Incredible facts
Photographs give us a better understanding of life and often capture moments that may be forgotten.
3. Expedition Terra Nova to South Pole
Robert Falcon Scott (middle) led the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition starting in 1910, hoping to become the first to conquer the geographic South Pole.
They managed to reach the pole on January 17, 1912, but the Norwegian team got there 34 days before them. Their journey back home was difficult and stubborn, and the team's condition began to deteriorate inexorably: many suffered from frostbite and other injuries.
Some of their bodies, diaries and photographs were found by a search party 8 months later.
The last entry in Scott's diary was dated March 29, 1912, the supposed date of his death.
4. Vulture and girl
In 1993, in Sudan near the city of Ayod, the parents of this girl left her for a while, running to get food from the plane. The exhausted child also tried to get to food, but was tired. Grif landed next to her and watched her while she rested.
Kevin Carter, the South African photojournalist who took the photo, committed suicide a year later. He was severely criticized for taking the photo. Carter tried to shoo the bird away, but often regretted not doing more to help the child.
Rare historical photographs
5. Remains of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov
For the 50th anniversary October revolution The government decided to celebrate this with a space flight. Vladimir Komarov was chosen as the commander of the Soyuz 1 spacecraft, and Yuri Gagarin was chosen as his backup. Both cosmonauts knew that the capsule was unsafe for flight, but no one dared to postpone or cancel the mission by telling Brezhnev about it.
Komarov decided not to cancel the mission, because he did not want Gagarin to be sent instead of him, and he would die instead.
Gagarin appeared during the launch and demanded that he also be put in a spacesuit, but he was refused.
The photo shows Komarov's funeral with an open casket, where his charred remains were on display. They say that Komarov himself demanded this before the flight in order to show the authorities who were responsible for his death.
6. Mother and son dying selfie
Gary Slok, a 15-year-old teenager, was on holiday with his mother Petra Langeveld in Kuala Lumpur. As they took their seats on the ill-fated MH17 plane, they decided to take a selfie together.
Three hours after the photo was taken, their plane was shot down and crashed on the Ukrainian-Russian border.
7. Monk sacrificing himself
In 1963, the Buddhist majority in South Vietnam reached a breaking point in growing tensions under the repressive regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. In May of that year, Buddhists gathered in the city of Hue to defend their rights.
The government aggressively dispersed the crowd and nine Buddhists died. To protest the regime, two elderly monks committed ritual suicide at a busy intersection in Saigon, Vietnam on June 11, 1963.
8. Eternal love
Skeletons in this photo about 2800 years. Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania determined that both died around 800 BC. They were discovered at an archaeological site known as Hasanlu in Iran in 1972.
Both skeletons are male and they may be related. The city where they were was burned during a military operation. Perhaps they were hiding from the soldiers, but quickly suffocated due to the fire. IN last moment they clung to each other before dying.
9. Shock from concussion
This photograph was taken during the Battle of Courcelette in France in September 1916.
A man sits huddled in a trench, demonstrating shock from the shell shock, which was characterized as the empty, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary soldier. The gaze is a dissociation from trauma and is found in post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also worth noting that at that time people did not smile in photographs.
10. A girl from a concentration camp draws a house
A girl who grew up in a concentration camp was asked to draw a picture of "home" while she was in an institution for mentally disturbed children. It's hard to say what the lines mean to her, perhaps chaos or barbed wire.
There is little information regarding the girl; it is known that her name is Terezka. Her eyes are no longer the eyes of a naive child, but of someone who has experienced all the horrors at such a young age.
Name Earth's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin known all over the world. The share of his comrade in the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov had a tragic first - he became the first person in history to die during a space flight.
Today, spacecraft of the Soyuz family are considered the most reliable in the world. But bringing them to perfection was achieved with sweat and blood - not figuratively, but in the most literal sense.
Komarov, setting off on the Soyuz-1 flight, was almost sure that it would end in failure. In the first group of cosmonauts, Komarov was the most technically trained specialist and understood that the ship was “raw.” But it was also clear to him that his comrades had even less chance of coping with this technique.
Vladimir Komarov was older than his colleagues from the first cosmonaut squad - he was born in Moscow on March 16, 1927. When the war began, he was 14, and, like all his peers, he was eager to go to the front to fight the Nazis. In 1943, Vladimir entered the 1st Moscow Special Air Force School. Komarov graduated from it in July 1945, when the war had already ended. School graduates were sent to study further. In 1949, Vladimir Komarov graduated from the Bataysk Military Aviation School named after Anatoly Serov and was sent to serve in Grozny, where the air regiment of the fighter aviation division of the Air Force of the North Caucasus Military District was based.
"Working with new technology"
In 1952, Komarov, who had already started a family, was transferred to the city of Mukachevo, Transcarpathian region, to the 486th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 279th Fighter Air Division of the 57th Air Army.
In the mid-1950s, the pilot decided to continue his education by entering the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. After graduating from the academy, Komarov was assigned to the State Red Banner Air Force Research Institute, where he became a test pilot.
