University]] and an amateur pianist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1975/sakharov/facts/|title=Andrei Sakharov - Facts|website=Nobel Prize|access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref><ref>Sidney David Drell, Sergeǐ Petrovich Kapitsa, ''Sakharov Remembered: a tribute by friends and colleagues'' (1991), p. 4</ref> His grandfather, Ivan, was a lawyer in the former [[Russian Empire]] who had displayed respect for social awareness and humanitarian principles (including advocating the abolition of [[Capital punishment in Russia|capital punishment]]). Sakharov's mother, Yekaterina Alekseevna Sofiano, was a daughter of Aleksey Semenovich Sofiano, a general in the [[Russian Imperial Army|Tsarist Russian Army]] with [[Greeks|Greek]] heritage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sakharov-center.ru/sakharov/ |script-title=ru:Об А.Д. Сахарове |last=Bonner |first=Yelena |language=ru |access-date=November 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114125731/http://www.sakharov-center.ru/sakharov/ |archive-date=November 14, 2010 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/Djuha.htm |script-title=ru:Греки в Красноярском крае (Материалы из книги И. Джухи "Греческая операция НКВД") |language=ru |access-date=November 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408144503/http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/Djuha.htm |archive-date=April 8, 2010 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref>

Sakharov's parents and paternal grandmother, Maria Petrovna, largely shaped his personality; his mother and grandmother were members of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], although his father was a non-believer. When Andrei was about thirteen, he realized that he did not believe in God. However, despite being an [[atheist]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195156201|author1=Gennady Gorelik |author2=Antonina W. Bouis |page=356|quote=Apparently Sakharov did not need to delve any deeper into it for a long time, remaining a totally non-militant atheist with an open heart.}}</ref> he did believe in a "guiding principle" that transcends the physical laws.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Sidney D. Drell, George P. Shultz |title=Andrei Sakharov: The Conscience of Humanity |publisher=Hoover Press |isbn=9780817918965 |quote=I am unable to imagine the universe and human life without some guiding principle, without a source of spiritual 'warmth' that is nonmaterial and not bound by physical laws.|date=2015-10-01 }}</ref>

After schooling, Sakharov studied physics at the [[Moscow State University]] in 1938 and, following evacuation in 1941 during the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], he graduated in [[Aşgabat]] in [[Turkmenistan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.msu.ru/en/info/nobel.html|title=Nobel Prize Laureates from MSU|website=Moscow State University|language=en|access-date=2017-10-08}}</ref> In 1943, he married Klavdia Alekseyevna Vikhireva, with whom he raised two daughters and a son. Klavdia would later die in 1969. In 1945, he joined the Theoretical Department of [[Lebedev Physical Institute|Physical Institute]] of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] under [[Igor Tamm]] in Moscow. In 1947, Sakharov was successful in defending his thesis for the [[Doctor of Sciences]] (lit. ''Doktor Nauk''), which covered the topic of [[nuclear transmutation]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/scientists_sakharov.html|title=Andrei Sakharov - Important Scientists|last=Mastin|first=Luke|date=2009|website=The Physics of the Universe|access-date=2017-10-08}}</ref>

