Who is andrei sakharov

Download the video. The Russian physicist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov , who won the Nobel Peace Prize in , first came to prominence as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. Concerned at the implications his work had for the future of humankind, he sought to raise awareness of the dangers of the nuclear arms race. His efforts proved partially successful with the signing of the nuclear test ban treaty. In , he founded a committee to defend human rights and victims of political trials.

Despite increasing pressure from the government, Sakharov not only sought the release of dissidents in his country but became one of the regime's most courageous critics, embodying the crusade against the denial of fundamental rights.

It was no coincidence that Jimmy Carter, the first president to embrace human rights as a diplomatic priority, began his tenure in the White House in by exchanging letters with Sakharov. Read more: Jimmy Carter's lasting Cold War legacy. Launched by the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in , the Helsinki Process was widely perceived as a Western defeat because it appeared to recognise Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

Sakharov, however, saw it as an opportunity. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that year, he drew attention to the fact the agreement contained. For nearly eight years, the MHG sent meticulous reports about Soviet violations to the follow-up conferences of the signatory states, but its most compelling evidence was the brutal repression inflicted on its own members. Much of this contest focused on the fate of Sakharov himself after the Soviet regime finally moved to silence him in For speaking out against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he was arrested and banished to internal exile.

Share :. Summary Table of contents Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize winner and physicist, was a leading human rights activist in the Soviet Union, and one of the world's great thinkers. Foreword Introduction Nobel presentation speech I. His thinking had a profound impact on the Price The Council of Europe - Pioneer and guarantor for human rights and Sakharov believed it was important to break the American monopoly on nuclear weapons.

But from the late s on, he issued warnings against the consequences of the arms race, and in the s and s he voiced sharp criticism of the system of Soviet society, which in his opinion departed from fundamental human rights. Andrei Sakharov, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in for his opposition to the abuse of power and his work for human rights.

The leaders of the Soviet Union reacted with fury, and refused Sakharov permission to travel to Oslo to receive the Prize. His wife, Jelena Bonner, received it on his behalf. After receiving the prize, Sakharov continued to work for human rights and to make statements to the West through Western correspondents in Moscow.