Two Unlikely Comrades Survive the Soviet System

O ne’s grandfather became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and ruler of the country. The other’s father helped develop the hydrogen bomb and became the most internationally celebrated Soviet dissident. In the end, the grandfather, Leonid I. Brezhnev, sent the father, Andrei D. Sakharov, into exile in Gorky.

Yet Andrei Brezhnev and Dmitriv (Dima) Sakharov were close friends while growing up as teen-agers in the village of Jukovka, outside Moscow, where many in the Soviet elite have dachas . Their continuing friendship was the principal subject of an interview conducted by Andrei Benyuch and Leonid Florentiev, two staff writers for Krokodil, the Soviet humor magazine. These are excerpts, translated by Vladimir Simonov, from that interview.

Sakharov: I came (to Jukovka) in 1975. I was 14.

Brezhnev: I visited Dima’s house soon after he arrived.

Krokodil: Is it true that many of these dwellings were given to the locals by (Lavrenti P.) Beria (Josef Stalin’s chief of the secret police)?

Sakharov: Some were built for the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb. Beria was responsible for that project, so the dachas were not his personal presents. They were bestowed by the state.

Krokodil: Did your family discuss the bomb?

Sakharov: I never heard my father speak about it. The first recollection I have of any reference to it came from some laborers who handled boxes in the yard of a store nearby. I was 5 years old and trying to gather small boards to use as firewood. One of the laborers said, “You kids lay fires while your father blows a good one.” I don’t think I understood the reference, but his words remain in my mind.

Krokodil: How did simple laborers know what was going on?

Sakharov: This is Russia. There is no stopping gossip. By the time I was 12, I knew what he had been talking about. I saw a film on TV about the bomb and was appalled.

Krokodil: At the time you and Andrei met, your father was already known as a fighter for human rights, while Andrei’s grandfather had sternly opposed such dissidents. Did your families’ politics interfere with your feelings for each other?

Sakharov: I have heard many whispers behind my back.

Brezhnev: The same with me.

Sakharov: Let me tell you something. When I was 14, I went to a high school that specialized in math and physics. I wanted to become a physicist like my father. On the first of September, I met my new classmates and teachers. Our first class was in chemistry. The teacher read out the names of the students. When she came to mine, she asked, “Sakharov? Not the very Sakharov?” “Yes, what of it?” I replied. “Bad luck,” said she. “Very bad luck.”

Krokodil: For you or her?

Sakharov: Who knows?

Krokodil: In your wildest dreams, Andrei, did you hope to become general secretary of the party?

Brezhnev (smiling): To entertain such dreams you have to be born in North Korea. I followed my father’s example by entering the Institute of International Relations to study economics. Krokodil: Let’s talk about 1980, Dima, when your father was exiled to Gorky. Where was he at the time of his arrest?

Sakharov: In Moscow. He was arrested as he left the Institute of Physics.

Krokodil: And how did you earn a living after that?

Sakharov: I was unemployed. I was kicked out of the university. For irresponsible conduct. I was no angel, so I don’t blame anyone but myself. There were many teachers who sympathized with me because of my father’s imprisonment, but I simply lost interest in physics at that time.

Krokodil: But surely your father’s arrest was followed by some dramatic events?

Sakharov: Well, two days later, around midnight, somebody rang me up and said he was an Associated Press correspondent. He asked if I had any news about my father. I had nothing to tell him, but after that call, the telephone at our dacha was switched off.

Krokodil: Who is responsible for your father’s exile?

Sakharov: Lubianka, of course. The KGB.

Brezhnev: No, it was my grandfather’s doing. He must have been in the know.

Krokodil: Why was your father exiled, Dima?

Sakharov: Primarily because of his protest against the war in Afghanistan.

Krokodil: Dima, did you talk with your father about the war?

Sakharov: Never.

Krokodil: Did you visit your father in Gorky?

Sakharov: Twice a month I took him food. Many people in Gorky sympathized with my father and he knew it, but his relations with those who kept him prisoner were difficult. He could learn the news only with the help of the Voices (Western broadcasts to the Soviet Union). But his flat was bugged.

Krokodil: What about your friends after 1980?

Sakharov: Many of them left. The girl I loved suddenly broke off our relations. Her parents simply would not allow her to meet with me. I was miserable. At times, I had nothing to eat. I became a grinder. With my grindstone, I wandered through the streets whetting knives and scissors for housewives. My friends also helped. When my father was exiled, the first one who came to see me was Andrei.

Krokodil: Andrei, were there talks about Sakharov’s exile in your family?

Brezhnev: Yes. I once heard a conversation about it at dinner.

Krokodil: Were you told not to visit Dima because he was Sakharov’s son?

Brezhnev: I remember one incident. I was at Dima’s, but someone--I don’t want to say his name--came and took me away. He told me to be more careful in choosing my friends. I was too young to disobey. But at the doorstep, Dima said, “Let’s agree that politics will never interfere with our friendship.” I remember it well.

Krokodil: And what is your opinion of the academician Sakharov?

Brezhnev: Well, he created the bomb. He was a great and clear mind. His political views are not my business.

Krokodil: Dima, what is your opinion of Leonid I. Brezhnev?

Sakharov: I used to enjoy telling satirical stories about him, but I don’t think he was the worst. We have had much worse leaders.

Krokodil: Is it true that you left your job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Brezhnev: Yes.

Krokodil: Why?

Brezhnev: Because a journalist published an article about my “bad conduct.” What’s funny is that we had never met. Krokodil: The journalist claimed he had met you in a restaurant in Yalta.

Brezhnev: That was untrue. When I met him, I asked him why he had lied. He said he needed “a personal touch.”

“But why say bad things about me?” I persisted.

“Well, I didn’t expect it would do any harm,” he explained.

I could never get him to admit that it was a foul thing to do.

Krokodil: How did your employers react?

Brezhnev: I had to write an explanatory note as to why I was in a restaurant drinking cognac. At the time, the government’s campaign against drinking was in full swing. Then it was hinted that it would be better if I asked “to be let go at my own will.” I soon became aware that, after my grandfather’s death, I had become neviezdnoy (a person with no right to go abroad).

Krokodil: Did Dima help you during those hard times?

Brezhnev: He was the first.