===Soviet program of nuclear weapons===
{{main|RDS-37|Tsar Bomba}}
After [[World War II]], he researched [[cosmic ray]]s. In mid-1948 he participated in the [[Soviet atomic bomb project]] under [[Igor Kurchatov]] and [[Igor Tamm]]. Sakharov's study group at FIAN in 1948 came up with a second concept in August–September 1948.<ref name=":0">Zaloga, Steve (17 February 2002). ''The Kremlin's Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia's Strategic Nuclear Forces 1945–2000''. Smithsonian Books. {{ISBN|1588340074}}.</ref> Adding a shell of natural, unenriched uranium around the deuterium would increase the deuterium concentration at the uranium-deuterium boundary and the overall yield of the device, because the natural uranium would capture neutrons and itself fission as part of the thermonuclear reaction. This idea of a layered fission-fusion-fission bomb led Sakharov to call it the ''sloika'', or layered cake.<ref name=":0" /> The first Soviet atomic device was tested on August 29, 1949. 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 [[History of the Teller–Ulam design|Teller–Ulam design]] in the United States. Before his ''Third Idea'', Sakharov tried a "layer cake" of alternating layers of fission and fusion fuel. The results were disappointing, yielding no more than a typical fission bomb. However the design was seen to be worth pursuing because deuterium is abundant and uranium is scarce, and he had no idea how powerful the US design was. Sakharov realised that in order to cause the explosion of one side of the fuel to symmetrically compress the fusion fuel, a mirror could be used to reflect the radiation. The details had not been officially declassified in Russia when Sakharov was writing his memoirs, but in the Teller–Ulam design, soft X-rays emitted by the fission bomb were focused onto a cylinder of lithium deuteride to compress it symmetrically. This is called [[radiation implosion]]. The Teller–Ulam design also had a secondary fission device inside the fusion cylinder to assist with the compression of the fusion fuel and generate neutrons to convert some of the lithium to tritium, producing a mixture of deuterium and tritium.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sakharov, Andrei|title=Memoirs|publisher=Vintage|date=1992|isbn=978-0679735953}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Gorelik, Gennady |author2=Bouis, Antonina |title=The world of Andrei Sakharov: a Russian physicist's path to freedom|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195156201}}</ref> Sakharov's idea was first tested as [[RDS-37]] in 1955. A larger variation of the same design which Sakharov worked on was the 50&nbsp;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. Robert Oppenheimer]] and [[Edward Teller]] in the US. Sakharov believed that in this "tragic confrontation of two outstanding people", both deserved respect, because "each of them was certain he had right on his side and was morally obligated to go to the end in the name of truth." While Sakharov strongly disagreed with Teller over [[Nuclear weapons testing|nuclear testing in the atmosphere]] and the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], he believed that American academics had been unfair to Teller's resolve to get the H-bomb for the United States since "all steps by the Americans of a temporary or permanent rejection of developing thermonuclear weapons would have been seen either as a clever feint, or as the manifestation of stupidity. In both cases, the reaction would have been the same – avoid the trap and immediately take advantage of the enemy's stupidity."{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Sakharov never felt that by creating nuclear weapons he had "known sin", in Oppenheimer's expression. He later wrote:
{{blockquote|text=After more than forty years, we have had no [[third world war]], and the [[Mutual assured destruction|balance of nuclear terror]]&nbsp;... may have helped to prevent one. But I am not at all sure of this; back then, in those long-gone years, the question didn't even arise. What most troubles me now is the instability of the balance, the extreme peril of the current situation, the appalling waste of the arms race&nbsp;... Each of us has a responsibility to think about this in global terms, with tolerance, trust, and candor, free from ideological dogmatism, parochial interests, or national egotism."|source=Andrei Sakharov<ref name="people">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://people.bu.edu/gorelik/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chrono/SakharovAndrei_NDSB_uned.htm|title=Andrei Sakharov|first=Gennady|last=Gorelik|encyclopedia=New dictionary of scientific biography|date=2008|editor-first=Noretta|editor-last=Koertge|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson Gale|location=Detroit|access-date=July 12, 2011|archive-date=February 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215033444/http://people.bu.edu/gorelik/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chrono/SakharovAndrei_NDSB_uned.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

