On September 29, a scientific and practical conference “Siversky. From hussars to cosmonauts,” dedicated to cosmonaut No. 2 German Stepanovich Titov. Vice-President of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation Oleg Mukhin, a legendary man who is personally acquainted with many domestic space explorers, will also take part in the conference.
We met with Oleg Petrovich at the Museum of Cosmonautics, which is historically located in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg. It was here, under the leadership of Valentin Petrovich Glushko, in the first half of the last century, that the first domestic rocket engines were designed and created. On August 30, the museum opened an exhibition dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of the brilliant general designer.
Oleg Mukhin himself became interested in astronautics in his youth. He entered the Leningrad Military Mech in 1962, where he then worked as an engineer at the department from 1980. In April 1973, the Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Technology opened in Leningrad. Oleg Petrovich, based on his technical knowledge, conducted excursions in the Museum, prepared guides, and helped them.
He worked as a Scientific Secretary in the Section of the History of Aviation and Cosmonautics at the Institute of Natural Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This Section included outstanding aircraft designers, generals, and scientists. Cosmonauts came to the Section meetings. Oleg Petrovich personally communicated with German Stepanovich Titov, Vitaly Mikhailovich Zholobov and Valery Ilyich Rozhdestvensky. As a result, Oleg Mukhin has been the first vice-president of the North-Western Interregional Organization of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation for 20 years, having only been in space in his dreams.
“This is not surprising,” explains Oleg Petrovich. — An astronaut is the pinnacle of the work of many hundreds of people who prepared him for the flight. Therefore, our Federation unites organizations and individuals who are in one way or another connected with astronautics - engineers, designers, workers, doctors. And, of course, the astronauts themselves. There are more than 700 members in total. We carry out educational work with schoolchildren, students and the public of the city, carry out scientific and methodological work of the Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Technology named after Academician V.P. Glushko, we organize exhibitions and festive events dedicated to memorable dates of Russian cosmonautics, and support projects related to the theme of space.
— Oleg Petrovich, how are you connected with the village of Siversky?
— I have been connected with Siversky since childhood, when I lived here at the dacha for two years in a row...
- It turns out that you are a real Siversk summer resident...
- It turns out like this. We rented a dacha just opposite the airfield across Oredezh, on Sovetskaya Street. I was twelve or thirteen years old at that time. The hosts with whom we lived were engaged in fishing. And we went with them, set nets, and fished. The boys and I also swam across the river and through the drain pipe moved straight to the center of the airfield, where we watched the planes. There was also a small landfill near the airfield near the railway, where you could find signs of the past war, in particular, German badges with swastikas. It was very interesting (smiles).
Of course, we watched the planes take off and land - it was a very exciting sight for the boy. When I became an adult and found out that German Titov flew at this airfield, this place became sacred to me. And when we established connections with Siverskaya, we began to take astronauts there.
One day we came there with Georgy Grechko, and at the Yubileiny Sports and Cultural Center we met the famous composer Isaac Schwartz. I will never forget this meeting. After all, for astronauts Schwartz is a unique personality; before each flight, they still watch the film “White Sun of the Desert” with the composer’s wonderful music.
Another thing is curious. When Grechko and I came up to meet each other, it turned out that Isaac Iosifovich had never met any cosmonaut (smiles). Moreover, it turned out that they studied at the same school in St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island! Albeit in different years. And when Schwartz was already in the hospital, shortly before his death, we agreed with the cosmonauts and the guys from orbit wrote down congratulations to him on his 85th birthday. And this congratulation was shown to the composer in the hospital. Isaac Iosifovich was very happy and grateful.
Siversky has become a kind of space mascot: if an astronaut who has not yet been in orbit comes here, it means that he will definitely fly into space. Like, for example, Sergei Ryazansky. I was lucky enough to plant a tree on the Alley of Space Heroes at the request of Georgy Grechko, who, due to illness, was unable to come to Siversky in person.
And when German Titov came to Siversky, I provided him with my car for travel. It was also an unforgettable feeling: next to me was astronaut number two! So Siversky occupies a special place in my life and destiny.
— How did you meet German Stepanovich?
