Soviet/Russian Spaceflight Bibliography (English)

[MaxwellsDemon]

On 2/2/2018 at 10:05 AM, MaxwellsDemon said:

Updated list below:   https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/166794-sovietrussian-spaceflight-bibliography-english/&do=findComment&comment=3227069 

Capsule reviews at:  https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/166794-sovietrussian-spaceflight-bibliography-english/&do=findComment&comment=3325332

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon
addition

[KSK]

Ooh - thank you @MaxwellsDemon. I might take a copy of that list if you don't mind? As a personal reference and a quick and easy source of Christmas present ideas if anyone in my family need them.  

Props for the avatar too - if that's the Lego kit I think it is (space cruiser and Moon base set, spaceship has a buggy in the back?) then it's one I always wanted as a kid!

 

Edited October 23, 2017 by KSK

[MaxwellsDemon]

3 minutes ago, KSK said:

Ooh - thank you @MaxwellsDemon. I might take a copy of that list if you don't mind? As a personal reference and a quick and easy source of Christmas present ideas if anyone in my family need them.  

Props for the avatar too - if that's the Lego kit I think it is (space cruiser and Moon base set, spaceship has a buggy in the back?) then it's one I always wanted as a kid!

 

Absolutely... and if you run across any others, I'd be happy to hear about them.

And yup, Lego "Classic Space" Space Cruiser!  I had two of them, plus most of the rest of the early space sets...    

[KSK]

15 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Absolutely... and if you run across any others, I'd be happy to hear about them.

And yup, Lego "Classic Space" Space Cruiser!  I had two of them, plus most of the rest of the early space sets...    

Will do - cheers!

[MaxwellsDemon]

By the way, the best ones on that list from a Kerbal standpoint are the Haynes Manuals ('Soyuz' and 'Rocket') and Furniss's 'History of Space Vehicles.'  Lots of inspiration for Kerbal designs in those!

From a reading point of view, it's one of the older titles on the list, but exceedingly well-written:  Oberg's Red Star in Orbit.  I can't recommend it enough; I finished it and started it right over again...   Harford's Korolev is also quite excellent.   Both Oberg and Harford are top-notch researchers and top-notch writers to boot.   (Not to knock other authors on the list, but those two clearly stand out for me.)

[KSK]

Duly noted, especially Korolev. He always struck me as a far more sympathetic figure than Von Braun - I'd be curious to see if I still hold that view after reading the book.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Korolev sounds like he could be difficult to get along with at times, but largely that was because he was a very driven man.  Kamanin, who seems to have been frequently at odds with him (principally over cosmonaut training and crewing issues) nevertheless almost instantly regretted Sergei Pavlovich's death, and Chertok (who was generally on much better terms with him) definitely mourns his loss.   It seems to me that the triple-whammy of the loss of Korolev, Komarov, and Gagarin within less than two years really tore the heart out of the 60's Soviet space program.   (I'm imagining if perhaps the U.S. lost von Braun, Shepard, and Glenn in similar ways during the time period of the Gemini program that it might have thrown a serious stumbling block in NASA's way, even with all the advantages the US clearly had in terms of resources and organization.)

I read that von Braun, asked shortly before he died if he had any regrets, said that he regretted never having met Korolev.

Edited October 23, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon

[KSK]

Yes - I'd agree with your triple whammy idea, not least because Mishin, whilst a solid deputy, just wasn't any sort of replacement for Korolev (although to be fair - who was) and certainly didn't have Korolev's political savvy. Or so I recall from reading Part II of Siddiqi's Challenge to Apollo but I can't back that up through having read any other sources.

Continuing that line of thought, rather than your trio of von Braun, Shepard and Glenn, I would propose von Braun, Glenn and Webb. I suspect that Apollo already had sufficient inertia even as Gemini was in progress, that losing those three wouldn't have caused the program to implode quite as badly as the Soviet Moon program. Whether we'd have seen the first lunar landing by the end of the decade is another matter and I'm thinking that without Webb fighting NASA's corner up on the Hill, that Apollo would have been living on (even more) borrowed time after the first landing.

I'm just throwing that out there as a debating point - feel free to refute!

