“I still remember this silence”

On April 12, Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day. And in the Kemerovo region, the entire year 2024 has been declared the year of space. On March 4, Alexander Grebenkin, a native of the city of Myski, went to the ISS as part of the eighth crew of Crew-8 on Elon Musk’s spacecraft. A few days ago, Roscosmos posted photographs taken by a Kuzbass resident from space, depicting Siberia. Grebenkin should return to Earth in September. In the meantime, in a video published by NASA, he says “hello to everyone from orbit.” 

Grebenkin is the third pilot from Kuzbass to be in space. Before that, Boris Volynov, a native of Prokopyevsk, the only living member of the first cosmonaut corps of the USSR, flew there twice. Another outstanding pilot is Alexey Leonov. On March 18, 1965, Leonov made the world's first spacewalk. NeMoskva journalists visited the homeland of the famous cosmonauts.

“After his death they announced that we would have a tourist village here”

“Parental home - the beginning of the beginning... Listvyanka is the small homeland of Alexei Leonov, the cosmonaut pilot” - this banner hangs on the highway in the Tisulsky district, two hundred kilometers from Kemerovo. Opposite is the space park, as the locals call it. Canadian spruce trees brought from outer space grow here. They took part in the famous joint Soviet-American Soyuz-Apollo flight. In 1975, right in space, Leonov gave larch seeds to his colleague Thomas Stafford, and in return received Canadian spruce seeds. Upon arrival on Earth, Canadian spruce trees were planted in the botanical garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They took root, and eight years later, at Leonov’s request, 20 cosmic trees were delivered to Listvyanka, where the cosmonaut personally planted them and where they grow to this day. There are also larches, apple trees, rowan trees and other trees.

The total area of ​​the forest park is 97 hectares: this is exactly how many revolutions around the Earth the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, whose commander was Alexei Leonov, made. The alleys are planted in the shape of the letter “L” - so that Listvyanka, where Leonov was born, can be seen from space. 

Now it’s impossible to walk there - knee-deep mud and waist-deep grass left over from last year. But this year they promise to improve the place and lay asphalt directly to the village of Listvyanka, to the monument to the famous cosmonaut.

— This park, we planted all the trees ourselves. I was in 7th grade. And then Leonov came and planted blue spruce trees. It’s very beautiful there.. He went here often. There were no friends or acquaintances of Leonov left. He left here when he was three years old. But this is still his homeland. We saw him constantly afterwards. He came often. As it started in 1975, it continues like this all the time. And there were meetings with residents. I didn’t come for 3-4 years just before my death. The last time was when he was already 78 years old. He was old. He and his wife came. Well, of course the police, security. We also have Lake Berchikul, he loved to relax there. And Leonov’s daughter came. Beautiful. Lives in America. They say that Leonov has his own bank in Moscow. They are not poor by any means. But after the death, the children no longer came,” says local resident Tatyana Ilyina. – After his death, they announced that we would have a tourist village here. Leonov will be the main object of attention. Where is the monument to Leonov, a chapel will be erected. The house where the memorial plaque hangs was recently completed and covered with siding. They said: “We’ll take a house for a museum, and give the owners an apartment.” But somehow everything became quiet. In general, they didn’t live in this house much. We moved when Leonov was maybe two years old.  

How he died, so many programs were filmed here, there were so many correspondents. At Malakhov’s they showed this house, the hole in the ceiling from the hook on which the cradle hung, in which Leonov was rocked. We haven't had a club for a long time. And now they are building a new one, dedicated to space. Right there, right behind the neuropsychiatric dispensary. I don’t know exactly what will happen there. But they say there is nothing like this even in Kemerovo. They plan to deliver it in February next year. And on the second floor of the administration they want to make a Leonov museum. It seems his paintings will be exhibited there. Leonov is also an artist.   

“Leonov did nothing for our village”

The administration of the village, where there may be a museum, is located directly opposite Leonov’s house on Kosmicheskaya Street. The post office and the local police station are also located here. The second floor is empty and falling apart right before our eyes. 

- Leonov did nothing for our village. Nothing at all. When he arrived in 1975, they built us asphalt and that street. When he came, he talked to us and talked about space. Then, at the meeting, people asked questions. Once they asked for help: “They want to close our school! Where would we be without school? What should we villagers do? Well, where are we going?” He replied: “I should have given birth more,” and that’s all. We were hoping that he would somehow act, that he would talk in Moscow. Our school was destroyed. Now children are taken to Tisul. There are two buses. And all that remains of our school are ruins,” Tatyana continues with resentment.

