Andrei Sakharov
A brilliant scientist, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a specialist in atomic physics, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. He was elected as a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1953, and belonged to the highest Soviet establishment. He could have led a highly peaceful existence, taking advantage of all the privileges associated with his rank.
However, at the end of the 1950s - beginning of the 1960s, Academician Sakharov began to realize the aggressiveness of Soviet policy, both foreign and domestic. Alarmed by this "discovery", he spoke out as the author of a great number of declarations and actions in defense of human rights and peace throughout the world. This cost him open conflict with the authorities even as the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
In 1980 Academician Sakharov was exiled to Gorky, where he lived under militia surveillance, without telephone, deprived of contact with the outside world. Nevertheless, even under those circumstances he continued the struggle, with the help of his wife Elena Bonner, who held the same views. She carried out this communication until her actions were severed and she herself was subjected to the very same exile in 1984.
Released from exile in 1986, A. Sakharov returned to Moscow and continued his activity. In 1989 he was elected to the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In this capacity he tirelessly led the battle for human rights and for the rights of nationalities, in particular, national minorities: Crimean Tatars, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, and many others.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov passed away on 14 December 1990, while the Second Congress of People's Deputies was in session, at the pinnacle of his struggle. He had become in the eyes of all the invigorating forces in Russia the embodiment of moral consciousness of the country.
The Russian Free Academy took the name of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov in 1980, when the academician was exiled to Gorky and denied access to the outside world. A.D.Sakharov's children, who were living in the United States and acting officially as his representatives, gave their permission for us to use his name. This was both an act of solidarity and the best means to express the RFA's adherence to the defense of such unfading values as freedom and intellectual moral responsibility.
Elena Bonner
An active member of the democratic movement, Elena Georgievna Bonner took part in actions in defense of "refuseniks" and, in a broader way, of the right to emigrate from the USSR.
Just at that time she met A.D.Sakharov, and from that time onward devotedly shared all of his activities in the struggle for freedom and justice. In particular, they worked against the racist and anti-Semitic policies of the Soviet Union.
After the death of A.D. Sakharov, Elena Bonner continued her activity with the help of several associations formed or supported by her.
