The World of Andrei Sakharov: A Russian Physicist’s Path to Freedom Gennady Gorelik OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The World of Andrei Sakharov This page intentionally left blank The World of ANDREI SAKHAROV A Russian Physicist’s Path to Freedom Gennady Gorelik with Antonina W. Bouis 1 2005 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gorelik, G. E. (Gennadii Efimovich) [Andrei Sakharov. English] The world of Andrei Sakharov : a Russian physicist’s path to freedom / Gennady Gorelik with Antonina W. Bouis. p. cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13 978-0-19-515620-1 ISBN 0-19-515620-X 1. Sakharov, Andreæ, 1921– 2. Physicists—Soviet Union—Biography. 3. Dissenters—Soviet Union—Biography. 4. Human rights workers—Russia (Federation)—Biography. 5. Soviet Union—Politics and government—1953–1985. I. Bouis, Antonina W. II. Title. QC16.S255G67 2004 530'.092—dc22 [B] 2003016991 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper In memory of Lydia Chukovskaya This page intentionally left blank his book is about how a theoretical physicist and the acknowl- Tedged father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb became a human rights activist and the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In order to understand this incredible transformation, we must examine how several powerful forces—life-enhancing as well as death-dealing—intersected in Andrei Sakharov’s life. Within his family, he joined the enigmatic world of the Russian intelligentsia. Just the fact that this word, so Western in appear- ance, is followed by the tag “Russ” in dictionaries around the world is an indi- cation of its mystery. It was Sakharov’s lot to live his life during the era of Soviet civilization with its glaring contrasts: the first Sputnik in space while kerosene burned in lamps in the villages, the heights of creativity in the arts against the background of daily suppression of freedom. The scientific school, or rather scientific family, where Sakharov began his path in physics was a miracle, given the backdrop of the Stalinist era. In a society in which conformity was a means of survival, the teachers of this school contrived to follow the voices of their conscience. And finally, Sakharov’s life unfolded against the backdrop of the nuclear alchemy which had, in just a few short years, jumped from the pages of physics journals, understandable to very few people, to the front pages of newspapers around the world. Only by comprehending how these forces shaped Andrei Sakharov’s life can his role in history be grasped. One of the main sources for this book was a collection of oral histories—about fifty interviews with colleagues, friends, and family of Andrei Sakharov—that the author began collecting in 1989. My direct contact with the people who participated in and witnessed events helped me understand archival materials and publications. viii Sakharov’s own eyewitness account is contained in his book, Memoirs.1 Although he wrote most of it during his exile in Gorky, relying only on his memory and respecting the constraints of secrecy then in effect, it is truly an invaluable source. Quotations from his book in the body of this text are trans- lated directly from Russian and cited without endnotes.2 Those who shared their reminiscences with the author include Leon Bell, Yury Zamyatin, Boris Erozolimsky, Mikhail Levin, Sofya Shapiro, and Akiva Yaglom, who remembered Andrei Sakharov from his student years; Izrail Barit, Vitaly Ginzburg, Moisei Markov, Pavel Nemirovksy, Iosif Shapiro, and Yevgeny Fein- berg, who knew him as a graduate student; Mates Agrest, Viktor Adamsky, Lev Altshuler, Lev Feoktistov, Yefim Fradkin, German Goncharov, Mikhail Mesh- cheryakov, Vladimir Ritus, Yury Romanov, Yury Smirnov, and Isaak Khalat- nikov, who worked with him on the Soviet atomic project; Boris Bolotovsky, David Kirzhnits, Lev Okun, and Vasily Sennikov, who knew the Sakharov who returned to theoretical physics; Lyubov Vernaya, Sakharov’s daughter, and Maxim Frank-Kamenetsky, who told me about the lives of their families in the closed city of Sarov (aka Arzamas-16); Yakov Alpert, Boris Altshuler, Sarra Babenysheva, Natalya Dolotova, Aleksandr Esenin-Volpin, and Maria Petrenko,who knew Sakharov as a defender of human rights; and