LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Andrei Sakharov: Intellectual Freedom
built 230 days ago
Articles by Andrei Sakharov can be found in translation in various places, including the journals Chronicle of Human Rights, Russia; and New York Review of Books. An important article, "A Letter from Exile," was ... published in the New York Times Magazine on June 8, 1980. Sakharov's major books in English are Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1972); and Alarm and Hope (1978). There is also a collection of essays, Sakharov Speaks (1974), edited by Harrison Salisbury.
Source:
From 1963 onward, Sakharov pursued a career of pure science, while ... feeding his newfound interest in politics. One of his combined political and scientific accomplishments was bringing down Trofim Lysenko's heirs from their State-supported throne of the One True Biological Science (Lysenko had been a total crackpot who had rejected genetics on the grounds that natural selection was incompatible with Marxism -- an interesting scientific opinion to say the least, and made historically funny from the fact that Karl Marx had wanted to dedicate Das Kapital to Charles Darwin). But in the same period, Sakharov's political interest was taking over a greater and greater part of his life. He took an active interest in victims of political discrimination and oppression. His interest in human rights had ben spurred when his friend, the mathematician Mates Agrest, had been fired from the Installation because of his Jewish religion. Sakharov was an atheist himself, but was in favour of religious freedom, and provided food and shelter to his friend's large family until the mathematician could find new work.
Source:
In 1964 Sakharov successfully mobilized opposition to the spurious doctrines of the still-powerful Stalin-era biologist Trofim D. Lysenko. In May 1968 Sakharov finished his essay Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom, which first circulated as typewritten copies (samizdat) before being published in the West in The New York Times and elsewhere beginning in July. Sakharov warned of grave perils threatening the human race, called for nuclear arms reductions, predicted and endorsed the eventual convergence of communist and capitalist systems in a form of democratic socialism, and criticized the increasing repression of Soviet dissidents. From this point until his death, he became more politically active in support of the human rights movement and other causes. As a consequence of his social activism, he was banned from pursuing further military work.
Source:
Sakharov was immediately dismissed from the military-scientific complex. He then concentrated on theoretical physics and human rights activity. The latter brought him the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1975 and internal exile from 1980 until 1986, when the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released him. Upon his return from exile Sakharov enjoyed three years of freedom and seven months of professional politics as a member of the Soviet parliament. Those were the last months of his life.
Source:
The freedoms Sakharov and others enjoyed in these relatively liberal years had enormous effect. The ability to think and write openly about critical social issues was not easily repressed, despite the concerted efforts of Khrushchev's conservative successor, Leonid Brezhnev. In 1966 and 1967 Sakharov openly warned against efforts to rehabilitate Stalin and pressed for civil liberties. With the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the brutal repression of the Prague Spring, Sakharov and others became more militant, expressing their criticism more openly and sometimes standing vigil at trials of those arrested for protest activities. It was at this time that Sakharov published his most prominent and eloquent political essay, Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom, urging cooperation between East and West, civil liberties, and an end to the arms race.
Source:
At this time Sakharov published his best-known and most persuasive and forceful political essay, Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom. In it he urged cooperation between East and West (primarily the Soviet Union and the United States), civil liberties, and an end to the arms race. Following the publication of Reflections in the West, Sakharov was removed from most of his scientific projects and dismissed from the Soviet Atomic Energy Commission. It soon became difficult for him to publish scientific works. For a time, Sakharov was protected from being arrested because of his international prestige as a nuclear physicist, and his specific knowledge of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Intellectual Freedom