Valentina Tereshkova

## Валентина Терешкова /  Valentina Tereshkova

​​(m. 1963; div. 1982)

* Yuli Shaposhnikov

​(m. 1982; died 1999)

### **Biography :**

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova) is a Russian politician, former pilot and cosmonaut. She was the first woman to fly into space on June 16, 1963.

She was born on March 6, 1937 in the village of Maslenikovo in the Yaroslavl region in western Russia. She has a daughter Elena (Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova) from her marriage to former cosmonaut Adrian Nikolaev (Andriyan Grigor'evich Nikolaev).

Before applying to participate in the Soviet space program, Tereshkova worked in a textile factory and was an amateur parachutist. She joined the Air Force as part of the Cosmonaut Corps, and after completing her training, she received the rank of lieutenant. She made history as the first woman to fly into space. In the Vostok 6 spacecraft, Tereshkova made 48 orbits around the Earth in three days and successfully landed on the ground. After the disbandment of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, she continued to work as an instructor. She later graduated from Zhukovsky Academy and retrained for space flight. She retired from the Air Force in 1997, attaining the rank of general.

She was a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the period from 1974 to 1989, she was a member of the Presidency of the Supreme Soviet. Even after the collapse of the USSR, she remained active in the political life of Russia.

### **Childhood, youth and education**

Valentina Tereshkova was born in 1937 in the village of Bolshoi Maslenikovo, near Volga, 270 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The parents moved to the Yaroslavl region from Belarus. Her father Vladimir Tereshkov (Vladimir Aksënovič Tereshkov) was a farmer, and then as a member of the Red Army he fought in the Second World War. He died when Valentina was two years old. After Vladimir's death, Valentina's mother, Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova, moved with her three children to Yaroslav in search of employment. She worked at the "Krasni Perekop" cotton factory. Due to poverty, Valentina started school at the age of 10. At the age of 17, she started working in a tire factory, and then in a textile processing company. However, she continued her education, taking various courses. She graduated in 1960 from the Technical School for Light Industry.

She was impressed by skydiving from an early age. She joined the local flying club and made her first parachute jump at the age of 22. While working in a factory, she practiced skydiving as a hobby. However, she participated and competed with professional jumpers. In the period from 1960 to 1961, she was the secretary of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol), and she became a member of the Communist Party in 1962.

### **The journey from an amateur skydiver to the first woman in space**

Tereshkova did not dream about traveling in space, but it was her experience in parachuting that contributed to her being selected for such an important mission. After the flight of Yuri Gagarin (Yurii Alekseevich Gagarin) in 1961, Nikolay Kamanin (Nikolaj Kamanin), the director of cosmonaut training, read in an American newspaper that the US was training female pilots for space missions. Not wanting to let an American be the first woman in space, he decided to organize training for women. To increase the chances of sending a female cosmonaut into space before the Americans, the Soviets made training for women a priority. The rules for future female cosmonauts were to have experience in parachute flying, to be under 30 years old, no taller than 170 centimeters and weighing no more than 70 kilograms. 400 female candidates were selected for training. After numerous rounds of selection, only five candidates were selected for the women's corps, including Tereshkova.

After a difficult and tiring training, they were offered to join the Soviet Air Force, so five young lieutenants got the job in December 1962. The best candidates for a space mission were Irina Solovyova, Valentina Ponomaryova and Valentina Tereshkova.

It was planned that the two women would be launched into space by independent flights in March and April 1963, and that Tereshkova would be in the Vostok 5 spacecraft, and Ponomariova in Vostok 6. However, before the mission itself, it was decided that cosmonaut Valery Bukovsky would be in the Vostok 6 spacecraft. (Valery Fyodorovich Bykovskij). On May 21, the state commission decided that Valentina Tereshkova, whom Kamarin called "Gagarin in a skirt", should be in Vostok 5. Before the flight, she received the rank of lieutenant, and during the flight she was assigned the rank of captain. After the successful launch of Vostok 5 on June 14, Tereshkova began the final preparations for her own flight into space. Following the tradition started by Yuri Gagarin, before entering the spacecraft, Tereshkova defecated in a bus tire, and after the final checks and a two-hour countdown, she was launched into space.