===Support for peaceful use of nuclear technology===
{{main|Tokamak}}
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, in association with Tamm, proposed confining extremely hot ionized [[Plasma (physics)|plasma]] by [[torus]] shaped [[magnetic field]]s for controlling [[thermonuclear fusion]] that led to the development of the tokamak device.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.aip.org/history/sakharov/hbomb.htm|title=Andrei Sakharov: Soviet Physics, Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights|access-date=October 10, 2010|archive-date=August 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140828151645/http://www.aip.org/history/sakharov/hbomb.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Magneto-implosive generators===
{{main|Explosively pumped flux compression generator}}
In 1951 he invented and tested the first [[explosively pumped flux compression generator]]s,<ref>{{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |title=Magnetoimplosive Generators
 |date=January 1966
 |script-title=ru:Взрывомагнитные генераторы
 |journal=Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
 |volume=88
 |issue=4
 |pages=725–734
 |language=ru
 |doi=10.3367/ufnr.0088.196604e.0725
}} Translated as: {{cite journal 
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=1966
 |title=Magnetoimplosive generators
 |journal=Soviet Physics Uspekhi
 |volume=9
 |issue=2
 |pages=294–299
 |doi=10.1070/PU1966v009n02ABEH002876
|bibcode = 1966SvPhU...9..294S }} Republished as: {{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |title=Magnetoimplosive generators
 |last2=Lyudaev |first2=R. Z.
 |last3=Smirnov |first3=E. N.
 |last4=Plyushchev |first4=Yu I.
 |last5=Pavlovskiĭ |first5=A. I.
 |last6=Chernyshev |first6=V. K.
 |last7= Feoktistova |first7=E. A.
 |last8=Zharinov |first8=E. A.
 |last9=Zysin |first9=Yu A.
 |display-authors=1
 |date=1991
 |script-title=ru:Взрывомагнитные генераторы
 |journal=Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
 |volume=161
 |issue=5
 |pages=51–60
 |doi=10.3367/UFNr.0161.199105g.0051
 |language=ru
|doi-access=free
 }} Translated as: {{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |last2=Lyudaev |first2=R. Z.
 |last3=Smirnov |first3=E. N.
 |last4=Plyushchev |first4=Yu I.
 |last5=Pavlovskiĭ |first5=A. I.
 |last6=Chernyshev |first6=V. K.
 |last7= Feoktistova |first7=E. A.
 |last8=Zharinov |first8=E. A.
 |last9=Zysin |first9=Yu A.
 |display-authors=1
 |date=1991
 |title=Magnetoimplosive generators
 |journal=Soviet Physics Uspekhi
 |volume=34
 |issue=5
 |pages=387–391
 |doi=10.1070/PU1991v034n05ABEH002495
|bibcode = 1991SvPhU..34..385S }}
</ref> compressing magnetic fields by [[Explosive material|explosives]]. He called these devices MK (for ''MagnetoKumulative'') generators. The radial MK-1 produced a pulsed magnetic field of 25 [[gauss (unit)|megagauss]] (2500 [[tesla (unit)|teslas]]). 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 current]]s into a stable, self-confined [[torus|toroidal]] [[plasmoid]] and was accelerated to 100&nbsp;km/s.<ref name="Sakharov book">
{{cite book
 |last1=Sakharov |first1= A. D.
 |date=7 December 1982
 |title=Collected Scientific Works
 |publisher=[[Marcel Dekker]]
 |isbn=978-0824717148
}}</ref> Sakharov later suggested replacing the copper [[Electromagnetic coil|coil]] in MK generators with a large [[Superconductivity|superconductor]] [[solenoid]] to magnetically compress and focus [[Nuclear testing|underground nuclear explosions]] into a [[shaped charge]] effect. He theorized this could focus 10<sup>23</sup> [[proton]]s per second on a 1&nbsp;mm<sup>2</sup> surface.

