Cosmonaut Popovich Pavel Romanovich: brief biography

The first Ukrainian cosmonaut, Pavel Popovich, was born in the simplest and most ordinary family. Hardly anyone could then think that this man will become one of the few who will be lucky in 1960 to be enrolled in the first cosmonaut detachment together with the legendary Yuri Gagarin and twice fly into space.

Little-known fact about the official date of birth

Pavel Popovich, the cosmonaut, whose biography will be considered in our article, was born in October 1929. In all official sources, the date of birth of this famous person is 1930. Such confusion has its own explanation, because during the Second World War, Germans, burning the native town of Pavel Romanovich, destroyed his birth certificate. At that time, it was possible to restore any personal documents only through the court and with two witnesses confirming all the recovered data.

For reasons unknown to the present day at the trial, two witnesses stated that the little Pasha was born in 1930. Despite the statements of her mother that she gave birth to her son in 1929, the court accepted the side of the witnesses, and in the boy's metric there was an entry according to which the year of his birth was designated 1930.

Family and parents of the future conqueror of space

Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose biography was under close scrutiny during the Soviet era and continues to arouse considerable interest today, spent his childhood in Ukraine. He grew up in the town of Uzin, which now belongs to the Belotserkovsky district of the Kiev region.

His family was quite ordinary for that time. His father, Roman Porfiryevich, was a simple peasant, a Stakhanovite, who had worked on the ground since childhood. At one time he managed to finish only 2 classes of church school. Since the construction of the sugar plant in his town of Uzin, the father of the future cosmonaut, known to the whole world, worked on him as a stoker. The wife of Roman Porfirievich and Pavel's mother - Feodosiya Kasyanovna - was from a richer family. Her parents categorically opposed the fact that her daughter married a poor peasant. But Feodosiya showed character and, despite the fact that after marriage to Roman she was left without any help from wealthy relatives, still married a beloved man. As a result of this love in 1929, one of their sons, Paul, appeared. In total, this family had five children.

Difficulties of post-war childhood

Pavel Popovich - an astronaut, whose photo can be seen in our article - experienced a difficult childhood, as well as many of his peers, whose childhood years passed in the postwar period. But even before the war, being one of the five children of not too wealthy parents, the boy realized that life is not easy.

In 1933, terrible hunger struck Ukraine, and the future cosmonaut Popovich (who then turned 4 years old) had a terrible illness - rickets. The boy managed to survive only thanks to his strong body, but due to this illness the child had a very large head. Despite such problems, he never ceased to help his parents, was a shepherd, shepherded sheep and cows.

Before the Second World War, when the boy was a pupil of the 4th grade, he found another way to help earn his family - Pavel became a nanny of his own aunt's children. She lived 5 km from Uzin, and this future cosmonaut Popovich, whose biography was not easy from the very childhood, barefoot, carrying his shoes in their hands so that they do not wear out in vain.

When the war began, Uzin was occupied by the Germans, and Paul felt the full burden of the enemy occupation. One German lived for a long time at the post in the house of the Popoviches and forced the boy to learn German with rather rigid methods: if the child could not answer the question put to him in the German, he was beaten. In 1943, the Germans began to forcefully take young men and boys to work in Germany, and avoiding such raids, as a young man, Pasha was forced to change into a girl and hide himself in the homemade cellar (dug by his father in the stable) at night. After one such night, the 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 family with many children had to overcome many difficulties. The boy returned to study, but since his relatives needed help in earning, his parents decided to take him out of school. Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose biography was difficult from his childhood, was a round honors pupil, and thanks to this teachers stood up for the protection of such a pupil and did not allow parents to leave him uneducated. Since the young man really enjoyed studying, but also wanted to help his family, he was forced to find a job at night and get a job at a local plant as a weigher.

Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose family was not particularly well-off, understood that he would not be able to work and study in this mode for a long time, besides, his earnings were not too great, and in the family he felt like an extra mouth. Therefore, when a friend invited him to enter a vocational school in the White Church, the decision was made almost immediately. Talented Paul, who at the entrance exams was able to make an ideal stool, enlisted in the school immediately to the second year. As a student he was entitled to a stipend and three meals a day. Having received some financial relief, in parallel with the school he entered and continued his studies in the evening school.

