Sakharov Rejected as Candidate for New Parliament
Soviet human rights activist Andrei D. Sakharov has been rejected by the Academy of Sciences as one of its representatives in a revamped Soviet Parliament, a fellow academy member said Thursday.
Sakharov, 67, physicist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was turned down along with several other leading scientific and cultural figures at a marathon 12-hour meeting of the academy’s Presidium that ended late Wednesday.
“There was enormous support for Sakharov among the rank and file of the academy,” said Roald Sagdayev, director of the Soviet Space Research Institute. “I do not know how the Presidium is going to explain it to them.”
Sagdayev, who also failed to win nomination, said, “If I had to summarize those not elected, I would say it is the group of the most outspoken proponents of perestroika (restructuring). I am proud to be in such company.”
The official Soviet news agency Tass said that Sakharov won 105 votes, failing to reach the required minimum of 139.
The academy and other public bodies such as the ruling Communist Party and trade unions are together allocated one-third of the seats in the Congress of People’s Deputies, a new supreme legislative body to be created in March.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
