The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov

Rubenstein, Joshua (Editor); Gribanov, Alexander (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0300106815 / ISBN 13: 9780300106817

Published by Yale University Press, New Haven, 2005

About this Item

xxv, [3], 397, [7] pages. Introduction by Joshua Rubenstein. Footnotes. Illustrations. Chronology. List of Abbreviations. Annotated List of KGB Documents. Glossary of Names. Selected Bibliography. Index. Documents translated by Ella Shmulevich, Efrem Yankelevich, and Alla Zeide. This is one of The Annals of Communism Series. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (21 May 1921 - 14 December 1989) was a Soviet physicist and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Although he spent his career in physics in the Soviet program of nuclear weapons, overseeing the development of thermonuclear weapons, Sakharov also did fundamental work in understanding particle physics, magnetism, and physical cosmology. Sakharov is mostly known for his political activism for individual freedom, human rights, civil liberties and reforms in Russia, for which, he was deemed as a dissident and faced persecution from the Soviet establishment. In his memory, the Sakharov Prize is established by the European Parliament which is awarded annually for the people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms. Joshua Rubenstein is an American activist, writer and scholar of literature, dissent, and politics in the former Soviet Union. He won a National Jewish Book Award in Eastern European studies in 2002 for his book Stalin's Secret Pogrom. Alexander Gribanov is a literary scholar and archivist. He was the literary editor of the Chronicle of Current Events in Moscow. Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), a brilliant physicist and the principal designer of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, later became a human rights activist and, as a result, a source of profound irritation to the Kremlin. This book publishes for the first time ever KGB files on Sakharov that became available during Boris Yeltsin's presidency. The documents reveal the untold story of KGB surveillance of Sakharov from 1968 until his death in 1989 and of the regime's efforts to intimidate and silence him. The disturbing archival materials show the KGB to have had a profound lack of understanding of the spiritual and moral nature of the human rights movement and of Sakharov's role as one of its leading figures.

Seller Inventory # 86403

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov
• Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300106815
• ISBN 13: 9780300106817
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing [Stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Political Prisoners
  • Surveillance
  • Human Rights
  • Zionism
  • Soviet Union

About this title

Synopsis

Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989), a brilliant physicist and the principal designer of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, later became a human rights activist and—as a result—a source of profound irritation to the Kremlin. This book publishes for the first time ever KGB files on Sakharov that became available during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency. The documents reveal the untold story of KGB surveillance of Sakharov from 1968 until his death in 1989 and of the regime’s efforts to intimidate and silence him. The disturbing archival materials show the KGB to have had a profound lack of understanding of the spiritual and moral nature of the human rights movement and of Sakharov’s role as one of its leading figures.

About the Author

Joshua Rubenstein is northeast regional director of Amnesty International USA and a longtime associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Alexander Gribanov is a literary scholar and archivist. He was the literary editor of the Chronicle of Current Events in Moscow, and arranged and processed the papers of Andrei Sakharov at Brandeis University.