 | The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov Subjects: Sakharov Andrei 1921–; Human rights workers -- Soviet Union; Dissenters -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti -- Archives; 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. 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. |
