The world scientific community stood firmly by one of its most distinguished members through along, deeply troubled period. This support could not protect him entirely from unjust and brutal treatment, but without it his name—perhaps his life—would have been obliterated and forgotten. This experiment in international scientific solidarity succeeded after all, and should now be considered established practice in all such cases.
What will Sakharov do now? He says he will take up again the physics research he was forced to abandon seven years ago. Even in his sixties, a scientist of Sakharov's quality may still have something to contribute to scientific knowledge. But the real issue for the last 15 years has not been his actual scientific work. It has been his freedom to do this work in collaboration with others.
Andrei Sakharov is only one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scientists in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and other ...