Soon a commission came to the Air Force Research Institute and requested the personal files of the pilots for review. Komarov was called in for a conversation and offered to “work with new technology.” Komarov agreed and was soon called to undergo a new stage of selection.
At the Central Military Research Aviation Hospital, doctors were ruthless, weeding out candidates with the slightest deviation in health. Some were not only not allowed to work with the “new technology”, but were also prohibited further work in aviation.
Komarov was found fit and on March 7, 1960, he was enlisted in military unit 26266, which would later become known as the Cosmonaut Training Center.
Among the 20 people who made up the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts, Komarov was the oldest - he was 33 years old. He had extensive experience as a fighter pilot, an academy, and work as a test pilot. It was easiest for engineers to work with Komarov, since his knowledge allowed them to quickly delve into the technical side of the matter.
"East" becomes "Sunrise"
However, Komarov was not among the six who were preparing for the first flight. Moreover, there was a question of expelling him from the detachment - doctors found abnormalities in the functioning of his heart. He was suspended from training for six months. But stubborn Komarov went to Leningrad, to the Military Medical Academy, where he underwent a new examination from the best specialists, and received a conclusion - the “peaks” on the cardiogram, which worried the doctors at the Cosmonaut Training Center, do not appear in patients, but in well-trained people. He was allowed to train again.
Komarov's experience and knowledge were required in 1964, when it was decided to launch a ship with a crew of three for the first time.
Before chief designer Sergei Korolev I personally set this task Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
This was extremely difficult to do. A fundamentally new ship was at the design stage, so it was necessary to modernize the single-seat Vostok.
For Korolev, nothing was impossible - “Vostok” became “Voskhod”. To save space in the cabin, which was catastrophically small, we had to abandon spacesuits. The crew of the first three-seater spacecraft had to go into orbit wearing light training suits.
“Is it really all over and the crew returned from space without a scratch?”
Vladimir Komarov became the commander of Voskhod-1, the crew included engineer Konstantin Feoktistov And doctor Boris Egorov.
The ship successfully launched on October 12, 1964 and, after a day-long flight, made a safe landing.
The crew of the Voskhod-1 spacecraft (from left to right): Konstantin Feoktistov, Vladimir Komarov and Boris Egorov. Photo: RIA Novosti / Vasily Malyshev
Witnesses recalled that Korolev, having received a report on the landing, said: “Is it really all over and the crew returned from space without scratches? I would never have believed anyone that it was possible to make a Voskhod from Vostok and three cosmonauts to fly into space on it.”
While Voskhod-1 was in orbit, a “palace coup” took place in Moscow, and the cosmonauts who flew under Nikita Khrushchev reported success Leonid Brezhnev.
Korolev valued Komarov. After the Voskhod-1 flight, he several times suggested that he go to work at the design bureau, but Komarov, who became an astronaut instructor and worked with newcomers, chose to remain in the cosmonaut corps.
At this time, the “moon race” was gaining momentum. The ship, now known as Soyuz, was originally developed for the Soviet manned lunar program. Work on the project was difficult, and in January 1966, Sergei Korolev died on the operating table. Soviet cosmonautics lost its “brain” and “engine”.
Vladimir Komarov with his wife and daughter. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
An almost impossible task
The Soviet leadership pushed new leaders of the space program. Despite the fact that the first three unmanned launches of the Soyuz were partially or completely unsuccessful, a decision was made on a manned launch.
Moreover, a qualitative leap forward was planned immediately. Two ships were supposed to take off, which had to dock in orbit, after which two cosmonauts from one ship had to go on board the other in spacesuits.
Designer Vasily Mishin, who replaced Korolev, did not dare to challenge the opinion of the political leadership. The launch of Soyuz-1 was scheduled for April 23, 1967, and Soyuz-2 for April 24.
Since the summer of 1966, Komarov had been preparing to fly on Soyuz 1. He saw everything and understood everything. But as a test pilot, as the most experienced in the squad, he could not retreat.
Shortly before the flight, he visited his friend who was in the hospital. In the conversation, Komarov calmly said: “Ninety percent of the time the flight will be unsuccessful.”
Relatives recalled: Vladimir Mikhailovich put all his affairs in order, forced his wife to learn to drive a car, and on March 8 gave her a luxurious set of services, remarking: “You will receive guests later.”
On March 16, 1967, Komarov turned 40 years old. Legend has it that this anniversary cannot be celebrated, but the astronaut received family and friends in his apartment for three days.
The pre-launch film footage shows that Komarov is extremely focused and almost gloomy. Despite the severity of the upcoming flight, he was not going to give up.
Drama in orbit
Soyuz 1 successfully launched from Baikonur on the night of April 23, 1967. But big problems began almost immediately in orbit.
One of the two solar panels did not open, and the ship began to experience a power shortage. All attempts to reveal it have not led to success. There was a plan to launch Soyuz-2 with a crew consisting of Valery Bykovsky,Alexey Eliseev And Evgenia Khrunova, after which the astronauts in spacesuits had to manually try to open the solar panel.
