Which astronaut dedicated his drawings to the space theme? Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov: biography (photo)

Alexey Leonov, having buried nine brothers and sisters, becoming the last in his family, is very homesick for his homeland and his departed relatives. Today, the cosmonaut who arrived in Kemerovo opened in regional museum Fine art exhibition of his paintings “Space and Earth Landscapes”.

Among the 70 paintings there is one, inconspicuous, but piercing and... explaining why an ordinary boy, more than half a century ago, decided to become and BECAME an astronaut. In this picture, 77-year-old Alexey Arkhipovich depicted his father’s house - in the village of Listvyanka in the north of Kuzbass.

In the picture, a simple Siberian parents' hut was literally covered with a canopy of the sky. This low, hugging sky is so close,” museum employees told KP. – As everyone who freezes in front of the picture says, it called Alexei Arkhipovich in his childhood to become a pilot and cosmonaut.

Indeed, little Lenya, a boy with the heart of an artist and dreams of travel, felt the call of heaven for the first time there, in Listvyanka. And he became an astronaut. In the large Leonov family, as Raisa Arkhipovna Ganicheva, the sister of the famous cosmonaut, the first in the world to go into space, said several years ago, open space, Alexey was called that way - “son of heaven.”

On my last visit to Listvyanka two years ago

the astronaut ran to his father's house at a run

Two years ago, having arrived in Kemerovo on the anniversary of the death of his last and most beloved sister, Raya, Alexey Arkhipovich, having visited her grave, hurried to Listvyanka.

I lit candles in the church for my entire departed family - for my long-dead mother - Evdokia Minaevna, father - Arkhip Alekseevich, for my nine sisters and brothers.

The famous cosmonaut is still strong in appearance, still humorous, lively, but his eyes are sad, recalls Vladimir Toroschin from the Tisulsky Department of Culture. “But as soon as the fields of his native village of Listvyanka appeared, the village, his father’s house itself, to which we drove up, Alexey Arkhipovich seemed to native land received! TO parents' house he didn't walk, he ran!

After all, the old hut in which Leonov was born and grew up until the family moved to the city is still the same. The same two tiny rooms where the Leonovs lived so harmoniously when they were all happy and alive. Everybody is alive! The same mountain ash at the gate.

In this corner there was my cradle, and there, let’s go, I’ll show you my favorite stream, - he led his wife and companions from the regional center of Leonov. With difficulty, he was able to find his stream, which, like the astronaut, was then 75 years old.

Sister Raya was the first to notice the gift of an artist in the future cosmonaut.

IN last time, alive, the astronaut saw his beloved sister Raya six months before her death. He was only able to stop by for the evening. And he amazed her by remembering the bread with which she saved him when he was 3 years old.

Oh, we had a very difficult life then, in 1937,” Raisa Arkhipovna recalled that meeting with Alexei. “We haven’t seen bread for six months.” We ate only quinoa and potatoes.

I'm Lesha, 14 years older. He was 3, I was 17. All my life I was his most beloved sister and nanny. I remember the chairman of the collective farm brought a bag of flour, at that time of famine! And where did you get it?! They baked bread in secret. I worked in an office, recording workdays. In general, they gave me a loaf and told me to hide it, carry it home with my backside, through the gardens.

I’m running, the bread under my shirt is burning. Lenka met me in the garden. He runs up: “Lyadya (that’s how he said “Paradise”), but you’re not there? (“You don’t have any bread?”) Where did you remember the word “bread” from? I handed him the loaf. How happy he was!

My father then cut the loaf into tiny pieces and gave it to all the children, but not a piece for himself. And he gave the biggest piece to Lesha.

This saving loaf inspired the Leonovs and little Lesha with hope that the hunger would soon end and life would get better. Not right away, but that’s what happened. And little Lenya grew up and glorified the Leonov family throughout the world.

... On their last meeting with Raya, Alexey Arkhipovich gave her an album with photographs of his paintings.

If his love for the sky and space had not overcome his love for drawing, Lenya would have become a great artist. I remember he was little and he drew all the time, and it was very similar. It happened that one of our people would swear at him, which again - in dreams, and I defended: “Let him draw, Leni has a gift from God,” recalled Raisa Arkhipovna.

