Beregovoy georgy timofeevich cosmonaut. "Union" tamer. how a war hero saved the space program of the USSR. Space mission results

Quoted1\u003e\u003e Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich

Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich (1921-1995)

Short biography:

Cosmonaut of the USSR:№71;

Cosmonaut of the world:№248;

Number of flights:1;

Duration: 144 days 15 hours 21 minutes 50 seconds;

Number of spacewalks: 6;

Georgy Beregovoy - 71st Soviet cosmonaut and hero of the USSR: biography with photos, space, personal life, significant dates, first flight, Union, call sign Argon.

71 cosmonaut of the USSR and 248 cosmonaut of the world.

Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich was born on the fifteenth of April 1921. In the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the small village of Fedorovka, in the Karlovsky district of the Poltava region.

He died on the thirtieth, in June 1995. Today his grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery, in the city of Moscow.

His mother - Beregovaya, by her maiden name Sitnikova, Maria Semyonovna was a housewife. She was born in 1896 and died in 1974. His father was Timofey Nikolayevich Beregovoy, who was born in 1888 and died in 1950.

His wife, Beregovaya Lidia Matveevna, worked as a methodologist, and later began to teach at one of the schools of the Star City. From their marriage, Lyudmila Eliseeva, who works as an artist-fashion designer (1956) and Viktor Beregovoy (1951), a professor at the Moscow Aviation Institute, were born.

Georgy built furniture for home and summer cottages, and was also fond of various types of carpentry work. In his free time, he liked to dance the waltz and sing.

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the cosmonaut with the call sign "Argon" took the twelfth place, and thirty-second in the world. Made one flight, which lasted three days, twenty-two hours, fifty minutes and forty-five seconds. By vocation, he was a pilot-cosmonaut of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the second set of the Air Force.

In 1937, the cosmonaut graduated from 8 classes in the town of Yenakiyevo. In the same period, in the same place of residence, he began classes at the flying club.

Starting attending the aviation military school of Voroshilovgrad, named after the Proletariat of Donbass of the Kharkov Military District, on December 12, 1938 and graduating on June 13, 1941, where he was promoted to a bomber aviation pilot.

In December 1942, training began in the fifth training air regiment, two hundred and sixty-fourth ShAD, and the third of the VA front. He finished it on March 25, 1943.

In 1945, from June 3 to November 7, he was present in the department, where the training of the commanders of the Moscow Military District took place, as a student.

In 1947, in Limanskoye Selo, Odessa region, he passed the exams for the ninth grade, the incomplete secondary school named after Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev.

Starting on July 9, 1947 and ending on August 23, 1948, he was a student of the KVVA faculty. On December 25, 1956, after graduating from the correspondence department, he received the status of an Air Force officer of higher education.

In April 1975, he needed to defend his dissertation, for which he took the place of a candidate of psychological sciences.

Three years later, in June, he deservedly received the title of "senior researcher".

Space

Space training of OKP, with the permission of General N.P. Kamanin, took place from January 25, 1964 to January 23, 1965. Georgy was able to study the design of the Voskhod spacecraft, Voskhod-2 and Vostok.

In March 1965, he began to take an interest in the use of space and flying vehicles in combat.

In 1966, from January to May, he prepared for a joint military flight with V. Shatalov, the duration of which was to consist of 20 days. Despite the completed preparation and training, the flight was canceled due to the closure of the Voskhod program in 1966.

From December 1966 to May 1968 he was trained as the commander of the Soyuz spacecraft (7K-OK), initially, being in group 3 of the crew, and from June 1967 of the first crew. For unknown reasons, the flight with the docking of the two ships was postponed.

In August 1968, he began training as a pilot-in-command of Soyuz-3, using the program for docking with the Soyuz-2 spacecraft. The operation was completed in October of the same year.

The main task was not fulfilled, it was difficult to create a docking with the Soyuz 2 spacecraft. The two structures could only get closer to thirty meters, but then the automation pushed them away from each other. And due to the large waste of fuel, I had to stop trying to complete this task.

The first flight lasted three days twenty two hours fifty minutes forty five seconds.

Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich - squadron commander of the 90th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment (4th Guards Assault Aviation Division, 5th Assault Aviation Corps, 5th Air Army), Guard Senior Lieutenant;
Soyuz-3 spaceship commander, colonel.

Born on April 15, 1921 in the village of Fedorovka, Karlovskaya volost, Constantinograd district, Poltava province (now Karlovskiy district, Poltava region, Ukraine). Ukrainian. From the autumn of 1921 he lived in the city of Yenakiyevo (now Donetsk region, Ukraine). In 1937 he graduated from the 8th grade of the school. He worked at the Yenakiyevo Metallurgical Plant. In 1938 he graduated from the Yenakiyevo flying club.

In the army since December 1938. In June 1941, he graduated from the Voroshilovgrad Military Aviation Pilot School. He served in the Air Force as a pilot in the reserve and short-range bomber aviation regiments (in the Volga Military District).

Member of the Great Patriotic War: in June-November 1942 - flight commander of the 451st assault aviation regiment, in November-December 1942 - flight commander of the 235th assault aviation regiment. He fought on the Kalinin front. Participated in the Rzhev-Sychev operations.

In December 1942 - March 1943, he underwent retraining in the 5th training aviation regiment (Kalinin Front).

In July 1943 - May 1945 - deputy commander and squadron commander of the 671st (from May 1943 - 90th Guards) assault aviation regiment. He fought on Voronezh (July-October 1943), 1st (October 1943 - September 1944) and 2nd (September 1944 - May 1945) Ukrainian fronts. Participated in the Battle of Kursk, the liberation of the Left Bank Ukraine, the Kiev offensive, Zhitomir-Berdichev, Korsun-Shevchenko, Proskurov-Chernivtsi, Lvov-Sandomierz, Debrecen, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava-Brnov and Prague operations.

On July 28, 1943, his plane was shot down by an enemy fighter and escaped by parachute. During one of the sorties he was slightly wounded by a bullet in the shin of his left leg.

In total, during the war, he flew 185 sorties in an Il-2 attack aircraft to bombard enemy personnel and equipment.

For courage and heroism shown in battles against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 26, 1944 to the captain of the Guard Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

In November 1945 he graduated from the Lipetsk Higher Officers' Tactical Flight School. Until 1947, he continued to serve in the Air Force as a navigator and head of the air rifle service of an assault aviation regiment, navigator of a fighter aviation regiment (in the Odessa Military District).

In 1947-1948 he studied at the Air Force Academy (Monino), in 1956 he graduated from it by correspondence.

In August 1948 - January 1964 - test pilot of the State Red Banner Scientific Testing Institute of the Air Force. Conducted state tests of supersonic interceptors MiG-19P, Su-9 and Tu-128; tests of combat jet aircraft Yak-25, Yak-27R, Su-7B and Su-9 for a spin, tests of a training jet aircraft MiG-15UTI for an inverted spin. Participated in state tests of the I-320 (R-2), MiG-17F, SM-7, MiG-19S, SM-12, SM-30, Yak-25RV-I and others.

From January 1964 to February 1982 he was a member of the cosmonaut corps.

On October 26-30, 1968 he made a space flight as the commander of the Soyuz-3 spacecraft, lasting 3 days 22 hours 50 minutes.

For the successful implementation of space flight and the displayed courage and heroism by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 1, 1968, the colonel was awarded the second Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin.

From April 1969 - Deputy Head, and in June 1972 - January 1987 - Head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Since January 1987, Lieutenant-General of Aviation G.T. Beregovoy - retired.

He worked in the computing information center "Lidar" of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 8-10th convocations (1970-1982).

He lived in the village of Chkalovsky (now within the city of Shchelkovo), since 1966 - in the Star City of the Shchelkovsky District of the Moscow Region. He died on June 30, 1995. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Honored Test Pilot of the USSR (03.14.1961), Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (01.11.1968), Lieutenant General of Aviation (1977), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1969), Cosmonaut of the 3rd class (1968), Candidate of Psychological Sciences ( 1975).

Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (26.10.1944; 1.11.1968), 2 Orders of the Red Banner (26.08.1942; 28.09.1943), Orders of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 3rd degree (16.04.1944), Alexander Nevsky (20.10.1943), 2 Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (01/14/1945; 03/11/1985), 2 Orders of the Red Star (04/30/1954; 02/22/1955), the Order For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd degree (04/30/1975) , the medal "For Military Merit" (06/20/1949) and other medals.

Hero of Socialist Labor of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1970). He was awarded the Bulgarian Order of Georgi Dimitrov (1970), the Hungarian Order of the Banner of the Hungarian People's Republic of the 1st degree (04.1970), the Mongolian Order of the Red Battle Banner, the Polish Order of the Grunwald Cross of the 3rd degree, the Romanian Order of Tudor Vladimirescu of the 5th degree, foreign medals.

Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1981, for the training of crews under the "Intercosmos" program). He was awarded the FAI Gold Space Medal (1977) and the Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal (FAI, 1968).

Honorary Citizen of the cities of Kaluga (1968), Baikonur (1977, Kazakhstan), Lugansk (1968), Enakievo, Vinnitsa (1969, Ukraine) and Starokonstantinov (Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine), Pleven and Sliven (Bulgaria).

A bronze bust of G.T. Beregovoy was installed in the city of Yenakiyevo, busts were also installed in Kiev and the village of Fedorovka, Poltava region. In Yenakiyevo, on the building of the school in which he studied, in the village of Chkalovsky and Star City, memorial plaques were installed on the houses in which he lived.

Note: Awarded for completing 108 combat missions (as of April 1944).

Compositions:
Earth - stratosphere - space. M., 1969;
Attack angle . M., 1971;
The sky begins on Earth. M., 1976;
Space flight safety (co-authored)... M., 1977;
At the call of the heart. M., 1981;
Space for earthlings. M., 1981;
Cosmonaut's in-flight activities and increasing its efficiency (co-authored)... M., 1981;
About time and myself. M., 1982;
Space for earthlings. 2nd edition. M., 1981;

