With space love to Earth: Alexei Leonov’s rules of life

Alexei Leonov, the first man who went into outer space, twice Hero of the Soviet Union was born on May 30, 1934. This year, he celebrates his 85th birthday.

Much has been written about life and deeds of Alexei Leonov. Most people know him as an astronaut who has made a huge contribution to the development of science and all mankind. Behind this, other prominent facets of Leonov's personality remained, to some extent, in the shadow of this glory. The digital collections of the Presidential Library, which number more than 770 thousand units of storage, allow learning much more about the legendary cosmonaut. This can be implemented through a network of centers of remote access institutions that are located in all regions of Russia and abroad. Today there are about 1000 of them.   

Foma magazine (№ 4 for 2006), an electronic copy of which is stored in the Presidential Library's collection, contains an interview with Alexei Leonov where he tells how and when he decided to become an astronaut.

It so happened that the character of Alexei Arkhipovich was formed in his childhood - even then he formed unshakable principles for himself, which he still follows. And then the future astronaut found another gift - a creative one. He began to paint.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain copies of his paintings.  

The first recognition of Leonov’s work in school years was received when he regularly published a wall newspaper, which was loved by all his classmates: “The newspaper was huge in size, in my paintings I depicted the life of the detachment and curious cases. Portrait similarity place no one in doubt. The guys were waiting for the newspaper with interest”.

A gifted person is talented in everything. This is about Alexei Arkhipovich. Already being known all over the planet by a man who had been in outer space, Leonov began to make his own films. The great cosmonaut shares his memories in the same interview with “MK”: “I showed my first film on New Year's Eve - from 68th to 69th year. After the festive “Ogonyok” I showed everyone a film made by a hidden camera. Everyone laughed tears. Then I started shooting with three film cameras, remotely controlling them. The next New Year film was called "Astronauts without Masks, or New 70th Year". Until eleven in the evening, everyone wandered around the town with an aperitif, congratulated each other, and after the solemn feast everyone knew: at 01:30 Leonov’s Film would be shown.... I shot these 18 episodes ... All the films were kept, they are stored in special containers in the institute of space documentation. They are people who are no longer with us - German Titov, Shonin, Khrunov, Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev ... They are all alive there, funny... I also shot a separate film about Yuri Gagarin, when we went to the water skiing on a boat".   

Often, journalists are also interested in: where is more charm - in Earth or space? The choice of Alexei Arkhipovich is unambiguous, and he told about it to the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” (May 5, 2009): “No matter how beautiful and unusual it was there, in space, the greatness and diversity of our earth is much greater. Earthly landscapes - they are limitless, unique. And the sea! I grew up in a port city. I adore the sea, from childhood I admired Aivazovsky's talent - in the first grade I even bartered a monthly ration for my first album with paintings by Aivazovsky”.

The meeting of journalists with the first man, who was in outer space, was timed to the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Alexei Leonov in Minsk. The full version of the report is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Another popular question that the press usually asks astronauts concerns alien civilizations: have you ever seen UFO? If there is life on Mars? “I think there is no life on Mars. But in the universe ... Now we do not know. Attempts are being made to find it, while unsuccessful. I, frankly, more concerned about the preservation of life on Earth. I thought a lot about what happened after the revolution. What happened to people? Why were they overwhelmed with the elements of destruction? Recall how burned icons, which were a hundred, two hundred years. Who destroyed the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and thousands of other shrines. Why did this happen in an Orthodox country? And how to prevent this in the future? Now, thank God, we are returning to our roots”, - Leonov shared in an interview with Foma magazine.  

...Leonov has become a legend overnight. And not on the scale of one country or several, but without exaggeration of the whole Earth. This is evidenced by at least the fact mentioned in the article “Komsomolskaya Pravda” of July 8, 1975, which copy in electronic form is stored in the Presidential Library’s collections.

What do we need space exploration? Many will answer: for the development of science, the study of new opportunities, the search for other worlds where a person could live just like on Earth, and so on. But few people think about the fact that the most airless space, where silent stars reign, you need then to unite the hearts of all earthlings. Alexei Leonov is sure that this is exactly the case: “When we, cosmonauts, astronauts, get together, we do not divide each other into “whites” and “colored ones”, Russians, Americans, and Europeans. We are all children of Earth, children of God. Without flight, it would be more difficult for us to understand this simple truth”.