Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was born 21 May 1921 and trained as a physicist in a state that needed the bomb. He oversaw the development of Soviet thermonuclear weapons while also working in particle physics, magnetism, and cosmology - the kind of range that marks someone who sees past the assignment. Then he turned. He began emphasizing human rights, individual freedom, and civil liberties inside a system built to crush them, and the Soviet establishment labeled him a dissident and persecuted him for it. In 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for that work. He died 14 December 1989, and the European Parliament now awards the Sakharov Prize annually in his memory to people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms.