The first Ukrainian cosmonaut, Pavel Popovich, was born in the simplest and most ordinary family. It is unlikely that anyone would have thought then that this person would become one of the few who would be lucky in 1960 to be enlisted in the first cosmonaut corps along with the legendary Yuri Gagarin and fly into space twice.
A little-known fact about the official date of birth
Pavel Popovich, a cosmonaut whose biography with a photo will be discussed in our article, was born in October 1929. Moreover, in all official sources, the date of birth of this famous person is 1930. This confusion has its own explanation, since during the Second World War, the Germans, burning the hometown of Pavel Romanovich, destroyed his birth certificate. At that time, it was possible to restore any personal documents only through the court and if there were two witnesses confirming all the data being restored.
For reasons unknown to this day, two witnesses in court stated that little Pasha was born in1930. Despite the statements of his own mother that she gave birth to a son in 1929, the court took the side of the witnesses, and an entry appeared in the boy's metrics, according to which the year of his birth was 1930.
Family and parents of the future space explorer
Pavel Popovich, a cosmonaut whose biography was under scrutiny during the Soviet era and continues to arouse considerable interest today, spent his childhood in Ukraine. He grew up in the city of Uzin, which now belongs to the Belotserkovsky district of the Kyiv region.
His family was quite normal for that time. Father - Roman Porfiryevich - was a simple peasant, a Stakhanovite, who worked on the land from childhood. At one time, he managed to finish only 2 classes of a church school. Since a sugar factory was built in his city of Uzin, the father of the future, world-famous cosmonaut worked as a stoker there. Roman Porfiryevich's wife and Pavel's mother, Feodosia Kasyanovna, was from a we althier family. Her parents categorically opposed their daughter marrying a poor peasant. But Theodosia showed character and, despite the fact that after her marriage to Roman she was left without any help from we althy relatives, she nevertheless married the man she loved. As a result of this love, in 1929, one of their sons, Pavel, appeared. In total, there were five children in this family.
Difficulties of post-war childhood
Pavel Popovich - the cosmonaut, whose photo can be seen in our article - experienced a difficult childhood, as did many of his peers,whose childhood years were spent in the post-war period. But even before the war, being one of five children of not too rich parents, the boy realized that life is not easy.
In 1933, a terrible famine hit Ukraine, and the future cosmonaut Popovich (who was only 4 years old then) fell ill with a terrible disease - rickets. The boy managed to survive solely thanks to his strong body, but as a result of this disease, the child had a very large head. Despite such problems, he did not stop helping his parents, he was a shepherd, herding sheep and cows.
Before the start of World War II, when the boy was a 4th grade student, he found another way to help his family earn money - Pavel became a nanny for the children of his own aunt. She lived 5 km from Uzin, and the future cosmonaut Popovich, whose biography was not easy since childhood, overcame this distance barefoot, carrying his shoes in his hands so that they would not wear out in vain.
When the war began, Uzin was occupied by the Germans, and Pavel felt the brunt of the enemy occupation. One German lived for a long time in the house of the Popovichs and forced the boy to learn German using rather harsh methods: if the child could not answer the question posed to him in German, he was beaten. In 1943, the Germans began to forcibly take away young men and boys to work in Germany, and, avoiding such raids, as a young man, Pasha was forced to dress up as a girl and hide at night in a makeshift basement (dug by his father in a barn). After one of those nightsthe legendary cosmonaut Popovich turned gray at the age of 13.
Pavel Popovich - cosmonaut: biography (briefly)
Fortunately, the end of the war did come, and a large large family had to overcome many difficulties. The boy returned to school, but since his family needed help in earning money, his parents decided to take him out of school. Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose biography was difficult from childhood, was an excellent student, and thanks to this, the teachers came to the defense of such a student and did not allow his parents to leave him uneducated. Since the young man really liked studying, but also wanted to help his family, he was forced to find a job at night and get a job as a weigher at a local factory.
Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose family was not particularly prosperous, understood that he would not be able to work and study in this mode for a long time, besides, his earnings were not too high, and in the family he felt like an extra mouth. Therefore, when a friend suggested that he enter a vocational school in Belaya Tserkov, the decision was made almost immediately. The talented Pavel, who managed to make an ideal stool at the entrance exams, was enrolled in the school immediately for the second year. As a student, he was en titled to a scholarship and three meals a day. Having received some financial relief, in parallel with the school, he entered and continued his studies at an evening school.
