Sakharov: A Biography

Nadezhda Mandelstam once wrote that "a person with inner freedom, memory, and fear is that reed, that twig that changes the direction of a rushing river." Andrei Sakharov, scientist and father of the Soviet H-bomb, was such a twig, a twig that helped changed the course of Soviet and Russian history. How does a man evolve from being a relatively apolitical nuclear physicist in the 1940s to being the moral conscience of a nation striving for democracy by the time of his death in 1989? How does a man who was offered and provided all the material comforts available to the preeminent scientist in the USSR turn away from those temptations and choose, instead, to stand a lonely vigil outside kangaroo courts intent on hounding dissidents who dared to speak out against the Soviet regime? Lourie's marvelous biography of Sakharov does a fine job of setting out both how and why Sakharov evolved from a hero of the USSR with direct telephone access to the Kremlin into a pariah who was hounded, slandered, and finally sent into internal exile in the closed city of Gorky. Yet, by the end of his life, Sakharov, this mere twig, managed to face down and indeed outlast those that set the political might of a nation against him. Lourie comes to Sakharov with an impressive background in Russian and Soviet history and literature. He has translated numerous works of fiction, including works by Vladimir Voinovich, and also translated Sakharov's Memoirs. (The tragic story of the destruction of numerous drafts of Sakharov's Memoirs by the KGB is set out in detail in Lourie's biography.) Sakharov is set out in a straightforward, chronological fashion. It begins with Sakharov's family background and his childhood and early adult years. Lourie moves relatively quickly through Sakharov's birth in 1921 and his childhood and teen years. Sakharov , along with his families supported the Soviet regime. Dissent was not an issue for them. Sakharov always considered himself a loyal patriot devoted to the Soviet Union. Lourie sets out in detail Sakharov's early interest in math and the sciences and his academic development. By the time World War II had started it was clear that Sakharov would have a career in the sciences. After the German invasion of Russia, Sakharov quickly found work in the area of munitions. It was here that Sakharov had his first run-ins with authority. Unlike many of his colleagues who was willing to brook interference from unknowing Commissars. Fortunately for Sakharov his suggestions and mechanical innovations were critical in aiding the Soviet war effort and he was allowed far greater flexibility in his approach to work and science than many of his peers. Lourie then traces the path that took Sakharov from improving the quality of tank shells and munitions to being the lead scientist in charge of the development of the Soviet atomic and H-bombs. Here Sakharov crossed paths with Stalin, Beria, and most of the other leaders of his time. It is

This is a superb book that takes the reader through all of the major episodes in Sakharov's life while adding enough personal details (i.e., why Sakharov fried his salad) to make the man human. Sakharov was one of the key figures of the last half of the twentieth century and this book may stand as the authoriative work on the man both as a physicist and as a dissident. The book is surprisingly easy to read and is an excellent introduction to the Soviet system under Brezhnev for the novice. The book also goes over some of Sakharov's main writings, which in retrospect seem a bit off the wall.

Sakharov was the father of the Russian atomic program; he was Oppenheimer, Teller, and Feynman, all rolled into one. The book traces Russia from before his birth to his death, as it rises against Germany and sinks into the depths of Stalin's Terror and Kuruschev's reign. Sakharov, given immense importance under Stalin and Kuruschev, finds himself at odd with what he created. He wants so much to redeem himself that he devotes the remaining of his life to the Russian resistance. And he suffers for this - all the perks and medals he earned for his work on Russia's atomic program are summarily taken back by the state. He is exiled to Gorky and is spied on by KGB. His memoirs are stolen on two occassions by the KGB; depressed, almost suicidal, he rewrites them from memory. This was an excellent look into a very interesting country in the context of an equally interesting protagonist. It is said that mathematicians (and probably theoritical physicists) have a short career; their inventions and discoveries are made when they are young, and they whittle away in their middle- and old ages. Could be that Sakharov, having contributed to many such inventions and discoveries, figured that joining the resistance is a far better legacy. Being considered the father of the atomic program of a country is a big burden to bear; I am reminded of Oppenheimer's words when he witnessed what he had created. All he could think about was Lord Krishna's words in the Bhagavad Gita: "I am death, shatterer of worlds, annhilating all things." I would recommend this book for a great insight into Russia through the eyes of one of its best known (and loved) citizens.

I read this book slowly. The author has gathered a lot of details and his interest in Russia is the main context in which the subject is considered. With the emphasis in this book on how extraordinary the Communist regime of the Soviet Union had been in ruthlessness even before it had the opportunity to acquire atomic weapons, I was afraid that its approach to what I was really interested in would be too tame and toothless for my taste. More than most nuclear scientists, Andrei Sakharov has been recognized as a great dissident. Many thought that this was some kind of folly. "In a joke of the time a dog explains glasnost: `The chain is longer, the food is still far away, but you can bark all you want.'" (p. 373). Jokes were a major feature of the situation. There is a paragraph early in the book, about a mannerism of a great Russian poet, who announced his appreciation for the best of his own work with the words, "`O Pushkin, you . . . !' At moments of insight, rubbing his hands in delight, Sakharov would repeat those words aloud." (p. 48) The big joke about Pushkin was most appropriate a hundred years after his death, after the official Pushkin Year of 1937, when a few people still had the nerve to say: "If Pushkin had lived in our times, he still would have died in '37." (p. 46). Sakharov grew up in tough times, but his sense of reality grew in proportion to the responsibilities which he assumed. When he was picked on in a personal manner, and he felt that the Soviet system reacted in a way that seemed inappropriate to him personally, he was capable of exhibiting his own toughness. When Tatiana, Bonner's daughter, was expelled from Moscow University, he was capable of losing the restraint with which people are expected to submit to those who sit in positions of authority. Poor Ivan Petrovsky, rector of Moscow University. "Sakharov lost his temper and pounded the table twice with his fist. Later that day Petrovsky dropped dead from a heart attack, and in some quarters, including the Academy, Sakharov was considered complicit in Petrovsky's death." (p. 248). Joseph Shklovsky, author of FIVE BILLION VODKA BOTTLES TO THE MOON, considered himself a leader "because of his mastery of cursing, an art he had learned as a construction foreman." (p. 59). Reporting on a month which Sakharov and Shklovsky spent on a train fleeing Moscow as students during World War II, Shklovsky reported, "One day he asked me a preposterous favor: `Do you have anything I can read on physics?' . . . My first impulse was to send this mama's boy and his ridiculous request straight to hell." (p. 59). Years later, concerning Petrovsky, Shklovsky said, "I can't forgive Andrei Sakharov for the sharp rebuke he delivered to the poor rector." (p. 248).Since Sakharov was seeking convergence with the rest of the world more than anything else, it made sense for him to go see everyone "From Margaret Thatcher to Daniel Ellsberg" (p. 360) when he had the chance.