Talk:Andrei Sakharov

Honorary citizenship
A bill for Sakharov to receive honorary citizenship was introduced, but according to Thomas it never made it out of committee.
 * Latest Major Action: 5/6/2002 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims.

Surely this would have generated a news story if it had passed. Based on the Thomas cite, this proclomation failed. -Willmcw 05:36, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't get it. This says it was resolved that he IS granted citizenship.....?--Deglr6328 07:04, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * That's the way the resolution is worded. But the resolution was never voted on. "Died in committee" is the usual term. FYI, both Nelson and Winnie Mandela were nominated for honorary citizenship and both nominations failed in the same fashion as Sakharov's. This page on the Senate webiste has the complete list. The good news is that there is no statute of limitations. It took William Penn a few hundred years to become an American citizen. ;) Cheers, -Willmcw 08:22, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Karabakh
There was nothing dubiuos, facts are not disputed. Sakharov's wife was an Armenian from Shusha (in NK), he was extremely biased and was actively supporting Armenia in the conflict, urging it to defend Karabakh using military forces. Later he also made a ridiculous proposal - a referendum to allow each village of Karabakh to choose whether to join Armenia or Azerbajdzhan. Read any of his talks on this topic to see that there is nothing dubious about my edit. Paranoid 15:20, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Nobel
After Parastroika did he ever get his nobel? --Gbleem 19:58, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Sakharov Conditions
Is there a reason why one of his greatest achievements in physices, the Sakharov conditions, are not yet mentioned? 85.216.27.27 00:01, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Andrei Sakharov's Philosophy
What was Sakharov's philosophy? I hear that he mentions socialism in the wikipedia text. But he must also have had a philosophy of design when, for example, designing the thermonuclear bomb design that is named after him. What did he see? How did he make sense of complex phenomena?

Did he forsee any philosophical problems with the the Universal Information System and how it would interact with human nature (I'm guess that he didn't think of Google and universal pornography systems). What were his views on human sexuality? Did he leave any personal notes/diaries to show that he lived as he preached and espoused (evidently, he must have had *some* moral fiber at least - else he would not have been capable of generating some of the technologies that he helped to generate....).

I think that some kind of a comparison to the article for Bertrand Russell would be useful here :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

--AsSingh 20:25, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Regarding Sakharov's "philosophy" I would say that he was first of all a pragmatist who struggled for human rights, who tried to campaign for liberalization of the Soviet regime, he was not a philosopher like Bertrand Russell. Regarding socialism, at first he surely belived that socialism is more just than capitalism, but he, like many others, realized the economic ineffectivness of the Soviet model of socialism and proposed reforms such as commercialisation, allowing small businesses, partial privatization, etc.

His Universal Information System is indeed what is now the Internet but I think that if he was alive now, he would surely say that the positive things about the Internet (including Wikipedia :)) outweight all the negative things. He, after all, had a sence of humor.

Regarding his views on human sexuality - he never mentioned this side of human life in his articles or memoirs. I think that for a man like him it was embarassing to discuss such things publicly. Anyway, he had other, far more pressing concerns.

He surely lived "as he preached and espoused", all his dissident friends him regarded him as a moral example, but I would not say that he "preached" much (Solzhenitsin indeed preached, they were different personalities). A Russian dissident poet Vladimir Kornilov wrote a verse about Sakharov which I like very much, called "Evenings at Sakharov's kitchen". It says: "...And the host - I saw it - did not want to be the first//He is not a chief, a leader or a preacher..."

I was 13 when Sakharov died (his widow Elena Bonner died just recentlty) and he has always been a moral example for me - and for many more Russians as well. Like Martin Luther King for Americans. Olegwiki (talk) 20:25, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Andrei Dimitrievitch's Family
It seems odd that all of Sakharov's efforts, such as his hunger strikes, to gain freedom for his wife, Yelena Bonner, to travel to the West to secure decent medical treatment, and his efforts to help his step children (who aren't even named) escape to the West, are omitted. The current article is dry as dust. That's not right for a man as passionate as he was.

Someone should take the time to write a few paragraphs about the human side of the man.

Peter.zimmerman (talk) 16:02, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Well.. seems like he was a prophet..

 * "In this pamphlet, advanced for discussion by its readers, the author has set himself the goal to present, with the greatest conviction and frankness, two theses that are supported by many people in the world. These are:
 * 1. The division of mankind threatens it with destruction… Only universal cooperation under conditions of intellectual freedom and the lofty moral ideals of socialism and labor, accompanied by the elimination of dogmatism and pressure of the concealed interests of ruling classes, will preserve civilization…
 * 2. The second basic thesis is that intellectual freedom is essential to human society — freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such a trinity of freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee of the feasibility of a scientific democratic approach to politics, economics and culture." (Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom, in The New York Times, July 22, 1968) [2]


 * "I foresee a universal information system (UIS), which will give everyone access at any given moment to the contents of any book that has ever been published or any magazine or any fact. The UIS will have individual miniature-computer terminals, central control points for the flood of information, and communication channels incorporating thousands of artificial communications from satellites, cables, and laser lines. Even the partial realization of the UIS will profoundly affect every person, his leisure activities, and his intellectual and artistic development. …But the true historic role of the UIS will be to break down the barriers to the exchange of information among countries and people." (Saturday Review/World, August 24, 1974)

Well, maybe he was too much of a commie, but we call the UIS the Internet today, and no, books are not accessible like he describes, unless you are filthy rich, but at least Wikipedia is one step in the right direction. Sillybilly 14:57, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Famous TV quote about the H-Bomb
Didn't Sakharov also record something on video after the first successful testing of a portable H-Bomb? Something about creating "power-parity" with the Americans.

