Editing Andrei Sakharov (section)

=== 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>