AbstractThe dynamics of thermally activated unpinning of dislocations from point defects under the action of an applied stress is studied. It is shown that the Fokker‐Planck infinite‐dimensional equation describing the diffusion of a particle in the configurational space is reduced to a one‐dimensional one in the concentrated‐force approximation. Moreover it is shown that over a wide range of parameters dislocation unpinning from the point defect occurs in two stages: at the first stage the dependence of the unpinning probability on the initial configuration of a dislocation disappears and at the second stage the system, passes from one stationary state to another. Characteristic times of the problem are found, and their dependence on temperature and dislocation length are