Most of all to her, from latest collection paintings of her brother, an astronaut, she liked the painting - a man in outer space, and although she couldn’t see his face, she knew: Alexey depicted himself.

Fellow countrymen asked the astronaut to paint an icon

In Tisula and Listvyanka every official visit Leonov in Kuzbass is welcome to visit him.

And he not only tells his homeland all the new details about “his” space, but also teaches the children from the “art” to draw.

In this painting, cosmonaut and artist Alexei Leonov, as his sister said, depicted himself, the first person in the world to go into outer space. Photo: Larisa MAKSIMENKO

In his paintings there are earthly and space landscapes. And recently, fellow countrymen at a meeting, remembering that in the temple Holy Mother of God The Three-Handed Church in Tisul laid a brick of the cosmonaut’s name in the wall, they asked Alexey Arkhipovich to paint an icon for the temple.

Alexey Arkhipovich, a believer, bought a personalized brick, giving a whole thousand rubles for it, recalls the rector of the church, Father Maxim. – My heart trembled when Alexey Arkhipovich signed “Leonov A.A.”, kissed the brick, which was in the dust, in the work, and handed it to the mason. The brick lay firmly in the masonry. And Alexey Arkhipovich stepped heavily to the side and put on dark glasses. He didn't want people to see the emotions that overwhelmed him.

And at the request of fellow countrymen - to paint an icon for their homeland. Alexey Arkhipovich replied that he dreams about it, but “I’m not worthy!”, for now. He does not yet dare to take up icon painting, because he explained to his fellow countrymen: “There was a period when everyone everywhere asked me after the flight: “Have you seen God in space?”, and I answered: “No.”

The Leonov family has heavenly protection

It is no coincidence that our fellow countryman Alexei Arkhipovich has so many talents. As Raisa Arkhipovna, the cosmonaut’s sister, told KP in her last interview:

Our parents met in church and fell in love at first sight, but they had to defend their feelings. Both relatives were against their choice. Relatives on her father’s side accused: “Evdokia, although smart, graduated from parochial school with straight A’s, is not a beauty. Besides, she’s poor.” Relatives on the maternal side convinced: “Arkhip is too handsome guy, and the way he sings, the way he dances, everyone looks at him, unreliable. And he's rich." But Evdokia firmly stated:

Either I’ll marry Arkhipochka, or go to a monastery!

And so Arkhip and Evdokia got married. Moreover, Evdokia’s parents were the first to surrender, including the young people who accepted them to live with them.

Our mother and father’s love for each other was so strong, and the marriage was so successful that my mother’s father, grandfather Minai, later told us, his grandchildren, more than once: “I adopted Arkhip, I have an excellent son, Arkhipushka.” And then mom and dad, one after another, gave birth to us, 12 children,” recalled Raisa Arkhipovna. – Two died in infancy. Ten grew up talented and reliable - Shura, Lyuba, Raya, Nina, Nadya, Tonya, Petya, Lesha, Vera and Borya. But the most talented was Lesha.

He was named Alexey Arkhipovich in honor of his father - Arkhip, grandfather - Alexey and St. Alexey. After all, when Lesha was born in 1934, it was the holiday of Alexei - God's man. Then church holidays They haven’t celebrated it for a long time, everyone was already atheists. IN rural church There was a club and dance. But the mother of the future cosmonaut said:

Alexei, man of God, this name is most suitable for my son. I feel it in my heart.

And I was not mistaken.

Alexei Leonov was destined for the fantastic space trip, and fantastic luck when, having gone into outer space for the first time in the world, Leonov could not return - the airlock doors were not allowed in or when the automatic control failed during landing.

And Alexey Leonov and his brothers and sisters inherited amazing karma from Minai’s grandfather. Grandfather Minaj in his youth, working at a factory in Central Russia, saved a huge demonstration of workers from being shot. He learned that along the street, where strikers would flock from all sides, machine guns would be installed on the roofs. And the strikers will be shot point blank. Grandfather Minai, unable to warn the workers himself, sent his daughter to ensure that the demonstrators changed their route.

And so he saved almost the entire city from execution. This human gratitude and God's favor helped him for a long time and was inherited by his descendants in Siberia.

The astronaut's father got into " public Enemies», but he was quickly rehabilitated

Already in Siberia, in Kuzbass in life big family The Leonovs also had a bad streak (Arkhip Leonov, the father of the then future cosmonaut, was declared an “enemy of the people” and imprisoned). But the streak ended with an unexpected miracle.

