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Andrei Sakharov: Soviets
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Andrei Sakharov (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989) was an eminent Soviet-Russian nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
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Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States. During his visit, he pleaded with the American government and people to support Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic reforms), and so ensure the success of a new, more democratic, and friendlier Soviet system.
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Andrei Sakharov put a similar scenario to Ben Gurion {see below}, in books published in the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s, gaining a reputation as one of the Soviet Union's leading dissidents. Yet there was a great difference between his view and that of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
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A year later, Sakharov conducted research, along with fellow Soviet physicist Igor Tamm, in controlled nuclear fusion. This work, conducted between the years 1948-56, eventually led to the creation of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb. The first Soviet device was tested on August 12, 1953. That same year, Sakharov received his D.Sc. degree, was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and was awarded the first of his three Hero of Socialist Labor titles. He continued to work at Sarov, helping on the first genuine Soviet H-bombs, tested in 1955, and the 50MT Tsar Bomba of October 1961, the most powerful device ever exploded.
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In April 1989 Sakharov was elected to the First Congress of People's Deputies. At the Congress, Sakharov declined nomination to the Supreme Soviet. He did... accept election to the five-member governing board of the Interregional Group of Deputies, a parliamentary caucus of reformers, and also appointment to the commission tasked to draft a new constitution. In November 1989, Sakharov presented Gorbachev with his preliminary draft of a Constitution of the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia.
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Sakharov's plight became in the 1980s a constant sore in Soviet-American relations. In 1983 he reportedly considered emigration, but was refused because of his knowledge of Soviet state secrets. Continued protests against Soviet militarism resulted in new threats and warnings to him and to family members. On several occasions Sakharov engaged in hunger strikes to call attention to these threats and to gain the right of family members to go abroad. In 1983 President Reagan proclaimed May 21 "National Sakharov Day" in recognition of his courage and his contribution to humanity.
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