Elena Bonner, Sakharov’s widow, who talked to me about the last twenty years of his life (I also relied on fascinating material that she collected about Sakharov’s genealogy). The photographs and autographs from personal collections appear in this book courtesy of Elena Bonner and Lyubov Vernaya, as well as Vladimir Kartsev and Maxim Frank-Kamenetsky. I received enormous help in my archival research from Galina Savina. Irina Dorman helped conduct many of the interviews with participants in and eye- witnesses of the events described in this book. I acquired much understand- ing about Soviet history from my association with Pavel Rubinin. Priscilla McMillan helped me grasp the history of the American nuclear project. I am indebted to Helmut Rotter for a perspective of events on both sides of the Iron Curtain from the center of Europe. Friendship with these wonderful people was an important support in my work. Bela Koval and Yekaterina Shikhanovich helped me a great deal in Sakharov’s archive in Moscow. Boston University’s Center of Philosophy and History, headed by Fred Tauber, extended me hospitality while I worked on the book, 1. Andrei D. Sakharov, Vospominaniya, 2 v., New York: Chekhov Publishing Corp., 1990. English editions: Memoirs (Richard Lourie, trans.), New York: Knopf, 1990; Moscow and Be- yond, 1986 to 1989 (Antonina W. Bouis, trans.), New York: Knopf, 1991. 2. All the original Russian versions of quotations presented here can be found in the Russian edition of this book—Gennady Gorelik, Andrei Sakharov: nauka i svoboda (Moscow: Vagrius, 2004), while the full references to the Russian-language sources as well as Sakharov’s Memoirs are available at http://ADSakharov.narod.ru/. ix and my contact with Bob Cohen, its director emeritus, was particularly inspir- ing. I am grateful to Anne Fitzpatrick and Tom Reed for acquainting me with the world of Los Alamos and Livermore. I am very thankful to Dmitri Zimin for helping me to understand the problem of antiballistic defense that was so important for transforming Andrei Sakharov the scientist into the public figure and human rights advocate. Boris Altschuler, Sarra Babenysheva, Leon Bell, Boris Bolotovsky, Elena Bonner, Elena Chukovskaya, Vitaly Ginzburg, German Goncharov, Boris Erozolimsky, Vladimir Kogan, Leonid Litinsky, Klara Lozovskaya, Lev Okun, Galina Shabelskaya, Sofya Shapiro, Lyubov and Aleksandr Vernyi, Akiva Yaglom, and Sergey Zelensky all read this book in manuscript form (complete or partial) and made stimulating comments. I am deeply grateful to all of them. My work in the history of science would have been impossible without the support of people who believed in me. The first was my father, from whom I learned about life, with whom I discussed all the questions that interested me. For many years, my wife, Svetlana, was a major help in deciphering extensive interviews, while selflessly supporting the family hearth. I am grateful to David Holloway for stimulating contact of many years’ du- ration and for his support of my oral history program on Soviet physics. Loren Graham imbued me with the confidence that I needed to tackle Sakharov’s biography. And it was their encouragement helped me to start this work at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT, thanks to a fellowship from the Bern Dibner Fund in 1993. My work on this book was generously supported by a grant for research and writing from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; a fellow- ship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; grants-in-aid from the Friends of the Center for the History of Physics, the American Insti- tute of Physics, and the International Research and Exchanges Board; and funds provided by the U.S. Department of State (Title VII program) and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation made it possible for Antonina W. Bouis to devote herself to the translation of this book. While none of the providers are responsible for the views expressed here, we gratefully acknowledge this assistance. Heather Hartman and her colleagues at Oxford University Press were incred- ibly thorough and patient with a complex text, and we would like to acknowl- edge their artistry and skill. And we both are very thankful to Anya Kucharev for her felicitous transla-