Book on Sakharov raises issues

The July 2016 issue of Physics Today contains Alexei Kojevnikov’s review of the book Andrei Sakharov: The Conscience of Humanity, edited by Sidney Drell and George Shultz. The subject of the book and the editors are familiar to readers of Physics Today, and therefore the review attracts attention. However, the reaction it evokes is mainly bewilderment and disappointment. Any review will contain its author’s opinion, which can be positive or negative. However, the reader anticipates that a review will offer at least some information about the book’s contents. In that respect, the “review” by Kojevnikov is anything but. The only thing that one finds out about the actual book is that it contains contributions from 11 authors.

We are not exaggerating. Kojevnikov’s “review” is not a review at all. The entirety of the remaining text is filled by the reviewer’s expounding on his own rather dubious concept of Sakharov’s value system, and it ends with the criticism that the book does not reflect Kojevnikov’s concept. His treatment of Sakharov’s political and moral philosophy is highly questionable and, in our view, distorts Sakharov’s position. It certainly fails to reflect the degree to which Sakharov’s worldview continuously evolved.

We also believe Kojevnikov is wrong in trying to portray the morality and actions of the USSR during the Cold War as better, or at least not worse, than the morality and actions of its Western adversaries.

Apart from the fact that Kojevnikov’s writing does not belong in the Books section since it provides literally zero information about the actual book, we find it unfortunate and regrettable that Physics Today has furnished publication space to such poor treatment of the philosophy espoused by one of the most respected and admired scientists and humanists of the 20th century.