The Leonovs hid this family page all their lives from the jubilant country, which rocked cosmonaut Leonov in its arms. And they were amazed how this black mark did not prevent their Lesha from becoming an astronaut.

Our father was very competent, a jack of all trades. I remember they trained him to be a livestock specialist. And they gave him a bunch of positions: he is the manager of a sheep farm, he is responsible for the cows on the collective farm, and he is responsible for the pigs. And then the harvesting began. In addition, he was appointed to be in charge of the drying room - drying grain. It rains and rains. “Dad disappears on the dryer for days,” recalled the cosmonaut’s sister, Raisa Arkhipovna. - And then they resort to him: the best cow on the collective farm - Krasotka - cannot calve, she is dying. Father, let’s rush about: you can’t throw away the grain, and you need to save the cow. They persuaded him: “We will watch for you, run to Pretty Woman.”

The father of the future cosmonaut saved the beauty and the calf. But his shift workers dried out some of the grain at the dryer.

The grain was accepted at the elevator, everything was accepted.

But the denunciation went “to the top.”

And the father of the future cosmonaut, an honest man, told the visiting collective farm chairman about his worries about grain. The commission went to the elevator and found several roasted grains. Maybe not even Leonov’s. But the father of the future cosmonaut was convicted of sabotage.

There is a God – as soon as Alexei Leonov’s father was brought to the camp, he was immediately noticed. After all, an epidemic among pigs began in the camp farm. The camp authorities called prisoner Leonov, who was a livestock specialist in freedom, and not only asked, but begged him to save the pigs. Leonov defeated the epidemic. And three months later he was released to his family.

The Leonovs cried when Alexey flew into space

On March 18, 1965, when the whole country rejoiced - for the first time in the world, a man, a guy from Russia and Kuzbass - Alexei Leonov, went into outer space, the entire huge Leonov family cried.

“I, my parents, my sisters and brothers, we were all very afraid for Lesha,” recalled my sister, Raisa Arkhipovna. “They probably injected me as much as half a liter of glucose into a vein when they boarded the plane to fly to a meeting in the Kremlin. This is to bring me to my senses, to support my body... I thought of only one thing, if only Lesha would survive, if only he would be found sooner after landing. Although they reported that the cosmonauts were already relaxing at the government dacha, I couldn’t believe it.

My sister’s heart worried in vain. Raisa's companion on the plane from Kemerovo to Moscow was a pilot who took part in the search for cosmonauts Leonov and Belyaev.

He, and later Alexey himself, told Raisa Arkhipovna about the extreme landing.

After landing, when Lesha took off his spacesuit, he found himself waist-deep in water, so much flowed out of him. They sat down in the taiga, the frost was minus 21, he and Pavel Belyaev were both wet. They froze, poor things, right away. Lesha rammed the snow with his chest up to a dry birch tree nearby. There was a snowdrift the size of a man. “I chopped branches and lit a fire,” Raisa Arkhipovna was worried. “He also told Belyaev: “What kind of coffee do you like: hot or cold?” I put a tube of coffee near the fire, and it exploded. Left without coffee. They, wet, lasted almost three days. Until the lumberjacks came to them.

...The consequences of that extreme landing still affect the well-being of the legendary cosmonaut Alexei Leonov - his heart. But the great cosmonaut continues to travel a lot around the country, meeting people. And - to paint landscapes of Russia and his native Kuzbass, it is his homeland that gives him strength.

On a note

Where can you see paintings of the famous astronaut?

The exhibition “Space and Earth Painting by Alexei Leonov” is running at the Kemerovo Regional Museum fine arts on Sovetsky Avenue, 48. You can visit it any day except Monday

Presentation "Cosmonaut-artist. Alexey Leonov." "Art" 9th grade. On the topic "Art Anticipates the Future." The work of A. Leonov, who created a large number of paintings on the theme of space exploration.