— The first time I saw German Titov was when he spoke to students at Voenmekh. This was in the sixties, after his flight into space. I was then about twenty years old. German Stepanovich headed the USSR Cosmonautics Federation after Nikolai Rukavishnikov. I was friends with the Aviation and Cosmonautics magazine, wrote articles about space and cosmonauts there, and German Stepanovich was deputy editor-in-chief there.
Oral editions of the magazine were also made in the House of Officers on Liteiny Prospekt. And he came there with representatives of the magazine. We constantly crossed paths, getting closer and closer. They invited him to meetings at the Cosmonautics Federation, came together to see Kirill Lavrov - they were friends. I helped him in his pre-election activities for the elections to the State Duma - he ran for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. We visited enterprises in the city and region, and once stopped at Siversky.
We toured the museum in the Military Town, and on the way to the club, German Stepanovich suddenly stopped, pointed to a tree and said: “It was near this birch tree that I kissed my wife for the first time.” I was present at his 65th birthday, where he invited me to organize a trip to Siversky for a few days, so that he and his wife could walk around the places of their youth and remember the past. Unfortunately, this did not happen - cosmonaut number two passed away. And he really wanted to go to Siversky...
— The upcoming conference is subtitled “From Hussars to Cosmonauts.” Do you see any parallels here?
- Indeed, a comparison can be made. Every period of human history has its heroes. We know that in the Patriotic War of 1812, an important role was played by the hussars - brave, fearless people who did not allow the French to reach St. Petersburg, and their commander - the Russian commander P.Kh. Wittgenstein, in the opening of whose monument I took part. These same qualities are inherent in modern astronauts. After all, the first of them did not know where you were flying, how everything would turn out, whether you would be able to return to earth. Of course they were heroes. So the comparison of hussars and astronauts is quite acceptable.
— In the Siversk correctional “School of Life” an exhibition “The Cosmic History of Siversky” was opened. Do you think modern children are interested in space? Is there a need to tell them about astronautics and distant worlds?
- Undoubtedly. It so happened that specialists who were involved in the creation of the famous lunar rover lived and still live in Siverskoye. This is also a very interesting page in the history of astronautics, when automatic devices are being created to explore other planets. Today, rovers walk on both the Moon and Mars.
As for schoolchildren and astronautics, it should be noted that astronautics gives children a lot of scope for imagination - they can fantasize, they can dream about space flights and other planets. Without restrictions, without constant reprimands that you did something wrong, that it was wrong. The child himself came up with something, and the world around him is exactly like that in his eyes. That's how he perceives it. And maybe this is even correct. Therefore, space gives children the opportunity to express themselves, their fantasies and dreams without the fear that you will do something wrong.
— It turns out that space topics expand the boundaries of a child’s knowledge?
- Exactly. Here's a live example. For two years in a row, the Siversky Cinema and Cultural Center “Yubileiny” has been hosting the intellectual game “Space Smarties and Clever Girls,” which is attended by high school students from all over the Gatchina region. I was at the game as chairman of the jury. The game was created and the questions were developed by Anatoly Moiseevich Goncharov, a physics teacher at the Siverskaya gymnasium. The questions were very difficult; in order to prepare for them, the guys had to scour the Internet and study additional literature. Even those who did not win the game received a wealth of knowledge from various fields related to astronautics. As you say, “expanded the boundaries of knowledge.”
— Oleg Petrovich, a few words about the “Space Siverskaya” conference...
— The upcoming conference, among other things, serves to popularize among children and adults not only cosmonautics, but also significant pages in the history of your country, city, village in which you live. Those achievements that you can rightfully be proud of. Such events bring together many caring, interested people, both adults and schoolchildren, who discuss pressing issues and share their thoughts. This is very important. Such conferences certainly contribute to knowledge of the world around us.
Again, new ideas are being popularized, which will be reflected through the media - newspapers, television, radio, in order to attract the attention of the general public. Moreover, the history of Siversky is not only the history of space. This is a unique village with a rich history and marvelous natural beauty.
— Cosmonautics in the USSR and cosmonautics in modern Russia: what has changed?
