Background
Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev was born on September 5, 1929 in Shorshely village of the Mariinsk-Posadsky region, Chuvash ASSR, RSFSR (Russia) and died there on July 3, 2004.
Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev was born on September 5, 1929 in Shorshely village of the Mariinsk-Posadsky region, Chuvash ASSR, RSFSR (Russia) and died there on July 3, 2004.
In June 1944 he graduated from the 7th grade of secondary school. Later, he studied and graduated from the Mariinsk-Posad Forestry Technical School and acquired the specialty "forestry technician". Then Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev studied in the School of Air Riflemen of the Kirovabad VAUL named after A.Ya. V.S. Khalzunova and also completed one course of Chernigov VAUL 69 VA. In 1954 he graduated from the Frunze VAUL 73 VA, Turkestan VO and then for a certain period of time was a listener of the VVIA named after Zhukovsky.
Before enrolling in a group of cosmonauts, Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev had been working for 3 years as a logging master of the "Yuzhkarelles" trust in the Derevyanskiy Lespromkhoz and since December 26, 1950 as an air gunner of Staro-Konstantinov, Khmelnitsky region.
He started his pilot career in 1955. Since 1957 he worked as a senir pilot and then as an adjutant of the air squadron - senior pilot 401 IAP Air Defense. Later, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force he was enlisted for the position of the listener-cosmonaut of the Air Force CTC (1st set) and since January 25, 1961 worked as a cosmonaut of the Cosmonauts' Department of the CPC. Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev was also a commander of the backup crew of the passive spacecraft “Soyuz” (7K-OK) under the program "Stykovka", first together with P. Kolodin and V. Gorbatko, and then together with V. Kubasov and V. Gorbatko.
Throughout his career he realized 2 cosmic flights. During the first flight he acted as a pilot of the spacecraft "Vostok-3" in the formation flying program with the spacecraft "Vostok-4". In the second flight he was a commander of the “Soyuz-9” spacecraft together with V. Sevastyanov. In 1982 Nikolaev was expelled from the cosmonaut group with the retention of the post of first deputy head of the CPC.
Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev was a participant of the world's first formation flying of two manned spacecraft (“Vostok-3” and “Vostok-4”, 1962).
He was an honorary citizen of Kaluga, Karaganda, Smolensk, Rzhev, Leninakan, Makhachkala, Nalchik, Kaspiysk, Darkhan (Mongolia), city of Sofia, Petrich, town of Stara -Zagora, Varna, Pleven, Karlovy Vary, the town of Burna (Algeria). The crater on the far side of the Moon is named after A.N. Nikolaev.
He was married for 18 years to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut. They had a daughter.
