Correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, memoranda, press releases, statements, petitions, lists, financial records, printed matter, photographs, video tapes, and sound recordings, relating to civil rights and dissident scientists in the Soviet Union, and especially to Andrei Sakharov, Yuri Orlov and Anatoly Shcharansky (Natan Sharansky). Includes some papers of Morris Pripstein, chairman of the organization.

Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Shcharansky (SOS), formerly known as Scientists for Shcharansky, is a private non-governmental organization created by a group of physicists at the University of California, Berkeley. It came into existence in the summer of 1978 in response to the arrests of Yuri Orlov and Anatoly Shcharansky (later known as Natan Sharansky). There was a great deal of concern in the scientific community over the numerous violations of human rights affecting fellow scientists in many parts of the world. In the face of the seriously deteriorating plight of dissident scientist colleagues, the group felt the need to plot out a totally new course of action on behalf of their beleaguered colleagues, with the focus on the Soviet Union, but not exclusively so.

Number of Collections: 32 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 1 card file boxes, 12 videotape cassettes, 3 phonotape cassettes. 15 linear feet)

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.

Collection open for research.