After the meeting, the State Commission decided that the risk was too great. Komarov received orders to end the flight and return to Earth. But then new problems arose - the ion orientation sensors failed. There was only one chance left: to orient the ship manually, matching the spatial position of the Soyuz with the Earth. At the same time, it was necessary to prevent serious deviations of the ship when flying over the night side of the planet.
The astronauts were not prepared for such a situation, and experts on Earth believed that Komarov had minimal chances of success.
But the cosmonaut managed to do the impossible and Soyuz-1 began its descent from orbit.
When the surveillance services confirmed that the ship was landing and even reported the estimated landing time, the Mission Control Center began to applaud. It seemed like everything worked out this time too.
“After an hour of excavation, we discovered Komarov’s body among the rubble”
Vladimir Komarov did everything possible, but he was not able to change what happened next. During the final landing phase, the parachute system failed: the parachute at an altitude of 7 km (at a speed of about 220 m/s) could not pull the main parachute out of the tray; at the same time, the reserve parachute, which successfully exited at an altitude of 1.5 km, did not fill, since its lines were wrapped around the unused pilot chute of the main system.
The Soyuz-1 descent vehicle crashed into the ground at a speed of about 50 m/s. The astronaut had no chance of surviving this impact. Damaged containers with hydrogen peroxide provoked a severe fire that destroyed the descent module.
From the diary Head of training for the first cosmonaut corps, General Nikolai Kamanin: “After an hour of excavation, we discovered Komarov’s body among the wreckage of the ship. At first it was difficult to make out where the head was, where the arms and legs were. Apparently, Komarov died when the ship hit the ground, and the fire turned his body into a small charred lump measuring 30 by 80 centimeters.”
A flaw in the design of the parachute system could have destroyed Soyuz 2, taking the lives of four Soviet cosmonauts. Canceling the launch saved the lives of Bykovsky, Eliseev and Khrunov.
Later, “details” appeared that Komarov allegedly shouted curses on the air before his death Soviet leadership and cried. It's a lie. The cosmonaut's last report from orbit was normal and calm. Whether Vladimir Komarov managed to understand that he was dying, we will never know - the tape recorder that recorded what was happening on board burned down in a fire.
Widow Valentina Komarova, cosmonauts Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov and Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev (from left to right) while laying wreaths at the grave of USSR pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Mokletsov
High price
Komarov became the first two-time Hero among cosmonauts Soviet Union and the first to whom the title of Hero was awarded posthumously.
There is a terrible photograph taken in the morgue before the cremation of the astronaut's remains. It was made in order to provide senior management with confirmation of the impossibility of saying goodbye to the body of the deceased and the need for immediate cremation.
“They opened the coffin, on the white satin lay what had recently been cosmonaut Komarov, but now became a shapeless black lump. Gagarin, Leonov, Bykovsky, Popovich and other cosmonauts approached the coffin; they sadly examined the remains of their friend. I didn't go to the crematorium. General Kuznetsov and the cosmonauts were present at the cremation,” General Kamanin wrote in his diary.
On April 26, 1967, the urn with the ashes of Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov was walled up in the Kremlin wall after a solemn farewell ceremony.
Relatives and friends at the grave of Hero of the Soviet Union, Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR Vladimir Komarov during the funeral. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Mokletsov
The cosmonaut’s daughter Irina recalled in an interview with MK: “In the issued death certificate, in the “cause” column it was indicated: extensive burns to the body; place of death: the city of Shchelkovo.
My mother’s voice broke with indignation: “What Shchelkovo? What are the body burns if there is nothing left of the body?” She showed this evidence to Gagarin: “Yurochka, who will believe me that I am the widow of cosmonaut Komarov?” Gagarin turned pale and went “upstairs” to figure it out... Soon they brought another document to my mother, which already stated: “tragically died during the completion of a test flight on spaceship"Soyuz-1".
After the Soyuz-1 disaster, manned flights in the USSR were interrupted for a year and a half, the design of the ship was being finalized, and six more unmanned launches took place. The program that Komarov was supposed to carry out was carried out only by the crews of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 in January 1969. The Soyuz spacecraft eventually became a reliable and proven machine. The reliability of which was paid for with the life of Vladimir Komarov.
Vladimir Komarov began preparing for the launch in 1965; the flight was to take place on a new multi-seat Soviet spacecraft of the Soyuz series. The 38-year-old cosmonaut already had experience of flying into low-Earth orbit: in October 1964, on board the Voskhod spacecraft, he, together with Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Egorov, made a two-day voyage into space. During this time, the ship circled the globe 16 times.
ON THIS TOPIC
For the successful completion of the flight, Vladimir Komarov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Soon he was qualified as a third-class cosmonaut, and in January 1965 he was appointed as an instructor in a group of cosmonauts trained under the programs of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
Komarov's second flight, which began on April 23, 1967, turned out to be fatal: he died the next day during an emergency descent to Earth. During the final maneuver, the main parachute of the descent vehicle did not open, and the reserve lines were twisted due to strong rotation. At a speed of about 100 kilometers per hour, the descent module crashed into the ground in Orenburg region and caught fire.
