The first Ukrainian cosmonaut, Pavel Popovich, was born in the simplest and most ordinary family. It was unlikely that anyone would then think that this man would become one of the few who were lucky in 1960 to be enlisted in the first cosmonaut corps together with the legendary Yuri Gagarin and fly into space twice.
Little-known fact about the official date of birth
Pavel Popovich - an astronaut whose biography with a photo will be considered in our article - was born in October 1929. Moreover, in all official sources, the date of birth of this famous person is indicated in 1930. This confusion has its own explanation, because during World War II, 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 a court and with two witnesses confirming all the data being restored.
For unknown reasons to this day, two witnesses said in court that little Pasha was born in 1930. Despite the statements of her mother that she gave birth to a son in 1929, the court took the side of the witnesses, and a record appeared in the boy’s metric according to which the year of his birth was the 1930th.
Family and parents of the future space explorer
Pavel Popovich - an astronaut whose biography was carefully monitored in Soviet times and continues to cause 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 Kiev region.
His family was completely ordinary for that time. Father - Roman Porfiryevich - was a simple peasant, a Stakhanovite who had worked on the land since childhood. At one time, he managed to finish only 2 classes of church school. Since the sugar factory was built in his city of Uzin, the father of the future, world-famous astronaut worked as a fireman on him. The wife of Roman Porfirevich and mother of Pavel - Theodosius Kasyanovna - were from a richer family. Her parents categorically opposed the daughter to marry a poor peasant. But Theodosius showed character and, despite the fact that after her marriage to Roman, she was left without any help from wealthy relatives, she still married her beloved man. As a result of this love in 1929, one of their sons appeared - Paul. In total, this family had five children.
Difficulties of post-war childhood
Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose photo can be seen in our article, survived a difficult childhood, as did many of his peers, whose childhood passed in the post-war period. But even before the war, being one of the five children of not too rich parents, the boy realized that life was not easy.
In 1933, a terrible famine fell on Ukraine, and the future cosmonaut Popovich (who was then only 4 years old) suffered from 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 the nanny of the children of his own aunt. She lived 5 km from Uzin, and the future cosmonaut Popovich, whose biography has not been easy since childhood, covered 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 Paul felt the brunt of the enemy occupation. One German lived for a long time at a stand in the Popovich’s house and forced the boy to learn German using rather harsh methods: if a child could not answer the question posed to him in German, he was beaten. In 1943, the Germans began to forcibly take young men and guys to work in Germany, and avoiding such raids as a young man, Pasha was forced to dress as a girl and hide at night in a makeshift basement (dug by his father in a stable). After one of these nights, the legendary astronaut Popovich turned gray at the age of 13.
Pavel Popovich - astronaut: biography (briefly)
Fortunately, the end of the war nevertheless came, and a large large family had to overcome many difficulties. The boy returned to school, but since his relatives needed help in earning money, his parents decided to pick him up from school. Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose biography was difficult from childhood, was an excellent pupil, and thanks to this, the teachers defended such a student and did not allow his parents to leave him uneducated. Since the young man really liked to study, but also wanted to help his family, he was forced to find a job at night and get a job at a local factory as a weigher.
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 large, and in the family he felt like an extra mouth. Therefore, when a friend invited him to go to a vocational school in the White Church, the decision was made almost immediately. Talented Paul, who at the entrance exams managed to make an ideal stool, was enrolled in the school immediately for the second year. As a student, he was entitled to a scholarship and three meals a day. Having received some financial relief, in parallel with the school, he enrolled and continued his studies at evening school.
Received education
In 1947, the future conqueror of stellar expanses, cosmonaut Popovich, graduated from a vocational school and received the specialty of cabinet maker. He also graduated from evening school with a certificate of commendation. The young man was supposed to go to work on distribution, but he had an inexorable desire to continue his studies further. Having put a lot of effort into this, Pavel entered the construction faculty of the Industrial College of Labor Reserves, which was located in Magnitogorsk. It was there that the guy's talents were revealed: he began to engage in boxing, athletics and weightlifting, and by the end of his studies received ranks in 6 different sports.
Passion for flying
Interest in airplanes, which originated with Paul as a child during the war, did not disappear with age. As a 4th year student, he ended up in a local flying club in Magnitogorsk. Pursuing it there, he was at the helm of the UT-2 aircraft and first flew up to the sky.
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 near Novosibirsk.
The beginning of an aviation career
After successfully completing the first year, in 1952, Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose photos are presented in our article, received a referral to a special-purpose airfield located in the Amur Region near the village of Pozdeevka. Quickly enough after arriving in the rank of sergeant, he becomes the foreman of the squadron. Since 1954, Pavel studied at the Air Force Military Officer Aviation School and after graduation became a pilot in the fighter aviation regiment No. 265, and in 1957 he was appointed senior pilot. Almost a year later, he was transferred to serve in the fighter aviation regiment No. 772, where he became an adjutant of the squadron.
Space Odyssey of Popovich
1959 was a fateful year for Pavel Romanovich, 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. According to the results of numerous conversations, examinations and analyzes, Popovich became one of the 12 cosmonauts who passed the selection and became the first students of the course conducted by the Air Force Cosmonaut Training Center.
And already in 1960, K. Vershinin, Air Force Commander-in-Chief, secured by his order that Pavel Popovich (whose biography and subsequent life was largely determined by this order), together with Yu. Gagarin, A. Nikolayev, G. Titov and other legends of Soviet cosmonautics, were preparing to fly into space.
The 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, Sergey Korolev set a new task: in August a group flight of two spacecraft was to take place . The first part of this task was realized on 05/11/1962, when the Vostok-3 ship started. He was piloted by Andrey Nikolayev, and on August 13, Vostok-4, which was controlled by Pavel Popovich, joined him. It is really very difficult to overestimate the importance of this event on a global scale, because thanks to this flight, experiments were first conducted to establish radio communications between two spacecraft.
Also, Pavel Romanovich for the first time in the history of mankind performed the orientation of the ship in outer space using manual control. It was a natural 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 his world-famous relative in the honorable stands next to the top Soviet leadership. Because Pavel Romanovich took a direct part in the first group space flight, and for his courage, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
The second space flight
Popovich again received the title of All-Union Hero 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 in orbit). This joint flight lasted 15 days. All this time, the astronauts were studying the earth's surface. They also performed important research on how various factors affect the human body during space travel.
Wives and daughters of an astronaut
Pavel Popovich - an astronaut whose personal life at one time was very worried about many Soviet women - 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 specialty - a first-class test pilot. This couple officially signed in 1955 and they lived together 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 tremendous 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 connected directly with heaven. Her second elect was the 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.