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Cosmonaut-artist Alexey Leonov

Space and science-fiction painting A. Leonov, A Sokolov ALEXEY ARKHIPOVICH LEONOV Pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, Major General of Aviation. Member of the CPSU since 1957. Born on May 30, 1934 in the village of Listvyanka Kemerovo region. The first flight into space was made on March 18-19, 1965, together with P.I. Belyaev. as co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. For the first time in the world Leonov A.A. went out of the spacecraft cabin into outer space and performed a number of experiments outside the ship. To perform a human spacewalk, the Voskhod-2 spacecraft was equipped with an airlock chamber. Medical and biological research was carried out, and some problems of space navigation were solved. For the first time, a spacecraft was launched using a manual control system. The second space flight took place on July 15-21, 1975 together with Kubasov V.N. on the Soyuz-19 spacecraft. This was the world's first joint flight of the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and the American Apollo. The ships were docked for 44 hours. The crews moved from one ship to another, jointly performing scientific and technical experiments. A manned international laboratory, Soyuz-Apollo, was created in the orbit of an artificial Earth satellite - a prototype of future international orbital stations. A. Leonov created a large number of paintings on the theme of space exploration. Since the mid-60s, he has been a constant co-author of the science fiction artist A. Sokolov ANDREY KONSTANTINOVICH SOKOLOV Born in 1931. After graduation architectural institute in the mid-50s he worked in his main specialty - as an architect. Since childhood future artist loved the science fiction of Jules Verne, Belyaev, Tsiolkovsky, Bradbury. And he dedicated his first works in the genre of science fiction painting to Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451.” After the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957, all of A. Sokolov’s creative aspirations were devoted to the theme of space exploration. Some of his paintings are “mini-series”: we see the successive stages of the construction of a large manned space station in Earth’s orbit, we observe the first landing of people on the Moon, Venus, Mars, the satellites of the giant planets, together with the crews of photon rockets we rush to the stars. A huge number of works are devoted to the topic of real achievements of Soviet cosmonautics (only in 1981, in the album “Life among the Stars”, several works on the topic appear American Studies in space). Since the mid-60s, A. Sokolov’s constant co-author has been the USSR pilot-cosmonaut A. Leonov.

No perfect equipment can accurately convey what is seen in Space. Only human eye and the artist’s brush are able to convey to people the beauty of our Earth, revealed from a cosmic height... There are not many such people. There were them in the twentieth century. only three - who took the first cosmic step. And two of them are our compatriots: Gagarin, who first ascended into space orbit, and Leonov, the first to push off from the hatch into free flight, separated from hostile space only by the shell of a spacesuit... Among the cosmonauts there are no ordinary people at all. But not everyone is able to convey to others not a dispassionate photo report, but the feelings, emotions, mood that accompany entering a new environment for a person. It is unlikely that the picky commission that selected pilots from garrisons on a “principally new technology", first of all she assessed the artistic talents of the young pilot - it was much more important to her that the day before Alexey Leonov brilliantly landed the emergency MIG-15bis with the engine turned off.

ALEXEY ARKHIPOVICH LEONOV

SP turned out to be right. Already two generations of people have perceived space, first through the paintings of the artist A. A. Leonov, and only then through the television “picture”, which improves every year, but is not able to compete with the eye and hand of the artist... Although the impressions and sensations of Alexei Arkhipovich in the very moment of exit, and especially the return to the ship, was conveyed by profanity... The designers of the first extravehicular spacesuit made a mistake, and the flexibility of the inflated suit in a vacuum turned out to be less than designed. As a result, the hands came out of the gloves, the legs came out of the boots, and it became completely impossible to move, but it was necessary. "19-year-old Sergei Korolev in Gagarin's spacesuit." 1965. Drawing by A. Leonov on the dust jacket of the book “ Psychological problems interplanetary flight."

The paintings of the artist A. A. Leonov are unique. It just so happens that our artists willingly paint native nature, no less willingly experiment with all sorts of unconventional styles, but extremely rarely (and often ineptly) depict the “second” nature - man-made. Maybe this happens because this very man-made nature– you need to know technology, but most artists (as well as “humanists” in general) treat such knowledge with disdain?

SPACE AND MAN

in the paintings of Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov,

pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR.

