Library Agency Reinstates Grants Canceled by Trump Administration; The New York Times, December 5, 2025

Jennifer Schuessler , The New York Times; Library Agency Reinstates Grants Canceled by Trump Administration

[Kip Currier: Restoration of Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grants for libraries, archives, and museums -- cut earlier this year by Trump 2.0 -- is good news for people throughout the country whose lives are enriched by these vital institutions and community anchors.

What does it say about an administration that eliminates support for libraries, archives, and museums that provide free access to thousands of books and summer reading programs, historical records and exhibits, and life-enhancing programs like job seeking and AI literacy, but which will pump millions and millions of dollars into the building of a White House ballroom that no one voted for and only the very wealthiest will ever have access to?]

[Excerpt]

"The federal agency that supports the nation’s libraries has restored thousands of grants canceled by the Trump administration, following a federal judge’s ruling that the executive order mandating the cuts was unlawful.

The executive order, issued in March, said the Institute for Museum and Library Services, along with six other small agencies, must “be reduced to the maximum extent consistent with the applicable law.” Soon after, the agency put most of its staff of 70 on administrative leave, fired its board members and began informing grant recipients that their federal funding had been eliminated.

In April, the attorneys general of 21 states filed a lawsuit arguing that the cuts, which included roughly $160 million in funding for state library agencies, violated federal law.

John J. McConnell Jr., the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, ruled in their favor on Nov. 21, calling the administration’s moves “arbitrary and capricious.” Canceling funding appropriated by Congress, he said, violated the doctrine of separation of powers.

This week, the agency announced the restoration of “all federal grants” in a terse post on its website. The post made no reference to the court ruling."

Netherlands WWII cemetery removes displays honoring Black soldiers; Military Times, November 14, 2025

Claire Barrett, Military Times; Netherlands WWII cemetery removes displays honoring Black soldiers

[Kip Currier: Reading this story, I was struck by how important it is to raise our awareness of people and events whose stories and contributions often are either unknown or not as well-recognized by more people as they should be. 

That anyone would learn about the service and contributions of Black American soldiers in the Netherlands during WWII and be troubled that their stories are included in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten is an outrage. 

How dare the Heritage Foundation -- and even more, the Trump 2.0 administration that has codified these kinds of historical purges -- strive to erase this history and these Black American military members and their service from this Dutch museum.

Thank you to all those who are sounding the alarm about another example of this kind of historical censorship.]

[Excerpt]

 "The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands, has quietly removed panels displaying the contributions of Black American soldiers during WWII, sparking outrage from Dutch and American citizens.

One of the two displays featured an overall history of Black American military personnel fighting a double V campaign — victory at home and abroad — while the other told the story of George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier in the 43rd Signal Construction Battalion who drowned a month after the war’s end while attempting to save a comrade’s life in a German river.

The two panels were added to the visitor center in September 2024 after the American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. government agency that oversees the cemetery, received criticism from families and historians for not including the contributions of Black service members and their experiences fighting in the Netherlands.

At the time of publishing, ABMC did not respond to requests for comment from Military Times. The commission, however, told Dutch news outlets that one panel is“off display, though not out of rotation,” although a second panel was “retired.” 

The panels were reportedly rotated out in early March, one month after President Donald Trump’s executive order terminated diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives across the federal government.

The same month the panels were removed, The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, contacted the ABMC for its supposed failure to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives...

Among such men was 1st Sgt. Jefferson Wiggins of the 960th Quartermaster Service Company, one of more than 900,000 Black men and women who served in the U.S. military during WWII.

Wiggins and the men of the 960th QSC were tasked with the grim job of burying American dead in Margraten.

What was once a fruit orchard would become the final resting place for some 8,300 U.S. soldiers, including 172 Black servicemen. In 2009, Wiggins recounted to historian Mieke Kirkels how the work was done under horrific conditions, often with only rudimentary tools like pickaxes and shovels to dig the graves. 

“There was a permanent arrival of bodies, the whole day long. Sundays included, seven days a week,” Wiggins recalled. “I find it difficult, even now, to read in the paper that soldiers ‘gave their lives.’ … All those boys in Margraten, their lives were taken away.”"

One-third of museums lost government funding since Trump took office, survey says; The Guardian, November 11, 2025

Sara Braun , The Guardian; One-third of museums lost government funding since Trump took office, survey says

"One-third of US museums have lost government grants or contracts since Donald Trump took office, according to a new survey.

