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From the reviews: "In this book … Burgess (Australian spaceflight historian) and Hall (British education consultant) provide a wealth of interesting information on the first group of 20 Soviet cosmonauts. … Like the first American astronauts, the cosmonauts interacted in both a cooperative and competitive manner. … The book includes many photographs of the cosmonauts in training and in their personal lives, as well as some recent images of the few surviving members from the original group. Summing Up: Recommended. All undergraduate and public libraries." (J. Z. Kiss, Choice, Vol. 46 (10), June, 2009) “This is a much needed reference work on the early history of the Soviet cosmonaut team. The authors have done an exemplary job in putting together a vast amount of information into a coherent volume that will undoubtedly be of great use for future researchers. That the pictures in this volume are of the highest quality only adds to its value.” (Asif Siddiqi, Quest, Vol. 18 (4), 2011)
Product Description
The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team will relate who these men were and offer far more extensive background stories, in addition to those of the more familiar names of early Soviet space explorers from that group. Many previously-unpublished photographs of these “missing” candidates will also be included for the first time in this book. It will be a detailed, but highly readable and balanced account of the history, training and experiences of the first group of twenty cosmonauts of the USSR. A covert recruitment and selection process was set in motion throughout the Soviet military in August 1959, just prior to the naming of America’s Mercury astronauts. Those selected were ordered to report for training at a special camp outside of Moscow in the spring of 1960. Just a year later, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Air Force (promoted in flight to the rank of major) was launched aboard a Vostok spacecraft and became the first person ever to achieve space flight and orbit the Earth.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book reveals the story of the first cadre of twenty soviet cosmonauts who were the counterpart to the american team of Mercury 7. While the american astronauts were notoriously known to the public from the Day 1, their soviet colleagues remained unknown till the day of their first spaceflight or, as highlighted in this book, were "forgotten" in case they did not make it to the space.
The authors prepared an excellent historical document with plenty of details, many of them published for the first time. This marvelous book pays tribute not only to those who made it to orbit but says the stories of those eight guys who were dismissed from the cosmonaut team without actually flying. Some of them had to go due to medical reasons, some due to disciplinary reasons, mainly drinking and womenizing. These two "sins" were not compatible to the picture of the soviet hero and comunist and consequently the sinners had not only to leave, but they were not mentioned at all for decades. This was the case of half of the unflown eight - they were M.Rafikov, G.Nelyubov, I.Anikeyev and V.Filatyev.
To understand their heavy drinking and subsequent macho behaviour it's probably useful to say that the status of the Soviet Army in sixties of the previous century was similar to gods. The army was still praized for the victory over nazis in World War 2 ( or The Great Patriotic War as they called it in the Soviet Union)and you would be probably not believing your eyes seeing an old woman standing up from her seat in the public bus to offer the seat to the young uniformed soldier (!). And if the "ordinary" army was treated like this just imagine the aviators who are the elite in every army. Drinking is still the problem in the Russia and it's neither beer nor wine - it's a hard stuff vodka which is the Number One on the list and used to be consumed in unbelievable quantities.
This book is brilliant, very well written and fills another gap in the history of the early soviet space flight. Definitely a must for anybody interested in the "space" history.
One small comment related to the picture on the page 205 ( Nelybov and trainer Titarev)- the building behind is not the KGB Headquarters, it's the quite innocent Lomonosov Universty in Moscow :-). KGB building in Lubyanka square is rather ugly looking construction whose outlook matches the dark purpose it served.
Laurenc Svitok
Bratislava, Slovakia
The authors prepared an excellent historical document with plenty of details, many of them published for the first time. This marvelous book pays tribute not only to those who made it to orbit but says the stories of those eight guys who were dismissed from the cosmonaut team without actually flying. Some of them had to go due to medical reasons, some due to disciplinary reasons, mainly drinking and womenizing. These two "sins" were not compatible to the picture of the soviet hero and comunist and consequently the sinners had not only to leave, but they were not mentioned at all for decades. This was the case of half of the unflown eight - they were M.Rafikov, G.Nelyubov, I.Anikeyev and V.Filatyev.
To understand their heavy drinking and subsequent macho behaviour it's probably useful to say that the status of the Soviet Army in sixties of the previous century was similar to gods. The army was still praized for the victory over nazis in World War 2 ( or The Great Patriotic War as they called it in the Soviet Union)and you would be probably not believing your eyes seeing an old woman standing up from her seat in the public bus to offer the seat to the young uniformed soldier (!). And if the "ordinary" army was treated like this just imagine the aviators who are the elite in every army. Drinking is still the problem in the Russia and it's neither beer nor wine - it's a hard stuff vodka which is the Number One on the list and used to be consumed in unbelievable quantities.
This book is brilliant, very well written and fills another gap in the history of the early soviet space flight. Definitely a must for anybody interested in the "space" history.
One small comment related to the picture on the page 205 ( Nelybov and trainer Titarev)- the building behind is not the KGB Headquarters, it's the quite innocent Lomonosov Universty in Moscow :-). KGB building in Lubyanka square is rather ugly looking construction whose outlook matches the dark purpose it served.
Laurenc Svitok
Bratislava, Slovakia
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you want all the hard facts about the Soviet Cosmonauts, this is the book for you. If you want a shocking biography with drugs and scandals, look elsewhere.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Space Sleuthing At Its Best
4 May 2009
Format:Paperback
Absolutely masterful chronicle of the careers and fates of the earliest Soviet cosmonauts, as determined by a team of dogged space sleuths who over decades had to penetrate Soviet secrecy and coverups and outright falsifications to figure out the human stories behind the headlines. I'm celestially proud to have been one of their colleagues and a contributor of some resources on this daunting voyage of discovery -- whose wonderful fruits are displayed in this book that never could have been written without these inspired amateur space historians. Well done!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Immaculately researched and full of touching personal details.
26 May 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book is full of photos (candid and official), beautifully laid out and full of (unlike other earlier books on the subject) meticulously researched and full of citations and further reading pointers.
It is a series of mini biographies of the cosmonauts in chronological order, and explains a lot of the "lost cosmonaut" legends (which were just that, legends).
The poignant stories of the men who never made it to space are quite touching, especially the story of young Bondarenko and his premature death.
Much more attention is given to how the selections were made for the "first 20" than is given to further Soyuz missions, but I found the details interesting and felt they gave a lot of humanity to the men and women involved.
Very little is written about the parallel NASA program, but there are good books on the subject already.
If you have more than a passing interest in this subject I highly recommend this book. Several times primary sources (interviews with the cosmonauts themselves) are used and I liked those sections above all.
Another good book on this subject is Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon. Those two books together should be enough to satisfy any CCCP-era space buff.
It is a series of mini biographies of the cosmonauts in chronological order, and explains a lot of the "lost cosmonaut" legends (which were just that, legends).
The poignant stories of the men who never made it to space are quite touching, especially the story of young Bondarenko and his premature death.
Much more attention is given to how the selections were made for the "first 20" than is given to further Soyuz missions, but I found the details interesting and felt they gave a lot of humanity to the men and women involved.
Very little is written about the parallel NASA program, but there are good books on the subject already.
If you have more than a passing interest in this subject I highly recommend this book. Several times primary sources (interviews with the cosmonauts themselves) are used and I liked those sections above all.
Another good book on this subject is Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon. Those two books together should be enough to satisfy any CCCP-era space buff.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Pulling back the veil of the Soviet space program.
23 May 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A truly impressive book on the early Soviet Cosmonauts. For decades the history of the early American astronauts has been well known but even after the fall of Communism in the old Soviet Union little has been written about the early Soviet cosmonauts. To date this is without question the best book on these men.
The book covers a rather surprising amount of area and features both good writing and scholarship. It's far from a dry biography. The book itself covers the usual areas you would expect. Things like their training and life after the space program. The book also delves into some of the mysteries of the program. Things like the "missing cosmonauts". These were men who were in the program and then suddenly removed and when I say removed I mean completely removed. Photographs that showed groups of cosmonauts together suddenly had a cosmonaut airbrushed out of the picture like he never existed. This book covers this area and the rumors of cosmonauts who were killed in missions that were then simply covered up like they never happened. The authors answer these questions extremely well due to some excellent research.
While I had read books by both of these authors in the past and enjoyed them, I think this book may be their best work. I think most people interested in this historical era will greatly enjoy it and find it an excellent reference tool as well.
The book covers a rather surprising amount of area and features both good writing and scholarship. It's far from a dry biography. The book itself covers the usual areas you would expect. Things like their training and life after the space program. The book also delves into some of the mysteries of the program. Things like the "missing cosmonauts". These were men who were in the program and then suddenly removed and when I say removed I mean completely removed. Photographs that showed groups of cosmonauts together suddenly had a cosmonaut airbrushed out of the picture like he never existed. This book covers this area and the rumors of cosmonauts who were killed in missions that were then simply covered up like they never happened. The authors answer these questions extremely well due to some excellent research.
While I had read books by both of these authors in the past and enjoyed them, I think this book may be their best work. I think most people interested in this historical era will greatly enjoy it and find it an excellent reference tool as well.
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