The Kgb File Of Andrei Sakharov

by Edited and annotated by Joshua Rubenstein and Alexander Gribanov; With an introd

• ISBN13: 9780300106817
• ISBN10: 0300106815
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-07-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Andrei Sakharov (19211989), a brilliant physicist and the principal designer of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, later became a human rights activist andas a resulta 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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Preface by Alexander Gribanov	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
Chronology	xix
List of Abbreviations	xxv
Introduction: Andrei Sakharov, the KGB, and the Legacy of Soviet Dissent, by Joshua Rubenstein	1	(85)
CHAPTER ONE Emergence of a Public Activist	86	(14)
CHAPTER TWO Who's Afraid of an Organized Opposition?	100	(67)
CHAPTER THREE Counterattack: Disorganizing the Opposition	167	(73)
CHAPTER FOUR Bitter Air of Exile	240	(75)
CHAPTER FIVE New Rules of Engagement	315	(36)
Annotated List of KGB Documents	351	(22)
Glossary of Names	373	(12)
Selected Bibliography	385	(2)
Index	387