Komarov’s colleague, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, in an interview with TASS, said that initially the flight plan provided for the following: Komarov will launch on Soyuz-1, after successful entry into orbit, Soyuz-2 will follow him with three crew members - Valery Bykovsky, Evgeniy Khrunov and Alexey Eliseev. The last two, after docking the Soyuz spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, had to go into open space and move from aboard the second Soyuz to Komarov’s ship, with which they return to Earth. Yuri Gagarin, who was eager to go into space, was appointed Komarov's backup.
540 seconds after launch, the spacecraft entered orbit. On the second orbit, communication was established with Komarov, and he was able to report to Earth that one of the solar panels had not opened. The control center decided to abort the flight.
A tragic set of circumstances led to the death of Vladimir Komarov. This is how Alexey Leonov describes what he saw in the Orenburg steppe: “Due to the presence of its own oxygen, the metal burned like wood. When the commission arrived at the site, they saw a depressing picture: the ship settled and looked like a sandy hill about one meter high. And the metal was molten was like a puddle of water."
Subsequently, some media outlets wrote about Komarov’s allegedly terrible screams, which were heard on the radio on Earth, and that before his death he swore strongly at the designers who created the ship. Leonov called the journalists' speculations stupid.
For heroism, courage and courage shown during the flight, Vladimir Komarov was posthumously awarded the second medal " Golden Star"The International Committee for Aeronautics and Space Flight recognized his feat with the Order of the Wind Rose with diamonds.
The ashes of Vladimir Komarov are buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. A memorial was erected at the site of the cosmonaut’s death in the steppe near Orsk in the Orenburg region.
Cosmonaut: Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (03/16/1927 - 04/24/1967)
- 7th cosmonaut of the USSR (11th in the world), call sign "Rubin-1"
- Flight duration (1964): 1 day 17 minutes
- Flight duration (1967): 1 day 2 hours 48 minutes
On March 16, 1927, the outstanding cosmonaut of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, was born in the capital of the RSFSR. He completed seven years of secondary education in 1943, after which, wanting to become a pilot, he entered the first Moscow Special Air Force School, which he completed in the summer of 1945, after the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. Next, Vladimir joined the ranks of the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation School for pilots. A year later, Vladimir Komarov was transferred to the Bataysk Military Aviation School. A. Serova. After graduating from college in 1949, the future cosmonaut went to serve as a military fighter pilot. The division was based in the capital Chechen Republic- the city of Grozny. Here the future cosmonaut met his future wife Valentin.
In November 1951, Komarov became a senior pilot, and a year later he was transferred to the Transcarpathian region, the city of Mukachevo, where Vladimir Mikhailovich served for two years. In 1959, the future cosmonaut graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy (VVIA named after Zhukovsky), receiving a specialty in the field of aviation weapons.
After receiving his education, he was assigned to the Red Banner Air Force Research Institute in the village of Chkalosky, where he worked as an assistant to the chief engineer, as well as a tester in one of the departments. While testing various new aircraft, Vladimir Komarov attracted the attention of the selection commission for the cosmonaut corps. The commission proposed a secret mission to the future cosmonaut, and Komarov agreed. Thus, Vladimir was included in the very first set of cosmonauts.
Space training
From March 1960 to April 1961, Vladimir Komarov underwent general space training, and, having passed the final exams, in April 1961, he received the position of cosmonaut at the Air Force Cosmonaut Center.
From June to August 1962, engineer-captain Komarov was trained as a backup pilot for the Vostok-4 spacecraft. Later, after the launch of Vostok-4, he became a backup for the Vostok-5 pilot. Since June 1964, he was preparing for the role of crew commander of the Voskhod ship.
First flight
On October 12, 1964, the 7th manned spacecraft of the USSR, Voskhod-1, was launched. The crew included the commander - Vladimir Komarov, a researcher and a doctor. For the first time, a crew without spacesuits participated in a space flight. The reason for this was Nikita Khrushchev’s requirement to launch three cosmonauts into space at the same time, given the availability of only two-seat spacecraft designs.
The space mission successfully ended within 24 hours - on October 13th. It is noteworthy that at the time of the flight and on the day of landing of Voskhod-1, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev was removed, and Leonid Brezhnev ascended to his post, to whom the results of the flight were reported.
In view of the significant successes of the United States in the field of astronautics over the past two years, the leadership of the Soviet Union adjusted the work of the design bureaus.
Therefore, further training of the engineer-colonel and Hero of the USSR, Vladimir Komarov, took place within the framework of the Docking program, on the ship of the new and not yet sufficiently tested Soyuz-1 model. On March 30, 1967, Vladimir Mikhailovich successfully passed the theoretical training exams, as well as the practical test on ship control.
Second flight
On April 23, 1967, the ship's commander, Vladimir Komarov, launched from the first site of Baikonur aboard Soyuz-1. This flight was the first test of the spacecraft of the new Soyuz series.
