20.12.2022
Victor Anatolievich Mitroshenkov’s book “Earth Under Heaven” (1981, 1987) contains many amazing stories about Yuri Gagarin. The author offered to take his word for it, because references to real documents in the text are rare, but all sorts of almost intimate, details abound.
And they believed him and continue to believe him, because, by and large, nothing better than Mitroshenkov’s book-chronicle about Gagarin’s life in Soviet times was written. There is an episode (quoted from the 1987 edition).
The reality of this episode is hard to believe. Although Soviet biographers took Korolev’s paternal attitude toward the cosmonaut squad as an axiom, they should also have understood that the chief designer would hardly waste time explaining what was already obvious to Gagarin: their schedule was no longer determined by private desires.
The same was fully applicable to the launch of Vostok-2: Nikita Khrushchev saw the propaganda effect of the orbital flights and was determined to subject astronautics to political expediency. Therefore, the daily orbital flight had to take place not at the most convenient time for scientists or engineers, but at the most convenient time from the position of strengthening the influence of the Soviet state.
No one in the cosmonaut corps doubted that the second man in orbit after Gagarin would be German Stepanovich Titov. Twenty-five-year-old military pilot was, judging by documents, the most prepared of the candidates and demonstrated excellent performance on any of the criteria. However, before the Vostok-2 flight, Titov’s name, as well as the other members of the cosmonaut squad, remained classified. Even Gagarin had no right to reveal it. Telling about his understudy in the documentary novel “The Road to Space” (1961), Yuri Alekseyevich wrote that:
“Together with me in a room on another bunk, Cosmonaut Two settled down. For several days we lived on the same schedule and in everything resembled twin brothers. We were brothers: we were bound by the same great purpose to which we had dedicated our lives. ‘…’ Cosmonaut Two sat in profile to me, and I involuntarily admired the regular features of his beautiful thoughtful face, his high forehead, over which his soft brown hair was slightly twisted. He was as trained as I was, and probably capable of more. Maybe they didn’t send him on the first flight, saving him for the second, more difficult one.
Of course, in later editions, the editors called “Cosmonaut Two” by his first-name. And for some reason nobody (except for sly western journalists, of course) has questioned such a policy.
However, we digress. After Gagarin’s flight, which proved that a man is quite capable of working in long periods of weightlessness, disputes between specialists again arose about what the next space experiment should be. Based on observations of Belka, there was an opinion that after the fourth spin in orbit physiological changes could begin, due to which the well-being of the astronaut would deteriorate dramatically. Therefore, specialists from the State Research Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine insisted on three spins. They were supported by academician Mstislav Keldysh. Contrary to them, engineers headed by Sergei Korolev argued that it is technically much more difficult to realize three turns than a 24-hour flight. The fact is that due to the peculiarities of the orbital motion after three orbits, the landing is possible only in the western densely populated areas of the USSR, which would complicate the evacuation. In addition, at the time there was only one fully completed ship “3KA”, and the experts were going to use it to maximum benefit, closing the question of the possibility of a long stay in zero gravity once and for all. The engineers’ arguments had an effect and the parties agreed at a meeting held in Sochi on May 20, 1961, that the flight should be scheduled for a day, but the astronaut should be ready for its early termination, for which he would test the manual control system of the spacecraft. Direct preparation for the launch of Vostok-2 began in May and was completed by early August. In almost everything it reproduced the sequence of preparation of Yuri Gagarin, but it involved not six, but five cosmonauts: German Titov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Valery Bykovsky, Pavel Popovich and Grigory Nelyubov. Then the leaders were also determined: Titov was appointed pilot of “Vostok-2”, Nikolaev was appointed his understudy. “Cosmonaut Three” Grigory Nelyubov was assigned as the main pilot for the three-day flight, which was to take place in November.
This time, however, it was not scientists or engineers who decided on launch dates, but the head of state himself, Nikita Khrushchev. The geopolitical situation in the summer of 1961 seriously aggravated. In June, negotiations about the status of West Berlin ended in failure. Khrushchev explicitly stated that unless his version of eliminating this enclave of the FRG on GDR territory was recognized, the German Communist government would cut off American access to Berlin. To this, the recently elected president, John F. Kennedy, promised that in that case the U.S. would go to war with the USSR. The situation was further complicated by the fact that, despite the bans and restrictions, thousands of “eastern” Germans were leaving through West Berlin for the FRG. In July 1961 alone, 30,000 people, most of them young qualified specialists, left the German Democratic Republic this way. The head of the German Communists, Walter Ulbricht, insisted more and more loudly on closing the border with West Berlin. By August, the decision was ripe.
Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev, son of the Soviet leader, recalled that when Sergei Korolev discussed the launch date with his father, the latter asked the chief designer to carry it out no later than August 10. Korolev readily agreed. Thus, the flight of Vostok-2 was timed to coincide with the erection of the famous Berlin Wall, which began on the night of August 13. The new space breakthrough, at the expense of noisy propaganda, was to smooth over the negative impression of a dubious foreign policy action.
On the morning of August 6, 1961, German Stepanovich Titov, under the call sign “Eagle,” took the elevator to the cabin of the spacecraft, and at 9:00 Moscow time he launched. “Vostok-2” (“3KA” No. 4) entered orbit with an altitude of 257 km at apogee and 178 km at perigee. The TASS message about the launch was transmitted 20 minutes later – only after making sure that the spacecraft’s systems were working properly, and that the cosmonaut felt well. At the same time Titov’s preflight declaration, recorded in advance, was broadcast.
During the first rotations of the space flight the cosmonaut’s well-being was really excellent. Like Gagarin before him, Titov first of all checked the operation of radio equipment, communicating with ground-based measuring points. On the second turn, he dictated a prepared greeting to “the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Soviet government and personally to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev”. A radiogram signed by Khrushchev was read to him from Earth. At the same time Titov for the first time surveyed the Earth’s surface with “Konvas” movie camera and continued to do it during the whole flight in small sessions. Subsequently, excellent color photographs were published in Soviet magazines.
On the third flight, German Titov had lunch. The menu included 150 grams of mashed soup with bread, meat and liver pâté in tubes, and blackcurrant juice. The cosmonaut noted that there were no unpleasant feelings while eating.
On the fourth revolution German Titov for the first time in history performed the procedure of manual control of spacecraft orientation. The cosmonaut verified that the spacecraft obeyed him well and the trained pilot could quickly orient it “landing style”. Later, journalists reporting on Vostok-2 caused confusion by claiming that Titov was not just orienting the ship, but “maneuvering” in orbit. In fact, the ship could not maneuver, because it had no corresponding systems.
On the fifth rotation, the news agency TASS reported that Titov was feeling fine, but in fact he began to develop motion sickness. Although the cosmonaut kept upbeat and reported that he normally tolerated weightlessness, his doctors, who received data about his body via telemetric channels, suspected something wrong. Indeed – on the fourth flight, which caused the greatest concern among the specialists, Titov felt very nauseous and dizzy. Especially unpleasant feelings appeared when he suddenly moved his head – the astronaut tried to slowly turn it or hold it motionless.
Despite the growing discomfort, Titov continued his flight program. On the sixth turn he performed simple physical exercises and used a sanitation device, proving its effectiveness. At the same time he received a radiogram from Yuri Gagarin: “Dear German! With all my heart, I am with you. I hug you, my friend. A big kiss. I am thrilled to see you fly, and I am confident in the successful completion of your flight, which will once again glorify our great country, our Soviet people. Goodbye soon. Your Yuri Gagarin.” On the seventh rotation, Titov tried to fall asleep. Youth took its toll – the cosmonaut not only fell asleep, but also managed to sleep through a communication session scheduled for 2:00 Moscow time. On the twelfth rotation, the measuring points began to call for “Eagle”, but Titov kept silent for 37 minutes, provoking slight panic among the specialists. To avoid a repeat of the incident, it was immediately decided to construct a space alarm clock. But sleep chased away the bad feeling – the body adapted to weightlessness. Titov did not touch food, taking only vitamin pills and water until the end of the flight. On the thirteenth rotation he became dizzy again, dozing constantly.
On the seventeenth rotation a braking impulse was given and the ship went down. The Vostok-2 compartments separated with a long delay, which caused the descent vehicle to land in an uncalculated area – in the pea field of the “40 Let Oktyabrya” farm, 13 km from Krasny Kut, Saratov Region. Later, OKB-1 specialists conducted a thorough investigation and finally determined the cause of the failure – an error in the installation of electrical circuits providing separation. It was eliminated in the following Vostok series ships.
