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Yuri Orlov

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromYuri Fyodorovich Orlov)
For the zoologist, seeYuri Alexandrovich Orlov.
Not to be confused with the fictional lead character in the filmLord of War.
In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisFyodorovichand thefamily nameisOrlov.
Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov
Юрий Фёдорович Орлов
Orlov in 1986
Born(1924-08-13)13 August 1924
Moscow,Russian SFSR,Soviet Union
Died27 September 2020(2020-09-27)(aged 96)
Ithaca,New York,U.S.
NationalityRussian
Citizenship
Alma materMoscow State University,Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Known forhis scientific work and participation inhuman rights movement in the Soviet Union
Spouses
Childrensons Dmitri, Aleksandr,[7]Lev[3]
AwardsCarter-Menil Human Rights Prize(1986),honorary doctorateUppsala University(1990)[1]Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service (1995),Andrei Sakharov Prize (APS)(2006), Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle AcceleratorsAmerican Physical Society(2020)[2]
Scientific career
FieldsAccelerator physics,Nuclear physics
Institutions
Orlov's voice
Recorded 11 May 2011
during an interview for Ekho Moskvy

Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov(Russian:Ю́рий Фёдорович Орло́в,13 August 1924 – 27 September 2020) was aparticle accelerator physicist,[8]human rights activist,[9]Soviet dissident,[10]founder of theMoscow Helsinki Group,[11]a founding member of the SovietAmnesty Internationalgroup.[12]He was declared aprisoner of conscience[13]while serving nine years in prison and internal exile for monitoring the Helsinki human rights accords, he was declared aprisoner of conscienceby Amnesty International[14]as a founder of thehuman rights movement in the Soviet Union.[15]Following his release from exile, Orlov was allowed to emigrate to the U.S. and became a professor of physics atCornell University.

Early career

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Yuri Orlov was born into a working-class family on 13 August 1924 and grew up in a village near Moscow.[16]His parents were Klavdiya Petrovna Lebedeva and Fyodor Pavlovich Orlov.[3]In March 1933, his father died.[3]

From 1944 to 1946, Orlov served as an officer in theSoviet army.[17]In 1952, he graduated from theMoscow State Universityand began his postgraduate studies at theInstitute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics[18]where he later worked as a physicist.[17]

In 1956, Orlov nearly lost his scientist career due to his speech at the party meeting about discussion of the report "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences"byKhrushchevat the20th Congress of the CPSU.He publicly calledStalinandBeria"killers who were in power" and put forward the requirement of "democracy on the basis of socialism."[19]For his pro-democracy speech in 1956, he was expelled from theCommunist Party of the Soviet Unionand fired from his job.[17]

What is the meaning of life? That your soul may outlive your remains in something sacred and should escape decay... I have again looked at, added up, corrected, and sized up what I have been doing during these last years and have seen that this is good...(Yuri Orlov, 1980)[20]

Orlov obtained theCandidate of Sciencesdegree in 1958 and theDoctor of Sciencesdegree in 1963.[18]He became an expert on particle acceleration.[16]In 1968, he was elected a corresponding member of theArmenian Academy of Sciences[16]after he found work at theYerevan Physics Institute.[17]In 1972, he came back to Moscow and worked at theInstitute of Terrestrial Magnetism.[17]

Dissidence

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In September 1973, whenPravdapublished a statement by a group of prominent academicsdenouncingAndrei Sakharov's anti-patriotic activity, Orlov decided to support him, while recollecting the well memorized spells of the 1930s, in which some academics demanded the death penalty for others already arrested; later some of these academics themselves were arrested, with some academics who were not arrested demanding the death penalty for them.[19][21]: 163 [22]: 161 

Defending Sakharov, Orlov on 16 September 1973 wrote "Open Letter to L.I. Brezhnev about the Reasons for the Intellectual Backwardness in the USSR and Proposals to Overcome It"[23]which appeared in undergroundsamizdatcirculation.[24]The Western press published the letter in 1974[25]but publication in the Russian press was only in 1991.[26]In the early 1970s, the article by Yuri Orlov "Is a Non-Totalitarian Type of Socialism Possible?" also appeared in underground samizdat circulation.[24]

In 1973, he was fired after becoming a founding member of the firstAmnesty Internationalgroup in theSoviet Union.[17]

