Biography
Andriyan Nikolaev is a Major General of Soviet aviation, a writer, a candidate of technical sciences, was the third citizen of the USSR, who visited space. A participant in an unprecedented military experiment in an airless space was the first person working in an orbit without a skatera.
For merits to Fatherland, Nikolaev was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and was awarded a variety of orders and medals.
Childhood and youth
Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev, a native of the village of Shoresheli Chuvashovskaya ASSR, was born on September 5, 1929 in the family of collective farm Konya Grigory Nikolaevich Nikolaev and the milk of Anna Alekseevna Alekseeva and was a middle of four children.
Having graduated from high school in 1944, Nikolaev entered the Maryano-Posad Lesotechnical Technical School. Then a young specialist with a diploma of the forester distributed to work in Karelia. The young man who admired by the immense northern expanses was thinking that I found a calling, but the time of the army service was coming, and the fate of Andriyan has changed cool.
Nikolaev came to the aviation troops, and then at the end of the urgent service he entered the school of aerial shooters under the Chernihiv Military School. Becoming a disciplined and competent pilot, Andriyan continued to serve in the Moscow region, where he fell under the beginning of the legendary Aviator Alexander Tashkin.
The adopted experience of the Great Mentor, Nikolaev demonstrated the miracles of pilotage in a variety of conditions. Once, during the training flight, when the MiG-17 fighter engines were denied, Andriyan put the car in the field, avoiding the crash of the road and retain his own life. For the self-control and courage in the complex setting of Nikolaev awarded for hours with nominal engraving and admitted to the Communist Party of the USSR.
Cosmonautics
March 7, 1960 was the key date in the biography of the flyer of Nikolaev. Thanks to the positive characteristics from the place of service, Andriyan took the listener to the group of cosmonauts, which was subsequently called Gagarin.
In the star town, the pilot was held experimental training course developed by Soviet scientists, physiotherapists and biologists, and, successfully passing the medical examination in the Central Aviation Hospital, got into the 1st squad of the USSR cosmonauts.
Six pilots who have excellent physical and professional skills and the same level of preparation, equally claimed the place of the 1st person in space. The flight executives, which before difficult to choose, offered to the pilots to choose a candidacy on their own. Andriyan and comrades decided that Yuri Gagarin was the most worthy among them.
On April 12, 1962, friends spent the hero on the Baikonur cosmodrome and with a fading of the hearts followed the 108-minute flight of the legend of the Soviet Space, and when the Office said that the Capsule with Gagarin landed, their joy was not the limit.
On the wave of success, the leadership of the PCU began preparations for the second launch of the Rocket "East-2". The commander of the ship was appointed German Titov, and Nikolaev ordered the duties of Dubler. The pilots were stubbornly trained, because they had to spend the whole day in space and for the first time to feel the state of weightlessness.
The second flight again passed without the participation of Nikolaev, but the pilot did not stop the planned training. Assessing calm, collens, quick response and clear following instructions, the Flight Management Center appointed Andriyan Grigorievich Martial Commander "East-3".
The expedition that started on August 11, 1962 became the first multi-purpose flight into space in which 2 rockets participated - Major Nikolaev's ship accompanied "East-4", managed by Pavel Popovich. In addition, the mission of astronauts was an experiment on finding an orbit without a protective skateman in a state of weightlessness, successfully conducted by a fearless pilot.
And after years, the public learned about the secret side of the space expedition "East", imitating the situation in which one ship acted as a interceptor, and the other was a potential goal.
During the first expedition, Andriyan Grigorievich flew 64 times around his native planet and was located at an near-earth orbit of 94 hours and 22 minutes, setting a record of the duration of flights. He became the discoverer of "cosmic dinners", three times a day taking specially cooked canned food and brewing coffee. At the end of the flight, the pilot name was the first in the Honorary Book of Labor Fame and Herism of the Chuvash Republic, and the country awarded the cosmonaut to the Order of the Higher Difference.
Returning to the Earth, Nikolayev entered the Moscow Nikolay Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, where he replenished and strengthened technical knowledge and in 1968 he received a specialization of the "Pilot Engineer-Cosmonaut". Andriyan Grigorievich became the commander of the squad of a stellar town, and in 1965 he participated in preparation for the flight on an near-cloud orbit on the Soyuz ships. The planned expedition did not take place, and Nikolaev took the post of deputy head of the Space Training Center named after Yuri Gagarin and received the title of Colonel Aviation.
In 1970, Andriyan Grigorievich became the commander of the Soyuz-9 crew, and Vitaly Sevastyanov became his partner in the upcoming flight. Pilots made 286 turns around the Earth and stayed in space 17 days 16 hours and 58 minutes, having broken all imaginable and inconceivable records.
Thanks to the coordinated work, Nikolaev with a colleague conducted a number of scientific and medical research, caused the airfields of the alleged enemy on the map and played the first Space Party in Chess against the flight center team. Upon returning on the basis of data on the physical condition of pilots, the physicians developed a program of preparation for the conditions of weightlessness and subsequent adaptation to earthly conditions.
For this expedition, which is described in the Documentary film "Earth Attraction", Andriyan Grigorievich received a reward - the 2nd Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the title of Major General Aviation.
After the flight, Nikolaev continued to work as the first deputy head of the center of space training, was elected to the deputy to the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, and since 1994, the famous pilot worked in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. By writing about 70 scientific papers and artistic works on space, Andriyan Grigorievich in 1975 defended his thesis and received the title of technical sciences.
Personal life
In 1963, Nikolaev, the last bastard of the stellar town, married the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. The wedding took place in the Government House with the participation of the USSR Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev.
Friends considered this alliance useful for science and society and did not believe in the happiness of the newly-made husband and wife. These conjectures of Andriyan Grigorievich refuted in the book "We will meet in orbit," where, fleeously mentioning about personal life, with warmth and love responded about his half.
A year later, Elena's daughter, who had a number of physical disadvantages was born in the Space Family. It did not prevent the girl to graduate from school and medical institute with honors, twice get married and become the mother of two children.
Details of the relationship in the family of Nikolaev held secret. In humans, the spouses provided each other signs of attention and were constantly smiling, but something in their marriage went wrong, and, after spending almost 19 years, Andriyan Grigorievich and Valentina Vladimirovna divorced.
Tereshkova married Yulia Shaposhnikova, and Nikolayev before the death remained alone.
Death
Andriyan Nikolaev, who possessed heroic health in young and mature years, began to experience problems with his heart at the end of life.
In the summer of 2004, astronauts were invited to Cheboksary as a judge of All-Russian rural competitions. July 3, after the end of events and a press conference, on which the last photo of the famous pilot was made, Nikolaev lost consciousness and died. Doctors found that the cause of the death of Major Aviation became an infarction.
Andriyan Grigorievich buried on his native Chuvash earth against the will of his wife and daughter. The image of the cosmonaut is immortalized in the museum located in the village of Sharchela, who since 2006 is called the memorial complex of Nikolaev, monuments established in Chernigov, Smolensk and Cheboksary, as well as in the names of the streets and squares of Russian cities.
In 2018, Russia's residents voted for ensuring that the name of the famous pilot was assigned to the Chuvash Capital International Airport.
Titles and awards
- 1961 - "Order of the Red Star"
- 1962 - Pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR
- 1962, 1970 - Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1962, 1970 - Medal "Golden Star"
- 1962 - "Order of Lenin"
- 1970 - "Gold Medal named after Yu.Gagarin"
- 1976 - "Order of the Red Banner"
- 1981 - State Prize of the USSR
- 1988 - Order "For the service of the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree
- 1991 - Medal "For Strengthening the Combat Commonwealth"