Today in History, Oct. 23

By The Moscow Times
Nuclear physicist and activist Andrei Sakharov Vladimir Fedorenko

60 years ago today, on Oct. 23, 1953, Andrei Sakharov became a member of the Soviet Union's Academy of Sciences. He is known for having helped develop the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, and for being highly critical of the Soviet regime, becoming an activist in the late-1950s.

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