When/Where did he develop the H-Bomb?
The article on The_Gulag_Archipelago mentions 'Andrei Sakharov and his team of prisoner scientists developed the hydrogen bomb'. Is this correct? Was he in Gulag during the time? Blufox (talk) 13:07, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

What rubbish! He worked at Sarov secret reaserch facility (Soviet Los Alamos). There were indeed "prisoner scientists" (see sharashka) but that has nothing to do with the Soviet nucklear project. Olegwiki (talk) 20:31, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Mention of his Nobel prizes??
Hello,

There is no mention of his Nobel prizes... and he got 2: physics and peace. How that could be forgotten? Yann 10:29, 7 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Huh? He never won the physics prize. You must have him mixed up with someone else. He did win the peace prize, and we do mention it further down in the article. But I agree that it should be mentioned in the lead as well. Shanes 10:47, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah yes, my mistake. But yes, some development of his Nobel Peace prize is needed. Yann 10:53, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Was he against moral norms?
Somehow the social and political context argues against ascribing anarchist views to Sakharov. The article says he was for the "literal" observance of the principle of "what is not prohibited, is allowed". What that means in the context of soviet life is that he was against rules, regulations and punishments made by executive decree, ministerial proclamations, and communist party decree as opposed to laws formally passed by the Supreme Soviet. That is seriously subversive, but by no means makes him an anarchist! (Because it does not in any shape or form suggest opposition to customary morals such as "do not lie", "do not cheat on your wife", etc...) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kotika98 (talk • contribs) 09:14, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

He was not an anarchist at all. Olegwiki (talk) 20:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

George Soros
On the George Soros page, it claims: Eastern Europe According to Neil Clark in the New Statesman, Soros's role was crucial in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe. Clark states that from 1979, Soros distributed $3m a year to dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union; in 1984, he founded his first Open Society Institute in Hungary and pumped millions of dollars into opposition movements and independent media.[35]

This page should mention it, then? Citations would be great. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.9.224.230 (talk) 10:28, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like a smear, Sakharov would not have been able to, and would never agree to take money from Soros, and especially in the early 80's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kotika98 (talk • contribs) 15:09, 8 October 2010 (UTC)


 * On this, Clark appears to be correct. See the biography of Soros on the Open Society Foundation website. Philip Cross (talk) 11:38, 2 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I removed the above comments by myself about ten days ago because I did not want to attack Clark, a habit of mine. He appears to have been wrong in the Soros piece, and I have chosen to explain my removal of the citation to Clark's article from the Soros page in talk there. Philip Cross (talk) 17:21, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Date of picture
The picture of Sakharov at the top of the page was captioned "Andrei Sakharov, 1943". I find it extremely hard to believe that that is a picture of a 22-year-old, and there seems to be nothing in the data accompanying the image file asserting that to be the case. I therefore removed the date. 86.1.192.77 (talk) 02:31, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Strange Russian
Saharow sounds very strange accoustically - his Russian sounds like him being Foreigner. Any explanations? Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.112.177.58 (talk) 8 December 2014 (UTC)

It is Sakharov, not Saharow. To the best of my knowledge, Sakharov lived only in the Soviet Union and spoke Russian as his native language. There are hundreds of dialects and pronunciations in Russia, also some people have different voice pronunciations based on physiology. But no, I believe there is no foreign origin such as parents or living abroad. --2601:1C0:CB01:2660:E0C6:8807:8741:92AD (talk) 23:26, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Genealogy?
Srange also: his ancestors being mentioned up to far great grandmothers in Greece, but no word about his jewish genealogy? is that a new secret now? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.112.177.58 (talk) 20:40, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Where did you get an idea that Sakharov was Jewish? His wife Elena Bonner was Jewish but Sakharov was an ethnic Russian and like many "ethnic Russians" he could have some ancient foreign genealogy in his DNA. The speculation that Sakharov was Jewish based on the fact that there was a lot of prominent Jewish physicists in the Soviet Union - probably 30% or 40% which is a much higher figure than their demographic statistics. If you believe you have good sources to show to prove his ethnicity, please, share. However, I believe it doesn't really matter. --2601:1C0:CB01:2660:E0C6:8807:8741:92AD (talk) 23:32, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

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Lusia Boitsova
What role did Lusia play in Sakharov’s live. She was the wife of Sergei Kovlev. 138.88.34.191 (talk) 17:42, 2 October 2022 (UTC)