Andrey Tverdokhlebov
| Andrei Nikolayevich Tverdokhlebov | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Андрей Николаевич Твердохлебов |
| Born |
September 30, 1940 Moscow, Russia |
| Died | December 3, 2011 (aged 71) Pennsylvania, United States |
| Alma mater | Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Drexel University (Ph.D.) |
| Occupation | physicist |
| Known for | human rights activism with participation in the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR |
| Movement | dissident movement in the Soviet Union |
| Spouse(s) | Natalia Tverdokhlebova |
| Children | daughter Maria Fyodorova |
Andrei Nikolayevich Tverdokhlebov (Russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Твердохле́бов, 30 September 1940, Moscow – 3 December 2011, Pennsylvania, United States) was a Soviet physicist, dissident and human rights activist. In 1970, he founded - along with Valery Chalidze and Andrei Sakharov - the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR. In 1973, Tverdokhlebov - along with Valentin Turchin - founded the first chapter of Amnesty International in the Soviet Union. He also helped found Group 73, a human rights organization that helped political prisoners in the Soviet Union. He was the author/editor of several samizdat publications while in the Soviet Union, which were compiled in the book, "In Defense of Human Rights", published by Khronika Press, New York, in 1975.
Andrei Tverdokhlebov was born in 1940 in Moscow into a high-ranking Communist government family. His father, Nikolai Tverdokhlebov, was the Soviet Deputy Minister of Culture in the 1950s and, later, the cultural attache to the Soviet embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Tverdokhlebov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and did post-graduate work at the Dubna Institute of Nuclear Research, focusing on theoretical physics.
In 1980, he emigrated to the United States. He appeared at a hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee to discuss the role of Soviet scientists in the Soviet human rights movement, but, for the most part, ceased his human rights activities while in the U.S. However, he actively continued his scientific research - first at Lehigh University, then at Drexel University where he received a Ph.D. in 1989 with the thesis, "A New Approach to Bulk Wave Propagation in Anisotropic Media."
In November 1970, Tverdokhlebov, along with Andrei Sakharov and Valery Chalidze announced the formation of the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR. According to Sakharov's memoirs, the international publicity of the formation of this group surpassed any of their expectations. "For the next week, a good half of all broadcasts over the Voice of America, the BBC, and Deutsche Welle were about the Committee, stressing its significance as an independent association that would study human rights objectively and then publish its findings."
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