Sakharov's Inspiring Memoirs

In the second volume of his autobiography, Moscow and Beyond, 1986-1989, Andrei Sakharov shows his transformation from simple political dissident to herald of the Soviet Union's current troubles.

Like last year's volume of his autobiography, Memoirs, Moscow and Beyond reveals one of the great figures of modern history's essential humanism. In Memoirs Sakharov told the story of his early life, his involvement in the development of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal and his transformation, in the 1960s, into a leading Soviet dissident. The first book also documented Sakharov and his second wife Elena Bonner's internal exile in Gorky and their persistent struggles for human rights despite KGB harassment.

Originally envisioned as part of the earlier volume (sections of chapter one appeared last May in Time), Moscow and Beyond details Sakharov's struggles against the Soviet regime after Mikhail Gorbachev released the physicist and his wife in late December, 1986. The book opens with their return to Moscow amid a frenzy of interviews with journalists and meetings with foreign diplomats.

In his first chapter, Sakharov, who died a few months after the book's completion, describes his initial misgivings about Gorbachev and glasnost. "Glasnost, thank goodness, is continually breaking new ground...[But]...the gap between word and deed has been growing," Sakharov writes. "Gorbachev and his close associates themselves may still not have completely thrown off the prejudices and dogmas of the system they inherited."

In the remainder of the book, Sakharov recounts his opposition to the inertia demonstrated by the Soviet government in its reform efforts, as well as his activities abroad on behalf of democracy and his theory of rapproachment between socialism and capitalism. The description of a visit to earthquake-devastated Armenia and Azerbaijan reveals Sakharov's compassion and understanding of his country's problems.

One especially valuable portion of this book is Sakharov's narrative of the selection process for the first Congress of Peoples' Deputies and its initial meeting in June 1989. During that gathering Sakharov proposed a new version of the Soviet constitution that may be one of his most lasting gifts to civil rights in his homeland.

The book ends with a short epilogue in which Sakharov considers the future of the Soviet Union. He warns, "Only a radicalization of perestroika can over-come the crisis without a disasterous move into reverse."

While his actions on behalf of human rights permeate the book, Sakharov's incredible perceptiveness and extreme humility strike the reader most forcefully. Early in the book Sakharov engages in what appears to be indescriminate name-dropping--Thatcher said this, Mitterand that, Gorbachev another thing. However, Sakharov shows that each of these seemingly irrelevant anecdotes provide essential insight into a leader's character.

For example, in one anecdote Sakharov berates then president-elect Bush for his refusal to renounce a nuclear first strike. Bush then takes out a photo of his family and says he would never willingly kill them in a nuclear war. "You should announce that publicly, write it into law," Sakharov declares, and in response "Bush was silent."

Although a sense of urgency pervades this book, one realizes that Sakharov acknowledges many personal accomplishments, even if he has failed to fulfill all of his plans. At every turn Sakharov describes another setback for perestroika and predicts that without real reform the Soviet Union will descend into anarchy or renewed despotism. He specifically warns against increasing the Soviet government's authority, even if the head of the central government is the architect of perestroika.

Sakharov realized that as the two icons of Soviet opposition, he and Solzhenitsyn felt a deep responsibility to the Soviet people. His constant work for freedom, even against those who purported to be refashioning Soviet society, showed him to be one of the real leaders of perestroika. Because of Gorbachev's caution, the U.S.S.R. is now even more of a shambles than when perestoika began. Would that Gorbachev had listened to this physicist-prophet before his chances faded.