The findings, released by the American Alliance of Museums on Tuesday and based on responses from more than 500 museum directors across the US, shed new light on the challenges cultural institutions are facing under the Trump administration.

Among the museums affected by cancelled government contracts or unreimbursed expenditures, the survey found that the median loss was $30,000. The most common cancelled grants were from the Institute of Museum of Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment of the Arts. Two-thirds of the respondent museums reported that the lost funding has not been replaced by foundations, sponsors or donors."

Arrests in Louvre Heist Show Power of DNA Databases in Solving Crimes; The New York Times, November 3, 2025

Catherine Porter , The New York Times; Arrests in Louvre Heist Show Power of DNA Databases in Solving Crimes

"It took less than a week for the police to track down two of the suspects who they say broke into the Louvre and made off with eight of France’s historic crown jewels. A third person, a suspected accomplice, was tracked down on Wednesday.

In all three cases, DNA was an essential part of the search.

The chief prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the DNA of the two men who broke into the museum and snatched $100 million worth of jewelry was found on the window and on one of the two high-powered motor scooters the thieves used to get away."

Egypt’s vast $1bn museum to open in Cairo after two-decade build; The Guardian, October 31, 2025

 Eromo Egbejule and agencies , The Guardian; Egypt’s vast $1bn museum to open in Cairo after two-decade build

[Kip Currier: Money quotes from this article for anyone working in cultural heritage institutions, i.e. libraries, archives, and museums:] 

"Ahmed Ghoneim, the museum’s CEO, told reporters that the halls have advanced technology and feature multimedia presentations, including mixed-reality shows, to merge its timeless heritage with 21st-century creativity for new generations.

“We’re using the language that gen Z uses,” he said. “Gen Z doesn’t use the labels that we read as old people and would rather use technology.”"

National park to remove photo of enslaved man’s scars; The Washington Post, September 16, 2025

Jake Spring

 and 

Hannah Natanson

, The Washington Post ; National park to remove photo of enslaved man’s scars

[Kip Currier: I will be posting commentary about this deeply troubling development by Trump 2.0.]

[Excerpt]

"The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, according to four people familiar with the matter, including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.

The individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media, said the removals were in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people."

Trump, 79, Tells Smithsonian to Stop Saying ‘How Bad Slavery Was’; The Daily Beast, August 19, 2025

Josh Fiallo  , The Daily Beast; Trump, 79, Tells Smithsonian to Stop Saying ‘How Bad Slavery Was’

"POTUS posted a bizarre screed on Tuesday about museums in Washington, claiming the Smithsonian Institution is “OUT OF CONTROL” and is fixated on the shortcomings of yesteryear, like documenting the horrors of slavery.

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” he wrote on Truth Social. “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”...

The president’s complaints did not go unnoticed by lawmakers. California congresswoman and Congressional Black Caucus Whip Sydney Kamlager-Dove retweeted Trump’s message with her own, which stated: “Slavery WAS bad, Donald. It’s absurd that this even needs to be said.”

“We don’t whitewash history,” she continued, “we learn from it.” Before adding: “You keep trying to rewrite the past—@TheBlackCaucus won’t let you get away with it.""

Trump’s Attempt to Make Museums Submit Feels Familiar; The New York Times, August 15, 2025

Michelle Goldberg , The New York Times; Trump’s Attempt to Make Museums Submit Feels Familiar

"Five years ago, many institutions in the United States tried, with varying degrees of seriousness and skill, to come to terms with our country’s legacy of racism. A backlash to this reckoning helped propel Donald Trump back into the White House, where he has taken a whole-of-government approach to wiping out the idea that America has anything to apologize for. As part of this campaign, the administration seeks to force our national museums to conform to its triumphalist version of history.

In March, Trump signed an executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” criticizing versions of history that foster “a sense of national shame.” Museums and monuments, it said, should celebrate America’s “extraordinary heritage” and inculcate national pride. This week, the administration announced that it was reviewing displays at eight national museums — including the Museum of American History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Art Museum — and giving them 120 days to bring their content in line with Trump’s vision.

We’re already seeing glimpses of what that looks like. Last month, the National Museum of American History removed references to Trump’s impeachments from an exhibit on the American presidency. Those references were restored last week, but with changes: The exhibit no longer says that Trump made “false statements” about the 2020 election or that he encouraged the mob on Jan. 6...

For Pawel Machcewicz, founding director of the Museum of the Second World War, it’s been unsettling to see American museums subject to the sort of political intimidation he experienced in Poland...

Standing up to his government was costly. Machcewicz said he was subject to two separate criminal investigations, and for a time he left the country...