Education Received
In 1947, the future conqueror of the starry expanses, cosmonaut Popovich, graduated from the craftschool and received the speci alty of a cabinetmaker. He also graduated from the evening school with a commendable diploma. The young man had to go to work by distribution, but he had an inexorable desire to continue his studies further. Having made a lot of efforts for this, Pavel entered the construction department of the Industrial College of Labor Reserves, which was located in Magnitogorsk. It was there that the guy's talents were revealed: he began boxing, athletics and weightlifting, and by the end of his studies he received ranks in 6 different sports.
Passion for flying
Pavel's interest in aircraft, which originated in his childhood during the war, did not disappear with age. As a 4th year student, he got into the local flying club of the city of Magnitogorsk. Studying there, he was at the controls of the UT-2 aircraft and took to the skies for the first time.
Having successfully graduated from the Industrial College, the strongest athlete, and besides, a member of the flying club, did not go unnoticed by the military registration and enlistment office and was sent for further training at the Military Aviation School, which was located near Novosibirsk.
The beginning of an aviation career
After the successful completion of the first course, in 1952, Pavel Popovich, the cosmonaut whose photo is provided in our article, received a referral to a special airfield, which was located in the Amur Region near the village of Pozdeevka. Quite quickly after arriving at the rank of sergeant, he becomes a squadron petty officer. Since 1954, Pavel has been studying atAt the Air Force Military Officer Aviation School and after graduation, he became a pilot in the fighter aviation regiment No. 265, and in 1957 he was appointed senior pilot. Almost a year later, he was redirected to serve in the fighter aviation regiment No. 772, where he became the squadron adjutant.
Popovich's Space Odyssey
1959 became a fateful year for Pavel Romanovich in many respects, since it was then that a special military medical commission was created in the USSR, which worked according to the ministerial program on preparing a person for space flight. As a result of numerous conversations, examinations and analyzes, Popovich became one of the 12 cosmonauts who were selected and became the first students of the course conducted by the Air Force Cosmonaut Training Center.
And already in 1960, K. Vershinin, commander-in-chief of the Air Force, by his order secured that Pavel Popovich (whose biography and subsequent life was largely determined by this order), together with Y. Gagarin, A. Nikolaev, G. Titov and other legends of the Soviet cosmonautics is preparing to fly into space.
First flight on Vostok-4
The fact that the right of the first flight was given to Yuri Gagarin is a well-known fact. But after that, in 1962, Sergei Korolev set a new task: in August, a group flight of two spacecraft was to take place. The first part of this task was implemented on May 11, 1962, when the Vostok-3 spacecraft was launched. He was piloted by Andrey Nikolaev, and on August 13 he was joined by"Vostok-4", which was controlled by Pavel Popovich. It is really very difficult to overestimate the importance of this event on a global scale, since thanks to this flight, for the first time, experiments were carried out to establish radio communication between two ships in space.
Also, Pavel Romanovich, for the first time in the history of mankind, performed the orientation of a ship in outer space using manual control. It became a logical fact that after a successful landing, the astronaut was greeted as a hero - with an honorary escort, mass rallies. His family was honored to meet their world-famous relative on honorary stands next to the top Soviet leadership. For the fact that Pavel Romanovich took a direct part in the first group space flight, and for the courage he showed, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Second space flight
Repeatedly the title of All-Union Hero Popovich received in 1974, after he made his second flight into space as the commander of the first crew on the Soyuz-14 spacecraft. His ship docked with Salyut-3 (a space station that was in orbit). This joint flight lasted 15 days. All this time, the astronauts were engaged in the study of the earth's surface. They also made important research on how various factors affect the human body during space flight.
Astronaut's wives and daughters
Pavel Popovich is an astronaut whose personal life in histime was very worried about many Soviet women - he had two official marriages. His first wife was Marina Lavrentievna (maiden name Vasilyeva). She was a colleague of Pavel Romanovich and had an unconventional female speci alty - a first-class test pilot. This couple officially signed in 1955 and together they lived for a long time - 30 years. In this marriage, two children were born: Oksana and Natalya, who both graduated from MGIMO at the time.
This marriage was happy, but difficult, because both spouses, by virtue of their profession, had great stubbornness and strong character. After parting, they managed to maintain friendly relations. Each of them quite successfully arranged his further personal life. Marina Lavrentievna remarried a man whose fate was also directly connected with the sky. Her second chosen one was Major General of Aviation - Boris Zhikhorev. Pavel Romanovich also married a second time. Alevtina Fedorovna became his chosen one. It was with her that he lived until the end of his life.