1. Spaceship"East" - symbol space age. The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space on it on April 12, 1961.
A. Leonov. "Start of the East"

2. The first Soviet artificial communications satellite, Molniya-1, launched in 1965, resembles a fantastic flower or a space station from films about the distant future. Its giant “petals” are solar panels, which are always oriented towards the Sun, and parabolic antennas are always oriented towards the Earth. The satellite is designed to relay television programs and long-distance telephone and telegraph communications.
By the way, in 1967, one of the satellites of this series was the first in the world to obtain a color image of the Earth.
A. Leonov. "Molniya-1"

3. A. Leonov. "Molniya - space relay"

4. Meteorological satellites have radically increased the reliability of weather forecasts, made it possible to detect cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes at the stages of their formation, measure the direction and speed of their spread, select optimal routes for fishing and merchant ships, and also determine the boundaries of ice cover in the Arctic regions along the route Northern Sea Route, receive information about precipitation areas and much more. Satellites are able to provide timely warning of the occurrence and dangerous movement of a tsunami. Difficult to estimate quantity human lives, saved thanks to weather satellites.
A. Leonov. "Meteorological system - METEOR"

5. The first person to see seventeen days and nights in one day was pilot-cosmonaut German Titov, Yuri Gagarin’s backup, who in August 1962 made a daily flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. During this flight I saw Titov "TERMINATOR"- the boundary of day and night, constantly changing in space at every turn of the flight. All the astronauts describe this spectacle as unforgettable!
A. Leonov. "Above the Terminator"

6. For an astronaut, a day - an hour and a half - is the time it takes a satellite ship to orbit the Earth. During an earthly day, astronauts encounter 17 cosmic dawns.
In Leonov's painting " NIGHT GLOW OF THE ATMOSPHERE HALO" the ship flies over the night Earth. Through the Veil dark clouds reddish city lights are visible. And on the horizon, behind which the Sun is hidden, a rainbow stripe of the earth’s atmosphere appeared. And above all this - embedded in black velvet outer space Moon and shining stars.
A. Leonov. "Cosmic Dawn"

7. Alexey Leonov was the first cosmonaut to notice in space and then depict the moment when the fiery red disk of the Sun just rose from the horizon. An unusually beautiful halo appeared above the sun for a short time, its shape reminiscent of an old Russian kokoshnik. The cosmonaut made the first sketch of this drawing with colored pencils on the page of the logbook on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

A. Leonov. "Morning in Space"

8. A. Leonov. "Cosmic Evening"

9. For the first time in the world, as a result of manual docking of manned spacecraft in 1969, a Soviet experimental space station- a prototype of future large orbital stations.
A. Leonov. "Automatic docking"

10. And in 1975, Soviet and American ships docked in space. This first ever international international conference was called space program "SOYUZ" - "APOLLO". The commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft was Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov himself! During the six-day orbital flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, joint rendezvous and docking means were experimentally carried out for the first time; docking of Soviet and American spacecraft, mutual transfers of cosmonauts from ship to ship, and joint research experiments were carried out. In preparation for this flight, Leonov learned in one year English language“from scratch” (he studied German at school)!

During the flight, the Soviet and American cosmonauts showed excellent interaction and mutual understanding, the tasks were carried out consistently and clearly, in a truly friendly atmosphere.
A. Leonov. "Soyuz-Apollo"

11. A. Leonov. "Soyuz-Apollo 1"

12. Today’s astronautics cannot be imagined without working spacewalks by astronauts. And Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was also the first to go into outer space! He proved the possibility of a person staying and working in conditions of weightlessness and vacuum.

13. A. Leonov. "Over the Black Sea"

14. A. Leonov. "Spacewalk"

15. A. Leonov. "In Outer Space"

16. A. Leonov. "Man Above the Planet"

17. After this, even transitions of astronauts from one spacecraft to another through outer space became possible!
A. Leonov. "Transition in outer space"

18. Every space flight, every program is unique. They have one thing in common: final stage flight - descent to Earth.

The spaceship leaves its orbit. The atmosphere is becoming increasingly dense. Jets of plasma engulf the ship from all sides. The temperature on the surface of the capsule rises to 10 thousand degrees - higher than on the surface of the Sun. The outer coating melts and evaporates. A giant “cosmic drop” is approaching the Earth... Small “meteors” - shot off ship structures - can be seen burning up in the atmosphere.
A. Leonov. "Return"

19. There is no “meaningless waste of time” in astronautics. Every second spent by an astronaut or satellite in orbit makes a huge contribution to world science. We all use millions of things in everyday life that were created thanks to astronautics and impossible without it! Even the fact that you are now reading this article in the INTERNET magazine ZATEEVO and chatting on mobile phone- 100% credit to astronautics.