In addition, almost a day later, Komarov was to be followed by the crew of the Soyuz-2 spacecraft, which included cosmonauts Evgeny Khrunov and. The main task of this space program was the docking of two ships in Earth orbit.
However, probably due to the launch of new types of ships, some problems were missed. Upon entering orbit, cosmonaut Komarov encountered the following problem: the panel with one of the two solar panels did not open, which led to a lack of energy. Vladimir Mikhailovich performed a complex maneuver - spinning the spacecraft around its axis, but the situation did not change. For this reason, the space flight was terminated early, and the ship left orbit and went to Earth.
At the final stage, after entering the atmosphere, at an altitude of about 7 km, the pilot chute was unable to pull out the main parachute attached to it. In addition, the reserve parachute, which came out at an altitude of 1.5 km, did not open completely, since its lines were wound around the pilot chute, which, in turn, was not fired. For the above reasons, the descent module with Colonel Komarov inside hit the surface of the Earth at a speed of 50 meters per second. In addition, there were containers with carbon peroxide on board the lander, which, after significant damage, immediately caught fire and led to the almost complete combustion of the lander.
The cause of the parachute system malfunction has not been fully clarified. The flight, which lasted just over a day, ended tragically - cosmonaut Komarov crashed near the city of Orsk, in the Orenburg region, where the Memorial was installed.
Due to problems with the Soyuz-1 spacecraft, the Soyuz-2 spacecraft was not launched, which may have saved the lives of the crew.
Memory
Having received the title of Hero of the USSR for the second time, but already posthumously, Vladimir Komarov ended his career in the cosmonaut corps, leaving behind him a significant contribution to the domestic cosmonautics. As a result of the tragic crash of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft, the problems associated with the parachute system were eliminated.
An urn containing the ashes of cosmonaut Komarov was placed in the Kremlin wall in Moscow. In memory of the respected cosmonaut, a bronze bust was erected in Moscow, as well as a bust at the school where the honored cosmonaut studied. A volcano in Kamchatka, a crater on the Moon, an asteroid, a planet in the video game Mass Effect 2, a village in the Orenburg region, an Aeroflot A320 aircraft, a youth cosmonaut corps in Zaporozhye, the Yeisk Aviation Institute, several schools and dozens of streets in the USSR were named in honor of Vladimir Mikhailovich. .
E.V.: Eternal memory to Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov, and other tragically lost space pioneers!!!...We remember you, Yuri Alekseevich and Vladimir Mikhailovich etc.!!!
On April 23, 1967, a new three-seater Soyuz-1 spacecraft launched from the cosmodrome. There was only one cosmonaut on board - Vladimir Komarov.
Troubles began immediately after the spacecraft entered orbit: one of the solar panels did not open, the sun-stellar sensor did not work due to fogging, and malfunctions occurred in the new ion orientation system. When the command to land was received, the automation “forbidden” issuing a braking impulse... The astronaut managed to brake above the calculated point, but the parachute system failed. Vladimir Komarov died exactly 40 days after his 40th birthday. He has two graves left, and his relatives were given two death certificates.
On the eve of Cosmonautics Day, the MK special correspondent met with his daughter, Irina Vladimirovna Komarova.
The new Soyuz spacecraft began to be created in defiance of the US lunar program. The USSR government issued a secret decree, according to which Soviet cosmonauts were to be the first to fly around the Moon in 1967, and a year later to land on the satellite. To do this, they began to hastily construct the Soyuz spacecraft.
— Three unmanned Soyuz launches took place, and all of them were problematic. Despite this, on April 23 and 24 in 1967, it was decided to send two manned spacecraft into orbit at once?
— My dad, Vladimir Komarov, was supposed to fly first on the three-seat Soyuz-1. The next day, Khrunov, Bykovsky and Eliseev were supposed to go into orbit on Soyuz-2. Then a docking was planned: a second ship was supposed to approach Soyuz-1, Khrunov and Eliseev were supposed to go through outer space to their father’s ship. After which both Soyuzs had to land.
In 1967, they were preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary Soviet power, achievements in space were needed. As far as I know, only General Mrykin, the head of one of the design departments of the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Engineering Prudnikov and the head of the 1st Directorate of the test site, Colonel Kirillov, allowed themselves to say that hundreds of comments received during the tests indicate that the ships are still “raw” " To which Mishin, who replaced the late chief designer Korolev, flared up and in a sharp form told the same Kirillov that he would teach him how to work. The voices of the “cautious” were not taken into account.
— Remember the day before the start?
— Back then in Star City it was not customary to escort astronauts to the bus. I remember my mother and I stood on the threshold of the apartment, my father entered the elevator with a suitcase and for a long, long time did not dare to close the outer iron door. He said goodbye to us.
— Did Vladimir Komarov foresee trouble?
“It wasn’t a premonition, but a knowledge of the possibilities.” Before the flight, my father went to the hospital to see a test pilot he knew who had been diagnosed with cancer. His wife then told her mother about the conversation that had taken place between them. The father admitted to the patient in the ward: “Ninety percent of the time the flight will be unsuccessful.”
