The Last Soviet Citizen

Interesting reflection on the collapse of the USSR, from the vantage point of a cosmonaut who returned to a completely different world.

After blasting off from Baikonur, Krikalev wouldn’t inhale earthly air for 312 days. In that time, the soft-spoken cosmonaut would watch his country crumble from 200 miles up. Presidents would change. His hometown of Leningrad would become St. Petersburg. And one communist superpower would splinter into 15 nations. By the time he returned, Krikalev would be, in essence, the last remaining citizen of the once-mighty Soviet Union. —Discover

Post was last modified on 27 Jan 2017 10:54 pm

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  • Thanks for posting this - I never read Discover Magazine, and would never have seen this story otherwise! I was born in Estonia, but my family (and several relatives) left just before the Soviet tanks rolled into Tallinn in September of 1944. I'll post it on my own page as well.

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Dennis G. Jerz

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