G.T.Beregovoy

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (10/26/1944, 11/01/1968), Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (11/01/1968), Honored Test Pilot of the USSR (04/14/1961), Lieutenant General of Aviation (02/14/1977).
Laureate of the State Prize for the training of crews for flights under the "Intercosmos" program (December 29, 1981), Hero of Socialist Labor of the NRB (1970).
Born April 15, 1921 in the village. Fedorovka, Poltava region. He graduated from the Voroshilovograd School of Military Pilots named after the Proletariat of Donbass in June 1941. A year later he mastered piloting the Il-2 attack aircraft and began fighting as a squadron commander of the 90th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment.
Member of the Great Patriotic War. During his participation in hostilities from May 1942, he flew 186 sorties, bombed and stormed enemy tanks, artillery batteries, river crossings and echelons, was shot down 3 times, burned 3 times in an aircraft, but always returned to service.
During the battles for the Sandomierz bridgehead, Captain Beregovoy took part in the legendary "star" raid by Soviet aviation on a fascist airfield near Lvov. And he served in the 5th Assault Aviation Corps, commanded by one of the first seven Heroes of the Soviet Union, Major General N.P. Kamanin. In October 1944, Beregovoy was also awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
From July 9, 1947 to August 23, 1948, he was a student of the command faculty of the Red Banner Air Force Academy (KVVA). Then he transferred to the correspondence department, which he graduated on December 25, 1956, receiving the specialty "Air Force officer with higher command and staff education."
From 23 August 1948 he served as a test pilot, and from 30 June 1949 - senior test pilot of the flight test department of the Aircraft Testing Department of the V.P. Chkalov Air Force GKNII.
On January 19, 1951, he was transferred to the 3rd divisions of the fighter aircraft flight test department. On April 5, 1952, he was transferred to the 2nd department of this department to the post of deputy chief of the department for flight operations. On October 29, 1953, he was dismissed from the post of deputy head of the department, while retaining the post of test pilot. On July 8, 1957, he was appointed deputy head of the 1st department for flight work, while retaining the position of senior test pilot.
On August 8, 1959, he was appointed Chief Test Pilot of the 1st Test Aviation Squadron of the Office for Testing Interception Systems and Fighter Aircraft.
From February 25, 1961, he served as a senior test pilot, from March 23, 1962, served as deputy squadron commander, from April 13, 1963, until he was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps, served as commander of the 1st aviation test squadron, senior test pilot of the flight test service of the 1st control of the GKNII VVS, military unit 15650.
Raised on the first flight (as a 2 pilot) and performed tests of the R-2 (I-320; 09.09.1949). Participated in the tests of the MiG-19P, SM-12, SM-30 (MiG-19), Yak-27K, Su-9 (1958), Tu-128 (1962), the leading test pilot for state tests of the Yak-25.
Once in flight on the Su-9 Beregovoi felt a partial jam in the control system - the handle did not move "towards itself." Such a malfunction usually requires a catapult. After several attempts to overcome the emphasis, Beregovoy pulled the handle on himself with force, and it went! It turned out that a bolt got into the wiring element of the control system (before the booster), and with a strong jerk, it jumped out. P.O. Sukhoi awarded Georgy Timofeevich with a movie camera for his endurance and saving the plane.
He was the first to use the GSh-4 pressure helmet in practice. He tested more than 60 types of aircraft.
In 1964 he was enlisted in the detachment of Soviet cosmonauts. The help of the former front-line commander N.P. Kamanin, who then supervised the preparation of the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts, helped the 43-year-old tester overcome the age limit (35 years).
In 1968, a group of new future cosmonauts arrived at the Mission Control Center in Evpatoria, including the Hero of the Soviet Union, 47-year-old Colonel Georgy Beregovoy and 41-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Shatalov. Without showing the usual respect for the technical leadership of flights, these officers said that experienced pilots, as is customary in aviation and the navy, should be involved not only in training for flight on a ready-made spacecraft, but also in the development of manned space technology itself.
Beregovoi boldly stated that members of the State Commission, technical management and other leaders are being excessively cautious, they are stretching unmanned launches for years (after the death of V.M. Komarov). If we force the launches of spacecraft with a man on board, then new manned structures will be created much faster.
On August 28, 1968, another 7K-OK spacecraft called Kosmos-238 was launched and returned safely to Earth. All 5 unmanned flights of ships of this series were successful, and the government commission decided to prepare a manned flight. It was necessary not only to repeat the flight that V. Komarov performed, but also to go further - to dock the two spacecraft, which would make it possible to begin preparations for the launch of long-term space stations.
On October 25, the unmanned target ship 7K-OK N 10 Soyuz-2 was launched without comment. Its onboard systems worked fine. It was decided that the long-range rendezvous with the unmanned spacecraft would be carried out automatically using the Igla search system, and from a distance of 150 meters, the pilot of the active Soyuz-3 spacecraft would begin the rendezvous manually. Since the ballistics specialists calculated the docking in the darkened, night part of the orbit, the signal lights will light up for a visual reference on the Soyuz-2 in the form of a pyramid. Many did not agree with the docking in the unlit part of the orbit. Many people understood that without a certain period of adaptation to weightlessness and getting used to the sensations of a real flight, it would be very difficult to complete the task on the move ...