In May 1976, he organized theMoscow Helsinki Groupand became its chairman.[17]Andrei Sakharov praised Orlov for systematically documenting Soviet violations of the human rights provisions of theHelsinki accords.[27]Orlov ignored orders to disband the Moscow Helsinki Group when theKGBtold him the group was illegal.[28]The KGB headYuri Andropovdetermined, "The need has thus emerged to terminate the actions of Orlov, fellow Helsinki monitorGinzburgand others once and for all, on the basis of existing law. "[29]

Arrest and trial

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On 10 February 1977, Orlov was arrested.[30][31][32]In March 1977, Orlov published the article about his arrest "The road to my arrest."[33]In a closed trial, he was denied the right to examine evidence and to call witnesses.[34]

The courtroom was filled with some 50 individuals selected by the authorities, while supporters and friends of Orlov, including Andrei Sakharov, were barred from entering because there was no room.[7]Orlov's summation was interrupted many times by the judge and the prosecutor and by spectators who shouted "spy" and "traitor."[7]According to Orlov's wife Irina, hostile spectators in the courtroom applauded the sentence and shouted: "You should have given him more."[35]

Orlov at the trial argued that he has a right to criticize the government and a right to circulate such criticism under the freedom of information provisions of theHelsinki Accords.[7]Orlov also argued that he circulated such information for humanitarian, not subversive, reasons.[7]On 15 May 1978, Orlov was sentenced to seven years of a labor camp and five years internal exile for his work with the Moscow Helsinki Group.[36]

Protests over Orlov's trial

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US PresidentJimmy Carterexpressed his concern over the severity of the sentence and the secrecy of the trial.[37]Washington senatorHenry M. Jacksonsaid, "The Orlov trial, and theGinzburgandShcharanskyincarcerations, are dramatic cases in point "when discussing Soviet breaches of law.[38]TheUS National Academy of Sciencesofficially protested against the trial of Orlov.[39]

In the summer of 1978, 2,400 American scientists[40]including physicists at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory createdScientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Shcharansky(SOS), an international movement to promote and protect the human rights of scientists.[41]: 547 An initiator of SOS was American physicistAndrew Sessler,[42]its chairman was Prof. Morris Pripstein.[43]Scientists atCERNhave spoken out against Orlov's imprisonment for "disseminatinganti-Soviet propaganda".[44]43 physicists have called off Soviet trips to protest his jailing.[45]

Imprisonment and exile

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A street inKobyay

For a year and a half, Orlov was imprisoned inLefortovo Prison,then Perm Camp 35 and 37.[20]In Perm Camp 37, he mounted three hunger strikes to make the prison authorities return his confiscated writings and notes.[46]Two articles written by him in the camp were smuggled and published abroad.[47]On 5 July 1983, Austrian ChancellorBruno Kreiskysent the Soviet leaderYuri Andropova letter asking for his release toAustria,but it was intentionally not answered.[48]

The New York-basedHelsinki Watchissued a statement about Orlov's health deterioration, "He has frequent headaches and dizzy spells, resulting from an old skull injury. He suffers from kidney and prostate inflammation, low blood pressure, rheumatic pains, toothaches, insomnia and vitamin deficiency. Medical care in the labor camp is extremely inadequate."[27]Orlov suffered fromtuberculosis.[49]He lost a good deal of weight and most of his teeth.[50]Orlov's wife said he looked emaciated and that she was "very fearful for my husband's health. The authorities are gradually killing him."[51]

In 1984, Orlov was exiled toKobyayinSiberiaand was allowed to buy a house with a garden.[32]On 14 November 1985, ProfessorGeorge Waldraised the case of Orlov in a talk with the Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachevwho answered he had not heard of Orlov.[52]

Deportation and US citizenship

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On 30 September 1986, the KGB proposed to expel Orlov from the Soviet Union after depriving him of his Soviet citizenship and met with approval from theCentral Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[53]Orlov's discharge from Siberian exile was part of the U.S.–Soviet deal to release journalistNicholas Daniloff.[54]Orlov's release from exile and expulsion from the USSR lifted hopes among Westerners that the Helsinki process might finally start yielding progress.[55]Former US PresidentJimmy Cartersaid, "As for Orlov, we're very delighted with this happy occurrence. We would like to meet with him if he comes to this country, but I don't know that he will. I have no way of knowing his plans."[56]

