Sakharov Eulogized at Harvard

Friends of the late Andrei Sakharov held a memorial service for the Nobel laureate earlier this week at Harvard, praising the scientist and humanist for a lifetime that valued ideas above fame.

Sakharov "was interested in people, not in sermonizing, in ideas, not fame," Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Richard Wilson told the audience. He added that he "didn't think that Sakharov had expected to be vindicated in his lifetime."

40 Days After

The service, held 40 days after Sakharov's death in keeping with Russian tradition, was sponsored by Amnesty International at Boylston Hall. Joshua Rubenstein, regional director for the groups noted that the day also marked the 10th anniversary of Sakharov's arrest and exile to Gorky as a political dissident, where he remained for seven years.

Sakharov had accumulated numerous friends and followers around Massachusetts, where he maintained professional and academic ties throughout his life. Many of them attended the Monday memorial.

Adam B. Ulam, the Gurney Professor of History and Political Science, said, "Today provides us with a reminder of what we can all do to make this a saner, safer world...[Sakharov] refused to play the martyr--heroism had been much overused, in his opinion, in the media."

MIT Professor Emeritus Herman Feshbach attempted to put some of Sakharov's accomplishments in perspective. He compared Sakharov to the biblical Moses and American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Sakharov was "unique in world history as a great scientist, humanitarian, developer of the atom bomb, and human being," Fesbach said.

"Freedom of thought," he said, "is the only guarantee of the scientific process."

Tatyana Yankelevich, the daughter of Sakharov's wife, Elena, "thanked" the audience "for realizing what he meant to this world." Sakharov once told Yankelevich, "The only martyr one can have is freedom," she said this week.

In an interview on Tuesday, Rubenstein said that "being active in human rights and social action organizations is a fitting testament to Dr. Sakharov's memory."