To the 100th anniversary of Academician Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov

Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 21.05.2021

Photo: Andrei Sakharov. The 1st Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR, 1989

The prosperity of Russia is possible only if our country develops as a free and democratic state. This condition was once very precisely formulated by Academician Sakharov. Andrei Dmitriyevich is not with us for over three decades, but this thesis has become increasingly more relevant. Today it is already obvious that this key condition is the imperative for the development of our country.

Andrei Sakharov was a prominent scientist and thinker. He did not consider himself a politician, but at the same time he managed to formulate fundamental values ​​and rules for those who were involved in politics. The most important his testament was about the morality of politics. Sakharov argued that moral stances in politics were the most pragmatic and expedient. If the goal is at least some development of the country for the sake of the future of children and grandchildren, rather than personal enrichment only.

Such a pragmatic understanding of morality in politics is extremely important, because a society that grows up in lies, according to Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner, the wife of the academician, will never become an adult. Such a society will forever remain adolescent, with terrible complexes, resentment towards everyone, and aggression.

In my opinion, Academician Sakharov was both a politician and a human rights defefnder. In Russia, these concepts will remain for a very long time. A true democratic politician today is, in fact, a human rights defender. To be a politician means to defend political freedoms, economic and civil rights. A human rights defender cannot divide, let alone oppose, political and social freedoms. One cannot build a prosperous society and a modern country without political freedoms. A disadvantaged population on the brink of economic survival can not have genuine political freedoms. This is another important testament left to us by Andrei Sakharov.

All this is especially relevant today: when Russian society is deprived of not only political, but also basic civil rights. Duped, manipulated, and intimidated people who do not receive objective information cannot create a modern economy, and their country cannot stand on a par with the world’s leading industrial powers. An attempt to put Russia in the position of an unfree country in the 21st century leads us to very difficult and hopeless times. By the way, the deliberate and shameful belittling of the centenary of Andrei Sakharov by the present Russian authorities is a shameful phenomenon that speaks eloquently about the state of affairs in our country.

To change this situation, we must every day, and not only on anniversaries, remember and fight for the principles of a free society that Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov defended.

I will forever remember 1989. The TV screen showed the tribune of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR. Academician Sakharov was speaking. The whole audience was shouting at him, stamping their feet, the chairperson demanded that the academician leave the podium. Andrei Dmitriyevich turned to the chairman and said, “My mandate is not from you, my mandate is higher – it is from the people”.

This is how Andrei Sakharov remained in my memory: a man going against the aggressive majority, which tried to suppress him, but could not, because he was right. But oddly enough, This majority had nothing to rely on. And this person had a strong support – the truth and people who trusted him, believed in him and hoped…

Many people continue to preserve the memory of Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov, rely on his legacy which allows to build a modern state in Russia, where an individual and respect for the unique value of an individual will be in the focus of everything.

Source

Grigory Yavlinsky

is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO, Vice President of Liberal International, PhD in Economics, Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.