On 10 December 1986, Orlov was awarded theCarter–Menil Human Rights Prizeof $100,000.[57]: 253 In 1987, Orlov began work atCornell Universityas a scientist and professor.[58]Orlov was a visiting fellow at theEuropean Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)in 1988/89.[6][59]A member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,Orlov studiedparticle acceleratordesign, beam interaction analysis andquantum mechanics.He authored and co-authored numerous research papers,[60]articles on human rights,[61]and an autobiography,Dangerous Thoughts(1991).[62]

In 1990, Gorbachev restored Soviet citizenship to Orlov and other 23 prominent exiles and emigres who lost the right in the period from 1966 to 1988.[63][64][65]Orlov told Gorbachev, "I would say you have a very great power in your hands, the K.G.B., and you should therefore carry out your reforms without fearing anyone at all. Afterward, you should liquidate the K.G.B., because it is a cancer."[66]On 18 July 1991, Orlov andElena Bonnerwrote an open letter about the fact thatSoviet armyand special troops have been systematically deporting thousands of Armenians fromAzerbaijantoArmenia.[67]

In 1993, Orlov received American citizenship.[59]

In 1995, theAmerican Physical Societyawarded him the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service.[68]In 2005, he was named the first recipient of the Andrei Sakharov Prize, awarded biennially by theAmerican Physical Societyto honor scientists for exceptional work in promoting human rights.[68][69]In 2020, a few days before Orlov died, theAmerican Physical Societyawarded him the 2021 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators for his scientific work and for "embodying the spirit of scientific freedom."

In 2004, Orlov expressed his opinion about Russia and Vladimir Putin by saying, "Russia is flying backwards in time. Putin is like Stalin, and he speaks in the language of the thug, the mafia."[70]On 24 March 2005, Orlov wrote a letter to Putin to express disquiet over the criminal prosecution ofAnna Mikhalchuk,Yuri Samodurov, and Ludmila Vasilovskaya in the case concerning theSakharov Museumexhibition on religion.[71]

Orlov participated in two documentaries about theSoviet dissident movement,They Chose Freedom[72]in 2005, andParallels, Events, Peoplein 2014. He was a member of theHuman Rights WatchAsia Advisory and Academic Freedom Committees, and member of the Honorary 25th Anniversary Committee,Global Rights.

Orlov died on 27 September 2020, aged 96.[73]