===Particle physics and cosmology===
After 1965 Sakharov returned to [[fundamental science]] and began working on [[particle physics]] and [[physical cosmology]].<ref name="Sakharov 1966">{{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=July 1965
 |script-title=ru:Начальная стадия расширения Вселенной и возникновение неоднородности распределения вещества
 |journal=[[Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics|Pi'sma ZhÉTF]]
 |volume=49 
 |issue=1
 |pages=345–358
 |language=ru
}} Translated as: {{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=January 1966
 |title=The Initial Stage of an Expanding Universe and the Appearance of a Nonuniform Distribution of Matter
 |journal=[[Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics|JETP]]
 |volume=22 
 |issue=1
 |pages=241–249
 |url= http://jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_022_01_0241.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_022_01_0241.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
 |bibcode = 1966JETP...22..241S }}</ref><ref name="Sakharov 1967b">{{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=January 1967 |script-title=ru:Кварк–мюонные токи и нарушение СР–инвариантности |journal=Pi'sma ZhÉTF |language=ru |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=36–39}} Translated as: {{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=January 1967 |title=Quark-Muonic Currents and Violation of CP Invariance |url=http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1643/article_25090.pdf |url-status=live |journal=JETP Letters |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=27–30 |bibcode=1967JETPL...5...27S |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1643/article_25090.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref><ref>Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 177, 70 (1967) [trans. Sov. Phys.-Dokl. 12, 1040 (1968)]</ref><ref name="Sakharov 1969">{{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=1969
 |script-title=ru:Антикварки во Вселенной
 |trans-title=Antiquarks in the Universe
 |language=ru
 |journal=Problems in Theoretical Physics
 |pages=35–44
}} Dedicated to the 30th anniversary of [[Nikolay Bogolyubov|N. N. Bogolyubov]].</ref><ref>Paper at seminar, Phys. Inst. Acad. Sci., June 1970</ref>
[[File:2D didactic image of Sakharov's twin universe model.svg|thumb|300px|right|2D didactic image of Sakharov's model of the universe with reversal of the arrow of time]]
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]]. Proton decay was suggested by Wigner in 1949 and 1952.<ref>E. P. Wigner, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 93, 521 (1949); Proc. Natl.Ac'ad. Sci. (U. S.) 38, 449 (1952)</ref>
Proton decay experiments had been performed since 1954 already.<ref>F. Reines, C.L. Cowan, M. Goldhaber, Phys.Rev. 96 (1954) 1157.</ref> Sakharov was the first to consider [[CPT symmetry|CPT-symmetric]] events occurring ''before'' the [[Big Bang]]:<blockquote>We can visualize that neutral spinless maximons (or photons) are produced at <nowiki>''</nowiki>t<nowiki>''</nowiki> < 0 from contracting matter having an excess of antiquarks, that they pass "one through the other" at the instant <nowiki>''</nowiki>t<nowiki>''</nowiki> = 0 when the density is infinite, and decay with an excess of quarks when <nowiki>''</nowiki>t<nowiki>''</nowiki> > 0, realizing total CPT symmetry of the universe. All the phenomena at t < 0 are assumed in this hypothesis to be CPT reflections of the phenomena at t > 0.<ref name="Sakharov 1967a">{{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=January 1967 |script-title=ru:Нарушение СР–инвариантности, С–асимметрия и барионная асимметрия Вселенной |journal=Pi'sma ZhÉTF |language=ru |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=32–35}} Translated as: {{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=January 1967 |title=Violation of CP invariance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe |url=http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1643/article_25089.pdf |url-status=live |journal=JETP Letters |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=24–26 |bibcode=1967JETPL...5...24S |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1643/article_25089.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}} Republished as {{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=May 1991 |title=Violation of CP invariance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe |url=http://ayuba.fr/pdf/sakharov1991.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[Physics-Uspekhi|Soviet Physics Uspekhi]] |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=392–393 |bibcode=1991SvPhU..34..392S |doi=10.1070/PU1991v034n05ABEH002497 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ayuba.fr/pdf/sakharov1991.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref></blockquote> His legacy in this domain are the famous [[Baryon asymmetry#Sakharov conditions|conditions]] named after him:<ref name="Sakharov 1967a" /> Baryon number violation, C-symmetry and CP-symmetry violation, and interactions out of thermal equilibrium.

