In December 1975, Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, who had been barred from attending the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, secretly met with Norwegian diplomat Viggo Lange in Moscow. He then delivered his speech and Nobel Lecture, which his wife, Yelena Bonner, would read in Oslo. New documents published by Reuters document how Sakharov did this 50 years ago.

Sakharov was one of the most prominent dissidents in the Soviet Union. He criticized human rights abuses under communist rule, was one of the founders of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, and later campaigned against nuclear weapons. Authorities had denied him the right to travel abroad to receive the prize, arguing that he was privy to state and military secrets.

In December 1975, Sakharov called Lange and asked to meet him at the Norwegian embassy in Moscow before 1 a.m.

“He asked that if he was prevented from entering, someone should wait for him outside,” Lange wrote in a memo to the Foreign Ministry in Oslo. Lange went to the embassy, ​​and after the policeman left, Sakharov arrived in a car with a driver. They met at the embassy, ​​and the policeman, although interested, did not interfere. Sakharov handed over the printed texts of his speech and lecture.

Lange then contacted the Norwegian ambassador, Petter Graver, who received Sakharov in the embassy library. Sakharov asked that the documents be passed on to Yelena Bonner, who was in Western Europe. Graver agreed. On December 10, 1975, Yelena Bonner read her husband’s words in Oslo. The Nobel Committee awarded Sakharov the prize “for his struggle for human rights, disarmament, and cooperation among all nations in the Soviet Union.”

The Nobel Peace Prize nomination process has been kept secret for 50 years, and documents relating to Sakharov became available on request this year.

Prepared by A. Galoyan