Andrei Dimitrivich Sakharov (1921-1989)
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CREDIT: AIP Emilio Segrè
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When Sakharov and other Soviet nuclear scientists met with Nikita Khrushchev in 1961, Sakharov tried to persuade the premier to end testing of nuclear weapons. "Leave politics to us -- we're the specialists," Khrushchev snapped. "I'd be a jellyfish and not Chairman of the Council of Ministers if I listened to people like Sakharov!" But in his memoirs, Khrushchev admitted that Sakharov "was obviously guided by moral and humanistic considerations. I knew him and was profoundly impressed by him. Everyone was. He was, as they say, a crystal of morality among our scientists."
Quotes from Sakharov's Memoirs and from Khrushchev Speaks (Thomas Whitney, ed.)
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