You can purchase this book clicking here.

If you wish to purchase further titles already reviewed here, please return each time to SBB. Using the direct links available at our site is easier than searching by title, author, or ISBN number.

EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This book is about the early era of the Russian space challenge. It is based on the notes of Vladimir Suvorov, a distinguished chief documentary cinematographer, who eyewitnessed and described in his top secret diary all these events from 1959 to 1969.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Prologue.

-An Overview.

-1. Asignment.

-2. Moscow "Facility" and the First Acquaintances.

-3. Trip to the Unknown: Baikonur Cosmodrome.

-4. "SP" (Sergei Pavlovich Korolev): First Encounters.

-5. The Finger of Destiny.

-6. The Fatal Accident at Yangel Launching Site.

-7. The Weekdays of the Secret Cameramen.

-8. "Ivan Ivanovich": A Dummy Pilot.

-9. On the Eve.

-10. Yuri Gagarin: the First Man in Space.

-11. Moscow in Triumph.

-12. Vostok 2: Gherman Titov's Mission.

-13. Cosmic Doublet.

-14. Valusha: Nothing Can Be Done Without a Woman.

-15. Space Trio.

-16. Walking in Open Space.

-17. Molnya 1: the Last Encounters with S.P. Korolev.

-18. Korolev's Heritage.

-19. Soyuz 1 Tragic Accident.

-20. Next Soyuz Missions: On the Way to Meet Apollo.

-21. What was Missing from the Notes.

-22. Epilogue.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

It always is nice to read new details on the old Soviet cosmonautics, yet it is doubly so if any of the authors of the text has been very near the events and can tell us about them with firsthand arguments.

Thanks to his movie work, Vladimir Suvorov shaped during several years many of the glorious moments of the space conquest as seen from the USSR viewpoint. In this book, his notes, extracted from his diary, describe us a vivid picture of the events that led to the first manned trip ever and beyond.

Suvorov's nephew, Alex Sabelnikov, is the one who has been in charge of ordering his uncle's material and rewriting it for its publication in the shape of a book. With him, we will get to know the great personalities of such a historical era: Sergei Korolev, Gagarin and so many people who made the Soviet Union into the first space power for many years. The period of time covered by this work ranges from 1959 to 1969, a period in which Suvorov made 35 movies on the space conquest of his country. Although some of his notes saw the light in the late eighties and Suvorov always wanted to write a book about them, he never came to do this as he died in 1990. Now, at last, conveniently remoulded, they do see the light.