Shortly before the start, my father suddenly forced my mother to learn to drive a car. He insisted that she pass her license, then drove with her as a passenger so that she felt confident behind the wheel.
On March 8, he brought his mother a luxurious table service that barely fit in the trunk of the Volga, and said: “Then you will receive guests.” And before the start, dad put his desk in perfect order and answered all the letters. I showed my mother where the documents for the apartment were and where the keys to the garage were.
— How did you understand that the situation in flight began to develop abnormally?
— Suddenly our phone was turned off at home. Mom immediately realized that something had gone wrong. When Feoktistov’s wife arrived from Moscow, she already began to shake.
At this time, my father carried out the orientation of Soyuz-1 almost blindly. After entering orbit, one of the two solar panels on the ship did not open, and then the command to orient the ship to the Sun did not pass. When the command to land was received, the automation “forbidden” issuing a braking impulse. Yuri Gagarin was in touch with dad at that time. Father was offered manual orientation to bright side... Korolev’s associate, designer Boris Chertok, noted in his memoirs that the cosmonauts did not rehearse this type of landing. Dad did something that no one had ever taught astronauts before. He did everything to come back...
— Air defense systems discovered that the descent module was landing 65 kilometers east of Orsk...
“It seemed that the hardest part was over; even the estimated landing time was announced. Everyone present at the Mission Control Center began to clap their hands and discuss how they would greet the astronaut. And suddenly Yuri Gagarin was urgently asked to come to the phone. It became known that the landing was abnormal. Later a message came about the death of his father. At an altitude of 7 kilometers, the parachute lines twisted. The launch of the second Soyuz was cancelled.
"Hydrogen peroxide contributed to the combustion"
— How did you find out about the tragedy?
— It was a cloudy day, and for some reason my mother didn’t let me go to school. And then, in heavy rain, she suddenly sent me for a walk. Hiding under the canopy, I saw a black Volga drive up to our entrance. The Colonel General came out with his retinue; I managed to notice three stars on his shoulder straps. As my mother later said, she asked him only one thing: “Are you sure?” He said, “Yes, that's absolutely true.”
Then our door wouldn’t close. There were cosmonauts, engineers, technicians, and their wives. Mom hugged me and said: “Irochka, now the three of us will live together.” For some reason I was sure that the tragedy happened to my brother Zhenya. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who lived in our building, told me that dad died. Mom suffered a hemorrhage in her left eye, and the next morning she had a strand of gray hair.
— They say that your mother, Valentina, was persuaded not to go to meet the coffin with her father’s body?
“High officials were probably afraid of her tears and hysterics, that she would blame and curse someone. But mom insisted and went. Nobody, naturally, opened the coffin. The father was found quickly enough. The impact on the ground was so strong that a depression of more than half a meter was formed. There was an explosion and a fire started. About 30 kilograms of concentrated hydrogen peroxide were preserved in the tanks of the descent vehicle, which served as the working fluid for the engines of the controlled descent system. It turned out to be much more dangerous than gasoline; during decomposition it released free oxygen, which contributed to combustion.
- Who was the first to arrive at the crash site?
— Local residents from a neighboring village. Trying to put out the fire, they threw earth at the fire. When search helicopters landed, fire extinguishers were used. Nikolai Kamanin, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space, arrived at the crash site and demanded that his father’s charred remains be collected, which were immediately sent to Orsk. It was impossible to collect all the ashes and small fragments; a small mound was built at the crash site. Test pilot Sergei Anokhin placed his uniform cap on the embankment, as is customary for pilots. Mom then went to the place of dad’s death as if to a grave.
— Did Vladimir Mikhailovich manage to realize that he would die?
- We will never know about this. The on-board tape recorder completely melted during the fire. Chertok said that his father’s last report was already on the landing orbit, the separation had taken place, and the transmission was through the slot antenna of the descent vehicle. The father's voice was difficult to hear. The father wanted to warn about some incident, but the connection was cut off upon entering the dense layers of the atmosphere. We were told that the ship was descending at high speed, and my father could have died instantly from the terrible overloads.
Place of death: the city of Shchelkovo
On April 25, Suslov, Keldysh and Gagarin spoke from the platform of the Mausoleum at the funeral meeting. An urn with Komarov’s ashes was installed in a niche of the Kremlin wall.
Before the flight, Vladimir Komarov listened to Pakhmutova and Dobronravov’s new song “Tenderness,” which was released in the “Embracing the Sky” series and was dedicated to the pilots. On the day of the funeral, the lines “the earth is empty without you...” sounded like a requiem for the astronaut himself.
In the death certificate issued, the “cause” column stated: extensive burns to the body; place of death: the city of Shchelkovo.
“My mother’s voice broke with indignation: “What Shchelkovo? What are the body burns if there is nothing left of the body?” She showed this evidence to Gagarin: “Yurochka, who will believe me that I am the widow of cosmonaut Komarov?” Gagarin turned pale and went “upstairs” to figure it out... Soon they brought another document to my mother, which already stated: “tragically died during the completion of a test flight on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft.”
