Issues

‘Like a gleam in fhe darkness, we have appeared for an instant from the black nothingness of the ever‐unconscious matter, in order to make good the demands of Reason and create a life worthy of ourselves and of the Goal we only dimly perceive.’

Sakharov's unshakable principles—but even more his willingness to debate them and to speak out publicly for them—prefigured a restructured society.

Even in 1950, when this very quiet and shy young man first caught the author's attention, a bright future was seen for Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov.

‘Autobiographical narratives constitute an important part of mankind's memory,’ Andrei Sakharov says in the preface to his newly published life story, Memoirs. ‘That is one reason why I took up writing this book.’ Another, he continues, is ‘to try to set the record straight.’ Here two good friends review his book.