The launch vehicle was launched on October 26 at 11 hours 34 minutes 18.1 seconds.
The cosmonaut reported: "Range - 40". That is, six-ton \u200b\u200bspacecraft were separated from each other by only 40 meters, and at that time they left the radio visibility zone of ground tracking points. As soon as the ships reappeared in the communication zone, everyone realized that the "blind" docking had failed ...
When Beregovoy was asked about his health, he replied:
- The state of health is excellent, the mood is lousy.
What happened is that when the manned vehicle approached it, the Soyuz-2 turned upside-down 180 degrees along the longitudinal axis. Having just endured the starting overloads and excitement, having no time to get used to the unusual state of weightlessness, the unpleasant sensations of nausea, the cosmonaut had to dock manually, although before him the automation had coped well with this task. Beregovoi had difficulty adapting to the rapidly falling darkness and “chased” the four trapezoidal lights on the approaching Soyuz-2. When he braked at a distance of 30 meters, he realized that he had to turn his Soyuz, otherwise the pin of his “active” ship would not dock with the cone of the “passive” twin. Then he decided to go into the light zone and accidentally hooked one of the control sticks. His Soyuz-3 started spinning. Within 3 minutes, the astronaut corrected the roll, consumed about 40 kg of fuel and realized that it was already dangerous to continue the approach of space objects.
Much that Beregovoy had to experience in that heroic flight, on Earth, no one foresaw, much was not taught on simulators, and someone else, in addition, made a mistake in the calculations and assumptions. At that time, designers, ballistics and automation specialists unwittingly created such conditions for the space raid of a brave man that he became the most "tense" link in the complex chain of orbital flight control.
Nevertheless, the cosmonaut returned to Earth with a huge number of valuable comments that helped to eliminate mistakes and shortcomings in the preparation of a new shift of astronauts and the design of more advanced spaceships.
Beregovoy was awarded the second Gold Star medal and was awarded the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union for the successful completion of an orbital flight and for the courage and heroism shown at the same time.
On January 22, 1969 in the Kremlin, during a solemn meeting of the cosmonauts, officer Viktor Ilyin fired at the car in which Beregovoy was driving, mistaking it for Brezhnev's car (the mistake was also facilitated by the slight external resemblance between Beregovoy and Brezhnev). The driver sitting next to Beregovoy was mortally wounded; Beregovoy himself was lightly wounded by fragments of a windshield.
On April 9, 1969 he was appointed senior instructor-cosmonaut, deputy head of the 1st Research Institute of the CTC.
From June 26, 1972 to January 3, 1987, he served as the head of the 1st Research Institute of the CTC named after Yu.A. Gagarin.
Expelled from the cosmonaut corps on February 25, 1982. He continued his service at the Research Institute of the CTC.
On January 3, 1987, with the rank of lieutenant general, he was transferred to the reserve by age. He worked in the VITs "Lidar" of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then in a joint venture.
He had works in the field of astronautics and engineering psychology. PhD in Psychology. He was a co-author of scientific discoveries in the field of physics of the upper atmosphere.
Elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 8-10 convocations (1974-1989); was the commander of the All-Union Komsomol military-sports game "Eaglet", the commander of the All-Union youth army movement; was Deputy Chairman of the Soviet-Hungarian Friendship Society, a member of the Presidential Council of the USSR-France Society, Chairman of the Soviet-Polish Friendship Society; was elected Chairman of the Council of the Inter-Republican Union of Veterans and Reserve Soldiers. Author of the books "Angle of Attack" (1971), "The Sky Begins on Earth" (1976), "About Time and Me" (1982), "Three Heights" (1986), "Earth - Stratosphere - Space", "Space - earthlings ”,“ The Edge of Courage ”,“ At the Call of the Heart ”. Co-author of the books "Optical phenomena in the atmosphere from observations from manned spacecraft" (1972), "Space Academy". Moscow: Mechanical Engineering, 1987
He died on June 30, 1995 after coronary artery bypass surgery. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1981); He was awarded two Gold Star medals of the Hero of the Soviet Union and two Orders of Lenin (October 26, 1944, November 1, 1968), two Orders of the Red Banner of the Battle (1942, 1943), the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky III degree (1944). the Order of Alexander Nevsky (1943), two Orders of the Patriotic War I degree (1945, 1985), two Orders of the Red Star (1954, 1955), the Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree (1975). The medals "For Military Merit" (1949), "For Victory over Germany" (1945), "For the Capture of Budapest" (1945), "For the Capture of Vienna" (1945) and the 11th anniversary medals.
Awards of foreign countries:
He was awarded the Gold Star medal of the Hero of Socialist Labor of the NRB and the Order of Georgy Dimitrov (NRB, 1970), the 25 Years of People's Power (NRB) medal, the 100th Anniversary of the Fall of the Ottoman Yoke (NRB, 1979), the 100 years since the birth of Georgy Dimitrov "(NRB, 1983), the Order of the State Banner (Hungarian People's Republic, 1985), the Order of the Red Banner with Diamonds (Hungary), the Gold Medal" For Combat Friendship "(Hungary, 1980), Grunwald Cross III degree (Poland ), Order of Tudor Vladimirescu V degree (SRP), Order "People's Hero of Yugoslavia" II degree.

