Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist who helped develop the hydrogen bomb and later became a prominent dissident, human-rights advocate, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Yuli Khariton: A Soviet physicist who led the design bureau responsible for developing the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons. Khariton directed the weapons program in which Sakharov became a leading theoretical contributor.
Soviet atomic bomb project: The state program that produced the Soviet Union’s first nuclear weapon, tested in 1949. Sakharov entered this larger effort as a theoretical physicist after the Second World War.
Soviet dissident movement: A loose movement of Soviet citizens who criticized state repression and defended civil, religious, or national rights. Sakharov became one of its most prominent figures and a public defender of other dissidents.
Nuclear deterrence: A strategy that seeks to prevent attack by threatening a devastating nuclear response. Sakharov helped build the weapons that enabled deterrence, then warned about their dangers.
Igor Tamm: A Soviet theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate who mentored Sakharov and collaborated with him on thermonuclear research. Tamm’s mentorship shaped Sakharov’s early scientific work and his path into the weapons program.
Soviet hydrogen bomb program: The Soviet research and engineering effort that developed thermonuclear weapons in the early Cold War. Sakharov’s work on staged thermonuclear designs made him central to this program.
Internal exile: A state-imposed banishment that confines a person to a place within their own country. The Soviet government sent Sakharov to Gorky in 1980 to isolate him from political activity.
Nuclear disarmament: The reduction or elimination of nuclear weapons through unilateral action or negotiated agreements. Sakharov’s advocacy for arms control grew from his experience designing nuclear weapons.
Yelena Bonner: A Soviet physician and human-rights activist who became Sakharov’s wife and close political ally. Bonner sustained Sakharov’s activism and carried his concerns abroad during his exile.
Sakharov's Third Idea: A Soviet thermonuclear weapon design using radiation implosion, developed independently alongside related American ideas. This design became the basis of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and brought Sakharov scientific prominence.

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