I have struggled with my past over the last eighteen years. As a result of my actions, the lives of a great number of people have been affected, especially at my institute where thousands lost their jobs. A lot of people are not going to be happy to hear my story come out, especially those who are politically motivated, both here and in Russia. Even so, it is time now for the full truth to be heard.
Acknowledgements
There are many people and organizations that helped me during the time of my case and trial, and without their help I certainly would have spent years in a Russian prison. In retrospect, I am also indebted to President Boris Yeltsin, who allowed a modicum of democracy to flourish in Russia at the time of my case. Without that, I would have met with the same fate as Igor Sutyagyn, Valentin Danilov, Alexander Nikitin, Mikhail Trepashkin and Grigory Pasko, who all spent or still are spending time in prison for political reasons.
Foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Gale Colby Mirzayanov and her friend Irene Etkin Goldman for their valuable help during this period of time. They collected information on my case and distributed it to many people who informed scientists, legislators and prominent individuals, who kept constant pressure on the Russian government. Also, I am greatly indebted to my lawyer Aleksander Asnis, who worked tirelessly on my case without receiving any payment. I am indebted to the late Dr. Joshua Lederberg and Dr. Matthew Meselson, for their support during my struggle in Russia, and for their kind letters supporting my immigration petition.
The following organizations worked strongly to support me by writing letters to the Russian and American Governments, and by keeping track the developments in my case from the fall of 1992 until March of 1994, when my case was dropped: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which sent an Amicus brief on my behalf to the Russian court in 1994, and which awarded me with their 1995 AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award) , the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the American Press Center in Moscow, the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Cavallo Foundation (which awarded me with their special Award for Moral Courage in Business and Government in June of 1993), Central Asia Associates, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, the Federation of American Scientists (which was the first scientific society to support me in 1992), the Government Accountability Project (which arranged meetings between helpful people and organizations who wanted to help with my case in 1993), Greenpeace (the Moscow office helped me keep in touch with people in the United States), Helsinki Watch (sent people to try to cover my trial and helped in many other ways), Human Rights Watch, the International Science Foundation, The Kennan Institute, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, Lawyers Alliance for World Security, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the National Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences (which awarded me with the 1994 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award), Physicians for Social Responsibility, Russian Center for Human Rights, Russian Center for Glasnost, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, and Tugan Tel.
I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the following legislators who supported me with their letters and research in my case: Senator Bill Bradley, Congressman John Conyers Jr., Senator Dennis DeConcini, the Greens of the French Delegation to Europarliament, Congressman Stenny Hoyer, Senator Frank Lautenberg, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, the late Senator Strom Thurmond and Senator Robert Torricelli.
The following individuals were also extremely helpful in supporting my case and I am most grateful to them: Kenneth Anderson, Academician Georgi Arbatov, Joseph L. Birman, Elena Bonner, Dr. Rainer Braun, Dr. Ronald Breslow, Matt Bryza, Colonel Nikolai Chugunov, Louis Clark, Ken Coates, Ambassador James F. Collins, Rachael Denber, Dr. Ernest L. Eliel, Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, Will Englund, Sebia Hawkins, Dorothy Hirsch, Kathleen Hunt, Dr. Vladimir Iakimets, Deborah E. Klepp, Dr. Joel L. Lebowitz, Dr. Irving Lerch, Dr. Zafra Lerman, Dr. Fang Lizhi, Academician Viktor Maslov, Patrick F. McManamon, S.J., Dr. Dieter Meissner, Valery F. Menshikov, Andrei Mironov, Micah H. Naftalin, Academician Oleg Nefedov, Dr. Rodney Nichols, the late Leonard Nikishin, Valeria Novodvroskaya, Vladimir Petrenko, Ambassador Thomas Pickering III, Dr. Paul H. Plotz, Valery Rudnev, J.R. Ryan, Academician Roald Sagdeev, Alexey Simonov, Morton Sklaar, Academician Boris Sokolov, George Soros, General Vadim Smirnitsky, Dr. Amy Smithson, Dr. Jeremy Stone, Svetlana Stone-Wachtel, Vladimir Uglev, Dr. Frank von Hippel, Dr. J. Michael Waller, Dr. Torsten Wiesel, Craig Williams, David Wise, Jonathan Wise, Academician Alexei Yablokov, Grigory Yavlinsky, Mark Zaharov, Academician Sergey Zalygin, Academician Nikolai Zefirov and the late Andrei Zheleznyakov. I would like to also thank anyone who is not mentioned here who worked on my case or in supporting me. I understand how important the support letters, as well as the role of the press were in keeping my case under the spotlight of public scrutiny.
Finally, I would like to thank my daughter Elena Orlova and her husband Oleg Orlov who supported me strongly during this period in every possible way, and my two sons Iskander Mirzayanov and Sultan Mirzayanov for their endurance, patience and support. All of their lives were deeply affected by my decisions and actions.
CHAPTER 1
Who Am I?
“Are you a spy?”
“Are you working for foreign intelligence?”
These questions struck me like lightning. Never in my life had anybody asked me questions like these. Even my KGB interrogator, Captain Viktor Shkarin, was never so brazen as to insult me in this way. I couldn’t understand it. Where was I? What was I doing there?
Slowly it came back to me. I was sitting in a big second floor suite of the Nassau Inn, which is next to Princeton University. Some people were standing around, looking at the signals put out by some kind of a primitive polygraph. My translator, who assaulted me with these horrible words, was someone I had met once before at a meeting with a very respectable and world-renowned scientist, in the Radisson Hotel in Moscow in 1994.
“Go fuck yourself! Just fuck off!” I kept repeating in Russian. No one tried to calm me down. Slowly I became aware there was a door in the room, and I pulled myself through it.
My translator followed me and asked me why I was insulted. All these questions and procedures are routine, he said, for anyone who is trying to get a government job, including the Secretary of Defense.
“I am not going to be the Secretary of Defense! I am sad that I was trying to help the American people. Probably you don’t know me,” I replied.
“Right now we know who you are,” he calmly replied.
Even in my worst nightmares, I couldn’t have imagined that someone could insult me some day in this nasty way, in this paradise of liberty. I asked myself – why didn’t even one of the famous American scientists or statesmen I had met warn me that in order to serve humanity, I had to go through this humiliating process?
Before that I was in very high spirits, first when I became the first foreigner to receive the 1993 Cavallo Foundation Special Award for Moral Courage. Then in 1994, George Soros personally presented me with the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award of the New York Academy of Sciences. In 1995, I was awarded the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award of the AAAS, a professional association of more than 100,000 members, at its annual meeting in Atlanta. This very special award was presented to me by the renowned scientist Dr. Francisco J. Ayala. Later that year, I testified at a special hearing on terrorism and the Aum Shinrikyo cult, held by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. After my testimony, Senator Sam Nunn told me respectfully that I should call him directly, if I had any problems.