 

[MaxwellsDemon]

Hm.  Yeah, I could see that about Webb.  Dryden passed away right in that time span also, so that would tend to leave a bit of a vacuum at the top.  NASA almost certainly had a more resilient structure than the more chaotic Soviet arrangement, though, so they may have been able to produce another top manager more easily... who knows?  But yes, the significant part that Webb played is often overlooked... management being less inherently interesting than the shiny rockets and stuff.  

Mishin doesn't fare well in other sources, either.  About the best that can be said for him was that he appears to have been a very competent engineer, but he was lacking in the leadership and management roles (and, if Kamanin can be believed, had a weakness for the bottle at some highly inappropriate times).  Some of the problems that occurred on Mishin's watch were not actually his fault, but he didn't seem to possess the political/management/leadership instincts to deal with them, perhaps.   I feel some sympathy for him in a number of ways... how do you replace a genius (because I think if Korolev was not one, he was close enough to make no practical difference)?

[DerekL1963]

1 hour ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Hm.  Yeah, I could see that about Webb.  Dryden passed away right in that time span also, so that would tend to leave a bit of a vacuum at the top.  NASA almost certainly had a more resilient structure than the more chaotic Soviet arrangement, though, so they may have been able to produce another top manager more easily... who knows?  But yes, the significant part that Webb played is often overlooked... management being less inherently interesting than the shiny rockets and stuff.

Webb's political savvy was important (especially during NASA's early days), but Apollo politics don't map onto Soviet politics and losing Webb won't hurt the the Apollo program in the same way as losing Korolev hurt the Soviet program.  If you want to badly damage the Apollo program, you've got to move down a tier and get the Center and technical managers - von Braun, Gilruth, Low.  (If you really want to get the Apollo program...  Your better targets are Oswald and LBJ.)

[KSK]

Thanks both for the interesting comments!

On a sort of related note, I got to see the Cosmonauts exhibition whilst it was in London - and it was wonderful. Starting with a (very) early experimental rocket engine fashioned from a blowtorch and going all the way up to near-flight hardware from the Soviet moon program, all the exhibits had a sort of heroic ruggedness about them.

Wore my Gagarin t-shirt (what else?) for the visit and was a little disappointed not to find anyone else wearing one. Got me into some fun conversations with the museum staff though - guess I stood out a little as a bona-fide Space Nerd.  I'll wear that too.

Edited October 24, 2017 by KSK

[MaxwellsDemon]

I wasn't quite in time for the "Cosmonauts" exhibition  but I did make a point of visiting the Science Museum in London this summer to see Tim Peake's Soyuz descent module and ride the "virtual descent."

[MaxwellsDemon]

Newly revised list:

My personal library on the topic (thus far):

Baker, David.  Soyuz Owners' Workshop Manual: 1967 Onwards (All Models).  Yeoville, Somerset, UK:  Haynes Publishing, 2014.  176 pp.

Borisenko, Ivan, and Alexander Romanov.  (Helen Goun, trans.) Where All Roads into Space Begin:  An Account of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1982.  117 pp.

Chertok, Boris Ye. (Siddiqi, Asif. ed.) Rockets and People. (4 vols.) Washington, D.C.: NASA, 2005-2011.

• Vol. I, Rockets and People.  SP-2005-4110.  402 pp.    http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol1.pdf
• Vol. II, Rockets and People:  Creating a Rocket Industry.  SP-2006-4110.  669 pp.  http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol2.pdf
• Vol. III, Rockets and People:  Hot Days of the Cold War.  SP-2009-4110.  796 pp.  http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol3.pdf
• Vol. IV, Rockets and People:  The Moon Race.  SP-2011-4110.  663 pp.  http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol4.pdf

Clark, Phillip.  The Soviet Manned Space Programme: An Illustrated History of the Men, the Missions, and the Spacecraft.  London: Salamander, 1988.  192 pp.

Daniloff, Nicholas.  The Kremlin and the Cosmos.  New York:  Knopf, 1972.  258 pp.

Gerovitch, Slava.  Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space.  New York:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.  305 pp.

Glushko, Valentin (ed.)  Soviet Cosmonautics:  Questions and Answers.  Moscow:  Novosti Press, 1988.  141 pp.

Godwin, Robert (ed.)  Rocket and Space Corporation Energia:  The Legacy of S.P. Korolev.  Burlington, Ont.:  Apogee Books, 2001.  128 pp.

Gorkov, Vladislav, and Yu. Avdeev.  An A-Z of Cosmonautics.  Moscow:  Mir Publishers, 1989.  192 pp.

Hall, Rex, and David J. Shayler.  The Rocket Men: Vostok and Voskhod, the First Soviet Manned Spaceflights.  Chichester, UK:  Praxis, 2001.  350 pp.

Hall, Rex, and David J. Shayler.  Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft.  Chichester, UK:  Praxis, 2003.  460 pp.

Hall, Rex, David J. Shayler and Bert Vis.  Russia’s Cosmonauts:  Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre.  Springer-Praxis, 2005.  386 pp.

Harford, James J.  Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon.  New York: Wiley, 1997.  432 pp.

Harland, David M.  The Story of Space Station Mir.  Chichester, UK:  Springer, 2005.  424 pp.

Hart, Douglas M.  The Encyclopedia of Soviet Spacecraft.  New York, Exeter, 1987.  191 pp.

Harvey, Brian.  Race into Space:  The Soviet Space Programme.  Chichester, UK:  Ellis Horwood, 1988.  381 pp.

Harvey, Brian.  Russia in Space:  The Failed Frontier?  Chichester, UK:  Praxis, 2001.  330 pp.

Harvey, Brian and Olga Zakutnyaya.  Russian Space Probes:  Scientific Discoveries and Future Missions.  Springer-Praxis, 2011.  514 pp.

Hendrickx, Bart, and Bert Vis.  Energiya-Buran:  The Soviet Space Shuttle.  Chichester, UK:  Praxis, 2007.  526 pp.

Humble, Ronald D.  The Soviet Space Programme.  London:  Routledge Press, 1988.  158 pp.

Huntress, Wesley T., Jr. and Mikhail Ya. Marov.  Soviet Robots in the Solar System:  Mission Technologies and Discoveries.  Chichester, UK:  Springer, 2011.  453 pp.

Ivanovich, Grujica S.  Salyut, the First Space Station:  Triumph and Tragedy.  Chichester, UK:  Springer, 2008,  426 pp.

Johnson, Nicholas L. Handbook of Soviet Manned Space Flight. Revised edition.  San Diego, Calif: Univelt, 1988.  461 pp.

Johnson, Nicholas L.  Soviet Military Strategy in Space.  London:  Jane’s Information Group, 1987.  320 pp.

Johnson, Nicholas L. The Soviet Reach for the Moon: The L-1 and L-3 Manned Lunar Programs and the Story of the N-1 "Moon Rocket". [Washington, D.C.]: Cosmos Books, 1995.  52 pp.

Lebedev, L. A.  Sons of the Blue Planet.  English translation.  NASA TT F-728.  Washington, D.C.:  NASA, 1973.  327 pp.  https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19740011518

Lebedev, Lev and Alexander Romanov.  Rendezvous in Space: Soyuz-Apollo, An Account of the First Soviet - American Space Experiment 1975.  [Moscow]:  Progress Publishers, 1979.  208 pp.

Lebedev, Valentin Vitalevich.  (Luba Diangar, trans.)  Diary of a Cosmonaut:  211 Days in Space.  Texas:  Phytoresource Research, 1988.  352 pp.

McDonald, Sue.  Mir Mission Chronicle:  November 1994 - August 1996.  TP-98-207890.  [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 1998.  76 pp.   [This is a continuation of Mir Hardware Heritage, RP-1357]  https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/references/r-documents-mirmission.htm

Matson, Wayne R. (ed.) Cosmonautics, A Colorful History. [Washington, D.C.]: Cosmos Books, 1994.  212 pp.

Millard, Doug.  Cosmonauts:  Birth of the Space Age.  Scala Arts, 2015.  256 pp.

Miller, Jay (ed.)  Soviet Space.  Fort Worth, Tex:  Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, 1991.  110 pp.

Morgan, Clay.  Shuttle-Mir: The United States and Russia Share History's Highest Stage.  SP-2001-4225.  [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 2001.  208 pp.   http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225.pdf

Newkirk, Dennis.  Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight.  Houston:  Gulf Publishing, 1990.  320 pp.