— Yuri Gagarin was Vladimir Komarov’s backup. Many were sure that, having gone into space on the unfinished Soyuz, your father saved and protected the first cosmonaut.
— Firstly, dad himself wanted to fly. For the last month and a half before the flight, he did not drink cold milk or kefir from the refrigerator so as not to get sick.
Secondly, he headed the cosmonaut training department, was older and more experienced in the squad, and had already flown as commander of the first multi-seat Voskhod spacecraft. When many just went to study at the Zhukovsky Academy, he already had a higher engineering education and knew the Soyuz literally “down to the screws.” Dad agreed to the flight, even if there had been another cosmonaut in Gagarin’s place. To live later with the fact that someone else took the risk instead of you... No, he couldn’t do that.
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And they were friends with Gagarin, they even celebrated birthdays at work together (both in March). Their fates were tragically intertwined: Yuri Alekseevich studied in Orenburg, dad died near Orenburg. Dad’s homeland of his ancestors was the Vladimir region; Gagarin died near Kirzhach in the Vladimir region.
— It is not customary for men to celebrate their 40th birthday. Vladimir Komarov celebrated his anniversary widely. It turned out - exactly forty days before the flight. Did he not believe in omens?
— Dad celebrated that anniversary for three days. First the relatives arrived, then my father’s colleagues were hanging out at our house, and then his friends gathered. Mom fried tobacco chickens in buckets. Dad drank the first glass of dry wine, and then there was only mineral water. The guests kept coming and coming... Dad seemed to say goodbye to everyone.
— After the death of Vladimir Komarov, was it difficult for your mother to stay in Star City?
— We were given a long vacation in the summer. First we went to the Caucasus, in Pyatigorsk we lived at Kosygin’s dacha, then we were sent to Crimea. At sea, cosmonaut Volkov took charge of me. My father’s colleagues caught Katrans, baked them on the fire in the evening and invited us to a picnic.
In Star City, the mother was asked where she would like to live with her children. My brother was finishing school and needed to go to college. Mom thought with horror that Zhenya would live in a dormitory or commute every day to classes by train, and decided to move to Moscow. There were those who condemned her, said: well, she went for easy life. We were offered several options for apartments, one of which was in the famous “house on the embankment” near the Kremlin. Mom said: “I won’t be able to see my husband’s grave every time I go out onto the balcony.” And then we went to look at an apartment near the Airport metro station, which used to be a communal apartment. In one of the rooms, on the wall hung a portrait of my father, cut out of a newspaper. Mom realized that this was a sign of fate and decided to go with this option.
Portrait with a secret
— On November 7, 1967, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Soviet power, an exhibition was opened in Manege, where a portrait of my father was exhibited for the first time. The artist Alexander Laktionov sent his mother an invitation: dear Valentina Yakovlevna, Vladimir Mikhailovich and I are waiting for you on such and such a date, at such and such a time. That is, from myself and from dad.
The artist based the face in the portrait on his father. For a couple of months he went to Laktionov to pose. After the death of my father, my brother posed for the artist. 15-year-old Zhenya was wearing his father’s jacket. He was large, athletic, and often played hockey with the astronauts. So the hands are on this portrait of my brother.
Wanting to see how a portrait was painted, my mother once went into the artist’s studio. Laktionov drank and... talked at the table with his father’s portrait. They managed to become friends with their father. And he painted the portrait “with a secret.” My mother got goosebumps; she repeated more than once: “You walk, and it’s as if Volodya’s eyes are following you, turning around.”
Mom had a hard time then. She did not remember at all the events of the first year after her father’s death. To distract herself, she went to work at the Novosti press agency. She is a historian and worked as an editor for the issue. I checked all the facts, figures, names. My brother, who was eight years older than me, took care of me. Since childhood, he raved about the sea; with his dad, he built submarines with a motor and launched them in the bathtub. After my dad’s death, my mom once asked my brother: “Zhenya, who do you want to be?” He replied: “Don’t worry, Mom, I won’t be a pilot or a sailor. I will be a physicist."
“Did your father’s friends leave you?”
- What do you! My father's friends had gathered for his birthday for many years. It was not a day of mourning. It was fun, a man was born! Mom made sure to leave two empty seats at the table for her father’s two closest friends, fighter pilots, Uncle Vitya Kekushev and Uncle Tolya Skrynnikov. Also, every year - without calls, without invitations - they came to their mother on her birthday, September 2. And each one is sure to have two bouquets: from himself and from dad.
At the table, the pilots recalled that their father was on the verge of death more than once. From 1952 to 1954 they served in Transcarpathia. The first jet aircraft arrived at the regiment, which had to be tested in different situations. Pilots died almost every month. One day my father was flying in a single pair, and ahead was a more experienced pilot who had been through the war. It was low cloudy and there were mountains covered with forest all around. Suddenly the first plane went down under the cloud, touched the tops of trees and crashed. Father, on the contrary, went up and landed safely. So then they dragged him for interrogation. He had incredible intuition. Without hesitation, he chose the right course. Then he had to land on the last drops of fuel. Mom talked about night flights. The airplane engines are roaring, all the women are fast asleep. As soon as silence fell, the lights came on in the windows, everyone understood: something had happened, since everyone was imprisoned at once. One day there was a rumor that a pilot whose last name began with the letter “k” had died. A mother with two-year-old Zhenya and her neighbor came out into the yard with a baby in her arms. Both stood, waiting to see who they would come to. We came to my mother's neighbor...