But for now, Machcewicz has the peace that comes from doing the right thing. “If I had capitulated, I would have been a completely frustrated man, because I would feel like someone who has betrayed himself,” he said. It’s a message that those who are tempted to try to appease this administration, at our museums or anywhere else, might remember."

Stacks of Cash; The New Yorker, August 1, 2025

Jon Allsop; The New Yorker; Stacks of Cash

"The idea of the Presidential library dates to the late nineteen-thirties, when Roosevelt decided to donate his papers to the federal government and move them to a fireproof building near his family home. According to Anthony Clark, a former congressional staffer who has written a book about Presidential libraries, Roosevelt made room to display memorabilia to the public “almost as an afterthought.” Most Presidential libraries would come to house both the paper trail of a Presidency, for researchers to consult, and also a commemorative museum, which is the bit that most tourists actually visit. Over time, these museums grew more ambitious, and sometimes proved to be of questionable historical value. Richard Nixon’s museum initially presented Watergate as a coup, and accused Woodward and Bernstein of bribery.

Roosevelt was under no legal obligation to make his papers publicly available—but since 1978, thanks to Nixon and Watergate, Presidential records have been considered federal property, and are supposed to be handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration. There has never been a governmental requirement to open an associated museum, but typically these have also been managed by nara. (Nixon’s was unusual in that it was run privately for many years; in 2007, nara took it over and ripped out and replaced the Watergate exhibit.) Before the government gets involved on the museum side, however, the structures must be planned and built using outside funds, making them, in practice, fuzzy mixes of the public and the private. When Presidential libraries are donated to the government, they must also hand over endowments to help defray future maintenance costs.

Barack Obama broke the mold: his Presidential museum, in Chicago, which somehow is still not open, is an entirely private endeavor, run by a foundation; his official records are being digitized and will continue to be supervised by nara. After this effective divorce of library and museum functions was announced, Clark expressed hope about the arrangement. “What were intended to be serious research centers have grown into flashy, partisan temples touting huckster history,” he wrote, in Politico. “Even though they are taxpayer-funded and controlled by a federal agency, the private foundations established by former presidents to build the libraries retain outsize influence.” The Obama model would at least keep the government out of the business of hagiography. Not everyone was supportive, however. Timothy Naftali, who was responsible for overhauling the Nixon facility as its first federal director and who is now a historian at Columbia, has argued that the private nature of Obama’s center is an impediment to nonpartisan public history. “It opens the door,” he said, “to a truly terrible Trump library.”"

Parks, libraries, museums: here’s why Trump is attacking America’s best-loved institutions; The Guardian, June 2, 2025

Margaret Sullivan , The Guardian; Parks, libraries, museums: here’s why Trump is attacking America’s best-loved institutions

"Why would any politician – especially one as hungry for adulation as Donald Trump – go after such cherished parts of America?

It seems counterintuitive, but this is all a part of a broad plan that the great 20th century political thinker Hannah Arendt would have understood all too well.

Take away natural beauty, free access to books and support for the arts, and you end up with a less enlightened, more ignorant and less engaged public. That’s a public much more easily manipulated.

“A people that can no longer believe in anything cannot make up its mind,” said Arendt, a student of authoritarianism, in 1973. Eventually, such a public “is deprived … of its ability to think and judge”, and with people like that, “you can then do what you please”.

That’s what Trump and company are counting on."

The future of history: Trump could leave less documentation behind than any previous US president; Associated Press, May 18, 2025

Will Weissert , Associated Press; The future of history: Trump could leave less documentation behind than any previous US president

[Kip Currier: Every information center (e.g. libraries, archives, museums) and cultural heritage and higher education institution should think hard about the questions raised in this article. Like this glaring one the reporter raises:

"How will experts and their fellow Americans understand what went on during Trump’s term when those charged with setting aside the artifacts documenting history refuse to do so?"]

[Excerpt]

"For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected, from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. 

Now, the Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable. 

It has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view the government-slashing efforts of Elon Musk’s team and other key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps such as Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for recordkeeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership and even ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

To historians and archivists, it points to the possibility that Trump’s presidency will leave less for the nation’s historical record than nearly any before it and that what is authorized for public release will be sanitized and edited to reinforce a carefully sculpted image the president wants projected, even if the facts don’t back that up.

How will experts and their fellow Americans understand what went on during Trump’s term when those charged with setting aside the artifacts documenting history refuse to do so?"