Georgy Beregovoy is the only twice Hero of the Soviet Union in history to receive one Golden Star for military exploits, and the second for space exploration.

Tamer of the "Union". How a war hero saved the space program of the USSR

By the second decade of the 21st century, astronautics began to be regarded as an everyday phenomenon. There is no trace of the former enthusiasm and admiration for the conquerors of space, much more talk about space tourism and the next setbacks of the Russian space industry.

In these realities, the names of those who paved the way into space are gradually erased from the memory of the majority.

Of the "pioneers of the Universe", they remember Gagarin, Leonov, Tereshkova, Titov, and it would be difficult to name a couple of more surnames ... Georgy Beregovoy will probably not be among them.

This man was not among the very first, but at a critical moment for the history of Soviet cosmonautics, it was he who took on perhaps the most difficult mission. He took responsibility for himself, being the most senior in the detachment, the only one who came to him with the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on his chest, having military experience and the experience of a test pilot behind him.

Dream and War

Georgy Beregovoy was born in the Poltava region, in the village of Fedorovka, in April 1921. Soon the parents moved to Donbass, to the city of Yenakiyevo, where the future cosmonaut spent his childhood.

However, in Zhora's youth, the boys did not even hear about space, but they dreamed of becoming pilots. Zhora also dreamed - he started with aircraft modeling, becoming older, he enrolled in the flying club. At the same time, he received a more mundane profession, working as an apprentice locksmith at a metallurgical plant.

Before the army, Georgy Beregovoy completed his studies at the flying club, so the recruit had a direct road to military pilots.

He graduated from the Voroshilovgrad school of military pilots named after the Proletariat of Donbass in 1941, when the war began.

Beregovoy, like many of his comrades, was assigned to the reconnaissance aircraft. After the heaviest losses at the beginning of the war, there were more pilots than serviceable vehicles. As a result, Beregovoy spent his time waiting in line for a combat mission, languishing because he could not do more for the Motherland.

Graduates of the flight school, including Beregovoy, were awarded the rank of sergeants, officer shoulder straps were given only after the start of combat missions. But on sorties, the pilot had to be in boots, and not in windings, which the sergeants wore. A vicious circle - to have boots, you need to become an officer, and to become an officer, you need to fly, and you can't fly if you don't have boots.

He solved the coastal problem by secretly getting AWOL and stitching himself from a local craftsman a kind of boots from boots and the remnants of torn tops. It looked terrible, but he was allowed to fly.

Georgy Beregovoy got to the front, in the very heat, in August 1942 as a pilot of the Il-2 attack aircraft.

It was not for nothing that this aircraft received the nickname "Flying Tank" - a reliable and formidable machine supported the attacks of the Soviet troops, destroying Hitler's manpower and equipment.

But it was among the pilots of attack aircraft that there were the greatest losses during the war years. The explanation was simple - he attacked the Il-2 at a low altitude, and fired at him from all possible types of weapons.

Not only to inflict damage on the enemy, but also to return alive himself - this is what the task was before the pilots of the assault aviation.

George Beregovoy was shot down three times during the war. Once he made his way to his own people for more than four days, and when he came to the airfield, he pretty much surprised his comrades - by that time everyone was sure that he had died.

But the pilot Beregovoy knew how to squeeze the maximum out of the car, find a way out of the most difficult situations.

Once the Il-2 squadron, commanded by Georgy Beregovoi, was attacked by German fighters when returning to the airfield. In such a battle, attack aircraft have little chance of success.

Beregovoy reacted instantly - he took his subordinates to the minimum height. IL-2 flew over the sunflower fields literally one and a half meters above the ground, chopping off the petals with jets of air, which formed a whole cloud. The German fighters were unable to chase the Russian madmen flying "not according to the rules". The squadron returned to base thanks to its commander.

During the war years, Georgy Beregovoy made 186 sorties on the Il-2, which is a very high figure for an attack aircraft. For heroism, courage and bravery shown in air battles of the Great Patriotic War on October 26, 1944, Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The time of peace came, many heroes of the last war dreamed of peace. But Georgy Beregovoy never dreamed of peace, but dreamed something completely different - the profession of a test pilot.

In 1948, after graduating from test pilot courses, he begins to master new technology. During his career as a test pilot, 60 different types of aircraft passed through his hands.

He was the first in the USSR to master flying in an airtight helmet, the first to prove in practice that getting a jet plane into a "spin" is not a certain death, but a working moment.

In October 1959, during tests of the Su-9 high-altitude fighter-interceptor near Beregovoye, the aircraft control stick was jammed. The uncontrolled car had to be abandoned, but the pilot fought to the end, having managed to regain control. When the fighter returned to the airfield, the engineers found that the cause of the emergency was not some cardinal flaw in the design, but a single bolt that interfered with the movement of the control stick. This defect was eliminated as soon as possible, and the aircraft continued testing. And leave the Coastal Machine, the question of what is the reason for the refusal would excite the minds of the designers for weeks and months.

Georgy Beregovoy knew how to take reasonable risks in pursuit of an important goal, but he never crossed the fine line, where smart risk turns into empty prowess and hussariness.

Engineers and designers were sometimes infuriated by Beregovoy's corrosiveness, but they also admitted that his professionalism fully allowed him to reveal all the advantages and disadvantages of the machine. Beregovoi always set the task of bringing a new aircraft to such a state that combat pilots would be able to fly it easily and conveniently.

In 1961, Georgy Beregovoy was awarded the title "Honored Test Pilot of the USSR". In the Kremlin, he was awarded by the future Soviet leader, and then Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev. Both the politician himself and those around him drew attention to the portrait resemblance between Brezhnev and Beregov. Eight years will pass, and this similarity will save Brezhnev's life ...

As a test pilot, Georgy Beregovoy mastered 60 different types of aircraft

By the early 1960s, Beregovoi had accomplished feats that would have been enough for five lives full of adventure.

But Beregovoy does not dream of peace - in 1963 he becomes one of those who are enlisted in the Soviet cosmonaut corps in the so-called "Air Force group number 2".

In the "space squad" Georgy Beregovoy looked like a real "black sheep". He is thirteen years older than the first cosmonaut of the Earth, Yuri Gagarin. Among the young pilots, jealousy arose in relation to an experienced colleague. It sounds ridiculous, but the Hero of the Soviet Union and the honored test pilot were considered "thieves". The fact is that the commander of the first cosmonaut corps, Nikolai Kamanin, commanded a unit during the war, which included the Beregovoy squadron. On this basis, many believed that Kamanin had smuggled his pet into the astronauts.