In addition to making history as the first woman in space, at only 26 years old, she remained the youngest cosmonaut on such a mission. Through the radio station, she informed the base that everything was fine and described what the Earth looked like from that height. Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 spent three days in orbital planes about 30 degrees apart. Cameras installed in both spacecraft transmitted live footage broadcast by Soviet state television. Tereshkova also kept a flight log and photographed the horizon, which was later used to identify aerosol layers in the atmosphere.

Her mission was also used to continue medical research on people who flew into space, and offered comparative data on the effect of such trips on women. Although she felt nausea and physical discomfort during the summer, she circled the Earth 48 times and spent 2 days, 22 hours and 50 minutes in space. As planned, it ejected from the capsule at an altitude of about 620 km and landed in Kargande, a small village in Kazakhstan on June 19 at 8:20 am. Bukowski landed three hours later. She later admitted that she had difficulty controlling the parachute due to the strong wind, but landed safely. After the flight, the locals helped her out of the space suit and offered her dinner.

### **The life of one of the greatest Soviet heroines**

Bukovsky and Tereshkova were welcomed with great honors. Khrushchev (Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev) awarded them the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. During a speech on the 22nd anniversary of the German invasion of Russia, Tereshkova said that her father died defending his country, and that because of that her mother raised her three children alone. She added that she knows the bitterness of war and that this is what nobody needs. In gratitude for her efforts, the authorities found the place where her father was killed and erected a monument in his honor. On June 22, in the Kremlin, Tereshkova and Bukovsky were awarded the Order of Lenin.

Shortly thereafter, the cosmonauts embarked on a grand tour around the world. In the period from 1963 to 1970, Valentina Tereshkova visited as many as 42 countries.

In Havana, she met Fidel Castro (Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz), and in England, Queen Elizabeth II. She became a role model, not only for women in the Soviet Union, but all over the world.

She was a member of the World Peace Council in 1966 and a member of the Yaroslavl Council in 1967. In addition, she represented the USSR at the UN conference on the occasion of the International Women's Year, which was held in Mexico City in 1975. She led the Soviet delegation at the International Conference on Women's Rights in Copenhagen. She advocated for strengthening the role of women in politics, science and society, and their role in ensuring peace in the world. She was appointed vice-president of the International Democratic Federation of Women and president of the Soviet-Algerian Friendship Society.

Although she wanted to pursue a career as an astronaut and engineer, her superiors had other plans for her. After Gagarin's death, the Soviet space program was reluctant to risk losing another national hero. Despite her wishes, in 1968 she was elected leader of the Soviet Women's Committee. In October 1969, she graduated from the Zhukovsky Engineering Academy, and then the Soviet program suspended training for women. After Tereshkova, until 1982 and Svetlana Savitskaya (Svetlana Evgen'evna Savitskaya), not a single woman from the USSR flew into space.

Until 1976, Tereshkova was a colonel in the Soviet Air Force. In April 1977, she defended her doctorate in aeronautical engineering and decided to re-enter the competition for the selection of a new class of female cosmonauts. Although she no longer flew into space, she remained an instructor at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Center.

### **Political career**

The reputation and respect she gained through her brave venture helped her make numerous contacts. In the period from 1966 to 1974, she was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. From 1969 to 1991, she was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and from 1974 to 1989, a member of the Presidency of the Supreme Soviet. She remained politically active even after the collapse of the USSR, but lost the elections for the State Duma in 1995. Despite this, she received the honorary rank of general. After turning 60 in 1997, she had to retire from her position as an instructor at the Yuri Gagarin Center. In 2003, she again unsuccessfully ran for the mandate of deputy in the State Duma. Four years later, then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin) hosted a celebration of her 70th birthday at his residence.

In the 2008 elections, she won the mandate of deputy in the regional parliament of the Yaroslavl region. Three years later, she won a position in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, as a representative of the Yaroslavl region and a member of Putin's United Russia party.

In the elections held in 2016, Tereshkova regained her mandate in the State Duma. She held the position of deputy president of the Committee for Federal Structure and Local Administration.

In 2022, she voted for the Russian Special Military operation in Ukraine, which led to numerous Western sanctions against her.

