Yuri Orlov

Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov
Orlov, Summer 2008
Native name	Юрий Фёдорович Орлов
Born	(1924-08-13) 13 August 1924 (age 92) Moscow, USSR
Citizenship	Soviet Union (1924–1986) Stateless (1986–1990)  Soviet Union (1990–1991) Stateless (1991–1993)  United States (1993–present)
Nationality	Russian
Fields	nuclear physics
Institutions	Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics Yerevan Physics Institute Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Propagation of Radio Waves Cornell University American Academy of Arts and Sciences subsidiary of Amnesty International in the Soviet Union Moscow Helsinki Group
Alma mater	Moscow State University, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Known for	his scientific work and participation in human rights movement in the Soviet Union
Notable awards	Carter-Menil Human Rights Prize (1986), honorary doctorate Uppsala University (1990) Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service (1995), Andrei Sakharov Prize (APS) (2006)
Spouse	Irina Lagunova Irina Valitova Sidney Orlov
Children	sons Dmitri, Aleksandr, Lev

Yuri Fyodorovich Orlov (Russian: Ю́рий Фёдорович Орло́в, born 13 August 1924 in Moscow) is Professor of Physics and Government at Cornell University, a former Soviet dissident, Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist, a founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Soviet Amnesty International group. He was declared a prisoner of conscience when served nine years in prison and internal exile for monitoring the Helsinki human rights accords as a founder of human rights movement in the Soviet Union.

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. In 1952, he graduated from the Moscow State University and began his postgraduate studies at the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics where he later worked as a physicist.

In 1956, Orlov nearly lost his career of scientist due to his speech at the party meeting devoted to the discussion of the report On the Personality Cult and its Consequences by Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Then he publicly called Stalin and Beria "killers who were in power" and put forward the requirement of "democracy on the basis of socialism." For the pro-democracy speech he made in 1956, he was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and fired from his job.