Legend has it that Yuri Gagarin, in the heat of the moment, once threw: "As long as I live, Beregovoy will not fly into space." By the will of fate, this is exactly what happened - Georgy Beregovoy went into space after the death of the first cosmonaut on Earth.

Training in the cosmonaut corps was not easy for Beregovoy. He was used to controlling airplanes, and in the first spaceships, the pilot remained more of an observer. Beregovoy, accustomed to fighting for the car to the end, did not like parachute jumps, which were an obligatory part of cosmonaut training.

But he was not used to retreating, continuing to work hard on himself, catching up with younger fellow competitors.

Flight of a lifetime

Meanwhile, the "black streak" began in the Soviet cosmonautics. In 1966, Sergei Korolev died. Work on the new Soyuz spacecraft was slow, American competitors were rapidly moving forward.

The government hastened the designers who did not have the authority that Korolev used. They began to rush, which led to more and more mistakes. The first three unmanned Soyuz spacecraft ended their flights in an emergency. It was obvious that the "raw" ship was not ready for flight, however, in April 1967, Vladimir Komarov set off for flight on "Soyuz-1". The result of the haste was the death of the cosmonaut and the actual suspension of the USSR manned program.

The engineers continued to work with the Soyuz, but on Earth it was impossible to "teach to fly" the spacecraft. A new flight was needed, for which no one dared to give the go-ahead.

Failures undermined the determination and confidence that reigned in Russian cosmonautics in the early 1960s.

But it was impossible to be afraid indefinitely. In October 1968, the unmanned Soyuz-2 and Soyuz-3 were to go into space with a pilot on board, who was supposed to dock the ships in space.

The pilot of Soyuz-3 was appointed Georgy Beregovoy - the oldest, most experienced, the only one who had the richest experience as a test pilot.

Soyuz-3 was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on October 26, 1968. At the time, 47-year-old Beregovoy was the oldest space explorer. Moreover, Beregovoy was born earlier than all people who have ever been in orbit, on April 15, 1921, and this achievement will definitely remain with him forever.

The launch was successful, but everything went wrong in orbit. At the very beginning of the flight, Beregovoy was supposed to dock with Soyuz-2, and it was supposed to pass in the shadow of the Earth, in the absence of communication. The rendezvous proceeded normally, but then Soyuz-2 deviated from the established docking parameters. Beregovoy made several attempts, having spent almost all the fuel allocated for the operation, but did not achieve success.

The reason was found out later - as it turned out, the cosmonaut brought the Soyuz-3 to docking in an “inverted state”. In essence, this was not the mistake of Beregovoy, but of the doctors, who by that time did not have sufficient information about the effects of weightlessness. At the first orbits, the cosmonauts get used to the weightlessness of the vestibular apparatus, so docking in manual mode is an extremely difficult task. The coastal, brilliant pilot, in the presence of gravity, could not face the problem that arose in his orbit.

But even this failure turned out to be useful - doctors and engineers took into account this factor, identified by Beregov, in the future.

On October 30, 1968, Soyuz-3 with Georgy Beregov landed safely in the Kazakh steppe.

The test pilot managed to pacify the temper of the "Union", on which someone hastened to put an end to it. To this day, a multiply modified version of the Soyuz delivers astronauts to the ISS.

On November 1, 1968, Georgy Beregovoy became twice Hero of the Soviet Union - the only one who received the first "Gold Star" for the Great Patriotic War, and the second - for a flight into space.

On January 22, 1969, Beregovoy again risked his life, but this time not of his own free will. On this day, the Kremlin honored the crews of Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5, who successfully docked in orbit and returned safely to Earth. The heroes of space, according to tradition, were taken through the streets of Moscow, where they were greeted by the people, and then taken to the ceremonies in the Kremlin.

In addition to the participants in the last flight, other cosmonauts, as well as the leaders of the Soviet state, also followed in the cortege.

At the entrance to the Kremlin, the motorcade was awaited by the terrorist Viktor Ilyin, who planned to kill Leonid Brezhnev. Seeing the general secretary in the front seat of one of the cars, Ilyin opened fire.

But the terrorist was wrong. It was not Brezhnev who was sitting in the car, but Georgy Beregovoy, who outwardly resembled him.

Shards of glass cut Beregovoy's face, but he was not taken aback here either. Taking over the steering wheel from the fatally wounded driver, he managed to stop the car safely.

This story was not talked about in the Soviet Union for two decades, keeping it under the heading "secret".

Word and deed

In 1972, Georgy Beregovoy headed the Cosmonaut Training Center and directed it for 15 long years, possibly the most successful years in the history of Soviet cosmonautics.

He left behind many scientific works in the field of applied cosmonautics, several books of memoirs and a good memory that his friends, colleagues, and students keep.

War hero, tester, cosmonaut, scientist, writer, public figure - Georgy Beregovoy lived a brightest life, not chasing fame and popularity. In his life, the word was always backed up by deed.

Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy died on June 30, 1995 during heart surgery. Buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Today our legendary compatriot would have turned 90 years old

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Lieutenant-General of Aviation Georgy Beregovoy was the first who managed to return from a flight into space alive on the still unfinished spacecraft of the new generation Soyuz. His predecessor, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Komarov, died on the previous Soyuz due to the failure of one of the two brake motors.