An interesting historical detail: after ejection from descent vehicle, wind blew Titov aside the railroad, on which the freight train was running. The collision did not happen by lucky accident: probably, the driver slowed down and the train skipped away before Titov landed 10 meters away from the rail. To avoid similar situations in the future, the State Commission wanted to involve a representative of the Ministry of Railways to coordinate the train schedule with the space flights, but then they decided to simply move the landing site from the Volga region to Kazakhstan.
At the August 8 meeting of the State Commission, Titov honestly reported his feelings, including nausea and dizziness. Based on his testimony, doctors subsequently developed an additional technique for vestibular apparatus training, which demonstrated very good results.
On August 9, Yuri Gagarin and German Titov stood with Nikita Khrushchev on the Mausoleum rostrum. In his speech at the rally, the head of state said: “On this solemn day for our Motherland, the day we met with the space hero German Titov, we gathered again on Red Square, near the walls of the ancient Kremlin. This square has seen many outstanding events and is connected with a lot in the history of our Motherland. ‘…’ How not to be proud and how not to rejoice in our people who gave birth to such heroes as Yuri Gagarin and German Titov, two heavenly brothers. Both of them were brought up in the glorious Komsomol, our great Leninist party of communists.” Since then, the Soviet press has been calling the first cosmonauts “heavenly brothers.
Of course, again there were pompous celebrations, again there was a reception in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, again toasts were said to the cosmonauts and creators of space technology. And again a press-conference was held, where detailed information was given about everything, except what really interested the correspondents. Here are some excerpts to make it clear how much the cynicism of Soviet propagandists has grown (I quote from the report “The audacious dreams of mankind come true” published in the newspaper Pravda on August 12, 1961):
“The first question: the Soviet government has announced the peaceful purpose of the spaceships. Will foreign correspondents be allowed on launches, as in the U.S.?
– They will, they certainly will, and we are doing everything we can to get started on it. But you understand that a rocket isn’t just for peaceful purposes. If the Americans had such perfect launch vehicles, they wouldn’t show them either, just like they don’t show a lot of things. A fabrication and outright lie. At the Tyuratam test site (“Baikonur Cosmodrome”), access of foreign journalists was limited until the fall of 1989, even though the USSR participated in international research programs; at the same time, the launches at Cape Canaveral could be observed both directly at the Kennedy Space Center and from nearby beaches, if the launch was declared “top secret”. Moreover, when the Saturn I and Saturn V rockets appeared, far superior in payload capacity to any of the R-7 modifications, materials on their development and testing were constantly given to the public press, including the Soviet press.
“Question: Yuri Gagarin spoke of his friend Cosmonaut Two after his space flight. Now the whole world knows it was you. Can you tell Hungarian readers about the personal qualities of your friends Cosmonauts Three, Four, etc.? Answer: Now you can draw some conclusions yourself. Yuri Alekseyevich told you about me. Now you’ve seen me. You can imagine who cosmonauts are. I can say: my fellow cosmonauts are all great guys. They are all trained to fly.”
Accusing the Americans of something they did not do and were not going to do, propagandists through Titov immediately demonstrated the real value of their promises to one day unclassify the Soviet rocket and space program: what could be more absurd than dehumanizing future space heroes… In such a context Gagarin and Titov also began to look hypocritical, though of course they were not: they were only obeying orders.
After the celebrations in Moscow, the cosmonauts’ paths diverged for a while. German Titov, after completing a post-flight survey, was sent to the GDR to ideologically support the German Communists in the construction of the Berlin Wall. And Yuri Alexeyevich with his wife Valentina Ivanovna and younger daughter Galya came to the Hungarian People’s Republic (Hungary) on August 19, where he was also required to hold a series of striking actions to demonstrate approval of the regime, which the Soviet Union brought to Budapest on bayonets during the suppression of the “counterrevolutionary uprising” in 1956.
These were the political realities of the time, and each of the cosmonauts understood that he was not only a space explorer, but also a soldier on the ideological front that divided the whole world. Unfortunately, the “Soviet moment” was coming to an end: the communist leadership was not ready to rise to a new level of confidence in international affairs; it preferred to erect walls and boast of mythical superiority. All this soon had an impact on the cosmonautics.