Sakharov was also interested in explaining why the curvature of the universe is so small. This led him to consider cyclic models, where the universe oscillates between contraction and expansion phases.<ref name="Sakharov 1982">{{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=October 1982 |script-title=ru:Многолистные модели Вселенной |journal=Pi'sma ZhÉTF |language=ru |volume=82 |issue=3 |pages=1233–1240}} Translated as: {{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=October 1982 |title=Many-sheeted models of the universe (Multisheet models of the universe) |url=http://www.jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_056_04_0705.pdf |url-status=live |journal=JETP |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=705–709 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_056_04_0705.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref><ref name="Sakharov 1980">{{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=September 1980 |script-title=ru:Космологические модели Вселенной с поворотом стрелы времени |journal=Pi'sma ZhÉTF |language=ru |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=689–693}}Translated as: {{cite journal |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D. |date=September 1980 |title=Cosmological models of the Universe with reversal of time's arrow |url=http://www.jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_052_03_0349.pdf |url-status=live |journal=JETP Letters |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=349–351 |bibcode=1980JETP...52..349S |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.jetp.ac.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_052_03_0349.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref> In those models, after a certain number of cycles the curvature naturally becomes infinite even if it had not started this way: Sakharov considered three starting points, a flat universe with a slightly negative cosmological constant, a universe with a positive curvature and a zero cosmological constant, and a universe with a negative curvature and a slightly negative cosmological constant. Those last two models feature what Sakharov calls a reversal of the time arrow, which can be summarized as follows: He considers times t > 0 after the initial Big Bang singularity at t = 0 (which he calls "Friedman singularity" and denotes Φ) as well as times t < 0 before that singularity. He then assumes that entropy increases when time increases for t > 0 as well as when time decreases for t < 0, which constitutes his reversal of time. Then he considers the case when the universe at t < 0 is the image of the universe at t > 0 under CPT symmetry but also the case when it is not so: the universe has a non-zero CPT charge at t = 0 in this case. Sakharov considers a variant of this model where the reversal of the time arrow occurs at a point of maximum entropy instead of happening at the singularity. In those models there is no dynamic interaction between the universe at t < 0 and t > 0.

In his first model the two universes did not interact, except via local matter accumulation whose density and pressure become high enough to connect the two sheets through a bridge without spacetime between them, but with a continuity of geodesics beyond the Schwarzschild radius with no singularity{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}, allowing an exchange of matter between the two conjugated sheets, based on an idea after [[Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov]].<ref name="Novikov 1966">{{cite journal
 |last1=Novikov |first1=I. D.
 |date=March 1966
 |title=The Disturbances of the Metric when a Collapsing Sphere Passes below the Schwarzschild Sphere
 |journal=JETP Letters
 |volume=3
 |issue=5
 |pages=142–144
 |url=http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1614/article_24731.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1614/article_24731.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
 |bibcode = 1966JETPL...3..142N }}</ref> Novikov called such singularities a ''collapse'' and an ''anticollapse'', which are an alternative to the couple [[black hole]] and [[white hole]] in the [[wormhole]] model. Sakharov also proposed the idea of [[induced gravity]] as an alternative theory of [[quantum gravity]].<ref name="Sakharov QVF">
{{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=1967
 |script-title=ru:Вакуумные квантовые флуктуации в искривленном пространстве и теория гравитации
 |journal=[[Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
 |volume=177
 |issue=1
 |pages=70–71
 |language=ru
}} Translated as: {{cite journal
 |last1=Sakharov |first1=A. D.
 |date=1991
 |title=Vacuum Quantum Fluctuations in Curved Space and the theory of gravitation
 |journal=Soviet Physics Uspekhi
 |volume=34
 |issue=5
 |pages=394
 |doi=10.1070/PU1991v034n05ABEH002498
 |url=http://ayuba.fr/pdf/sakharov_qvf.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ayuba.fr/pdf/sakharov_qvf.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
 |bibcode = 1991SvPhU..34..394S }}</ref>

===Turn to activism===
[[File:BonnerSacharov1989.jpg|thumb|Sakharov and Bonner in 1989]]
Since the late 1950s Sakharov had become concerned about the moral and political implications of his work. Politically active during the 1960s, Sakharov was against [[nuclear proliferation]]. Pushing for the end of atmospheric tests, he played a role in the 1963 [[Partial Test Ban Treaty]], signed in Moscow.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Anderson|first=Raymond H.|date=1989-12-15|title=Andrei Sakharov, 68, Nuclear Inventor and Mainspring of the Soviet Conscience (Published 1989)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/15/obituaries/andrei-sakharov-68-nuclear-inventor-and-mainspring-of-the-soviet-conscience.html|access-date=2021-03-14|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

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]]). Contrary to normal practice, Sakharov, a member of the academy, publicly spoke out against full membership for Nuzhdin and held him responsible for "the defamation, firing, arrest, even death, of many genuine scientists."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Brezhnev and the Decline of the Soviet Union|last=Crump|first=Thomas|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-66922-6|series=Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe}}</ref>{{Rp|109}} In the end, Nuzhdin was not elected, but the episode prompted Nikita Khrushchev to order the [[KGB]] to gather [[kompromat|compromising material]] on Sakharov.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|109}} In 1966 Sakharov was one of the signatories on the [[Letter of the Twenty Five]] regarding the inadmissibility of "partial or indirect rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin".