Those who met with Leonov in Kuzbass say that it is a sin for the locals to be offended by the cosmonaut. And they remind that it was on the basis of a fabricated denunciation by fellow villagers that Alexei Leonov’s father was sent to jail.

“They concocted a case of “attempt on Soviet power.” Immediately without trial or investigation - to Mariinsk. Siblag. When my father was imprisoned, everything was taken away, and the children were expelled from school. The neighbors even took off my pants. I was wearing only a shirt. Such bitterness was caused towards the enemies of the people. What kind of enemy of the people is he?” – recalled in his last interview with Alexey Leonov.

Then Leonov’s family was saved from cold and hunger by his 19-year-old sister, who left for Kemerovo. Her boyfriend, having learned about what had happened, invited the entire large family to live in his 16 square meters: a pregnant mother-in-law and seven children. Then the father was rehabilitated: as a veterinarian, he saved Siblag’s cattle from death, and his case was reviewed. They did not return to Listvyanka. 

It turned out to be more difficult to feed a family in Kemerovo than in the village. In one of his interviews, Alexey Leonov recalled that at school they were given rations - 50 grams of bread and a spoonful of sugar per person. That's why he felt hungry all the time. In general, not many memories of Leonov about Kuzbass have been preserved. After the war, the Leonovs moved to Kaliningrad. Nevertheless, there are enough places in Kemerovo where you can get acquainted with the life and work of the famous cosmonaut. For example, at the Leonov airport in the regional center there is a cosmonaut museum.

Here are exhibits of “space” food that astronauts took with them on flights in the last century, and even an astronaut’s suit. The Krasnaya Gorka Museum currently hosts the exhibition “Alexei Leonov - Earth’s Satellite,” where you can see a pilot’s protective helmet with an oxygen mask, a jacket, astronaut badges and a collection of thematic stamps “Space Science Fiction,” created in 1967 by Leonov and artist Andrei Sokolov. And in the foyer of the drama theater there are reproductions of paintings by the famous Kuzbass cosmonaut.

Leonov loved to draw and planned to enter the Riga Academy of Arts, but his family did not have the money for this: life in Riga was unaffordable.

Therefore, in 1953, Leonov joined the army, and then graduated from the 10th military aviation school for initial pilot training in Kremenchug. And five years later he was enrolled in the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts. During his career he performed two space flights with a total duration of 7 days 33 minutes 8 seconds.

Residents of Listvyanka hope that the construction of a recreation center will not end with the construction of a recreation center, and that the village will be turned into a tourist area. Then cafes and hotels will appear here. And this will breathe new life into a dying village. For now, the entertainment here is a children's playground and enjoying nature.

— After the school closed, many people left. The houses were simply abandoned and abandoned. You can see for yourself how many of them are abandoned.

And in 2014, a psychoneurological clinic was opened. At least there was a job. The boarding school doesn't bother us. 

The dispensary houses 160 people and employs more than a hundred. People come to work from Tisul and neighboring villages. People of all ages are detained, starting from 18 years old. Some cannot support themselves at home, some acquired this disease, some after an accident, some are congenital. All sorts,” says local resident Olga Yakovleva. “I worked there as a junior nurse caring for patients. Well, like a nurse. Can you imagine what it’s like to work with psychochronics?

At first it was wild for us, scary, of course. And then nothing. They got used to us, we got used to them. They make and knit beautiful crafts. Everything is there as it should be. Now there is a construction site nearby, they are building a recreation center, they are interested, they are looking from the third floor, at least there is some variety. They are here for life. 

I completed my preferential seniority and left. All our village men work there now. What would it be like without them? It’s impossible without them. Male strength is needed. Calm down. Because they have all kinds of attacks and aggression.

“Pride in what we have done and how we have lived our lives.”

It is noteworthy that in Leonov’s native village, according to local residents, boys even in the 70s did not dream of becoming astronauts. The same cannot be said about Prokopyevsk. Many people know about the “star” son of the city, as they like to call Boris Volynov here. Few people remember the dates of his flights into space, mostly older people. But absolutely everyone knows that he flew there twice and was friends with Gagarin. Although there are minimal mentions of Volynov in the city. 

The airport in nearby Novokuznetsk is named after him. In the Prokopyevsk City Museum of Local Lore there is a “Cosmos” hall with a real descent vehicle of the Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft and a brake parachute of the reserve parachute system of the space descent vehicle, photographs and documents of the astronaut. There is a bust of Volynov on Gagarin Avenue, a memorial plaque on the building of school No. 1, where the famous cosmonaut studied. In his honor, in 2011, Oktyabrskaya Street, where he once lived, was renamed Volynov Street. 

