To the 95th anniversary of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

The main event, the misfortune of Russia of this time, and the whole story, was the death of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. I think that this was the main world event of that time, one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Russia, comparable only with the death of Alexander the Second and the results of the Great Wars: with Napoleon, the first and second World War. Andrei Sakharov, in my opinion, was the only hope of Russia for at least the relative statement of democracy in the country, and its death ... not only crossed out all these hopes, but ultimately exerted irreversible and pernicious pressure even on the entire European civilization, with the consequences of which we are trying to cope with the best.

Human rights activist Sergei Grigoryants in the article
"Death of A. D. Sakharov" (July 2012)

A. D. Sakharov died on the evening of December 14, 1989. According to the conclusion of pathologists, the cause of death was an unexpected cardiac arrest. This happened naturally or was caused artificially, I will not discuss because of the absence of any objective evidence base and thereby the inadvertency of the discussion. But to evaluate what happened 26 years after the death of Sakharov is possible and necessary. In general, I agree with a tragically negative assessment of this stage of the history of Russia given by Sergei Grigoryan, see the epigraph. Below I will try to justify such an assessment. But at first - about the main achievement of Sakharov’s public activity and about the main lesson of this activity, which, unfortunately, remained unclaimed after his death.

Of course, both Sakharov and my father, L.V. Altshuler, and other pioneers of the Soviet nuclear project created a terrible weapon, driven by a high patriotic feeling, the consciousness of the extreme need to restore strategic nuclear balance with the United States. However, it seems that Sakharov was the only one in the USSR who understood that this “equilibrium of fear” was gradually unacceptably unstable as the opposing potentials of the “first blow” increase, when even accident could turn into the end of the world.

And what is surprising: this monstrous danger was indeed eliminated in the late 1980s, when, as a result of Russian-American agreements on reducing nuclear weapons, humanity took a step back from the thermonuclear abyss. It was a visible result of about 20 years, it would seem naive and unpromising, the struggle of Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner, other Soviet human rights activists-the struggle for each specific person who became a victim of a totalitarian system.

And this is the main lesson of Sakharov’s social activity, which he clearly expressed in the 1975 Nobel lecture: only attention to trouble, to violations of the rights of a particular person can guarantee international security, including protection against thermonuclear self -destruction of human civilization. In that, in general, the recent historical era of this thesis (by the way, echoing with Dostoevsky’s famous words: “The happiness of the whole world does not stand on the cheek of an innocent child”) proved his effectiveness precisely because some miraculously managed to force him to follow the so -called real politicians. Unfortunately, this did not happen in a new era when the “real politicians” of Russia and other countries ceased to pay due attention to human rights - with all the ensuing consequences. To overcome human indifference of politicians is very difficult and everywhere. But it turned out in the 1970s! Suddenly it will turn out today.

History, as you know, does not tolerate subjunctive mood. But there remains the belief that Sakharov with his gigantic personal influence would not allow such indifference, the result of which is everything that is happening today with our country. This belief prompted me to choose the extremely strong words of Sergei Grigoryan for the epigraph for the article.

I will complete my anniversary note from an article by Elena Georgievna Bonner “Four Dates”, written a year after Sakharov’s death:

“In 1983 or early 1984, I brought to a bitter record-Pasternak reads his poems. Andrei listened to her endlessly, especially August . “ Once I heard him (I am doing something in one room, he reads in the other): I remembered what reason the pillow was slightly moistened. I dreamed that I was on the wires ... “ The Gorky Piercing Wind, who loses behind the dark glass of the windows. Andrey's voice behind the wall. And a keen sense of fear for him. Fear of loss ... Why, why in front of the tears ... “ ” Andrei asked, and said in evening tea. She answered that from happiness. The same was on a clear May day-the 25th, the spring of 1978-the time when I persuaded Andrei to start writing memories . ” We walked for my birthday (Anna Grigoryevna Bonner - B. L.). Of the majority of our relatives, she was no in the years - neither in the thirty -seventh nor in the Andreev - she interrupted friendship with us, and Andrei enjoyed her special sympathy. We climbed the stairs. Andrei walked ahead. At some point, the light falling from the window and through the flight of stairs separated it from me. He began to leave. There ... tall. Still not at all stooped. In a greenish suit ... Now I see it in a dream. "

Boris Altshuler,
Chairman of the Board of the ROO "Right of the Child", a member of the Moscow Helsinki group, Art. scientific. sore. Departments of Theoretical Physics of the Physical Institute. P. N. Lebedeva RAS