- Here again we will have to return to Siversky. Take the beginning of the last century. Aviation appeared. Each aviator was known both by name and by sight. In the thirties, when Vodopyanov flew to the North Pole, Chkalov flew to America, they were carried in their arms. They were pioneers and folk heroes. What are we seeing now? You board the plane, sit down, and the name of the ship’s captain is announced over the radio. You fly and don't think about anything. Flying on an airplane has long become an ordinary event.
And astronautics, whether we like it or not, is also becoming an everyday task. Look how many satellites are flying! Meteorological, reconnaissance, communications satellites, satellites engaged in imaging the earth's surface. Our navigators work through space. Medical research is carried out on the space station. Tourists have already begun traveling into orbit! So space today is becoming just another place to work. This is objective reality.
Unfortunately, I sometimes scold the press a little. Why? Because it doesn’t tell us anything about today’s astronautics. Not so long ago, space flight received incomparably more attention. There were reports from the station about how the astronauts live, what they do, what tasks they perform. And today, at best, they will talk about the Olympic flame delivered into orbit. No, to find the possibility of some kind of constant information about the situation in the space field. You want everyone to know about our space achievements, but you do not take any action for this. Hence the decline in interest in astronautics as such.
It is to correct this situation that exhibitions are opened and conferences are held to expand the circle of people who are passionate about space. And projects of flights to the Moon and Mars, of course, will shake up humanity and return interest in space exploration. So astronautics entered the mainstream, as we said earlier, of the national economy.
At the same time, we are very glad that astronomy courses have been returned to schools. When you look at the endless starry sky, you are drawn to find out what is there that the distant luminaries and other worlds hide? Astronautics provides answers to these questions. The same Hubble telescope in orbit, taking unique photographs of distant galaxies. So space will remain at the forefront of human development, because it requires the most modern achievements of science and technology to create rockets and spacecraft.
- And the last thing. Oleg Petrovich, what do you see as the prospects for interaction between the Cosmonautics Federation and the space scientist Siversky? Are there any plans to involve him more widely in the activities of your organization?
- We need to work on this. Moreover, the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, is himself a member of our Federation (smiles). Although a lot has already been done in Siverskoye. Together with the Yubileiny SKKTs, a number of events dedicated to the space theme are held.
Annual, since 2011, scientific and educational conferences with the participation of Russian pilot-cosmonauts, dedicated to the birthday of G.S. Titov, intellectual game “Space Smarties and Clever Girls” for high school students. Since 2013, a hockey tournament for the Cosmonaut Cup No. 2 has been held. And, most importantly, the Alley of Space Heroes appeared in the settlement - the only one in the Leningrad region. The Cosmonautics Federation maintains close contact with the administration of the Siversky urban settlement, its head Vladimir Nikolaevich Kuzmin and deputy head Marina Evgenievna Dozmorova.
I would like to mention the people thanks to whom interest in space in Siverskoye is growing. This is the director of the Yubileiny Sports and Cultural Center Ekaterina Vyacheslavovna Titova and deputy director Olga Aleksandrovna Babenko, physics teacher of the Siverskaya gymnasium Anatoly Moiseevich Goncharov, co-chairman of the public organization "Charitable Foundation "My Small Motherland" Andrei Nikolaevich Kolobovnikov, full member of the Federation of Cosmonautics, coordinator of the project "In Memory of Ancestors - We will worthy” Pyotr Vladimirovich Babenko and many other residents and public organizations of Siverskoye.
Do you have a magazine for airline passengers? - Oleg Petrovich Mukhin, vice-president of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation, asked me. - By the way, in my youth I flew like a hare! I was eighteen years old then...
Dossier
Oleg Petrovich Mukhin, vice-president of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation and First Vice-President of the North-Western Interregional Public Organization of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation. Born on January 12, 1944 in Leningrad. Author of more than 30 scientific papers. Veteran of Russian cosmonautics.
My mother’s friend met with the flight engineer of the TU-104 aircraft,” continues Oleg Petrovich. - At that time, there was a particularly reverent attitude towards aviation, and I was also introduced to it. I was just dreaming of flying somewhere, and as soon as I found out that there was such an opportunity, I asked to go to Moscow with him. It was a different time then - there were no terrorists and plane hijackings, there were normal conditions for the existence of the country and people’s attitudes. Therefore, getting into the cockpit with the crew was much easier than it is now. We calmly passed through security, climbed into the cockpit, and they put me in the navigator’s seat. And then they brought passengers. This is an unforgettable sight - flying in the cockpit of a ship! You can't compare it to the feeling when you're sitting in a salon. When you see all the movements of the helm and the throttle, you feel the behavior of the plane, as if you were flying it yourself!
