Word: sakharovs
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...Sakharov prescribes the conditions he deems necessary for peace and human rights: He specifies the need for parity in arms levels, and urges western countries, particularly the United States, to match the Soviet Union missile for missile if need be. He stresses the accountability of governments for the state of human rights in their countries, and advocates amnesty for and exchanges of political prisoners...
Although the book consists of personal remembrances of Sakharov, it contains as well a few pieces of fiction that relate more or less explicitly to his plight or to the state of human rights in Russia. Though enjoyable to read, these seem not to fit into the book. Much more interesting are a few other dissidents' essays on subjects besides Sakharov, such as a piece by geophysicist Grigorii Podyapolsky, entitled "My Conversation with the Director of the Institute for Geophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. "This is a rough transcript of Podyapolsky's interrogation by his superior...
...Sakharov even managed to strike a blow against his persecutors from exile, when in 1981 he and his wife went on a hunger strike to protest the refusal of the Soviet government to allow their daughter-in-law to emigrate. The fast continued from November 22 until December 8, when Sakharov was informed that his son's wife would be allowed to leave Russia...
...SAKHAROV WAS REMARKABLE, although not unique, in being able to formulate a coherent worldview that differed sharply from communism after being immersed in the Soviet system all his life. He came to believe that a pluralistic society based on human rights was the only system which would yield the ends he desired, and that Soviet communist society could not. "Communist ideology is not a complete fraud," he writes. "It arose from a striving for truth and justice, like other religious, ethical and philosophical systems. But the totalitarian structure of the government, he adds, has led the nation to "the deepest...
Ultimately, though, the greatest inspiration in this volume comes from Sakharov's own calm yet stubborn determination in the face of the repression he has struggled against for so long. The unique status of the physicist in international nuclear relations brought Sakharov into the political arena: but it has been his own dedication and hunger to see justice Jone that have made him an icon of the human rights cause...