The major turn in Sakharov's political evolution came in 1967, when [[anti-ballistic missile]] defense became a key issue in [[Soviet Union–United States relations|US–Soviet relations]]. 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. He also asked permission to publish his manuscript, which accompanied the letter, in a newspaper to explain the dangers posed by that kind of defense. The government ignored his letter and refused to let him initiate a public discussion of ABMs in the [[Media of the Soviet Union|Soviet press]].<ref>Gennady Gorelik. The Metamorphosis of Andrei Sakharov. Scientific American, 1999, March.</ref><ref>Web exhibit "Andrei SAKHAROV: Soviet Physics, Nuclear Weapons, and Human Rights" at American Institute of Physics [http://www.aip.org/history/sakharov/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229021107/https://www.aip.org/history/sakharov/|date=December 29, 2015}}</ref>

Since 1967, after the [[Six-Day War|Six Day War]] and the beginning of the [[Arab–Israeli conflict|Arab-Israeli conflict]], he actively supported [[Israel]], as he reported more than once in the press, and also maintained friendly relations with [[refusenik]]s who later made [[aliyah]].

In May 1968, Sakharov completed an essay, "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom". He described the anti-ballistic missile defense as a major threat of world nuclear war. After the essay was circulated in ''[[samizdat]]'' and then published outside the Soviet Union,<ref>Initially on July 6, 1968, in the Dutch newspaper ''[[Het Parool]]'' through the intermediary of the Dutch academic and writer [[Karel van het Reve]], followed by ''[[The New York Times]]'': {{cite news|title=Outspoken Soviet Scientist; Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/22/archives/outspoken-soviet-scientist-andrei-dmitriyevich-sakharov.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 22, 1968 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov |last2=Gribanov |first2=Alexander |date=2005 |others=[[Joshua Rubenstein]], Alexander Gribanov (eds.), Ella Shmulevich, Efrem Yankelevich, Alla Zeide (trans.) |isbn=978-0-300-12937-3 |location=New Haven, CN}}</ref>{{Rp|21}} 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.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|21}}

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]].<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|21}} The Committee wrote appeals, collected signatures for petitions and succeeded in affiliating with several international human rights organizations. Its work was the subject of many KGB reports and brought Sakharov under increasing pressure from the government.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Sakharov married a fellow human rights activist, [[Yelena Bonner]], in 1972.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/activist-yelena-bonner-dies-at-88-1.878503 ''irishtimes.com'']</ref>

By 1973, Sakharov was meeting regularly with Western correspondents and holding press conferences in his apartment.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|21}} 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 for Soviet Jews.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|24}}

===Attacked by Soviet establishment from 1972===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Meiman dissidents.gif|thumb|239x239px|Sakharov with [[Naum Meiman]], [[Sofiya Kallistratova]], [[Petro Grigorenko]], his wife Zinaida Grigorenko, [[Tatyana Velikanova]]'s mother, the priest Father Sergei Zheludkov; in the lower row are Genrikh Altunyan and [[Alexander Podrabinek]]. Photo taken on 16 October 1977.<ref>{{cite book|author=Подрабинек, Александр|script-title=ru:Диссиденты|trans-title=Dissidents|date=2014|publisher=АСТ|location=Moscow|isbn=978-5-17-082401-4|language=ru}}</ref>{{ffdc|1=Meiman dissidents.gif|log=2022 April 15}}]] -->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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/30-12-materials-about-sakharov/|title=30.12 Materials about Sakharov|work=A Chronicle of Current Events|date=2016-01-16}}</ref>

In 1973 and 1974, the Soviet media campaign continued, targeting both Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn for their pro-Western, anti-socialist positions.

