SAKHAROV, ANDREI DMITRIYEVICH

1921–89, Soviet nuclear physicist and human-rights advocate; first Soviet citizen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1975). From 1948 to 1956 he helped to develop the USSR's hydrogen bomb. In the 1960s he became a critic of the arms race and of Soviet repression. In 1980, he was exiled to Gorky; in 1984 his wife, Yelena G. Bonner, an outspoken advocate of human rights, was convicted of anti-Soviet activities and also restricted to Gorky. Sakharov's banishment inspired worldwide protest, and in 1986, after Gorbachev's rise to power, both Sakharov and Bonner were pardoned. In 1989 he was elected to the Soviet parliament, and briefly served before he died.

See biography by R. Lourie (2002).

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