If leaders stay silent, the US won’t survive Trump’s next 100 days; The Guardian, April 30, 2025

Robert Reich , The Guardian; If leaders stay silent, the US won’t survive Trump’s next 100 days

"Meanwhile, the regime continues to attack all the independent institutions in this country that have traditionally served as buffers against tyranny – universities, non-profits, lawyers and law firms, the media, science and researchers, libraries and museums, the civil service and independent agencies – threatening them with extermination or loss of funding if they do not submit to its oversight and demands...

We have witnessed what can happen in just the first 100 days. I’m not at all sure we can wait until the 2026 midterm elections and hope that Democrats take back at least one chamber of Congress. At the rate this regime is wreaking havoc, too much damage will have been done by then.

The nation is tottering on the edge of dictatorship.

We are no longer Democrats or Republicans. We are either patriots fighting the regime or we are complicit in its tyranny. There is no middle ground.

Soon, I fear, the regime will openly defy the supreme court. Americans must be mobilized into such a huge wave of anger and disgust that members of the House are compelled to impeach Trump (for the third time) and enough senators are moved to finally convict him.

Then this shameful chapter of American history will end."

Trump Administration Moves to Shutter Library Agency; The New York Times, March 31, 2025

 Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times; Trump Administration Moves to Shutter Library Agency

"The future of grant programs was not immediately clear. But the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing staff members, said in a statement that in the absence of staff all work processing applications for 2025 grants “has ended.”

“Without staff to administer the programs, it is likely that most grants will be terminated,” it said.

The agency, created in 1996 and reauthorized most recently in 2018 in legislation signed by Mr. Trump, has an annual budget of nearly $290 million, larger than either the National Endowment for the Arts or the National Endowment for the Humanities. It provides funding to libraries and museums in every state and territory, with the bulk going to support essential but unglamorous functions like database systems and collections management.

Its largest program, known as Grants to States, delivers roughly $160 million annually to state library agencies, which covers one-third to one-half of their budgets, according the Chief Officers of State Library Associations, an independent group representing library officials.

Mr. Trump’s executive order prompted widespread mobilization by library and museum advocates, who issued multiple statements defending the agency and questioning the legality of moves against it. A bipartisan group of senators, including the Democrats Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, sent a letter calling on Mr. Sonderling to continue the agency’s mission."

Trump’s Mass Purge Finally Hits Museums and Libraries; The New Republic, March 31, 2025

Malcolm Ferguson, The New Republic; Trump’s Mass Purge Finally Hits Museums and Libraries

"Elon Musk and DOGE just soft-fired everyone at the federal agency that supports local libraries and museums nationwide. 

All 70 Institute of Museum and Library Services employees were sent an email on Monday placing them on an immediate paid administrative leave, according to the American Federation of Government Employees union. 

This comes just two weeks after President Trump signed an executive order calling for IMLS to be shut down, and days after DOGE operatives infiltrated the IMLS facility while purging its leadership. 

“Earlier today, the Institute of Museum and Library Services notified the entire staff that they are being placed on administrative leave immediately. The notification followed a brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership,” a statement from AFGE  read. “Employees were required to turn in all government property prior to exiting the building, and email accounts are being disabled today. Museums and libraries will no longer be able to contact IMLS staff for updates about the funding they rely upon.”

The IMLS has a $313 million annual budget and distributes taxpayer money to museums and libraries across the country. Its stated goal is to “advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.”"

Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’; Associated Press via The Guardian, March 27, 2025

Associated Press via The Guardian; Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’

[Kip Currier: This Trump executive order is deeply disconcerting but not at all surprising: weeks ago, it was clear Trump 2.0 will target and attempt to reshape -- in its ideological image -- any institution that provides access to information, data, and the historical record, i.e. libraries, archives, and museums.]

[Excerpt]

"Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order on Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology”.

The president said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”.

He signed an executive order putting JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.

Trump’s order specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Women’s history museum, which is in development.

“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn – not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” the order said."

Jim Clyburn Is Right About What Democrats Should Do Next; The New York Times, July 7, 2024

Ezra Klein, The New York Times; Jim Clyburn Is Right About What Democrats Should Do Next

Kip Currier: The most important sentence in this Ezra Klein OpEd is this one: 

"What Democrats denied themselves over the past few years was information."

Democracies, and political parties, depend on informed citizenries. Informed citizenries are cultivated and advanced when people have access to accurate, trustworthy information. Without informed citizenries, democracies and political parties are like endangered species that can weaken and disappear.