Education received

In 1947, the future conqueror of the starry spaces, cosmonaut Popovich, graduated from the vocational school and received the specialty cabinetmaker. Also with a commendable letter he graduated from the evening school. The young man had to go to work on distribution, but he had the relentless urge to continue his studies further. Having put a lot of effort into this, Pavel entered the construction faculty of the Industrial Technical School of Labor Reserves, which was located in Magnitogorsk. It was there that the guy's talents unfolded: he started boxing, light and heavy athletics, and by the end of his studies got ranks in 6 different sports.

Passion for the Air

Interest in the aircraft, which was born to Paul as a child during the war, with age, was not lost anywhere. Being a fourth-year student, he got to the local aeroclub of the city of Magnitogorsk. While engaged there, he found himself at the helm of the UT-2 aircraft and for the first time ascended to the sky.

Having successfully graduated from the Industrial College, the strongest sportsman, besides a member of the flying club, did not go unnoticed by the military commissariat and was sent for further training to the Military Aviation School, which was located near Novosibirsk.

Beginning of an aviator career

After the successful completion of the first course, in 1952, Pavel Popovich, the astronaut, whose photo was provided in our article, was sent to a special purpose airfield, which was located in the Amur region near the village of Pozdeevka. Fast enough after arriving in the rank of sergeant, he becomes the foreman of the squadron. Beginning in 1954, Pavel studied at the Military Aviation School of the Air Force and after graduation became a pilot in the fighter aviation regiment number 265, and in 1957 appointed senior pilot. Almost a year later, he is sent to serve in the fighter aviation regiment No. 772, where he becomes an adjutant of the squadron.

Space Odyssey of Popovich

1959 became for Paul Romanovich largely fateful, because just then in the USSR was created a special military medical commission, which worked according to the ministerial program on the preparation of man for flight into space. Based on the results of numerous conversations, inspections and analyzes, Popovich became one of the 12 cosmonauts who were selected and became the first listeners of the course conducted by the Air Force Cosmonaut Training Center.

And already in 1960 K. Vershinin, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, confirmed by his order that Pavel Popovich (whose biography and subsequent life was determined in many ways by this order) together with Yuri Gagarin, A. Nikolayev, G. Titov and other legends of Soviet cosmonautics is being prepared To fly into space.

The first flight to the "East-4"

The fact that the right of the first flight was given to Yuri Gagarin is a fact well-known. 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 ship was launched. He was piloted by Andrei Nikolayev, and on August 13 he was joined by Vostok-4, which was run by Pavel Popovich. It is really very difficult to overestimate the importance of this event on a world scale, because thanks to this flight for the first time experiments were conducted on establishing a radio link between two ships in space.

Also Pavel Romanovich for the first time in the history of mankind carried out the orientation of the ship in outer space with the help of manual control. The natural fact was that after a successful landing the cosmonaut was met as a hero - with an honorary escort, mass rallies. His family was honored to meet his world-famous relative in honorable tribunes next to the highest Soviet leadership. For the fact that Pavel Romanovich took part in the first group space flight, and for his courage he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The second flight into space

Repeatedly the title of the All-Union Hero Popovich was 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 studies on how various factors influence the human body during space flight.

Wives and Daughters of the Astronaut

Pavel Popovich, an astronaut whose personal life worried many Soviet women at one time, had two formal marriages. His first wife was Marina Lavrentevna (maiden name Vasiliev). 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 together they lived a good deal - 30 years. In this marriage, two children were born: Oksana and Natalya, who both graduated from MGIMO. This marriage was happy, but difficult, because both spouses had a strong stubbornness and strong character due to their profession. After parting, they managed to maintain friendly relations. Each of them quite successfully arranged his further personal life. Marina Lavrentyevna remarried a man whose fate was also directly connected with the sky. Her second choice was Major-General of Aviation - Boris Zhikhorev. Pavel Romanovich also married a second time. His chosen one was Alevtina Fedorovna. It was with her that he lived until the end of his life.