Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov (russian: Ю́рий Фёдорович Орло́в, 13 August 1924 – 27 September 2020) was a
particle accelerator physicist, human rights activist,
Soviet dissident
Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until ...
, founder of the
Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...
, a founding member of the Soviet
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
group, and Professor of Physics at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
. He was declared a
prisoner of conscience while serving nine years in prison and internal exile for monitoring the Helsinki human rights accords as a founder of the
human rights movement in the Soviet Union In the 1980s a human rights movement began to emerge in the USSR. Those actively involved did not share a single set of beliefs. Many wanted a variety of civil rights — freedom of expression, of religious belief, of national self-determination. T ...
.
Early career
Yuri Orlov was born into a working-class family on 13 August 1924 and grew up in a village near Moscow.
His parents were Klavdiya Petrovna Lebedeva and Fyodor Pavlovich Orlov.
In March 1933, his father died.
From 1944 to 1946, Orlov served as an officer in the
Soviet army
uk, Радянська армія
, image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg
, alt =
, caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army
, start_date ...
.
In 1952, he graduated from the
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
and began his postgraduate studies at the
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics
The Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP; Russian Институт теоретической и экспериментальной физики) is a multi-disciplinary research center located in Moscow, Russia. ITEP carries ou ...
where he later worked as a physicist.
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
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
" by
Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Premier of the Soviet Union, chairm ...
at the
20th Congress of the CPSU
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
. He publicly called
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and
Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
"killers who were in power" and put forward the requirement of "democracy on the basis of socialism."
For his pro-democracy speech in 1956, he was expelled from the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
and fired from his job.
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)
Orlov obtained the
Candidate of Sciences
Candidate of Sciences (russian: кандидат наук, translit=kandidat nauk) is the first of two doctoral level scientific degrees in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is formally classified as UNESCO's ISCED level 8, "do ...
degree in 1958 and the
Doctor of Sciences
Doctor of Sciences ( rus, доктор наук, p=ˈdoktər nɐˈuk, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; uk, доктор наук; bg, доктор на науките; be, доктар навук) is a higher doctoral degree in the Russi ...
degree in 1963.
He became an expert on particle acceleration.
In 1968, he was elected a corresponding member of the
Armenian Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...
after he found work at the
Yerevan Physics Institute
The A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory () is a research institute located in Yerevan, Armenia. It was founded in 1943 as a branch of the Yerevan State University by brothers Abram Alikhanov and Artem Alikhanian. It was often referred to by ...
.
In 1972, he came back to Moscow and worked at the
Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism.
Dissidence
In September 1973, when ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...
'' published a statement by a group of prominent academicians denouncing
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
's anti-patriotic activity, Orlov decided to support him, while recollecting the well memorized spells of the 1930s, in which some academicians demanded the death penalty for others already arrested; later some of these academicians themselves were arrested; and then third academicians, still alive, demanded the death penalty for them.
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" which appeared in underground
samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
circulation.
The Western press published the letter in 1974 but publication in the Russian press was only in 1991. In the early 1970s, the article by Yuri Orlov "Is a Non-Totalitarian Type of Socialism Possible?" also appeared in underground samizdat circulation.
In 1973, he was fired after becoming a founding member of the first
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
group in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
In May 1976, he organized the
Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...
and became its chairman.
Andrei Sakharov praised Orlov for systematically documenting Soviet violations of the human rights provisions of the
Helsinki accords
The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, between ...
.
Orlov ignored orders to disband the Moscow Helsinki Group when the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
told him the group was illegal. The KGB head
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
determined, "The need has thus emerged to terminate the actions of Orlov, fellow Helsinki monitor
Ginzburg and others once and for all, on the basis of existing law."
Arrest and trial
On 10 February 1977, Orlov was arrested.
In March 1977, Orlov published the article about his arrest "The road to my arrest." In a closed trial, he was denied the right to examine evidence and to call witnesses.
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.
Orlov's summation was interrupted many times by the judge and the prosecutor and by spectators who shouted "spy" and "traitor."
According to Orlov's wife Irina, hostile spectators in the courtroom applauded the sentence and shouted: "You should have given him more."
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 the
Helsinki Accords
The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, between ...
.
Orlov also argued that he circulated such information for humanitarian, not subversive, reasons.
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.
Protests over Orlov's trial
US President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
expressed his concern over the severity of the sentence and the secrecy of the trial. Washington senator
Henry M. Jackson
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative (1941–1953) and U.S. senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington. A Cold War liberal and a ...
said, "The Orlov trial, and the
Ginzburg and
Shcharansky incarcerations, are dramatic cases in point" when discussing Soviet breaches of law. The
US National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...
officially protested against the trial of Orlov.
In the summer of 1978, 2,400 American scientists including physicists at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory created ''Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Shcharansky'' (SOS), an international movement to promote and protect the human rights of scientists. An initiator of SOS was American physicist
Andrew Sessler
Andrew Marienhoff Sessler (December 11, 1928 – April 17, 2014) was an American physicist, academic (University of California, Berkeley), former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1973–1980), humanitarian and former ...
