and special courses on enzymology and the problem of the origin of life. In 1970, he was elected President of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life.

Oparin was one of the academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences who signed a letter from scientists to the newspaper Pravda in 1973 condemning "the behavior of Academician A.D. Sakharov." The letter accused Sakharov of having "made a number of statements discrediting the political system,