References

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  1. ^"Honorary doctorates – Uppsala University, Sweden".9 June 2023.
  2. ^"2021 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators Recipient".American Physical Society.
  3. ^abcde"Орлов Юрий Федорович (р. 1924)"[Orlov Yuri Fyodorovich (b. 1924)] (in Russian). The Sakharov Center.
  4. ^Shultz, George (1993).Turmoil and triumph: my years as secretary of state.Scribner's. p.749.ISBN978-0-684-19325-0.
  5. ^"Yuri Orlov vows he'll continue to struggle for human rights".Kentucky New Era.2 October 1986. p. 48.
  6. ^ab"The Yuri Orlov file".The National Security Archive.
  7. ^abcde"Orlov receives maximum sentence"(PDF).The Ukrainian Weekly.Vol. LXXXV, no. 113. 21 May 1978. p. 2.
  8. ^"Yuri Orlov (1924–2020)".CERN.Retrieved2020-10-14.
  9. ^Zellick, Graham (1980)."The Criminal Trial and the Disruptive Defendant".The Modern Law Review.43(2): 121–135.doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1980.tb01585.x.
  10. ^Human Rights Watch World Report 1990.Human Rights Watch. 1991. p. 296.
  11. ^"CERN turns its back on Yuri Orlov".New Scientist.91(1260): 4. 2 July 1981.
  12. ^Garelik, Glenn (21 July 1991)."Science and dissidence".The Washington Post.
  13. ^Halperin, Israel (1984). "Prisoners of conscience".Physics Today.37(12): 94.Bibcode:1984PhT....37l..94H.doi:10.1063/1.2916026.
  14. ^"Orlov receives red carpet from Western science".New Scientist.112(1529): 16. 9 October 1986.
  15. ^"Founder of the Soviet human-rights movement".U.S. News & World Report.101(16): 23. 10 October 1986. Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2016.
  16. ^abcWren, Christopher (1 October 1986)."Man in the news; a pragmatic crusader: Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov".The New York Times.
  17. ^abcdefgAndrei Sakharov and human rights.Council of Europe. 2010. p. 151.ISBN978-9287169471.
  18. ^abMarshak, Robert (September 1978)."Orlov dissident trial in perspective".Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.34(7): 5–6.Bibcode:1978BuAtS..34g...5M.doi:10.1080/00963402.1978.11458529.
  19. ^ab"Юрий Орлов. Человек-легенда"[Yuri Orlov. Legendary man].Radio Liberty(in Russian). 15 August 2014.
  20. ^abBailey, Anthony (25 April 1983)."Orlov".The New Yorker.p. 40.
  21. ^Orlov, Yuri (1991)."Chapter thirteen. In the opposition".Dangerous Thoughts. Memoirs of a Russian Life.New York:William Morrow and Company.pp.163–176.ISBN978-0-688-10471-9.
  22. ^Орлов, Юрий (1992)."Глава тринадцатая. В оппозиции"[Chapter thirteen. In the opposition].Опасные мысли: Мемуары из рус. жизни[Dangerous Thoughts. Memoirs of a Russian Life] (in Russian). Moscow:Аргументы и факты.pp. 161–174.ISBN978-5852720023.
  23. ^De Boer, S. P.; Driessen, Evert; Verhaar, Hendrik (1982).Biographical dictionary of dissidents in the Soviet Union: 1956–1975.The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 405.ISBN978-9024725380.
  24. ^abShifman, Mikhail, ed. (2015).Physics in a mad world.World Scientific. p. 445.ISBN978-9814619318.
  25. ^Orlov 1974.
  26. ^Aksyutin & Medvedev 1991.
  27. ^abEaton, William (1 October 1986)."Harshly treated: Orlov: ordeal for symbol of dissent ends".The Los Angeles Times.
  28. ^Potok, Chaim; Slepak, Leonid; Slepak, Vladimir; Slepak, Alexander; Slepak, Maria (2010).The gates of November.Random House Publishing Group. p. 175.ISBN978-0-307-57551-7.
  29. ^Snyder, Sarah (2011).Human rights activism and the end of the Cold War: a transnational history of the Helsinki network.Cambridge University Press. p. 73.ISBN978-1-139-49892-0.
  30. ^Shanker, Thom (1 October 1986)."Bitter Siberian ordeal ends at last for Yuri Orlov".Bangor Daily News.p. 9.
  31. ^Bailey, Anthony (19 September 1977)."Defending Yuri Orlov".The New Yorker.p. 29.
  32. ^ab"Yuri Orlov Soviet dissident group founder".UPI.6 October 1986.
  33. ^Orlov 1977.
  34. ^Oshins, Eddie (3 February 1983)."The case of Yuri Orlov".The New York Review of Books.30(1).
  35. ^"Yuri Orlov sentenced to 12 years".Herald-Journal.Vol. 106, no. 99. 19 May 1978.
  36. ^Information, Reed Business (20 May 1982)."CERN scientists speak out for Orlov".New Scientist.94(1306): 473.{{cite journal}}:|first1=has generic name (help)
  37. ^Carter, Jimmy."Presidential Documents. Week Ending Friday, May 26, 1978".Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1978, Book 1: January 1 to June 30, 1978.Washington, DC:Government Printing Office. p. 938.
  38. ^"U.S. senators seek Nobel for Helsinki groups"(PDF).The Ukrainian Weekly.Vol. LXXXV, no. 159. 16 July 1978. pp. 1–2.