Access to information is the core principle that information centers -- libraries, archives, museums -- make possible. As New York Public Library Director Anthony Marx has previously underscored, "libraries are in the information access business." 

Information centers serve essential roles for healthy, functioning democracies, political parties, and societies.

5 Presidential Libraries That Offer Culture, History and ‘Labs of Democracy’; The New York Times, February 13, 2024

 Lauren Sloss, The New York Times ; 5 Presidential Libraries That Offer Culture, History and ‘Labs of Democracy’

"As repositories of valuable historical documents and other records, U.S. presidential libraries have long been important destinations for scholars. But you don’t have to be an academic or even a history buff to appreciate these destinations, as many increasingly offer museums, special exhibitions and unique programming — ranging from interactive situation room experiences to musical performances — to the general public.

The first library was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt and opened to the public in 1941. Every administration since has created one of its own. (President Hoover, liking what he saw of F.D.R.’s project, established his own retroactively, in 1962.) Fifteen libraries are managed by the Office of Presidential Libraries, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration — the Presidential Libraries Act, passed in 1955, established the system of privately built and federally maintained institutions — and 13 are currently open to visitors. There are additional museums, historic monuments and sites dedicated to other presidents, like the James Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio, and some have archival components, like the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

“President Reagan called the libraries labs of democracy because they explain how decisions are made and how policies are executed,” said Colleen Shogan, the archivist of the United States. “They give us the opportunity to learn about American democracy, and how the government functions.”

With Presidents’ Day fast approaching, consider planning a visit to a presidential library. Here are five to start."

What Is a Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library Doing in North Dakota?; The New York Times, October 27, 2023

 Jennifer Schuessler,  The New York Times, October 27, 2023; What Is a Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library Doing in North Dakota?

"The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, set to open on July 4, 2026, will pay tribute to the 26th president’s “relentless, resilient spirit” and environmental vision. Perched dramatically on a butte, it aims to be “a people’s presidential library,” rooted not in books and archives — there are none — but immersive exhibits that challenge visitors to get, as Roosevelt famously put it, “in the arena.”...

More than a century after his death, Roosevelt remains one of the most popular presidents, celebrated as a man of action, a muscular nationalist, an environmental visionary, a trustbuster or all of the above. He’s a favorite of Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, Tom Brady and LeBron James. Historians consistently rank him among the top five.

But Roosevelt also saw life as a struggle between the weak and the strong, with whites at the top of the evolutionary heap. Which raises another, thornier question: How do you build an honest 21st-century museum about a figure whose 19th-century attitudes about race, empire and, especially, Native Americans still trail him like a cloud of dust?...

Scott Davis, a former executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, said he immediately texted Governor Burgum when he saw the news. “I was really upset,” he recalled in an interview last month in Medora. After a long conversation, Davis said, the governor raised the possibility of adding a “platform” for Native voices at the library...

A two-page spread in the library’s “Story Guide” lists “sensitive issues,” including Roosevelt’s support for eugenics, his militarism and his often “coarse and fearful” views of Native Americans.

“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians,” he said in 1886, “but I believe nine out of every 10 are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”"...

Roosevelt’s conservation policies, the guide acknowledges, “came at a great cost to Native Americans,” who lost access to homes, hunting grounds and spiritual sites.

Still, the historian Douglas Brinkley, a board member and the author of “The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America,” called Roosevelt “a sustainable hero” — imperfect, but possessing virtues and accomplishments that can be built on.

“We’d be a much lesser nation without the efforts of his presidency,” Brinkley said.

Kermit Roosevelt, a great-great-grandson of the president and a board member who teaches constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania, said it was important to address his ancestor’s ugly attitudes toward Native Americans, as well his broader “atmospheric Social Darwinism.”"

Russia shuts down human rights group that preserved the legacy of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov; AP, August 18, 2023

 JIM HEINTZ, AP; Russia shuts down human rights group that preserved the legacy of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov

"Separate Russian courts on Friday ordered the liquidation of a human rights organization that preserved the legacy of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov and the arrest of a prominent election monitor, in the latest moves in a widespread crackdown on dissent. 

Sakharov, who died in 1989, was a key figure in developing the Soviet Union’s hydrogen bomb program but later become renowned for his activism in promoting human rights and freedom of conscience. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1975 but was not allowed to travel to Norway to receive it. In 1980 he was sent into internal exile, which lasted six years.

The organization founded in his honor operated the Sakharov Center museum and archives in Moscow. Authorities declared it a “foreign agent” in 2014 and this year ordered the eviction of the center from its premises."