Boris Altshuler

Altshuler, Boris

Boris Altshuler was born in Moscow in 1939 where he has since lived, except for a period during 1947-1956 when he lived in Sarov where his father Lev Altshuler worked at the Soviet Nuclear Centre “Arzamas-16” as a member of the pioneer team of scientists that designed the first Soviet A-bomb. In 1962 Boris Altshuler graduated from the Physics Faculty of Moscow University, receiving his PhD in physics in 1969. In 1962 Boris Altshuler married poet and author Larisa Miller, a member of the Russian Pen-Centre; they have two sons. Boris Altshuler was a participant in the human rights movement in the Former USSR since the early 1970s, and for 20 years he worked closely with Andrei Sakharov. From 1987 until the present he has also been Chief Researcher in the Theoretical Physics Department of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. In the new Russia, Boris Altshuler has been head of the human rights group, Movement without Frontiers, and since 1996 he has been director of the Right of the Child NGO. Both groups were set up at the Russian Research Centre for Human Rights. In 2009 the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia awarded Boris Altshuler the title “Man of the Year 2009” for his public work (see his speech on the occasion at the award ceremony in The Great Kremlin Hall). Boris Altshuler is co-founder of the Positive Childhood Association. He is a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and of the Public Chamber of Russia.