Cosmonauts in Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve!

April 9, 1962, is celebrated in Russia on April 12. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first manned space flight aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft on this very day in 1961.

Over 500 people have traveled into space and orbited the Earth at present. More than ten of these great persons visited the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve in different years.

Georgy Timofeyevich Beregovoy, Hero of the Soviet Union, Honoured Test Pilot of the USSR, lieutenant-general of aviation, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, came to Kirillov in June 1976.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Shatalov, double Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, visited the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve in 1981. Some photos and the book of V.A. Shatalov “Difficult Roads of Space” are still kept in the holdings of the museum.

Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko, Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, double Hero of the Soviet Union, came to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve on March 16, 2002. After the tour, he expressed his deepest gratitude to the restorers and keepers of our history and culture and signed the Distinguished Visitors’ Book.

Besides, the whole groups of spacemen visited the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. For example, ten cosmonauts went to see the museum in May 2008. Vladimir Vasilievich Kovalyonok, Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov, Ivan Mikhaylovich Levenets, Viktor Dmitrievich Blagov, Anatoly Nikolaevich Berezovoy, Alexander Sergeevich Ivanchenkov, Vladimir Petrovich Sokolov, Viktor Mikhaylovich Afanasiev, Igor Adolfovich Marinin (member of the Presidium of the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia, chief editor of the magazine “Novosti Kosmonavtiki”) admired the main exhibitions of the museum and the architectural ensemble of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

Before leaving, every cosmonaut who visited our region wished health, success and happiness, thanked the guides and urged all people to preserve the holy place that had passed down to us.