Half a century ago, the citizens of the USSR learned about the death of the Soyuz-11 crew from the "enemy voices"

June 30 marks exactly half a century since the disaster that claimed the lives of all the crew members of the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz-11: Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev. The astronauts died on their return to Earth due to the depressurization of the descent vehicle at high altitude. The ship's design did not include space suits for the crew.

Especially for this date, Roscosmos published on its website the declassified negotiations of the space crew members, which took place before launch and after undocking from the orbital station.

The declassified materials tell how the cosmonauts closed the hatches, reported the situation to the measuring point and checked the time.

The measuring point noted that the astronauts had excellent parameters and respiration rate, and the pulse rate of all did not exceed 76.

In addition, fragments of negotiations after undocking with the Salyut-1 orbital station were published. The crew reported that they saw the Earth and began orientation.

It is noted that the last thing they heard from the Earth from the cosmonauts was Volkov's humorous wish: "We will meet tomorrow, prepare brandy."

Popular blogger Andrey Selezov shared his memories of this hot summer day on June 30, 1971. The parents of the five-year-old boy then rented a dacha near Kiev. Here is what Selezov writes:

“My father came from fishing in the morning very upset - he always carried a shortwave Meridian receiver with him. It was already about 11 o'clock and it was starting to get hot. Three large striped bass splashed in a plastic bag.

“Our Soyuz-11 crew was all killed tonight. Completely”, - father suddenly said and sat down on a bench in the summer kitchen. They just passed it on by "voice". Details have not yet been released.

Grandmother and grandfather jumped out of the veranda with the words: "What are you, what are you talking about? Maybe the damned imperialists are lying?". "I don't think so...", - said the father.

Everyone was somehow terribly upset, sad - there were as many as THREE PEOPLE!"

According to Russian custom, the adults decided to commemorate the fallen heroes. The boy's grandfather, a front-line soldier, ran to the village store for vodka, and then sat in the yard under a tree, shaking his head and pronouncing the names of the victims.

"I remembered this picture for the rest of my life, like these three names..."

A purely Soviet paradox: if the foreign media reported about the tragedy literally as soon as it became known about it, then the native Soviet radio mentioned it only in the evening, and scanty messages in the press appeared only the next day. They did not like very much, and they do not like, in our country to admit their mistakes...