The only thing that protected Sakharov was many people knew about him outside the Soviet Union. The Communists were afraid that if something happened to him, it would give the world a bad image of the USSR. But when Sakharov criticized the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, they became very angry and took him to the city of Gorky. There he was watched by the police outside his apartment. He tried to go on a hunger strike, not eating anything. The Soviet Union was afraid he might die, so they force-fed him (forcing him to eat).