Oberg, James E. Red Star in Orbit. New York: Random House, 1981.  272 pp.

Perminov, V.G.  The Difficult Road to Mars:  A Brief History of Mars Exploration in the Soviet Union.   [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 1999.  78 pp.   https://history.nasa.gov/monograph15a.pdf  ,   https://history.nasa.gov/monograph15b.pdf

Pivnyuk, Vladimir A. et. al.  Space Station Handbook:  The Cosmonaut Training Handbook.  [Washington, D.C.]:  Matson Press, 1992.   60 pp.

Portree, David S. F.  Mir Hardware Heritage. RP-1357.  [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 1995.  205 pp.  https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/references/r-documents-mirhh.htm

Rhea, John (ed.)  Roads to Space: An Oral History of the Soviet Space Program.  McGraw-Hill, 1995.  513 pp.

Riabchikov, Evgeny.  Russians in Space:  The Men, the Flights, and the Scientists Behind Them.  English ed.  New York:  Doubleday, 1971.  300 pp.

Semenov, Yuri, et. al.  Cosmonautics 1990.  Moscow:  Mashinostroenie Press (distributed by Matson Press), 1991.  72 pp.

Semenov, Yuri, et. al.  Cosmonautics 1991.  Moscow:  Mashinostroenie Press (distributed by Matson Press), 1992.  68 pp.

Siddiqi, Asif A.  Challenge to Apollo:  The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974.  NASA SP-4408, 2000.  Republished in two parts as Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge (512 pp.) and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo.  (576 pp.)  Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida, 2003.   http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf , http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt2.pdf

Zak, Anatoly.  Russia in Space: The Past Explained, the Future Explored.  Burlington, Ont.:  Apogee Books, 2014.  316 pp.  (See www.russianspaceweb.com )

Closely related/relevant:

Baker, David. Rocket Owners’ Workshop Manual, 1942 Onwards (All Models). Yeoville, Somerset, UK:  Haynes Publishing, 2015.  192 pp.

Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell.  The Partnership:  A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.  SP-4209.  [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 1979.  560 pp.  http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4209.pdf

Furniss, Tim. The History of Space Vehicles. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press, 2001.  256 pp.

Furniss, Tim and David J. Shayler.  Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006.  Chichester, UK:  Praxis, 2007.  829 pp.

Launius, Roger D., and Andrew K. Johnston. Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration. Piermont, N.H.: Bunker Hill, 2009.  240 pp.

Sharman, Helen and Christopher Priest.  Seize the Moment.  London:  Gollancz, 1993.  192 pp.

 

Other books on the topic I've decided against purchasing (some are outdated, some don't interest me, some are of questionable value, and some I might get at some future date; but I wanted to list them for the sake of completeness.  I also ignore many of the books about the US-Soviet "Space Race" because most of the English-language ones are Americanocentric and I'm trying to get more of the Russian side of things.)

Abramov, Isaac, and A. Ingemar Skoog.  Russian Spacesuits.  Chichester, UK:  Springer, 2003.  366 pp.

Andrews, James T., and Asif A. Siddiqi. Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011.  330 pp.

Andrews, James T. Red Cosmos: K.E. Tsiolkovskii, Grandfather of Soviet Rocketry. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2009.  147 pp.

Bartos, Adam, and Svetlana Boym. Kosmos: A Portrait of the Russian Space Age. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.  176 pp.

Brzezinski, Matthew. Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age. Waterville, Me: Thorndike Press, 2007.  

Burgess, Colin, and Bert Vis. Interkosmos. Springer, 2016.  321 pp.

Burgess, Colin, and Rex Hall. The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team: Their Lives, Legacy, and Historical Impact. Berlin: New York, 2009.  396 pp.

Burrough, Bryan.  Dragonfly:  NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1998.  544 pp.

Caidin, Martin. Red Star in Space. [New York]: Crowell-Collier Press, 1963. 280 pp.

Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker & Company, 2011.  310 pp.

Doran, Jamie, and Piers Bizony. Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin. London: Bloomsbury, 2011.  248 pp.

Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich. Road to the Stars. Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2002. 196 pp.

Gerovitch, Slava. Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity. 2015. 232 pp.

Glushko, Alexander. Design for Space: Soviet and Russian Mission Patches. 2016.  174 pp.

Godwin, Robert. Russian Spacecraft. Burlington, Ont: Apogee Books, 2006. 66 pp.

Gruzdeva, Maria.  Direction--Space!   Dewi Lewis, 2011.  96 pp.

Gurney, Gene, and Clare Gurney.  Cosmonauts in Orbit:  The Story of the Soviet Manned Space Program.  New York:  Franklin Watts, 1973.  192 pp.

Hall, Rex.  The History of Mir, 1986-2000.  British Interplanetary Society, 2000.  112 pp.

Harvey, Brian. The New Russian Space Programme: From Competition to Collaboration. Chichester: Wiley, 1996. 408 pp.

Harvey, Brian. Russian Planetary Exploration: History, Development, Legacy, Prospects. Chichester: Springer/Praxis, 2007.  351 pp.

Harvey, Brian.  Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration.  Chichester, UK:  Springer, 2007.  317 pp.

Hooper, Gordon R. The Soviet Cosmonaut Team: A Comprehensive Guide to the Men and Women of the Soviet Manned Space Programme. Lowestoft, Suffolk, England: GRH Publications, 1990.  (2 vols.)

Jenks, Andrew L. The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin. DeKalb, IL: NIU Press, 2014.  315 pp.

Johnson, Matthew, Nick Stevens, and Jack Haggerty. N-1 for the Moon and Mars: A Reference Guide to the Soviet Superbooster. Livermore, CA: ARA Press, 2013.  196 pp.

Johnson, Nicholas L. Handbook of Soviet Lunar and Planetary Exploration. San Diego, Calif: Univelt, 1979. 262 pp.

Karash, Yuri Y. The Superpower Odyssey: A Russian Perspective on Space Cooperation. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1999.

Kohonen, Iina, Albion M. Butters, and Tiina Hyytiäinen. Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor. 2017.  205 pp.

Lardier, Christian, and Stefan Barensky. The Soyuz Launch Vehicle: The Two Lives of an Engineering Triumph. New York: Springer, 2013.  487 pp.

Launius, Roger D., John M. Logsdon, and Robert W. Smith. Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2002.  442 pp.

Manber, Jeffrey.  Selling Peace:  Inside the Soviet Conspiracy that Transformed the U.S. Space Program.  Apogee Books, 2010.  332 pp.

Maurer, Eva. Soviet Space Culture: Cosmic Enthusiasm in Socialist Societies. Soviet Space Culture. Basingstoke [u.a.]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 323 pp.

Meuser, Philipp. Galina Balashova: Architect of the Soviet Space Programme. 2015.  159 pp.

Oberg, James.  Star-Crossed Orbits:  Inside the U.S.-Russian Space Alliance.  New York:  McGraw-Hill, 2002.  352 pp.

Phelan, Dominic. Cold War Space Sleuths The Untold Secrets of the Soviet Space Program. New York, NY: Springer New York, 2013. 300 pp.

Phelan, Dominic.  Soviet Space Secrets:  Hidden Stories from the Space Race.  CreateSpace, 2016.  84 pp.

Popescu, Julian. Russian Space Exploration: The First 21 Years. Henley-on-Thames, Eng: Gothard House Publications, 1979.  150 pp.

Shelton, William Roy. Soviet Space Exploration: The First Decade. London: Barker, 1969.  341 pp.

Siddiqi, Asif A. The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957. 2014.  

Smolders, Peter L. Soviets in Space. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co, 1974.  286 pp.

Suvorov, Vladimir, and Alexander Sabelnikov. The First Manned Spaceflight: Russia's Quest for Space. Commack, NY.: Nova Science Publishers, 1997. 155 pp.

Titov, G. S., and Robert Daglish. 700,000 Kilometres Through Space: Notes by Soviet Cosmonaut No. 2. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 196-.  134 pp.

Vladimirov, Leonid. The Russian Space Bluff: The Inside Story of the Soviet Drive to the Moon. New York: Dial Press, 1973. 190 pp.
 