And perhaps very soon, even the most fantastic paintings Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov will be repeated in amateur photographs of space tourists by schoolchildren.
A. Leonov. "Near the Moon"

20. A. Leonov. "On the moon"

21. A. Leonov. "Crater Chain"

22. “My class and I flew on vacation to the star Beta in the constellation Lyra!”
A.Leonov "Beta Lyra"

23. “Ewwww! This is an excursion for kids! Here we are flying to nebula No. 443 to observe the shifts in spectra!”
A. Leonov. "Planet in the nebula IC443"

24. A. Leonov, A. Sokolov. "Start braking"

25. A. Leonov. "Cosmonauts of the Future"

26. A. Leonov. "On the planet closest to the sun"

The collection of the Tretyakov Gallery has been replenished with two space paintings: a test pilot, twice a Hero Soviet Union, the first person to walk into outer space, Alexey Leonov donated two of his works to the museum. It turned out that he had been interested in painting since childhood, and after school he even chose between flying and art school. The craving for the sky won, but he did not give up art, and painted even during that legendary flight

Leonov is not only a professional cosmonaut, but also professional artist. In the same 1965, when Alexey Arkhipovich became the first person to cross the threshold of a ship into outer space, he was admitted to the Union of Artists. “I was accepted into the Union by Katenka Belashova (sculptor - website note), Plastov, Romadin - what great masters they were!.. I brought them my sketches,” says Leonov. “Before the flight, I thought a lot about what technique should be: paint in won't work in space, pastel won't work, watercolor won't either. All that's left is a pencil. A "Tactics" pencil of medium hardness and good paper. I already knew from the stories of my comrades what I would see: a black sky, a blue Earth. And when I did the first works, they began to say that my horizon does not bend like that. We argued for a long time - I measured it! I knew exactly how many degrees the arc should be! And only then did Professor Lazarev judge us. He said: “Guys, what altitude did you fly at? – 300 kilometers, and he was at an altitude of 500 kilometers. And this means that the dimensions are all different!”

And around the Earth in the picture there is a blue belt of atmosphere. “The belt is exactly four degrees! Do you know how I measured it? I made a palette with the size of the Moon and calculated that the height of the belt was four times its size. I accurately determined the color using an anomaloscope, a device that determines color vision person. According to science, I measured the time at which I made sketches. So the color of the Earth is not fictitious, but as it really is."

In the second painting, the astronaut artist depicted the aurora above north pole. Flashes of green flame are visible above the horizon, but where the Moon is, red light suddenly appears. “We still don’t know where he’s from,” explained Alexey Arkhipovich.

“Then it was forbidden to make sketches of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, but I did,” Leonov continued. “It was not much different from the Vostok - they only added a soft-design airlock chamber and a second engine. But in fact it was not new ship– as “East” was, so “East” remains. Everything is absolutely in the details."

The astronaut also spoke about the difficulties he had to face during the flight. He was on the verge of death and still doesn’t remember how he coped with the situation. “I was attached to the ship with a halyard and had to pull it out of the airlock to go into space, and then collect it to go back. right hand I had a movie camera, and the second one I had to wind it up and attach it to hooks, and I don’t know how I did it. This is impossible! I went back not with my feet, but with my head first, and I had to turn around in this airlock, but the suit was inflated. I released the pressure valve without asking permission from the land, that is, I broke the law, but it made me feel better. I lost six liters of water in one day! So if anyone wants to lose weight, please go there!” Leonov concluded his story, gesturing to the sky.

Leonov's works are in the collection Dresden gallery, in Houston. In Russia, Leonov’s paintings are kept in museums in two cities: 17 works in Gagarin and another 70 in Kemerovo, where the artist has been running a district school for 15 years children's creativity– the only school in Russia for children with musculoskeletal disorders.

After the ceremonial part, Leonov toured the exhibition and spoke on the occasion about his acquaintance with Pablo Picasso. Through the Russian-French artist Nadezhda-Khodasevich Leger, the cosmonaut agreed on dinner with the cubist. “He wasn’t a great artist. The Rose Period, the Blue Period, Guernica, and then he started doing all this nonsense,” Leonov said. “When we had dinner, he spent a long time gnawing on trout bones, and I thought, why is he so greedy? ? Then he brought clay, pressed this skeleton into it, and an hour later the fired form was ready. Picasso filled it with bronze and that’s it! The work is ready! And everyone around them admires: “Oh, how great! How brilliant!" - It's a shame!"

