Here are my three Russian 'Cosmonautics Day' Mail Covers, two postmarked 1971 and one postmarked 1977, signed by a total of 38 Cosmonauts.
I obtained the first cover on March 11, 2017 in an online auction for a very reasonable price.
As can be seen in the above photo, it is postmarked 1971 and signed by the following 9 Cosmonauts:
Pavel Popovich
Vostok 4, Soyuz 14-part of original Cosmonaut group selected in 1960-Commander of Vostok 4 in 1962 which, along with Andriyan Nikolayev on Vostok 3, became the first time that multiple manned spacecraft were in earth orbit at the same time.
Andriyan Nikolayev
Vostok 3, Soyuz 9-married to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, 1963-1982-Commander of Vostok 3 in 1962 which, along with Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4, became the first time that multiple manned spacecraft were in earth orbit at the same time..
Vladimir Shatalov
Soyuz 4, 8, and 10.
Nikolay Rukavishnikov
Soyuz 10, 16, and 23.
Georgy Beregovoy
Soyuz 3.
Viktor Gorbatko
Soyuz 7, 24, and 37.
Alexei Leonov
Voskhod 2, Soyuz 19, ASTP-became first human to 'walk' in space during Voskhod 2.
Vitaly Sevastyanov
Soyuz 9 and 18.
Valentin Lebedev
Soyuz T-5, T-7, and 13.
On March 13, 2017, I received an email response from a Russian friend after a request for help identifying the signatures on this item. My friend provided me with the below photo of my item, on which he identified all 9 Cosmonaut signatures!
I obtained the second cover on September 14, 2019 in an online auction for almost three times what I paid for the first one!
As can be seen in the above photo it is postmarked 1971 and is seen as I received it. You can plainly see that someone had used a pencil to print each Cosmonauts' name next to their corresponding signatures.
It is signed by the following 13 Cosmonauts:
Anatoly Filipchenko
Soyuz 7 and 16.
Vasily Lazarev
Soyuz 12 and 18a (aborted launch).
Georgy Shonin
Souz 6-part of original Cosmonaut group selected in 1960.
Viktor Gorbatko
Soyuz 7, 24, and 37.
Vitaly Zholobov
Soyuz 21.
Gennady Sarafanov
Soyuz 15.
Vitaly Sevastyanov
Soyuz 9 and 18.
Georgy Grechko
Soyuz T-14, 17, and 26.
Yevgeny Khrunov
Soyuz 4 and 5.
Yuri Artyukhin
Soyuz 14.
Gherman Titov
Vostok 2-became second human to orbit the earth on August 6, 1961-first to orbit the earth multiple times (17).
Aleksei Gubarev
Soyuz 17 and 28.
Sergei Zhukov
No missions.
BACK
Pencil notation lower right indicates this item was in a 1998 Superior auction with a price of '195'.
This item also came with the below Xeroxed insert in which someone used a red marker to identify each signature.
I obtained the third cover on January 18, 2020 in an online auction for a reasonable price, as with the first above described cover.
As can be seen in the above photo, it is postmarked 1977 and signed by the following 16 Cosmonauts:
Georgy Beregovoy
Soyuz 3.
Viktor Gorbatko
Soyuz 7, 24, and 37.
Alexei Leonov
Voskhod 2, Soyuz 19, ASTP-became first human to 'walk' in space during Voskhod 2.
Vitaly Sevastyanov
Soyuz 9 and 18.
Anatoly Filipchenko
Soyuz 7 and 16.
Yuri Artyukhin
Soyuz 14.
Aleksei Gubarev
Soyuz 17 and 28.
Sergei Zhukov
No missions.
Pyotr Klimuk
Soyuz 13, Soyuz 18, Soyuz 30.
Vladimir Lyakhov
Salyut 6, Soyuz 32, Soyuz 34, Soyuz TM-5, Soyuz TM-6, Mir EP-3, Soyuz T-9.
Valery Rozhdestvensky
Soyuz 22, Soyuz 33.
Valery Bykovsky
Salyut 6, Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, Soyuz 29, Soyuz 31.
Lev Demin (AKA Dyomin)
Soyuz 15.
Vladimir Kovalyonok
Salyut 6, Soyuz 25, Soyuz 29, Soyuz 31, Soyuz T-4.
BACK
Pencil notation lower right shows what appears to be a price of '275' and a date of '93'.
On July 3, 2020, I received an unsolicited email from my Russian friend in which he provided me with the below photo of my item, on which he identified all 16 Cosmonaut signatures! Being a Russian manned space program enthusiast, he knows his cosmonaut autographs. He did this on his own, which is greatly appreciated.
'Cosmonautics Day' was celebrated in the former USSR, and is still currently celebrated in Russia, to commemorate the first manned Earth orbit by Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.
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