Is it true that Gagarin was not the first man in space, and the USSR hid cosmic catastrophes with victims

For many years there has been a debate about the success of the space program of the Soviet Union. Supporters of conspiracy theories argue that the "cannibalistic system" did not spare its children for the sake of political ambitions. In their opinion, the Soviet government concealed that dozens of cosmonauts died before and after the flight of Yuri Gagarin: during takeoffs and landings, in orbit, on the Moon (and even on Mars!), Or even disappeared forever in the black abyss.

Life hacker figured out whether there really were "zero" cosmonauts in the USSR.

What is known about the early Soviet programs to launch a man into space

The first projects of launching a man outside the earth's atmosphere in the USSR were A. I. Pervushin. Krasny Kosmos. Starships of the Soviet Empire. - M., 2007 to be developed almost immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War. These plans were implemented in the VR-190 project.

However, it was about suborbital, and not about orbital flights: the rockets of this project could not develop sufficient speed to launch an artificial Earth satellite. They were supposed to rise to the upper layers of the atmosphere, after which the compartment with the crew was planned to be lowered to Earth by parachute.

The BP-190 project used the developments of the designers of the Nazi FAU-2 ballistic missile. At first, Soviet engineers Mikhail Tikhonravov and Nikolai Chernyshev worked on it, then the project was taken up by the design bureau of Sergei Korolev.

Several missiles were created under the designation "R-1" (later there were others: "R-2" and "R-5"). The first successful launch of living beings on them took place already in 1951: the mongrels Gypsy and Dezik went on a suborbital flight.

By the end of the 50s, work on "BP-190" was closed by AI Pervushin. Krasny Kosmos. Starships of the Soviet Empire. - M., 2007 as hopeless. Man never went into suborbital orbit.

Despite this, it was the VR-190 project that became the basis for a number of conspiracy theories, according to which, before Yuri Gagarin, several Soviet citizens were sent on suborbital and orbital flights. All but one of them were said to have died.

Who are called "zero" Soviet cosmonauts

For the first time, information about the "zero" cosmonauts was Pervushin A. I. "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files circulated in the foreign press in the early years of the space race. The denunciations of the "cannibalistic" missile program of the USSR appeared more and more often and were overgrown with details.

So, in 1958, Pervushin AI reported about the crash of the spacecraft launched from the Kapustin Yar test site. The "terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files German rocket pioneer Hermann Obert. He did not vouch for the plausibility of the story, because he received information, according to his own statement, from third parties.

In 1959, the Italian news agency Continentale wrote AI Pervushin "A terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. Secret materials of the XX century about the death of several Soviet cosmonauts. There were no reliable sources behind the sensational headline either: it was a certain "high-ranking Czechoslovak communist."

According to Continentale, the victims of suborbital flights in the late 1950s were:

Alexey Ledovsky Ledovskiy, Aleksei. Astronautix in 1957;
Terenty Shiborin Shiborin, Serenti. Astronautix in 1958;
Andrey Mitkov Mitkov, Andrei. Astronautix in 1959;
Marya (Mira) Gromova Gromova, Mirya. Astronautix - According to Continentale, in the same 1959, she allegedly "sent a space plane into oblivion."

One of the most interesting documents was the recordings of negotiations between Soviet cosmonauts and the command on the ground, allegedly intercepted by the brothers Achille and Giovanni Giudica-Cordilla, Italian radio amateurs. They, according to their own assurances, did not miss a single launch, perfectly tuned the equipment and learned to quite accurately interpret the signals of spaceships. Together with like-minded people, they even managed to create a network of similar stations around the world.

In the 1960s, the brothers presented a whole series of "audio evidence" of Soviet space catastrophes with human casualties.

Recording of the voice of "Valentina the cosmonaut" allegedly burned out during the flight in 1961 or 1963.

Here is a list of the "lost astronauts" associated with the recordings of Achilles and Giovanni Giudica-Cordilla:

Alexey Grachev Graciov, Alexis. Astronautix is a Soviet cosmonaut who allegedly accidentally flew away from Earth in 1960 and sent an SOS signal to the whole world in Morse code.
Gennady Mikhailov Mikhailov, Gennady. Astronautix. The brothers Giudica-Cordilla claimed to have caught a radiogram of panting and increasing heart rate two months before Gagarin's flight. Some supporters of theories about the dead Soviet cosmonauts believe that they belong to Mikhailov.
Lyudmila Ludmila. Astronautix is a female astronaut who complained of a rise in temperature ("… I'm hot. I see flames …") and allegedly burned out in the atmosphere in May 1961. According to other sources, a few months after the flight of Valentina Tereshkova, in November 1963.
Unknown cosmonauts and an astronaut, according to radio amateurs, died in 1962. We had lively negotiations with the Earth: “The conditions are getting worse, why don't you answer?.. The world will never know about us …” One of them is called Alexey Belokonev Belokonyov, Alexis. Astronautix.

There is information about other allegedly dead Soviet cosmonauts:

V. Zavadovsky Zavadovski, V. Astronautix - in 1959 tested space equipment. According to Reuters, died in 1960.
Ivan Kachur Kachur, Ivan. Astronautix - supposedly died during the first manned space flight of the USSR in 1960.
Peter Dolgov Dolgov, Piotr. Astronautix - Lieutenant Colonel of the Airborne Forces, test parachutist, according to some theories, died in 1960 in space.
Andrey Mikoyan Mikoyan, Andrei. Astronautix and his partner are rumored to be Soviet cosmonauts who died during a secret flight to the moon in 1969. Due to the failure of the automation, they allegedly flew past its orbit.

Despite the large number of named names, these lists are far from complete. Zheleznyakov A. Gagarin Was Still the First. ORBIT, Journal of the Astro Space Stamp Society. Conspiracy theorists call other names, as well as talk about unnamed "lost astronauts."

One of the craziest versions says that the Soviet rover was controlled by an unnamed dwarf - a KGB officer who agreed to a suicidal mission.

One of the most plausible candidates for the "zero" cosmonauts is considered the son of the famous Soviet aircraft designer Sergei Ilyushin - the designer of the "IL" aircraft. - Approx. author Vladimir Ilyushin. He, unlike many potential "zero", was a real person, and in addition - a test pilot of the Sukhoi design bureau, which produced Su aircraft. Ilyushin set several altitude records.

British and French journalists the day before Gagarin's flight called AI Pervushin "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. The XX century secret materials of Vladimir Ilyushin were the first person to be in orbit, and his injuries (in 1961, the pilot was undergoing treatment in China) are evidence of an unsuccessful mission. It allegedly took place on April 7, 1961. Rumors spread that the flight of Gagarin was even arranged to divert one's eyes from this failure.

Later, the theory was supplemented with new details. They said that Ilyushin was unable to eject and after a hard landing spent a year in captivity in China, and Gagarin was eliminated by the KGB in 1968 so that he would not blab about it.

Did "zero" astronauts really exist?

There is no convincing evidence of the veracity of the stories about the "zero" astronauts. Back in the 1970s, after conducting a large-scale study of the materials then available, space technology expert, former NASA engineer and ardent anti-adviser James Oberg declared Oberg J. Uncovering Soviet Disasters. NY. 1988 that all these stories are fiction. Declassified documents and eyewitnesses of the events also did not confirm AI Pervushin "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files these theories.

The stories of Continentale also did not receive Pervushin A. I. The "terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files are not officially confirmed, and the agency that released one sensation after another quickly fell out of favor.

The names of Belokonev, Kachur, Grachev, Mikhailov and Zavadovsky got into Pervushin A. I. "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. X-Files of the XX century in the list of the dead only because the Associated Press journalist who saw them in the Soviet newspapers in 1959 mistakenly mistook test pilots for future cosmonauts. In particular, Belokonev lived until 1991, and in an interview with Golovanov Ya. Cosmonaut No. 1. - M., 1986 to journalist Ivan Golovanov, he confirmed that none of the aforementioned was part of the cosmonaut corps: they were all just testing high-altitude equipment.

Vladimir Ilyushin also never was Pervushin A. I. The "terrible secret" of the Soviet cosmonautics. X-Files of the XX century among the conquerors of space. His treatment in China had nothing to do with the space tragedy: in 1960, Vladimir was seriously injured in a car accident.

Pyotr Dolgov was the closest to space from the hypothetical "zero". That's just Golovanov Y. Cosmonaut No. 1. - M., 1986 he died in 1962 (two years later than it was stated) when testing a spacesuit, jumping with a parachute from a height of more than 25 kilometers above the Earth. Coming out of the balloon's capsule, Dolgov damaged the visor of his helmet, due to which his suit was depressurized.