He received his first Star of the Hero of Beregovoy back in the Great Patriotic War for 185 sorties in Il-2 attack aircraft. But, having survived the war and in orbit, he almost died from the bullet of a terrorist who attempted to assassinate Brezhnev.

Georgy Timofeevich was also, perhaps, the first to prove that all ages are submissive to space, like love. He flew into space orbit at the age of 47, while guys no older than forty flew there. At one time, the deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the SSS from Yenakiyevo Beregova played a big role in the fate of the current President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych: at first he helped the young director of the motor depot to replenish the truck fleet with vehicles decommissioned in the army. Then Viktor honestly told the cosmonaut about his problems, and Beregovoi helped. On April 12 this year, another of our compatriots, a resident of Zaporozhye, Oleg Skripochka, who recently flew into space, became a Hero of Russia.

The son of the cosmonaut Viktor Beregovoy, associate professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute, told FACTS about the love of Georgy Beregovoy for the sky and love on earth.

“When Beregovoy was asked about his health after the flight, he joked:“ Like after a good drink ”

- Viktor Georgievich, by the time of the first flight into space in the history of mankind, the 50th anniversary of which we are celebrating these days, Georgiy Timofeevich was already a Hero of the Soviet Union, an honored test pilot. Testers are a special caste of pilots; they, as a rule, even look down on astronauts. Say, what does the astronaut control in orbit? After all, he himself is controlled from the ground. What pulled your father - already a respectable person - into space?

- Thirst for the sky, then into space, was probably a consequence of the greatest curiosity of his father, - says Victor Beregovoy... - The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for space was Colonel-General of Aviation Nikolai Kamanin - the famous pilot of the 30s, one of the first to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for rescuing the Chelyuskinites.

During the war, Nikolai Petrovich commanded the air corps in which Beregovoy fought. Kamanin at first discouraged his father from this venture. He referred to the order to take pilots no older than thirty years into the cosmonaut corps. "George," he said, "do you want to be commanded by the boys who have already been in space?"

In the photo on the right: Viktor Beregovoy (1968): “Dad wanted me to become a military aviation engineer. But I didn't want to join the army ... "

But nevertheless, he introduced dad to the chief designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Beregovoi, as an experienced test pilot, formulated several proposals on how to improve the spacecraft's cockpit so that it would be more convenient to control it. Sergey Pavlovich liked these ideas. And Korolev invited his father to the cosmonaut corps.

Yes, at first Beregovoy had a hard time. Some young cosmonauts glanced sideways at the elderly, in their opinion, pilot ...

Then other problems began - my father weighed 90 kilograms. Too much for an astronaut. After hard training and diet, he lost ten kilograms. The blood pressure became the same as that of the 25-year-old, the pulse dropped to a stable 64 beats per minute.

It also turned out that dad can't swim! In the Ukrainian city of Yenakiyevo, where he spent his childhood, there were no suitable reservoirs. And the cosmonauts were thrown into the taiga, and into the tundra, and into the sea. Never mind, Beregovoy soon learned to swim. He was respected for his character, hard work, perseverance, openness, sincerity and cheerful disposition.

After the flight, he was asked how he felt. “Like after a good drink,” he joked. He was a sociable person, sometimes he could drink, but he never got drunk and never suffered, as he knew when to stop. Everyone who visited space knew that it was very difficult there: both overload and weightlessness.

After the death of Korolev, serious troubles began in this industry. In 1967, during the landing of Vladimir Komarov, who was testing the Soyuz-1 new generation spacecraft, one of the two brake engines failed. The ship, descending by parachute, began to rotate, the parachute lines twisted, the canopy collapsed, and the Soyuz with the cosmonaut crashed into the ground.

Komarov's backup was Yuri Gagarin. He rushed into space again. But the chief designer decided not to risk it. The second Soyuz was sent into orbit unmanned, in automatic mode. It was only after its successful landing that the third ship was decided to be launched with a man on board.

But Gagarin, as you know, soon died. Can you imagine what it's like to fly after such an emergency? And here the front-line experience came in handy for my father: in the war, the pilots, who almost every day lost their comrades, learned to overcome fear, not to think about the bad. Dad used to say: if the pilot does not believe in success, he should not take it, he must leave. This is probably why he did it. By the way, he insured the cars that his father had several over the years. But neither he nor other pilots and cosmonauts have ever lived his life! They had such superstition.

"To enter the flying club, the young man dropped out of school and went to the plant"

- How did Georgy Timofeevich become a pilot?

- The first example for him was his older brother Viktor - a pilot, head of the parachute station of the Chelyabinsk flying club. Unfortunately, in 1937 he was arrested and shot, like many other innocent people of different professions, - continues Victor Georgievich. - The middle brother - Mikhail Georgievich - retired lieutenant general, once commanded the country's air defense radio-technical troops. He is now 93 years old.

On the left: Georgy Beregovoy flew into space at the age of 47, while men no older than forty flew there.

My father, like Uncle Vitya, raved about the sky from his youth. As a schoolboy, I wanted to enter the Yenakiyevo flying club. They said that only workers were taken there. So dad, after the eighth grade, dropped out of school, got a job at a metallurgical plant. Again bad luck: 16-year-olds were not admitted to the flying club. Uncle Victor's friend, the head of the flight-parachute school, Vasily Zaryvalov, helped.