The ceremony took place at the “Thaw” exhibition, which operates in the museum building on Krymsky Val. The choice of location is symbolic: one of the sections, called “Space - Atom,” talks about the exploration of the sky, including Leonov’s contribution to it. Here you can see documentary footage of young Leonov drawing landscapes while preparing for the flight. IN Tretyakov Gallery noted that all legal formalities for the transfer of works to the collection were observed, and now the paintings will become valuable exhibits, because they reflect important point history of space exploration and the 20th century in general.

In addition to the “Thaw” exhibition, the ceremony of handing over the paintings was timed to coincide with the premiere of the film, which tells about the legendary flight of Leonov and Belyaev and the cosmonaut’s spacewalk. The main roles in the film were played by Evgeny Mironov and Konstantin Khabensky.

pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR.

The Vostok spaceship is a symbol of the space age. The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space on it on April 12, 1961.

The first Soviet artificial communications satellite, Molniya-1, launched in 1965, resembles a fantastic flower or a space station from films about the distant future. Its giant “petals” are solar panels, which are always oriented towards the Sun, and parabolic antennas are always oriented towards the Earth. The satellite is designed for relaying television programs and long-distance telephone and telegraph communications. By the way, in 1967, one of the satellites of this series was the first in the world to obtain a color image of the Earth.

The first person to see seventeen days and nights in one day was pilot-cosmonaut German Titov, Yuri Gagarin's backup, who in August 1962 made a daily flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. During this flight I saw Titov "TERMINATOR"- the boundary of day and night, constantly changing in space at every turn of the flight. All the astronauts describe this spectacle as unforgettable!

For an astronaut, a day - an hour and a half - is the time it takes a satellite spacecraft to orbit the Earth. During an earthly day, astronauts encounter 17 cosmic dawns. In Leonov's painting " NIGHT GLOW OF THE ATMOSPHERE HALO" the ship flies over the night Earth. Through the veil of dark clouds the reddish lights of cities are visible. And on the horizon, behind which the Sun is hidden, a rainbow stripe of the earth’s atmosphere appeared. And above all this is the Moon embedded in the black velvet of outer space and the brilliant stars.

And in 1975, Soviet and American ships docked in space. This first ever international space program was called "SOYUZ" - "APOLLO". The commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft was Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov himself! During the six-day orbital flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, joint rendezvous and docking means were experimentally carried out for the first time; docking of Soviet and American spacecraft, mutual transfers of cosmonauts from ship to ship, and joint research experiments were carried out. In preparation for this flight, Leonov learned English from scratch in one year (he learned German at school)! During the flight, the Soviet and American cosmonauts showed excellent interaction and mutual understanding, the tasks were carried out consistently and clearly, in a truly friendly atmosphere.

Today's astronautics cannot be imagined without working spacewalks by astronauts. And Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was also the first to go into outer space! He proved the possibility of a person staying and working in conditions of weightlessness and vacuum.

Every space flight, every program is unique. They have one thing in common: the last stage of the flight is the descent to Earth. The spaceship leaves its orbit. The atmosphere is becoming increasingly dense. Jets of plasma engulf the ship from all sides. The temperature on the surface of the capsule rises to 10 thousand degrees - higher than on the surface of the Sun. The outer coating melts and evaporates. A giant “cosmic drop” is approaching the Earth... Small “meteors” - shot off ship structures - can be seen burning up in the atmosphere.

There is no such thing as a “meaningless waste of time” in astronautics. Every second spent by an astronaut or satellite in orbit makes a huge contribution to world science. We all use millions of things in everyday life that were created thanks to astronautics and impossible without it! Even the fact that you are now reading this article in the INTERNET magazine ZATEEVO and chatting on your mobile phone is 100% the merit of astronautics.

And perhaps very soon, even the most fantastic paintings of Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov will be repeated in amateur photographs of space tourists by schoolchildren.

“My class and I flew on vacation to the star Beta in the constellation Lyra!”

"Ewwww! This is an excursion for kids! Here we are we're flying observe the shifts in spectra in nebula No. 443! "