  39. ^Ziman, John (1979)."Science and Human Rights".Index on Censorship.8:41–44.doi:10.1080/03064227908532880.S2CID143084296.
  40. ^Information, Reed Business (9 February 1984)."Soviet physicist could face new jail term".New Scientist.101(1396): 4.{{cite journal}}:|first1=has generic name (help)
  41. ^Pripstein, Morris (1991)."Sakharov, scientists, and human rights; a personal recollection".Andrei Sakharov: facets of a life.Atlantica Séguier Frontières. pp. 546–548.ISBN978-2863320969.
  42. ^Sessler, Andrew (1 April 1995)."Physicist and the eternal struggle for human rights".Bulletin of the American Physical Society.40(2).
  43. ^Lipkin, Harry (2013).Andrei Sakharov: quarks and the structure of matter.World Scientific. p. 11.ISBN978-9814407434.
  44. ^Information, Reed Business (11 November 1982)."A small word in support of Orlov".New Scientist.96(1331): 341.{{cite journal}}:|first1=has generic name (help)
  45. ^O'Toole, Thomas (3 June 1978)."Orlov's sentence causes third U.S. physicist group to cancel Russian trip".The Washington Post.
  46. ^Information, Reed Business (22 November 1979)."Concerns about Orlov's health".New Scientist:592.{{cite journal}}:|first1=has generic name (help)
  47. ^Orlov (1981,1982)
  48. ^"About the letter by Bruno Kreisky to the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2007-06-14.Retrieved2005-07-14.
  49. ^"Soviet dissident Orlov reported terminally ill".Los Angeles Times.15 November 1985.
  50. ^"Yuri Orlov is reported very sick"(PDF).The Ukrainian Weekly.Vol. LII, no. 24. 10 June 1984. p. 2.
  51. ^Information, Reed Business (22 November 1979)."Concern about Orlov's health".New Scientist.84(1182): 592.{{cite journal}}:|first1=has generic name (help)
  52. ^"Russian dissident Yuri Orlov close to death, says scientist".The Glasgow Herald.15 November 1985.
  53. ^"О лишении гражданства и выдворении из СССР Орлова Ю.Ф."[On the deprivation of citizenship and expulsion of Orlov Yu F. from the USSR](PDF)(in Russian). Soviet archives collected by Vladimir Bukovsky. 30 September 1986.
  54. ^Valentine, Paul (6 October 1986)."Soviet dissident Orlov starts 'a new life' in U.S."The Washington Post.
  55. ^Snyder, Sarah (2011-06-20).Human rights activism and the end of the Cold War: a transnational history of the Helsinki network.Cambridge University Press. p. 168.ISBN978-1-139-49892-0.
  56. ^"Yuri Orlov wins human rights award".Lodi News-Sentinel.1 October 1986.
  57. ^Hochman, Steven (2009)."Carter center".In Forsythe, David (ed.).Encyclopedia of human rights.Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 252–256.ISBN978-0-19-533402-9.
  58. ^Lanier, Alfredo (5 June 2000)."Network forms to aid scholars at risk".The Chicago Tribune.
  59. ^ab"Curriculum vitae of Yuri Orlov"(PDF).Cornell University.Archived(PDF)from the original on 3 October 2015.
  60. ^"Yuri F. Orlov".2007-06-10. Archived fromthe originalon 2007-06-10.Retrieved2019-06-06.
  61. ^Orlov 1979;Orlov & Bethell 1987;Orlov (1988a,1988b);Gottfried & Orlov 1989;Birman, Lizhi & Winick 1994
  62. ^Sessler, Andrew (1991). "Book Review: Dangerous Thoughts: Memoirs of a Russian Life".Physics Today.44(11): 92–93.Bibcode:1991PhT....44k..92S.doi:10.1063/1.2810325.
  63. ^"Citizenship: better late than never".Time.27 August 1990.
  64. ^"Solzhenitsyn, 22 others qet citizenship back".The Pittsburgh Press.16 August 1990. p. A8.
  65. ^"Solzhenitsyn cool as Moscow confirms offer".The New York Times.17 August 1990.
  66. ^Rosenthal, Andrew (5 December 1987)."For the Soviet emigres, Gorbachev stirs both optimism and skepticism".The New York Times.
  67. ^Bonner & Orlov 1991.
  68. ^abGold, Lauren (14 November 2005)."First Andrei Sakharov Prize for human rights goes to Cornell physicist and former Soviet gulag prisoner Yuri Orlov".Cornell Chronicle.
  69. ^"2018 Stanley Corrsin Award Recipient".www.aps.org.Retrieved2019-06-06.
  70. ^"Soviet-era dissidents despise Putin".The Washington Times.13 November 2004.
  71. ^Orlov, Yuri (24 March 2005)."A letter to Vladimir Putin".Sakharov Center.Archived fromthe originalon 30 August 2021.Retrieved15 February2016.
  72. ^В Москве прошла презентация фильма "Они выбрали свободу" об истории диссидентов в СССР[In Moscow, the presentation of the filmThey Chose Freedomwent off] (in Russian).NEWSru.com.1 December 2005.
  73. ^The founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Yuri Orlov, dies[usurped]

Some publications

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Further reading

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Video

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