Experts appreciate his works on magnetohydrodynamics, physics of plasma, controlled thermonuclear fusion, elementary particles, gravity. He is known to the general public as “the father of a hydrogen bomb". But the academician, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, and a laureate of the Stalin and Lenin prizes is a lot more famous for his public and human rights activities. For this activity, Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the carrier of state secrets was not allowed to leave the country to receive the award.
The prize was received by his wife Elena Bonner. She read Sakharov's Nobel Lecture Peace, Progress, Human Rights, in which the great scientist argued that these three things “are inseparably connected with one another”, demanded freedom of conscience, freedom of the press and access to sources of information, pluralism in the education system. The Soviet people will get all of this – when the future Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mikhail Gorbachev, will come to power in the USSR.
