Alexey Leonov: “We had a great will to space”
Several decades ago, not only the surname and name, but also the patronymic of this man knew, without exaggeration, any schoolchild. After all, the space was "sick" then almost all Soviet teenagers. And he was the one who was the first of the people to leave the spacecraft, found himself in open space, separated from him only by a thin shell of a spacesuit. He also became a member of the legendary docking of the Soviet and American space programs "Soyuz-Apollo". Cosmic paintings painted with his brush adorned the covers of the popular magazine Technique Youth, postage stamps and calendars.- What was your first impression of outer space: did it seem like chaos or harmony to you?
- The first words that I said, stepping into the void (I do not remember them, but they signed up): "and the Earth is not round." But in general, the cosmos is, of course, harmony. When you look at the photographs of supernova explosions, the "collapse" of galaxies taken with the Hubble telescope - this is chaos, and this is scary. And I saw when I went into space, full color harmony. According to the colors, I clearly divided them into Rockwell Kent and Roerich callers. When you move from the Sun at night - this is Kent, and in the opposite direction - Roerich. The music also sounded. On the dark side of the Earth, where there is no interference, I clearly heard in the spacesuit the sound of fans, which lined up in some kind of musical narration. You can compare it with the sound of theremin, electronic compositions of Vyacheslav Meshcherin.
- Alas, today few of the young people know historical the date of March 18, 1965, when you crossed the threshold of the lock chamber of the Voskhod-2 ship. And not everyone will remember this fact. In Soviet times, however, numerous "misfortunes" that fell to your lot in that flight "were secreted" ...
- The unmanned analogue vehicle, launched right in front of our flight with Pavel Belyaev, lost controllability and was blown up by the APO system (“automatic undermining of the object”). So, it was not possible to check the parameters of the future flight and spacewalk.
After this, Korolyov and Keldysh came to the hotel with Pavel Belyaev. Having told about the fate of the analogue, they offered a choice: to abandon this flight, re-form the ship as an unmanned vehicle, or fly "blindly." In response, we recalled that we had received serious training, some emergencies worked through the 3000 order.
I bent it, of course, then to two academicians, but 500 had to work out precisely. Sergei Pavlovich asked: "Well, if there will be three thousand the first option of the accident?". But then, thinking, he said: "However, if you know how to work, and cope with it." And then we were still sent a risky flight. There we had a variety of accident options: the first, and the second, and the third, and the seventh. And the same 3001.This is after all the already well-known misadventures with a bloated spacesuit that did not give me a regular entrance to the gateway.
We sat in chairs and prepared to return to Earth. And then suddenly the air pressure in the ship began to grow: 320, 340, 400, 420. We sat in a daze. It was necessary to remove the humidity, reduce the temperature, we did it all, and the pressure does not fall. And then oxygen intoxication came - we just fell asleep. It all lasted 7 hours. Then there was a sharp cotton - and the air blew off quickly. Pavel and I finally came to our senses. Already on Earth, it became clear what happened. During the spacewalk, the ship was stabilized relative to the Sun. As a result, one side warmed to + 150 degrees, and the other cooled to -140. Due to the linear expansion between the hatch of the lock chamber and its shell, a microgap was formed, into which the air from the ship began to escape. The life support system, fixing the fact of leakage, began to “give in” oxygen. When I touched the compressed air switch with the hose of the spacesuit, the air that had been blown out of the cab accidentally pulled the hatch out of the cabin with a blow from inside and the leak stopped.
After that, when landing there were still many "incidents", each of which could have ended fatally. There was no separation of the engine and the landing capsule, the automatic landing system failed, and the ship had to be landed manually, as if looking in a side-view mirror - if we take the analogy to the car.
- Your adventures, as you know, continued after landing in the winter taiga ...
- The capsule landed in a crevice between the trees, not high above the ground. Parachute caught on the branches at the top. One hatch was completely closed by a birch, and the other - by one third. We started swinging it and turning it upside down - it fell into the snow. And when Pavel jumped off - I saw only his head: everything else was in a snowdrift. Frost and snowstorm - and we have no warm clothes. We deployed a radio station and telegraph key signaled our return. Then Pasha took a sextant, measured the place where we were. There is a regular way to determine the location: when the engine has worked, it is necessary to put the Globus electronic mechanical system at the landing site and turn it off. I didn’t do this in the landing turmoil. As a result, the real amendment from what we saw on the Globe was 4000 kilometers. We decided that we are between the Ob and the Yenisei. I say: “Pasha, I know these places - in three months they will come for us on dogs”. Thank God, we were closer - in the Perm Region, and a day later a helicopter flew to us.
- In 1975, you became one of the participants in the historical docking of the Soviet Union-19 and the American Apollo. What significance did this event have at that time?
- It was the peak of the confrontation of the two systems, which at any time could develop into a world war. A proposal for such an experiment was put forward by American President Richard Nixon. The then head of NASA Fletcher responded vividly and started punching the idea, and from our side, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Alexey Nikolayevich Kosygin and Academician Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh. These four people then saved the world from falling into a growing conflict. The program "Soyuz-Apollo", removing the severity of the conflict of the two systems, laid very important and long-term trends for space exploration. For example, duplication and compatibility of space technical systems. Then there were only two countries flying into space and, in which case, we could not even help each other because of the complete mismatch of standards. That docking helped make a step towards each other in space. As a result, space cooperation continues to this day, and will continue, I am sure, whatever tensions between Russia and America may arise.
- How would you define the main difference between the cosmic epochs: that heroic and today's?
- Today, space exploration is rather “sluggish” compared to the surge of intelligence and enthusiasm that was in the 60-70-s of the last century. Sometimes it seems to me that the people who created the cosmic era were “sent” to us from somewhere “from above”. First of all, this refers to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, a great citizen of Russia and the Earth. He united around him the same passionate people who sometimes remind me of the apostles. Ishlinsky, Ryazan, Kuznetsov, Barmin ... They did not obey him, worked in various departments, ministries. At the same time, they participated in all the serious "actions" of Korolev. Now it is impossible! If you need to invite someone not from my "firm", you need to write hundreds of papers of justifications, for which I need it. Then the question was not so.
How he could convince people! I worked with him for only five years, when I had the opportunity to personally see him, to hear his speeches at meetings, when the most important life issues were resolved. He knew how to take the solution of the most serious problems on himself and answer for their success or failure.
Just one small touch: when there was a development for spacecraft landing, it was thought that there could be up to half a meter of dust. On a hard or soft landing count? Korolev said confidently: put on hard ground! This allowed us to proceed with the development without delay. And he intuitively guessed. If Sergei Pavlovich had still lived for several years - we would have definitely flown around the moon before the Americans.
There is no risk in cosmonautics. And if the minimization of risks becomes the main goal of a scientist, designer, or official, then there will be no development, there will be a marking time. We, as a country, did very poorly, that after the departure of Korolev we didn’t defeat the fear of risk, failure ...
“Do you have cosmic dreams?”
- I had a very long time “aviator” dream from those times when I was a military pilot. Then, at the beginning of 60, there was a sharp, nervous confrontation with NATO. And I saw the same thing from different angles: I am going to intercept an enemy aircraft. And then, when I already got into the cosmonaut detachment and was assigned to the “duty officer” for emergencies, I had a disturbing dream that they were raising me in the middle of the night and they were saying: you have to go to orbit tomorrow morning - save people. I say: yes, I do not even know the flight program. And they answer me: you have a night for this. This is horror, such horror - you can't compare it with any movie horror films!
- Standing at the gateway "Sunrise-2" in a swollen spacesuit, when you could not get back in, did you not turn to God?
- Anyone who is the bravest person, when he comes to the point of obscurity, no matter what materialist he is, will most likely say, "Lord, help me!" And when you “slip through” - then again, “Lord, thank you!”. It is in us somewhere inside. When Beria was shot, he probably also turned to God.
Having lived a long life, I came to the conclusion: a person must believe. Faith helps a person to live and benefit - others, his country. I occasionally visit the former Siblag in Mariinsk, where Lenin and Stalin visited before the revolution, and my father was in 30. Until 1918, not a single person was shot there, and from 18-th to 53-th, according to the documents, 200 thousands were shot. And there, thanks to the Kemerovo governor Tuleyev and the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, a memorial chapel was erected. It was in this chapel that I read the lines of the poem of the modern hieromonk Roman, which shook me. I don't remember the poems badly, but these ones smashed like a diamond.
“Without God, a nation is a mob
United by vice
Or blind, or stupid,
Or, worse, cruel.
And let any one rise to the throne
Verbally high syllable.
The crowd will remain a crowd
Until he turns to God. ”
United by vice
Or blind, or stupid,
Or, worse, cruel.
And let any one rise to the throne
Verbally high syllable.
The crowd will remain a crowd
Until he turns to God. ”
- How do you assess the current attack of certain circles on the Orthodox Church, and more broadly - on Christianity?
- Today we see the real devilry in the world. She turns people into total darkness. And then you have to figure out what people have done, not knowing what they are doing.
- Alexey Arkhipovich, you are a famous artist, the author of several hundred paintings - not only on cosmic themes. Which one do you think is the most successful today?
“About ten years ago I was in Japan in the city of Fedo, where in the 1852 year the Russian frigate Diana landed, carrying the first Russian ambassador to Japan, Admiral Evfimy V. Putiatin. When he stood on the roadstead, a volcano erupted, causing the ship to be completely destroyed. People were saved. Count Putyatin with the diplomatic corps, the crew had to "hang" for a long time in the land of the rising sun. From the wreckage of the ship, they decided to build a schooner, and the construction was supervised by a captain of the third rank Mozhaisky, who later built the first Russian aircraft. On the assembled schooner "Hedo" the Russians left for Vladivostok.
I walked freely around the city, went to the Diana Museum, where Russian and Japanese sailors stand in their arms, anchor from the schooner, engravings, menu, which fed the Russians. And then I came across a local cemetery and saw the burial places of Russian sailors — well-groomed, in granite, on neat steles — bilingual inscriptions. Still there is a faucet at each grave, from which you can fill a vase and put fresh flowers. And these flowers stand at each grave! It struck me. Two hundred years have passed, and what two brutal wars have passed between our countries! But the Japanese carefully preserve the memory of the Russian sailors, of Putyatin. After that, I decided to find the drawing of the ship “Diana” and draw exactly what it looked like. As a result, I made a series of paintings with “Diana” and “Hedo” in different seas, each with the size of 80х100. I consider this series my success as an artist. Of my other works, I myself like the series “Polar Lights” the most. There is a glow over the ship of Admiral Sedov "Martyr St. Fok", clogged in the ice, and the aurora in space.
- How to deal with a horrific fall in the level of knowledge, a decrease in the very craving for knowledge, to the romance of today's youth?
- Frederick the Great said that he won his wars thanks to a German teacher. As long as we have such teachers and such an attitude towards teachers and in general to school and out-of-school education, like today, we will not get anything. Today, some progress has begun on the part of the authorities, but, unfortunately, they are too timid and inconsistent against the background of the pogrom of education that occurred not only in these decades, but also in the late USSR. Remember, the "teacher" - this is still from the Union. But in the post-Soviet era, this degradation was aggravated by the infamous poverty of the teachers' corps. Moreover, poverty is not only material, but also spiritual. I was in Samara not so long ago and met with students from one of the local schools. One schoolboy asked me: “Was it scary to go out into space?”. I answered a question with a question: “Do you think it was scary for Matrosov to rush into the embrasure of the dota?”. And the boy has a bewilderment in his eyes: “And who is this, this Sailors?” I look at the teachers who are standing next to me, and I say to them: “How are you not ashamed that your students do not know this ?!”
- Let's touch on a completely different topic: last year was the 170 anniversary of General Skobelev, 135 years since the end of the Russian-Turkish war for the liberation of Bulgaria. But the monument to the Russian hero in Moscow was never raised. You, for many years heading the public "Skobelevsky Committee", have repeatedly appeared in the press with appeals to the Moscow authorities, but you are, as they say, now there. What is really going on?
- When I was elected president of the Skobelevsky Committee, created before the 17 revolution and revived in 1995, I already knew a lot about the activities of the “white general”, as the great Russian military commander, liberator of Bulgaria Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was called. But he learned even more afterwards - and was amazed. After his monument, the Bolsheviks, at the direct direction of Lenin, was demolished one of the first in Moscow - in the 1918 year - the memory of Skobelev was carefully faded from history. Why? Apparently because he was too Russian and imperial general. I began to do this because I wanted to restore the memory and honor of this Russian hero for compatriots. It was not for nothing that they called him “Suvorov equal” - he lost a single battle! And many of them, such as the annexation of the Central Asian khanates, occurred almost bloodlessly.