— Fate more than once took Vladimir Komarov away from space. It is known that once during training in a centrifuge, an electrocardiogram recorded “problems” in the functioning of the heart.
“Dad was then banned from overloads and parachute jumps for six months. To prove that he was healthy, he went to the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad, to see the cardiac surgeon Vishnevsky. The academician examined him and issued a conclusion from which it followed that such “peaks” on the cardiogram occur under heavy loads in people with a trained heart. Then Vishnevsky invited dad to the academy to talk with young patients before complex heart surgery. Dad encouraged the kids and let them touch his Gold Star.
— They say that Sergei Korolev wanted to take Vladimir Komarov from the cosmonaut corps to his company?
— Korolev made this proposal to his father more than once. When we were visiting Sergei Pavlovich, he even turned to his mother for help: “Valechka, at least influence him. What is he resisting?” This was in the fall of 1965. In January 1966, Korolev passed away. Mom really regretted that she couldn’t persuade her father then.
“We don’t know where daddy’s second Gold Star is.”
Vladimir Komarov has two graves. His ashes rest in a niche of the Kremlin wall. To honor his memory, relatives have to issue a special pass. You need to get to the second grave, which is in the Orenburg steppe, by four types of transport.
“Mom told me that in the virgin lands in 1967 there was neither water nor trees. And suddenly, birch trees turned green near the homemade obelisk, which was erected by officers and soldiers who served in a unit nearby. Moreover, a tradition developed: every driver who passed by took water with him in a canister and drove off the road to water the birch trees. Mom often visited the grave, reading student notebooks with reviews left by visitors to the cosmonaut museum, which was located in a neighboring village. In 1987, the homemade obelisk made of black stone, the sketch of which was made by a conscript soldier who was constantly sitting on the “lip,” was replaced with a “state” obelisk. A whole grove grew near the memorial sign, but my mother remembered those thin birch twigs that were raised on my father’s grave by the whole world.
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— Where are my father’s two Gold Star medals kept?
— One Gold Star is in the Museum of the Russian Army. She was taken away from us in 1970. But we know nothing about the second Star. The fact is that no one handed it to my mother; the secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mikhail Georgadze, only handed over a certificate conferring the title of Hero on my father.
— What payments were you entitled to?
— We were paid a pension of 180 rubles for our father, another 75 for me and my brother. When the Union collapsed, all benefits were taken away. Previously, a car was allocated upon request, then for one trip you had to pay 70 rubles. In 1991 this was a lot of money. I remember the widows of Pokryshkin and Kozhedub were looking for a third companion so that they could pay for the car together and go to the doctor. When personal pensions were cancelled, my mother went to the regional military registration and enlistment office and registered as the widow of a colonel. The pension in 1995 for my father, converted into dollars, was $50. Dad's life was valued at $50. Mom said that she had never experienced such humiliation. She traveled by train to Star City to buy food, which they were given with coupons. Mom died at 65 years old. A week before your birthday.
- She never got married?
— Mom constantly dreamed about dad. She had the feeling that he was touching her with his hands. They loved each other very much. I never heard them quarrel. My father first saw my mother in a photograph that was displayed in the window of a photo studio. He served in Grozny in 1949. My mother studied at the pedagogical institute there. On the occasion of the beginning of her adult life, her parents sewed her a chic white coat. Dad couldn’t pass by the black-browed beauty in white and began asking the photographer about her. And then he and a friend began to “patrol” the central Lenin Street, one day they noticed a stranger with a photo in a student group and figured out where she lived. Dad was given chocolate as a supplement to his rations, which he began to share with mom. Six months later they got married, and soon my brother Zhenya was born.
Mom was a beautiful woman. After the death of her father, popular rumor constantly married her off. When Kosygin's wife died, rumors spread that his mother became his new wife. Then she was assigned a husband - the secretary of the regional party committee, followed by a general. All this gossip was extremely unpleasant for her. Mom never met another person as wonderful as dad.
— How did you and your brother’s fate turn out?
— Zhenya entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and later graduated from the Academy of Foreign Trade. I went to a military institute, served in the army for 21 years, and worked as a military translator.
When I was already saying goodbye to Irina Vladimirovna, Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, the cosmonaut’s namesake and his grandson, came to visit.
Recently, the whole family scrubbed the paint off the bust of Komarov on Cosmonaut Alley, which had been stained by vandals.
— They came, cleaned it up, as soon as they left the monument, a group of boys about 13-14 years old came to the monument with carnations. The day before they showed a film about dead astronauts. Not ours, American. Abroad, those who died while exploring space are remembered by name. They saved the lives of those following.
Let us remember too.
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