Did Russia Really Lost Astronauts in Space before Yuri Gagarin?

Is possible for Russia to hide this thing?

Billions of dollars are spent on a yearly basis for exploring space. The methods adopted these days are quite safe but this was not the case when such ventures began. Years of planning and hard work was done before initiating a space trip. The first man who traveled to space was Yuri Gagarin of Russia. He launched into the orbit of the Vostok 3KA-3. Prior to that, a prototype of the spaceship that carried Gagarin was sent to make sure that it can make the journey.

A dummy called Ivan Ivanovich alongside a dog Zvezdochka were the passengers of that prototype. But, there are people who claim that there is a hidden story to this.

According to a theory, Soviet cosmonauts were sent to space before this. Neither Soviet nor Russian authorities accepted this publicly and regarded it as a conspiracy. Supporters of this claim say that at least two more manned flights were launched before Gagarin and none of them could complete the expected journey. It is also believed that two or more cosmonauts were lost during the process.

The officials of Soviet Union suppressed the matter to prevent bad publicity. According to conspiracy theorists, recordings of the cosmonauts were caught by listening posts around the world. Some common allegations that were inflicted in this regard are as follows:

High Altitude Equipment Tests

Colonel Pyotr Dolgov, Ivan Kachur, and Alexey Grachov were to check high altitude parachutes by making the jump from great heights. According to the official report, Dolgov died while carrying out a jump from Volga balloon gondola. The reason for his death was the de-pressurizing of the suit which was caused due to the impact between his helmet and a part of the gondola.

Kachur disappeared suddenly without any known reason. The issue exaggerated when Gennady Zavadovsky, who was part of this testing team, appeared in the list of dead cosmonauts without any description of the accident or date of his death. Later, Alexey Belokonov, retired high-altitude parachutist, was interviewed by a Russian journalist in which he defied all these claims.

Vladimir Ilyushin

He was a pilot but some people claim that he was a cosmonaut in this disguise. He is considered the first man to enter space five days before Yuri completed this milestone. The theory regarding his venture is that due to some failure in the spacecraft, the descending capsule was brought down before the actual plan. This resulted in an unwanted landing in China.

The Chinese authorities kept him for a year before he was allowed to come back to the Soviet Union. According to the people who believe in this version, this news was restricted and all the focus was shifted to Yuri’s travel so that international embarrassment could be avoided.

There are many reasons to disagree with these claims but nothing conclusive is available to draw out any final result. On the other hand, some theories are classified as hoaxes in this regard. The most common among them are:

Ivan Istochnikov

Mike Arena, an American journalist, allegedly claimed that Soyuz 2 which was supposed to be unmanned had Ivan Istochnikov and his dog in it. He also said that it was hit by a meteorite. Russians removed their entity from all the records to save themselves. Later, research was done on this issue and it was concluded that all this was nothing more than an interesting story. Mike used digitally manipulated images, detailed biographies and falsified mission artifacts to build this.

The space program of Soviets was famous for its secrecy. This had a dual impact. Firstly, they were in a state of Cold War with the Americans and the ability to progress forward without letting anyone know is the BEST thing you can wish for. If there is no public declaration, you are always in a safe place. Secondly, lack of information allows people to speculate and give birth to controversies. The instincts of anticipation and desperation play a vital role in this process. Having said that, all the evidence that were provided to support various controversies was generally considered inconclusive.

A lot of information was restricted during the tenure of Soviet Union. Once they lost power and control, that information was also available to the general public. A common example, in this context, is the death of Valentin Bondarenko which was kept secret by the Soviets. Despite all the published material about Russian space ventures, no evidence has managed to prove Lost Astronauts theory.