- You probably have a lot of friends in aviation? After all, aviation and astronautics are very close areas.
- Yes, I have a lot of friends in aviation. At one time, when I worked as a guide at the Museum of Cosmonautics, our head informed me about the vacancy of a secretary in the Section of the History of Aviation and Cosmonautics at the Institute of Natural Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. I came to one of the Section meetings, and there I was elected scientific secretary. This Section brought together outstanding aircraft designers, generals, scientists... I met such famous people as Igor Vyacheslavovich Chetverikov - he built seaplanes, Alexander Sergeevich Moskalev, who created and was the first to test an aircraft with a variable wing profile, Ivan Ivanovich Kulagin, the famous designer of air-jet engines. Various cosmonauts came to us, I personally communicated with German Titov, and with Vitaly Zhelobov, and with Valery Rozhdestvensky. There were many interesting meetings that gave me the opportunity to subsequently work at the Museum of Cosmonautics and now work in the Federation.
“Schoolchildren do not know that the first cosmonaut is Yuri Gagarin”
Oleg Petrovich, do you think that the attitude of young people towards astronautics has changed? Previously, more young men dreamed of being astronauts...
- There is no need to exaggerate. It cannot be that all generations dream of the same thing. Let's look back. At first there were no cars. As soon as they appeared, people began to dream of becoming drivers. Aviation appeared - everyone rushed there. Now the airplane has become quite a familiar thing for us. Also space. He still fascinates people and there is huge interest in him. And now kids dream about space, just not so much. And besides, there are now more opportunities to come into contact with him. We can freely watch photos from space, many films - we don’t even have to go into space. And, then, flying into space is not an end in itself for many. Cosmonautics is at the forefront of all world science. Many people are involved in the creation of space technology. Therefore, to say that interest has disappeared is wrong. The press itself is partly to blame here. She is more interested in fried facts, all sorts of murders - what gives more ratings than space. The same television will casually say on the news when a spacecraft is launching, but says nothing about life in orbit. We ourselves do not engage in propaganda! And then they ask me: why aren’t schoolchildren interested? If astronomy was removed from school, what does this mean? How will children dream about space if they are not told anything? It is our fault that schoolchildren do not know that the first satellite was launched in our country, and that the first cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. If you don't talk about it, then there won't be any interest.
- Does the Cosmonautics Federation engage in propaganda among schoolchildren?
- Yes, from September 1, in anticipation of preparations for the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight into space, we are opening a whole series of programs. These will be various excursions to museums and space industry enterprises. It’s not for nothing that St. Petersburg is called the “cradle of rocket technology”; we have a huge number of enterprises that develop technology for space. We need to provide career guidance to young people so that children can see what they can do. Don't just go to the bank or the service industry. If we spend energy and strength, we will be able to attract children, I am sure.
« Currently, astronauts are being prepared for a flight to Mars."
- International space programs are now actively developing...
- Modern astronautics is impossible without international cooperation. When manned space was just developing, there was already close interaction between countries. Now there are many applied satellites, devices that probe, photograph, and carry out television and radio communications. For all this, again, international cooperation is needed. It is also worth noting that many states can already make their own satellites, but cannot create their own rocket. Therefore, they use our Russian ones for launch. We are putting both French and American satellites into orbit. Space unites countries. By the way, the Mars-500 experiment is currently being conducted, jointly between our Roscosmos and the European Space Agency. Volunteers will be in a confined space for just over 500 days, and conditions will be close to those of a manned mission to Mars.
- When will it take place?
- Not yet known. First, automatic devices should fly off, which can do a lot for people. As for human flight, many questions still remain. For example, how can an astronaut be in weightlessness for 3 years, how will he be affected by the absence of the Earth’s magnetic field, solar radiation... A lot of nuances require additional study. But it is necessary to do this. Some people say that space programs are too expensive. We'd rather invest money here and feed people on Earth. But those who say this don’t think that much more resources can be obtained from space. In addition, you need to understand that on Earth we all depend on space. That's why it's so important to study it. At any moment some comet may arrive, or a huge meteorite will crash into the Earth. This will be a gigantic disaster that could take the lives of millions of people.
“The threat from space is very real”
There is a theory that if the Tunguska meteorite had fallen a few hours earlier, it would have hit St. Petersburg directly and wiped it off the face of the Earth.
- Yes, indeed, there is such an opinion. By the way, as for the Tunguska meteorite, there is no exact information yet about what it really was. There is a high probability that it was a comet that exploded in the air at a high altitude. There are many other hypotheses, even to the point that it was an alien ship. Science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev even wrote a story on this topic. And the latest version regarding the nature of the Tunguska meteorite is that this small black hole hit the Earth and caused such a pinpoint strike. But, whatever it is, this phenomenon definitely warns us: in addition to natural disasters that occur on Earth, there is another danger - danger from space. This threat is very real. Now, for example, another asteroid is flying, but it will fly by. Scientists were worried, but then they did the math and realized that it would not hit the Earth. It is very important to create an asteroid tracking service. Let's say an asteroid is flying, there is a chance of hitting the Earth. You can adjust the path of its movement - by placing a rocket, try to move it. This is how satellites are corrected using rockets. Small impulses are enough for the trajectory of movement to change, and it flies past the Earth. Therefore, we must engage in space and seek our safety in it. Otherwise, we will simply find ourselves on the brink of death.
For the magazine "People Fly" (NordAvia airline), August 2010
On June 12, on Russia Day, participants of the Star Trek motor rally of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation visited the State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics named after. K.E. Tsiolkovsky and the House-Museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga. The rally started on May 27 in St. Petersburg. Its participants traveled through the cities of Russia and Kazakhstan associated with domestic cosmonautics: Tver, Ryazan, Penza, Samara, Aktobe, Baikonur.
Honorary and respected participants of the rally - Oleg Petrovich Mukhin - Member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation and First Vice-President of the North-Western Interregional Public Organization of the Cosmonautics Federation of the Russian Federation, Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky
and Vladimir Anatolyevich Tikhomirov - a man who served at the Baikonur Cosmodrome for over twenty years! Vladimir Anatolyevich is a graduate of the Military Space Academy named after. A.F. Mozhaisky. He went through a number of career levels: head of the guidance calculation, head of the launch vehicle installation calculation, unit commander, head of the launch complex, deputy head of the 1st test department of launch pad No. 2 (it was from this pad that Gagarin launched at one time, and since then called "Gagarin's start"). Participated in the preparation and refueling of more than two hundred spacecraft, and was a direct participant in 186 rocket launches both from the Gagarin Launch and from other sites. He also took part in refueling and preparing for the launch of the Buran spacecraft.
Irina Isaeva, project coordinator of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation, took part in the rally.
Nikita Popov - director of the cosmonautics club named after. Yu.A. Gagarin, held a fascinating space exhibition for museum guests. With Nikita, the little museum guests took a walk through our galaxy using an iPad, learned how to build a device for the stratosphere themselves, how to control a quadcopter and much, much more! Moreover, he tells it in such a way that listeners never cease to be amazed, and a dream about space arises in children’s hearts! Many children and parents gathered, everyone listened to the presenter with interest. Children's surprised and enthusiastic exclamations, wide-open eyes and the emerging desire to fly into space are mandatory attributes of Nikitin's lectures. And for older schoolchildren and adults it was interesting to learn about universities related to astronautics and about our Federation.
While Nikita occupied children and adults, the rest of the rally participants were able to get acquainted with the exhibition. The museum in Kaluga is very interesting. Here you can see unique exhibits. It is impossible not to note the hall where many spacecraft and rocket models are presented, among which you can walk for a long time and admire the engineering thought of our designers.
In the House-Museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky guests met Elena Alekseevna Timoshenkova, the great-granddaughter of Konstantin Eduardovich and the head of the house-museum. She talked about how the great scientist lived. The guests saw Tsiolkovsky's office and workshop and learned about the history of his family. 
