ON SAKHAROV

by Alexander--Ed. Babyonyshev ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 17, 1982

When Soviet authorities swopped down on physicist and human-rights activist Andrei Sakharov in January 1980 and sent him off to internal exile in Gorky, they did more than play out another act in the old struggle between the Russian state and its intelligentsia. As this commemorative volume of essays, poems, stories, and remembrances by his friends and colleagues repeatedly (and, alas, repetitiously) makes clear, Sakharov is an extraordinary intellectual. Fellow physicist and activist Valery Chalidze points out that Sakharov is different because he is both a man of the state and of the intelligentsia. A Nobel laureate in physics (later, a recipient of the Nobel peace award), Sakharov was a member of the Soviet elite. He had helped the USSR develop its first thermonuclear weapons, and he continued to work on the peaceful uses of nuclear power while speaking out for political freedoms. The tragedy of his life, Chalidze notes, is that he had to give up one love to realize another. His centrality to the Soviet human-rights movement manifestly stems from his example, moreover, hot from the theoretical depth of his writings (several of which are included here). Raisa Lert, another activist expelled from the Communist Party, refers to Sakharov's naturalness, which ""influences people more than his articles and books."" ""It is impossible,"" she continues, ""not to approve of his personality and his deeds."" Though the pieces include several devoted to Sakharov's scientific work (and a testimonial from Herbert York to Sakharov's quiet support of a nuclear test ban treaty), what they all establish is the authority of Sakharov the man. And even in the USSR, the message seems to be getting around: an anonymous contributor reports that 853 Soviet citizens unscientifically polled were split--a modest success!--in their view of Sakharov. Broadly if not concretely informative--but mainly a symbolic testimonial.

Pub Date: Dec. 17, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION