The “last Soviet citizen”: Sergei Krikalev, the cosmonaut left in space while the Soviet Union collapsed

From the Soviet MIR space station, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev had a privileged view of planet Earth, so idyllic that it did not allow him to see the political fire in which his country was burning.

On May 18, 1991 Krikalev left aboard the nave Soyuz for a five-month mission to the MIR station orbiting the Earth.

Along with him traveled the also Soviet Anatoly Artsebarsky and the British Helen Sharman.

The launch was from the legendary Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the same one from where the Soviet Union had taken the lead in the space race against the United States, with milestones such as putting the first satellite into orbit, Sputnik; the journey of the dog Laika; and the arrival of the first human being in space: Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.

By then, the MIR station was a symbol of that soviet might in space exploration.

Krikalev’s mission was rather routine, had to do some repairs and upgrades to the station.

But while things were going smoothly in space, on land the Soviet Union was beginning to crack quickly.

In a matter of months, the gigantic and powerful Soviet Union disintegrated while Krikalev was in space.

For that reason, what in principle was a mission that did not represent major complications, left Krikalev literally in limbo for months, floating in space. more than twice the time that he had planned and subjecting his body and mind to unknown effects.

This was the odyssey of Sergei Krikalev, the cosmonaut who, after enduring more than 10 months orbiting the Earth, landed in a country that no longer existed.

His season abandoned in space earned him go down in history as “The last Soviet citizen.”

The most popular

Sergei Krikalev was born in 1958 in Leningrad, which today corresponds to Saint Petersburg.

Graduated as mechanical engineer from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute in 1981 and then, after four years of training, he became a cosmonaut.

In 1988 he made his first trip to the MIR station, which orbited the Earth at a height of 400 km above the earth’s surface.

Currently, Krikalev is the director of manned missions for Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.

May ’91 was his second trip to the station.

Krikalev earned a special place in popular culture because he was one of the first cosmonauts to use the station’s radio to communicate from space with radio amateurs on Earth ”, Cathleen Lewis, a historian specializing in the Soviet and Russian space programs at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, United States, tells BBC Mundo.

Lewis refers to the fact that during long stays at the MIR, Krikalev would pick up the radio and talk to common people that found their frequency from Earth.

“In that way he established informal relationships with people around the world, ”says Lewis.

Krikalev was never alone at the MIR station, but he was the most popular.

“I was not the only one He was on the station, but he was the one talking on the radio all the time, ”says Lewis.

The historian believes that this is why, although at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, alongside Krikalev in the MIR was cosmonaut Aleksandr Volkov, it is Krikalev who more is remembered as “the last Soviet citizen.”

“He was not the only one at the station, but he was the one who became a public figure”, dice Lewis.

The union breaks

Between 1990 and 1991 all the republics that made up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had declared their independence.

At this time, the president was Mikhail Gorbachev, who with his famous “Perestroika” tried to modernize the country, bring it closer to the capitalism, decentralize the economic power of many companies and allowed privately owned businesses to be created.

This process caused much resistance among the Communist Party.

Between August 19 and 21, 1991, a group from the toughest wing of the Communist Party attempted a coup against Gorbachev, which, although unsuccessful, did leave the Union. Death wound.

“Everything is fine”

While Gorbachev lost control of the country, Krikalev continued floating in the space.

Faced with the political and economic crisis facing an increasingly fragmented USSR, Krikalev was asked to remain in space until new notice.

“For us it was something unexpected, we did not understand what was happening ”, recalls Krikalev himself in the BBC documentary“ The Last Soviet Citizen ”, from 1993.

“With the little information they gave us, we tried to get the full picture.”

According to Lewis, Krikalev found out what was happening thanks to people from the West, since at that time in the Soviet Union the narrative of “everything is fine”.

“Until it was gone,” says the historian.

Elena Terekhina, Krikalev’s wife and who worked as a radio operator for the Soviet space program, also communicated with him, but without giving him more details of what was happening on the ground.

“I was trying not to talk to him about unpleasant things, and I think he was trying to do the same,” Terekhina recalls in the BBC documentary.

“He always told me that everything was fine, so it was very difficult to know what was really felt in his heart ”.

Fulfill duty

Krikalev accepted the mission to extend his stay in space, but acknowledged that it was not easy.

“Will I be strong enough, will I be able to readjust to a longer stay? … I had my doubts “recalls the cosmonaut.

Indeed, Krikalev and Volkov could have returned at any moment, but that would have meant leaving abandoned station.

“It was a bureaucratic problem,” says Lewis. “They didn’t want to leave the station, but they didn’t have the money to send a replacement”.

At the same time, the Russian government promised Kazakhstan that as a replacement for Krikalev they would send a Kazakh cosmonaut, as a way to calm down between both nations.

Kazakhstan, however, did not have a cosmonaut with Krikalev’s level of experience, thus it would take time to train him.

And meanwhile, Krikalev was still in space, exposed to physical and mental effects that even today are not fully known.

According to NASA, stays in space may be associated with radiation-related risks, which can produce Cancer or degenerative diseases.

The lack of gravity can lead to loss of muscle and bone mass; and the immune system can suffer alterations.

And isolation can trigger psychological problems, such as behavior changes or loss of spirits.

Krikaev, however, always knew that your duty was to stay on board.

No replacement

In October, three new cosmonauts arrived at the station, but none were trained to relieve Krikalev.

According to Lewis, those most concerned about Krikalev were people outside the Soviet Union, “imagining a man abandoned in space ”.

For the Russian government, on the other hand, it was simply that “they had other priorities, other concerns ”.

In addition, on October 25, 1991, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty, which meant that the cosmodrome from which Krikalev’s relay was to depart, was no longer under Russian control.

On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union finally Collapsed completely.

That day, Gorbachev announced his resignation for health reasons, ending the wounded empire.

The Soviet Union was fragmented into 15 nations and the country that had sent Krikalev into space it had ceased to exist.

His native Leningrad, would be called Saint Petersburg.

The return

At the station, Krikalev spent his time gazing at the Earth, listening to the music that his companions put and, of course, speaking on the radio.

Exactly 3 months later, on March 25, 1992, Krikalev and Volkov they returned to Earth.

In all, Krikalev had spent 312 days in space, giving him 5,000 laps of the Earth.

“It was very pleasant to return, despite the gravity we had to endure, we freed ourselves from a psychological burden”Said the cosmonaut.

“I would not say it was a moment of euphoria, but it was very good ”.

And despite the odyssey he had survived, Krikalev was ready for the next adventure.

In 2000 he was part of the first crew to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), a symbol of the new space age, which left behind old quarrels and gave way to a collaborative model between several countries to follow. revealing the mysteries of the universe. (I)