BERTRAND RUSSELL

Bertrand Russell was a world renowned philosopher, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. During World War I his activities as a pacifist resulted in his being fined and in 1916, dismissed from his lectureship and imprisoned for six months in 1918. While in prison he wrote the Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy and started reading for his work The Analysis of Mind.

In 1954 he made his famous ‘Man's Peril’ broadcast on the BBC, condemning the Bikini H-bomb tests. This led to the Russell-Einstein statement of protest by Nobel scientists, to the Pugwash Conferences of scientists from both East and West.

In 1958 he became president of the newly launched Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from which he resigned in 1960 and formed the more militant Committee of 100 which he went on to lead in campaigns of civil disobedience in protest at Britain's atomic weapons. He led mass sit-ins in 1961 that brought him a two-month prison sentence, which was reduced to seven days on health grounds.
(1872-1970)

see:
Albert Einstein
Pugwash
Joseph Rortblat