Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov could never have imagined, during his formative years, the profound mark he would leave on his nation and the wider world. His journey ranged from engineering the RDS-37 — the Soviet Union's first hydrogen bomb — to earning a Nobel peace prize, a trajectory that few could have predicted.

Yet on this day in 1980, that remarkable life took a dramatic turn when Sakharov and his wife found themselves arrested and torn away from their existence in Moscow.

The First Two-Step Hydrogen Bomb

Sakharov completed his studies in the physics department at Moscow State University before earning his Ph.D. from the Soviet Academy of Science in 1947. His research during that period yielded a series of critical scientific breakthroughs, ultimately paving the way for the development of the country's first hydrogen bomb.

Sakharov's Change of Heart

By the 1950s, Sakharov had grown deeply troubled by the moral weight of his contributions and the political purposes his creation might serve. The 1960s saw him step forward publicly, championing efforts to halt atmospheric tests and eliminate nuclear weapons altogether.

For years, he threw himself into political activism — organizing protests, openly challenging corrupt officials, and penning essays that made the case for democratic reform. He co-founded the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR in 1970, and together with his fellow founders, drafted appeals on behalf of over 200 prisoners who had been wrongly convicted.

Even amid escalating friction with Soviet authorities, Sakharov was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Because the government refused to let him leave the state, it was his new bride and fellow activist, Yelena Bonner, who traveled to accept the award in his place. In the speech she delivered, Sakharov dedicated the prize to numerous political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

Arrested & Banished

Plain-clothed policemen confronted Andrei Sakharov on January 22, 1980, seizing him and taking him into custody. He and his wife were then put on a flight to Gorky, entirely against their will. Their exile would stretch on for six years, ending only when Mikhail Gorbachev summoned them back in 1986.

Throughout this period, Bonner desperately needed heart surgery but was refused permission to travel for the procedure. Sakharov launched a hunger strike in protest, which authorities ended by forcibly hospitalizing and feeding him. Undeterred, he attempted once more the following year to secure his wife's passage overseas — and once again found himself hospitalized, this time for an entire year, until Bonner was finally permitted to leave and undergo her surgery.

Sakharov's Death & Legacy

Sakharov was discovered dead on the floor of his study on December 14, 1989, just one day before he was scheduled to deliver a major speech to Congress. According to autopsy reports, the cause was a cardiac arrhythmia compounded by an enlarged heart.

In the years since his death, multiple honors have been established to preserve the legacy of Andrei Sakharov. These include the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the Andrei Sakharov Prize by the American Physical Society, the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Writer's Civic Courage, and a Sakharov Prize for journalism.