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Kamanin
Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin headed the Soviet cosmonaut corps from 1960 to 1971. His diaries are a key documentary source for the history of the Soviet space program. They remained secret during the life of the Soviet Union. The first volume was only published in 1995, thirteen years after Kamanin's death. They portray a man engaged in a constant struggle with an indifferent hierarchy for an expansion of air force military operations into space. He blamed Soviet loss of the space race after 1966 to the unwillingness of Soviet engineers to let the cosmonauts actively control their spacecraft (as was the American practice). A good Communist and a bit of a martinet, he was scathing in his critiques of the unfocussed Soviet leadership of the space program and especially the failings of Korolev's successor, Mishin.

Despite some failings, Kamanin's diaries are the only accounts we have for many key events and the only contemporary account of the inside workings of the Soviet space programme. They convey marvelously the human vitality of the space race on the Soviet side. The periods spent out on the steppes in Kazakhstan for launches have all the atmosphere of a male-bonding camping trip. They work hard, all hours, but also party hard and spend Sundays on hunting or fishing expeditions. The stories are reminiscent of American accounts of the hard work and sheer pleasure of pioneering space from similar hardship posts -- from the swamps of Cape Canaveral to the deserts of New Mexico.

This brief summary of the diaries includes key points relevant to space history that I have picked up in reading the diaries. The diaries span the period from 1960 to 1971, with occasional entries through 1978. I have omitted most private material related to Kamanin's family affairs and military career before 1960 as not being of interest to the space historian. Unfortunately for English readers, Kamanin's work remains only available in Russian.

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© Mark Wade, 1997 - 2008 except where otherwise noted.