— The barracks in which Volynov lived were demolished several years ago. It is noteworthy that there is exactly one like this nearby, built in the same year, but it was abandoned and people continue to live there. But Volynov’s house was destroyed. Although they could make a museum,” says local resident Tatyana Telbukh.

Volynov was born in Irkutsk. When he turned four, his mother moved to live with relatives in Prokopyevsk. Here, as a pediatrician, she was given an apartment in a two-story barracks.

“My childhood was hungry, it happened during the difficult war years, I even visited a dispensary for the hungry. But that didn’t stop me from going through the tough selection process that every astronaut must overcome,” I told at one of the meetings with Kuzbass schoolchildren Boris Volynov.

Boris met his wife Tamara Fedorovna while still in school here in Prokopyevsk. At school No. 2 there hangs a memorial plaque, unveiled back in 2013, in honor of the gold medalist, the wife of a cosmonaut, Doctor of Technical Sciences, academician of the New York Academy of Sciences and the author of the creation of new high-performance steels and world-class alloys. They have two children - daughter Tatyana lives in the USA. Son Andrei lived in Moscow until recently. Both are non-public figures who refuse to communicate with journalists.

— People didn’t really know Volynov’s house. And it wasn’t advertised much anywhere, he was in terrible condition. But the museum conducted excursions around the city, and the route passed by this house. The school where he studied is named after him. 

By the way, there is a small museum there. I don't remember exactly how long ago he was here. But before, I regularly came to City Day. I saw him a couple of times, I even seem to have photos of him. He is such a very cheerful little man, you can’t even call him an old man. The facial features are so strong-willed, like from Soviet statues. Now it’s mostly done via video link,” shared photographer from Prokopyevsk Vil Ravilov. 

Thus, on April 8, Boris Volynov opened the International Yuri Gagarin Festival via video link from Star City. 

“I want to convey my heartfelt greetings to everyone who sees us, especially the residents of my native Prokopyevsk. April 12 will be a great holiday, when every resident of the country feels like an astronaut,” said Boris Volynov.

This year the astronaut turns 90 years old. During his career, Volynov made two space flights (in January 1969 and summer 1976) with a total duration of 52 days 7 hours 17 minutes 47 seconds. And he set a world record - 30 years of service in the cosmonaut corps. He is the only living member of the “Gagarin” cosmonaut corps. He trained along with Gagarin, Titov and other team members. Repeatedly served as an understudy in preparation for the start. But I waited a long time for my first flight. As Colonel General N.P. Kamanin recalled in his diaries, the leadership removed Boris Valentinovich because of his Jewish origin.

Volynov has not been traveling much lately. But before, I came to Kuzbass quite often and always met with schoolchildren. He talked about his friendship and neighborhood (they lived on the same stairwell) with Yuri Gagarin, about the fact that in their house there was no apartment No. 13, and in their unit there was not a single fighter plane with that number.

He shared his memories of how he learned to jump with a parachute (Boris Volynov himself had 164 jumps under his belt, half of which were tests), how difficult it was for him on his first flight, and how with difficulty he was allowed to go to his own wedding for three days. 

— Once, on the 42nd day of my second flight, the flight engineer and I were both at the rear of the station. The lights went out, we were on the dark side. And there was complete silence. Silence of space. I still remember this silence,” said Volynov. 

The last time Volynov was in Kuzbass was in 2021 at the opening at the airport in Novokuznetsk.

Then the air harbor was named after the pilot-cosmonaut and a memorial square was opened with a bust on which Volynov was depicted in a spacesuit after his first flight in January 1969 on the Soyuz-5 spacecraft. Then, under his command, docking with another spacecraft was carried out for the first time.

— When something is named after you, especially an airport in your homeland, it is, of course, pleasant and honorable. In addition, it is a great responsibility and pride for what we have done and how we have lived our lives, -  shared  at the opening of the festival with his emotions Boris Valentinovich.

In Myski, nothing has yet been named after Grebenkin. But in his native school 4 they are already preparing a gift for him - they are making a model of the ship on which he made his first flight into space. People in their hometown hope to see Grebenkin this year, because his mother and sister continue to live in Myski. And after such a long journey, he simply had to visit them. 

The last time a cosmonaut was in Siberia was a year ago at the opening of the Yuri Gagarin festival. Then, together with regional officials, he discussed the prospects of creating an astronaut school for children and youth. Grebenkin supported the idea and agreed to take the school under his wing: 

“Believe me, space is closer than it seems. I'm an ordinary guy, from the city of Myski in the south of Kuzbass. At the age of six, I set myself the goal of becoming an astronaut, and more than 30 years later, as a test cosmonaut in the detachment, I became closer to my dream. It worked for me, so it will work for you too.”