The diaries of Vasily Mishin appeared in the public domain

Vasily Pavlovich Mishin is probably the most criticized of the patriarchs of Soviet cosmonautics. He met Sergei Korolyov back in 1945 as part of a special group for the study of captured V-2 missiles. Vasily Mishin participated in the creation of the Soviet ballistic missiles R-1, R-2, R-5, R-7, was Korolyov’s first deputy in OKB-1. And after the death of Sergei Pavlovich by a vote of deputies, he was almost unanimously elected chief designer and head of OKB-1, which means he enjoyed the trust and respect of his colleagues. However, it was during his leadership that the most tragic failures of the Soviet cosmonautics occurred - the death of Komarov on Soyuz-1, the failure of the Soviet manned lunar program, the death of Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev on Soyuz-11.

You can try to imagine the personality of Vasily Mishin from the recollections of those who worked with him. In Boris Chertok’s tetralogy “Missiles and People,” the history of Soviet cosmonautics and Mishin’s participation in it are described in detail, but Chertok is an excellent diplomat and a very polite person. He describes many facts, but never gives emotional estimates and does not poke a finger at those who, in his opinion, are to blame. In contrast to Chertok, in the diaries of General Kamanin, Mishin’s personality is assessed very negatively. Kamanin wrote his diaries on the table, so he was not shy in expressions, plus it seems that the life experience of the polar pilot and aviation commander of the Great Patriotic War made him completely merciless to people. Who is right? Now, thanks to the efforts of a whole team of wonderful people, we can look at Mishin, probably as close as possible.

The diaries themselves have an unusual fate. Vasily Mishin personally put them up for sale at the Sotheby's auction in 1993, without making copies. Thirty-six notebooks of unique records went to the United States entrepreneur Ross Perot. Fortunately, the Perot Foundation agreed to take copies of the diaries after Mishin’s death in 2001. Almost fifteen years were spent on processing, decoding and digitizing the material. Now, thanks to a team of altruists, we can look at the history of Soviet cosmonautics and the personality of Vasily Mishin from a new point of view.

The diaries are in the public domain in PDF format. I hope they will be both interesting and useful for you.