Cadet Beregovoy became an excellent pilot. More than once received scolding for recklessness. But they had to fight on attack aircraft. At first he flew in a single (behind defenseless) Il-2 - without a gunner. German fighters beat them like partridges.

Beregovoi also burned three times.

- And after such misadventures, he did not lose the desire to fly?

“That would mean becoming a coward. Such, his father recalled, he had seen only once. The burning stormtrooper was falling rapidly. It was too late to jump with a parachute. Seeing haystacks in the meadow, the pilot jumped out of the cockpit, throwing the gunner in an uncontrollable car. And then the highest justice manifested itself: from hitting the ground, the arrow was thrown out of the cockpit straight ... into a haystack, and the pilot ... missed and broke his spine.

Was your father a fearless person? He did not like loud words and honestly said: “Sometimes he was afraid so that the veins were shaking. But fear is to a certain extent even good, it is a signal of danger. Only if fear is not kept in check can it become a danger itself. It must be restrained by knowledge of technology, experience, which give self-confidence. "

The squadron commander Captain Beregovoy ended the war on May 11, 1945 near the city of Brno in Czechoslovakia. Then he continued to serve in the unit that mastered the American Kingcobra fighters ("King Cobra"). In his heart, he always remained a fighter. He could launch an attack on an enemy fighter in an attack aircraft.

It's time to enter the academy. And my father's general education is only eight classes! And an experienced front-line soldier, a major squadron commander, a Hero of the Soviet Union, went to evening school with soldiers and junior officers to get a certificate of maturity.

- How did Georgy Timofeevich meet your mother?

- And in the same place, while studying at the evening school, in the library of the unit in the village of Limansky near Odessa. Mom, then still a tenth grader, came from Sumy to visit her brother-officer. They began to correspond.

"Until the end of her days, my mother regretted that she did not insist on treating her father abroad."

- Mom entered the Kharkov University at the Faculty of History, - continues the story of Viktor Georgievich. - When I finished the second year, I went with my father to Sumy to acquaint him with my mother, our grandmother, to ask for blessings. At first, the future mother-in-law was categorically opposed. She was afraid that marriage would prevent my mother from completing her education. My father gave his word that family life will not become an obstacle to my mother's studies. He himself studied in absentia at the Air Force Academy, which now bears the name of Yuri Gagarin.

By the time of his marriage, Georgy Timofeevich was already serving as a test pilot at the Air Force Research Institute in the Chkalovskoye garrison near Moscow, this is not far from the future Zvezdny (which was not even mentioned at that time). There was a military unit, and the train stop was simply called “41st kilometer”.

Mom said that on the first day when dad brought her to his house, they buried the crashed pilot in their town. She also recalled how she and her friends celebrated her graduation from university and one of her comrades offered a toast to the second birth of George. Mom was wary. After all, her father tried in every possible way to protect her from his troubles. The pilots told her: your Zhora, Lida, is a real man. The other day, the plane, completely deformed from overloads, landed.

- Why did your father die?

- Mom thought it was because of her stubbornness. I have experienced so much since my youth ... My elder brother was arrested and declared an enemy of the people. Then came the war. After her test flights. And space did not add health. A heart bypass was required. They offered to do it abroad. The then Prime Minister Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin gave money. And dad went to the Moscow cardiological center, where they performed the same operation on Yeltsin, and before that - on the same Chernomyrdin. Only Viktor Stepanovich was operated on at the age of fifty, and his father at 74. The operation was performed by Professor Akchurin, the surgeon who operated on Yeltsin. It was successful, my heart began to work after it. But then my father lost consciousness, did not come to his senses for 12 days, his breathing became paralyzed ... Until the end of her days, my mother regretted that she did not insist on treatment abroad ... It is not for nothing that they say: doctors in our homeland are golden, but we do not know how to care after surgery.

- And what did Lydia Matveevna do?

- She taught history at the Star City school. She taught the daughters of the Gagarins ... a little Titov - they soon left for Moscow. Natasha Popovich taught both the children of the Zudovs and the Volynovs. All the children, she said, studied well. There were no shalopaevs.

By the way, during a trip to the USA with my father, my mother discovered an amazing thing: our children, it turns out, know the history of America better than American boys and girls. In the States, they met with the famous film actor Kirk Douglas. We decided to take a photo near the hotel. Father saw Douglas against the background of the Soviet flag and asks: “Kirk, how do you feel against the background of the Soviet flag? Will you be in trouble "? - "I will pay off!" - he laughed.

Is it true that the notorious terrorist Ilyin mistook Georgy Timofeevich for the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev and because of this Beregovoy almost died in January 1969?

- You mean some similarity of eyebrows? On that day, the country's leadership solemnly greeted the crews of the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 ships returning from the flight, and the festive cortege headed to the Kremlin. The terrorist who organized the shooting near the Borovitsky Gate hardly saw who was in the first car. And there were Beregovoy, Andriyan Nikolaev, Valentina Tereshkova ...

The terrorist was hit by a motorcyclist from the guard. He was injured. But one of Ilyin's bullets hit the head of an elderly driver, who had already managed to get his pension, but his superiors asked him to work for another day. He died. Shards of glass easily wounded my father. The ricocheting bullet scratched Andriyan Nikolaev's back. When the driver lost consciousness, the car moving uphill stopped and began to roll back. My father was not at a loss and pulled the hand brake lever. His reaction was good.