Yuri Orlov

Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov (Russian Юрий Фёдорович Орлов, English transcription Yuri Orlov Feodorovich ) ( born August 13, 1924 in Moscow) is an American physicist and Soviet dissident. For his commitment to human rights, he was awarded several times.

Life

Yuri Orlov went to school in Moscow. During the Second World War, he helped in the construction of T- 34 tanks and served in the artillery later. After the war he worked at the " Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics " ( ITEP ) in Moscow and worked on a proton synchrotron. There he developed a theory of non-linear betatron resonance.

In 1956 he was dismissed for pro-Western statements at ITEP and was not allowed to work in Moscow. He moved to the Physics Institute in Yerevan, where he worked at an electron synchrotron. He received his Ph.D. in Yerevan and earned a second doctorate from the University of Novosibirsk.

In 1973 he returned to Moscow and worked in the " Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and propagation of radio waves ." He joined a dissident movement and was already one year after the founding member of the Russian branch of Amnesty International. He personally wrote a letter to Leonid Brezhnev in which he lobbied for Andrei Sakharov. In 1976 he founded the Moscow Helsinki Group, which monitored compliance with the Helsinki Final Act in the Soviet Union.

Yuri Orlov was arrested in 1977 and sentenced on 18 May 1978 seven years strict labor camp and five years' exile for " anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda ". He spent his imprisonment in Siberia. During his prison camp, he managed to write several documents on human rights in the Soviet Union and smuggled out of the country and to publish three scientific papers.

In 1986, he was released in exchange for a Russian spy in the United States and withdrew his Soviet citizenship.

Since 1987 he has worked at Cornell University on the foundations of quantum mechanics. In 1988 and 1989 he spent at CERN. He has published several scientific publications and articles on human rights and an autobiography titled "Dangerous Thoughts. Memoirs of a Russian Life ".

In 1995, the American Physical Society awarded him the Nicholson Medal for his humanitarian efforts. 2005 was also conferred on him by the same company of the Andrei Sakharov Prize, which honors scientists for extraordinary commitment to human rights.

Works

• A Russian life. Hanser, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-446-17035-9. ( Spelling of the name in this issue: Yuri Orlov )