The Parlamentarium, the EP’s Visitor Centre, is hosting the temporary exhibition “Andrei Sakharov: Scientist, Dissident, Human Rights Activist” as part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Andrei Sakharov, a man who inspired the creation of European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Created in partnership with the Sakharov Center in Moscow, Russia, and the Sakharov Research Centre in Kaunas, Lithuania, the exhibition highlights the major events in the life of Andrei Sakharov, also known as the “father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb”.

Parlamentarium (T)

exhibition

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2021 (T)

Temporary exhibition “Andrei Sakharov: Scientist, Dissident, Human Rights Activist" (as part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Andrei Sakharov)

Title: Temporary exhibition &#8220;Andrei Sakharov: Scientist, Dissident, Human Rights Activist&quot; (as part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Andrei Sakharov)

SOUNDBITE (English), Marina SAKHAROV, Andrei Sakharov&apos;s granddaughter, I find this venue exceptionally fitting for showing this unique bronze for the first time to the world after 33 years of this bronze considered lost. And I think the European Union is something that is very close to the philosophy of my grandfather. So I find it very special and very touching for me to have the exhibit dedicated to him, with his bronze portrait, for his centennial.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marina SAKHAROV, Andrei Sakharov&apos;s granddaughter, I had known about it for quite a few years and knew of the existence of the bronze because the sculptor sent the card to my grandfather 33 years ago for his birthday. And the card was not ever read. It must have been lost in the flurry of thousands of letters. Actually, this is the card itself, and it was lost in the thousands of letters that were written to my grandfather when he was elected to deputy of the People's Congress in the Soviet Union. And so the card was rediscovered 11 years later after his death. But by that time, the sculptor had moved and so nobody was able to trace him. And this year, because of this centennial, I decided to try again and I tried and tried. And finally, with some luck and with the help of some very kind Scottish people, we managed to find the sculptor living in New Castle, and I was able to get in correspondence with him. And finally, he transferred the bronze to me.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marina SAKHAROV, Andrei Sakharov&apos;s granddaughter, The first time I saw the portrait, the photograph that somebody brought to me, I was so impressed by it. I thought that there was an exceptional likeness. Not only it's the only portrait made in his lifetime, it's unique in itself, but it really captured his intellectual vigour, his humanity and the expression. And I think that's because of the personality of the sculptor who actually, I think was the very right person in the sense to do the portrait of Andrei Sakharov because he understood Andrei Sakharov from the inside. He understood his ideas. And I think that helped him to create this very psychologically intense and deep portrait.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marina SAKHAROV, Andrei Sakharov&apos;s granddaughter, First of all, of course, I was very honoured by the fact that Mr. Campbell trusted me to be a guardian of his exceptional portrait. And meeting him and his wife, Mrs. Campbell, was a great moment because they're both fascinating people who followed the foreign politics for decades, really understood the foreign politics, and were very interested on the events. And when Sakharov in 1968 published his work Reflections on the Peaceful Coexistence, that was the moment when Mr. Campbell decided... this is his hero, and he wanted to create his portrait, and then he followed Sakharov longer during his exile. And when Andrei Sakharov was released from the exile, returned to Moscow, that was the moment when he really set to work and created this portrait.

General views of the exhibition (21 shots)