Edited April 18, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon
Update

[MaxwellsDemon]

<getting antsy>  From my Amazon Wishlist, I can tell that someone bought me the Gerovitch book.  But they haven't given it to me yet.   

Oh well.  Still working my way through a couple of the others...

[PB666]

1 hour ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

<getting antsy>  From my Amazon Wishlist, I can tell that someone bought me the Gerovitch book.  But they haven't given it to me yet.   

Oh well.  Still working my way through a couple of the others...

Really we can request books and we expect people to give them to us?

Wow!

 

[MaxwellsDemon]

Sometimes... typically around Christmas and birthday.   But they're not guaranteed to give it to you quickly, evidently!  

[PB666]

1 minute ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Sometimes... typically around Christmas and birthday.   But they're not guaranteed to give it to you quickly, evidently!  

Maybe its an online copy?

[MaxwellsDemon]

No, I don't think that one is available in anything but hard copy.   But I'll look anyway!

 

My bad-- it is available on Kindle.    But I'd still need to ask, and if it's supposed to be a surprise, then I'm ruining it...

Edited January 19, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon

[MaxwellsDemon]

Mystery solved.  My wife bought it for me, but misplaced it and forgot to give it to me for Christmas.  In my eager hands now...  happy ending!

[MaxwellsDemon]

On 1/24/2018 at 1:20 AM, MaxwellsDemon said:

Mystery solved.  My wife bought it for me, but misplaced it and forgot to give it to me for Christmas.  In my eager hands now...  happy ending!

It's (Gerovitch) a good book, but ridiculously overpriced ($85-$95), particularly as it seems to have been done with at least some government support.  I was expecting a larger volume for that price.  Nevertheless, it's a very interesting collection of interviews with a variety of individuals, including one of the unflown woman cosmonauts selected along with Valentina Tereshkova.

I think I'd recommend waiting to see if there's a re-issue at a lower price-- or maybe even a government-printed version, which might be significantly cheaper.  It's a good 'un, but they need to price it more realistically!   

[MaxwellsDemon]

Has anyone seen any other cosmonaut autobiographies or diaries in English?  Lebedev's is great, but I want more... *

...maybe I'll have to break down and learn some русский язык...    (not entirely joking there, I used to know a fair smattering of Serbian... obviously a different language, but many cognates and the grammar structure are similar and while the Cyrillic is a bit different I at least have a little bit of a head start...)

 

* As an example, Vladimir Shatalov wrote one or several that look like they might be interesting, but Google, etc. are very coy on what language they're in, so I suspect it's not in English.

Edited February 2, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon
Addition

[MaxwellsDemon]

On 11/24/2017 at 11:35 AM, MaxwellsDemon said:

Newly revised list:

Another update to the list.

(I've decided not to get into the various US government publications (by Charles Sheldon et. al.), which, interesting as they are in a historiographical sense (what was known outside the USSR and when was it known), are not exactly page-turners.  I like books I don't have a risk of injuring myself by falling asleep and falling over while trying to read them.)   (Some of the NASA ones aren't as bad, but the Congressional research ones and the like are dreadful snooze-fests.)

Edited February 2, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon
Additional thought

[MaxwellsDemon]

On 2/2/2018 at 10:05 AM, MaxwellsDemon said:

Updated list

[MaxwellsDemon]

Side note... After reading most of the items on the above bibliography in the past 6 months or so, I'm re-reading Asif Sidiqqi's Challenge to Apollo and I'm getting a lot more out of it than I did the first time around...  Sidiqqi mentions so many individuals that one rapidly loses track if it's the first time through, but now that I'm familiar with many of the principals through other reading, it all fits together much better.   (For instance, every time I see Ustinov's name, I think "Uncle Mitya," and when I see Isayev's, I remember Chertok telling about how Isayev's favorite phrase was "blow one's brains out."  So they've become people to me instead of just a collection of Russian names...)

As a result, while I do think that Sidiqqi's work is absolutely required reading, I would note that it should not be the first thing that someone attempts on this subject.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Okay... my collection is nearly complete.

I'm debating whether to add a book on Buran.  It's arguably not part of the mainstream Soviet/Russian space effort, all things considered, and yet so much effort was expended on it.

hm....