[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 68 (Thursday, May 17, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTHDAY OF DR. ANDREI SAKHAROV

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 17, 2001

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to call to 
the attention of my colleagues the 80th anniversary of the birth of the 
late Dr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, one of the truly great figures in 
the struggle for human rights in the 20th century. On May 21 of this 
year, Dr. Sakharov would have celebrated his 80th birthday.
  A brilliant physicist, Dr. Andrei Sakharov enjoyed the respect of his 
colleagues and the material privileges provided by Soviet officialdom 
for his work in helping to develop the Soviet atomic bomb. He could 
easily have continued to enjoy his elevated status in Soviet society, 
but his conscience would not permit it. He became deeply convinced that 
the arms race was pointless and a threat to mankind. When he protested 
privately to Soviet authorities, he was ignored. In 1968, Dr. Sakharov 
circulated his groundbreaking essay entitled, ``Thoughts on Progress, 
Peaceful Co-Existence and Intellectual Freedom,'' in which he drew the 
connection between human rights and international security. For this 
challenge to the system, he was barred from military research, and when 
he continued to protest, he was fired from his work. In 1975, Dr. 
Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but Soviet authorities 
would not allow him to travel to Oslo to receive the award. In January 
1980, without any legal procedure, let alone a trial, Dr. Sakharov was 
picked up on the streets of Moscow by KGB agents and spirited off to 
exile in the city of Gorky.
  At the same time, the Kremlin, under the leadership of former KGB 
chairman Yuri Andropov, launched a crackdown on Soviet dissidents. In 
1984, Dr. Sakharov's wife, Dr. Elena Bonner, was convicted of 
``defaming the Soviet political and social system'' and sentenced to 
join him in exile.
  Even in these dark hours, Dr. Sakharov, continued to speak out 
against the war being carried out by Soviet forces in Afghanistan, to 
defend persecuted human rights activists in the Soviet Union and 
Eastern Europe, and to address vital issues of disarmament and peace. 
On three occasions, Dr. Sakharov went on a hunger strike to protest the 
mistreatment of hls friends and colleagues in the human rights 
movement. During his confinement, his notes and his manuscripts were 
stolen from him by KGB thugs. President Reagan declared his sixtieth 
birthday, May 21, 1980, ``Andrei Salcharov Day.''
  In December 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev lifted Dr. 
Sakharov's exile and ``invited'' him to return to Moscow. In 1989, Dr. 
Salcharov was elected to the Congress of People Deputies, an 
organization that had previously been the rubber stamp legislature for 
the Soviet Union. In the short time that he served, Dr. 
Sakharovj''olned a handful of other elected leaders to press for real 
reforms in the Soviet Union. On December 14, 1989, the world was sadden 
to learn of this great man's death.
  In its coverage of ``the 100 Most Important People of the 20th 
Century,'' Time magazine noted that, ``By the time of his death in 
1989, this humble physicist had influenced the spread of democratic 
ideals throughout the communist world. His moral challenge to tyranny, 
his faith in the individual and the power of reason, his courage in the 
face of denunciation and, finally, house arrest--made him a hero to 
ordinary citizens everywhere.''
  Although Andrei Sakharov has passed on and the Soviet Union is no 
more, the issues that he and his colleagues confronted still challenge 
us today. ``Small wars,'' like the bloody conflict in Chechnya, have 
replaced the big Cold War. Human rights continue to be violated. Arms 
control and security issues are high on the agenda.
  Several years ago, Dr. Bonner bequeathed Dr. Sakharov's papers to an 
American university bearing the name of one of our country's greatest 
jurists--Justice Louis Brandeis. This is a priceless gift not only to 
Brandeis, but to our entire nation. A generation of young people who 
have grown up since the fall of the Soviet Union, will be able to study 
Dr. Sakharov's writings on civic responsibility, non-violence, ethnic 
and religious intolerance, and other aspects of human rights and what 
we now call the human dimension.
  Mr. Speaker, on this, the eightieth anniversary of the birth of 
Andrei Sakharov, I urge Americans young and old to acquaint themselves 
with Dr. Sakharov's struggle for peace and human dignity, and to 
support educational efforts such as the Sakharov archive at Brandeis to 
preserve the legacy of an intellectual and humanitarian giant of the 
20th century.

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