Sakharov later described that it took "years" for him to "understand how much substitution, deceit, and lack of correspondence with reality there was" in the Soviet ideals. "At first I thought, despite everything that I saw with my own eyes, that the Soviet State was a breakthrough into the future, a kind of prototype for all countries". Then he came, in his words, to "the theory of symmetry: all governments and regimes to a first approximation are bad, all peoples are oppressed, and all are threatened by common dangers.":<ref name="people" />

{{blockquote
 |text=...symmetry between a cancer cell and a normal one. Yet our state is similar to a cancer cell – with its messianism and expansionism, its totalitarian suppression of dissent, the authoritarian structure of power, with a total absence of public control in the most important decisions in domestic and foreign policy, a closed society that does not inform its citizens of anything substantial, closed to the outside world, without freedom of travel or the exchange of information.<ref name="people" />}}

Sakharov's ideas on social development led him to put forward the principle of human rights as a new basis of all politics. In his works, he declared that "the principle '[[Everything which is not forbidden is allowed|what is not prohibited is allowed]]' should be understood literally", and defied what he saw as unwritten ideological rules imposed by the Communist Party on the society in spite of a democratic [[Soviet Constitution]] (1936):
 
{{blockquote
|text=I am no volunteer priest of the idea, but simply a man with an unusual fate. I am against all kinds of self-immolation (for myself and for others, including the people closest to me).<ref name="people" />}}

In a letter written from exile, he cheered up a fellow physicist and free market advocate with the words: "Fortunately, the future is unpredictable and also – because of [[quantum effects]] – uncertain." For Sakharov, the indeterminacy of the future supported his belief that he could and should take personal responsibility for it.

=== Nobel Peace Prize (1975) ===
In 1973, Sakharov was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]], and in 1974, he was awarded the [[Prix mondial Cino Del Duca]].

Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The [[Norwegian Nobel Committee]] called him "a spokesman for the conscience of mankind".<ref name="aip.org" /> In the words of the Nobel Committee's citation: "In a convincing manner Sakharov has emphasised that Man's inviolable rights provide the only safe foundation for genuine and enduring international cooperation."<ref name="people" />

Sakharov was not allowed to leave the Soviet Union to collect the prize. His wife, [[Yelena Bonner]], read his speech at the ceremony in [[Oslo]], Norway.<ref name="nobel_acceptance_speech">Y.B. Sakharov: [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-acceptance.html Acceptance Speech], Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 1975.</ref><ref name="nobel_lecture2">Y.B. Sakharov: [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-lecture.html Peace, Progress, Human Rights], Sakharov's Nobel Lecture, Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, Norway, December 11, 1975.</ref> On the day the prize was awarded, Sakharov was in [[Vilnius]], where the human rights activist [[Sergei Kovalev]] was being tried.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist's Path to Freedom|last=Gorelik|first=Gennady|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534374-8|location=Oxford}}</ref> In his Nobel lecture, "Peace, Progress, Human Rights", Sakharov called for an end to the arms race, greater respect for the environment, international cooperation, and universal respect for human rights. He included a list of [[prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]] and [[political prisoners]] in the Soviet Union and stated that he shared the prize with them.<ref name="nobel_lecture2"/>

By 1976, the head of the KGB, [[Yuri Andropov]], was prepared to call Sakharov "Domestic Enemy Number One" before a group of KGB officers.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|24}}

===Internal exile (1980–1986)===
[[File:C0474-NN-Sakharov-house.jpg|thumb|upright|The apartment building in Gagarina Avenue 214, Scherbinki district of Nizhny Novgorod where Sakharov lived in exile from 1980 to 1986. His apartment is now a museum.]]
Sakharov was arrested on 22 January 1980, following his public protests against the [[Soviet intervention in Afghanistan]] in 1979, and was sent to the city of Gorky, now [[Nizhny Novgorod]], a city that was off limits to foreigners.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.aip.org/web-exhibits/sakharov/from-exile.html#3|title=From Exile - Sakharov Web Exhibit|website=history.aip.org|access-date=2019-07-30|archive-date=October 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025191712/https://history.aip.org/web-exhibits/sakharov/from-exile.html#3|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Between 1980 and 1986, Sakharov was kept under Soviet police surveillance. In his memoirs, he mentioned that their apartment in Gorky was repeatedly subjected to searches and heists. Sakharov was named the 1980 Humanist of the Year by the [[American Humanist Association]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Humanist of the Year |url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/AHA/Humanists_of_the_Year |access-date=21 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114082408/http://www.americanhumanist.org/AHA/Humanists_of_the_Year |archive-date=January 14, 2013 }}</ref>

