Georgy Beregovoy: Soviet Cosmonaut and Training Center Director
Georgy Timofeyevich Beregovoy (15 April 1921 – 30 June 1995) was a Soviet cosmonaut who commanded the space mission Soyuz 3 in 1968. He headed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from 1972 to 1987.
Early Life and Education
Beregovoy was born on 15 April 1921 in Fedorivka, Poltava Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father worked as a telegraph operator on the railways. He had two older brothers: Viktor, who became a pilot, and Mikhail, an officer in the Soviet Air Defence Forces. Viktor was arrested and executed during the Great Purge in 1938, though he was later rehabilitated.
Beregovoy graduated from school in 1938 at Yenakiieve in the Stalino Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. He joined the Soviet Air Forces in 1941 and was assigned to a ground-attack unit flying the Ilyushin Il-2. During World War II, he flew approximately 185 combat sorties and finished the war as a captain and squadron commander. His corps commander was Nikolai Kamanin, a celebrated polar aviator who would later head cosmonaut training. In 1956, Beregovoy graduated from the Air Force Academy.
Career and Achievements
After World War II, Beregovoy became a test pilot and over sixteen years test-flew approximately sixty different aircraft, rising to the rank of colonel and deputy chief of the air force’s flight-testing department. In 1962, he applied for cosmonaut training, sponsored by his former commander General Kamanin, who was then head of the cosmonaut training program.
In 1965, Beregovoy was scheduled to fly Voskhod 3, but that mission was never launched. On 25 October 1968, he commanded Soyuz 3, orbiting Earth for almost four days at an altitude of up to 252 kilometers. During the mission, Beregovoy maneuvered his craft twice into rendezvous positions with the uncrewed Soyuz 2 but was unable to establish a direct physical link before returning on 30 October 1968. At 47 years of age, he was the earliest-born human to reach orbit. Soyuz 3 was his only spaceflight. He retired from active duty shortly after and was promoted to Major General.
Beregovoy took a position at the Centre for Cosmonaut Training and became its Director in 1972, a role he held until 1987. After retirement, he served as a Soviet parliament member representing the Donbas region of the Ukrainian SSR. He also worked as a consultant for the 1983 film “Our Century” directed by Arvazd Peleshyan.
Notable Events and Milestones
During a public ceremony honoring the Soviet cosmonaut team in 1969, Beregovoy was lightly wounded in an assassination attempt on Leonid Brezhnev. In October 1969, he and fellow cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov traveled throughout the United States as guests of NASA, visiting various cities and Disneyland in California. They were accompanied by US astronauts including Eugene Cernan and Neil Armstrong, and were protected by US State Department Special Agents.
Beregovoy died during heart surgery on 30 June 1995 and is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Awards and Honors
Beregovoy was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice: first on 26 October 1944 for his military service during World War II, and a second time for his space flight. He was the only Soviet cosmonaut to undertake space flight while already holding the Hero of the Soviet Union distinction for a previous non-space achievement.
His other awards included the title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR, two Orders of Lenin (1944 and 1968), two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (3rd class), the Order of the Patriotic War (1st class, twice), two Orders of the Red Star, the Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR (3rd class), the Medal for Battle Merit (1949), the Medal “For Impeccable Service” (1st class), and the USSR State Prize (1981). He also received various commemorative medals and the Gold Medal of the Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Additional Resources
Beregovoy’s life and career are documented in greater detail through Wikipedia and other biographical archives, which provide comprehensive information about his military service, cosmonaut training, space missions, and his role in Soviet space program administration. Researchers interested in early Soviet spaceflight and the history of cosmonaut training will find extensive material available through these sources.
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