"Zero" cosmonautics was also impossible for technical reasons.

For example, in the Soviet R-5A missiles used for suborbital flights in the 1950s, the cargo hold was too small for a person. Only dogs flew on them, and some (for example, Red and Joyna in 1957, Palm and Fluff, Zhulka and Button in 1958) of them really died Zheleznyakov A. Gagarin Was Still the First. ORBIT, Journal of the Astro Space Stamp Society on unsuccessful launches. These and other unmanned flights may have been mistaken for the tragic expeditions of unknown Soviet cosmonauts.

Departure on a translunar trajectory, according to the brothers Giudica-Cordilla, in the 1960s was simply impossible for Soviet missiles Siddiqi A. A. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974. NASA. 2000. There was no Zheleznyakov A. Gagarin Was Still the First. ORBIT, Journal of the Astro Space Stamp Society then and spaceships capable of taking on board more than one astronaut - they will appear only in 1964.

The main problem with the recordings of the brothers Giudica-Cordilla is the fact that no other radio station on Earth recorded such signals. Even the nascent NATO defense system with apparently more powerful equipment did not record anything like this. Although, under the conditions of the Cold War, the failures of the USSR would have become a propaganda weapon.

A number of critics also argue that the brothers simply could not have the necessary radio equipment to intercept communications and instrument readings, as well as separate them from other noises. The breath and heartbeat of the crew were never transmitted over audio channels, but sent to Earth in the form of numerical data. The "cosmonauts" themselves on the recordings ignore the requirements of the protocols and the terminology of the Soviet Air Force. So the brothers most likely created Oberg J. Uncovering Soviet Disasters. NY. 1988 forgery.

What are the rumors about the lost astronauts based on?

Rumors of a conspiracy by the leaders of the Soviet space program were so strong that it even influenced the perception of real events. So, in the "Guinness Book of Records" published in 1964, Pervushin A. I. was indicated as the first cosmonaut. "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files Vladimir Ilyushin, not Yuri Gagarin. And in 1967, after the Soyuz-1 disaster, there was a story about how the dying Vladimir Komarov said goodbye to his wife with tears and scolded the Soviet system.

The thing is that space work in the USSR was carried out in the strictest secrecy. For example, the name of Sergei Korolev was kept secret for a long time. His family might not have known that the pilot was preparing to become an astronaut. Even the dogs that took part in the tests had pseudonyms.

Some of the real failures and tragedies were really tried not to spread. But rumors about them still spread and acquired incredible details. So it was Pervushin A. I. "The terrible secret" of the Soviet cosmonautics. X-Files of the XX century with the unsuccessful start of the mission to Venus in February 1961. The station stuck in orbit was then called a successfully launched heavy satellite.

There are also known secret cases of the death of Soviet cosmonauts. Thus, until the 1980s, the Soviet authorities concealed the death of Valentin Bondarenko, a member of the first cosmonaut corps. He died Golovanov Y. Cosmonaut No. 1. - M., 1986 in 1961 due to an accident in the pressure chamber. Senior Lieutenant Bondarenko was only 24 years old, he was the youngest in the detachment.

Together with Bondarenko, they often recall Oberg J. Uncovering Soviet Disasters. NY. 1988 another member of the first squad - Grigory Nelyubov. However, his name was deleted from the space chronicle Pervushin A. I. "Terrible secret" of the Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files due to a drunken scandal. Ivan Anikeev and Valentin Filatyev were also expelled with him. Addicted to alcohol Nelyubov died in 1966 under the wheels of a train under mysterious circumstances.

A terrible disaster happened in 1960 at Baikonur. As a result of the explosion of the R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile, more than 70 (according to various sources, up to 120 people) of the cosmodrome and military personnel were killed. Among them was the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Nedelin, whose name is often denoted by this incident. About him became known only in the era of publicity.

The total secrecy and suppression of failures, most likely, became AI Pervushin "The terrible secret" of Soviet cosmonautics. XX century X-Files are the basis for conspiracy theories.

Information about the "lost" Soviet cosmonauts, whose bodies still remain in orbit or roam the vastness of the Universe, have nothing to do with reality and, at best, are worthy of the title of urban legends. Like any conspiracy theories, due to their secrecy, they are still popular. But the reality is much more prosaic.