In May 1984, Sakharov's wife, [[Yelena Bonner]], was detained, and Sakharov began a [[hunger strike]], demanding permission for his wife to travel to the United States for heart surgery. He was forcibly hospitalized and [[forced feeding|force-fed]]. He was held in isolation for four months. 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 again was taken to a hospital and force-fed. In August, the Politburo discussed what to do about Sakharov.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/29-august-1985-no-number-pb/ |title=The Bukovsky Archives, 29 August 1985. |access-date=July 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013173716/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/29-august-1985-no-number-pb/ |archive-date=October 13, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He remained in the hospital until October 1985, when his wife was allowed to travel to the United States. She had heart surgery in the United States and returned to Gorky in June 1986.

In December 1985, the [[European Parliament]] established the [[Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought]], to be given annually for outstanding contributions to human rights.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.bu.edu/gorelik/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chrono/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chronology.html|title=AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chronology|access-date=August 10, 2005|archive-date=March 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303080801/http://people.bu.edu/gorelik/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chrono/AIP_Sakharov_Photo_Chronology.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 19 December 1986, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], who had initiated the policies of [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]], called Sakharov to tell him that he and his wife could return to Moscow.<ref>{{cite book |title=Perestroïka and Soviet national security |author=Michael MccGwire |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8157-5553-1 |page=275 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbA2dK9GQb8C&q=andrei+sakharov+december+19&pg=PA275|author-link=Michael MccGwire}}</ref>

===Political leader===
[[File:President Ronald Reagan meeting with Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in the Oval Office.jpg|thumb|right|Sakharov with [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1988]]
In 1988, Sakharov was given the International Humanist Award by the [[International Humanist and Ethical Union]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://iheu.org/about/iheu-awards/|title=IHEU Awards {{!}} IHEU|work=IHEU|access-date=2018-12-02|language=en-US}}</ref> He helped to initiate the first independent legal political organizations and became prominent in the Soviet Union's growing political opposition. In March 1989, Sakharov [[1989 Soviet Union legislative election|was elected]] to the new parliament, the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|All-Union Congress of People's Deputies]] and co-led the democratic opposition, the [[Inter-Regional Deputies Group]]. In November the head of the KGB reported to Gorbachev on Sakharov's encouragement and support for the coal miners' strike in Vorkuta.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/14-november-1989-2292-kov/ |title=The Bukovsky Archives, 14 November 1989. |access-date=July 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013172956/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/14-november-1989-2292-kov/ |archive-date=October 13, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In December 1988, Sakharov visited Armenia and Azerbaijan on a fact-finding mission.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Whitney |first1=Craig R. |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |title=SAKHAROV TOOK UP ENCLAVE'S STATUS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/10/world/sakharov-took-up-enclave-s-status.html |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=10 January 1989}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Commons - Foreign Affairs - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence - Sixth Report |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmfaff/349/349ap18.htm |website=publications.parliament.uk}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:People gathered at the grave of Andrei Sakharov, 1990.jpg|thumb|right|Sakharov's grave, January 1990]]
Soon after 9 p.m. 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. His wife went to wake him at 11 p.m. as he had requested but she found Sakharov dead on the floor. According to the notes of Yakov Rapoport, a senior pathologist present at the autopsy, it is most likely that Sakharov died of an [[heart arrhythmia|arrhythmia]] consequent to [[dilated cardiomyopathy]] at the age of 68.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coleman |first=Fred |title=The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire: Forty Years That Shook the World, from Stalin to Yeltsin |page=116 |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's |year=1997}}</ref> He was interred in the Vostryakovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.