, its chairman was Prof. Morris Pripstein. Scientists at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
have spoken out against Orlov's imprisonment for "disseminating
anti-Soviet propaganda
Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) (russian: антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА)) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. To begin with the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolu ...
". 43 physicists have called off Soviet trips to protest his jailing.
Imprisonment and exile
For a year and a half, Orlov was imprisoned in
Lefortovo Prison, then Perm Camp 35 and 37.
In Perm Camp 37, he mounted three hunger strikes to make the prison authorities return his confiscated writings and notes.
Two articles written by him in the camp were smuggled and published abroad. On 5 July 1983, Austrian Chancellor
Bruno Kreisky
Bruno Kreisky (; 22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldes ...
sent the Soviet leader
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
a letter asking for his release to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, but it was intentionally not answered.
[About the letter by Bruno Kreisky to the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov](_blank)
/ref>
The New York-based Helsinki Watch
Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch be ...
issued 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." Orlov suffered from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. He lost a good deal of weight and most of his teeth. Orlov's wife said he looked emaciated and that she was "very fearful for my husband's health. The authorities are gradually killing him."
In 1984, Orlov was exiled to Kobyay in Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and was allowed to buy a house with a garden. On 14 November 1985, Professor George Wald raised the case of Orlov in a talk with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
who answered he had not heard of Orlov.
Deportation and US citizenship
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 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...
. Orlov's discharge from Siberian exile was part of the U.S.–Soviet deal to release journalist Nicholas Daniloff
Nicholas S. Daniloff (born December 30, 1934) is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union. He was briefly detained by Soviet security services on espiona ...
. Orlov's release from exile and expulsion from the USSR lifted hopes among Westerners that the Helsinki process might finally start yielding progress. US President Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
said, "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."
On 10 December 1986, Orlov was awarded the Carter–Menil Human Rights Prize of $100,000. In 1987, Orlov began work at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
as a scientist and professor. Orlov was a visiting Fellow at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1988/89. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
, Orlov studied particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams.
Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...
design, beam interaction analysis and quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
. He authored and co-authored numerous research papers, articles on human rights, and an autobiography, ''Dangerous Thoughts'' (1991).
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. 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." On 18 July 1991, Orlov and Elena Bonner
Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011)[ ...](_blank)
wrote an open letter about the fact that Soviet army
uk, Радянська армія
, image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg
, alt =
, caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army
, start_date ...
and special troops have been systematically deporting thousands of Armenians from Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
to Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
.
In 1993, Orlov received American citizenship.
In 1995, the American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
awarded him the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service. In 2005, he was named the first recipient of the Andrei Sakharov Prize, awarded biennially by the American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
to honor scientists for exceptional work in promoting human rights. In 2020, a few days before Orlov died, the American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
awarded 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." On 24 March 2005, Orlov wrote a letter to Putin to express disquiet over the criminal prosecution of Anna Mikhalchuk, Yuri Samodurov, and Ludmila Vasilovskaya in the case concerning the Sakharov Museum exhibition on religion.
Orlov participated in two documentaries about the Soviet dissident movement
Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until t ...
, ''They Chose Freedom
''They Chose Freedom'' (russian: Они выбирали свободу, Oni vybirali svobodu) is a four-part TV documentary on the history of political dissent in the USSR from the 1950s to the 1990s. It was produced in 2005 by Vladimir V. Kara-M ...
'' in 2005, and ''Parallels, Events, People
''Parallels, Events, People'' (russian: Паралле́ли, собы́тия, лю́ди) is documentary series on the Soviet dissident movement and 2011–13 Russian protests.
''Parallels, Events, People'' is produced by Natella Boltyanskaya ...
'' in 2014. He was a member of the Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
Asia Advisory and Academic Freedom Committees, and member of the Honorary 25th Anniversary Committee, Global Rights
Global Rights is an international human rights capacity-building non-governmental organization (NGO). Founded in Washington, D.C., in 1978 with the name International Human Rights Law Group, the organization changed its name to Global Rights: P ...
.
Orlov died on 27 September 2020, aged 96.The founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Yuri Orlov, dies
/ref>
References
Some publications
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Further reading
Yuri Orlov Cornell University Homepage
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orlov, Yuri
1924 births
2020 deaths
Scientists from Moscow
Moscow State University alumni
Soviet physicists
20th-century American physicists
Russian nuclear physicists
Soviet nuclear physicists
Soviet dissidents
Soviet human rights activists
Moscow Helsinki Group
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Expelled members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Amnesty International people
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by the Soviet Union
Soviet prisoners and detainees
Soviet expellees
People denaturalized by the Soviet Union
Soviet emigrants to the United States
Cornell University faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Russian memoirists
Russian political writers
Soviet people of World War II
21st-century American physicists
Inmates of Lefortovo Prison
Russian prisoners and detainees
People associated with CERN
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology alumni
People with acquired American citizenship
Fellows of the American Physical Society