In an age of constant technological change, Sakharov reminded the world that science is inseparable from conscience. Sakharov believed that science was a force for rationality and, from there, democracy: that in politics as in science, objective truths can be arrived at only through a testing of hypotheses, a democratic consensus "based on a profound study of facts, theories and views, presupposing unprejudiced and open discussion." As a physicist, he believed that physical laws are immutable, applying to all things in nature. As a result, he regarded certain human values — such as liberty and the respect for individual dignity — as inviolable and universal. It is not surprising that in China today, many of the most outspoken advocates of political reform are members of the scientific and academic communities. They are all the progeny of Andrei Sakharov.

He was an unlikely activist. Born in Moscow in 1921, Sakharov was groomed less for political protest than for scholarly solitude. He taught himself to read at four, and his father often demonstrated physics experiments — "miracles I could understand" — to him as a child. At Moscow University in the 1940s, Sakharov was tabbed as one of the U.S.S.R.'s brightest young minds. After earning his doctorate, he was sent to a top-secret installation to spearhead the development of the hydrogen bomb. By 1953 the Soviets had detonated one. It was "the most terrible weapon in human history," Sakharov later wrote. Yet he felt that by building the H-bomb, "I was working for peace, that my work would help foster a balance of power."

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Feb. 21, 1977	May 14, 1990
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