3

THE SOVIETS

Given the commanding strengths of Soviet ideology and the comprehensive character of its organs of state propaganda during the 1960s, one would assume that the people of the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries learned very little about the space achievements of the United States, their bitter Cold War rival. When the ambition of Kremlin leadership—and for that matter of the chief designer of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev (1906–1966)—was to beat the Americans to space “firsts” at all costs, sharing anything with Soviet citizens about U.S. efforts, other than America’s corrupt capitalistic objectives and its failures to keep up with the USSR, made no sense.

But the reality inside Soviet society was not monolithic. A considerable number of its people so greatly admired the Apollo 11 mission and its astronauts that they found ways to send friendly, congratulatory messages—and kept sending them for years to come. Throughout the 1960s, Soviet propaganda had grown less and less convincing about its space achievements. By the end of 1966 NASA had completed ten highly successful Gemini missions, while the Soviets had not launched a single cosmonaut into space since Voskhod 2 in March 1965. The next four Voskhods were canceled, followed by the termination of Voskhod altogether. The first manned flight of Soyuz was not launched until April 1967 and not only would the flight of Soyuz 1 be plagued with technical issues but also it would end in tragedy when the descent module smashed into the ground due to a parachute failure, instantly killing cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight.

In 1967 and 1968 the Soviets become less brazen in self-praise for their space missions, as no new firsts materialized for them. And though the American space program was hit in late January 1967 with the tragedy of the launchpad fire that killed the crew of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee inside their Apollo 1 spacecraft, the American program rebounded by the end of 1968 with the audacious mission of Apollo 8. In only the third launch of the Saturn V Moon rocket and the second manned flight of the Apollo program, the crew comprised of Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and Jim Lovell became the first humans to travel beyond Earth orbit, escape Earth’s gravity, see Earth as a whole planet, enter the gravity well of another celestial body, orbit the Moon, see the far side of the Moon, witness an Earthrise, escape the Moon’s gravity, reenter the Earth’s gravitational well, and safely return to Earth. It was an astounding mission even the Soviets had to credit. Soviet spokespersons had no choice but to change their tune about racing the Americans to the Moon. On the day of Apollo 8’s launch on December 21, 1968, veteran cosmonaut Gherman Titov, the second man to orbit the Earth back in August 1961, told reporters, “It is not important to mankind who will reach the Moon first and when he will reach it.”13 The day after Apollo 8’s splashdown and safe recovery, Leonid I. Sedov—a leading member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (who many in the Soviet Union saw as “the father of Sputnik”)—told Italian journalists that the Soviets were not even competing in a race to orbit or land on the Moon. Instead, the Soviet plan, at least publicly, was to move forward with designs for various automated spacecraft. (As readers will see in this chapter, academician Leonid I. Sedov would write to Neil Armstrong in April 1973 inviting him to give a talk in the Soviet Union.) With “the propaganda of deflection” in place (“The Soviet space program is not racing the Americans to the Moon. It has higher goals than simply competition.”14), it became more possible for the Soviets to give at least half-hearted credit to what the Americans were accomplishing in Apollo. Official Soviet doctrine began to report on American space activities and share a slightly more positive impression of them.

But touting Apollo 11’s history-making mission was another matter—not something that the Soviet system could abide. What Apollo 11 achieved was so breathtaking, such a zenith of everything that had been happening in space exploration, that it was very hard for the Soviet regime to credit it in front of their people at all. On Soviet television the only report of the news that the Americans had landed on the Moon came during a short break during a volleyball match between two local Russian teams, with no accompanying audio or visual footage. The only people in the USSR who saw any of the Western coverage of Apollo 11 was a select group of Politburo leaders, officers of the KGB, and men in charge of the Soviet space bureaus.

But the Soviet people were hardly enveloped in a total darkness. This has been made clear in the memoirs of Sergei Khrushchev, the thirty-four-year-old son of former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who was ousted from power in October 1964. In his published memoirs, Sergei, a career scientist, explained that it was impossible to keep such sensational news as the Moon landing from the Soviet people: “You cannot have people land on the moon and just say nothing. It was published in all the newspapers. There were small articles when Apollo 11 was launched. Actually, there was a small article on the first page of Pravda [the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union] and then three columns on page five.”15 Not that the Soviet people were bowled over by news of the Americans landing on the Moon. As Sergei Khrushchev explained, the mood of Soviet society was “very similar to the feeling among Americans when Yuri Gagarin, our first cosmonaut, went into orbit. Some of them tried to ignore it, some of them were insulted.” Soviet propaganda “did not play it up or give too much information. I remember I watched a documentary on it; it was not secret, but it was not shown to the public. The Russian people had many problems in day-to-day life; they were too concerned about other things to be concerned about the first man on the moon.”16

The Soviet people would have been much more concerned if their government had not kept from them the fact that their own space program was, in truth, rather desperately trying to beat the Americans to the Moon. Though official spokesmen strongly denied it at the time and for many years thereafter, the Soviet space program had spent many million rubles on a mammoth Moon rocket, the N-1, only for it to blow up on the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 3, 1969. Behind the catastrophic failure were years of bureaucratic in-fighting between the country’s rival rocket and spacecraft design bureaus, all of which were competing for the same limited resources, people, missions, and mandates from the Kremlin. Then in a last-ditch effort to steal thunder from America’s Moon landing, the Russians—on July 13, three days before Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy—launched a small unmanned spacecraft, Luna 15, not just to land on the Moon but to scoop up a sample of lunar soil and return it to Earth before Apollo 11 got back. Aware of the launch from U.S. spy satellites, NASA officials worried that the actions of Luna 15 might interfere with Apollo 11—over the years that had happened occasionally when the Russians operated at or near NASA’s radio frequencies. Ultimately, nothing about Luna 15 bothered Apollo, as the Soviet mission failed, with Luna 15 crashing into the Moon on July 21, hours after Apollo 11’s successful landing. The Soviet space program quietly suffered another disgrace. It was hardly a good time for Moscow to be congratulating the Americans for Apollo 11.

Thus, though most Soviet people knew nothing about their own Moon mission failures, many thousands of people in the USSR and in associated socialist and communist states, learned a great deal about Apollo 11, thereby making it no surprise that Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, and especially Commander Neil Armstrong would receive dozens and dozens of letters and telegrams from people living in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.

“I SEND YOU EFFUSIVE AND FOND EMBRACES”

[Translated from Spanish at NASA Headquarters]

To: “The North American Astronauts”

Received Central Mail Room, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, Houston, TX

July 23, 1969, 7:50 A.M. CDT

Sent from Havana, Cuba

 

I CONGRATULATE THE NORTHAMERICAN ASTRONAUTS ON A SUCCESSFUL LUNAR LANDING RENDERED MORE EXCITING BY A VISIT OF THE SOVIET FLEET AND BY THE SUCCESS OF APOLLO XI. FROM MY SOCIALIST COUNTRY I SEND YOU EFFUSIVE AND FOND EMBRACES, WITH THE DESIRE OF PEACE FOR ALL.

GUSTAVO MENDOZA AKETE

COMPOSER OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS, CUBA

“ADMIRATION AND BEST WISHES OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE”

To: “Apollo 11 Astronauts”

Received Central Mail Room, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, Houston, TX

July 23, 1969, 11:45 A.M. CDT

Sent from Washington, D.C.

 

FOLLOWING MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT HUMPHREY:

QUOTE: WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS ON THE SUCCESSFUL CONDUCT OF YOUR HISTORIC MISSION. THE ENTIRE WORLD SHARES OUR GREAT PRIDE IN YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS. THIS MORNING, AFTER YOUR FIRST WALK ON THE MOON’S SURFACE, I MET IN THE KREMLIN WITH ALEKSEY KOSYGIN, CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE USSR. THE CHAIRMAN ASKED ME TO SEND YOU HIS PERSONAL CONGRATULATIONS AND THE ADMIRATION AND BEST WISHES OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE. END QUOTE

ADOLPH DUBS

COUNTRY DIRECTOR

SOVIET UNION AFFAIRS

The Kremlin’s drive for hegemony in the Cold War had led to a heavy-handed emphasis on space firsts. It was the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, on October 4, 1957, that, in terms of global awareness, gave birth to the Space Age itself. Other firsts came in such rapid and seemingly logical succession that the Soviets grew accustomed to them—naively coming to expect nothing less. A month after Sputnik 1, on November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched a second Sputnik, carrying a dog, Laika, the first animal to orbit the Earth. Luna 1, on January 2, 1959, became the first spacecraft reach the vicinity of the Moon. The year 1959 brought two more significant Soviet firsts: on September 14, Luna 2 became the first human artifact to make it to the lunar surface, and on October 4 (the second anniversary of Sputnik 1), Luna 3 took the first photographs of the Moon’s far side. On February 21, 1961, the Venera 1 probe deliberately crash-landed on Venus after making the first flyby of another planet.

All of these achievements were touted internationally, adding enormous prestige to the Soviet Union. But the feat that stunned the world came on April 12, 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, aboard Vostok 1, became the first human in space. Announcing Gagarin’s orbital flight by radio to the Soviet people was Yuri Levitan, the same broadcaster who had reported all the major victories over the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War. Instantly, Gagarin—the son of a carpenter who worked on a collective farm and a milkmaid—became a colossal hero. Throughout the USSR and Eastern Bloc, cities and towns staged mass celebrations so large and enthusiastic they were compared to the victory parades at the end of World War II. In Moscow, a long parade cheering Gagarin moved through the streets to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, before massive crowds and an assembly of all the highest government and party officials, Premier Nikita Khrushchev—famous in the United States for declaring “We will bury you”—awarded the cosmonaut the revered title Hero of the Soviet Union. It was not just the Soviets but the world that honored the first man into space; in the following months, the handsome cosmonaut would make high-profile visits to Egypt, Germany, Italy, Finland, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and even Great Britain.

The Soviet firsts continued. Aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth forty-eight times while spending almost three days in space; in that single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown to date. Sixteen months later, on October 12, 1964, Voskhod 1 became the first spacecraft to carry three people to orbit. Then, on March 18, 1965, the biggest achievement since the Gagarin flight occurred when cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the world’s first spacewalk, exiting his Voskhod 2 spacecraft and staying outside for over twelve minutes, connected to his craft by a seventeen-and-a-half-foot-long tether. Closing out the era of Soviet-dominated firsts was Luna 9, which on February 3, 1966, made the first soft landing of an object on the Moon.

None of these firsts were 100 percent successful in their design or execution. Some had major problems. Of course, much the same could be said about the early American achievements in what was then called “manned” spaceflight—almost every mission had limitations and experienced problems, minor or major. The difference was that the Soviet government cloaked its spaceflights in near-total secrecy, publicizing only the most positive features of its successful missions and totally shrouding its shortcomings, failures, and disasters. Unmasked, as it would later be by historians, the visage of the Soviet space program was starkly different than the propaganda image.

“WE ARE OVERWHELMED”

[Translated from Russian at NASA Headquarters]

To: “Apollo 11 Astronauts”

From: “The City of Gomel”

Received USS Hornet

July 27, 1969, unknown time

Sent from Gomel, USSR

 

FROM THE CITY OF GOMEL TO THE COSMONAUTS OF APOLLO-11.

DEAR LUNAMEN, WE ARE OVERWHELMED AND VERY PROUD OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENT.

FAMILY OF MURTAZIN. USSR

“WE CONGRATULATE YOU FROM THE
BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS”

To: “The Crew of Apollo 11”

From: “The Cosmonauts of the USSR”

Received Central Mail Room, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, Houston, TX

July 29, 1969, 9:17 A.M. CDT

Sent from Moscow, USSR

Stamped “PRIORITY”

 

DEAR COLLEAGUES, ASTRONAUTS OF THE UNTIED STATES—N. ARMSTRONG, E. ALDRIN, AND M. COLLINS!

WE SOVIET COSMONAUTS FOLLOWED YOUR FLIGHT WITH GREAT ATTENTION AND EMOTION. WE CONGRATULATE YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS ON THE COMPLETION OF THE MAGNIFICENT TRIP TO THE MOON AND SAFE RETURN TO EARTH.

(SIGNED) G. TITOV, A. NIKOLAYEV, P. POPOVICH, V. BYKOVSKIY, V. NIKOLAYEVA-TERESHKOVA, P. BELYAYEV, A. LEONOV, K. FEOKTISTOV, B. YEGOROV, G. BEREGOVOY, V. SHATALOV, B. VOLYNOV, A. YELISEYEV, AND YE. KHRUNOV. AB/LOWCOCK/MUELLER

“BREATHLESSLY AWAITING AN ANSWER FROM YOU”

July 1, 1970 [Date received in Houston]

Esteemed Mr. Armstrong,

The words that you spoke as you stepped upon the surface of the moon, “This is a small step for man but a large one for mankind,” stirred me deeply and I will never forget them.

The entire undertaking of the crew of “Apollo 11” is worthy of admiration. It has denoted a turning point in the history of mankind, modern and future generations, and will radiate admiration and reverence of you to them.

In honor of this great moment I have decided, along with my friends, to establish a rocket-astronaut club which will be named after you.

From the day the club was founded it started to grow and is gathering more members daily. Various materials about astronauts has been collected to insure the success of the club. We have obtained a movie camera and projector, both 8 and 35 mm, unfortunately the latter size film is very difficult to obtain in this country. In connection with this, we would be most grateful to receive a few films about your travels in space which we will be willing to pay for upon receipt.

Due to the fact that we have connected you with the work of our club we would like to submit a few questions which will be useful in our newsletter which has been named “Apollo” and which is to be issued on 30 June 1970.

  1. How much time did it take for all preparations for the Apollo 11 lunar flight?

  2. How many hours or days have you logged in space?

  3. Did you at any time feel that you would not complete your mission, that is, you would not descend to the moon?

  4. How many space flights have you participated in and in what space craft?

Please accept our best wishes from all the members of the club who are breathlessly awaiting an answer from you.

Rocket-Astronaut Club “Neil Armstrong”

Vlasinska, Serbia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

President Zoran Stamenkovic

Secretary Dragan Stamenkovic

Vice President Perica Mirkovic

“THAT YOUNG FELLOW IN ROMANIA WHO DISTURBS YOU”

[Translated from Romanian by NASA]

July 21, 1970

Dear Sir:

On occasion of completing one year from the day when the first man, a terrestrian, has put his foot on another planet, and it was you, sir.

Whole-hearted congratulations to you, and I wish you many happy years and more success on other planets.

Esteemed sir, Neil Armstrong, I am C. Jase, that young fellow in Romania who disturbs you with my lines, this is the 4th letter which I have written to you, and I ask you to please excuse me if possible and I know whether … [illegible] even to please. I tell you sincerely.

Every day I waited for the mail, when will it come, believing that I can get it from you. Many thanks for the final letter which I received on the 5 of May. I tell you sincerely, I glanced over the letter several times, and I was very happy. But, at this time, I made the decision to play the loto every week, so I can win for you a small machine [model?] by time, and when you have a little free time, you would be willing to come to visit also my dear Socialist Republic of Romania, and you could admire its beauties, when you can come, and I with my family, will receive you warmly on the ground of my fatherland.

I close, and expect a new row of work. Let us compete much higher.

Sincerely,

Christian Jase

Ploesti, Romania

[Translated from Romanian by an unknown translator, July 1972]

[Unspecified date, July 1972]

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

I am that young man from Romania who would like to correspond with you, since I have had a single occasion to send a letter through RFG Tourist, so that it might be possible to strengthen my very great aspiration.

I would like very much to receive a model, even though used, to represent you in this country; but for me it would be a great source of pride and admiration, along with photographs of the first three earthlings to set foot on another planet.

I wish, as do all young people in my country, to view this model for a long time as the symbol of the friendship which you have for us.

And I also wish that this gift be sent through your embassy so that it would not be confiscated or taxed since my parents and I have no money. In all the letters I wrote you, I wrote of my family, my wife, but we are a poor family of workers.

I am proud that among the visits which you made in Europe you could come to my country so that we could see you personally, and not merely in photographs.

Many thanks for your kindness in reading my letters and for answering me and sending me photographs which remains for me waiting for your answer.

Sincerely,

Christian Jase

Ploesti, Romania

“HAPPY AND DEEPLY MOVED”

July 27, 1970

Dear Sir,

With the feelings both of concern and joy I was following the space-flight of Apollo 11 and I was happy and deeply moved when I saw you on the television screen standing on the moon surface.

I lived up to see this triumph of the man’s ingenuity and courage in the 90th year of my life.

I would like to keep alive the memory of this historical feat by a document and therefore I take the liberty to ask you for your autograph. I shall keep it with greates respect for my children.

Will you please accept the expression of my most sincere gratitude and compliments.

Sincerely yours,

Alois Dyk

Prague, Czechoslovakia

P.S. Please use the attached sheet of paper.

“WE LOOKED WITH OPEN AND SCARED EYES”

July 30, 1970

Dear Niel Armstrong,

It is now more than one year when you, as the Commander of the U.S. spaceship ‘APOLLO 11’, landed for the first time on the moon on 21 July, 1969. One can never forget that auspicious moment when, after watching over the television throughout the sleepless night, early at the dawn, we looked with open and scared eyes how you took the first step on the moon. At that time you became the most glorious and the dearest man on the earth. This event is one of the greatest achievements in human history, as you rightly remarked, ‘It is a small step by man but a great jump of mankind’.

Soon, on 5 August, the world will be celebrating your birthday, and I am exceptionally happy that on the same day I shall also be celebrating my birthday, together with the most celebrated person on the earth.

Please accept my most sincere and warm greetings on this joyous occasion, and also of my husband Dr. Vladomir Radovic and of my children Orhideja and Nikola. Also please convey our greetings to your wife and children.

With my personal best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

Mila Mirzova-Radović

(Dr. and Mrs. Mila Mirzova-Radović)

Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

“I RESPECT BESTLY AMONG ALL PEOPLE”

September 18, 1970

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

Please, excuse my taking Your time. I must admit, I often thought of writting You, especially after Your moon-landing. But I didn’t do it, because I thought, You were very busy, and You wouldn’t answer me. I daresay, You are occupied now as well, but maybe less. Thus dare ask You a great favour; write me please a short letter or card, some words only about Your life, Your experiences, or about Your future plans, all the same for me, the main point is that I should have a genuine document from the man, that I respect bestly among all people that live at present, from the man, that has taken the first footsteps on the moon. You know, I’m 17 years old, I live in Hungary (maybe You haven’t heard of this small country), and my favourite passtime is to study the space flight, and the English language. You wouldn’t believe, how much I know You from the foreign newspapers, and magazines.

Your handwritting would be my greatest wealth, and treasure. So please, answer me, if You can.

I’m looking forward to Your reply.

Yours very truly,

Jack Sebein

Budapest, Hungary

Reply from S. B. Weber, Neil’s assistant

October 8, 1970

Dear Jack:

Thank you for your very kind letter to Mr. Armstrong. He is always pleased to hear from young people interested in our space program. Unfortunately, because of his heavy schedule of activities with NASA, he is unable to respond personally to all of his mail at this time.

We are enclosing, however, an autographed picture of Mr. Armstrong and an Apollo 11 Mission Report for your enjoyment. Best wishes and, again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

S. B. Weber

“I FEEL THAT WE ARE FRIENDS”

October 10, 1970

Honorable Sir:

I am in the 7th grade in the town of Celj. I watched your walk on the moon. You were very brave. I feel that we are friends. My father is dead and I live alone with my mother. I help my mother with the work. Would you please send me photographs of the astronauts and photographs from the moon. Thank you. Please accept my best regards,

Please extend my warmest regards to your family.

Majda Boncina

Gamilsko, Slovenia

Yugoslavia

“VERY MUCH LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH”

October 16, 1970

Neil Armstrong,

I congratulate you on your courage and that of Collins and Aldrin. I watched with great pleasure as you exited from the module, and how the first “Earthman” stepped upon the surface of the moon. “This is a small step for me, but a large step for mankind” is the words that you spoke on the surface of the moon. I would very much like to know how to speak English, however we are learning Russian here, my father is the professor of the Russian language. I have never mentioned this to him for I am sure that this would anger him.

I congratulate everyone who has done such a good job.

I have a sister, a mother and a father in my family, and would like to extend greetings to the members of your family and I would also like to express my desire to correspond with your son or daughter, that is if you have children in your family. I would very much like to correspond with you but I know that you have very little time for this.

Goodbye

Omer Bacevac

Tutin, Yugoslavia

“I ESTEEM YOU IMMENSELY”

October 24, 1970

Respectable Comrade!

I esteem you immensly and therefore I am sending you this letter with one wish. The science which you are dealing with in question. Very soon I shall finish the eight grade school (gymnasium) and I would like to continue in a higher school where I could study the astronomy. I have great interest in this science from my early childhood and I wish to realize my dreams.

Please do write to me and tell me after which Yugoslav High-school I could continue to study in your country astronomy and whether it would be possible. I think that this science will realize to me a new direction in my life.

Please answer me in Serbian language.

I thank you in advance!

Dusan Veselinovio

Banjaluka, Yugoslavia

“THERE IS AN OLD LEGEND IN MY COUNTRY”

December 8, 1970

Dear Neil:

Let me first introduce myself. I am fourteen years old girl living in Poland near Warsaw. I have very good record at school. It is my seventh year of learning and I am continuously calssifierd on the top place on the list. My Daddy is an scientist and in the furture[,] I would like also to make the investigotinos of the matter[.] I was watching with greatest interest and anxiety the start of your rocket. The transmission form the landing on the Moon has take place in a middle of the night and I was allowed to watch TV overnight. Your first little step on the Moon surface has been indeed the big leap at mankind and I am proud that together with millions of people all over the world I was able to be an eyewitness of it. The pity is that that there is not too many such events nowadays that all people on all continents can be at the same time happy about it.

I remember well also the third mission to the Moon when Hus terrible explosion occured. I had been praying to Hie God for safe return of your friends on the Earth.

There is an old legend in my country from the times of King Sigmundus about a powerful magician Jan Twardowski who flew on the Moon. However he hasn’t had so advanced technique as you because instead of rosket he used the cock’s back. But he didn’t returned form the Moon yet. Certain, your Apollo is much better vehicle than cock[.] I am collecting photographs of the astronauts. I have got signed photographs at all your collegues form Mercury programe together [illegible] form Mr Glenn and Mr Carpentier, also those of Russian (and Valentina Tierieszkowa of course)[.] I would be very gratefull for sending me your signed photograph as well as those of your friends form Apollo programme.

Let me express the best wishes of many successful mission in the exploration of the Universe and also ot Merry Christmans and kappy pacetrill New Year

With love

Maigorzata Grabska

W. Parkowa, Poland

“FOR YOUR NOBLE TEARS, FOR YOUR GOOD HEART,
FOR BEING A REAL HERO OF MANKIND!”

[Translated from Russian at NASA Headquarters]

April 24, 1971

Dear Neil Armstrong:

May I address you with the most sincere good wishes for your health and a long life for you and your wonderful family.

The tenth anniversary of space flight of our beloved and unforgettable Yuriy Gagarin was recently noted. Gagarin, who loved the entire world!

Many newspaper articles, feature stories and recollections were published on this date.

One of the articles deeply touched our small family, my wife Nina, daughter Natasha and myself.

In that article the author told how you, Neil Armstrong, met with the two widows of our cosmonauts, Gagarin’s wife and Komarov’s wife, and how you, a man of unlimited valor, whose courage no one in the universe can question, broke out sobbing! You could not speak …

Dear Neil Armstrong!

I thank you for your noble tears, for your good heart, for being a real hero of mankind!

I am writing this letter to you on the day when our remarkable lads [Vladimir] Shatalov [b. 1927], [Aleksei] Yeliseyev [b. 1934] and [Nikolay] Rukavishnikov [1932–2002] have returned from their [Soyuz 10] flight into space. Still another step toward knowledge has been taken.

I thank them, I thank you, I thank all the good people who have glorified Reason by their feats!

If you are ever in our Leningrad, a most beautiful city, where the courage of its inhabitants became the standard for behavior during our joint years of testing, my family and I will be happy to see and embrace you.

With sincere affection and respect, with wishes for happiness

Boris Tochinskiy

Leningrad, USSR

P.S. I wanted to send you, as a small token, an interesting cigarette lighter from my large collection, but Nina said that you probably do not smoke. I am sending several postage stamps (you probably have some young philatelists in your family).

“A NEW STAGE ON THE MASTERY OF THE PLANETS”

[Translated from Russian at NASA Headquarters]

August 29, 1971

Dear Neil Armstrong:

I am writing this letter and hope to obtain your answer.

I am 17 years old. I am a student of the Leningrad Institute. With great interest, I have been following the successes of our country and of the USA in the winning of outer space and I am collecting books and documents devoted to space research. You personally are the first Earth-man to stand on the surface of a non-Earth celestial body. This event opened up a new stage in the mastery of the planets by man.

I would very much like to add to my collectin on space your picture with your autograph. I would be very grateful if you will not deny my request but send your autograph.

Sincerely,

Gennadiy Meshcheryakov

Leningrad, USSR

“I HOPE AMERICA WILL GIVE ME A FREE HAND”

[Translated from Slovenian at NASA Headquarters]

October 17, 1971

Dear Neil Armstrong,

I am interested in being the commander of Apollo 16, with Armstrong as my lieutenant. I know [illegible] to 2/4 of the moon, and the sun and stars. I hope America will give me a free hand with my command. Everything is different than you think in America.

Please send your answer to my address in West Germany, where I am employed: Glasschüttenwerk, 8594 Fichtelberg, Oberfranken.

I hope we can get together as soon as possible, to learn my story.

Mr. Neil, which country did the rocket belong to that went across West Germany? I have seen it with my own eyes. Please let me know. It passed below the moon, the earth became dark, I looked up and saw this rocket.

If you cannot read this, please get a translator.

I have received your photograph. It is very nice and I like it. Thank you.

However, what is shown, is completely wrong. There is no such thing on the moon. I have seen the moon, sun and the stars, and know exactly what they are like. There is no dust on the moon. Everything is different from what you Americans show. Everything you show is not true.

Am interested in Apollo 16. I have squared it with my conscience, for 2 million dollars you can hire me as Apollo 16 commander. Lt. Armstrong, you can go with me as pilot, and then one more who will have to suit my taste. You can introduce me to him in America.

Franz Senar (born 8 June 1928)

Ljutomer, Slovenia

Yugoslavia

“WE LIKED VERY MUCH YOUR CREW’S ATTITUDE”

October 28, 1971

Dear Mr. Armstrong:

First of all I wish to send you my heartiest regards. I am student in the 7th Grade of the Elementary Eng. Janek Krasinski School in Walbrzych. Our grade was very much interested in the flight of “Apollo 11” in which you and your crew participated. We liked very much your and your crew’s attitude. The flight of “Apollo 11” enlarged our stock of knowledge about the space and the moon. I collect photographs of astronauts and therefore I would appreciate if you would send me your photograph.

Regards,

Renata Sommer

Walbrzych, Poland

“HOW DO YOU USE YOUR TIME, MR. ARMSTRONG?”

December 23, 1971

Dear Mr. Neil Armstrong,

Considering that nowadays youth is audacious and starting from a generous aim, I Carol Roman, a Romanian journalist, address you, Mr Neil Armstrong, as an outstanding personality who by your prominent presence in the contemporary world represent a “moral point of support” for the younger generations of our days—my wish to answer the world inquiry organized by the Romanian newspaper for the young people “Scînteia Tineretulai” [“Scent of Youth”].

“How do you use your time. Mr Armstrong?”

I am sure that in your ample process of creation and activity, in order to assert yourself, you had to make great efforts, to work day and night, to turn everything you have to good account, I am sure. I am convinced that only by mobilizing efforts, according to a certain programme of life, solicited this epoch of continuous progress of science and technique with a highest, most efficient use of your time in a certain regime of life, you managed to place yourself in the social forum where you are today. Indicating the way you keep in check “the time machine,” how do you organize your life? How do you alternate your preoccupation? How do you work? How do you train yourself? How do you enjoy yourself, etc.? You could suggest possibilities and spiritual premises for the young people wishing to assert themselves.

Mr. Armstrong, We should like you to account in your answer a fact, a thought, a happening, a situation, even a regret, which should have a character of confession. We should even be interested in a working-day of yours which shows your regime of life—all these should be inscribed within our preoccupation of pleading for a rational use of life since youth. You can refer to this subject generally or fragmentarily or to a certain hypostasis.

I know you are a very busy person. Still I hope you will give some of your precious time for the younger generations.

As we intend your answer to be included in a volume we should ask you to send us the text—irrespective of the length—till December the 25th this year. We should ask you to send also a photograph of yours and a short autobiographical note: the date of your birth, studies, and successes.

With best regards and highest consideration.

Carol Roman

Bucharest, Romania

“COURAGE AND IMPUDENCE TO BOTHER YOU”

March 16, 1972

Dear Mr. Neil Armstrong,

Although I know you get very many letters every day, I have still got some courage and impudence to bother. I beg your pardon and I hope you will read my letter through.

Who am I?

My name is Uno Arnold Viigand and I am 19 years old. I live in Estonia, in the USSR. I am a first-year-student or so-called “Freshman” at Tarter State University.

My hobby is collecting of autographs. I have been collecting them for five years already and there are very many autographs in my collection from well-known Men around the world. I have got a request for you. If it is possible, please send me your photo with authograph.

With best wishes

Sincerely yours

Uno Arnold Viigand

Tartu, Estonia

USSR

Reply from Geneva Barnes, Neil’s secretary

April 19, 1972

Dear Mr. Viigand:

Mr. Armstrong has asked me to thank you for your letter and to wish you every success at the University. He was pleased to autograph the enclosed picture for you.

Sincerely,

(Mrs.) Geneva Barnes

Secretary to Mr. Armstrong

“‘ARMSTRONGITE’ IN YOUR HONOUR”

June 7, 1972

Dear Mr. Armstrong:

We have sent to the Commission on new minerals and new names of minerals: The International Mineralogical Association, Washington, our new mineral sustained and submitted to this commission by the Ac. [Academy of] Sc. [Science], USSR.

We would like you to favour us with your agreement of calling this new mineral (silicate of calcium and zirconium): Armstrongite in your honour: the first spaceman setting foot upon the Moon.

Please forward your answer to Dr. [Michael] Fleisher.

Best wishes and thanks in advance.

Sincerely yours,

N. V. Vladykin

Institute of Geochemistry

Irkutsk, USSR

Personal reply from Neil

June 26, 1972

Dear Mr. Vladykin:

I received your letter through Dr. Fleischer with a great deal of pleasure. I am very pleased to have my name nominated for inclusion in this new mineral name and grant permission with thanks.

Please convey my appreciation to your colleagues at the Institute of Geochemistry.

Sincerely,

Neil A. Armstrong

Professor of Aerospace Engineering

University of Cincinnati

Michael Fleischer (1908–1990) served from 1959 to 1974 as chairman of the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical Society. After earning a PhD in physics from Yale University in 1936, he spent three years as a chemist at the geophysical laboratory of the Carnegie Institution. From 1939 until his retirement in 1986, he was a mineralogist and geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey. An internationally recognized authority on mineral nomenclature, he coauthored the Mineralogical Record’s Glossary of Mineral Species and had a mineral, Fleischerite, named for him. In 1992 the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences named him an honorary member.

“YOU WILL BE THE GUEST OF THE USSR ACADEMY OF SCIENCES”

April 18, 1973

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee I have the honour to invite you to participate the XXIV Congress of the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF) to be held in Baku, October 7–13, 1973.

You will be the guest of the USSR Academy of Sciences for ten days.

Expenses during your stay in the USSR will be covered by the USSR Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately the Academy of Sciences is unable to cover your travel expenses.

I would appreciate very much your prompt answer.

In case you accept the invitation you may obtain visas beginning with September directly through the Soviet Embassy in your country without applying to INTOURIST.

Please, let us know the exact dates of your arrivals to Moscow and Baku.

Meanwhile I thank you in advance and offer you my most cordial greetings.

Sincerely yours,

Academician L.I. Sedov

Chairman of the Organizing Committee

International Aeronautical Congress

Moscow, USSR

Personal reply from Neil

October 1, 1973

Dear Chairman Sedov:

With a great deal of regret, I must report to you that it is no longer possible for me to attend the IAF Congress in Baku as I had hoped. Insurmountable schedule conflicts here in the United States have arisen which seem impossible to overcome.

This technical meeting would have been professionally rewarding and personally enjoyable, particularly inasmuch as your Academy of Sciences had so kindly offered to act as host. I know from my previous visit how enjoyable that would have been.

Please convey my thanks to the Academy and my sincere regrets for not being in attendance. I send my very best wishes for the success of the Congress and my personal sincere thanks to you.

Sincerely,

Neil A. Armstrong

Professor of Aerospace Engineering

University of Cincinnati

Neil had accepted an earlier invitation to give a talk in the Soviet Union. Shortly after returning from the Apollo 11 mission, he had received an invitation from the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which had been established in 1958 (a few months after Sputnik) by the International Council for Science (CSU), an organization dating back into the early twentieth century (formerly named the International Council of Scientific Unions), which was devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. COSPAR’s charter of 1958 mandated that the organization be led by coequal vice presidents, one from each of the two superpowers. This unusual arrangement opened a door to dialogue and informal contacts between American and Soviet space officials and helped lead, notably, to the Outer Space Treaty signed between the United States and the USSR on January 27, 1967 (ironically, the same day as the tragic Apollo 1 fire). The first vice president appointed by the Soviets (always at the Kremlin’s blessing) was Anatoli A. Blagonravov (1894–1975), a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, past president of the Soviet Academy of Artillery Sciences, and an expert on long-range ballistic missiles. In 1970 the Committee on Space Research would hold its thirteenth annual conference, for the first time in the Soviet Union, in the city of Leningrad. (The conference had been held behind the Iron Curtain twice before, in Warsaw in 1963 and in Prague in 1969; its inaugural meeting in 1958 had been in London, with a meeting in Washington, D.C., in 1962.) In a clear indication of the strength of interest in the achievements of Apollo 11, COSPAR invited Neil to present a paper at its assembly in Leningrad.

Armstrong attended. On May 24, 1970, he arrived at the Leningrad airport on a flight from Warsaw. A red carpet awaited him but no crowds, as the Soviet government had not released news of his arrival. But at the meeting hall the commander of Apollo 11 received a great welcome and was mobbed by Soviet and Eastern Bloc scientists seeking autographs. After five days in the city, Neil was given permission to visit Moscow. At the Kremlin, he met with Premier Kosygin for an hour. On behalf of President Nixon, Neil presented him with some chips of a Moon rock and a small Soviet flag that had been carried aboard Apollo 11. The next morning Kosygin sent Neil bottles of vodka and cognac. Andrey N. Tupolev, the great Russian aircraft designer, and his son Adrian took Neil to the airfield hangar where they kept their supersonic TU-144, the rival to the Anglo-French Concorde; Neil was, in fact, the first Westerner to see the Soviet SST. The Tupolevs gave Neil a model of the TU-144, which Andrey Tupolev signed. During the trip Neil met several Soviet cosmonauts. In a secluded forest outside of Moscow, he spent the day at the Cosmonaut Training Center, which was part of the space complex of Zvezdny Gorodok (“Star City”), Russia’s version of Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center. His hostess was Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly in space, whom he found charming. Neil toured their training facilities, simulators, and spacecraft mockups. Tereshkova took him to the office of the late Yuri Gagarin, killed in an aircraft accident in March 1968 and whose personal effects had been preserved as a shrine to the first human space traveler. Neil then gave a lecture attended by many of the cosmonauts. Afterward, Mrs. Gagarin and Mrs. Vladimir Komarov were brought up to meet Neil, as Neil and Buzz had left medallions on the lunar surface in their husbands’ honor. There were some Soviet media at the event. That night the cosmonauts invited Neil to a private dinner. After much toasting, they presented him with a very nice shotgun inscribed with his name on the stock. After dinner, around midnight, one of his hosts, Georgy Beregovoy (1921–1995) invited him to his apartment for coffee. (Besides being a veteran cosmonaut, Beregovoy was a decorated World War II flying ace.) At one point Georgy turned on his television set. On it was a tape of the launch of Soyuz 9 that had occurred earlier in the day. One of the cosmonauts in that spacecraft was Andrian G. Nikolayev, the husband of Valentina Tereshkova, with whom Neil had spent the whole day without her ever mentioning anything about the launch. Bringing vodka out for toasts, Beregovoy smiled broadly and told Armstrong, “This launch was in your honor!”17