He spoke fluently in the good ten languages: do you find such generals today? I recall only one episode of his glorious biography. When in the Khiva campaign, Skobelev went to Ashkhabad, the Tekian army came out to meet his detachment - these were the chosen warriors of the khan. The white general ordered his soldiers to stop and one went to this horde. And when he arrived, he spoke to them in pure Turkmen: “My sons, you are the best part of the Turkmen people. You must have beautiful children - this is the future of Turkmenistan. I only have a checker and a revolver, you can kill me. But look what the army is on the horizon. ” And the Tekin commander, amazed by the courage and nobility of Skobelev, invited the Russian general to the palace, promising that no hair would fall from his head. And when they arrived, there was already a document about the entry of the Khanate into Russia. Mikhail Dmitrievich read and said: there’s only one thing missing: an order to abolish slavery. This was the case in all the khanates, which were formerly attached to the Russian Empire in this campaign. It happened at that time.
Skobelev knew very well the alignment of European forces and said that the greatest danger for Russia was coming from Germany. This caused displeasure, including the reigning house of the Romanovs, closely related to the German imperial house. However, before the revolution, at least six monuments to General MD were installed on the territory of the Russian Empire. Skobelev, none of which survived to our time.
Today in Russia there is a memorial plaque on the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, where he was born, in Butovo - also a memorial plaque, although Butovo has nothing to do with it. In the same place in Butovo there is Skobelevskaya street (why not “General Skobelev”?), The metro is again “Skobelevskaya Street”. Installed two small bust - in the homeland of the general and on the site of his estate in Zaborovo (formerly Spasskoe) in the Ryazan province. His estate still lies in ruins. So Russia honors the memory of its heroes ?! Speaking in Spassky at a rally in the presence of the governor, I said: "If Mikhail Dmitrievich got out of the grave and saw what happened to his family nest, he would die again!" 200 monuments to Skobelev have been supplied to Bulgaria. One of them - the horse composition of Skobelev in centimeters 4 90 meter size gave Bulgaria to Moscow in 2011 year. The question is: why did she not give herself such a monument?
I just did not write about this shameful fact. Here, for example, that the Minister of Culture of Moscow replied to me: since General Skobelev had been on campaigns all the time, he had been passing through Moscow and had just died here - it is not advisable to erect a monument to him. Imagine? Mayor Sobyanin didn’t find it necessary to reply to my letter.
And at the same time, in the post-Soviet years many different monuments have been erected in Moscow, including the “Luzhkov-janitor”, processed cheese, and a ruble.
We wrote an appeal to the President of Russia about the statement of the monument to General Skobelev in the capital of Russia. A new project of the monument was created, a place was proposed - near the Old Square, in Ilyinsky Square. But at the last meeting of the Military Historical Society, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky suggested another place: opposite the building of the Academy of the General Staff in the South-West. Sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov has already made a layout. I think this is the right decision - after all, the current graduates of this academy, according to my observations, do not know anything from the Schelian heritage.
I am deeply convinced: without knowing and respecting our great past, we will never build a decent future.
A few years ago, A.A. Leonov and two friends turned to the St. Andrew’s Parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Vladimir Region, near the site of the crash of Yuri Gagarin’s plane. The astronauts offered to help restore the chapel in the village of Novoselovo, built under the patronage of the sovereign Alexander II in memory of the heroes of the 1812 war of the year and desecrated during the years of Soviet power. At their expense, the walls of the chapel were dried, fortified and restored, the floors were restored, 9 bells were cast for the belfry. Each bell bears the name of an astronaut who has gone to eternity, and the largest of them, of course, is called "Yuri". 28 March, on the day of the death of Yuri Gagarin, thousands of people come there. And from the stela-monument, everyone now goes to the chapel and listens to the "bell voices" of astronauts, reaching to the heart.
- Andrey Samokhin
- http://www.stoletie.ru/obschestvo/aleksej_leonov_u_nas_byla_ogromnaja_vola_k_kosmosu_865.htm
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