### **Private life**

Valentina Tereshkova was born in 1937 in the village of Maslenikovo in the Yaroslavl region. When she was two years old, her father died, and she moved to Yaroslav with her mother, brother and sister. Considering that she showed interest in many things, Valentina decided not to stop her education at the age of 17. She attended classes part-time and worked on her education. However, thanks to her hobby, she became one of the greatest heroines of the 20th century. On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married cosmonaut Adrian Nikolayev. The wedding ceremony was attended not only by the leadership of the Soviet space program, but also by President Nikita Khrushchev himself.

General Kamamin, the director of the space program described this marriage as "useful for politics and science", and many suspected that it was arranged to further improve the image of the USSR and to continue research on the behavior of the human organism during and after exposure to the space environment. On June 8, 1964, Tereshkova gave birth to a daughter, Elena. Elena Adrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova thus became the first baby whose both parents flew into space.

Although the couple officially divorced in 1982, Tereshkova admitted that they separated as early as 1977. She later married Yulia Shaposhnikov (Yuliy Georgievich Shaposhnikov), a surgeon whom she met during medical examinations for retraining. They remained married until his death in 1999.

Many documentaries have been made about her life, and Tereshkova has also appeared in the songs of numerous pop artists.

The creator on the moon was named "Tereshkova Crater" after her Asteroid 1671 named " Chaika” (her call sign for Vostok 6′ Galeb).

In the Space Museum, which was opened on January 25, 1975 near Yaroslavl, among the exhibits is a replica of her family home. The city library in Yaroslavl was renamed "Valentina Tereshkova" in 2013, and the school she attended also bears her name. The planetarium, which was built in Yaroslavl in 2011, was named after the Soviet heroine. The international association "Women of the Year" declared her "the most successful woman of the 20th century". Tereshkova carried the torch in the relay of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Saint Petersburg, and the torch relay of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

### **Awards, decorations and recognitions**

Valentina Tereshkova received numerous awards and accolades for the historic undertaking of space travel. Some of them are:

**Russian**

· Order of Merit for the Fatherland:

o 3rd class (6 March 1997)

o 2nd class (6 March 2007)

o 1st class (1 March 2017)

· Order of Alexander Nevsky (2013)

· Order of Honour (10 June 2003)

· Order of Friendship (12 April 2011)

· Russian Federation State Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian action in 2008 (4 June 2009)

· Participant of the Military Operation in Syria Medal (2016)

·  Order of Gagarin (2023)

· Strengthening the Military Community Medal [ru] (2018)

· Certificates of appreciation from the Government of the Russian Federation;

o 3 March 1997, – for the contribution to the development of space, the strengthening of international scientific and cultural ties and years of diligent work

o 12 June 2003, – for large contribution to the development of crewed space flight

o 16 June 2008, – for long-term fruitful state and public activities, considerable personal contribution to the development of crewed space flight and in connection with the 45th anniversary of spaceflight

· Order of St. Euphrosyne of Moscow (January 2008

**Soviet**

· Merited Master of Sports of the Soviet Union (June 1963)

· Hero of the Soviet Union (1963)

· Order of Lenin (1963, 1981 }

· Order of the October Revolution (1971)

· Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1987)

· Order of the Friendship of Peoples

· Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union (1963)

**Other decorations and honours**

· Gold star Hero of Socialist Labor (Czechoslovakia, August 1963)

· Gold star Hero of Socialist Labor (Bulgaria) (9 September 1963)

· Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 9 September 1963)

· Order of Karl Marx (East Germany, October 1963)

· Artur Becker Medal [de] (East Germany, October 1963)

· Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (Poland, October 1963)

· Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary, 1st class (April 1965)

· Star of the Republic of Indonesia, 2nd class (November 1963)

· Order of the Volta (Ghana, January 1964)

· Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (May 1965)

· Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, May 1965)

· Order of the Enlightenment (Afghanistan, August 1969)

· Order of Planets (Jordan, December 1969)[]

· Order of the Nile (Egypt, January 1971)

· Gold Star of Hero of Labor (Vietnam, October 1971)

· Order of Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile, March 1972)

· Order of Ana Betancourt (Cuba, 1974)

· Order of Friendship (Laos, 1997)

· Order of Duke Branimir, with sash (Croatia, presented on 8 September 2005)

· She received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation in 2007.

· Gold Medal of the British Society for interplanetary communications "For achievements in space exploration" (February 1964)

· Gold Space Medal (FAI, 1963

· Honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh (1990)