Andrei Sakharov

Lore & Background

Andrei Sakharov was born in Moscow on 21 May 1921 to a Russian family. His father was a physics professor, and his mother and grandmother were members of the Russian Orthodox Church, though Sakharov became an atheist around age thirteen. He studied physics at Moscow State University and graduated in Ashgabat after evacuation during World War II. He later worked at a munitions plant and invented a process to test for flaws in armor-piercing shells. In 1945, he joined the Theoretical Department of the Physical Institute under Igor Tamm in Moscow, and in 1947 he defended his Doctor of Sciences thesis on nuclear transmutation.

Sakharov participated in the Soviet atomic bomb project from mid-1948. He contributed to the development of a layered fission-fusion-fission bomb design called the sloika, and later played a key role in the first megaton-range Soviet hydrogen bomb, using a design known as Sakharov's Third Idea. This design was first tested as RDS-37 in 1955, and a larger variation, the Tsar Bomba, was tested in October 1961. Sakharov also proposed the tokamak concept for controlled nuclear fusion and invented explosively pumped flux compression generators. After 1965, he returned to fundamental science, working on particle physics and cosmology, including the baryon asymmetry of the universe and proton decay.

Reader's Guide

Andrei Sakharov's significance lies in his dual legacy as a physicist who advanced Soviet nuclear weapons and as a human rights advocate who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. His work on thermonuclear weapons, including the sloika design and the Third Idea, was central to the Soviet program. He also contributed to peaceful nuclear technology with the tokamak concept and to fundamental physics with his work on baryon asymmetry and proton decay. His political activism for individual freedom and civil liberties led to his designation as a dissident and persecution by the Soviet establishment. In his memory, the European Parliament established the Sakharov Prize, awarded annually for dedication to human rights and freedoms. Sakharov's reflections on the balance of nuclear terror and the arms race highlight his later concerns about global stability and the moral responsibilities of scientists.

Did You Know?

• Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world.
• He invented a process to test for flaws in armor-piercing shells while working at a munitions plant in 1942.
• Sakharov proposed the tokamak concept for controlled nuclear fusion in 1950.
• He was the first to give a theoretical motivation for proton decay.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"A thermonuclear war cannot be considered a continuation of politics by other means (according to the formula of Clausewitz). It would be a means of universal suicide." — Andrei Sakharov "If direct responsibility for Vietnam rests with the United States, in the Middle East direct responsibility rests not with the United States but with the Soviet Union (and with Britain in 1948 and 1956)." — Andrei Sakharov "The threat of hunger cannot be eliminated without the assistance of the developed countries, and this requires significant changes in their foreign and domestic policies." — Andrei Sakharov "I want to emphasize that the question of regulating birth rates is highly complex and that any standardized, dogmatic solution "for all time and all peoples" would be wrong." — Andrei Sakharov