While he was a student back in his native Ukraine, he refused a request from the KGB to testify against a fellow student who was critical of the authorities, despite being warned of “consequences.” Although he’d been admitted to physics grad school at The University of Kharkiv, the most prestigious physics program in the Soviet Union, the permission he required for moving there was never granted. Nor was he able to get any normal jobs. He spent a year struggling as a night watchman at a zoo before finally managing to leave the country. Whenever I get annoyed by a bureaucrat, thinking of Alex’s
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